Football Success
Year 10 beat Holt 2 – 0 last night with both goals coming from Corey Blackett-Taylor and now the team proceed to the semi-finals of the Aston Cup. Congratulations and good luck!
Oxbridge Success
Our congratulations go to Sucbinder Johal who has been offered a place at St John’s College, Cambridge University to study for the BA degree in Chemical Engineering, starting in October 2013. It also offers the possibility of studying for a Master’s degree in Engineering. This is a great achievement – well done!
Old Boy – BBC1 Drama
Sam Gardner (who goes under the stage name of Sam Swann) is starring in the BBC 1 Drama about National Service conscripts in 1960 – “Privates”. Sam left HGS in 2005 and is developing a successful portfolio and career in acting both on stage and screen. We wish him all the very best and congratulate him on this recent success.
Winter Concert
We were pleased to present our Winter Concert on Wednesday 19th December at the Ladywood ARC. It was an exciting time for the music department as this was the first opportunity to hold a concert at an external venue for several years. Ladywood ARC is primarily a functioning Church, but through the Heritage Lottery Fund money was provided to enable the interior of the Church to be updated and modernised to accommodate a myriad of functions. The Music Service uses it for concerts for smaller ensembles, as do several of the local choirs most notably Ex Cathedra. The venue was perfect for our Winter Concert. We had approximately 130 in attendance and with an additional 70 performers filling the space it made for a cosy winter’s eve.
The main ensembles all performed that night; both the junior and senior keyboard and guitar ensembles, choir, orchestra and woodwind ensembles. There were solos from a number of students, including Sahibpreet Bhambra (tabla), Rory Gaskin (cello), Yunchen Zhu and Ryan Xam (piano). There were duets from Robert and Karl Frater (both on guitar), Jules Singh (voice) and Rory Gaskin (voice) and also James Talib and Hamza Chaudhary. Daniel Freckleton and Hamza Chaudhary (both in year 12) stood in as the evening’s emcees. And for the first time in recent concert-history at HGS, the concert almost finished exactly at the planned time!
If you were unable to attend this time, please note that there are more opportunities to attend a musical evening in the near future. The next main event is the HGS Young Musician of the Year 2013 on 25 April 2013. In addition there is also a smaller Instrumental Progress Evening on 21 March 2013, primarily aimed at students in KS3. Come along and see what talented musicians we have.
M. Ward
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
Handsworth Grammar School has been appointed an Approved Centre by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Congratulations to the IT team for this success.
Music Exam Results
Well done to the following students:
| Kamron Dalvair | Grade 1 | Pass | Piano |
| Aaron Dalvair | Grade 1 | Merit | Piano |
| Rajeev Badhan | Grade 1 | Merit | Piano |
| Zavaar Ahmed | Grade 1 | Pass | Piano |
| Pip Turner | Grade 4 | Merit | Guitar |
| Robert Frater | Grade 2 | Merit | Guitar |
Football Result
Year 10 beat King Edward VI Aston 5 – 1 in the Aston Cup.
Well Done!
150th Anniversary Sponsored Walk
On Friday the 24th of September, all 150 boys in year 7, took part in a sponsored walk around Handworth Park. Outside it was raining, but this did not dampen the spirits of all the walkers. Each Form group was escorted by their Form tutor, as they set out on their course around the park. At the finish line, sweets were given out to all the boys as a reward. The boys raised almost £1200, which will be going towards the building of our new Sixth Form Centre. An ex student, Ben Smolden, came in to talk to the year 7’s and award the following prizes to the highest fund raisers:
1st Kyron Chander Masaun (7N) who raised £77.70 received an ipod shuffle.
2nd Ranvir Kauldhar (7H) who raised £65, received £15 cinema vouchers.
3rd Navraj Nazran (7N) who raised £55, received £10 cinema vouchers.
Ben gave an inspirational talk to all of year 7’s about the role sport plays in our lives. He spoke about his Rugby playing days, his subsequent injury and his role as an official Olympic torch bearer during the London 2012 Olympics.
We are delighted that Ben is now a Governor of Handsworth Grammar School.
Our thanks goes to all the support staff who acted as guides, and helped with all the administration, and to our local community officer Sam O’Dell, who helped guide the pupils through the streets in order to ensure their safety.
Mr McCarron (Head of year 7).
Gala Dinner
We celebrated our 150th Anniversary in real style at the Holte Suite of Aston Villa’s stadium with an amazing Gala Dinner enjoyed by nearly 250 guests. It was a fantastic event which saw Old Boys from the 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s right up until 2012 attend along with special guests and Staff. Many a reminiscence was shared as former Staff, current Staff and guests swapped anecdotes about days gone by. The raffle raised well over £1,000 towards our new Sixth Form Centre with many sponsor companies donating wonderful prizes such as iPods, iPads, Kindles and a HD ready plasma television as well as a host of other well sought after prizes. The evening was a great success and many asked the question – are we having another Gala Dinner soon!!
Click here to view the photos that we had displayed on the screens.
Click here to view photos that were taken throughout the evening.
Winter Concert
All Parents are warmly invited to attend the Winter Concert at 7 pm on Wednesday 19th December at Ladywood ARC Centre.
