A Maths Challenge Success for Greenhead Mathematicians

Recently, 160 of our student mathematicians participated in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge, a 90 minute stimulating but fun challenge consisting of 25 multiple choice maths questions.

The challenge was tough, but they all performed outstandingly with 55 students achieving a bronze certificate, 45 achieving silver and 20 receiving a gold. The students with the gold certificates also qualified for further rounds; the Senior Kangaroo and the British Mathematics Olympiad 1.

We are still awaiting on the results for these rounds!

4 A1 students, James Dierchx, Luke Dodd Adkins, Anjali Narendran and George Sleight, also participated in the regional final of the UKMT Team Challenge, held at the University of Leeds, competing against 22 other teams from the region. They finished in a fantastic 9th place, which is even more impressive as they were competing against a majority of A2 students.

To be entering 160 students into a challenge like this really goes to show the scale of how many talented mathematicians we have here at Greenhead College. They all performed outstandingly well and it was a great way of developing key mathematical and problem solving skills.

Well done to all the students who participated.




University academics deliver enhancement lectures to A2 Biologists

IMG_1766.JPGOver the last term, A2 Biology students at Greenhead College have had the opportunity to attend knowledge enhancement lectures and workshops ran by various academics from the Universities of Huddersfield, Leeds and Manchester.

Each week a different academic came into College to deliver a workshop on a topic that is beyond the A Level specification, including how to make proteins, the importance of exercise on cardiovascular health, ethics of animal experimentation and more.

The project has been a great opportunity for the students to learn more about different topics, study their specific interests in more depth and understand what it would be like to study a biology related degree at University. They also learnt about various different job roles available within the field of biology, particularly jobs that the students hadn’t even heard of.

It’s been a successful project that has certainly benefitted the students involved.

We would like to say a big thank you to all of the guest speakers that came in to deliver the workshops:

  • Dr. Donald Ward (Manchester) – Biology Efficiency: From Molecular Multitasking to Drug Repurposing
  • Dr. David Lewis (Leeds) – Ethics and Practice of animal experimentation
  • Ruth Norman (Leeds) – Exploring the small structures in the heart to answer the BIG questions in heart failure
  • Shamus Burns (Huddersfield) – Epigenetics
  • Dr. Brian Jackson (Leeds) – How to make proteins and influence people
  • Gemma Lyall (Leeds) – The importance of exercise in maintaining cardiovascular health during ageing
  • Ashleigh Elliot (Leeds) – Can we improve UK wheat yields using a friendly fungus?
  • Ruth Jeavons (Leeds) – Slandering seabirds – why gannets are not all that greedy
  • Dr. Natalia Riobo-Del Galdo (Leeds) – Hedgehog: from fly genetics to human cancer
  • Jarek Bryk (Huddersfield) – Genomics/bioinformatics in medical research

A Magical Christmas Production

Greenhead College students have delivered yet another outstanding Christmas Production with their performance of ‘The Further From the Path’, a funny and magical collection of Grimm’s fairy tales.

The audience were treated to the student’s unique versions of 5 enchanting tales ‘Little Red Riding Cap’, ‘Clever Hans’, ‘Toby and the Wolf’, ‘The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage’ and ‘The Fisherman and his Wife’.

The performances were brilliantly entertaining and an exceptional showcase of the sheer talent of the students involved – the actors, the costume designers and the sound and lighting technicians. Each and every element worked together to pull off an extremely exciting, witty and humorous performance.  

Congratulations to all involved!




Student Shaun Marshall shortlisted for National Award

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Shaun Marshall, who studied at Greenhead College from 2016 to 2018, has been shortlisted for a British Education Award in recognition of his outstanding academic results and extra-curricular success in the A Level Category.

Shaun has been shortlisted for the A Level England Zone 1 Category, alongside three other students from Oldham, Stockton-on-Tees and Stoke-on-Trent. Shaun is the only student shortlisted from Yorkshire and the Humber in this category. The winner of the award will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony and dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester on 31st January 2019.

Shaun was nominated following an incredibly successful two years studying at the College, achieving four A* grades in his A Levels in Computer Science, Physics, Maths and Further Maths. However, it was Shaun’s extracurricular success that really made him stand out as a candidate.

Shaun competed at an International level in the Olympiad of Informatics, which took place in Japan. Competing against 335 participants worldwide, Shaun finished in 71st place and 1st from the UK which placed him in the top 25% and received a silver medal.

He also competed in various other Olympiads where he placed in the top 25 nationally in the Mathematics Olympiad, and in the top 50 nationally in the Physics Olympiad.

It doesn’t end there – Shaun also completed various other endeavours including volunteering, tutoring, playing Squash, Tennis and Badminton and also both the Saxophone and Clarinet to grade 8 standard, all alongside studying for his A Levels.

Principal of Greenhead College, Simon Lett, commented:

“We are thrilled that Shaun has been nominated for this prestigious award. This is the second year in a row that a Greenhead College student has been nominated for a British Education Award and we are hopeful that Shaun will follow in the footsteps of Grace Goswami who won Student of the Year at last year’s ceremony. A truly deserving finalist.”

We wish Shaun the very best of luck!

Greenhead biology students lead science teaching enrichment

Greenhead College A1 and A2 biologists have taken the lead to teach science to Year 7 and 8 students from local secondary schools.

The students have worked enthusiastically all term to develop and deliver exciting and interesting lesson activities as part of their Science Teaching Enrichment.

The year 7 and 8 students really enjoyed the science activities, and were also excited to meet our animals including; Cornflake the Corn Snake, Raphael and Leonardo the Red Eared Terrapins, Zena the Bearded Dragon and others.

It’s been a brilliant opportunity for our students to develop a wide variety of employability skills including communication, organisational, leadership and team working skills.

A huge thank you to the schools involved, in particular to NHTS for the brilliant photos.

 




Three GC Film studies students selected for the Into Film Youth Council

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Three Film studies students, Ella Fitt, Sarah Hargreaves and Ismah Ansari, have all been selected to represent youth from the North of England at the Into Film Youth Council.

Into Film is a national organisation who support educators to achieve a wide range of effective learning outcomes in their use of film.

Ella, Ismah and Sarah’s role within the youth council is to discuss topics and provide suggestions on how to implement a variety of film making opportunities amongst young people. Recent topics they have discussed have been implementing practical film making in primary schools and implementing important topics such as LGBT and Mental Health in film making.

The Youth Council consists of young people aged between 10 and 18 and takes place at Media City, Salford where they meet 4 times per academic year.

The council brings lots of opportunities including practical film making sessions at every meeting. The most recent meeting involved learning animation, which Ella said was brilliant. There are also opportunities to write film reviews and even interview film stars. Ella most recently reviewed Mamma Mia! Here we go again, and Sarah most recently reviewed Skate Kitchen, which they both found highly rewarding.

When Ella, Sarah and Ismah were asked to sum their experience so far up in three words they said:

collaborative, interesting and creative.

Music Mark awarded to Greenhead College’s Music Department

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Greenhead College’s Music Department has recently been awarded a Music Mark in recognition of their ‘commitment to providing high quality music education for all children and young people’.

The department, consisting of three passionate musicians; Simon Jacobs (Head of Department), James Reevell and Brian Talbot, received their certificate following a nomination for the award by Musica Kirklees, a Music School based in Huddersfield who have had the Greenhead College Music Department on their list of ‘Outstanding Providers’ for over 5 years.

With the significant decline of music in schools and colleges nationally, Simon, James and Brian are more passionate than ever to keep music education alive. They go above and beyond to provide first class musical education, plus a whole host of enriching musical opportunities to Greenhead College students and beyond.  

A recent addition to the Music Curriculum at Greenhead College is a BTEC in Music Performance. This course will commence in September 2019 alongside the existing music courses; A Level Music and A Level Music Technology, catering for an even wider variety of musical interests.  

The enrichment opportunities the music department run include; College Choir, Chamber Choir, Subvert Your Ears, Big Band, Wind Band, String Ensemble, Brass Group, Grade 5 Theory, Advanced Theory and Record Label.

 Their ensembles regularly have national success, performing in the National Festival and the Mrs Sunderland Festival plus at many other local concerts and events.

Students at Greenhead College have excellent things to say about the department including:

“The Greenhead music staff and facilities are top notch – there is a great relationship between students and staff that is really encouraging and productive. The opportunity to play or sing in the numerous ensembles and perform in the college concerts is also a great addition!”

“Studying Music at Greenhead was a great decision. I learnt an incredible amount in both Music and Music Technology. There is a fantastic dynamic between staff and students which facilitates everyone becoming their best musical selves. The rich extracurricular aspect of the department also means that anyone with a love for making music can get involved and perform in numerous concerts.”

Congratulations to our Music Department on this well-deserved award.