January 2018 - Greenhead College

An Oxbridge Success for Greenhead College

Posted on January 31, 2018July 12, 2021 by admin

Once again, Greenhead College will be sending an impressive number of high achieving students to Oxbridge Universities in September 2018.

A total of thirty four students have secured offers to study at either Oxford or Cambridge University, exceeding last year’s total of twenty four, with places being offered in a range of disciplines including History, Mathematics, Medicine, Law, Fine Art, English and Economics. This year makes no exception to the fact that the College has consistently sent more students to these Universities than any other school or college in the whole of the Yorkshire and Humber region.

It comes as no surprise, as the College offer a commendable and comprehensive programme for those students dedicated to studying at an Oxbridge University. The focus is to ensure the students are well prepared for the competitive application process through various means of activities such as: subject specific tutorials, admissions test seminars, interview workshops and a mock interview day. The students also attend a conference, at which they meet with current Oxford and Cambridge students and lecturers for further advice and information.

Greenhead’s Oxbridge co-ordinator, Richard Pember, said:

‘Once again, it is amazing to see so many gifted students receiving offers from these competitive universities. Their hard work and dedication has paid off in dividends and they should all be extremely proud of themselves, just as we are. The college aims to support each and every student with diverse enrichment opportunities and the Oxbridge programme is one of many. We are extremely pleased with the success rates of our Oxbridge candidates here at Greenhead, with approximately 1 in 3 applicants receiving offers. The future is looking bright for them all, and it has been a pleasure to work with them along the way.’

Having experienced the programme herself, Emmeline Armitage, who has secured a place at Oxford University to read English, said:

‘The support Greenhead offered me during the application process was invaluable. Being in small, supportive groups and having the chance to talk with friendly, informed teachers made me realise that Oxbridge was not only somewhere I wanted to go, but somewhere I could. The opportunity to visit the University helped greatly with my college selection and the mock interviews shed light on what is undoubtedly a complicated and daunting process, helping me to feel much more secure going into my real one.’

The college’s Oxbridge success comes alongside Greenhead being shortlisted for the TES Sixth Form College of the Year award, in which the winner will be announced on February 23rd 2018.

The full list of students to be offered an Oxbridge place is as follows:

Shaimerden Abekov, Isabelle Aldridge, Ezra Allen, Emmeline Armitage, Habeeb Baig, William Battye, Joe Brown, Joe Chambers, Annabel Clark, Laura Cowan, Luke Detraux, Lucy Doig, Luke Eades, Charlotte Green, Will Holmes, Shahnaz Iqbal, Charlotte Ives, Molly Jones, Maaedah Khan, Elinor Lang, Ela Ludlam, Ciaran Marshall, Shaun Marshall, Tilly Morgan, Frances Murgatroyd, James Nelson, Leah O’Connell, Annabel Oldham, Anna Parry, Holly Robinson, Lucy Stewart, Abe Sugarman, Lily Thompson and Olivia Wilkinson.

Economics students inspire year 10 and 11s from local schools

Posted on January 24, 2018July 15, 2021 by admin

On 19th January 2018, Greenhead College welcomed year 10 and 11 students from nine local schools into college to participate in the Real World Economics event.

The day consisted of the schools taking part in a friendly economics based competition, all planned and hosted by Greenhead’s A-Level Economics students.

The nine schools in attendance were: Moor End Academy, Westborough High School, Colne Valley High School, King James School, Holmfirth High, Salendine Nook Academy, Huddersfield Grammar School, Royds Hall Community School and Kettlethorpe High School, who brought along of some of their business studies students to take part.

Throughout the morning the A-Level students delivered various informative and educational presentations on topics such as; privatisation vs nationalisation of the NHS and income inequality. The teams were then set a number of activities, in which they were scored points on, such as delivering a presentations, work sheets and finishing with an economics quiz to round up everything they have learnt.

The winning team at the end of the event were students from Holmfirth High school who said that ‘they loved learning more about what A-Level Economics might entail.

Students from King James School said:

‘It’s been great, we’ve learnt a lot about economics and particularly enjoyed the NHS data task. We are definitely interested in studying A-Level Economics after this’.

The economics students spent months organising the event from liaising with the schools, to producing a magazine, to delivering engaging presentations suitable for their target audience, to providing goody bags for the teams to take away afterwards.

Economics teacher Peter Davies commented:

We are delighted by the responses of the students who attended and how engaged they were throughout. It is not easy to keep so many young students so engaged but our students managed to do that! This event has helped them boost so many of their skills from using their initiative, enterprise, creativity and presenting to suit the target audience – which isn’t easy! We would also like to thank the teachers from all the schools for allowing their children out of school for the morning to attend, during a busy time in the academic year.

4th in the World for Greenhead Engineers

Posted on January 23, 2018July 15, 2021 by admin

Four students from Greenhead College, formerly from Moor End Academy, have achieved, a very impressive, fourth place in the World Finals of the Land Rover 4×4 in Schools Technology Challenge, held in Abu Dhabi.

The challenge involves teams of three to six students aged 13-19 working to design and build a radio controlled four-wheel-drive (4×4) vehicle, to set specifications. The vehicle must successfully navigate and overcome obstacles on an off-road test track, and emulate the capabilities of a full size 4×4 vehicle – a challenging yet fantastic opportunity for ambitious young engineers.

Team Robust, made up of students; Zain Anjam, Alyan Saleem, Amaar Farooq and Rizwaan Ali, all aged 16-17, sailed through to the World Finals after finishing in 1st place at the regional and national championships last year. The finals saw them competing against 23 other teams across 16 countries, including three other teams from the UK – of which they finished in the highest place.

Upon arrival in Abu Dhabi, the team got off to an unfortunate start when their luggage, containing their vehicle, arrived 16 hours late. This put the team at a slight disadvantage in the competition, as it meant, unlike the other finalists, they were unable to make any final tweaks and amendments to the vehicle.

Despite this, Team Robust kept their spirits high and performed to an outstanding level, earning themselves a fantastic fourth place in the competition.

Alyan Saleem, member of Team Robust and the team’s Resource Manager said:

“The Land Rover 4×4 In Schools Technology Challenge has given me an insight into the Engineering World and has helped immensely with my career plans. The competition has helped me build key life skills such as working under pressure and working as a team. The World Finals was an amazing experience and it has been a massive success for everyone in the team and we are very pleased with our result!”

Huddersfield’s Young Reporter interviews the Barden Bellas at Pitch Perfect 3 screening

Posted on January 15, 2018July 15, 2021 by admin

17 year old Greenhead College student, Ellen Birkinshaw, recently interviewed two of the biggest stars of the latest Pitch Perfect 3 film, comedy actress Rebel Wilson and Hailee Steinfeld.

Spending two days in London, Ellen watched the latest Pitch Perfect instalment, before it became available in cinemas worldwide, and interviewed the two stars. She kept her questions fun and light-hearted, covering a variety of topics including friendship, achieving dreams, stunts and… burritos, whilst interviewing with such confidence and charisma.

The opportunity arose shortly after Ellen was offered one of just 25 places on the two year Young Reporters Programme, with Into Film. Ellen applied for the programme at home, not knowing what would become of it. With a tough application process, her place on the programme was earnt after three rounds of shortlisting, finalising with an audition in London. This assignment was the first of many for Ellen, who aspires to study Film studies at University, and the programme is an excellent platform for her to kick-start her career in Film.

Film Studies teacher Liz Bowen has commented:

‘‘Ellen’s achievement is outstanding. She has demonstrated commitment, talent and confidence to achieve an invaluable industrial opportunity. It is fantastic to see a Greenhead Celluloid student taking their love of film into a real world context.’’

The videos of Ellen interviewing Rebel Wilson and Hailee Steinfeld are available to view on the Get Into Film YouTube Channel.