The theme for this years House Photography Competition is Winter. We encourage all pupils and Staff to enter into the competition and win points for their House. All photo entries must be submitted via email including your name and form to photography@handsworth.bham.sch.uk by Friday 15th February 2019.
Last year’s snow threatened to disrupt our 2017 Winter Concert, but thankfully this year we only had some light rain to battle with. This was our seventh concert at Ladywood Arc and it proved to be the most successful in terms of both audience attendance and quality of music.
Ms Lewis’ drama group started the evening’s entertainment with an abridged performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The first half also included two items by the Year 7 Choir, an organ duet performed by Hanz Camanzo and Phil Mortera, a guitar duet by the Kahlon brothers, the senior keyboard ensemble, string and woodwind ensembles as well as solos from Cody Casals (viola) and Isaac Minto (clarinet). The first half came to a lively conclusion with the Dhol ensemble led by Mr Matharu.
The second half included solo items by Amritpal Randhawa, Max Reuff, Anu Adeleye, and a duet from Gabriel Dino and Terence Nduka. We also heard items performed by the school orchestra, brass quartet and clarinet quartet. The evening ended with a performance of Jingle Bells by both students and the audience. It was a truly wonderful evening and all of the students performed exceptionally well. We hope you will join us for more concerts in 2019.
Mr. Ward
UCAS published its annual review of university admissions last week and found that the number of unconditional offers made by universities rose again last year to eighty-seven thousand five hundred. This means that the equivalent of thirty-four per cent of applicants received an unconditional offer in the 2017-2018 cycle. The government is concerned about the growth of unconditional offers and the potential impact these have on students taking A Levels. This latest report provides evidence that students with unconditional offers are more likely to underperform at A Level relative to their predicted grades. Students who hold unconditional offers would be wise to think about their long-term future; while a low set of grades may allow them to reach a university in a given year, a mixed academic profile may put them at a disadvantage in the competitive job market beyond it. Please click here to read more about this report on the BBC website.
HGS Sixth Former Awez Khan gave an impassioned speech to the Youth Parliament at the House of Commons recently on the topic of Knife Crime. Please click on the link for more details.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/im-scared-go-out-its-15509731
The U16s team line up before their exciting 61-44 victory over Holte School in the North Birmingham League.
Back row From left to right:
T Neumann, G Jaspal, D Suresh, J Miah, R Lewis, R Purewal.
Front row:
M Jahangir, K Sullivan, S Kanda, A Rupra, P Dhillon, M Uddin, Mr C J Conway
On the 20th November, 6 Year 13 students and 5 Year 12 students, accompanied by Mr Jones, visited Queen Elizabeth Hospital where we were treated to a variety of presentations on how Physics is used in the world of Medicine. These presentations covered how computing, science and engineering degrees are useful and can be a pathway to a job working within a hospital. Included was a video produced for young patients with tumours, explaining how masks and vacuum packs are used during scans; there were also talks from current apprentices taking a degree sponsored by the local NHS trust.
One notable talk was by a Radiologist who gave a valuable insight to the treatment of cancer patients and the machines which are used to destroy tumours. We were also informed about how mechanical engineers play a pivotal role in the maintenance of the equipment and work in collaboration with the other physicists to help save patients’ lives.
We also had a tour of one of the wards of the hospital and were shown the ‘Cyber Knife Unit’, the place where patients are treated with precisely targeted radiation to destroy tumours. Here we explored the design and specifications needed to house the equipment and learnt how the risks to both staff and patients alike due to radiation are minimised.
In short, it was a highly valuable visit for everyone involved and showed many of us that there is a very wide scope of professions should we pursue a degree in the sciences. Many thanks are due to Dr Geoff Heyes at the QE for organising our visit.
Ibrahim Kabir and Brandon Masih
On Monday 19th November, a mix of Year 12 and 13 students went to the University of Birmingham for a presentation by various physicists about their field of work; there was also advice from an examiner about how we should answer examination questions. The topics which were discussed were Quantum Biology, Quantum Mechanics and Particle Accelerators, to name a few. The lectures gave us insight to how vast the field of physics is and provided examples of how physics is used in the real world. One such example is the way we use physics to find out how and why the weather in the arctic is changing and, more importantly, its impact on the rest of the world. It was interesting to see how these modern-day physicists have used their line of work to try and explain what happens in nature. They showed us the advancements within the last 100 years to the extent that our basic knowledge would be considered miraculous during the 19th century.
Sharujan Kunaruban
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This week we have sent 3 cheques to Charities we have supported this term:
A cheque for £2,250 was sent to The British Heart Foundation as a result of the fantastic fundraising efforts by Year 7 with their annual sponsored walk.
A cheque for £2,650 was sent to Children in Need as a result of a variety of fundraising activities by our students and staff such as the proceeds from the whole school non-uniform day, the Sixth Form food sales, the Key Stage 3 Football Tournament and Year 9 joining in with the BBC Countryfile Ramble.
A cheque for £1000 was sent to support the Birmingham Homeless Christmas Meal.
The above is a fantastic effort by our school community and we thank everyone for their support and hard work.
On Monday we will launch our annual Foodbank campaign in support of the Trussell Trust, Birmingham. It is a sad fact that in 2018 the numbers of people needing to use foodbanks and the numbers of people who are homeless have increased as reported on the news only today.
Thank you for your support.
Congratulations to the Under 16 Basket Ball team who beat George Dixon 48 – 7 in a recent League game.
Congratulations to the Year 9 Football team who beat King Edward VI Aston 4 – 1 in a recent League match.
Congratulations to the Year 7 Football team who reached the semi-finals of the Aston and Erdington 5 a side tournament and only missed out on the finals in the last kick of the game!
