| Samuel Grego | Grade 2 | Pass | Classical Guitar |
| Abishek Dey | Grade 2 | Merit | Classical Guitar |
| Jai Patel | Grade 2 | Merit | Classical Guitar |
| Robert Frater | Grade 7 | Pass | Classical Guitar |
| Seth Griffiths | Grade 7 | Pass | Classical Guitar |
| Karl Frater | Grade 7 | Merit | Classical Guitar |
| Brandon Masih | Grade 7 | Merit | Classical Guitar |
On Thursday 3 December we were very pleased to welcome to HGS Dr Maria Pavlidou from Birmingham University’s Physics Department. Dr Pavlidou gave two talks, each to 30 Year 9 students, about the extremes of temperature. Her engaging talks were accompanied by exciting demonstrations, some including the ever-popular liquid nitrogen! Our students appreciated very much this opportunity, and evidenced their interest through the high-level questions that many of them asked.
Mr Jones, Head of Science
The House Spelling finals have been taking place this week in Big School, where each tutor group’s spelling champion has been competing against their fellow champions to gain points for their houses.
The spelling champions were as follows:
The year 7 champion was Sadikur Chowdhury from 7 Galahad;
The year 9 champion was Solomon Khan from 9 Alfred;
The year 10 champion was Manamrit Bains from 10 William;
The year 11 champion was Saud Nasir from 11 Henry;
The year 8 House spelling final will take place next term.
Well done to all who took part in the finals!
Mr Conway
Dr Felderhof of SACRE (Standing Council for Religious Education) recently visited Handsworth Grammar School as part of the process of auditing current Religious Education and Collective Worship provision across all Birmingham Schools. Dr Felderhof attended a Year 8 Assembly, observed a Year 9 lesson and had a detailed meeting with Mr Bird and Mrs Donoghue. The feedback received which will form part of a wider report across the whole of Birmingham schools was very positive indeed. It detailed that Handsworth Grammar School provides excellent provision in all areas relating to Religious Education and Collective Worship. It stated that there is a hardworking and inclusive atmosphere in HGS which sought to ensure that all students were stretched and performed at their best as well as there being excellent pastoral support and a good emphasis on the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of the students. The lesson observed was graded as Outstanding.
This is a an excellent reflection on the hard work and commitment of all our staff to ensure that all our students are well educated, tolerant, compassionate and well-rounded young people who are a force for good in the community.
Please click on the link to read a summary report of our 2015 RaiseOnline Report as recently published by the Department for Education. It is a very positive and pleasing report which clearly demonstrates the excellent levels of progress and achievement made by our students. Notably we attained our highest ever Best 8 GCSE average point’s score of 399 where the national average is 309. We also achieved our highest ever Value Added score of 1021.4 where the national average is 1000. We are significantly above national results in almost every single category. This is due to the hard work, support and effort of our staff and students.
The Fischer Family Trust (FFT) have recently published the performance data for Secondary schools across the UK. This data demonstrates the amount of Progress achieved across all subject and groups within a school. Please click on the two links below to view the Progress data for HGS as well as an explanation as to how the process of Progress 8 works in practice.
On Tuesday 6th October twenty five AS Geographers and teaching staff jumped in the minibuses to make their way up the A5 to Snowdonia which is one of the annual trips for students of AS Geography.
We were braced for some awful weather: the forecast even included hail which would have been terrible during our walk around Cwm Idwal, where we studied the glacial landforms and processes in this beautiful and unique part of the Snowdonia National Park. Pupils were well equipped for bad weather but we dodged the worst of it and even had a spot of sunshine mixed in with occasional mist which gave the landscape an eerie but beautiful feel.
A few arêtes, diffluent cols and roche moutonees later and we were back in the minibus just in time for a wintery down-pour. This was very satisfying as we made our way to the comfort of our lodgings at the Plas Curig Bunkhouse, a very cosy and welcoming place to stay.
We then headed to Betws-y-Coed where, unbeknownst to us, all the chip shops close on a Tuesday! Thankfully, the local pub was able to cater for us at short notice and some pupils, who shall not be named, enjoyed two main meals! Clear signs that they had worked very hard that day!
The weather was less kind to us on Wednesday when our hopes for a break in the cloud on the summit of Snowdon were dashed! But pupils got a good sense of this wet and cold environment and were able to glimpse at some glacial troughs, ribbon lakes and corries on our way down via the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Many thanks to Ms Wharton, Mr Keane and Mr Griffiths for their help making the trip a great success.
Mr D Bird
Our Year 11 Basketball team played and beat Aston University Engineering Academy 35 – 17 last night. Amar Rupra (who is in Year 8!) made a huge contribution to the scoreboard as he played with great skill and fluidity. A great team effort overall – well done!
This term has seen considerable success with a number of fundraising initiatives and HGS has raised over £5,250 for good causes. These include Children in Need and Riding for the Disabled as well as a number of House Charities like the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research.
Well done!
Over 150 students took part in the recent House Photography competition.
The theme this year was “My Community” and the winners in each category were selected by the senior leadership team of the school. A number of other entries were judged as “highly commended”.
All entrants were awarded achievement points and the winners received additional points.
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The winners in each category
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Year 7 winner: Mohammed Rayyan (7A)
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KS3 winner: Abhisheik Kailey (8N)
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KS4 winner: Nikhil Gandham (10G)
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Sixth Form winner: Emdadul Ali
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Staff winner: Ms E Brown
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Also highly commended:
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Zavar Ul Haq (13 MHA)
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Yashryan Mahi (8W)
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Cameron Amin (8W)
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Marwa Sheriff (12 AFI)
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Mohammed Zayn (10 N)
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Arjun Borhara (12 DNI)
