Message from the Headteacher 

Good afternoon,

Welcome to the last newsletter of this half-term - and what a great one it has been with much to celebrate and enjoy.  

This week has seen our Business students take part in the Garden House Hospice Dragons Challenge Event, while yesterday a group of Year 9 Classicists visited the Verulamium Museum in St Albans. We have also had our second round of House assemblies led by our Heads of House - the competition between the Houses is most certainly heating up.

Congratulations to Isabel Plunkett and Rose Meenan who met with me on Wednesday to receive their Headteacher Awards - I shared an excerpt from Isabel's work last week and Rose produced an amazing composition in music this term. Well done to you both.

I wish you all a restful and enjoyable half-term break. 

James Crowther

Careers Guidance & Education

Take a look at our Autumn 2022 Careers Newsletter, which outlines all the help and resources available to our students, as well as our team of Careers staff and upcoming events. 

We are fortunate at HGS to have independent impartial Careers Advisers, offering interviews particularly to Years 11 and 12. They also welcome other students to drop in at lunchtime. They are currently prioritising Year 11s, so please do encourage your child to consider what they would like to discuss in the time available to them.

Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help us at the forthcoming HGS Careers Fair - this is the first in- person event we have run since Covid and we are really excited that our students will be able to hear from local and national employers.       

See our Careers Guidence & Education webpage and newsletter                                                                                                                                                                                           

Jeans for Genes Day - thanks for your donations! 

We raised £1583.75 for Jeans for Genes last week - a big thank you to all who contributed and especially to the cake makers in Year 7. We sold out before the end of breaktime and took over £250!

Those who still have cake containers in room S40 - please collect them as soon as possible as the space is needed for lessons. Thanks so much everyone!

Ladder to Law

The Hogan Lovells Ladder to Law programme, run in partnership with Rare, is a development programme for Black African and Caribbean Year 12 students (including students of mixed race with a black heritage) wishing to pursue a career in commercial law. The programme will stretch across Years 12 and 13, and will include:

• Mentoring from Hogan Lovells lawyers
• Networking opportunities and commercial awareness exercises
• 1:1 support with applying to university and writing UCAS applications from Rare
• Work experience
• Support to make competitive applications to first-year opportunities at Hogan Lovells 

The programme is for students of Black heritage from low socioeconomic backgrounds. To apply, students must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Be in Year 12 and attend a UK state school
• Identify as Black African, Black Caribbean, or Mixed Black Heritage
• Be eligible for Free School Meals between the ages of 11 and 16 (i.e. Pupil Premium); OR
• Grew up in a household where no parent or guardian had attended university

Deadline: Sunday 27 November

Discover Economics

Thursday 17 November. 1.30 - 4pm

Academics from the University of Bristol School of Economics are organising a half-day schools event (1.30 – 4.00pm) at Bristol Cathedral Choir School.

Sudents will hear from Bank of England economists and Rupa Patel and Jack Meaning (authors of Why Can’t We Just Print More Money), and take part in an economics challenge. They will also have a chance to find out more about economics degrees.

This event is suitable for any Year 11/12 student, whether they are studying economics or not, and is part of the regular Bristol Festival of Economics. Please complete this expression of Interest form 

Digdata are thrilled to announce their upcoming live virtual work experience and live online career panels for the Autumn term with Experian and Lloyds Banking Group.

Sessions are aimed at First Step (KS3) students and Next Step (KS4 & 5) students.

Wednesday 2 November, 5.00 - Lloyds Banking Group "Next Step" live online career challenge - Can you assess our customers’ financial situation and make some recommendations on how different groups of customers should approach their upcoming purchases?

Thursday 3 November, 6.30 - Lloyds Banking Group live online career panel - We invite students, parents, teachers and career leaders to discover more about their career opportunities in data!

About Skills Gap

Skills Gap is a career accelerator that runs insightful workshops for young people aged 15-19 ­– because it’s never too soon to think about building your skills for a competitive edge in your future studies and career.

We're offering a range of intensive workshops this autumn, all designed specifically for 15-19 year olds and delivered to small groups by experienced industry experts:

Coding for Game Design
Saturday 22 October

With one third of the world’s population already estimated to be gamers, the gaming industry offers one of the hottest career tickets today. Our online workshop gives you a unique insight into the latest trends from multiplayer games to game streaming. Led by Josh Hills, a programmer on some of the world’s largest multi-player games, including Runescape and Horizon, you’ll get first-hand experience of developing and enhancing a physics-based game prototype and discover the skills you’ll need to succeed.

AI in Engineering
Saturday 5 November

Finding new and optimal ways of doing things is at the very core of engineering. Which makes it the perfect partner for AI and machine learning, from smart production lines to image processing technology that allows machines to see. Our online workshop is led by civil engineer and data scientist, Johan Hagstrom, who will introduce you to key AI algorithms and trends. You’ll also get hands-on experience with Python, being guided through a computer vision algorithm that can detect cars on the road – a peek into the world of self-driving vehicles.

AI in Finance
Saturday 12 November

The world of finance has been an early adopter of machine learning, from fraud detection to finance chat bots, yet it’s still just touching the surface of AI’s potential. Our workshop is led by Chelsea Murray, a data scientist at ING with a Masters in Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence from University of Cambridge. Chelsea will introduce you to the vast range of financial AI applications and give you practical experience training a machine learning algorithm to predict credit card fraud.

NHS Allied Healthcare Work Experience

For students interested in

• Nursing
• Midwifery
• Paramedicine
• Physiotherapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Dietetics
• Radiography
• Prosthetics and Orthotics
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Pharmacy

Applications are now open and will remain open throughout this academic year, with the first programme taking place on 2 October.

During the work experience day, students will follow two patients from their initial presentation to recovery. Students will observe the healthcare professionals as they interact with the patients and with each other. They will have an opportunity to ask questions and gain knowledge through teaching.

This will help students to make an informed decision about their career and give them the opportunity to learn how healthcare professionals work together as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Each work experience day is completely different and students will be able to build up their knowledge of NHS careers as they see different patient cases and healthcare professionals work in a variety of settings, such as in a hospital and in the community.

Students will also receive certificates as evidence of participation. Those who complete the entire five-month programme will be awarded a Highly Commended Reference from the Presidents of Medic Mentor.

 Places are £10 a day to cover administrative costs and run the tech on the day. 

Find out more and register