On Wednesday 6^th June 2018, thirteen pupils from Sledmere Primary 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. During periods 1 and 2, they attended the Design & Technology workshop, during which they 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 exploring the tools and toys previously printed.

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 Science labs, which hosted the Science workshop. During this workshop, the pupils took part in a variety of stimulating practical activities that included looking inside cells using powerful microscopes; using Bunsen burners to carryout flame tests of select Alkali and Alkali-Earth metals); burn magnesium (making sparklers); put their hands through the flame; and understand how fireworks. They also enthralled by the exploding hydrogen balloons; screaming jelly baby; whoosh bottle; and much more.

To finish off the day, the pupils were issued with yet more drinks and biscuits as well as flyers about the 11+ familiarisation programme and encouraged to sign up and complete the online training material in preparation for the 11+ in September. Both staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed their HGS experience and we look forward to, once again, working with Sledmere Primary School to enthuse more year 5 pupils, next year.

Mr F. Ahmed & Mr. D. Bansal

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On Monday 30^th April 2018, a team of students participating in the ‘Legacy’ program hosted a charity dinner to raise money and awareness for the homeless. ‘Legacy’ is an optional project offered by the school in year 12 as a way for students to give back to their community and allows them to focus on developing a social action project to combat a local issue of their choice. The team had previously done bake sales within school, which proved incredibly successful.

‘Project Reform,’ hosted a successful fundraising evening at the award winning restaurant ‘Eurasia,’ which is owned by Shamim Haque, the father of one of the team members, Abdul Haque. Award winning Chef Amjad Ali (crowned the best in Indian cuisine with the Tommy Miah Best Chef Award), served a special menu to all guests that evening – the food was one of the best the students had ever tasted.

The evening began with all students arriving at the venue and greeted in a hospitable manner by all the staff; they made sure the students were comfortable, providing free drinks, and overall making the event a pleasant experience. Customers came from all over the West Midlands, ranging from Wolverhampton to Shropshire, and included guests of honour Mayor and Mayoress of Bridgnorth, Councillor Ron Whittle and Cllr. Mrs Carol Whittle. The people were incredibly generous in their donations, with local school ‘Brockton C of E Primary’ managing to raise £64 to support the cause. We received a great reception from the customers, who were eager to support the homeless as they often came over and talked to us about our project. Hannah Qadeer, Aadam Zaman and Abdul Haque went round to the different tables and managed to sell a great number of raffle tickets to the kind people of Bridgnorth. The first-place prize was a £40 voucher for the restaurant; second place a basket of chocolates and third place was an expensive bottle of champagne.

After starters had been served, Suhaib Hamad, Abdul Haque and team leader Britney Okhiria stood up to do a speech thanking the restaurant and its staff, while also spreading awareness about homelessness in a snappy two minutes. Donations were beginning to flood in from the guests with Mayor Whittle gifting the team £40. As people began to leave, they came round to thank us for the evening and expressed their support for our cause, eager to help us in any way possible. In total, the students managed to raise around £804.00 from the evening which will be used to provide care bags for one hundred homeless in Birmingham, providing them with the essential tools to survive.

A kind thank you would like to be given to ‘Eurasia’ for hosting the evening, and all the staff for providing a hospitable environment for the team. Thank you to David Masih and Shamim Haque for providing transport to and from the restaurant.

Project Reform Members: Britney Okhiria (Team Leader), Hannah Qadeer (Deputy Team Leader), Abdul Haque (Secretary), Aadam Zaman, Ibrahim Kabir, Samadul Chowdhry, Brandon Masih and Suhaib Hamad.

By:

Suhaib Hamad 12JST

From the 13^th to the 16^th of October 2017, 40 students and 4 staff went on a trip to Munich.  After arriving at Birmingham Airport at 4am on the Friday, and then having a 2 hour flight to Munich, we were all tired, but we started abroad with a walking tour around Munich. It was very interesting and we all increased our knowledge of Munich, learning about the origin of Oktoberfest, past rulers of Bavaria and the history of the City.  By 7pm, we had eaten and were settling into our rooms; we spent the rest of the night chilling in the hotel. The rooms were quite spacious and had a good WiFi connection, and there was a pool table, darts board and a table-football table in the bar area downstairs.

On the Saturday, we started the day on a more serious note. This is because we visited the concentration camp in Dachau. We were told many sad stories and taught about how life was for the prisoners; we saw artefacts from the time that the camp was in operation too. After the tour, we had time to shop around Marienplatz in the centre of the ‘Old Town’ of Munich. As well as shopping, I spent a lot of the time looking at the Liverpool- Man Utd score!  After we all shopped, we went to the Deutches Museum. It was an interesting museum as it contained many exhibitions on engineering, cars and trains. Then we had the rest of the day to eat, chill in our rooms and play darts and pool in the games room.

We were all excited on Sunday because we were going to do a lot of cool things. The day started off by going to Olympic Park (developed for the 1972 Olympic Games), which got our sports fans very excited. After being able to see most of Munich from the top of the Tower, we spent time at BMW World and Museum which gave us the chance to see and even sit in vintage and modern cars. After a game of bowling, we headed to Munich’s Hard Rock Café for our evening meal, where we had the chance to eat some great food and to buy souvenirs.

Monday was going to be the last day, but was going to be the best as we were going to have a tour of the one and only Allianz Arena. From far away, the stadium looks amazing, but from up close, it is magnificent. The tour guide was amazing as she knew Bayern Munich and the Allianz Arena from top to bottom and she could answer every question that came at her. She also made sure we could experience everything we could possible, from being in the away team changing room to walking down the tunnel as two separate teams while the infamous Champions League anthem played. The tour was the perfect way to end what had been an amazing school trip.

We’d all like to thank Miss Hartill, Mr Jones and Miss Blochard for making this amazing trip possible, as well as Mr Campbell who didn’t forget to leave his witty sense of humour in Birmingham (and Mr Jones said that he left his wallet there too).

Rohan Minhas 9A

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Please do not park illegally or obstruct the back gate, Dawson Road or Woodstock Road when dropping off or collecting your child. We are extremely concerned about your child’s safety at the start and end of the day as it is such a busy area. Please encourage your child to cross Dawson Road only on the Pelican crossing and not to walk between the traffic. We again ask for your support with this matter. We know that the Police will issue fixed penalty tickets to those in breach of the law. Please support and help us to keep your child safe on their way in and out of school.

Thank you.

Between 1^st – 11^th May, 2018 all Y11 students completed their required biology field work at Handsworth Park. Students set out to investigate the effect of light on the distribution of grass. They considered the trees in the vicinity and their impact on grass. Working in groups, they used quadrats and belt transects to measure the percentage cover at each quadrat, every five metres (at regular intervals) for 30 metres. Their results were then plotted onto a graph and analysed for correlation. Discussions ensued on the effect of various biotic and abiotic factors on the distribution of grass. Factors considered include blocking of sunlight by trees, rainfall patterns/seasons, use of footpath, deflected succession (cutting grass), artificial park layout, including monuments and planted trees. This exercise took the learning experience beyond the classroom to the real-world, allowing students to apply their knowledge to an unfamiliar context. The practical skills gained will hopefully pay dividends at their upcoming exams.

Mr. F. Ahmed