On Thursday 19^th October, King Edward VI Aston School hosted the first ever Student Council Conference event. Here, all nine King Edward Schools were invited to give presentations explaining the importance of their respective school councils, how their councils run and what they have achieved in the past few years.

The event started at 9:30am and ran till 3:00pm. Six representatives from our school: myself, Suraj Sanhi, Maryam Shafiq, David Akinfemiwa, Talbir Singh and Jack Griffiths attended the event representing our school to give a presentation. The purpose of the presentation was to highlight the impact of our school council’s hard work, hoping to inspire other schools to take onboard our actions and implement them into their own schools. Every presentation given by each school was unique, each school implementing different changes around their schools; ideas that would later on be discussed in an Action Plan activity later on in the day.

Just before the lunch break, myself, Maryam and Jack went up to present. Our presentation lasted approximately 15 minutes with a short Q&A session afterwards where other students were able to ask questions to gain a better understanding of the structure and efficiency of our council. Our presentation focused on our school council’s input to the Astroturf pitch on Baker St, Show My Homework, water fountains, new lockers and so on. King Edward VI Aston were fortunate enough to have the event sponsored by Subway, Domino’s and Morrison’s, allowing their lunch services to be catered for by Subway and Domino’s. The lunchtime break lasted an hour, allowing individuals to mingle and socialize with other schools.

Throughout the day, three discussions took place splitting everyone up so they were with students from other schools. A number of questions proposed by the main speaker enabled each individual in their groups to discuss possible answers to the proposed question e.g. “If your school had an unlimited amount of money, what would you buy?”

Finally, to end the day was the “Action Plan” activity where each school made a plan of what possible ideas could be proposed, taking onboard what other schools had said earlier in the day in their presentations.

Overall, the day was a success; socializing with others, watching presentations and taking into account other propositions from other schools. The vision of the event is for it to become an annual tradition, with different schools hosting each year, therefore formalizing an interaction between every council within the Schools of King Edward VI and incentivizing further achievement. An event like this is to motivate councils to push for greater changes so they have something impactful to report in the future.

Arran Bola
13BGE

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The Year 10 Football team beat King Edward VI Aston 1-0 in their recent Cup game and Year 9 drew 3-3 with King Edward VI Aston in their League match. The Year 7 Football team beat St John Wall 6-1 in their recent League game. Congratulations.

Following last year’s inaugural participation by HGS Staff in this annual event, Ms Bilkhu, Mrs Donnelly, Miss Hartill, Mr Jones, Mr Mohsin, Mrs Minhas and Mr Sangar joined scores of other runners on 17th September in fine conditions to pound the tarmac and raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.  This run was established in memory of Peter Hayes, an old boy who died as a result of a pre-existing heart condition at the age of 25 in 2012.

The run is expected to take place on the equivalent Sunday next year so put the date in your diaries – it would be fantastic to see more staff, current and former pupils, parents, governors and friends of the school swelling the numbers further in the future.

Further information can be found through this link:

http://www.handsworthpark10k.co.uk/

On Saturday 23rd September, our year 11 History classes departed from School at 8.00am to Hardwick Hall (Derbyshire). At Hardwick Hall we split up into three groups and all our groups were assigned with tour guides to take us around the Hall and Gardens. Our tour guide took us inside the Hall and he explained all the very important features about it, as well as the individual who built the Manor house (Elizabeth [Bess] of Hardwick). He also took us around the outside of the Manor house, showing us the gardens constructed around the house and we also saw the old Manor house that was built by Bess of Hardwick’s father. So we had a very detailed tour of the Manor house and we were told what features made it stand out above other typical Elizabethan Manor houses. Making our day very educational and helpful towards our GCSE History course. Finally we left Hardwick Hall at 2.30pm and headed back to School. (Abdul-Hakim Abid, 11H)

During the visit to Hardwick Hall, we were able to see the different ways in which Bess of Hardwick displayed her wealth and status during the Elizabethan era; there were many carpets inside Hardwick Hall which were imported from Turkey and used primarily to show the status of Bess of Hardwick. Furthermore, we were shown the Long Gallery during the tour, which contained mainly paintings and tapestries and there was also a place for exercise and recreation. Bess was actually rich enough to have the raw materials required for building the house instead of having to import them, and also hired Robert Smythson, a very well-known architect during the Elizabethan era. (Amaan Ahmed, 11W)

On the morning of the 23rd of September, year 11 students went to Hardwick Hall in order to gain a greater understanding of the Elizabethan house we are studying as part of our GCSE specification. We learnt a lot about the former home of Bess of Hardwick from the extensive over mantels atop every fire place to the staggering symmetry of the house. We had a lot of fun learning about the house and the cafè wasn’t bad either! All in all it was a very informative trip which helped us to gain a greater understanding of the house and how life was like over 400 years ago. (Jude Folorunso, 11N)