Japanese Penpal Year 8 student Charis Rae has started a new long distance friendship with a penpal in Japan, corresponding in both English and Japanese. Charis, a pupil at William Hulme’s Grammar School (WHGS), recently started writing to her new friend Yuto after encouragement from the school’s English teacher Joanne Turan, who has been penpal with Yuto’s mother for over 20 years. Charis wrote her first letter to Yuto in both Japanese and English, even writing a song for him, with both pen pals being keen musicians. Soon after, Charis received a letter from Yuto, also written in English and Japanese, detailing his hobbies and interests. Commented Ms Turan: “As Literacy Co-ordinator and Teacher of English at WHGS, I am keen to develop links with schools in Japan and other countries, helping to encourage our pupils to enjoy and take pleasure in letter writing, discovering new friendships and cultures along the way. “Having written to Yuto’s mother for over 20 years, it is fantastic to see the joy of anticipation on the faces of students when receiving letters from their pen pal and I was delighted to see that same excitement when Charis received her first letter. I wish her and Yuto many years of friendship.” Added Peter Mulholland, Principal of William Hulme’s Grammar School: “We’re delighted to see our students interacting with fellow pupils from overseas and this is just another excellent example of our commitment to providing our students with an education with character.” View this article on our Website… Y8 Cooking Competition The Year 8 cookery competition was held on Tuesday, 22 January, with all four houses competing strongly for house points and individual prizes. The standard was outstanding and all involved had a lot of fun, especially the judges who got to taste all the amazing dishes! The house results were as follows: 1st - Heywood 2nd - Gaskell 3rd - Dalton 4th – Byrom Individual prizes went to: Aiza Gul - Savoury Zara Rashid - Dessert Francis Boughey - presentation skills Well done to all involved. The event was a huge success! View this article on our Website… Y9 Holocaust Memorial Day On Wednesday, 23 January, some fellow Year 9 students and I attended a Holocaust Memorial Day presentation at HOME in Manchester, becoming some of the first in the UK to see the two films being shown. The films dealt with the Holocaust, as well as the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994. A particularly emotional part of the event was when we personally heard from and met holocaust survivor Danny Herman. Mr Herman talked about his family and what he went through to be here in the uk. In addition, we watched a few very powerful and moving short films, which brought both mine and my friend and Almira’s emotions out. We also took part in an interactive lesson from home about the Holocaust Memorial Day, which was also an emotional experience, teaching us more about the Holocaust.. When first taking part in these events, I didn’t know much about the Holocaust, but afterwards, my mind was full of new knowledge about the Holocaust and how people were being treated differently. As a result of these experiences, I have learnt that everyone should be able to be who they want to be, without having to be scared of what might happen to them. Thank you to Miss McGuinn (and all the people who arranged the Holocaust Memorial Day presentation) for taking us on an amazing trip and one that won’t be forgotten. Shahad Barkhad (Year 9) View this article on our Website… Y8 Red Cross First Aid Training William Hulme’s Grammar School teamed up with the Red Cross clearly. I now feel confident that I could step in if there was an recently to teach lifesaving skills to its Year 8 students. emergency." - Lennah Delivered by the international charity’s local branch, the sessions, Added Peter Mulholland, Principal of William Hulme’s Grammar held over two days, saw students learn and practice essential first School: aid skills, including how to deal with burns, seizures, head injuries, choking and bleeding, as well as learning how to administer CPR - a “As part of our commitment to provide an education with character, life-saving medical procedure which is given to someone who is in it’s incredibly important that our students learn how to help those in cardiac arrest, helping to pump blood around the person's body difficulty. Now, thanks to support from the Red Cross, those who took when their heart can’t. part in the training have the confidence and willingness to act in a first aid situation, which could actually save someone’s life.” Upon successful completion of the training, the students were then presented with their First Aid Learning Certificates. Commenting on their new-found skills, the fledgling first aiders said: "I found it very helpful because if someone collapses, I could help the person now that I have learnt the skills." - Beatrice "It was fun learning how to do first aid. The lady from Red Cross was clear and now I can be helpful if someone got hurt." - Naziba "First Aid training was fun, highly engaging and informative. Learning how to get someone breathing again through CPR was very useful and I was able to practise the techniques, which looked easy but were actually hard work - but then again, saving someone's life isn't exactly easy!" - Jamal "I found it helpful because you never know when some kind of injury could happen. The trainer explained the steps and instructions View this article on our Website… Y4 Trip to Manchester Airport On Wednesday, 23 January 2019, Year 4 took a trip to Manchester Airport, in support of their Geography topic, ‘All Around the World.’ The group spent the morning at Terminal 2, learning about how an airport works and visiting different parts of the terminal. In the afternoon, the junior visitors went to the Runway Visitors Park, where they had the opportunity to watch the planes take off and land close up! As part of the trip, the group also got to see the famous Concorde, as well as learning about the different types of aircraft. For the grand finale, the children were able to actually explore a plane and sit in the pilot’s chair. Everyone enjoyed the trip and learnt a lot of useful information to help kick-start their topic. View this article on our Website… Y12/Y13 Model United Nations On Saturday 26th and Sunday 27 January, a group of our Sixth Form students took part in the Model United Nations competition at Manchester High School for Girls. The event saw our group pitting their wits against fellow students from some of the top schools in the country, debating a wide range of important global issues, ranging from the use of child soldiers to the colonisation of space. All of our students acquitted themselves well, with some even debating in front of hundreds of people in the General Assembly. Congratulations go to Mard, Amman, Britney, Armin, Javeria, Saleh and Siobhan for their commitment. Special mention must also go to Siobhan for receiving a commendation for her contributions in the Health Committee. View this article on our Website… Y11 Maths Fest (Birmingham) William Hulme’s students have it all figured Commenting on the experience, Year 11’s Commenting on the event, Peter out after attending Maths Fest! Liya Shazad said: Mulholland, Principal of William Hulme’s “Maths Fest was great as it showed me how Grammar School, said: A group of Year 11 students from William maths is used in everyday life and its “As a school committed to providing an Hulme’s Grammar School have it all figured various applications, including determining education with character, Maths Fest was out after attending the 2019 Maths Fest in how long someone goes to prison for, the ideal opportunity to show students how Birmingham. through the use of Algorithms. My favourite exciting Maths can be and the incredible part though was the talk from popular opportunities available to them should they Held at the New Alexandra Theatre on mathematician Dr Hannah Fry and the choose to study the subject further, with our Tuesday, 29 January, the event celebrates speaker who had an electric guitar!” fantastic new Sixth Form an excellent maths as an exciting, useful and rewarding starting point!” subject, encouraging attendees to take Added Imman Shafi, also in Year 11: maths further by working hard when back “Maths Fest was a very informative and at school. engaging experience and I would recommend it to those that are enthusiastic The event also gave the William Hulme’s about Maths. There were five talks by students the chance to hear from and different famous mathematicians, each question a host of famous mathematicians. speaking about their Mathematic passions Speakers included Applied Mathematician and studies, with some presenting them in at the University of Oxford and keen unique and entertaining ways.” guitarist David Acheson, best selling maths author Rob Eastaway and maths Year 11 student Faheem was also quick to lecturer/television presenter Hannah Fry, all praise the event: coming together to talk about absolutely “The stand-out moment for me was when anything mathematical in the real world, the audience got to meet two of the main from waves created by an electric guitar hosts of ‘Numberphile’ - a maths Youtube and calculus with snowballs, to the patterns channel with over two million fans, hidden within prime numbers and even including me!” View this article on our Website… pigeons using maths to detect cancer! Football Beyond Borders Last week, England and Manchester United defender Chris Smalling The FBB partnership work has already benefitted from the generous brought his star power to Salford City Academy to help launch the fundraising activities of students and staff for last year’s RideABC Football Beyond Borders’ (FBB) programme across a number of initiative, which saw United Learning’s Head of Sport Shaun Dowling schools (including William Hulme’s) in United Learning’s North West and Educational Technologist Bruce Wilson cycle an exhausting 600- cluster.