Posted by nigel_rice, on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 1:08 pm.
Monday 5th December
PHYSICS
Eight sixth form Physics students attended the Robinson Prize Lecture for Cosmology, at the University of Newcastle, entitled “Why is the Universe Biofriendly?”. Lecturer and award recipient, Professor Paul Davies, is a world-renowned expert and is currently Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. He chose to discuss the link between Physics, cosmology and spirituality and the issues that lead us to question why our universe is “designed” – the hand of creation. He offered proof of such since if, for example, a proton has just a little more mass then it would be more stable than the neutron and the heavier elements, of which we are all made, would have never come into existence. It was a fascinating talk and left as many questions and “floating ideas” as it answered. A brief dip into the concept of the Multiverse brought us all up to date. After the lecture, there was a book signing and Tony Tang and Michael Chan took the opportunity to “grill” the professor on advanced aspects in Physics and Quantum Physics; the irony that in these sort of studies the incredibly large and the incredibly small are each as important as the other. The other students participating, George and Michael Don Chima, Ken Xu, Daulet Alzhanov and David Roper made up for their shyness at the lecture when, at the Chinatown meal afterwards, the group animatedly discussed all aspects of the lecture, with some points proving controversial, humourous and/or stimulating. The group discussion was made more interesting by the multicultural background of the students with each contributing their own ideas about the significance of this branch of cosmology and Prof Davies’ lecture points.
CAROL SERVICE
The school’s annual Carol service took place at St.Michael’s Church, Dalston on Friday 2nd December. The headmaster, Mr N Rice, welcomed parents to the service and thanked St Michael’s P.C.C. for their help and support. The Rev. Steve Carter began the service by leading the congregation in prayer. Traditional carols were interspersed with a variety of songs, readings and the nativity. The main reading was ‘The Christmas Truce’ read by Jamie Charnley, Charlie Bruno and Angus Johnstone. This was a new poem written for Armistice Day, 11th November 2011. The Senior School Choir sang ‘Wherever you will go’ by Alex Band, Aaron Kamin and Oliver Hutterer. This year’s Christmas Nativity, ‘All you need is love’ written by Benjamin Batt, was performed by the Junior School and with the narration delivered by Amy Brennan and Emily Allan from Year 7. The service ended with the blessing. Parents were then invited to the Christmas Fayre at school. Many thanks go to all those taking part and also to the staff and parents who helped pupils with their preparations
WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
Last weekend began with Years 10 and above completing practice exams on Saturday morning. Years 9 and below enjoyed a morning at AMF Bowling and then after lunch continued the fun when Mr Adkins took the youngest pupils out for a spot of tuck shopping. The older pupils decided to spend the day either relaxing around school or taking the opportunity to do some private study – only stopping for a trip to the supermarket to also replenish their supplies of tuck. Sunday began with a swimming trip, but the highlight of the weekend was another trip to Dumfries Ice Bowl with over 30 boarders signing up. The rink was once again not too busy so our pupils had plenty of room to practise their manoeuvres. Unfortunately, some of these were at ‘ice’ level! We left with no injuries and lots of smiles. Throughout the weekend, the TV room, Games room and ICT room were made available to the pupils as was the Sports Hall which tends to be popular with the older boys.
Monday 12th December
ROCK NIGHT
During the last week of term a charity concert was held at the ‘Brickyard’ in Carlisle. The event was organised by sixth form students Keleigh Gray, Joanne Fung, Esther Tsang and Ray Tsang. All four are involved in the BTech Subsidiary Diploma Music Performing course and they were helped by their Music teacher, Miss Hiekka. The event allowed them all to gain valuable experience in various roles that they were not familiar with.
The ‘Rock Night’ was held in aid of the Eden Valley Hospice and the organisers were keen to raise funds for the Eden House itself. Through this event and talks in the school there has been an increased awareness of the work of the hospice in caring for terminally ill children and this became something close to the hearts of the organisers and the school..
The ‘turnout’ at the concert was great and the organisers would like to thank all those pupils, parents, staff and the general public who attended and helped to raise funds. Funds were raised before the event through concerts in school, a non-uniform day and raffles through the PTA who the organisers would also like to thank.
There were many performers and the more nervous were well supported by the audience who offered huge encouragement to everyone. Five talented bands played for over two hours with some excellent performances and all deserve the school’s appreciation.
The event also attracted several sponsors and the organisers would like to thank; Mountelm, David Allan, Metcalfe Coaches, Border Food Ltd and Roy Hetherington for their support. Together the four organisers managed to raise £1000 for the Eden Valley Hospice (Eden House) and to be congratulated for their efforts. They in turn, would like to thank Miss Hiekka for all her support.
JUNIOR SCHOOL
Infants, Juniors and Year 7 travelled to the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick to see their production of ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter.’ Having just read the book and focussed in Literacy upon the key characters the children were quickly absorbed by the performance. In particular they commented upon the way in which ‘Hamlet’ was brought to life, the effects of the music, the lighting and their obvious enjoyment of the humour created by Rambashi’s hapless band.
The junior schools annual Christmas party was held in school on Tuesday 6th December. This year’s fancy dress theme was ‘TV, book or film’ characters. The winners were Amber Hetherington from Mrs Hewitt’s class dressed as Sponge bob square pants, Carrina Rogerson from Mrs Gate’s class dressed as Hermione from Harry Potter, Teddy Swire from Mr Thompson’s class dressed as Homer Simpson as the overall winner was Mirren Pinkerton from Mr Thompsons dressed as Shaun the Sheep. The children enjoyed playing lots of different party games before having a party tea in the dining room. After returning from their party tea each of the children were presented with a present from Santa. Thanks to all the parents for the wonderful costumes and the staff and students for helping at the party.
CHRISTMAS FAYRE
Many parents, pupils and teachers attended the Christmas Fayre which was held after the Carol Service. Mulled wine and mince pies were available on arrival at the school and various raffles were held during the course of the evening. The PTA had prepared several stands and Mrs Green and Year 11 pupils provided a variety of extremely tasteful confectionaries. The tombola proved popular with the pupils but staff were careful to ensure that the bottles of wine and spirits they had won were passed directly to their parents. An extremely sociable and happy event ended at about 8.30pm with over £800 being raised to support school funds. Many thanks to all those PTA members, staff and pupils who helped on the night.
PARENTS’ EVENINGS
Next term’s Parents’ Evenings will take place on Wednesday 11th January ( Juniors and Years 7 to 10) and Thursday 12th January (Years 11 to 13). Both meetings begin at 4.30pm with staff remaining in the school until 7.30pm for those parents arriving later in the evening. A sixth-from presentation for parents and pupils in Year 11 will be held in the Geography room @ 4.30pm on the Thursday evening. This presentation was delivered to pupils in Year 11 earlier this term and is being repeated for the benefit of all parents.