Monday 24^th June 2019: UOB day

On Monday 24^th June, all of the students in year 12 attended a day at the University of Birmingham. After making our own way there, and a prompt 9.30 meet at the Clock Tower, the day began with an informative presentation about the UCAS process and university life. The university had many student ambassadors to take us around the campus and answer any questions we had regarding university life. They also gave a lot of personal advice for budding applicants. For many, including myself, getting the opportunity to speak with students in the same city as us, who had been so successful in their academic studies was both informative and inspirational. After meeting the ambassadors, we were given a presentation by the university’s head of student communications, Ansar, who provided us with a motivational talk about our current academic state in the year. For me, the most notable question he asked us, was if we were all working at 100% of our potential. Surprisingly, no one raised their hands. This made us realise that we could all be working a lot harder!

Meeting the student ambassadors who had done so well and seeing a potential future university really helped put things into perspective and inspired me for my university application.

Tuesday 25^th June 2019: UCAS Convention, NEC

On the following day, we attended the NEC for a UCAS convention. With over 13,000 pupils and over 150 universities there, it was definitely a packed and busy environment. I found having the visit to the University of Birmingham the day before was extremely helpful, as we went into the convention with ideas of both potential courses and what they were looking for in their applicants.

There were also other stands at the convention, such as a Microsoft stand, showing us new technology like the Surface Pro, and degree apprenticeships. Companies like Microsoft and Rolls Royce were there to enlighten us more on the concept of doing a degree apprenticeship. Our recommended time in the convention was from 9am till 11.30am, and during that time, I was able to speak to experts from over 20 different universities ranging from the University of Bristol to Durham. Having experts from several universities there to answer our personal questions was extremely beneficial, especially where they may be from universities further away, which are harder to visit. I was able to ask lecturers for my exact courses of interest, what they look for in applicants, and what the course entails. This face to face interaction was a great chance for many of us to ask specific questions that we could not find the answer to online. Although the temptation to take every brochure and freebie available was high, I can speak for the vast majority of the year in that the day was extremely informative in regard to both the academic and student aspect of University life. The free pens and water bottles were an added bonus too!

Friday 28^th June: UCAS Introduction, Enrichment

To conclude our UCAS focused week, our enrichment day was led by Mr Duck, who began to introduce to and help us apply our experiences to our UCAS profiles. Once we had spoken to so many universities in the week, and had even visited the campus of the University of Birmingham, we had the opportunity to begin applying our newly obtained knowledge from the week to our UCAS application. In addition to this, having the guidance of Mr Duck and other staff alike also made the whole process a lot more understandable. We feel in a strong position as we move towards Year 13 in September.

Overall, this week was full of extremely beneficial and informative events. I and a lot of my peers now feel a lot more confident regarding the overwhelming process that can be applying to university, and would like to thank Mr Conway, Mr Duck and all the other staff that helped organise and provide us with these events. Bring it on UCAS!

Eshwar Sond 12SCH

A dreary 3 am start kept many half-awake, although we were excited to begin our Italian journey.

Day 1 was a long-haul journey by both plane and coach. When we arrived at the Italian airport, waiting to collect our bags, a travel representative kindly took some of our suitcases from the carousel and was waiting for us. The rep brought us to our coach, and we went on our way to our hotel, where we stayed for two nights. Next, we dropped our bags off and went on our way to the prominent Colosseum. Today, there are many entrances to the seats, as in the first century. However, due to natural disasters and weather conditions, only a minority of seats are still visible. The weather was scorching, and our hunger was soothingly satisfied by an Italian McDonalds.

Day 2 was predominantly an adventurous day that required a lot of walking to and fro various places. We walked up the Spanish steps, which was 138 steps long! When we reached the top, there was an amazing and refreshing view that caused many eyes to focus and observe the large city of Rome. We also saw the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and the Trevi Fountain. However, rather than constantly looking at the Trevi Fountain, Ms Anderson and I went to an ice-cream shop, with a mischievous smile on our faces. After, we set off for a prolonged walk to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel for a guided tour. In the Vatican, you could not wear low cut or sleeveless clothes, as it is disrespectful. In the Sistine Chapel, we saw the vast amount of pictures drawn by Michel Angelo on every side of the building. In there, though, you could not speak, however, many tourists appeared to disobey that rule.

On the third day of our trip, we departed by coach to transfer to the Bay of Naples, where we stayed for most of the trip. However, before we settled down in our hotel, we visited the immense city of Pompeii that was obliterated by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Most, if not all, of the roofs of buildings, had come off, and you could clearly see the destruction of Pompeii, and how volatile Vesuvius was. Many bodies have been discovered, and there are still remains of skeletons, and people who were suffocated with the heat. There was an amphitheatre, which had an off-limit restriction for the seating area because humans ruin it when they visit it. After our touristic visit, we went to our fantastic hotel in Cosmomare, Sorrento in the Bay of Naples, and the view from our balcony was top class, and those who had a view of the sea, and the huge mountains, probably felt special.

Day 4 mesmerised my eyes at the beautiful views both from the hotel, and when we were outside, in the refreshing breeze. Around 10 in the morning we went on a boat trip to have a guided tour of the beautiful island of Capri. The boat trip didn’t seem long initially, however, it was around 20 minutes long to get to the island. Sometime after reaching the island, we began walking up a prolonged stair set that made many of us start to feel worn out. But soon, we had some free time in a small shopping arena. Once we had finished visiting the island of Capri, we set back to the hotel, and then we had some free time, in our rooms.

Day 5 was another adventurous day that required a lot of walking, and strength, especially when climbing up hills, or mountains, or steps. We arrived at Mount Vesuvius at roughly 10:30, and a coach took us up quite high, and this prepared us for the hours ahead. Mount Vesuvius took quite a while to climb to the top, and there were even little shops high up above the clouds that you could go to. Inside you can see pieces of burnt rock deep down, however, we were not allowed to go inside the volcano. After we had visited Mount Vesuvius we set off by coach to see the small town of Herculaneum. This town was one of the places that had been obliterated by Vesuvius. Many parts of it had been destroyed because it was in the direction of the lava flow. Despite this, most of the main infrastructures are still vaguely visible. After touring Herculaneum, we returned back to Hotel Cosmomare, we had some free time, and then had dinner.

Day 6 was spent travelling by coach and plane to KEVI Handsworth Grammar school from Italy, and we arrived at around 5pm tired but happy.

It was a fantastic trip and I really enjoyed myself. I would like to thank Mr Thaper and all the staff who travelled with us for making it so much fun as well as really interesting and exciting.

Rohan Reynolds-Korotania

Does studying music help with progress in academic work? The results of a very large study in Canada which can be found on the American Psychological Association website here (over one hundred and ten thousand students) published this month seem to suggest that it does. They found that students who were highly engaged in school music at secondary level were, on average, academically over one year ahead of peers who did not. These positive relationships were independent of students’ previous academic achievement, sex, cultural background and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. One of the study’s authors, Dr Gouzouasis, suggested that “[when studying music] a student has to learn to read music notation; develop eye-hand-mind coordination; develop keen listening skills; develop team skills and develop discipline to practise. All those learning experiences play a role in enhancing children’s cognitive capacities and their self-efficacy.” Please click here to read a short article about this study on the i news website.

Thank you to all our Staff and Students who made our Open Evening such a huge success last night. We received lots of extremely positive feedback about our School and Community – we were inundated with visitors, some of whom did not want to leave!