Year 8 Geography Fieldwork to Dovedale by Hootan Parsanpour and Shujah Mehmood 8H

On a hot summers day in July, Year 8 were lucky enough to enjoy the glorious sunshine at Dovedale in the Peak District National Park. Dovedale is a National Park which is looked after by the National Trust to preserve the area’s natural beauty. We walked for 3 miles along the valley visiting different sites along the way.

The day started off at Milldale where we used a variety of geographical skills to measure the characteristics of the river such as the width, depth and load. We also looked at the characteristics of a river meander and the landforms that are formed.

As we moved along we reached Ravens Tor where the path became rocky and slightly hilly. We noticed on the opposite side of the river bend a rock face which had been weathered. The limestone with its many joints and bedding planes had been weathered to form a scree slope.

Our favourite part of the trip was visiting the Doveholes, where there was a large cave created by chemical weathering. The cave was dark and provided shade in the heat of the day. Moving on down the valley we reached Ilam Rock, where we again studied the rock, practised our field sketching skills and completed our river measurements for Site 2. After lunch we saw a rock face of a lion’s head and then passed Reynards’ cave.

Further down the valley we reached Lovers’ Leap. Legend has it that a woman showed her love by jumping over the steep cliff. Here we looked at some fossils in the rock before finally reaching the Stepping Stones. Here, we completed our final river measurements.

Finally, after a tiring and hot journey, we made our way back to the coach, but first had ice cream and drinks to cool us down. Overall the trip was very interesting and enjoyable.

The year 7 cricket team have carried on their winning streak with a 6 wicket win over Kings Heath in the Stacey Jackson Jackson Cup. Ibrahim Gulzar hit 16 and Hamid Kazi 20 runs to easily take us past a total of 80 scored by Kings Heath.

On The 4th of July the current Year Sevens, who did not go to Whitemoor Lakes, went on the trip to the RAF museum in Cosford. In the museum the pupils got to see engines over the years which showed them how much technology has advanced .They also got to see planes and videos of them in use, weaponry used in the cold war and many armoured vehicles. We enjoyed the trip thoroughly.

At Cosford we were divided into two groups. The first place our group went to was the Iron Curtain Cold War section which had models of most of the planes that were in the war. In the museum was a sculpture of James May. This was because he built a plane that was in the museum; also in the museum were some paintings which were amazing.

We were very privileged to be let on the Junilers tri motor aircraft and go into the cockpit. Usually the 4th of July is remembered for Independence Day however, we will remember it as an amazing trip to the RAF Cosford Museum.

Written By: Lewis Allen , Brandon Cunningham-blackwood and Amar Bhullar.
Edited By: Cairo Ubiaro and Karthi Kabilan

On Tuesday 16 April, 30 Year 10 students headed to Birmingham University to enjoy, firstly, a tour of the Campus and, secondly, to hear the annual Institute of Physics Lecture. This year’s offering, ‘Defying Gravity’, was delivered by Laura Thomas and covered how Physics has allowed us to travel into space, how scientists create materials to withstand the extreme conditions above the Earth’s atmosphere, and how entrepreneurs are opening up space to new generations through space tourism.

Congratulations to Year 12 student Gulfraz Ahmed who, on Thursday 20 June, received an award as our ‘Physics Student of the Year’ for Birmingham and Solihull Schools at a ceremony held at Birmingham University’s Physics Department. The certificates were presented by the Head of School (of Physics and Astronomy) Professor Andy Schofield and Wendy Cox, representing The Ogden Trust, who sponsor the prizes. Gulfraz, together with other award winners and invited guests, also enjoyed a tour of the Department and heard a lecture by Professor David Evans, Particle Physics Researcher at Birmingham, about Birmingham’s work at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Mr P Jones

The annual Handsworth Grammar School Sports Day took place on Monday 1st July at the Hadley Stadium. Even with a bellowing black cloud looming over Handsworth from the recycling plant fire in Smethwick nothing was going to stop our Sports Day. We had 700 in attendance with over 15 athletic events taking place for each year group. We had new records set, exciting finishes, incredible effort and great support from the crowds. So much energy was expended that the Tuck Shop ran out of stock within 30 minutes, a new record! It was a good day enjoyed by all. Please see the results tables for detailed scores in each event and year group.

Well done to everyone who took part! The results are: