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HGS teams up with The Green Bus Company

Handsworth Grammar School have teamed up with The Green Bus Company from September 2014 onwards. Please follow the link to see a map of a bespoke bus route for HGS Students: <link removed>

We will be posting out more details next week but some key points are:

  • There will be 2 bespoke bus routes available called HG1 and HG2
  • Our Students will also be able to travel on the existing AH routes
  • Discounts of up to 10% are available if passes are purchased in advance
  • For more information visit <link removed>
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Cambridge Colleges Physics Experience

On the 9th of May, 10 students from Year 9 (accompanied by Mr Jones and Mr Mohsin) headed to Cambridge University for a ‘Physics Experience’. We had a tour of part of the University and one of their Colleges, which is a bit like a Hall of residence. A presentation, two lectures and a practical science investigation involving light were all crammed into one day!

The day started bright and early; we had to be at school by 7:00. We left school once everyone had arrived, which was about 7:10, and arrived at Newnham College at about 9:20. The façade of the College was beautiful, the whole wall being covered with ivy. It really seemed like the extensive history of the University was written in the City itself. The University Colleges and Departments were dotted all over the place, which is why it seemed like every student needs a bike!

Inside the College was everything a student would need, from a bedroom to a canteen which served meals 3 times a day. We developed a feel for University life, silently walking down the corridors because there were examinations taking place, and seeing students’ books piled 5-10 high with a laptop in front of them. The College has its own library with thousands of books, and it also has a lovely garden where you could either study or enjoy a nice peaceful walk.

We had a presentation in Clare College about how the University education system works. It was very informative and made us look forward to University education even more. The presentation also told us about what a university looks for in a person. It’s not just the grades they are looking for, but also the potential in a person. We had our lunch here too, before setting off for the Physics Department.

Here, at the Cavendish Laboratory, we had two short lectures about light. The first was about what type of wave light is, and about other electromagnetic waves too. The second was on how astronomers create images of space when visible light is too faint to see clearly. These two lectures were separated by a few practicals about refraction of light, making a telescope and finding the focal length of a lens.

Then we left the University of Cambridge and arrived back at school at 18:45 after a great Physics day out!

Caleb Brown

 CambridgeTrip1

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Visit to HGS of local Politicians

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.

HGS-Politicians

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Duke of Edinburgh

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.

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Aston League Division One Champions

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!

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Word of the Week – Auspicious

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”

WOTW-Auspicious

This display can be found in our Library.

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University of Oxford Summer School

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!

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Kings College London Scholarship

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!

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AS and A2 Geography Field Trip

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

GeographyTrip