Cipher Challenge Success

Despite timetabled lessons continuing as usual during lockdown, a group of students have managed to combine their remote learning with taking part in a national cryptography competition!

When we closed our doors for most students at the end of March, many extra curricular activities had to cease too, but that wasn’t the case for Maths Club. It simply moved to the Teams platform and reinvented itself as Virtual Maths Club.  Since then, members of the club have kept themselves extremely busy deciphering codes in a special lockdown edition of the National Cipher Challenge, which is an annual cryptography competition organised by the University of Southampton.

During this special edition of the challenge, which ran for ten weeks, students worked in small teams or as individuals and used their mathematical, IT and problem solving skills to decipher a series of hidden messages which increased in difficulty as the competition progressed.  Two of the teams, one from year 7 and the other from year 9, finished joint second overall in the competition. This represents a fantastic achievement, especially as many of the children were new to the world of ciphers and were competing against other children, and indeed adult competitors, who were experienced in cryptography.

Ms Jarvis who runs the club said “I was so impressed with how our students engaged with this competition. Despite working remotely, the level of collaboration throughout the challenge was fantastic”.  The Cipher Challenge returns in the autumn term and, regardless of whether we are back in school as normal or working remotely, the members of Maths Club are excited about taking part and building on this summer’s success!

One member of the club, Anish Srikanth, in year 8, didn’t take part in the competition but was keen to contribute and produced this fantastic photo montage of the HGS competitors, which is fully compliant with social distancing measures.  The successful cipher crackers are, from left to right: Chinwendu Mere, Hannah Baporia, Daniyal Shaikh, Tazkia Dokrat, Harshil Patel, Charlie Pearse, Tao Li, Miriam Molokwu, Kelvin Zhang, Zaynah Hussain, Zoeya Hamid, Daijo Jentin, Eleni You, Leesha Dubey, Taveesha Vashishta, Arnav Maniyar, David Tomlinson and Qusain Mir.

Places can be booked online at https://chewsnews.northorpehall.co.uk/workshops.php

Back to School – Primary: For children in primary school aged 8-11 must be accompanied by a parent/carer
Is your child worried about returning to school and the changes that may have taken place due to social distancing and the break in education? This practical workshop is for children and parents/carers to explore together some strategies to support this transition.

Back to School – Secondary: For young people aged 11-16 retuning to secondary education
Are you struggling with the thought of going back to an education setting after covid-19? Join us online for an hour to help you explore your feelings towards this change and give practical advice and ideas on how to manage this transition.

Back to School – Post 16: For young people aged 16-18 returning to a post 16 provision
Are you struggling with the thought of going back to an education setting after covid-19? This workshop may be for you, join us online for an hour to explore your strengths, challenges and life in lockdown! This workshop looks at how to build your resilience through the transition back to life after covid using a toolkit that looks at routines, self-care and coping strategies

Back to School Support for Parent/Carers:
Do you want to find out more about how you can support your child in preparing to return to education? This workshop looks to provide parents and carers a chance to explore and discuss practical ideas and advice on supporting children and young people back into school.

Are you struggling to access assignments and submit work on Teams via your phone? This short video will show you how it’s done.

A number of HGS students entered into the Kirklees Online Young Chef of the Year Competition 2020.   The brief was to share a recipe and action shot of some baking being done at home.   Kirklees College reported being overwhelmed with the number of entries received making it difficult for their judges to select the winners.  We are delighted to hear that Year 11 student, Gemma Hall, took first place in the Year 10-11 category winning a chef’s jacket with her name embroidered onto it and Year 9 student, Eshaal Hussain, came second in the Year 7-9 category winning £30 High Street Vouchers!

Gemma’s entry was a Three Layer Chocolate Mousse with Honeycomb, Home-made Raspberry Jam and Blueberries and Eshaal’s entry was  a Red Velvet Three Tier Cake.

The Junior Maths Challenge will run in a slightly different format this year and will run online.

Students will be emailed their login details nearer the time. Date to confirmed later (but provisionally 29th June).

However, there is the opportunity for students to take practice Challenge papers which will allow you to see how it works and get a feel for the online system. Please click here

Students do not need to log in to sit the practice Challenge.

All year 8 students will be sitting this.

What our Parents think….Register now for 2021 entry

We are pleased to have been able to help the NHS in a small way by donating hundreds of protective eye goggles.  Responding to calls from frontline workers, 450 pairs – out entire stock – have been given to the Princess Royal Health Centre in Huddersfield.

We use eye goggles to protect our pupils in science and technology lessons, but with the current closure and the unprecedented demands on the health service, it is only right that we donate every pair we have to the fight against coronavirus. The NHS staff are doing amazing work day-in, day-out so this is the least we could do.

We are all aware of the problems posed by the outbreak of Coronavirus, Covid-19. At Heckmondwike Grammar School we are taking the issues very seriously in terms of minimising the risk of passing on any type of virus, by encouraging the highest standards of personal hygiene.

Please see our dedicated area on the school website where we will post any pertinent updates.

Coronavirus – Updates & Information