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CHRISTMAS

VOLUME 1 - ISSUE 5 DECEMBER 2013

IMPORTANT DATES

Merry Christmas everyone!

On Friday 6th December, Harrow Way held

its annual Christmas Fair. This year there was

an amazing turn out, with nearly all stalls organised by students and staff.

We raised just over £1300 from the stalls and from having a non-uniform

day. All proceeds go to our partner school in Ghana: Fayef International.

There were many stalls set up with wide variety of activities to participate

in, such as: Guess how many sweets in the jar, guess the teddy’s name, face

painting, nail painting, raffle, tombola, apple bobbing, cake stalls and a

BBQ. Also, a huge well done to the girls who performed a singing and danc-

ing act in front of all the people at the fair!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Harrow Way Christmas

Fair of 2013, and thanks to all the staff and students who helped

everything run smoothly.

20th December to 3rd of January -

Christmas Holidays!

25th December - Christmas day!

1st January - 2014 begins

13th January - Y11 Parents’ evening

17th January - Y8 History Tudor day

21st January - SALAD Day 2

23rd January - Ski Trip final parents’

evening

29th January - Y9,10,11 Dance show

30th January - INSET day

RAPTOR HARROW WAY’S NEWSLETTER FOR THE S TUDENTS BY THE STUDENTS

THE

FAIR

By Rebekah Davies

TH

IS

IS

SU

E

2 MURDER

DAY EXCLU-

SIVE

3 A MESSAGE

FROM UNICEF

PEER

4 CHRISTMAS

INSERT 6 RAPTOR

SPORTS

The Raptor teams needs your

help!

We’re not looking for students to

create new features, but rather to

take over writing the month’s main

articles. If you have something im-

portant to say, then we would love to

hear it. Whether you’re interested in

a permanent or position, or just want

to create a one-off article... please

email our editor at:

thomase@harrowway.hants.sch.uk

ANNOUNCEMENTS

2

On Wednesday 4 December, students who are part of the English and

Science gifted and talented team united to investigate Mr Fluellen's

murder!

There were 5 suspects: Mr Manson, Miss Pittman, Mr Reed, Mr Parsons and Miss

Herbert. The students were split into six teams to investigate who had killed Mr Fluellen, They investigated finger-

prints, murder weapons and fibres from clothes. It turned out that Mr Manson was the murderer and a PCSO from

the police came in and arrested him with hand cuffs! A journalist from the Andover Advertiser was invited to take

pictures. The whole day was organised brilliantly by Miss Thompson and

Miss Atherton with assistance from their departments.

‘It was a great day, and it was amazing to see the students working so inde-

pendently on the tasks. Their group work skills were excellent and I hope

that they had as much fun as I did! Miss Thompson and I plan to do another

one, possibly in the summer. The police officer was amazing and was very

impressed with the students’ ideas, particularly one group’s use of a time-

line to organise the statements from the suspects. I think it was a great G

and T activity and it was so nice to do something cross curricular - particu-

larly with such a brilliant teacher as Miss Thompson. We owe the other

staff members a huge amount of thanks to as they played their parts so well

in preparation for the day - allowing me to remove fibres from their

scarves/jumpers or even to remove some of their hair!” - Mrs Atherton

After weeks of preparation, last Friday we held our annual Voice Competition, where students from all around the school volunteered to speak about something im-portant to them, in front of a large audience. Though all participants put on an excellent show, the winners were chosen after much deliberation. The winner from the junior category (Y7-9) was Mia Campbell, and the winner from the Senior category was Martyna Krawczynska. However, each house got points for each participant, with Hawks coming third (20 points), Kestrels second (100 points) and Buzzards winning with an amazing 180 points! Miss Pittman said: “The Voice competition was a great success. I was impressed with how comfortable and confident all of our students were!” Well done everybody, until next year!

If you have an article or idea for the next issue of ‘The Raptor’ or would like to be part of The Raptor Team

then please contact us at thomase@harrowway.hants.sch.uk or come visit Mr Fluellen, Miss Thompson or

Ellie Thomas in person!

MURDER

VOICE COMPETITION

By Liam Knight

DAY

3

On Tuesday 19th November 10 of the Year 11 UNICEF Peer Educators

attended the ‘Values for All’ conference at Queen’s Hotel in Bourne-

mouth, which focused on achieving rights-respecting relationships at

school. We watched two presentations that other representatives had

prepared – both of which were very informative.

It was then our time to do our presentation, which was on behalf of

Hampshire’s secondary school students, We began by asking our audience

to write down three key things that are needed in any kind of relationship

for it to be healthy, which we would be reflecting on at the end of the

presentation. Next, we explained our aim as UNICEF Peer Educators to

improve the relationship between students and prefects at Harrow Way

and how we had planned to achieve this.

We showed videos of meetings held with prefects, and a few teachers had

even volunteered to act out some scenarios which we thought we needed

to focus on. We held an exercise where our audience had to choose

which rights they thought most applied to strengthening the relationship

between prefects and students and why. After this we asked them for the

words they had written at the beginning of the presentation, with the

most popular being ‘trust’. We then explained how the rights of the

child are important and helpful in incorporating this value. At the end we

answered any questions they had and told them about some of the other

things we’ve done as a Level 2 Rights Respecting School.

The responses we received were brilliant, with one woman even saying

that out of all the school

rights-respecting presen-

tations she’d seen, ours

was one of the best. Mr

Serridge and Mrs Delany

were also greatly im-

pressed with how it

turned out! Thanks to

everyone who was in-

volved for all the effort

they put into making it a

success!

Comics are drawn by Omar Darby and inked by Ellie Thomas. See yourself as an artist or have ideas for our

mini comics? Email us at thomase@harrowway.hants.sch.uk

UNICEF

CONFERENCE

Open to all year groups...

Design and make a ginger-bread house!

Entries must be in by the 20th of December and taken to L1 by lunchtime. Further information is available from

Ms Fisher Are you up for the

challenge?

By Teeanna Cleary-Skelton

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When the matter of TV Christmas specials are questioned,

the holiday spirit persuades us to believe that all festive

television episodes are brilliant and that Christmas time

wouldn’t quite be the same without them. In many cases,

this has proven to be true.

BBC’s ‘Miranda’ Christmas special was a big success in 2012, as was

E4’s ‘The Big Bang Theory’. Through the decades, TV Christmas spe-

cials have been a great success – the 1970s produced a special of

‘The Good Life’ which introduced the spectacular talents of Richard

Briers and Felicity Kendal. The two actors portray a married duo

called Tom and Barbara, who live a self-sufficient lifestyle… some-

thing that proves to be challenging at Christmas time. The episode

shows a clear message that a luxurious Christmas doesn’t necessari-

ly mean a happy one, while providing many laughs for the audience.

However, not all Xmas specials are a success. The more modern

TV series ‘Eastenders’ has had many dramatic Christmas specials

throughout the years – including 2012’s edition. With a promising

start showing excitement within the cast, the episode looked to be

heading for a happy ending. However, when a key character is re-

vealed to be abusive towards his family, it’s a real downer on the

cheery Xmas spirit. Though impressed by the dramatic turn of

events, many people say that they would have preferred a happy

Xmas episode for a change – making the special slightly unsuccess-

ful with audiences.

Personally, we think that festive holiday specials should be just that

– special, and that those which dampen the often happy Christmas

Spirit should not be worthy of the title. So, answering the question

of if TV Christmas Specials are good or bad depends entirely on

what the audience think of its level of festivity and joy.

And either way, nearly everybody will be tuning in for

the annual Doctor Who Christmas Special!

The Raptor Team are... Editor: Ellie Thomas Teaching supervisor: Mr Fluellen and Miss Thompson

Article Writers: English Gifted and Talented team The Raptor. HWCS 2013

XMAS TV -

GOOD OR BAD?

By Nayana McGee and Abbie Haswell

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The Coconut Crab is the larg-

est land based arthropod, and

it can live for up to 30 years!

The crab lives on islands surround-

ing the Pacific Ocean, and it is

known locally as the ‘Robber Crab’ or ‘Palm Thief’ because it

has a reported habit of stealing anything useful - especially

shiny things. However, their most common name (Coconut

Crab) is for their ability to climb up coconut trees to snip off

the coconuts before returning to the ground. They open up the

coconut by hammering it on rocks or hitting it with their claws

before they eat its flesh!

Even though the crabs cannot survive in water (as they would

easily drown), their lungs have to be kept moist to work,

which is why they are most commonly seen in rainstorms, as it

is much easier for them to breathe. They can typically grow to

around 16 inches, but some have been found at an amazing 24

inches – with their leg length up to 3 feet!

Frozen is undoubtedly

the family film for 2013

Christmas viewing. Disney once again bring forward a wonder-

ful movie loosely based around an original fairy-tale, and this time

it’s Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen.

The storyline is as follows: ‘Having been forced to isolate herself

because of her icily magical powers, Princess Elsa shuns her sister

Anna's attentions for fear that she may harm her. But when an out-

break of eternal winter sends Elsa into exile, Anna is in hot pursuit,

aided by a group of companions in this charming adventure.’

With the colourful and modern art-style used (similar to that in

Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph), a truly beautiful movie has been

made. And for once, there is not one, but two Disney Princesses

featured. Elsa is voiced by Idina Menzel - the original Witch from

hit Broadway show ‘Wicked’. This of course comes with the re-

quired territory of cheesy Disney sing-song - somewhat of a guilty

pleasure of mine.

Olaf the talking snowman has a somewhat tired sense of humour,

but the relationship of the two sisters is obviously the key theme of

this movie. Gone are the days that Disney princesses wait for a

Prince Charming to rescue them from a grave fate. I for one wel-

come the new generation of princesses; spunky, independent and

self-assured heroines who are just as smart and resourceful as their

male counter-parts. But the beauty is still there for traditionalists.

MOVIE MADNESS - FROZEN

ANIMAL FILES

By Tia Fisher

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RAPTOR SPORTS

When was the last time that you did something amazing? There are now 430,000 scouts in the UK and 28 million worldwide - scouting is open to everyone, from ages 6 to 24. At present, there are over 65 Explorer Scouts (age 14-18)

and in excess of 80 scouts (10-14) in Andover alone. What many young people don’t realise is that Scouting is no longer just about tying knots and camping in fields! Nowadays, there are very few places for teens to meet up and enjoy young-adulthood with their friends, while in a safe and controlled environment. Scouting is open to boys and girls, and is an excellent equivalent to girl-guiding. As well as giving you memories, skills and experiences that you are unlikely to receive anywhere else, scouting will also help you to become a well-rounded member of society; introducing you to new people and activities you never knew you would enjoy. On a typical weekly meeting, Scouts play games, complete badges, and learn about the world around them. Also, for those interested in Aviation, the 1st Andover Air Scout group offers those over 13 to go flying and gliding. For those interested in boating, the 2nd Andover Scout Group offers opportunities to do sea-related activities. If you are over 14, you can complete your Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, from Bronze level up to Gold. The DofE is a universally-respected qualification. It is no easy feat and requires determina-tion and effort to complete. Universities and employers look for qualities like these in people, and Scouting will prepare you for the award and give your CV a boost. If you are interested in doing DofE, there will be further application offers available in school. However, it works out cheaper and easier if you’re able to do it with your friends from your scouting group! You can be a part of it all. So if you want to join, use the details at the side to find a group that suits your timescale and travel distance, and then turn up on the night to speak to the leader about joining!

SCOUTS

Over the last few weeks, students from all year groups have been putting in a great effort to

try and win their house more points! House teams have fought each other with great enthusiasm in

girls’ netball and boys’ rugby. More information and photographs can be found on the Harrow Way website.

On Wednesday 4th of December, a large group of year 7 & 8 girls played in the Inter-house Girls Netball

Tournament. During first and second period, three matches were played.

Before they played, they took some interesting photos and got to work. The first game was Kestrels vs Buz-

zards. It was a great game ending in a win for Kestrels! After that, it was Kestrels vs Hawks. It was a great

game, with Kestrels managing to score another win. In the third and final game it was Hawks vs Buzzards.

When the final whistle had blown, the final result meant Hawk House had won their first game of the day.

Overall, Kestrels won with 2 wins and no losses. Congratulations to everyone who played in the inter-house

netball and rugby tournament!

HOUSE POINTS

Who won?

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11

Netball Buzzards Kestrels Hawks Buzzards Buzzards

Rugby Hawks Hawks Buzzards Hawls Buzzards

By Louis Hatchett

1st Andover Scout Group THURSDAY – 7pm-9pm at Gilli-at Hall, Andover (Opposite And-over College) 2nd Andover Scout Group THURSDAY – 7pm-9pm, at East Cholderton Scout Hut 3rd Andover Scout Group TUESDAY – 6:30-9pm at 12th Andover (West) Scout Hut (Next to the Depot) 12th Andover Scout Group MONDAY – 7pm-9pm at 12th Andover (West) Scout Hut (next to the Depot) 23rd Andover Scout Group TUESDAY – 7pm-9pm, The Phoenix Centre Pilgrim's Way Andover Explorer Scouts FRIDAY – 7:40pm-9:40pm at 12th Andover (West) Scout Hut (Next to the Depot).

By Tayla Dawe