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‘Hunted – Beyond the Tale’ – Young Writers Competition

All students were invited to participate in the annual mini saga writing competition in October. We submitted a total of 156 entries; a whopping 144 entries have been accepted for publication.

The feedback we received via Young Writers was very positive who closed their letter of congratulations to us as follows: ‘I’d like to close by congratulating King Edwards VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, I am sure students will continue to keep up their great writing!’

Although many students had their work published, we must take the opportunity to congratulate specific students who were given a notable mention from Young Writers: Diego Kerr (7H), Eisa Yacoob (10H), Dharam Rana (10G), Hardev Manku (7W), Christopher Lee (11G) and Omar Whaind (10A).

We will hold more competitions throughout the academic year. We would ask you, therefore, to encourage your son to participate in them.

Finally, well done to all of you who participated!

English Department

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Year 8 ‘CSI Day’

On CSI Day, we had to use our laboratory skills and scientific knowledge to investigate who killed Mr Kafai.  There were five suspects – Mr Jones, Mr Bansal, Mr Mohsin, Mr Hussain and Mr Alishah. Throughout the day we completed several forensic activities such as chromatography, blood tests, footprint and fingerprint analysis and many more activities.  Each group reached a conclusion which was made into a story about what truly happened to Mr Kafai on that fateful night, who killed him and why.  In my opinion, this was one of the best Enrichment Days we’ve experienced so far.

Abdullah Khan, 8G

 

 

Please click here to see more photos in our gallery.

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Sixth Form News

Sixth Form Applications for 2020

Over 150 students have had meetings with senior staff in school to discuss their applications to join our sixth form in September 2020. The students have come from schools all over Birmingham, Walsall and Solihull and have really made very positive impressions on our senior staff.

We look forward to many of these students gaining the GCSE qualifications to join KEVI HGS in 2020.

Sixth Form Enrichment

On Friday 7th February we had another fantastic enrichment day for sixth form students in school.

We had a number of guest speakers who delivered interesting and useful presentations.  We had a number of ex- students who came back to HGS to share their career stories. Jatinder Paul, senior Associate solicitor from Irwin Mitchell Solicitors spoke about his career as did former student Anil Heera who is now the branch manager of the Nationwide Building society in Handsworth.

David Handy of Newman University spoke to students about careers in teaching and Mrs Afshan Khaja an Obstetrics and Gynaecology consultant spoke about women’s health and also gave great advice to our prospective medical and dental students.

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LEGACY Charity Pitching Challenge

The Legacy pitch challenge that took place on 16.01.2020 was an engaging and thought-provoking experience where both Team Reform and Project Dream presented their ideas and achievements so far. Team Reform began the pitch with a brief yet powerful video consisting of their progress through the 2019/20 academic year. Portrayed through posters and various visual images, the presentation was thorough and engaging. There was then an opportunity for the legacy coordinator Mr Ahmed to ask questions. Project Dream then presented their pitch: Informative, concise and thorough they conveyed their message about young carers and how they can help alleviate the stresses they have to face. Quite clearly, both teams delivered to a high level tackling two problems, that many would like to help aid and eradicate. Positive and helpful feedback was also a key component of pitching and allowed the teams to have a better understanding of how to move forward. Both teams are very grateful for this opportunity to give back to the community and would like to thank Mr Ahmed for his efforts.

Aleema Khan, Tehreem Pervez, Ayman Amin

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Wellbeing and Resilience Presentation

Please click here to view our presentation on Wellbeing and Resilience.

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Psychology day with an expert!

On Friday 31st January, The Psychology department invited Jean-Marc Lawton to run a tailor- made revision day for our year 13 students.   Jean-Marc is an assistant principal examiner for the exam board AQA and the IB.  He has been teaching Psychology for over 30 years.    Jean-Marc has written a number of Psychology textbooks including one of the two official textbooks for the current specification.  He has also recently published a book titled “Aiming for an A in Psychology”.  14 students from King Edward VI Aston also attended the event which took place in our 6th form common room that was set up like a revision conference.    The students practised a wide range of exam questions and were given examples of mistakes students often make in the exam.  They learnt how to develop their answers to gain the most marks in the exam and Jean Marc reviewed a range of topics including those students often struggle with, such as research methods and biopsychology.  The revision day was very successful and we hope the students will use the resources and skills in their final A level examinations.

 

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Wellbeing Advice

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Champion School

NCS writes “We’re delighted to be able to confirm that you are one of the NCS Champion Schools for 2019! Congratulations on a well-earned award, and thank you for all your support over the last year.

Thanks to you, and all the other hard-working schools, over 80,000 young people had an amazing summer in 2019. Students across the country have had a positive impact in their communities and have developed skills that will help them in their futures.”

 

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Handball – Birmingham School Games

On Tuesday 21st January the Year 10 Handball Team represented our region in the Birmingham School Games. Overall, it was a great day with nailing biting moments as well as disappointing moments. At first, I think all were happy to leave school so early, so we left school at around 09:20 and made a short journey to PlayFootball in Birmingham. As soon as we were registered, we got straight onto some practice but not too hard to conserve energy. We had a quick talk about the rules with the one of the referees and was very serious about people going against his decision. We then started our game straight on against the University of Birmingham School which ended in a disappointing last-minute draw 7-7 with the opposition scoring seconds before the whistle. It was acceptable as it was our first game and we were warming up. The next game wasn’t for a while, so some had a snack, others went and watched the girl’s competition. Our next game was up against Small Heath School who unfortunately did have the weakest team with big lads defending but poor passing and shooting so we mainly looked at this game to take advantage and gain some goal difference points. Mr Gallagher being the good coach he is, exploited weaknesses and composed different tactics and to attack and defend as a team. This did end up in our favour with a solid 8-2. The next game was against Plantsbrook School which finished with a close 6-5 victory, with Maneet making excellent saves as usual, Nathan screening defenders and Yaseen towering over the opposition’s defence. This team had good co-ordination and exploited the wings however failed to deliver the goals needed. Now that we had successfully placed top of our pool and firmed our place in the semis, all were looking for the trophy. Despite our ongoing streak of being undefeated, this game was not the nicest. We had an advantageous lead of 5-3 against Bartley Green until our team fell apart, all were tired, Taylor had a cramp in his calf and their attack was unpredictable and so the game ended in a disappointing defeat of 8-6, and so we knew our chance for the trophy had gone. Enlightened was with the fact that we could still go home with something: 3rd place medal. With our team saddened but determined, we came out with a crushing victory of 7-0. Regardless of missing out on taking a trophy back to school, we won something. All-inclusive, I think all had a great time, learnt something and would love another experience like such to occur again.

(Full team: Maneet Khera, Faisal Jajeh, Jake Gloag, Taylor Bewry, Chabota Changula, Yaseen Ahmed, Nathan Mhlanga, Zakir Khan, Karanjit Virdi and Rahim Ali)

Karanjit Virdi (10 Henry)