On the 4th of February, twelve Year 9 students had a fantastic day out participating in an annual Physics quiz which was hosted by the prestigious University of Birmingham in their most prized building – the Great Hall. The university also organised a campus tour which enabled us to appreciate the university’s wonderful site and academic life. We offer a huge ‘thank you’ to the university and the organiser Mohammed Ansar who made this event possible.

Several schools took part in this competition and some of the notable ones other than our school included Camp Hill Grammar School for Boys along with other schools that are part of the King Edward Foundation.  This meant that there was fierce competition between schools and a tense atmosphere! The competition began with a word-search consisting of questions which tested our general Physics knowledge; students from each school were split into teams, each team consisting of 4 people working together.

The quiz was formed of 5 rounds (of 10 questions each) and the quizmaster was astrophysicist Dr. Rob Smith from the university.  There was also a specialist round which focused on astrophysics along with ‘spot prize’ questions which were much more difficult, including questions such as ‘How many nuclear plants are there in the World currently?’ (the answer is 459, by the way). We were also able to play our ‘Joker’ for one of the rounds that we felt confident about and this doubled the points for that round – unfortunately for our team, we failed to make the best use of it!

The first round was on waves and I believe our team did very well as the questions were mostly about the structure and types of wave. The second round asked us about kinematics and was mainly based on calculations such as speed, force, etc but in my opinion, it really was not as daunting as the subject sounded. The third round provided us with clues about something and students had to guess ‘What am I?’ – our team did well on this round.

That round was then followed by a short break and an excellent lecture on the ‘Ultra cool, seven dwarf planets’ which was delivered by Professor Amaury Triaud who discussed different planets and stars in space.

I think it is safe to say that the following round was a complete disaster for not only our team but all the other schools participating as it asked about the names of famous scientists – ‘Who am I?’ However, round 5 focused on ‘materials and particles’ in which our team performed much better.  The quiz concluded with the specialist round on astrophysics, about which students were advised to research and prepare for beforehand.

The results were then announced and it is with great delight I can say that our group (Team B) came second place, with Camp Hill Boys (Team A), the reigning champions, coming first place once again.  King’s School Worcester (Team A) came 3rd. I would like to show my gratitude to Ismaeel, Yusef and Kaelen, my team members, whose contributions made this achievement possible.

In conclusion, this trip was a great learning experience for all of us as it deepened our knowledge of the wider universe while enabling us to appreciate the importance of physics through the lecture; it was an enjoyable competition and hopefully, next year, our school will to do even better!

Ehan Taseen (9N)

For the record, 49 teams participated in the quiz.

Our three teams totalled points of 51 (Team B), 49 (Team A) and 48 (Team C) so it was very close indeed!  All of our students thus performed very well indeed on the day.

Team B: Kaelen Van Vliet, Ehan Taseen, Ismaeel Ali and Yusef Hakim

Team A: Arjun Lyall, Ali Mirza, Manveer Ballagan and Ifrad Amirul

Team C: Pavisan Chandramohan, Jedd Vergara, Hardev Manku and John Wierzbicki

Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, which is sometimes how they are caught. McArthur Wheeler was 5’6” but weighed 270 pounds when he set out to rob a Pittsburgh bank in early 1995. Yet he made no effort to conceal his body, as he was wearing the perfect disguise on his face. He strode calmly into the bank lobby, confidently ignoring security cameras, as he waved his gun at the tellers. Police quickly recovered clear footage of him and broadcast it on the evening news. The confidential tip line starting ringing minutes later. Within an hour, Mr Wheeler was in custody.

He was baffled at his arrest, but not half as confused as the Police, who didn’t understand why he kept repeating that he had “worn the juice”. It turned out that this master criminal had a cunning plan. Knowing that lemon juice worked as invisible ink, only becoming visible when held near to a heat source, Wheeler had a brainwave. He covered his face in lemon juice so that it wouldn’t be visible on security cameras. He was extremely confident of his plan, but just to be certain, he took a photo of himself beforehand on a Polaroid camera, which convinced him because it came out blank (possibly the world’s first selfie fail?). “But I wore the juice” he wailed as the cell door slammed.

McArthur Wheeler could simply have disappeared into the annals of dumb crooks, but for the work of two social psychologists from Cornell University, Justin Kruger and David Dunning. They were researching a curious phenomenon to do with self-awareness. What intrigued them about the robbery plot was why Wheeler believed with such certainty that he would be able to foil the security cameras with lemon juice on his face. He was clearly an incompetent robber, but not an unconfident one. Why was he so sure he would succeed?

It turns out; our brains are wired that way. The study ultimately demonstrated that the less competence an individual has in a specific task, the more inflated their perception of their own ability. Today, this phenomenon is known as the Dunning–Kruger effect.

It’s not absolute, you need some degree of knowledge to start with. If you never learn to drive a car, you will know that you can’t drive. However, those who do learn, but then drive badly, usually assess themselves as having much higher levels of ability than is actually the case. Conversely, research shows the very best drivers usually under-report and downplay their skill. The same is true for all aspects of human endeavour. Poor scholars think they will score higher than they do. Armchair critics believe they could coach their favourite team better than the professionals. People who consider themselves extremely funny often tell the worst jokes. Those who are supremely confident that they are the perfect spouse … you get the picture.

Actor John Cleese highlighted the Dunning-Kruger effect when he said: “If you’re very, very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you’re very, very stupid? You’d have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are.”

I share this not as some veiled comment on the intelligence of our students, who are generally extremely capable and remarkably self-aware of their academic abilities. Nor is it a subtle dig at side-line supporters who willingly share their insights into how the game should be played. Neither am I commenting upon the quality of any parent’s driving, joke-making or prowess as the perfect partner.

I like the Dunning–Kruger effect simply because it reinforces my love of humility. It has been my experience that the more competent a person is, the less they need to tell others of their ability. The very able are often quite self-deprecating. Whereas, over-confidence and arrogance often walk hand in hand. There is nothing more unattractive than someone who pushes their own barrow, especially if that barrow is empty.

Unashamedly, to students of all ages, I preach the virtues of being humble. Which should not be confused with a lack of confidence. It is possible to be modest and still be self-assured. In fact, that is an extremely endearing combination. Our best scholars, athletes, creatives and leaders let their performance do the talking.

HGS is not in the business of breeding better bank robbers, but if our students leave us with quiet confidence in their abilities and the intelligence and humility to know what they don’t know, I will be happy. Hiding your light helps nobody, but neither does shining it perpetually on your own face. Unless your face is covered in lemon juice of course!

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and others.

Best wishes,

Dr Bird

Both the Year 7 and Year 8 Athletics Teams started the season in style by claiming victory in the Level 2 Sportshall Athletics Meet (Hamstead Partnership). Against a talented field, the competition saw many individuals making their debut performances for the school. A fantastic effort by everyone involved. Their win means that both teams have qualified for the county finals on the 30^th March 2022.

Our Year 11 and 13 students have recently completed their mock exams, having spent part of the Christmas holiday revising and consolidating their knowledge. Some of this knowledge will remain in their short-term or working memory, whilst repetition, practice and application will also have enabled them to commit other aspects to long-term memory.

Knowledge is good: the more we know, the easier it becomes to learn more, to make connections between different aspects of our learning, to develop our minds and to retrieve that knowledge when faced with novel situations. This is especially important at A level, where the application of knowledge and prior learning are especially tested, and where synoptic assessment gauges understanding of different strands and links within a subject. From an educational point of view, the ‘Matthew Effect’ means that, in reading, in gaining knowledge and in understanding (as in other areas of life), the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

So much of the information which comes our way is ‘chunked’ and readily available via Google. We are not therefore encouraged to learn, to make connections and to think deeply. We are told that concentration-spans have shortened and our ability to focus on one thing for any length of time is diminished.

This need not be so if we educate our children to be curious, to persist with their learning, to have a wide and diverse range of interests, to acquire cultural capital and to wonder at the world around them. And it is a wonderful world, albeit tainted by some shameful and horrific evils. Last Thursday was Holocaust Memorial Day and it is very hard to credit, let alone understand how such immense suffering could have been inflicted on humans by their fellow humans. We cannot begin to do so without asking difficult questions and attempting to fathom challenging answers.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a Jewish cellist who was born in Germany and survived the Holocaust, is clear in this respect:

“Educating children about the Holocaust and Jewish history is so important, but don’t tell me I need to go on TikTok and do it in a 30-second video because that’s how long young people’s attention span is — that’s ridiculous. They should learn to sit down for an hour, and develop an attention span,” she told the Radio Times. “We witnesses won’t be around for ever: I’m 96, and none of the other survivors is much younger. So, soon, no one will be able to hear what the Holocaust was like from people who were there.”

Preparing pupils thoroughly for examinations is one thing. Yet we should resist ‘teaching to the test’, for the best learning and understanding often happen beyond the syllabus.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and others.

Best wishes,

Dr Bird

No – not the type of broken record you might be thinking about! But the English department have broken a record. Our of a total of 116 entries we submitted for the Young Writers Competition, 105 are being published! This is an excellent achievement, congratulations to all involved.