Some interesting research published in the Netherlands at the end of January shows that confidence in achieving good results can assist in gaining them. The authors write that this is ‘possibly because it increases ambition, morale, resolve, persistence, and hence the probability of success.’ Approaching the examination season in positive, optimistic fashion is therefore likely to bear dividends. Please click here to read a summary of the results; the full research paper can be accessed here.

Our Year 9 and Year 10 Mathematicians made an excellent showing again in the recent Intermediate Maths Challenge. HGS students achieved 9 Gold Certificates, 21 Silver certificates and 19 Bronze certificates with 6 students qualifying for the next round. This is a wonderful achievement.

Year 9 

Rajan Aulakh and Assad Jaffari qualified for the next round and achieved Gold certificates. There were 4 Silver and 7 Bronze certificates awarded to HGS students.

Year 10 

Pavanjot Dhillon, Hammad Butt, Jasbinde Singh and Yusuf Sakhawat all qualified for the next round and were awarded Gold Certificates. Hubert Walczak, Muzaffar Haqqani and Jason Bhatti also achieved Gold Certificates. There were 17 Silver and 12 Bronze certificates awarded to HGS students.

Congratulations to all involved.

The Year 7 Football team have continued their unbeaten run with a 12-0 victory over Aston Manor. This puts them top of the Aston League in their age group. They have a record of Goals for 37 and Goals against 2 as it stands today. Congratulations!

On the 9th February we visited John Henry Newman Catholic College to be part of a debate which assessed whether The Great War is commemorated in the right manner in England and the UK.  After a more physical view of what the war was like, through the presentation of uniforms, guns and other lethal weapons used in the First World War, five experts on this topic led the debate, with several questions asked by students from different schools. I think it was a great experience in order to get an insight into different people’s thoughts and views on the topic. There was, of course, plenty of questions from us, who were keen to challenge the views and opinions of the experts. We looked at the ways other countries commemorate the First World War, and argued whether we do enough to commemorate the war, and everyone who fought in it. It gave me a deeper understanding of what the war really means to countries around the world, and how they continue to remember it even almost 100 years after the armistice was signed.  (Abdullah Naveed, 11A)

The trip to John Newman Catholic College informed us about World War 1 and how we view and remember it today. It opened with a very intriguing segment in which we learnt about the different aspects of life in the trenches and how soldiers had to deal with them. It also showed me how much WW1 affected our culture and language to this day. For example, words such as “sneakers” and “chat” came from WW1. The debate was also quite enlightening . The panelists talked about the different people who fought for the allies in WW1 like India as well as some countries in Africa, who they saw as forgotten, especially in countries like England when remembering the tragedies of World War 1. The panelists also informed us about the people who are overlooked when we commemorate the tragedies of WW1, including the children who were hired to replace fighting soldiers in coal mines, some of them as young as 12. Overall, I think that the trip was quite informative, mostly engaging and gave a detailed account of the Great War. (Matthew Baptiste, 11G)

UCAS published the university application figures for the 2018 cycle earlier this week and these show that, while the proportion of eighteen year olds applying for university through UCAS has risen, the absolute number of applicants has fallen by two point six per cent as a result of a smaller number of eighteen year olds compared with last year. The data also revealed that the gap between female and male applicants is large and growing. Forty-four point three per cent of female eighteen year olds applied to university compared with just thirty-one point eight per cent of males. UCAS said that if demand was equal between the sexes thirty-six thousand more men would have applied to university. Please click here to read more about this year’s application cycle on the UCAS website.