Friday Headlines

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Inspiration on Creative Industries Day

15 February 2019

On Wednesday 13 February, EHS hosted Creative Industries Day, an academic theme day dedicated to the pursuit of the creative subjects. This event follows on from the success of previous academic theme days that have included a focus on STEM, the Humanities, and Language & Literature. The event comprised a series of interactive workshops aimed at girls, particularly those in Years 9 and 10, to demonstrate the range of opportunities available in this vast and diverse field.

Girls attended many interesting sessions, led by leading figures based in and around Birmingham, including a filmmaking workshop with local company, Blue Monday; Jewellery Design with designer and manufacturer, Sian Hughes.; a costume workshop with designer Sophie Spurgin, whose work has been featured in both TV and Film including the award winning Netflix show, ‘The Crown’; Claire Downes, co-founder of drama group Round Midnight, delivered an insightful session about her work writing drama (her latest work includes Sky One’s 'In the Long Run’ starring Idris Elba) and an Illustration session led by Birmingham-based artist, Rob Conway whose work has been featured around the country. Other sessions included Pop Band and Music Technology sessions led by our very own Mr Skilbeck and Mr Southhall, both of the Music Department, and an Irish Dance workshop led by Miss Lawrence from our PE Department. There were also two further dance workshops in Flamenco, Ana Garcia and Contemporary Dance, with Harry Fulleylove.

Our special guest this year was Nadiya Hussain, leading celebrity baker and winner of television’s ‘The Great British Bake Off’ who, alongside her career in television and writing, was commissioned to bake the Queen's 90th Birthday cake. Nadiya joined girls in Years 5 to 13 for a Q & A session, followed by a book signing. Girls, staff and parents were taken with Nadiya’s natural and open approach to answering questions and the thoughtful and inspiring answers she delivered.

Deputy Head Girl, Georgia said of the event: "Nadiya was an inspirational speaker and a superb role model for girls of all ages and cultures."

Earlier in the day, Nadiya also judged a technical baking competition with Year 10 girls taking GCSE Food and Nutrition. Miss Syer gave the girls a technical challenge of preparing lemon meringue pie for which they had two hours to prepare. Well done to Freya Arden and Lucy Aktins for winning first and second place respectively.

The EHS Creative Industries Day was a fantastic experience and we would like to thank everyone who helped make the day such a success.

Mr Smith
Senior Teacher

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