Wide-open: Options For Year 8.

All of us in year 8 will soon be making the decision on what we are going to want to do for our GCSEs. In March, we will go to an evening where the school will help us to make up our minds, selecting the subjects we will take on for the rest of our educational life. It will take place on the 14^th of March, a week after the Year 8 parents evening. This can be a difficult process; the result of what we choose will mark out the rest of our lives. Options evening is coming whether we like it or not and we will HAVE to make the right choice if we want the job we want.

However it is not a bad thing. Without this process we would probably have our choices made for us and we would not get the full understanding.

Here are some tips to help you.

• It is not always about what you want to do. You have to consider the question ‘can you do it’ (academically or personally).  E.g. if you want to be a doctor, but you hate the sight of blood.
• Always do background research on the GCSEs and the qualifications you will need for a certain job.
• Don’t choose a subject because all your friends are doing it. You are good at what you can do, not what your friends can do.
• Select what you are good at. You never know how it may help you.
• Do not get stressed about it. Get advice from family, friends and teachers.

RUN, JUMP, SLIDE into the latest gaming news!!!

Rumours of a PlayStation 4 have been leaked.  It is said that on the 20th February the company that owns the PlayStation, Sony, are due to have a meeting to decide whether or not the plan to launch the newest PlayStation will go ahead. We can’t be 100% sure that there is going to be a new PlayStation, but due to today’s teaser trailer we cannot be 100% sure that there isn’t going to be something new coming from Sony. The teaser trailer was put up on YouTube last Thursday; it lasts for 45 secs and doesn’t reveal much, but to many gamer fans out there this could be the start of a new future in gaming technology.

Also in other gaming news, Imangi Studios, the makers of Temple Run, have reached 50 million downloads within 13 days of their release of their brand new game Temple Run 2. They have broken the previous record of 50 million downloads in 35 days and have beaten their competition, Rovio’s Angry Birds.

The co-founder of Imangi, Keith Shepherd, tells us “Temple Run has evolved into something so much bigger than us”.  He continues by saying “The game has performed beyond our wildest dreams, and we are thrilled that gamers and fans have embraced Temple Run 2 in such a short period of time”.

Is Valentine’s Day a marketing scam?

Valentine’s Day is meant to be a day of love and a day for the exchange of tokens of affection. But is the business market behind making Valentine’s Day, a day so they can get extra cash?

On 14^th February, Valentine’s Day is celebrated all around the world, but here are a couple of things you should ask yourself.  Do you need a specific day to tell someone how you feel? 

These are a few reasons why some argue that Valentine’s Day (V-day) is a scam controlled by the marketing business, because if you are in love, then you should tell the person you’re in a relationship with how you feel every day.   Why should we have to wait for a specific day to show someone appreciation? Do you need to go for a fancy and expensive dinner when you could cook some better food at home? Why do hotel/restaurant rates increase significantly just because it’s February 14^th? Why is it that advertising increases for flowers and chocolates on 14th February?

V-Day regularly spreads far more pain than love. First, there are all the people out there who aren’t married, dating, or in a serious relationship. Or worse, there are those who just broke up with someone or are going through a rough divorce.  Valentine’s Day is just a way of the calendar giving some folks a slap in the face.

However, before you judge Valentine’s Day we should look at where all of it came from (the history basically).

The origin of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to the Roman times, so it is a very old tradition. The Romans would have a festival every year in February called Lupercalia.  During Lupercalia, the boys would draw names of girls out of a box and the girl they picked would become his girlfriend throughout the festival and in very rare cases they would get married.  Later on the church wanted to turn Lupercalia into a Christian festival and decided to use it to remember St Valentine too.

What do you think about Valentine’s day?

 

 

Radford fire by explosion

Several people were evacuated from their homes as two explosions took place on Birkin Avenue in Radford.  Just before 6:00 pm on Wednesday 30^th January, residents heard ‘loud bangs.’ Luckily, no one was injured and the fire service said they were looking into the cause. Seven oxygen cylinders, which were being kept in the loft of a house, caused a fire which spread to three other houses in the terraced row. Many fire-fighters worked all through the night to tackle the fire and many were there in the morning. People were allowed to return to their homes on Thursday afternoon.