THIS IS THE THIRD MEETING OF THE YPP, UNFORTUNATELY ONLY 3 MEMBERS OF THE YPP ATTENDED.

YPP TRIP TO BCU ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
We arrived at Birmingham City University at 10.30 am and joined other schools at the meeting. We began with a quiz about the environment and recycling (we each had a green, red and yellow card which we had to hold up to indicate the answer).

Shortly after we discussed eco-friendly ways in which we could change our school. One of these changes was that we could ring the council and ask them for wheelie bins, free of charge therefore we will recycle and sort materials out in plastics, woods etc.

We then watched a video that showed how global warming works and discussed things that we could reuse, like socks that have holes in them, instead of buying new ones we could just repair them.

Then we were introduced to the 3 r’s, recycle, reuse and reduce, we were paired up with James watt and Oasis Academy Bolton – primary schools. We created our own top ten tips for the 3 r’s and presented them to everyone. After that we talked about the things that we recycled in our schools and what we didn’t recycle, we said that Mrs. Linley recycles paper.

Other schools came up with ideas which I feel can be implemented at our school for example we could go around each classrooms and give them boxes to put paper in.

My sister attends the University of Law and told me that when printing they set the default to double side so paper is not wasted.

In our lessons we can ensure that all class handouts are double sided to save paper.
I think that we should carry out an inspection of the school with regards to environmental factors and then come up with ways to be more sufficient. An example of this could be inspecting the canteen kitchens to ask the staff whether they recycle any leftover food, or if they reduce items that are out of date.

We could also ask the ICT staff if they turn off all their appliances at the end of the day. We would need to do research in to whether it is more efficient to leave them on standby or turn them off.

We would like to propose that all students are actively involved in fundraising for Syria and the Philippines as other primary schools had mentioned this at the YPP Meeting.

We could have a bake sale , non-uniform day and get the art classes involved so we can sell bookmarks amongst other things , another good idea would be to bring in unwanted toys and sell them .We could open up the sale at the end of the day to family members of the school.

Thank You

YPP members: Usman, Akhil, Cairo and Thawhidur

Made By Usman Khan 8A

The word of the week commencing 3rd February 2014 is: Dishevelled.

This means (of a person’s hair, clothes, or appearance) untidy; disordered.

“a man with long dishevelled hair”

This display can be found in our Library.

Mr Ward, Mr Ali, Mr Imran and Miss Vaughan took 45 year 7 boys to hear the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Seal.  The famous percussionist Alistair Malloy introduced music from Harry Potter, Mozart, Stravinsky and Hans Zimmer.  Highlights included Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony clapped by the members of the orchestra and  an arrangement of Angry Birds. The boys commented that the concert was “amazing”, “brilliant” and “fantastic”. We are all hoping we can go back next year.’

On Monday 27th January, twelve students from Year 9 went to the so-called Physics ‘Big Quiz’, an annual event held at the University of Birmingham in the Great Hall.

We left school in the minibus, and arrived at about 9:40. We then took our seats in our three teams of four, completing a Physics word search whilst waiting for all of the other schools to arrive. Once everyone had taken their seats we were given an introduction and the quiz began. There were six rounds in total. The last round was a specific round on the GAIA Satellite and the Milky Way; we were informed of this particular round before the event, so we could revise this topic.

After we had completed 3 rounds we had lunch, followed by a 45 minute lecture from an astrophysicist, which was very informative and enjoyable. Then, we completed the last three rounds. To finish we had the Awards Ceremony, where the top three teams each won medals. Each school could enter as many as three teams, which we did. Out of the 94 teams entered our highest placed team finished fifth, so there’s a challenge for next year’s Year 9 to improve upon this!

It was a great day out for all of us and we are hoping to have the chance to take part in any similar events in the future.

Caleb Brown

Footnote: The results were very tight indeed at the top end, with only a few points separating 1st and 6th places. Congratulations to Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School (my old school) for coming top!

Mr Jones

Dr Generalis an Astrophysicist and Mathematician from Aston University thrilled Sixth Form students with his presentation on the use and application of mathematics in space travel.

Dr Generalis told the students the story of the famous Apollo Space mission in 1970, when only a knowledge of mathematics, particularly vectors and tangents, allowed the commander of the module to guide the ill fated capsule back safely to earth. The dramatic journey was made into an Oscar nominated film, starring Tom Hanks as Commander Jim Lovell.

Dr Generalis visited HGS as part of the “Speakers for Schools” programme, and he revealed that his own son had been a pupil at HGS some years ago. His enthusiasm and witty delivery both educated and entertained the year 12 and 13 students, many of whom waited to speak to Dr Generalis after the presentation.