Both the Under 15 and Under 13 Cricket teams won their Aston League age group last season. We have recently been presented with some splendid silverware! Congratulations to both teams on this wonderful achievement.
The Year 7 Football team beat Broadway 5-0 in their recent Aston League match.
The Schools’ Adjudicator has dismissed a series of objections made by a local parents’ group against the new admissions policy for the King Edward VI grammar schools in Birmingham. Heath Monk, Executive Director for The Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham said: “We are delighted with the decision of the adjudicator, confirming that our new arrangements are lawful and that all due process was followed.”
The proposals were the subject of significant, and often heated, debate during the consultation process which started in November 2018. A group of petitioners secured airtime in the national media and created a crowdfunding portal to pay for their legal challenge.
Heath Monk added: “We knew that our changes would be controversial. Unfortunately, some of the information that was circulated by campaigners was simply wrong – and this has led to many parents living outside Birmingham believing that their children will not be able to get a place in our selective schools. That was never the case and we urge parents whose children achieved a high score in the entrance test to put our schools on their list of preferences. There will be a significant number of out of catchment places available, as we have always made clear.”
“The changes to our admissions policy were designed to improve the chances of high attaining children from disadvantaged backgrounds attending selective schools, as well as provide greater priority for local families.”
The King Edward VI Foundation is not just about selective schools – the latest school to join the “family” is King Edward VI Balaam Wood Academy, which was opened last week by King Edward’s School old boy Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands. The charity now has two independent schools, six selective schools and 3 comprehensive Academies, all of whom are adopting a more collaborative approach to learning and extra-curricular activities in order to support our mission of making Birmingham the best place to be educated in the UK.
Please follow this link for the full report.
Year 7 beat Aston Manor 5-4 in their Aston League match.
Year 9 beat Lyndon School 14-2 in their Birmingham Cup game.
Year 10 were beaten 5-0 by Tudor Grange in the West Midlands Cup.
The Year 10 Football team beat Aston Manor 9-1.
The Year 8 Football team beat Broadway 14-0.
Our annual Prize giving was a happy occasion and it was our third as a member of the King Edward VI Foundation and King Edward VI Academy Trust. We welcomed the Foundation Bailiff Mr Gurd Chahal to present the prizes who commented on the warm, welcoming and happy atmosphere at HGS. We also welcomed Doctor Dorian Dugmore an expert in Cardiovascular medicine and Wellbeing as our Principal Guest and speaker. He spoke about the opportunities a School like ours affords its students and encouraged them to get involved in all that we have on offer and to take the opportunities presented to them such as the house system, sport, drama, and music. He was delighted to note the progress made at HGS over the past year and found HGS to be a truly inspirational place. He highlighted the need for perseverance, careful planning, a sense of humour and support from family and school so that if and when a setback occurs it can be effectively overcome. He provoked much thought about issues such as Wellbeing and provided some intriguing insights into the world of Football and Corporate business. It was his first major event at HGS having been on the receiving end of a Football match defeat here a number of years ago where he was spotted by an Aston Villa scout! It was a lovely event and I enjoyed meeting so many families as we celebrated the success of our School community.
Sixth Form students at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys go onto a variety of destinations post A Levels. The vast majority move to University following extensive Careers advice and guidance with their UCAS application which is a major part of their Sixth Form programme (even when they have left school!) alongside the broad Enrichment programme. Students follow a variety of courses at a large selection of Universities such as:
University of Nottingham Engineering, Computer Science and Physical Sciences
University of Manchester Chemical Engineering and Medicine
University of Loughborough Economics and Civil Engineering
University of Aston Medicine, Optometry, Chemical Engineering, Applied Science, Politics and Economics
University of Sheffield Dentistry and Psychology
University of Leicester Biological Sciences
University of Birmingham Psychology and Pharmacy
University of Warwick Mathematics
University of Bath Chemical Engineering
University of Coventry Applied Biosciences and Geography
King’s College London Dentistry
Queen Mary University of London Economics and Dentistry
University of Plymouth Dentistry and Medicine
University of East Anglia Economics
University College London Economics
Imperial College London Civil Engineering
Some of our students take up Apprenticeship Programmes with leading firms such as Deloitte’s, EY and PWC where they receive salaried on the job training and professional development – others move straight into employment and some take a GAP year. The school believes it is their job to support each and every individual student according to their needs and requirements. There is no one size fits all approach at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys where we firmly believe that a good education is more than simply being results driven. We want our students to be able to know what to do when they don’t know what to do!
Mr Miah from the Design Technology department has been working hard to establish medical provision in Kumar Ghuria, Bangladesh. Please click here to read the newsletter for more detail.
Glasses in Classes
Glasses in Classes is the name of a new research project that is trialling an intervention programme to help ensure that pupils who need glasses get them. In this article outlining the scheme, Professor Corcoran from the University of Nottingham says that one-third of children who need glasses are not wearing them and one-quarter of four to sixteen year olds have never been taken for a vision assessment. The potential impact of the research is very high: better vision will make a material difference to the academic, social and emotional learning of hundreds of thousands of children.
The English Department would like to thank all students, parents, teachers and volunteers who helped to run our very first Scholastic Book Fair. Our Book Fair was a huge success; our volunteers and all the families who purchased the vast selection of books available played a huge part in ensuring this event was a success. We raised a total of £759.50 over three days. The profits from the sale will support the English Department’s future initiatives – more news to follow!
We would specifically like to thank the following volunteers for their contributions to the event:
Mohammed Abdelrahim (11N)
Jawad Ahmed (10W)
Mustafaa Ahmed (11A)
Sadikur Chowdhury (11G)
Lewis Goddard (11H)
Bilal Ijaz (13MWA)
Arjun Kalirai (10N)
Adnan Karim (11W)
Adam Khan (10N)
Asadullah Khan (13BGE)
Daniel Olatundun (11A)
Krishan Patel (10G)
Reece Qureshi (10N)
Dharam Rana (10G)
Hussain Saif-Ullah (11G)
Aman Salan (9W)
Bhagatveer Singh (9W)
Louis Stevens (10N)
Jay Surray (10N)
Charlie Vannakorn (11W)
Finally, we could not have done it without you. There will be more events throughout the year!
Best wishes,
Mr Dubay
The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool was a staggering experience as it provided a shocking insight into the slave trade and exposed us to the significant impact it made. We first viewed the cultures in Africa that predated and were present during the slave trade and saw how diverse Africa actually was. There were many different forms of art, religion and customs which proved that Africans were not lesser beings. The section which gave physical examples of the torture that slaves had to endure was very overwhelming: the neck collars, iron masks, bondage contraptions, whips and ropes created a very unsettling atmosphere. What further emphasised the significance of the slave trade was how the prolonged effects of it, even after it was abolished, were so easily integrated into society. The very anti-black motives depicted in every day entities such as minstrel shows, ‘whitening’ cream, children’s toys and books mirror those same ideologies during the slave trade and these views were only suppressed some twenty years ago. After observing the museum, it was clear that these effects were inevitable; the enslaving of 12.5 million Africans and the mainstream widespread ideologies and stereotypes of a whole race were never going to be extinguished after the abolition of slavery.
Abdussamad Mehdi 13KDR
My visit to the International Slavery Museum entailed an enlightening yet concise reflection of the struggle from African origins to the growth of urban communities and culture in the West. Our History A-Level class just got over an hour to go through the timeline of the 18th century to present day events that revolved around slavery and liberation, we went around at our own pace and appreciated the reflection upon the various exhibits individually. Starting with the model size replica of a typical plantation within Southern America, I was given more perspective on where the slaves would reside as well as how they were treated like objects and abused, particularly also with illustrations of them with mouth and arm harnesses, which certainly made me feel a bit uneasy at the time. They were unfortunately designed by the southern white owners to control the slaves, acting both as a physically and psychologically painful punishment. Jumping to the 20th century, I was taken with a mix of shock and awe when witnessing a KKK outfit showcase in glass. This made my recent lessons on civil rights opposition all the more real and intense in confirming the fact that thousands of people were willing to wear this at one time. In contrast, the playlist of pop culture music through the ages by artists of African descent (available via the headphones provided) assured me that their cultures have not only remained prevalent, with the preservation of artifacts like tribal masks and horns to communicate before a digital age, but developed greatly and resonated within our modern societies.
Sid Raii 13BGE
