Maxi Skokna from 8 Henry is the year 8 house spelling champion, after successfully spelling a number of words in front of his year group.
His wining spelling was “Effervescence”.
House spelling competitions have been taking place this week each morning in assembly.
Mr Conway
On Wednesday 29th January, 60 students from Year 10 and Year 11 took part in the Intermediate Maths challenge, a national, annually held Maths competition consisting of entirely multiple-choice questions designed to encourage critical thinking amongst high achievers. The rules were simple, the paper consisted of 25 questions starting from easier questions to insanely difficult questions towards the end and we were given 1 hour to complete this. Each incorrect answer would lose you 2 marks and this was very effective in deterring students from guessing answers. The first 15 questions were worth 5 marks and the last 10 worth 6 due to their increased difficulty. A good score in the challenge would get you through to the competitions subsequent rounds which become even more difficult.
I started the paper with high hopes speeding through the first 15 questions and all was going well until I reached the dreaded second section. This is where I needed to double the thinking power put into each one of my answers as to prevent mark deductions. Surprisingly, I found many of the questions easier than I had anticipated buy a few of them unfortunately really tested my mathematical ability. Regardless, I braved through the paper with 5 minutes left to spare where I then looked over the questions I had left out. I was still unable to do them so I had no choice but to leave them unanswered instead of guessing an answer as a mark deduction would’ve diminished my chances of getting to the next round.
Overall, the paper was tricky but fun at the same time as the satisfaction of answering a question correctly was unmatched. The thought-provoking questions were a pleasant change from the usual maths we do from the GCSE syllabus.
Adnan Wais
Gothic Season is a literary festival currently taking place at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys in Birmingham, a three week celebration of all things mysterious, sinister and spooky. The Gothic genre is a perennial favourite of writers, an area of creativity and imagination which draws readers and movie goers into dark tales of the supernatural, intrigue and murder, adventures which make us unable to put a Gothic story book down, or keeps us on the edges of our seats at the cinema. During Gothic Season students are being offered a host of opportunities to discover for themselves why Gothic is so gripping, suspenseful and entertaining, through activities in lessons, in tutor time and outside of school hours.
Partnership organisations offering expertise in Gothic studies and performance, have been joining the school every week to share their knowledge and insight, including academics from The Centre for the History of the Gothic at Sheffield University, who have been leading students in interactive sessions on different aspects of Gothic literature. Two dramatisations of classic Gothic tales, A Christmas Carol and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, will be performed for our student audiences, and Gothic Film Club has offered everyone the opportunity to experience how Gothic tales have been transferred to the cinema screen in modern spellbinding retellings of the stories.
A cross –school challenge, Strictly Talk Gothic, is also currently underway, a speech competition which aims to find the student at HGS who can best deliver a Gothic speech with dramatic energy and skill. What is on offer to students is an experience centuries in the making, where they can encounter an array of characters created by some of the greatest literary imaginations of all time.
‘The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious’, wrote Albert Einstein, and these are intriguing words students are able to explore during their time at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, not least during these three weeks of Gothic Season.
This week our students have been reflecting on the lessons to be learned from Holocaust Memorial Day with a special focus on the 30 years since the Bosnian Genocide of 1995 as well as the 80th anniversary since the liberation of Auschwitz. Our assemblies focused on the lives of Sanila Saracevic in Bosnia and Dario Gabbi in Greece and Poland. Their stories illustrated both the depths of human suffering as well as the human spirit’s capacity to be resilient and overcome.
Good luck to Tinron Chan and Arvind Mann in Year 12 who embark on the Lessons from Auschwitz Project this week. This will offer them the unique opportunity to learn about the history of the Holocaust through seminars, accessing artefacts, text, film, and a one-day Visit to Poland to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. They will consider the individuals whose lives were affected by the Holocaust and the relevance of the Holocaust today by:
We look forward to their work, and wish them the very best.
(HGS – History Department)
As part of our commemorations to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, on Wednesday 22nd January a group of Year 9 and Year 13 historians had the privilege of being able to participate in a live webcast with Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich MBE. It was a very moving experience listening to Mala talk about her childhood, living under Nazi rule in Poland. She recounted how she survived the horrors of Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrück concentration camps, and how she was miraculously reunited with her brother Ben. Our students were very lucky to be able to be part of this special event and have learnt some key lessons listening to her story.
The Trussell Trust collected our Foodbank donations this morning. Many thanks to everyone who donated – your contributions will have a positive impact on many families in Birmingham this Christmas.
On Friday 13th December, 45 computer science students from year 7 were selected to go on the Cadbury World educational trip for exceptional progress in computing and multimedia. The event gave an in-depth understanding into the 200-year history of our nation’s favourite chocolate brand.
Upon arrival, we appreciated an excellent talk in the lecture theatre on technology and how Cadbury copyright their ‘glass and a half of milk’ and royal purple packaging. We were also informed how Cadbury use social media and marketing tactics to ensure they are keeping up with the requirements of their customers. It was also very clear how significant the use of technology is within the company and during a tour of the manufacturing process, we were given a lovely chocolate cup with toppings of our choice, which was scrumptious.
There was also an inspiring story in the virtual museum of John Cadbury, who was a Quaker entrepreneur, who in 1824 had a tea dealer shop, as we travelled back in time. We also engaged in several breath-taking rides and went inside the hyper-realistic 4D cinema, which was very memorable.
In summary, it was an inspiring educational trip, and it couldn’t have been done without Mr King and all the computer science teachers.
Ayub Addullahi 7W and Jamie Lee 7H.
