Since Andy Flowers left as the England cricket squad coach, Kevin Pietersen, England’s number 1 batsman, has been sacked. The England batsman played 277 test matches and scored 13,797 runs in his one day, twenty 20 and his test career. He has the record for the most centuries in the whole England squad, which is 32.
This is a new segment that will be going out weekly and giving you a brief summary of a single sporting event that week.
Ameer K
There are many students at Bluecoat Academy who are extremely talented at music. Throughout the years in Bluecoat, there has been a musical production every year. The musical geniuses in charge of these drama productions are Mr Mansell, Mr Collins and Mrs Clark. The last production shown was George Orwell’s Animal Farm. This year another production will be shown at Bluecoat. According to teachers and students, the production currently being made is Joseph and the Technicolor Dream-coat by Tim Rice. This will be shown in June next year.
I interviewed one of the music teachers, Mr Collins, who has been working here for 9 years, on his views on the productions here and what it is like to make the productions with the students here.
1. What do you like about producing musical production at Bluecoat Academy?
“I like working with the students in a different way to working with them in a classroom and doing something really high-standard professional with them. It’s really good fun and it good to do something different. It’s exciting”
2. What production are you currently working on?
“We are currently working on ‘Joseph and his amazing Technicolor Dream-coat’ which we are doing with the Year 7-9 students and we are going to produce that in June 2014.”
3. Would you once in a while use some of the student’s ideas of what production to do next?
“Yeah, we quite often listen to what the students suggest, although they always suggest the same thing so we try to vary it a bit.”
4. Do you think each year, the drama productions have got better?
Yes and no, they’ve got better because if the same students are in- then they get better because they learn the tricks to the trade as it was.”
5. How do you decide what production to do each year?
“Just-we basically have several ideas and we kick them around and discuss them and talk about them between me and Mr Mansell until we come up with something and like it.”
6. What is the best part of teaching music in school?
“When students get something that is quite a complicated thing, they understand it and you see them using it. It’s very exciting.”
By Adam K
Catching fire is the second movie in the Hunger Games; it is based on the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy written by Suzanne Collins.
Following their previous 74th hunger games victory, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark return to district 12.
This year is the 75th annual Hunger Games and past victors cannot be entered into the reaping but there is a twist, Every Quarter quell something unusual happens. This time, The tributes are reaped from the existing pool of victors. Is this just pure coincidence after Katniss’ rebellious act or is this exactly what President Snow intended for?
In our opinion, the movie was great (and so was the book) but it didn’t live up to our expectations because they missed out some key points from the book. We would rate the Hunger Games: Catching Fire: 4 ½ Mockingjays out of 5!
By Jenny and Nikki
At the end of November last year two of the hottest new consoles went on sale: the Xbox One and the Playstation 4. Both had a massive hype up to the launch date and they didn’t disappoint. These are highly anticipated consoles but why get one? Well apart from the fact it’s new; it’s got better graphics and a faster processor.
But what about the features of both consoles; well both consoles run games at 1080p HD, which is really beautiful. With regard to the differences let’s start with the Xbox One. One of the best features is Kinect 2.0. It’s much improved from the Xbox 360 with better tracking and more thorough voice commands. One of the things I like about it is that you can log into your gamer account with Kinect by just looking at your face! Another interesting feature that’s quite unnerving is that Kinect is always on so you could just say ‘Xbox on’ and it will turn on both your T.V and Xbox.
So let’s take a look at the Playstation 4 now; one of the brilliant features is the ‘Share’ button which will allow you to upload game play to YouTube without the need for capture cards. So not only can you brag to friends about how good you are; you can now prove it! Another great feature is downloading games, with past consoles when you wanted to download a game you would have to wait, but with the Playstation 4 you can now play while it’s still downloading!
The best aspect of the Xbox One is the controller, which is brilliant with improved triggers, thumb sticks and D-pad. The best feature is the triggers will now vibrate! It looks and feels similar to Xbox 360 one but still brilliant.
The Playstation call their controller the Dualshock 4. I felt that the last controller for the Playstation 3 wasn’t very good at all; it didn’t feel that good in my hands, while the Xbox 360 did. But the new Playstation 4 one has been completely redesigned now with a touch-pad in the middle of the controller. It’s also a bit bigger which may sound like a small thing to pick on but it actually makes quite a difference.
So that rounds up my Review of the Next Gen Consoles so thanks for reading and do stay tuned for more!
Teenagers: Lazy, tired, irritable and unreasonable creatures that don’t appreciate everything parents do for them and just want you to ‘SHUT UP!’
But recent studies suggest that the first two of those words aren’t anything that can be helped. The majority of teenagers get approximately 8 hours of sleep, but they actually need at least 9! The teenage body runs 2-4 hours slower than the average adult, this means that forcing pimple ridden, stroppy teens into a 10’ till 6’ (or around that time) sleeping pattern could be unhealthy. This is perhaps the main reason why teenagers struggle to drift into a slumber at a reasonable time, and then wake up refreshed at a reasonable time.
This then shows that allowing teenagers to ‘lie in’ and stay in bed until about 9 o’ clock could make them in a better mood, and more importantly, increase concentration, awareness, memory, and possibly even boost exam results.
Scientists can do experiments, such as late and early starts to test whether waking up later or earlier can make concentration better or worse, and ultimately, much of the problem comes down to the person. All of the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, BBM, Kik, Whatsapp, Ask.fm, iMessage, Skype, FaceTime, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Other Mail Services, Flickr, Vine, Myspace, and Google+ etc.) and popular websites such as YouTube and television shows such as Family Guy, Waterloo Road and other technical doohickeys that increase the brains activity should not be taken an hour before bed time, as it takes longer for the brain to relax.
So, teenagers need more sleep. But how much of the problem is due to those early starts; and how much is down to you, them, or us. Your choice.
Written by Laura and Frankie
Bluecoat Reporters 