May the Force be With You

This term Caroline’s Science groups have been exploring

forces. We have calculated how much things would weigh on

a different planet, and designed our own experiments to in-

vestigate the effects of air resistance and water resistance.

Here are some of the planes and boats that we made:

Stacey’s English Group Classroom 9 + 10

This term Stacey’s English group have been learning all about Julia Donaldson’s

book, Room on the Broom. The children have spent the first part of the term ex-

ploring the book and learning how to write about the characters using descriptive

writing. Once we finished the exploring stage of our English unit we then used our

skills to begin re-telling the story of Room on the Broom! The class have worked

very hard and I am proud to share our fantastic work!

After our 6 weeks of hard work the children, with assistance, used Microsoft word

and the software Clicker to type up their stories. Here are some of the examples of

their stories.

Here is Beth’s re-telling of Room on the Broom.

The Witch and the Cat sat on the broom. The broom was skinny. The hat fell off

her head. The Dog gets the fat hat. The Dog drops the hat to the witch. The little

dog gets on the broom.

The beautiful bow falls to the river. The dirty Witch gets in the river and looks for

her bow. The Bird found the bow. The Bird joins the Witch on the broom.

The Witch loses her wand. The Frog finds the wand. The Frog gets on the broom.

The broom snaps. The Dragon comes to take the poor Witch. The big monster

comes to scare the Dragon and save the Witch. The scared Dragon runs away! The

Witch and animals put their into the cauldron.

Here is Harley’s re-telling of Room on the Broom.

The Witch and the Cat sat on the broom. The black pointy hat fell off the

Witches head. The Dog politely gave the hat to the Witch. The Dog was on the

broom.

The bow flew off the Witches long ginger plait. The Dog and the Cat tried to

find the bow. Then the Bird dropped the bow politely to the Witch.

The soft wand whizzed off the bristly broom! The clean green Frog found the

soft wand. Suddenly the broom snapped. The Cat, Dog, Frog, Bird fell off the

broom.

The Dragon tried to eat the Witch. The monster scared the Dragon. The made a

broom and all left.

Here is Jakobi’s re-telling of Room on the Broom.

The Witch and the cat were flying in the sky.

The Dog picked up the hat politely. The Witch and the Dog fly through the sky.

The bow fell off the broom. The Dog found the tall hat. The bright bow fell off

of the Witches long hair. The green Bird had the bow in his beak and gave it to

the Witch.

The Witch let go of her shiny wand when she flew over the pond.

The prickly Frog found the wand and gave it to the Witch and got on the skinny

broom. Suddenly the broom snapped in two! The Witch, the Cat, the green Frog,

the little Bird and the spotty Dog fell off!!

The Dragon grabbed the Witch and tried to eat the poor Witch.

See if you can find all of the creepy words...

Stacey’s History Group

Classroom 9 + 10

In History we have been learning all about pirates and deepening our understand-

ing of events in the past and how they are different to life in the present. We

have been looking at the different jobs pirates had and how they lived.

Here are some examples of the stories we have written about pirates on the com-

puter.

Here is Cameron’s exciting story!

Once upon time in the pirate’s country there was pirate called captain blood

drinker.

He is a sailing master and he drives the boat really well! One day a shark ap-

pears and blood drinker captures him. Then something else appears from

the water and it’s an even bigger shark! The shark bites a hole through the

ship. The ship sank to the bottom of the ocean. The fond out the shark was

dying because he bleeding. The pirates found the bad guy that’s hurt the

shark.

Here is Tayo’s fantastic pirate story!

Once there was a cool person called money. He was a master gunner and his

job was to keep all the guns from going rusty. When he finishes looking after

the guns he drinks alcohol.

One day money went to the gun cupboard and the guns were nicked. Then

he realised there was one mini gun left-to hunt the thieves. He hunted the

thieves in gun cupboard but he didn’t realise they were in camouflage.

Money found and made them walk the plank.

Here are Manson’s and Sienna’s letter asking for help after

they were marooned on a desert island by Captain Black

Beard!

To Zorgy

Help us we are marooned.

The island is called Death Island.

The weather is hot.

I am alone.

I am lonely and sad

From Manson.

To my family

Blackbeard doesn’t want me to work on

his ship.

I am on a scary island.

It is a dark forest with ghosts.

It is raining and thundering.

I am with Chelsea and I feel happy.

From Sienna.

David Walliams – Caroline’s English Group

Our English this term is based around the books of David

Walliams, and we have been listening to the story of Billion-

aire Boy. We began by researching David Walliams to write a

Biography – here are some of the things we found out:

His real name is David Williams

and he is 6’ 2” tall.

Harvey S

He has a pet dog called

Burt and a jellyfish called

Linda Rogers.

John

He was married to Lara Stone,

but they got divorced. They

have a son called Alfred.

Logan

Around the World in 7 weeks -

Caroline’s Geography Group:

This term our Geography has tak-

en us Around the World – we

have looked at the features of

the globe, including lines of lati-

tude and longitude, the equator,

the poles and the tropics. In-

cluding a quiz about the Antarc-

tic and a Desert Facts Treasure

Hunt, we have researched the

climate and population of differ-

ent countries, and even had a go

at giving our own weather forecast.

Did you know: Antarcti-

ca contains 70% of the

World’s fresh water.

We have been drawing lines in maths!

In Classroom 2 this term, we have been investigating different ways we

can multiply numbers together. We have worked on standard ways such

as the grid method and partitioning yet we have found drawing lines can

answer our word problems too!

What you need to do:

1st we partition the first number

and draw lines to represent each place value.

So… 12 is made up of is 1 ten : 1 line and 2 ones : 2 lines.

2nd we do the same the other direction with the second number.

13 is made up of 1 ten: 1 line and 3 ones: 3 lines

Finally, we can find our answer by sums by adding up the intersecting lines!

Colour me in!

In Year 9 Geography, we made some models to

represent human and physical geography in and

around our world. The images below show what we

made...

A student created a volcano

structure and we used bicar-

bonate of soda, vinegar and food

colouring to show an actual

eruption.

A student made a city

out of cardboard and

painted it to look

authentic and

created a realistic

tsunami wave out of

clay.

The model shows the

destruction about to

take place from a

tsunami.

Given that it is again, almost that time of year for the ghoulish, the unsettling and ma-

cabre; it is only right to give a moment in time to consider.....

The History of Monsters and the

Now you might stop and ponder a moment about the term ‘Monster’; what does it actually mean? On one

hand it can mean the frightening, the colossal, the hideous.... but on the other; it can also mean an entity that

is completely fictitious. That’s right – it could just be the made up midnight imaginings of an impressionable

youth, who mistakes the pile of dirty washing in the corner of his room, as a slimy sea – serpent spreading its

toxic tentacles luxuriously across the floor.

This is the same problem that has dogged the civilised world for years. Many people have dedicated their time

to obtaining proof of monsters; in photographs, in sound or video. Yet there is no ‘proof’ that is totally believed

beyond question. ‘Monsters’ remain enigmatic and if they are really out there, they appear content to stay hid-

den in the shadows and laugh at human efforts to capture what they don’t understand.

With this in mind; it is fitting for Halloween to revisit the old favourites and consider their backgrounds. These ideas have formed part of the special Halloween history lessons for the older students in our school; to remind them of where their favourite holiday icons have sprung from and to encourage them to make up their own minds about enduring myths and legends.

Dracula:

Dracula himself belongs to Victorian novelist Bram Stoker,

who published the book of the same name in 1897.

Vampires on the other hand, belong to folklore. They were

written about in Ancient Greece and were responsible for

widespread superstition in Eastern Europe. Somehow the

infamous ‘Vlad the Impaler’ also managed to exacerbate

the myth further.

Ghosts This photograph from 1936 looks convincing but

again, many will argue that it is a clever trick.

Ghosts are another long standing element of folklore.

Arguably they were ‘made up’ to help deal with the

uncertainty of the afterlife. Some have claimed that in

scientific terms, it is the build up of energy and noth-

ing more.

Witches The existence of a witch might depend on how you view

‘witchcraft’. We may laugh about this now but certainly in ear-

ly modern England, witchcraft was alive and terrifying. Elderly

single women or female ‘loners’ might find themselves perse-

cuted in their town, for events that no one understood or

could explain. If a cow died unexpectedly, chances were it was

due to a curse spoken by the old woman who lived in the

woods. Many innocent women died throughout history be-

cause they were easy to blame or because they possessed

knowledge others did not understood. Even helping to ease

the symptoms of a cold by using herbal remedies was enough

to arouse suspicion.

Werewolves

Are one of the oldest recorded legends of a hu-

man monster. Although their origin is uncertain,

their existence in the past was truly believed. In-

dividuals suspected of shape shifting were hunt-

ed down in much the same way as witches and

executed. Likewise, werewolves were often to

blame for mysterious happenings, such as sud-

den deaths of humans or animals.

Mummies

The reanimation of the deceased is a fear that is rela-

tively recent (although there are more examples of

this in Asian culture).

It could be argued that the idea became more popular

after the 1821 book ‘The Mummy’ was published. It

certainly escalated after Howard Carter’s discovery of

King Tut’s tomb in 1923.

This term the Year 8’s told us about themselves in numbers.

You can try & fill in the grid yourself if you like too!

Ideas we used were:

Age

Birth day

Birth month

Birth year

Number of pets

Shoe size

Height

Number of letters in name

Number of consonants in name

Number of vowels in name

Favourite number

They have also been looking at Measures and Conversions

Can you crack the code and solve the riddle?

Metric Measures Codebreaker

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

0.075 63000 0.063 750 6300 8730 6.3 873 75 87300 0.0063 2140 7.5

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

7500 87.3 63 8.73 21.4 0.75 0.873 630 75000 0.63 0.0873 0.0075 0.214

Convert the measure to the unit required, link your answers to the table above and

figure out the letters to reveal the answer to the question

“What do sprinters eat before they have a race?”:

Measure 7.5km 873mm 873m 0.873kg 0.75l

Convert to metres centimetres kilometres grams centilitres

Answer

Letter

Measure 7.5g 630cl 87.3cm 87300cm 6.3l

Convert to milligrams litres metres metres millilitres

Answer

Letter

Measure 7.5g 87.3l 75g 75cm 873g

Convert to kilograms centilitres kilograms metres kilograms

Answer

Letter

Year 10 Maths Year 10 have been working on Numbers and values. We looked at converting

Decimals to Fractions.

We transformed numbers:

One thing they also looked at is number differences and positive and negative numbers.

Can you answer the questions on the world temperatures?

The Romanovs One of the GCSE History topics for this term, is an in depth study of Russia. It charts the final

troubled years of Romanov rule, revolutions, rebellion, world war and civil war. The turn of the

century from the nineteenth to the twentieth was a time of upheaval and is perhaps the most

famous for the high profile murder of the Romanov Royal Family. This article therefore, is dedi-

cated to the royals, their demise and the resulting conspiracy that still inspires controversy to

this day.

A Royal Background:

The Romanov family name was renowned for its pow-

er and influence over a space of three hundred years.

As rulers, they believed in autocratic authority i.e. the

king was destined to reign supreme and lead the

country according to his judgement. This was still the

preferred style of rule, right up to and including the

reign of the last King ('Tsar' in Russian) Nicholas II. All

evidence points to the fact that Nicholas was unsuita-

ble as a leader, being indecisive, weak and afraid of

confrontation. He failed to placate the public discon-

tent and made himself the target of ridicule and rage

by taking direct responsibility for the Russian army during the Great War. Perhaps inevitably, he

was responsible for the collapse of the Russian monarchy, although others might argue that his

rule was the final straw in a long line of repression and bubbling public anger. Whatever stance

one takes, the historical facts remain clear - the royal family (consisting of the Queen or 'Tsarina

and their five children, see above) were unable to remain. What happens next however, is open

to interpretation.

Royal Prisoners:

Nearing the end of the Great War, matters in Russia became grave and in March 1917, Nicholas

II had no other option but to abdicate the throne. The family were imprisoned whilst civil war

gripped the country; with The Bolshevik political party eventually emerging as the victors.

'The Murders':

Not all sources of evidence agree on the ex-

act date of the murder ; if indeed it hap-

pened at all!! But the more grounded texts

suggest that the actual murders took place

on the 16th / 17th July 1918. It is thought

that the Tsar, Tsarina, their children and

servants were told late at night to dress and

make their way down to the cellar of the

building where they were imprisoned. They

were lulled into a false sense of security by

being told that they were to pose together

for a photo, to prove that they were still alive and had not escaped. Suddenly, a group of armed

men burst into the room and shot at the family. Anyone who was still alive after the barrage

was reputedly stabbed or bludgeoned to death. The photo above shows the room where the

execution took place.

The Aftermath:

It was not until 1926 that the murders were made public but this still was not enough to deter

a number of claimants over the years who claimed to be a surviving members of the Romanov

family. In 1979 the burial site was found and the remains confirmed by scientific analysis. A fur-

ther grave was discovered in 2007. Despite the emergence of this evidence, some are still con-

vinced that there was a great deception and

some claim to not recognise the results of the

DNA testing.

Whatever the truth may be, this is still named

as perhaps the greatest shame of Russia. The

contents of the graves were reburied in St Pe-

ter and Paul Cathedral, St Petersburg.

The end of the monarchy and the removal of

the Romanov's effectively paved the way for

the onset of communism - with communist

rule enduing through to 1989.

Remember Remember The 5th Of November!

A recipe from NCFE Cookery, Lydon Rogers, tried and tested!

Spicy pumpkin and sweet potato soup! Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 large white onion, diced

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced to 2cm cubes

1 medium pumpkin, peeled and diced to 2cm

cubes

900ml vegetable stock

A pinch of chilli

1 knob butter

A table spoon of natural yogurt

Serves: 6

Method

Prep:30min Cook:45min Ready to eat:115min

1. Melt butter in pan and add oil.

2. Add onions to soften, then the sweet potato and pumpkin; and chilli spice stir

for one minute or so.

3. Add stock and bring to the boil, turn down heat and simmer for around 45

minutes.

4. Use a hand blender to blend all the ingredients together (be careful as it will be

hot) or leave it to cool before doing this step.

5. Once in the bowl, spoon the yogurt on top and serve with crusty bread.

The History of Pumpkin Soup

Did you know that pumpkins were introduced to Europe from the Americas in the

sixteenth century?

They are technically a berry with a hard outer shell rather than a vegetable, and

pumpkins are in the squash family.

Pumpkins have been enjoyed for centuries but not always in the form of a soup.

Native Americans used to bake long, thin strips of pumpkin and American colonists

make pumpkin beer and pumpkin pies for their Thanksgiving feasts.

Throughout the term, a group of students have been having immense fun

developing and creating their very own colourful puppets based on story

book characters created by two very famous and well known authors Da-

vid Walliams and Roald Dahl.

Their stories are popular with children of all ages, and what fun there

was to be had, as we all recounted stories of our favourite characters

and how we could recreate them!

Wednesdays DT Class with their marvellous

puppets!

Charlie had fun making his Enormous

Crocodile puppet!

Harvey J and Charlie had lots of fun during

the designing and the making of their fun

character puppets. Harvey said he loved

making the tail for his fox and Charlie

couldn't stop giggling making the mouth

for his crocodile!

Well done guys!

John’s Mr Twit

Which Book is Best?

We all know reading is phenomenal! It can entertain, educate, im-

prove literacy and transport you to places you have never been! But

what book is best? The answer is: whatever you like! There is fiction

or non-fiction, and this can include comedy, romance, science-fiction,

action, thrillers, biography … There is a book for everyone!

Here are some arguments about what is great about different genres:

Why you should read:

There are many reasons to read horror.

Horror is scary in a fun way! There is more than one type of hor-

ror story. It can be physical like your skin bring ripped off and be-

ing replaced with wax or it can be psychological where you can

hear but not see anything.

Reading horror reminds you that life is not so bad, bad day at the

office? At least you don’t have zombies chasing you. Failed your

maths exam? At least Scream is not chasing you!

So really horror is not at all bad.

By Billy–Joe Soper

Why you should read:

Sci-Fi

There are many reasons to read Science Fiction because there are

infinite possibilities. Sci-Fi can take place in hundreds of different

worlds or even take place in the modern age. Space, robots, aliens

and more can be found in these far away worlds. It can be fun to

see these futuristic planets and imagine what might happen for

us. We may be right around the corner ready to leap into new

worlds. Evil can take over but good will win eventually! This

makes these stories exciting and attractive, we all like a good

winner at the end.

By Camaron Mott