March 2019 - Greenhead College

A Music Masterclass from World Renowned Ligeti Quartet

Posted on March 26, 2019July 21, 2021 by admin

Greenhead College’s Music Department were lucky enough to welcome the world renowned Ligeti Quartet into college to deliver a workshop and masterclass with our A Level Music students.

Established as one of the UK’s leading ensembles, the Ligeti Quartet are at the forefront of the modern and contemporary music scene so it was an extremely exciting opportunity to have them in college to share some of their best practice with our students.

Throughout the workshop, the Ligeti Quartet performed some of their mesmerising pieces whilst our students learnt of various techniques used in contemporary music, which they will take away with them and use in their own musical endeavours.

Following the workshop our students will now be putting their new knowledge into practice and composing their own string composition, which will be performed and recorded by the Ligeti Quartet on Monday 29^th April.

Simon Jacobs, head of music at Greenhead College commented on the workshop:

‘We can’t thank the Ligeti Quartet enough for the workshop they ran for our students. Their good humoured and relaxed approach, combined with truly inspiring performance, captivated our students in a way that we rarely see. It was an added bonus that each member of the quartet talked about their career and pathway in Music, as this will have provided valuable direction to our students wishing to pursue a career in the subject. Contemporary Music is often a scary and difficult subject for our students- today the Ligeti Quartet made it accessible and engaging- thanks again!’

For more information about the Ligeti Quartet, please visit: https://ligetiquartet.com/

A day out at the Philosophy Gym

Posted on March 22, 2019July 21, 2021 by admin

The Philosophy department recently held a Philosophy conference delivered by Dr Stephen Law, Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and Commerce, Provost of the Centre for Inquiry UK, and author of several books on Philosophy, including ‘The Philosophy Files’ and ‘The Philosophy Gym’. He also edits ‘Think’, published by the Royal Institute of Philosophy, aimed at the general public.

The 70 students that participated in the conference, benefitted enormously from his engaging style, clear explanation and excellent study notes. A range of Philosophy topics were covered including a house debate on the problem of evil. Dr Law congratulated our students on their debating skills, and was generally very impressed with their enthusiasm and ability to wrestle with challenging philosophical problems.

Student Comments

“The Stephen Law revision conference was an opportunity to go over old material from a new viewpoint in an enjoyable way, particularly the debate on the problem of evil. It was all presented in a very accessible way that makes a lot of tricky concepts such as the Ontological Argument for God a lot less daunting.”

– Charlie Mackintosh-Simpson

“Picture this… A lecture… Led by a top philosopher… Kant, the Problem of Evil and Plato… What could be better? Saying that I learned a lot is perhaps an understatement. Stephen Law was able to not only able to help me revise but he introduced me to new philosophical concepts that I am certainly going to follow up and bring to philosophy cafe! I thoroughly enjoyed the debate at the end that brought the formidable mental power of A1s and A2s together ! Overall, I feel somewhat enlightened and ready for what the exams can throw at me.”

– Roshni Parmar-Hill

Sociology Students Treated to Bespoke Criminology Conference

Posted on March 21, 2019July 21, 2021 by admin

On Thursday 14th March 39 Sociology students attended a bespoke Sociology/Criminology conference at Leeds Beckett University.

The day was filled with interesting and interactive sessions which the students enjoyed thoroughly. As part of the activities, they played a research methods game designed by the University students which involved designing their own research project. The lecturers were really impressed by the knowledge that our students already had on research methods.

In the sentencing session, they had to come up with both mitigating and aggravating factors involving a real life criminal case and then guess the real length of sentence given. In addition to this after deciding what the sole purpose of a prison should be in their opinion, they got to design their very own jail!

Students also looked at Psychology and Criminology analysing an ambiguous crime scene with the big question ‘who did it?’ They also had the opportunity to ask student ambassadors about the courses they were studying and their life at University.

The students were engaged and did the College proud with their keen interest and knowledge of Sociology. It was a really useful day out looking at contemporary Sociology with plans already forming to visit next year.

A trio of awards at the Great Northern Jazz Music Festival

Posted on March 7, 2019July 21, 2021 by admin

The Greenhead College Big Band and soloist Daisy Cameron had great success at The Great Northern Big Band Jazz Festival held annually in Chester Le Street, County Durham on Sunday 3rd March.

The 3 day long festival celebrates the best Jazz bands throughout the North with live performances on the Friday evening, the open section and competition taking place on the Saturday, and the School and Youth sections on the Sunday.

Performing a diverse programme from Topsy and Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend through to student composer Louis Enright’s new piece- Last Dance, the Greenhead Big Band scooped the award for best programme.

16 year old student Daisy Cameron achieved a great individual victory winning both the special adjudicators award and the prize for best soloist.

Speaking of the success, Greenhead College’s head of music Simon Jacobs commented:

‘I am delighted with the success of the band- with the support of Muisca Kirklees the group continues to go from strength to strength. I am also delighted for Daisy who is a real emerging talent from the Kirklees area.’

You can hear the Big Band (and Daisy) perform at The Greenhead College Spring Concert which will be held on March 27th at 7:30pm in St Paul’s Hall.

Business is Magic

Posted on March 1, 2019July 21, 2021 by admin

Former Greenhead College student Richard Burhouse, CEO and founder of Magic Rock Brewery in Huddersfield recently visited college to outline his business strategy to A Level Business students.

Richard with some of the A Level business studies students who attended and Mike Pickerden (Business teacher)

Magic Rock Brewery’s success has gone from strength to strength with the beer becoming so popular via social media and beer rating websites that it has become an internationally renowned brand, with kegs being sent out to pubs across the UK and the world. Business expansion now involves a supermarket deal which will maximise the capacity utilisation of Richard’s state of the art canning facility.

Richard’s visit was a fantastic opportunity for our students to gain a real awareness of the theory of organic business growth and global business expansion including ethnocentric marketing strategy.

Teacher of business studies, Mike Pickerden commented:

“Magic Rock is an excellent example of how an entrepreneur can spot a growth area in a market, in this case craft beer, and capitalise on this with a high quality product and strong branding.”

(Mark Mitchell (Assistant Principal) and Mike Pickerden (Business teacher) with Richard Burhouse CEO of Magic Rock Brewery)

A huge thank you to Richard for taking the time to talk to our students, it was particularly inspiring for them to hear from such a successful entrepreneur who was once sat in the same position as them.