Posted by nigel_rice, on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 1:02 pm.
9th November 2011
CONCERT
Year 13 Btec Music group organised a Non- Uniform day as part of their fundraising project for Eden Valley Hospice in Carlisle. A total of £210 was made, a big thank you to everyone for their support!
To continue fundraising, Keleigh Gray, Joanne Fung, Esther and Ray Tsang are putting together a Rock Night on the 5th December. The concert is at Brickyard, Carlisle, starting 7pm. Tickets are sold in aid of Eden Valley Hospice, charity number 1008796. Bands and soloists from years 9-13 will be performing a variety of rock, pop and dance music. Tickets can be purchased from the school office or directly from Eden Valley Hospice, all donations are welcome!
MULTI CULTURAL COUNCIL
The school’s Multi Cultural group were involved in their first event of the term – helping to distribute ‘toffee apples’ to members of the school last friday. This exposed all overseas pupils to one aspect of our particular culture which they all found to be quite amusing especially the difficult task of actually eating the apples (photographs attached). Two further events planned for this term are a celebration of Kazakstan Day and the preparation of various continental foods for the Christmas Fayre in December. This year’s elected council members are Gabriella Perez (Spain – Chairperson), Alexandra Sulzmaier (Germany – Secretary), Chloe Oake (UK), Jan Svoboda (Czech Republic), Michael Don Chima (Nigeria) Yuanbo Tang (China), Keleigh Gray (UK), Daulet Alzhanov (Kazakstan), Josef Kovarik (Czech Republic), Joanne Fung (Hong Kong), Anaid TItoyan (Russia), Aly Said (Egypt) and Emily Wroblewska (Poland).
PREFECTS’ LUNCH
The hard work and commitment of all the Prefects in the school is to be commended. The Head Prefects, Chloe, Michael, Sam and Keleigh, ensure all duties run smoothly and the sixth form Prefects themselves are to be congratulated on their effectiveness and reliability. Their presence at break and lunch times is welcomed by staff and the attendance of the Form Prefects at morning registration is appreciated by form teachers. These supervisory roles have enabled them to be involved in the running of the school and earned them respect from the younger pupils.
It must also be mentioned that the Prefects are assisted by the excellent team of House Prefects, who are selected from Year 11. These pupils help by being on duty in various corridors within the school during breaks, correcting uniform throughout the day when necessary and delivering mail.
A SPECTACULAR SPECTACLE!
On Saturday, 5th November the Junior Boarding School were taken to the Dalston Fire Show. It as a great night with an amazing Bonfire and Fireworks. Many thanks to the Dalston Recreation Association for hosting this event.
The same evening the Senior Boarding School were taken to Carlisle to see the Fire Show. It was a very successful night with everyone enjoying themselves – despite the ’foggy’ conditions. Many thanks to the PTA for supplying the coach and refreshments.
16th November 2011
JUNIOR SCHOOL
The junior assembly held on Friday 4th November focussed on Bonfire night. The juniors listened to the story about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot understanding that this is how the tradition originated. We then looked at the firework safety code and discussed the importance of following this on bonfire night.
The infants held the junior school class assembly this week. The focus for this assembly was ‘Healthy Eating and Food.’ The children emphasised the importance on eating a healthy, balanced diet and how each group of food is essential is maintaining this. The lower and upper juniors were invited to take part in the assembly by putting images of different foods in to groups and the infants enjoyed rewarding them with house points.
ANTI BULLYING WEEK
All members of the school have been heavily involved in work related to anti-bullying week. The aim was to highlight the uniqueness of the individual and to show how our differences make us who we are and therefore should be admired and celebrated. The whole school were invited to an assembly on Wednesday given by members of Years 5, 6 and 7. This was seen as a celebration of ‘Unique Me!’ Day.
The theme in all lessons was uniqueness and bullying. The Mathematics department had conducted questionnaires with all members of the school as well as parents. These are being analysed over the coming two weeks. In English, the appearance of bullying in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was discussed for speaking and listening assessment and prose writing. The Japanese poem ‘Create Haiku’, based upon bullying issues, formed part of Year 12’s A level English work. Years 7 to 9 created posters and played an educational game on being ‘special’. Geography lessons looked at inequalities around the world, child labour and the techniques used by countries of the Developed World and Multi-National Companies to exploit other regions of the world. Students studying German tried to identify the ‘Perfect European’ which involved an understanding of the uniqueness of people all over Europe in terms of their cultures, religion, foods and traditions. The theme of food was further developed for the day in Home Economics. How does where you live, peer group pressure and social factors affect food choices were some of the questions raised? Junior School children made muffins with happy and unhappy faces and finally a unique design and, Year 9 pupils looked at the staple foods of people around the world before making their own unique pizza. The Science department took the opportunity to examine the influence of genes and hormones on us and how this makes us all unique. The menstrual cycle, individual growth rates, digestion, crone’s disease, coleac intolerance, lactose intolerance and food allergies were among those topics discussed. Many thanks go to all staff and pupils for all their hard work during this very important week.
23rd November 2011
Junior School Assembly
The Junior School held an assembly about anti-bullying week.
The Senior School were invited along, and we came in listening to the Sugababes music video “Ugly” which consisted of a large variety of people doing unique things and showing us how it’s good to be different. Children got up and said what anti-bullying week was all about, and the importance of recognising and preventing bullying and how it is good to be yourself. They showed some celebrities that had been bullied during school; among them was Pierce Brosnan, Sandra Bullock and Tom Cruise, and they made the point that these people overcame being bullied and went on to be very successful. The children then got up in front of a backdrop that said “bullying hurts, inside and out” and recited the different forms of bullying like verbal and cyber bullying among many others. They also told us about Snowflakes, and how they all look the same, yet each one is completely unique in its own way. Then some of the Juniors did a short scenario set in a school playground about cyber-bullying. A girl had been receiving hurtful texts, her friends advised her to go to a teacher. The teacher then went to the girl who had sent the texts to see her side of the story, the girl confessed to sending the texts and then admitted that she was jealous of the other girl and her new phone, and just wanted to make her feel bad. Then the children stood before a new backdrop which read “words are truly powerful” and read out poems they had written about joy and happiness and what constitutes them.
All of them stood up to sing a song called “123 it’s good to be me” accompanied by the Piano, the song had actions and all of them sang it enthusiastically. They then said a short Prayer, thanking God for the people who listened and helped the victims of bullying. To finish off they discussed the rights and responsibilities of those who have been bullied, are bullies or those who are there to help stop bullying. They then showed us a quote by Lady Gaga “you have to be unique and different and shine in your own way” then we all got up to leave with Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way” playing in the background.
To celebrate ‘Unique Me!’ day the children in Lower Junior’s wrote and word-processed 10 fascinating facts about themselves and displayed these on a poster along with a picture of themselves. They also looked at children’s eye colour in maths, recording this onto a tally chart and then recording the information onto a graph. They completed a piece of work answering different questions about themselves and finished with a discussion on bullying, what they thought it was and if they had felt bullied at any time. This was an interesting and thought provoking exercise for all the children and staff. Some weeks ago the children had completed questionnaires on their experiences of bullying; the upper juniors used statistics gathered then to draw graphs and to discuss the significance of this information. They also wrote emotive poetry to try and express how they felt in unhappy situations as well as discussing the many different kinds of discrimination in society. The Infants have also thought about different forms of bullying, how children display these and the sorts of things we can do to stop bullying in school. They talked about how each of the children was different and the types of things such as hobbies that make us special; they were encouraged to find positive things to say about one-another. They also collected information about children’s hair and eye colour, using ICT to put this data into pictograms.
Junior School visited Carlisle Cathedral recently. We were shown around the cathedral looking at different artefacts inside and outside to reinforce work the children had been doing in Religious Education. The children were shown where different ceremonies were carried out and how the building had changed over the years. They visited the treasury to look at the different treasures that had been found. We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Boumfrey for her continued support showing us around once again.
30th November 2011
GEOGRAPHY
Last week Mr. Robinson, ably assisted by Mr. Wroblewska took year ten on a field trip to St. Bees as part of their GCSE studies on coasts. They were blessed with clear blue sky and sunshine after a rather dark and wet journey to get there. They spent most of the day studying different aspects of the coastline including longshore drift and coastal defences. They collected a variety of data to measure the different processes. It was very use to apply the theory out in the field and to see the impact of coastal defences on the cliffs. Stephanie Kwok (from Hong Kong) had never been to a beach before, so at the end of the day she was instructed, with the assistance of Molly Paterson, in the art of making sandcastles with a bucket and spade purchased from the café. However, Mr. Robinson could not resist the urge to get involved and added practical advice as well as physical construction. A very successful day and lots of good geography.
TRIP TO MANCHESTER CITY
Once again a coach load of 47 pupils enjoyed a day out at the Etihad Stadium for some training followed by a match – Manchester City v Newcastle. Pupils aged from 9 to 18 years had some football coaching at the new training grounds where Jonathan Roome and Jack Silver were pointed out as being particularly talented! Despite the millions they offered for them, I explained that they were needed for the school teams. Daniel Richardson, the school’s U16 goalkeeper, was lucky enough to receive one-to-one goalkeeper training. All pupils were given a poster of the Manchester City football team.
After lunch, pupils visited the shop and enjoyed some pre-match entertainment before taking their seats. The match was an exciting one with pupils enjoying the atmosphere and taking part in the ‘Poznan dance’ after every City goal. We were lucky enough to see Mario Balotelli’s penalty and then two minutes later, Micah Richards’ goal. The only disappointment of the day was not that Newcastle scored a goal, but the announcement that there were no chips available at half time! The final score of 3-1 made up for that.
All pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day. Some of them were experiencing this for the first time and were surprised by how much they enjoyed it. It must also be mentioned that the head coach mentioned how polite, well-behaved and appreciative our pupils were when training.
Many thanks go to Mrs Bradley, Mr Sayer and Mr Thompson, and also the Prefects present, as they all made the day possible.
ENGLISH
On Sunday 20th November, pupils from A level English Language and A level Literature classes went to see a production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” at The Sands Centre, Carlisle. “This vicious, barbaric… and blood-thirsty production” was performed by the Icarus Theatre Company, currently on a nation- wide tour.
The 6th Form students, afterwards in the classroom, constructively criticized the play and evaluated the whole performance.
As everyone knows, there are not many laughs in Macbeth, but the Porter scene, Act two, scene 3, was particularly entertaining. Macbeth, the main protagonist, had a strong voice and every word was well enunciated; perhaps he could afford to be strong, as all the other actors had four to five roles to present, which at times, the students commented were confusing. However, they enjoyed the fight scenes, which they said were well choreographed and the actors took advantage of all the stage space. When asked about their views of the setting, expectations of fairy tale castles and dark woods were dashed, as the modern take on settings are abstract and minimalist, using lighting systems for atmospheric effects and a little dry ice. Once they realised there would be no scenery shifting, they remarked on how a little imagination could go a long way; just as in Shakespeare’s day!
DRAMA
To end Anti –Bullying week, 6th Formers, Ruth Chamberlain and Charlotte Kennedy, supervised by drama teacher Mrs Robbins, taught a drama session with Bullying as its theme.
The English AS students wrote a lesson plan which divided the key stage 3 pupils into groups. Each group was given an individual scenario. Pupils that are usually confident and assertive were given the roles of victims; those pupils, who are less assertive, were given the roles of bullies.
The outcome, at the end of the lesson in a whole class evaluation, was that it was difficult to be in role as a character that was the antithesis of their nature, but it also gave an insight in how it feels to be a bully and to be bullied.
Ruth and Charlotte commented how they had enjoyed the challenge of teaching drama and it reminded them of how much they missed not studying the subject any longer.