GCSE Results 2024
Congratulations to all our students on achieving outstanding A level results again this year.
As always the profile of our grades shows a very strong bias towards the upper range of grades. 85% of the A Level results were at grade C or better and 80% of these grades were either A*, A or B. There were 309 A* and A grades altogether, including 54 students that achieved 3 or more grade A* or A passes. Extra special mentions go to Christopher Drake, Ryan Heung, Rohan Patel, Harvey Swift and Beth Waterfield who achieved 4 A*grades. Further congratulations go to Amaan Aslam, Amy Cross, Cerys Harrison, Elliot Hoyland, Matthew McCollam, Sam Sepehri, Syed Zulfiqar Shah and Adwait Upasani, who achieved an incredible A* grade in their 3 A Level Subjects.
These superb results reflect the hard work and dedication of our students and staff, and will enable the students to take their next steps with confidence. The outcomes in terms of students being placed at universities and high calibre apprenticeships of their choice are exceptionally good this year.
My congratulations and well done to you all.
Peter Roberts – Headteacher
The HGS Physics department is celebrating the success of students in national competitions in the past month.
The Eurekas is an annual physics competition for students aged 11-16 in the United Kingdom and Ireland and has been conceived by the Institute of Physics to broaden and diversify the range of people doing physics after age 16. This year the challenge was to create a project to answer the question “Can Physics help us solve mysteries?”.
Both of our winners concentrated on methods to solve the mysteries of astrophysics and cosmology. Finn McDougall, Year 10, created an orbit simulation program that rivals much of the software used by the Physics department in lessons, and this won the 15-Year-Old Age Category prize. Eeshan Upasani looked at the physical aspects of astronomy and designed a DIY telescope, which won him the 14-Year-Old Age Category. Both students won a cash prize of £1000, as well as £250 each for the school.
Several Year 7 students entered the nationwide Wonderverse Energytown Competition. Students were asked to create a plan to generate power for future cities. Zoha Khan’s plan using hydrogen fuel, nuclear power and a flywheel storage system, won her the runner prize, earning her a tablet computer and a £1000 sustainability grant for the school.
These awards are a testament to the creativity, hard work, and dedication of our students. Flynn, Eeshan, and Zoha have demonstrated exceptional talent and a commitment to making a difference in the world through science and innovation. We are incredibly proud of their success and excited to see how they will continue to inspire and lead in the future.
These accomplishments highlight the Physics department’s commitment to fostering an environment of academic excellence, innovation and creativity. The department will continue to support and encourage students in their pursuit of scientific exploration and discovery.
“This was an excellent submission for the Quality in Careers Standard and all criteria have been fully met with many examples of exemplary practice. The “whole school” approach to CEAIG being integral to everything else the school delivers is fantastic and the commitment of the Head Teacher, Deputy Head and all staff ensures that the careers team have the support, budget, and time to run an exemplary careers programme.
The commitment to review and evalaution has ensured that the school has not “stood still” since the last assessment and the drive for continuous improvement has led to some excellent and in-novative developments. In particular, the Pathways programme is exemplary practice and I am very interested to hear how this has been rolled out to the whole school. Students at Heckmondwike Grammar talked very favourably about the careers programme. The CEAIG at Heckmondwike equips students to make informed, aspirational, and positive decisions about their future, and this was confirmed by students on the day. All the students interviewed were confident that they were making the right decisions and extremely positive about their futures and believed that the careers support they had received was invaluable. The enthusiasm, commitment and knowledge of the Careers Leader and whole careers team is a real bonus for the school and this combined with the support from senior level ensures that the CEAIG programme at Heckmondwike Grammar School is well thought out and delivers the best possible outcomes for all students. The careers programme at Heckmondwike Grammar School has many strengths and there is a robust plan to embed good practice in all aspects of CEIAG. Congratulations on achieving the Quality in Careers Standard which fully incorporates the Gatsby Benchmarks. This is an excellent achievement and recognises the quality and breadth of your careers provision.”
We look forward to welcoming prospective students and their parents to our open evenings on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 June 2024.
The evenings are aimed at children currently in Year 5, and will provide the opportunity to explore our excellent facilities and discover what life is like at Heckmondwike Grammar School.
There will be also be rolling talks about the admissions process and Headteacher addresses throughout both evenings.
We look forward to seeing you!
You can now register to sit the entrance exam for September 2025 entry REGISTER NOW!
The RSC chemistry Olympiad exam was undertaken by our chemists again this year, this exam is for the more able chemistry students in year 13, however this year it was opened up to promising year 12 students who wanted to enter too. This is a very demanding Chemistry exam which takes curriculum content a step further and looks at real world examples and scientific problems. Due to time constraints this year the students haven’t had as much time to prepare so the results are a testament to their ability!
25 students: 5 x year 13 student and 20 x year 12 A-level chemistry students attended the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad exam that took place on Thursday 25th January 2024 within school led by Mrs Noble.
All of the students will be awarded a certificate with a significant number achieving silver and gold awards. The exam this year was out of 82 and to achieve a bronze this year the candidates required a score of 10 for bronze, 18 for silver and 30 for gold.
Overall there were 6 gold certificates, 11 silver certificates, 5 bronze certificates and 3 participation certificates. These are amazing results particularly for our year 12 students who haven’t yet been taught a lot of the course content required for the Olympiad exam. A special mention also has to go to Ayan Gupta one of our very talented year 12 students who doesn’t actually study A Level Chemistry and was able to achieve a gold certificate and a particularly high score.
As part of the Young Enterprise competition, a group of HGS students have launched their own company, SquEaze, and begun trading online.
The company sells a 3D printed toothpaste tube squeezer, which is designed to help reduce wasted toothpaste as well as help those who struggle with squeezing toothpaste out from its tube.
To find out more about their product and to make a purchase, please visit their trading station:
https://www.ye-tradingstation.org.uk/product/squeaze-toothpaste-tube-squeezer
As ever, HGS will be holding a non-uniform day (optional wear-red theme) in an attempt to raise as much money as possible for this fantastic cause.
Donations can be made in school or via ParentPay.
This Red Nose Day, let’s come together to raise some smiles, and money, to help people through the toughest times of their lives. Thank you to everyone for supporting this great cause.
A huge congratulations to our under 13’s girls football team on their success in the Spen Valley 7aside football tournament on Wednesday 7 February.
The team were crowned the winners following a great team performance throughout with an undefeated record and 5 goals scored.
Well done to Florence T, Florence E, Sophie, Lucy, Eva, Isabel, Amelia, Alys and Masha!
For a number of months, our careers team and Mrs Noble, Medical Sciences Pathway Leader, have been working with the NHS theatre teams across Mid-Yorkshire to plan an event in which would give students an insight into different careers within surgery.
This event took place on Tuesday 23 January 2024, and saw more than 30 NHS professionals come in to school to provide a variety of workshops and webinars to more than 100 students. The day provided students with the opportunity to take part in mock interviews and a range of practical activities such as cannulation and venepuncture, suturing, the use of surgical instruments and dressing and drainage. They also learnt CPR, dressed in scrubs and played giant operation.
The event was an amazing opportunity for our students and we are very thankful to the WYAAT Hospital teams for choosing us as the launch school for an offering that will hopefully be rolled out across the country.