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World Book Day Visit from Abir Mukherjee

On Monday, years 9, 10 and a few students had the pleasure of having a talk with the renowned author best known for his crime novels. He wrote the Wyndham and Banerjee series set in the British Raj era in India.

First, for context, he taught us about the significance of the British Raj and how history can influence the exhilarating narrative of crime and thriller. The ideas of finding your narrative within the past can help you shape your future, your identity and culture your interests. In Mukherjee’s case, the colonial history of Britain, specifically in India, helped prompt best-seller storied like the crime thriller “A Rising Man”. Altogether, Mukherjee expanded on the vast assortment of knowledge and understanding of humanity and our cultures we have, our history.

He then later focused on his life story, which interested me as he told us he worked in finance for 20 years before pursuing his dream of becoming an author. Although he was comfortable, earning a good wage and didn’t have much to lose, his ‘spark’ wasn’t present. Hence, he strived for the tedious task of making his first book. Night after night, draft after draft, Mukherjee spent hours crafting his story and as a result he won the Telegraph’s Harvill Secker Crime Writing Competition. Ultimately, he taught us that despite where we are in life, what age we are, and how comfortable we are in a day job, when you take all opportunities thrown at you to fulfill your dreams and if you approach every situation with a winning mindset, you WILL be successful.

After this, we curiously asked him several questions, allowing us to delve into the captivating career of being an author. He happily answered all our questions, ultimately allowing us to find our way in a future, requiring us to learn from the past to strive for innovation. Whether that will be through writing best-seller books, being a savvy software specialist or pursing any other career of our dreams. Abir Mukherjee showed us that this is possible; you only need to take those first steps.

Written by Daniel Alloh & David Akanihu (11N)

 

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World Book Day – Author Visit

HGS was thrilled to welcome best-selling author Abir Mukherjee to school on Monday 3rd March as part of our work to celebrate World Book Day.

Abir has sold more than 400,000 books worldwide and is known for his bestselling Wyndham and Bannerjee series,  as well as Hunted, which is currently Waterstone’s thriller of the month. Abir spoke movingly during packed assemblies for Year 9 and 10 students  of his experiences in Scotland in the 1980s and his search for his identity growing up between the Indian culture of his family and the British culture of his schooling. His thought-provoking talk saw our HGS students asking insightful questions. Later on, Abir delivered a workshop to our Year 11 students where he encouraged and guided them in their writing with some excellent advice!

We are immensely grateful to Abir for giving up his time to come and work with our HGS students, and to our boys for getting involved in the day and making him feel so welcome in our school community.

 

 

 

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Wellbeing Advice – Mindful March

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Welcoming Back Former Student Muneeb Parwaz

The Computer Science department is delighted to welcome back former student Muneeb Parwaz as part of the University of Birmingham’s Computer Science Undergraduate Ambassador Scheme. Over the next eight weeks, Muneeb will be supporting our Computer Science students one day per week, sharing his knowledge and expertise.

Muneeb, who achieved three A*s at A-level and successfully completed the Advanced International Computer Driving License (ICDL) enrichment option, is now in his final year of a Computer Science degree at the University of Birmingham. As part of his studies, he is undertaking an elective teaching module, which will allow him to provide valuable guidance to our students.

Beyond academics, Muneeb has demonstrated remarkable entrepreneurial success. During Year 12 at HGS, in his spare time, he created the “Catalog Avatar Creator Experience”, an in-game shop on Roblox, one of the world’s most popular online gaming platforms. This innovative virtual store functions as a digital department store for virtual fashion, where players can purchase items using real-world currency.

His award-winning in-game shop has been visited more than 3.3 billion times, making it one of the most popular online stores on Roblox.

Upon completing his degree, Muneeb plans to pursue a career as a self-employed game developer, building on his impressive achievements in the gaming industry.

We are thrilled to have him back at HGS and look forward to the insight and inspiration he will bring to our students!

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World Book Day Events

Handsworth Grammar School for Boys are really looking forward to celebrating World Book Day next week with a range of events to enthral and inspire our students with a love of the written word. Highlights include a poetry workshop with our Year 7s,  a visit to the Bodleian Library in Oxford for our Year 8s and a visit  from the renowned author Abir Mukherjee (of Wyndham and Bannerjee fame) to deliver an assembly for Year 9s and 10s. There will also be a chance to take part in  a House Competition to decorate the form door as a book cover. Finally we will also be launching our year 7 charity readathon. Phew! More information and pictures next week as the events take place.

 

 

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English Junior Wrestling Champion 2025

Muhammad-Usmaan Ali (9A) won the English Junior Wrestling Championships 2025 on Sunday 23rd February 2025.

He has been training extremely hard 4 times a week despite his training partner taking a break from the sport.

We are incredibly proud of his achievement and how well he has done. Congratulations Muhammad-Usmaan on winning your gold medal!

 

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Connecting Classrooms: Cyber Hygiene with Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Jamaica

 

On Thursday, 13th February, we had the incredible opportunity to explore the topic of Cyber Hygiene in collaboration with Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Jamaica through a hybrid lesson. Established over 300 years ago, Wolmer’s is the oldest grammar school in the Caribbean and boasts an impressive legacy of alumni, including a prime minister and Olympic champions.

Our lesson, conducted via Microsoft Teams, began with an interactive “Do It Now” activity. Together, we created a collaborative word cloud in response to the question, “What is good Cyber Hygiene?” After gathering input from all 60 students, we analysed the collage of words and discussed the essential principles for maintaining strong cyber hygiene.

Next, we explored a real-time Cyber Threat Map, which displayed a global view of cyberattacks, including their volume, type, and geographical distribution. We were astounded to learn that around 15 million cyberattacks occur every day.  Our discussions then focused on the three most common malware threats: mobile threats, phishing scams, and software vulnerabilities.

Following a presentation by Mr. King, we split into six groups of ten (five students from each country) and participated in interactive activities within Microsoft Teams breakout rooms. First, we tackled the Google Phishing Quiz, sharpening our skills to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent phishing emails. Then, we took on the “How Safe Is Your Password?” challenge, where we learned that a strong password — combining letters, numbers, and special characters, and ideally at least 12 characters long — could take thousands of years to crack.

After reflecting on the activities in a group discussion, Mr. King introduced us to the internationally recognized Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA). This free, bite-sized series of challenges is designed to boost our digital literacy, covering topics like cybersecurity, coding, and employability skills. As an added incentive, Mr. King promised five House Points to all students who complete the Bronze Certificate.

The lesson was engaging, informative, and gave us the chance to collaborate on a crucial global issue. We’d like to extend our thanks to Mr. King and Miss Green for their dedication in making this lesson possible. We look forward to continuing our cybersecurity journey with our new friends at Wolmer’s Boys’ School in the near future!

7 Henry

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Fasting in Ramadan

Some of you will start a month of fasting for Ramadan on 1 March 2025 (subject to the sighting of the new moon).  This is, no doubt, a special time for you and your families.  It is great that you are showing such dedication to your faith and keeping hold of a traditional practice that many other faiths also recognise.  Part of the purpose of the month is to bring people and communities together, and we hope that the month brings you much happiness, benefit and increase.  Please do remember, however, that your commitment to school and your education also needs to continue.  To help you with this, a few practical tips/reminders follow:

  • The day fasts will require you to go without food and drink for many hours. You must be best prepared for this by making sure you take something of good nutritional value in the pre-dawn meal before you close and make the intention to fast.  Cereals, yogurt, dates, wholemeal bread, vegetables, fresh fruit are amongst some of the healthy/slow release carbohydrate foods that will keep you satisfied for longer.
  • Following on from this during the school day avoid running or standing around in the sun. Try to find some shade and occupy yourself in low energy activities.
  • It is very important that you continue to come to school prepared to learn. Lessons will happen as normal.  Your teachers may make slight adjustments in some of the practical subjects for you but you should come fully prepared to take part with the correct equipment/kit.
  • In the same way you must also wear the correct school uniform. Obviously if it is very hot, you may be allowed to take your blazers off, your form tutors will advise you about that.  However, some students during Ramadan feel that they need to wear mosque caps/hats.  We understand that this may be recommended at certain times/places but it is not a religious requirement for you to wear these in and around school.
  • The real significance of this month is about self-discipline and working on improving your character. It is not just a case of going without food for long hours.  Working on honesty, truthfulness, charity, forgiveness, respect, community and service etc… are some of the positive character traits that become the focus of this month.  This is something that the school whole heartedly supports in its care values, and we hope that in some way we can all benefit from this.
  • With the upcoming fasting days and late-night prayers many of you will get less sleep than usual but you will still be expected to attend school punctually as normal. Therefore, some readjustment to your routine might be needed to help with this.  Like in some traditional cultures you should try to catch up on some sleep after school in order to re-energise for the rest of the day/fast.  It might take a few days for this to settle but it is a sensible way forward.
  • It is also the case that many of you will be taking important internal exams/studies during Ramadan. While we wholeheartedly support your commitment to fasting, we also ask you to uphold the duty of taking your studies seriously – educational success is also something important to the religion of Islam.  During your school days, it is crucial that you develop a positive routine around fasting, prayers, revision and study.  Remember also if you are not feeling well then there is the chance of making up the fasts at a later date.  If you become unwell whilst you are fasting then you should end the fast by taking some water.
  • In the event of warmer weather, it is obviously important that you remain hydrated but without food or drink. This is a challenge which most of you will have experienced having fasted in previous years.  Small things like washing your hands with cold water, wiping over the face/head with cold water will help keep you cool.  This should be done at break and lunchtimes.
  • If you are unwell and unable to attend school then you should follow the normal absence procedures. Ask your parents to phone the front office and inform them on the day about your circumstances preferably before 8:40am.
  • Remember also that one of the strengths of HGS is the broad cultures and faith groups represented in both our student and staff populations. This is something quite special for the School.  So, while those of you who fast will need time/space to practice your faith please do remember that the Dining Hall will remain open and most people will continue to eat and drink throughout the day and they too will need time/space to do so!

We wish you a happy and prosperous Ramadan.  Do take some moments to reflect on the importance of peace and reconciliation for the globe especially in the current hostilities that we are seeing.  The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “Shall I inform you of something that holds more weight than fasting, praying and giving charity? Making peace between people, for sowing dissension is calamitous.”

If you do have any further questions or comments then you are welcome to speak to Mr Mohammed (room 10).

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Shrewsbury School Economics Conference 2025

King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys was delighted to attend Shrewsbury School’s Economics Conference 2025. The theme of the conference asked the question if “Free Markets Are Doomed to Fail”. Attending alongside 60 young economists from four schools, the auditorium was filled with a buzz of excitement and anticipation.

We were extremely glad to hear from Dr Christopher Snowdon (head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs) and Julian Dean (Councillor for Shropshire Council) as keynote speakers. They kicked the conference off with passionate speeches arguing diametrically opposed perspectives.

This was then followed by a student team debate on the motion reflecting the conference theme. The teams comprised students from Shrewsbury School and the other schools that attended. The audience, who were gripped by the debaters’ arguments and enthusiastic with their questions for the debaters, had the final say, voting for the winning team for the proposing motion.

In the afternoon, we heard from two more visiting speakers who joined Dr Snowdon and Julian to form a panel from all across the political spectrum to answer and debate questions posed by students. Shrewsbury School welcomed Sterling Rosado of Harvard and Will Kenyon of PwC. This Question Time event was chaired by Mr Zafar of Shrewsbury School as he managed a healthy discussion controlling and directing questions from our students.

Throughout the day Handsworth Grammar School students provided the panel and audience with amazingly insightful questions on the use of AI, youth employment and world politics related to the theme of the conference itself. All in all, this day proved to be both extremely informative and enjoyable for all attending.

By Daniyal Mehmood

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Cultural Dress Non-Uniform Day

Here at HGS our first ever culture week finished with a spectacular flourish in a non-uniform day when our students were tasked to come in their cultural dress.

Don’t they look amazing? Thank you to everyone who planned and participated in culture week. Here’s to a safe and happy half term break.