As the days lengthen, we begin to start thinking more about preparing for the summer examination season. There is a lot of advice out there to help. While aimed at teachers and at those preparing for GCSEs, a recent article from the TES contains six podcasts which can help parents and pupils in all year groups understand how to revise most effectively as well as how to manage difficulties such as anxiety about exams. Please click here to read the article.
This week we are sending fund raising cheques to the following charities:
Guide Dogs for the Blind
Queen Elizabeth Heart in a Box campaign
Riding for Disabled
The Royal British Legion
Our Sixth Form Legacy Teams are fundraising for Birmingham Mind and Birmingham Homeless Charity.
The Key Stage 3 Basketball Team have been selected to play in the Finals of the Birmingham Youth Games on Wednesday. We wish the team the best of luck.
The Year 11 Football Team beat Arena Academy in the semi-finals and are through to the Aston Cup Final.
The Year 7, 8 and 9 Football teams are all playing in the semi-finals of the Aston Cup this week.
A collaboration Badminton tournament between HGS, HWGA and Handsworth Girls is being played this week.
We wish all the teams the best of luck in all of their fixtures.
Please read the article below published today on the BBC Family and Education website highlighting the issues surrounding Social Media platforms. Please do talk to your child about staying safe on line.
A huge congratulations to both the Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Badminton Teams, who in being selected to represent the region, finished an impressive third place at the recent Birmingham School Games Festival. The competition was made up of all the best school badminton teams across the whole of Birmingham. The teams were of such high calibre with some exceptional badminton being played to a county level! Both our teams are set to finish of the season by retaining their Aston league titles in their final matches in the up and coming weeks.
Our Year 9 and Year 10 Mathematicians made a good showing in the recent Intermediate Maths Challenge.
In Year 9 Krishan Patel was awarded the Best in Year certificate as well as a Silver certificate. Three other boys attained a Silver certificate and 7 boys achieved a Bronze certificate.
In Year 10 Rajan Aulakh was awarded the Best in Year certificate as well as a Gold certificate. Zaryam Shaker also was awarded a Gold certificate. 12 boys were awarded a Silver certificate and 9 boys achieved a Bronze certificate.
Rajan, Zaryam, Krishan and Mohamed have all been invited to the next round of the challenge.
Congratulations to all who took part.
Eddie Hughes MP, Walsall North (Conservative) visited the school on Friday 15th February to speak to the Sixth Form students. Mr Hughes, who is an ex pupil of this school, spoke very fondly of his time at the school, before taking questions from the Sixth Form audience.
Mr Hughes spoke about his own childhood, and how he came from a traditionally Labour supporting household. His father was a Bus driver, and his mother a Cleaner, and he was one of a large family of boys. Both he and one brother came to this school, and ironically he was in the same year group as Sion Simon, who later became a Labour MP in Birmingham.
Mr Hughes then took questions from the Sixth Form audience, which were well-thought out and challenging. Questions ranged from topics such as Brexit, the fate of Shumina Begum, the NHS, Homelessness in this city and finally a question which he admitted he had no answer to, which was about whether “Drill music” should be banned!
The photograph shows Eddie Hughes with Awez Khan ( Year 13), the Young People’s Parliament MP for this part of Birmingham.
Many thanks to Mr Hughes for visiting KEVI HGS.
Please read the 2 articles below. The first is from The Guardian newspaper and the second is from the BBC News website.
The two articles highlight some major issues surrounding University education such as the contentious issue of Unconditional offers and the perceived attraction or otherwise of them from the perspective of students and teachers. It also highlights the common tactic of some Universities to offer them to students only if they make them their first choice. The other ley issue which is receiving attention is how the world of work is changing. It would seem that universities will remain the trusted providers of education but there is a need for new ways of packaging learning. The article highlights the need for transferable skills, independent learning and researcher skills as well as the desperate need for creativity, curiosity and work experience amongst young people.
On Monday 4th February, 20 students from Year 10 attended ‘GCSE Science Live’, held at Symphony Hall in Birmingham. As well as hearing talks from 5 scientists about their respective fields, we also had a lecture from a Senior Examiner who gave us advice about revision, how to answer questions correctly and the ‘do’s and don’ts’ during science examination papers.
The topics that we were given an insight on were the moon, the ‘power of ice’, fertility, animals and whether time travel is possible. Some lecturers were well known due to their documentaries aired on the television. Lectures were given by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Professors Andrea Sella, Robert Winston, Alice Roberts and Jim Al-Khalili. The talks included practicals, fascinating videos and interesting presentations.
Overall, the event was an amazing and insightful opportunity we were lucky to have been given. It developed interest in topics we weren’t entirely familiar with before and it gave us a push in the right direction in terms of our GCSE’s. A huge thanks to Mr Jones who was kind enough to organise and run such a successful school trip.
Rohan Minhas
On Monday 17th December 2018, fourteen pupils from Chad Vale Primary School and fourteen pupils from Harper Bell SDA School attended KEVI HGS and participated in two interactive STEM workshops, both of which were designed to give them a flavour of what our students do at KS3 and beyond. We also had fifteen pupils from Manor Park Academy and eight pupils from Bleakhouse Junior School attend the STEM works on Monday 14th January 2019. Furthermore, we recently (Tuesday 12th February 2019) hosted fourteen pupils from Sledmere Primary School.
During the Science workshop where they took part in a variety of stimulating practical activities that included looking inside cells using powerful binocular microscopes; using Bunsen burners to carryout flame tests (of select Alkali and Alkali-Earth metals); making sparklers (burn magnesium); safely put their hands through the flame; and understand the chemistry of fireworks. They were also enthralled by the exploding hydrogen balloons; screaming jelly baby; whoosh bottle fire whirl. Furthermore, both staff and pupils took part in flying our new ‘hover-craft’ around the laboratory. They enthusiastically enquired about its mechanisms and the science behind it.
Following a brief break at the canteen, during which they enjoyed drinks and biscuits, they went for a tour round the school and enjoyed seeing our students during break time, and were complimentary about their behaviour. The tour ended with the pupil in the D&T labs, which hosted the Design & Technology workshop. During this workshop, the pupils designed their own custom pen and pencil holder (to take home) at our brand new design studio, using 2D CAD (Computer Aided Design). The laser machine was then used to cut their acrylic designs. Finally, they used the Line bender machine to fold their acrylic design and attach it to a wooden base. The pupils also watched watch our cutting-edge 3D printer in action, making a frog for their teacher to take away; and enjoyed handling the tools and toys previously printed.
Both staff and pupils seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed their KEVI HGS experience and we look forward to, once again, working with the six remaining primary schools who have booked to attend the upcoming STEM workshops.
Mr F. Ahmed & Mr. D. Bansal
