Mr Khalid Mahmood MP and Honorary Alderman Najma Hafeez visited Handsworth Grammar School on the 8th May. They met with Mr Bird, Mrs McGoldrick and Mrs Virdee to discuss a range of topics including extending our links in the community and our Fundraising Campaign “Inspiring the Minds of the Future”. It was a very positive and successful meeting.
As you know, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expeditions had to be cancelled due to ill health.
Meanwhile the way that the scheme is funded and the offices that are able to run the scheme have changed.
This means that from April this year each school must become its own licensed centre or find another centre to run the scheme on their behalf. We are currently liaising with King Edwards School (Aston) to arrange the continuation of the scheme, but they cannot take this on until September 2014 at the earliest.
Letters will follow shortly detailing refunds for the cancelled expeditions and I hope that your interest in the scheme will continue so that you can complete the full award with us in the near future.
You will not have to repeat the 3 sections already completed, Volunteering, Physical and Skills, just the expedition section. We’ll let you know when they’ve been re-arranged.
See Mrs Stanton, in C3, if you have any other questions.
Congratulations to our Year 7 Football team who remain undefeated and have recently been crowned the Aston League Division One Champions. This is a great achievement and is a wonderful way to close the season for the players and coaches (Mr Nichols and Mr Paskin). Well done!
The word of the week commencing 28th April 2014 is: Auspicious.
This means conducive to success; favourable.
“it was not the most auspicious moment to hold an election”
This display can be found in our Library.
Gurdeep Mall in Year 12 has been awarded a place on the University of Oxford Summer School. The Oxford summer programme is aimed at giving students the opportunity to experience Oxford, and to allow them to form their own opinions on the suitability of Oxford for their further studies. This is quite an accomplishment as only a few places are awarded on this prestigious summer school each year. Congratulations!
Head Girl Catherine Munyarari has been awarded a prestigious Desmond Tutu Scholarship to Kings College London for next academic year. The Scholarships which are named after one of the Universities most famous alumni, are dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, learning and understanding in the service of society. Catherine had to submit an essay, her curriculum vitae as well as examples of her community work in the application process. Only a handful of such awards are made by Kings each year and it is to her immense credit that Catherine has been successful in her application. Congratulations!
The Lake District is well renowned for its beautiful scenery and warm hearted communities, but who would have known that we would have encountered so many different Geography-related topics, which would play a key role in our understanding of Geography on this trip?
On the 18th of March 2014, 26 Sixth Form Geography students went on a residential trip to the bright and very beautiful Lake District National Park. Geographical Skills play a major role in our overall AS and A2 grades: despite the trip being a lot of fun it was vital for our learning too.
After a long 4 hour journey on the minibuses to Lancashire, which was extremely fun, we were glad to be on our feet again! That didn’t last because before long we were asked to walk about two kilometres up a 400m mountain not too far from our base at Castle Head. Although the walk was essential for AS Geographers (for they revise cold environments, glaciers in particular), it was also a great way for everyone to interact and get to know each other. We were then back for dinner which was really nice, especially pudding, which was a Lancashire speciality: Sticky Toffee Pudding – lots of toffee! After that we were able to relax, or so we thought! After a little break we headed to the classrooms and started preparations for our fieldwork the next day.
The following morning AS Geographers set off to study the River Eea. It was a wet and cold day but the advantage of being with friends made the experience more enjoyable and made the work seem less challenging. AS Geographers investigated river characteristics such as discharge, hydraulic radius, gradient and Mannings M (how rough the channel is) and to see how these features changed downstream. By gathering the information they were able to analyse the data using statistical techniques such as spearman’s rank coefficient and then make conclusions about their hypotheses.
Meanwhile A2 Geographers were investigating the changes of sand dunes with distance from the sea with the Lake District’s most famous sand dune habitat: Sandscale Haws. Although they were just a few kilometres away from the other group, they were much luckier with the weather and even managed to experience a bit of sunshine!
On the Thursday we all visited Barrow in Furness, a town of only 60,000. A2 Geographers assessed to what extent urban decline had occurred and evaluated Barrow’s recent urban regeneration.
AS students conducted various surveys to compare Barrow with Lindale (a rural village) such as environmental quality, rurality and provision of services. They also compared secondary data looking at age profiles, household tenure, socio-economic demographics and occupation types.
We then returned to the classroom and analysed and presented our data to each other. A nice dinner followed and then some time to relax. Some watched football, some played football, and others played table football, whereas the girls just chilled!
On the Friday – our last day – we visited Kirkby Moor. A2 Geographers were looking at plagioclimax and how the heather moorlands are managed to keep their beauty. They were lucky enough to meet the man who manages the heather moorlands; he alone looks after 1000 acres of land. Heather moorlands are really important for our heritage as they are fairly unique to Britain: 25% of all heather moorlands are situated here. AS Geographers were looking at the visual and noise impacts of wind turbines. There were 12 turbines on Kirkby Moor, which produce 4.8 Megawatts, enough to power some 2,700 homes. They also had the chance to see Barrow Offshore Wind Farm and Heysham Nuclear Power Plant in the distance, which fitted in nicely with the energy issues unit of work.
We all learnt a lot from our experience at Castle Head. It was really fun and we recommend anyone considering AS & A2 Geography to definitely get involved! Putting the fun to one side, we think the trip really helped us with our Geographical skills which is an important part of our exam this year and it allowed us to do it in the great outdoors! This was more than we could ever have learnt from any text book. It was an experience to remember.
Hamza Akram & Muna Bulaleh
Adil Ray who left HGS to study at University in 1992 returned to his old School to give some careers advice to its current Students. Adil gave two short presentations to a packed Big School firstly of Sixth Formers and secondly Key Stage 3 Students. He then took a wide range of questions which focussed upon which House he was in whilst at HGS to the inspiration he draws on for character development in his television series. He provided some excellent advice on making the most of the opportunities that HGS provides and following what one is passionate about whether that be academic, musical, artistic or sporting. He posed for a number of pictures and signed many autographs for the Students who thoroughly enjoyed meeting him. It was wonderful to welcome Adil back to HGS and Mr Jones was able to present him with his old Form photograph which raised smiles and laughter. We are grateful to him for taking time out of his busy schedule (he is busy writing the new series of Citizen Khan at the moment) and look forward to seeing him back at HGS in the near future.
The year 8 indoor cricket team reached the finals by winning their league in convincing style. They beat Hamstead Hall, Holyhead and Lordswood Boys. The Warwickshire final was played at Edgbaston with five teams playing in a round robin event. Handsworth Grammar School beat Linworth, Small Heath, Plantsbrook but lost to Washwood Heath who were the eventual winners. This team have reached the finals for the past two years. Perhaps next year is our year.
