Aspire Issue 5

ASPIRE Issue 5

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Front cover: GCSE Art coursework Connie, Year 10 Inside cover: A level Photograpy component 1: Personal Investigation Jack, Year 12

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Welcome to the fifth edition of Aspire! This publication showcases work produced during the Michaelmas 2018 and Lent 2019 terms by some of Hull Collegiate Prep and Senior School pupils across the various Key Stages and areas of our curriculum.

All pupils are faced with a multitude of opportunities to stretch, challenge and extend their understanding on a daily basis. Through the early identification and nurturing of abilities or talents, clear target setting, regular differentiation in lessons, a wide variety of enrichment activities and the careful tracking of progress via an established mentoring system, we continually strive to achieve the ‘best in everyone’. All editions of Aspire can be found www.hullcollegiateschool.co.uk/aspire If you have any questions regarding stretch and challenge at Hull Collegiate School, please contact Mr Stephenson, Lead Teacher for Advanced Performance at Gordon.Stephenson@ hullcollegiateschool.co.uk

CONTENTS 04

Art & Design Technology

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Law

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Economics

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Mathematics

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English

68

MFL

36

Food Science

76

Photography

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History

78

Physical Education

46

Goegraphy

80

The Sciences

50

Latin

93

Religios Studies

55

Music

96

Sociology

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Art Reception Octonaut Clay Thumb Pot Sea Creatures

Having been to The Deep aquarium and inspired by watching the Octonauts as part of our literacy work. The children created their own deep sea monsters from the midnight zone. Sea creatures found at this depth usually have exaggerated features, large teeth, eyes if any, small fins etc. Many produce their own light sources using bioluminescence to attract their prey.

The children began by manipulating a ball of clay to create a thumb pot and in the process develop their fine manipulative skills. They then used the thumb pot to create a large mouth which they then added different features to. They learnt how to join these pieces to their clay mouth. Many inspired ideas from the existing sea creatures can be seen in the children’s designs. The sea creatures were then used to generate a bank of adjectives which the children used in their writing.

Sam, Eden, Zachary

Reception pupils William, Zachary and George worked in collaboration to design and make this new Gup for the Octonaut television series.

The children designed the Gup with many features inspired by the Angler fish to create a light on the top and cephalic fins either side of its mouth window. The coloured matchsticks area ribbon of bioluminescence strips running across the top of the Gup. The children were very focused when working independently in the design and technology are using a variety of tools and a hot glue gun.

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Darcy

Piper

Mother’s Day PVA Portraits Working on a large scale the Reception class drew a portrait of their mum using ketchup bottles filled with PVA glue to create an opaque outline on the black card. The relief line was then filled in with oil pastels which the children blended to create various patterns and colours.

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Year 3 Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses by Noah, Louie, Addie

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Year 4 ancient Mayan shields by Henry and Eva.

Year 5 William Morris illuminated letter designs by Jemima, Owen and George

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Year 6 posters inspired by famous women by Xavier and Heidi

Year 6 posters inspired by famous women by Alice and Rosie 8

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Art in the environment by the children in art enrichment group, inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy

Woodpecker by Noah, Year 3 9

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Rose Cristina

Eloise

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3D art by Year 8 and 9 pupils as part of their lunchtime extra curricular activity.

Izzy Anna

Freya 11

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Design Technology

Year 4 have made flat-bed trucks with cranes this term. The cranes work using a crank handle. This is Maisie’s finished truck as well as the diagram of her model, annotated with its special features.

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Year 1 dinosaurs

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Year 9 iPad / book stand.

Lower Sixth Ikea lamps redesign. Pupils worked with walnut wood to make a desktop lamp.

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Pre-Sixth Festival chair design. Controlled assessment unit, full size working prototypes made from beech wood harvested on the school's grounds.

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Economics Teacher comment: Ryan’s essay was about whether or not the Royal Mail would benefit from being privatised. This essay was written as part of Ryan’s mock exams and gained full marks. The analysis and evaluation are both well considered and intelligent.

‘Many competitors innovation’

are

using

digital

technology

to

drive

Assess whether the benefits outweigh the costs when the Government privatises organisations such as Royal Mail and opens up the market to competition.

Being a monopoly, it could be argued that Royal Mail is inefficient in the way which it handles its business. Free market economists such as Friedman would argue that as with all markets, postal service should be left to the free market, but it could also be argued that this could be detrimental to both the market and consumers.

Firstly, it could be argued that the parcel delivery market should be privatised as it would operate better in the free market. Economists such as Friedman would argue that since the market is not open for competition, the consumer loses out, and hence the best outcome is not achieved for the consumer. This can be seen from the statement that Royal Mail used outdated methods whereas foreign firms are much more efficient in their handling of parcels. This is because due to a lack of competition in a monopolistic market, Royal Mail has no reason to pursue dynamic efficiency and become more efficient as no other firms can take its market share, which would not be the case should it be privatised.

Furthermore, by making the market more competitive by privatising it, one large firm is replaced by a larger number of smaller firms. This removes x-inefficiency and lowers prices due to competition, meaning firms are no longer price makers, and the ‘consumer is king’. This means that by privatising the market, prices would fall and product quality would rise, therefore making it the right decision.

That said the extent to which this is true depends on how many firms enter the market, as if a large number of firms enter, then it will become more competitive, whereas if only one firm does, then a government owned monopoly will simply become a private monopoly, which would require extensive regulation. Despite this, I find the argument that the market should be privatised compelling, but I will now assess the argument that it should not.

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It could also be argued, however, that the delivery market should not be privatised. One argument for this is the high barriers to entry, as the data describes how many firms use technology and this is needed to compete. This means that all new firms would have to make Royal Mail-like investments of £130 million just to stay competitive, which is a significant barrier to entry as well as a large sunk cost and therefore a barrier to exit. This means that the new market would likely become oligopolistic and have a small amount of large firms. This would be bad for consumers as in oligopoly there are sticky prices, and hence the oligopolistic firms would treat the consumers no better than a public monopoly such as Royal Mail. This is seen in the kinked demand curve diagram as the demand curve is kinked leading prices to stay at the point of the kink, as no firms want to lower prices to be more competitive as all firms will follow and all therefore lose revenue. This is argued by Nash, whose game theory would lead us to believe that in oligopoly it is in the firm’s interests to collude to bring the best outcome for the group. This means that there is a risk of cartels forming as seen in the cases of OPEC, severely damaging consumer welfare. That said, it could be argued that with proper regulation as seen with the electric, water and communication markets, a consumer friendly market could result from privatisation, and that if regulation occurs, collusion and cartels would not emerge. Despite this, I find the argument that it should not be privatised compelling. I will now reach a final conclusion.

In conclusion, I believe that the market should be privatised. The most important factor in this is the fact that as seen by the evidence, there is definitely the potential for the market to be competitive in the free market, and that consumers would be better off than under the monopoly of Royal Mail.

In the short run I feel that the market would become more competitive and prices would fall, but in the long run, I feel that the market would experience significant dynamic efficiency and hence be more beneficial to the consumer.

This depends on, however, the number of companies that enter the market upon privatisation and the extent to which they are regulated.

Ryan, Year 13

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English Year 1 Writing Year 1 have been studying dinosaurs as their theme for this half term and have created some wonderful letters to ask a dinosaur expert about their favourite dinosaurs. We then invited a dinosaur specialist into school to answer some of our questions.

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Year 2: The Great Fire of London Year 2 have studied the Great Fire of London and linked the theme across many areas of the curriculum, including English, Humanities, Science, ICT and Art lessons. We began the topic by studying the facts of what actually happened during the fire and how the people felt through an amazing drama workshop day. The children acted out the events, danced and sang the day away. We then studied many amazing texts in our English lessons and also used Samuel Pepys’ diary. The children made comparisons between the houses then and now and watched amazing video clips from Pudding Lane Productions, to fully emerge themselves within the typical setting of Pudding Lane.

During Science lessons we looked at various materials and discussed what the Tudor houses were made from and reasons why the fire spread so quickly. Our amazing studies resulted in the children being able to take themselves back to 1666 to write fantastic news reports. We even made our own Tudor houses which we then set fire to and created our own Pudding Lane disaster.

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Year 3 Egyptian Poem

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Teacher comment: Year 4 children have been learning how to write a newspaper article. The children crafted their headlines for effect.

They included stylistic devices to engage the reader such as emotive language. They used direct and punctuated speech. They controlled their view point and added interesting detail.

tray put some biscuits and tea down, for the rest of the day the pupils gave Dazzle medical care. Mrs Crossland has a heater, which is normal, so we lay Dazzle next to the heater.

First on the scene of the crime was Mrs Crossland, 4C teacher, she was heard to say, under her breath, “Dazzle will freeze to death, he will be lucky if the Sellotape even stays on” she mumbled slightly louder. Pupils thought Mr North was the school grinch and responsible.

None of the pupils thought this was funny.

Crosslands Chronicles Naughty Elf Put-Outside!

Disaster strikes, Santa’s best helper and most trustworthy Elf Dazzle experienced cruel treatment as he was thrown outside from the second floor of Hull Collegiate School on Tuesday 2nd December.

On the night of the crime, Dazzle wore a beautiful scarlet red jacket with snow white trousers. Police have found out Dazzle’s number was 5224. Dazzle has brown swept back hair, at Father Christmas instruction he will be sent to a private hospital for special treatment as he’s a good Elf. His hat looks like a fire that he has to put coal in everyday, his boots are the same shade of brown as the coal.

Dazzle, who is residing in class 4C, knows each breathe could be his last.

Police detectives have some evidence and managed to see that there was an old bit of string that was untwirling.

Also, because his hands were so stiff with ice he had two dirty bits of Sellotape that kept peeling off slowly.

Police have also found out that in the dead of night poor Dazzle was outside in the snow. Police have not got hold got hold of any other suspects yet.

After 2 days, finally Mr North, Miss Brownlee and Mrs Fawcett-Ward admitted it was them, they tried to explain but the police detectives weren’t interested and pushed then into the car which has its flashing lights on and a deafening beeping when the suspects got to the station the chief detective said they will unfortunately have to stay in jail one year and were never allowed to destroy Christmas again.

Police detectives have found out Mrs Fawcett-Ward and Miss Brownlee, the reception ladies are also part of Mr North’s gang. Firstly, all three of them giggled when they saw Dazzle shivering in the cold with an icicle swaying and cracking from his chin, as big as a sword.

Secondly, they didn’t seem bothered and were heard saying “he loves snow, he’s fine outside, really he is.”

Poppy, Year 4

Class 4C felt very sorry for their Elf and wanted to help so they got a big tray and lined it with wool from the art room. Then they lay the Elf down in the 23

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Teacher comment: Hannah was moved to write about this unlikely hero as part of the “heroes” theme of Book Week 2019. The mood that Hannah creates during this piece of writing is thoughtful and reflects Joe’s character exquisitely.

Joe Joe is a contemplative soul, with a relaxed demeanour and eyes filled with wisdom. He keeps his memories of fishing on the azure ocean in the never-ending folds of his mind.

His eyes wrinkle with laughter. He spends his time watching the waves ebb and flow and walking his faithful dog, Jess, on the shoreline. On greyer days, he watches the clouds float by and spends quality time with his grandchildren. His heart is generous and caring; his smile is warm and peaceful; he exudes an aura of satisfied calm. Yet, he faces a life-changing dilemma which threatens to leave him bereft of hope and all radiance.

Hannah, Year 5

Teacher comment: Imogen’s carefully crafted prose gives the narrative to a picture of two people rowing across a lake. In the picture, a small house can be seen at the far side of the lake. It is Imogen’s descriptions of the setting and characters that really bring the writing to life.

The Heirloom As the relentless rain poured down, lashing the rowers’ faces, the thunder began to growl. Shrouded in fog, far in the distance, stood a house, a sliver of foreboding light shone through a window almost willing them to turn back.

The two siblings sat apparently untroubled, neither silent nor making any noise. The crumpled and unshaven man, sitting still as a statue next to his hollow-eyed accomplice, had a reptilian smirk burnt into his skin.

The boat scraped into shore. They alighted. “It was stolen from her at her death; we will get it back; we are its rightful owners.” Although they had been waiting for this moment to watch the house, they were unsure of what to do next.

They cautiously slunk towards the blurred building, pausing every few seconds in fear of being caught. “Stop!” whispered the women, through clamped teeth.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely something.” They crept stealthily through the oppressive air.

They reached the house.

“Where is the key?” questioned the woman in a voice as sharp as a needle.

“We don’t need one,” he said, gesturing towards an open window. They struggled through it, into an unwelcoming, grimy house with a murky dampness that hung on the air. “Here it is!” He spoke in amazement, holding the plain gold ring. “It’s all we have left of her now, all we have left of our own mother, and this could have been lost forever.”

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Teacher comment: Jack won the Premier League under 10s Young Academy Writer of the Year Award with Hull City. He also was given a bag containing novels written

by Jamie Johnson, who was also one of the judges. The challenge was to write in no more than 433 words a story or a piece of writing with the heading ‘Goals’. This could be interpreted however the children wished, whether it be a made up story, football goals or life goals.

My Goal It is the goal of every young player at the Hull City Academy to become a professional footballer. They want to follow in the footsteps of their idols Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Not everyone can be a Ronaldo, Messi or Mo Salah – they have to have a lot of natural ability, dedication, mental strength, work ethic and especially good luck.

I play right back for Hull City under 10’s. In the game I need to work hard, press and be able to beat my opponent to create opportunities and set up goals for my team mates. My goal is to be the next Kyle Walker, he is amazing! If I can focus and dedicate my time at Hull City, listen to my coaches and really push hard to improve I will reach this goal.

It is a dream to score in the world cup final for England, maybe an overhead kick past a world class goalkeeper. After I’ve finished my playing career I aspire to be a successful football manager for a Premier League Club or even a top European side.

Football isn’t the only goal in my life. It is good to have other goals that are outside of football. I play the electric guitar and when I am older I would like to be a professional musician. For me, Angus Young from ACDC is a brilliant guitarist. I love Thunderstruck and really look up to him. How he moves his fingers so fast is incredible.

I love maths especially problem solving. My goal is to always get to the hard challenges at school because they really test my ability and my knowledge. I love science and have a goal to discover new planets and go down in the history books. A slightly smaller goal is that I would like to play cricket for a local team, not professionally, only for fun. I think my bowling skills are up to the level of an amateur cricket player, but I need to work on my batting skills to get to that level.

Goals are great to have as it allows me to dream and push myself. Could I really achieve them all by becoming a football playing mathematician astronomer playing rock and roll?

At my school, Hull Collegiate, the motto is “The best in everyone”- so that’s my ultimate goal. With so much ahead of me I need to focus to be the best I can be. If I can achieve that, then hopefully one day, you never know, a boy at any Academy may want to be the next Jack W. Jack, Year 5

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Teacher comment: Following the reading of Holes by Louis Sachar in Year 6, pupils wrote a formal letter requesting Stanley’s release from Camp Green Lake Daisy, Year 6

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Teacher comment: After reading a non-chronological report on four different spiders, pupils had to research a spider of their own before using the information to create their own report. They drafted a first version by hand, then typed up their edited work, adding pictures etc.

Katie, Year 6

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Compare the dreams in Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and how they show a mental decline in characters.

In Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Shelley’s “Frankenstein” dreams are presented to show the mental decline of the main characters.

Victor dreams of death, mirroring Mary Shelley’s real dream of rubbing her stillborn child back to life by the fire. When becoming intimate with Elizabeth, the first time we see Victor expressing want for human companionship, she becomes “livid with the hue of death”. The fact that Elizabeth dies in his embrace, foreshadows his role in the death of Henry, Justine and ultimately Elizabeth. The adjective “livid” normally refers to extreme anger, an adjective incongruous to the passive passing of Elizabeth. This confusion of emotions could mirror Victor’s declining mental state.

Similarly, Offred’s dream is elegiac and refers to death and loss. To contrast though, instead of an eerie setting of dying upon an embrace, Atwood creates a sense of adventure in running away from death or capture. In this sense, it could be said that Offred’s mental state is more intact as running away from death, rather than embracing it like Victor, is a much more normal response.

Offred describes the chase in perspective of her daughter, “holding her hand, dragging her, she wouldn’t cry, she doesn’t know”. Without ever giving her a name, Offred’s dream focuses on her daughter, perhaps suggesting guilt that she didn’t do enough to save her.

Similarly, Victor demonstrates guilt, in the sense that he regrets creating the monster. However, Victor seems to use sleep as an escapism, “seek a few moments of forgetfulness”, where Offred uses her dreams as a punishment for letting her daughter down, “this is the worst”. The fact that Victor is guilt ridden and frightened of his creation is shown by “started from my sleep with horror”.

The sibilance here shows the evil nature of his creation, likening the ‘s’ sound to a snake, demonstrating Victor’s immediate abhorrence to what he had done. To contrast this, Offred is in need of her daughter, “holding out her arms to me”, and it is the absence of her creation which troubles her, where it is the presence of Victor’s creation which troubles him.

Both dream extracts create a sense of loss, albeit in different ways. Offred is tormented by the sight of her daughter being “carried away”, an action which should be reserved for Offred as her mother, and she has physically lost her daughter. Adding to the sense of loss, the “radio and old music” is being played, a symbol of the old and nostalgic, meaning the life she shared with her daughter is well and truly over.

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Victor also demonstrates a sense of loss, in the sense that he’s lost his family by committing this horrific, moral crime. “Dead mother in my arms” shows Victor being tormented by dead relatives and the fact that Elizabeth disappears before his eyes, could refer to him becoming distant from his family. The noun “shroud” is similar to a pall and is covering a coffin, carrying on the semantic field of death, by presenting Victor as being overwhelmed and claustrophobic in his situation, similar to a dead body being “enveloped” by a “shroud”.

Both characters are shown to be emotional and distant from their family, Victor by choice because he is so tormented and guilty of his actions, and Offred by force and it is this distance which is causing such torment, but even so both characters show a clear mental decline through analysis of their dreams, albeit for different reasons.

Ellie, Year 12

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Teacher comment: An excellent piece of Year 12 close analysis that makes the leap beyond the mere incorporation of socio-historic context, to making analytical use of it, whilst also forging a thematic argument that makes compelling links between nineteenth and twentieth century texts, on what it means to be human, despite the century dividing them.

Analyse Chapter 13 of Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” to show the effect of oppression on Offred’s mental state.

In Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”, feelings of loss and despair are presented through Offred’s account of her supposed “failure” of not falling pregnant.

Offred uses the semantic field of the menstrual cycle to show how it has now become the focus of her life. “Diminishings of tissue” literally refers to the loss of tissue in a menstrual cycle, but figuratively it could refer to her loss of identity.

To expand on this, it could be argued that every time Offred gets her period, she has once again “fail[ed]”, and is one step closer to being sent to the Colonies for not being fertile, so she is losing her identity in the sense that she is nearer to death each time she fails.

Offred uses the imperfect tense of “used to think” to reflect back on how she perceived her body in the time before. “Instrument of pleasure” refers to receiving sexual gratification from her body, an illegal feeling in Gilead, so by reflecting back she is almost committing a crime. Atwood has maybe used this notion to make the reader realise how much we take for granted with our bodies, and to what extent the oppression is in Gilead.

In an almost worrying sense, Atwood presents Offred as becoming indoctrinated.

Where before Offred has not been mentally conforming through her “Night” sections, she seems now to believe the “expectations” of her birthing a child, “[the expectations] have become my own”. This is an almost scary thought as we see the regime become more controlling over Offred. In the same way, we view Offred’s mental decline in the self-deprecating statement, “I am a cloud, congealed around a central object”, presenting the idea that she is nothing but a womb, a notion that Gilead has pressed upon her. A “cloud” is an intangible object, perhaps suggesting that Offred is now distancing herself from her physical body because she has lost ownership of it.

Atwood creates feelings of misguided guilt from Offred in the sense that she almost blames herself from the lack of pride. The repetition of “empty, again, again”, shows a sense of anxiety over the matter, as she is repeating herself and reiterating the same thought of failure again and again. It is unclear in this

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chapter whether this anxiety is stemming from her failure to the regime or failure to herself in that this will lead to her death. The latter notion is reiterated in the sense that every “moon”, referring to the menstrual lunar cycle, is an “omen”, meaning a symbol of death, showing her to be anxious about her impending death following her failure. The fact that Offred sees getting her period, and therefore failing to conceive that month, leads her to expect death, shows a sense of her depression and fear of the regime.

Atwood uses colourful imagery to connote Offred’s feelings of despair. Offred states that her womb “glows red” showing the menstrual cycle to again be beginning. “Red” has symbolism of not only the cycle, but anger and hatred, perhaps demonstrating Offred’s hatred of herself for not conceiving, or hatred towards the regime for what they’re making her do. Also when referring to her “black” empty womb, she actually uses the compound adjective “black-red” to show that even in the dark depths of her always empty womb, there is a hint of “red”, showing the aforementioned anger to be relentless in Offred’s mind, showing her mental decline.

Throughout the continued oppression in Gilead, Offred shows an attitude that is more and more conforming to the regime, a worrying thought for a reader, and a clear show of her mental decline throughout the novel.

Ellie, Year 12

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Teacher comment: This coursework represents a response to a title chosen by the candidate and is an incredibly mature and sophisticated piece of analytical writing that demonstrates a profound appreciation of Shakespeare's craft.

How does Shakespeare use powerful language and structural techniques to convey Macbeth and lady Macbeth’s changing attitudes throughout the play?

Macbeth was a play written soon after the prevention of the gunpowder plot, with the fear of similar occurrences still present in the consciousness of the public and the monarchy. This is a central concept to Macbeth, demonstrated by the deterioration of Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s character after they murder Duncan. Shakespeare conveys this through his writing mainly by using a variety of figurative and structural devices within the speech of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and other characters throughout the play.

Before the character of Macbeth is physically revealed to the audience, preconceptions of his character have already been developed, as in Act 1 Scene 2. The Captain speaks of Macbeth’s highly honourable actions whilst fighting on King Duncan’s side in the battle. The primary characteristic of Macbeth presented in this scene is the epithet “brave”. Throughout the scene, the Captain refers to Macbeth as “Brave Macbeth” and uses similes to make the same association. An example of this is the Captain’s line, “Like Valour’s minion carv’d out his passage”, which portrays the violence and ease for Macbeth to kill the enemies in his way (from the emotive verb “carv’d”). However, the suggestion that he did so in a way that is analogous to a servile follower of “Valour” (the pure essence of bravery), displays the extent of this epithet. This expresses the actions of Macbeth to the other characters and audience to be noble and honourable. To support this idea, the King commemorates Macbeth by stating “More is thy due than more than all can pay” (1:4). This hyperbole explicitly states that the King – the wealthiest and most powerful man in the country – nor the riches of the rest of the world, is suitable compensation for Macbeth’s actions. Therefore, the use of the two aforementioned literary devices portray Macbeth to be good, courageous and noble.

In the third scene of the first act, Macbeth is told 3 prophecies by the Witches.

The first states his title and the second predicts his new title “Thane of Cawdor”, which quickly becomes true. When Macbeth realises that the witches are correct in their foretellings, he begins to contemplate the validity of the 3rd prophecy (that he will become king) and by what means he will fulfil it.

Macbeth discusses this in an aside, using extensive euphemism such as “the swelling act”, “that suggestion” and “horrible imaginings” when referring to regicide. This illustrates the degree of fear towards the notion of killing Duncan, being so frightening that he cannot explicitly mention it even in his own mind.

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seem to be a distinctly good character to the audience.

In comparison to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is a vastly different character as she opposes Macbeth’s positive qualities when she hears of the prophecy that Macbeth will become king. Lady Macbeth recognises Macbeth’s ambition, but believes that he will not fulfil the prophecy when she states, “Art not without ambition, but the illness that should attend it”. In this line, Lady Macbeth recognises that Macbeth does have strong ambition towards murdering the king but he does not have the immorality necessary to commit it. She also recognises that the immorality required to commit such a crime is an “illness”, which proves that Lady Macbeth realises the degree of evil involved in the act of regicide that she herself possesses. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s use of the modal verb “should” expresses that immorality or “illness” is an expectation to Lady Macbeth, conveying her encouragement towards embracing these characteristics. The significance of this line, however, is the immediacy of her decision to kill the king, contrasting with Macbeth’s aside in which he argued to and fro until he reached the conclusion that he would let fate crown him king. This not only reveals Lady Macbeth’s decisiveness but her immorality towards achieving what she wants.

Rather than simply persuading Macbeth to kill the king, Lady Macbeth assumes complete control in coordinating the murder of Duncan, conveying her dominance.

One indication of Lady Macbeth’s overpowering dominance over her husband is the speech in Act 1 Scene 7 when Lady Macbeth enters. Macbeth clearly states his intentions in saying “We will proceed no further in this business”; however, Lady Macbeth convinces him otherwise in the span of twenty lines. By insulting Macbeth’s masculinity and then his integrity, Macbeth very quickly conforms and simply replies with “If we should fail?”. The interrogative that Macbeth poses further demonstrates how submissive he is to Lady Macbeth and how effective she is at manipulating people.

After Macbeth murders the king (the worst possible crime in the Jacobean period), the roles and characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth reverse. The audiences first indication of this is when Macbeth convinces two assassins to kill Banquo and Fleance by saying “in the catalogue ye go for men” and continuing “As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels”. Macbeth doubts their manhood using the simile of dog breeds to exemplify the variety of men there are. The manipulation of these men through doubting their masculinity parallels the way Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth into murder, in which she used insults like “live a coward in thine own esteem” and “Be so much more the man”. This was likely employed by Shakespeare to depict the transformation of Macbeth’s attitudes becoming more like Lady Macbeth’s were before the murder. Another illustration of Macbeth’s changing attitude is when he states, “The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand”. Shakespeare uses parallelism to emphasise the connection between Macbeth’s heart and hand, metonymies for his ambitions and his actions, conveying the idea that Macbeth will carry out all of his inclinations without debating the consequences, as he used to. This impulsive nature that Macbeth has adopted closely resembles Lady Macbeth’s decisiveness and lack of balanced judgement in her choice to orchestrate the murder of Duncan.

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Likewise, Lady Macbeth has assumed the submissive and less powerful role that Macbeth had in the relationship before the murder was committed. This is made apparent by Shakespeare’s presentation of Lady Macbeth in Act 3 Scene 2, where she asks Macbeth “Is Banquo gone from court?”. This is dramatically ironic as Lady Macbeth does not know that Macbeth has sent murderers to kill Banquo. The significance of this is that her lack of being informed on the actions of Macbeth illustrates her loss of power over him. Furthermore, throughout the duration of the scene, Macbeth dominates the conversation with his abundance of speech, whilst Lady Macbeth has far fewer lines, structurally demonstrating her loss of power.

During the course of the plot of “Macbeth”, the two main characters – Macbeth and Lady Macbeth – undergo a complete role reversal brought about by the murder of King Duncan, which leads to their deterioration and eventual downfall. This is the most crucial element of the play because “Macbeth” was written to support King James VI by demonstrating to the public the extensive consequences of regicide. The suggestion Shakespeare poses through structural and linguistic techniques: that no matter if a person is valiant, noble and good (Macbeth) or impulsive, selfish and evil (Lady Macbeth), committing or even contributing to regicide will eventually lead to their demise.

Elijah, Year 11

Teacher comment: The following short story was wrtten for a national competition called '500 words'. Her work has some brilliantly ambitious sentence structures.

A slight morning frost seemed to wrap its grey hand around the slopes of the hillside, painting them with a shimmering white glow that mirrored the blankness of the empty sky. The grass quivered under the icy grip of a southblowing wind that danced through the air. Mingling with the swirling gusts of the winter breeze, was a damp, earthy smell that lingered above the odd patches of dirt that had scattered themselves haphazardly throughout the plain.

A strange liquid had taken residence inside one of these patches. It was thick, and red, and was dripping from the chest of a man who was lying in the midst of an oncoming fog, sprawled out upon the white-tinted grass beneath him.

His breaths were forced and ragged, his ears forced to tune in to the only sound there was on that empty winter plain, the final desperate beats of his own heart.

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Something strange caught his eye.

Another man was standing amongst a line of trees in front of him, but not too close that the weak strands of the morning light could not reach him. He had dark brown eyes and matching hazelnut hair and a long dark grey coat that was torn and snagged, with loose threads that hung out-of-place by his side.

Perhaps more noticeable, was the fact that his eyes were staring transfixed at him, their jetblack pupils fully trained upon his figure, still lying on the grass. As he met the other man’s gaze, the corners of his lips turned up at the edges, morphing themselves into a sickening, sinister grin.

A familiar, sweet scent made its way through the air towards him, dragging with it an inviting heat that caressed the once soft features of his face, now tensed up in rippling wrinkles that formed raging crevices across his forehead. His eyes cracked open, the visions of his dream still painting themselves in vivid colours in his mind’s eye.

Thankfully, he was safe inside his village coffee shop.

Unnerved by his dream, he stepped out into the street and was immediately greeted with an incredibly cold wind that seemed to sneer at him as it brushed past his neck.

His eyes caught on a still figure on the other side of the street.

He had dark brown eyes and matching hazelnut hair and a long dark grey coat that was torn and snagged, with loose threads that hung out-of-place by his side.

Perhaps more noticeable, was the fact that his eyes were staring transfixed at him, the corners of his lips turned up at the edges, a sinister grin fixed on his face.

The glittering intensity of the strange man’s eyes bored into the wide aqua ones of his own, and his heartbeat rose in a flurry of thuds inside his chest, creating a queer beat that reverberated around his head. The man pulled his coat tighter around him, and headed home, far away from the strange aura that man’s presence always seemed to omit.

Alice, Year 9

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Food Science & Nutrition

Annabel

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ASPIRE Year 12 - End results from WJEC Food Science and Nutrition practical exam

Ollie

Sophie 37

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Pupils were asked to design a poster showing the 5 main nutrients the body requires to stay healthy and provide examples of foods that are good sources of them.

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History

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For the Michaelmas Term the whole Prep School learnt about the First World War and produced some outstanding work. The learning culminated in a whole school exhibition which was opened by the Lord Mayor. Here is an example of some of the outstanding work produced.

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Teacher comment: A well-researched essay analysing the complex reasons leading to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Why did the world go to war in 1914?

World War 1 was the cause of international death and destruction, with 15 to 19 million people dead, and 23 million wounded. Some historians think that the war was inevitable, given the growing tension between countries and the final triggers which pushed the world over the edge, into war. In my opinion, there are many causes of World War 1, and the main ones: alliances nationalism, militarism and imperialism all interconnect and link. Feelings of nationalism often bring the desire to build better armies (militarism) against other alliances. Imperialism often brings strong feelings of pride, which many powers think must be supported by a strong military force.

The alliance systems that existed in Europe were one of the long-term causes of the World War. This was a treaty that countries signed that confirmed if one of them went to war, the other would help them and vice versa. The treaty was mainly used for trade, but when it came to World War 1, it had a big role. The alliance systems were advantageous for less powerful countries such as Italy, because they were afraid of being attacked by a more powerful country, but the alliances gave them comfort that they had another nation which promised to help defend them from attack. alliance treaties were signed decades before the war, making it a very significant long-term cause. By 1914, Europe had two alliances: The Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente included France, Russia and Britain, whilst the Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Austria – Hungary and Italy (also known as the Central Powers).

Geographically, both alliances had advantages: The Triple Entente had the Central Powers surrounded, which meant that they were able to close in at any point and attack from all sides. However, the nations of the Triple Alliance shared borders, which meant they could easily communicate with each other without getting intercepted. The disadvantage of the alliance systems was that if there was a small war between two countries, other countries would be dragged into it: creating an even bigger war. This is exactly what happened in June 1914 – after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot (which I will talk about later), Austria- Hungary attacked Serbia, then Russia attacked Austria Hungary, causing Germany to declare war on Russia because of Austria-Hungary’s alliance with Germany.

This shows how the alliance systems caused countries to get involved and create chaos.

As well as this, both alliances showed a strong sense of nationalism: they were confident they would win the war; this only increased the tension between the two.

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Nationalism is a strong sense of patriotism: believing whole – heartedly that your country is the best there is, and exaggerating the importance or value of the nation. The powerful European nations such as Britain and Germany expressed a lot of nationalism.

The ‘Great Powers’ were the ones who had the strongest sense of nationalism- fuelled mainly by press and popular culture. The art aspect didn’t help much either: with plays, music, artwork being created that encourage nationalism.

Politicians did little to prevent this, and some even took part- with controversial remarks and rumours. However harmless this may seem, it led to great tensions between countries. Apart from France, none of the ‘Great Powers’ had been significantly defeated in about half a century. These small but victorious wars between underequipped and weak rivals only powered the nations more – and gave them the idea that they were undefeatable, leading to overconfidence and rising hostility between the alliances. One of the reasons of nationalism was if a nation had good resources to build armies and navies- or might have large empires - which I will discuss later. Nationalism also fuelled imperialism: the desire to conquer land and build an empire.

Another cause of World War 1 was militarism, or the arms race, where each country wanted to build the biggest and best armies or navies. All the countries were afraid of each other, so they wanted to be prepared to defend themselves. Before World War 1, all the main European powers increased how much money they spent drastically. Germany alone increased its expenditures by over 70%. In 1870-71, the Franco-Prussian war was a major reason for the sudden rise in militarism in Europe.

The war ended in severe defeat for France by many united German states. These German states became the obvious military power in Europe after their victory.

Russia was in a similar state to France, after their embarrassing defeat in the war with Japan in 1905. This caused the other European countries, especially France, to rush into building new and improved armies and navies to protect themselves from potential attack and defeats. Germany and Britain had an ongoing naval race over the North Sea. The German navy law of 1898 increased the battleships from nine cruisers to twelve. In 1900, the German navy passed a law which doubled the German battle fleet. Meanwhile, Britain made her first Dreadnought, which were large, heavily loaded, fast battleships which included 12-inch guns. This intensified the arms race between the two, as the Dreadnoughts raised the bar- making a new, higher standard. Between 1909 and 1911, Germany had made nine Dreadnoughts, whilst Britain made a total of eighteen. In 1913, Germany widened the passage in the Kiel Canal to allow easy passage for the Dreadnoughts between the Baltic and the North Sea, and Britain made a naval base for her Dreadnoughts in north Scotland. Germany believed that they would only become the world power through war, and their militarism only strengthened this belief. Many may believe that a war would be expected at this point, as military and naval tensions between European powers were very high.

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Imperialism was one of the other main reasons that war broke out in 1914. Before WW1, many nations were determined to conquer as many lands as they can, and build an empire so they can increase their power as well as wealth. Most of Asia and Africa was desired by European powers because of their abundance in natural recourses, which lead to friction between these countries. In the years leading up to 1914, countries scrambled to build their empires by establishing new territories and colonies. Since European countries were rapidly developing, they urgently needed raw materials like wood and metals to fuel this. Their colonies provided cheap raw materials, so there was a big rush to make more of them. As well as this, colonies provided slaves for the countries, so they would have cheap workers that were often exploited to work more than necessary for no money. In the early 1900s, Britain was by far the leading imperial power. She controlled India, Egypt, South Africa and other parts of Africa too. Germany, after it became unified in 1871, wanted to rival her empire, which led to the naval race between Germany and Britain. An example of how imperialism caused tension between European powers was when Germany attempted to gain control over the north African country Morocco. It almost led to a war between Britain, France and Germany, which strengthened the alliance between France and Britain, against Germany.

Another example of imperialism was in 1908, when Austria- Hungary took possession of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were previous territories of the Ottoman Empire. This created protests from European countries, including Serbia, Austria-Hungary’s neighbour.

The tension between these two countries sparked the outbreak of World War 1. This tension is established more powerfully after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The assassination of Ferdinand was a short-term factor that triggered the descent into WW1.

The assassination occurred on the 28th June 1914 in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. A group of Bosnian Serb students, also known as the Black Hand Gang, heard that Franz Ferdinand would be passing through Appel Quay, so they plotted an assassination. They received bombs, pistols and suicidal poison (which turned out to be out of date) and positioned themselves along the Archduke and his wife Sophia’s path. Cabrinovic, a member of the gang, threw a bomb at their car, but it bounced off and onto the wrong car, wounding two police officers. Ferdinand wanted to go to the hospital to visit the wounded police officers, but the chauffeurs took the wrong route and went into a side road where Gavrilo Princip, another member of the Black Hand Gang, was standing, holding a pistol. He shot at both Sophia and the Archduke, killing them both. With tensions already high between Europe’s powers, the assassination triggered WW1. Austria – Hungary declared war on Serbia to crush nationalism, causing a huge chain of events.

On the 29th July, Russia prepared for war against Austria- Hungary, but Germany then declares war on Russia on the 1st August to protect its ally. France then prepares for war with Germany to help Russia on the 2nd August. On the 5th August day, the Schlieffen Plan was put into action. Alfred Von Schlieffen was head of the Imperial Army of Germany. He said that to attack the Triple Entente, Germany must attack France

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and quickly defeat them. He argued that if this happens, Britain and Russia would not be willing to carry on fighting. Schlieffen devised a plan using 90% of Germany’s army to attack France. Because he knew that the French would have heavily fortified the Maginot line (the France – Germany border), Schlieffen planned to go through Belgium, as the French would not expect it. When one of his men brought up the fact that Britain has an alliance with Belgium, Schlieffen argued that Britain “will not go to war over a piece of paper “. However, he was wrong, and Britain declared war on Germany on the 4th August, stopping Germany from successfully invading Belgium, but it did trigger the start of World War 1.

In conclusion, I think that the main reason World War 1 began in 1914 was because of the alliances as well as imperialism. Although all the categories I have talked about played a huge role in the outbreak of war, in my opinion, these two were the most significant. This is because the alliance system created a lot of tension between countries, whilst imperialism increased the competition between them. Despite the short-term causes such as the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which really tipped the world over the edge, I think that alliances and imperialism have been building up for a long time, and were just waiting for a small trigger for the world to collapse into war.

Joyce, Year 9

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Geography

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Teacher comment: Year 9 pupils have been investigating life in Dharavi – India’s largest slum, located in the heart of Mumbai. As a stimulus, we watched Kevin Mcleod’s documentary ‘Slumming It’ in which he spends two weeks in this informal city-within-a-city of more than a million people. Pupils were tasked with creating a newspaper report into life in this part of Mumbai, and many did so with great empathy and compassion, showing the ability to put themselves in an unfamiliar context, and ‘think like a geographer’ about the issues such urban deprivation creates.

What should be done to give the people of Dharavi a better quality of life?

The government is obviously trying to pump in money for Dharavi but that will be a long-term help but will anyone do any short-term help. Some people say that it is a modern day society paradise as there is hardly any crime as well as 87% of people are in work, earning money. But the positive really stop there as the hygiene and sanitation is appalling. There is water with dangerous chemicals that children play in as well as most of the houses are built on piles of rubbish or the foundation is helped by a water or sewage pipe coming out of downtown Mumbai. Possibilities to improve the current living condition of the citizens of Dharavi could be to get international help. It will take years for India to provide the £1.1 billion into the city as they will have more key situations to pump their money into so if they ask for international help from countries such as USA, UK, Germany, France, Australia or any other LIC countries so they will get the development done quicker. Also India could provide a separate dump so citizens don’t thrown their rubbish and it piles up, increasing pollution and diseases will spread even quicker in the near future.

Lastly the government could build more school with better teachers as in the next generation, the adults will be smart enough to be doctors, know how to change the city in a positive way and even get the certain architectural education to be able to build better apartment buildings with the same rent but just better living conditions.

Zak, Year 9

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Zara, Year 2 48

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Year 2 have been learning about London. They made information booklets about our capital city.

Mya, Year 2

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Latin

After translating a passage from Latin into English, Year 9 pupils were asked to imagine the protagonist, Quintus’, journey and think about what he might have seen on his travels. As well as the postcards looking stunning, Annabel has included interesting conventional details.

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Teacher comment: KS4 Latin - pupils are required not only to translate themed passages of Latin into English, but also to analyse them in the same way they would English literature, identifying techniques such as alliteration, plosive sounds, emphatic word positioning, etc. This is very challenging and demands a sound understanding of the grammatical techniques of which Roman writers were so fond. These examples from Jessica are particularly well annotated.

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Teacher comment : After studying the background of the Roman forum, Y7 were given a task to imagine that they were walking through the forum at Pompeii; what would they hear and see? How would it differ from today’s high streets?

As I walk into the forum, I can see the people praying to the gods in all different temples. I keep on walking and I can hear men shouting and slave traders bargaining and the whispering of thieves. I can smell the stench of the slaves and the fish straight from the boat. While I walk through the forum I can see children playing, sellers shouting, buyers scrambling in their pockets, barbers snip-snipping. I can also smell the manure from the horses of the slightly more wealthy visitors.

A lot of things in the forum are different to today such as: the people that visit it, the method of payment, the type of shops and the fact that slavery is now highly illegal. Some similarities are: the business that is done and the products sold there.

I am impressed by the sheer scale of the forum and how it had its own economy within itself.

Finlay, Year 7

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Music

You can watch the following recordings of the concert by clicking on the links.

Harp Concerto Handel March in D Solo performed by Abigail, Year 7

278 years after his death, Vivaldi remains one of the most popular Baroque composers and, on Saturday 16th March, the choirs and orchestra staged an extravaganza of his music in Hull Minster. Isabelle Richardson expertly performed his delicate and elegant ‘Harp Concerto’ in the first half. Eleanor Quantick gave a virtuosic rendition of Vivaldi’s Op.6 ‘Violin Concerto’ in A minor. The brass, percussion and viola groups also aired music which evoked the splendour of Venice in all its glory. In the second half Prep and Senior Choirs joined together with parents, Old Collegians and a professional orchestra, to sing Vivaldi’s joyful ‘Gloria’.

There were accomplished solos from Leonora and Abigail and professional singers Charlotte Coggin and Claire Holdich. It was wonderful to perform our ‘Spring Concert’ for the first time in Hull Minster; a beautiful venue with an acoustic which really complemented the music.

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Law Teacher comment: This is an extremely good application answer. Becky has discussed all the relevant offence and defences present in the scenario in a clear and logical manner. She has included all relevant legislation and supported all points of law with an appropriate case. Becky has clearly set out each actus reus (the physical aspect of a crime) element for each offence, and what level of mens rea (the mental element) is required. She provided clear definitions when needed – for example defining direct intent and recklessness. Becky is a first year law student and this was the first question she has done incorporating a general defence, so she has done fantastically well.

Alvin took drugs prescribed by his doctor for illness and drank a number of glasses of whisky. He then went to a café and sat down at a table. He suddenly felt a great rage. He turned towards Bela, who was sitting at the next table, and shouted very loudly at her.

Bela was a very timid and anxious person and she immediately fainted. For months afterwards, she was unwilling to leave her house. Alvin walked away from the café and then kicked out widely at Claire. The first person he passed. Claire was 45 years but suffered from weak bones. The kick resulted in a bad break to her ankle. Alvin could not remember anything that happened after he shouted at Bela. Discuss Alvin’s liability for criminal offences in relation to Bela and to Claire.

Alvin may be liable for Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm towards Bela. An assault must be established first. Under section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 ‘common assault’ is committed if a person intent ally or recklessly does an act which makes the victim fear that he is about to be subjected to immediate physical violence.

There are several elements of the actus reus that must discussed, these are the act, be immediate, and cause fear. Firstly, the act can be anything that causes fear; words, actions, even silence (R v Ireland). In this scenario, Alvin’s action of shouting very loudly at Bela is the act. Secondly it must be immediate. Immediate does not mean instantaneous, but imminent (Smith). In this scenario Bela feared that she would be subjected to immediate physical violence after Alvin shouted at her. Finally, it must cause fear. It does not matter if the defendant could have actually carried out the threat, as long as the victim believed the threat (Logdon).

In this case Bela believe the threat causing her to faint.

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However, Alvin may be liable for Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) under s.47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

The mens rea for assault is an intention to cause the victim to fear immediate and unlawful violence or recklessness as to whether or not such fear is caused. If it was direct intention the question of ‘was it D’s main aim or purpose to cause fear? (Mohan) needs to be satisfied. For recklessness the questions of ‘did the D foresee the risk of causing V to fear violence needs to be asked (Cunningham). In this scenario the defendant had direct intent as he purposely shouted at her after feeling a great rage.

However, Alvin may be liable for Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) under s.47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.ABH is a triable-either-way offence with a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment.

The actus reus for ABH is the same as for assault. Therefore shouting at Bela (as discussed above) is enough, however in addition the prosecution must show that the assault caused actual bossily harm. In Miller ABH was defined as any hurt or injury calculated to interfer with the health or comfort of the victim. ABH also includes mental injury (Chan-Fook). In this scenario Alvin’s actions interfered with Bela’s health and comfort as she fainted, and later became unwilling to leave the house for months.

The mens rea for ABH is the same as for assault. The prosecution needs to prove an intention or recklessness as to committing the assault, however there is no need to prove that the accused intended to cause actual bodily harm, or foresaw the risk of it being caused as long as the harm flowed naturally from the assault (Roberts).

Alvin may also be liable for causing grievous bodily harm under s.20 of the OAPA 1861.

S.20 provides that it is an offence to wound or inflict any grievous bodily harm upon any other person. For the actus reus the prosecution must prove that D inflicted either GBH or a wound. GBH means serious harm (Smith), both physical and mental (Burstow). This usually includes any injury serious enough to warrant hospital treatment (e.g. broken bones). In this scenario Claire suffers from a badly broken ankle, serious enough to warrant hospital treatment. For a s.20 intention or recklessness as to causing some harm must be established (Mowatt). Alvin had intention to cause some harm when he ‘kicked out wildly at Claire’.

Alvin may be able to use the defence of intoxication for the charges of ABH and s.20 GBH. The effect that intoxication has on a D’s liability will depend upon whether the intoxication was voluntary or involuntary and whether the offence is one of basic intent or specific intent. In this scenario Alvin was voluntarily intoxicated by drugs and whisky. Voluntary intoxication can be a partial defence to a crime of specific intent if D is so intoxicated that he can not form the mens rea (DPP v Beard). In this case Alvin has committed crimes of basic intent (a reckless mens rea is sufficient) and so the defence would fail (Majewski).

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Mathematics

Year 2 Maths Year 2 have been using their reasoning skills to explain how they have solved division problems. They have been thinking carefully about the problem and how to apply their numbers skills to solve it, deepening their understanding of number and division.

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Year 3 Maths Luca has been looking at place value and has used previous and new knowledge and extended it further to apply a reason to his challenge 4 question, showng greater depth of understanding

Year 4 Maths The children have developed their knowledge and understanding of fractions by using reasoning skills. Eva demonstrated fantastic reasoning to solving what is incorrect in the representation.

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Year 5 Maths Thomas worked hard to think about whether a fraction becomes greater in value when you add the same number to the numerator and denominator. He showed his thought process and proved his answer using a bar modelling method, demonstrating a secure and in depth understanding of fractions.

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Year 6 Challenge 4 Percentages work Pupils had been asked to convert all the scores to percentages before answering the questions, choosing their own way to work out their calculations. Prior discussion had been on how to get a denominator of 100, before applying the same rule to the numerator.

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Roller Coaster Designs Year 10 Pupils designed roller coasters using their transformations of graphs skills. After the initial planning, they used graphing software to test how accurately they had transformed the different curves used.

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Teacher comment: New for our Year 10s this year has been the option of taking an extra course to help them prepare for their iGCSE Mathematics, Maths Plus.

The students have extra Maths lessons with three subject specialist teachers in order to help them consolidate and practise the topics that they will need to master in order to pass the Foundation paper.

The pictures show the power of such practice. Here, Corey in Year 10 has been working on Simultaneous Equations, one of the hardest Grade 5 topics, at the top end of the difficulty for the Foundation paper. He has mastered this topic by carefully following the clear pattern of working out from the examples he has seen and then by repeating the method in clearly laid out steps of his own working. Every example is correct and has further solidified his understanding and command of the method.

GCSE Maths Seventeen Year 10 Students are celebrating after receiving an impressive set of GCSE results in Mathematics today, having taken the exam 18 months early. All of the students achieved a grade 9 – 7 (equivalent to the former grades A*-A) with 60% awarded the highest grade 9 and 94% graded 8 or above.

The students will now go on to take a further course in Additional Mathematics, sitting the exam next year. The course will provide the students with an enriched programme of study and an introduction to the Mathematics studied post 16.

Year 10 student, Theo, said: “I am delighted with my results and I’m looking forward to studying Additional Maths as it will really help to bridge the gap when I study A Level Maths in the Sixth Form.”

Headmistress, Alex Wilson, said: “I am delighted that our students secured such excellent results; they are a testament to their hard work, determination and a passion for Maths. Many congratulations to them and the Maths department.”

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Primary Mathematics Challenge For the second ‘bonus round’ paper we were pleased that three children qualified: Louis , Xavier and Hannah . All three pupils did fantastically well, scoring between 12-17. Children scoring 14 or higher, received a Bronze certificate and this year we are thrilled to say that Louis has achieved a Bronze award medal and certificate. Nationally, 1496 medal were awarded.

Well done Louis! We look forward to participating in the next challenge, next year.

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National Young Mathematicians Awards Congratulations to Aaron, Abigail, Timmy and Toby who won the regional final of the National Young Mathematicians Awards.

The competition is judged on teamwork as well as Mathematical ability, and the challenges that the group were working on are below.

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Modern Foreign Langauges Teacher comment:: This is an excellent piece of writing as it contains a high degree of orignality and yet is expressed in an accurate manner using a range of complex structures. It contains the Present, Imperfect, Perfect and Future tenses.

Mis pasatiempos e intereses’ ¡Hola! Me llamo Carles, y tengo quince años. Tengo muchos pasatiempos. En mis ratos libres suelo hacer mis deberes, escuchar música y ver programas de patinaje en mi portátil. A mi me encanta la música y tengo un gusto amplio en lo que se refiere a la música. Por ejemplo, me flipan las bandas sonoras de los espectáculos de patinaje sobre hielo (la mayoría de estas canciones son clásicas) pero, como contraste, también me chifla la música coreana como BTS. Uso Spotify para escuchar un montón de música de las bandas sonoras de patinadores como Yuzuro Hanyu. Yuzuro Hanyu es uno de mis modelos a seguir puesto que ha ganado muchas medallas de oro en los Juegos Olímpicos y en los finales del Gran Prix. Es el mejor patinador del mundo y es muy valiente en mi opinión, dado que a pesar de todas las lesiones físicas que ha sufrido, ha batido varios récords. Otro de mis modelos a seguir es Kim Namjoon de la banda BTS. Es un hombre coreano y es guapísimo. Es un buen modelo a seguir ya que tiene mucho talento como ‘rapero’ y usa su fama para ayudar a otros. En 2017 dio un discurso a la ONU sobre su campaña que se llama ‘Love Yourself’.

Aunque me mola la música coreana, algunos ídolos coreanos son malos modelos a seguir como Seungri de la banda Big bang. En este momento, Seungri tiene mala fama para sus acciones de acoso sexual a unas mujeres. Me gustaba Big Bang pero, ahora, definitivamente no. Me disgusta mucho. Aun así, todavía me encanta BTS y los veo en mi tiempo libre. Siempre los he visto en mi móvil o en mi portátil, pero ¡estoy muy ilusionado dado que voy a ver a BTS en Londres el próximo julio! ¿Te veré allí?

Charli, Year 10

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Teacher comment: This is an excellent answer to the question 'What makes a good friend?'. It includes pronouns, time phrases, a range of tenses and two lovely similes. ¿Qué es un buen amigo/ una buena amiga?

A mi parecer, una buena amiga es alhuien que nunca te aburre y te hace reír mucho. Por esa razón Poppy es mi amiga desde hace cuatro años, desde cuando empezamos este insti. Cuando nos conocimos, era muy tímida pero con el paso del tiempo se ha hecho muy ruidosa. Aunque nos discutimos un poco, siempre nos hacemos las paces en seguida. Tiene el pelo como el carbón y todo el mundo cree que es guapa pero yo pienso que la belleza se desvanece, así es su sentido del humor lo que más me importa. No suelo llevarme bien con otros chicos, así que la mayoría de mis amigos son chicas. A mi amiga le gusta bromear sobre esto. Tienes las cejas grandes pero los ojos marrones como dos botones, y me parece como un chico pequeño sin maquillaje.

Alex , Year 10

Teacher comment: A brief introduction to himself by Aaron in his first term of Spanish in Year 7 Hola Me llamo Aaron y tengo trece años. Vivo en Madrid, la capital de España.

Mi cumpleaños es el dieciocho de octubre dos mil cinco. Tengo dos hermanos y dos hermanastros. Me gusta jugar a los videojuegos. Es guay. Me encanta hablar con mis amigos porque es divertido. Los lunes, generalmente cuando hace mal tiempo y llueve, hago natación. Los miércoles, juego al baloncesto, pero no me gusta. Tengo dos perros y tres gatos. Mis gatos son negros y blancos. Mis perros son marrones y blancos.

A veces, juego al futbol, pero no me gusta nada. Cuando llueve, juego al futbol porque me gusta cuando llueve y es guay. Nunca saco fotos porque no es divertido. Detesto jugar al tenis porque es estúpido.

Los sábados, hago artes marciales y me gusta muchísimo. Mi héroe es Cristiano Ronaldo porque es simpático. Es genial. Mi actor favorito es High Jackman porque es divertido.

Aaron, Year 7

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Teacher Comment: An excellent piece of writing which includes a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures on the topic of 'School'

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Teacher comment: Year 10 pupils were asked to write 100 words about the weather in their region and how they get to school. This is Josh's answer. It's succinct (95 words), covers exactly what he needed to say and he uses a lovely range of vocab and structures.

J'habite en Angleterre dans une ville qui s'appelle Beverley. Ici, le climat est doux mais tout le temps il pleut. En hiver, il fait trop froid mais il ne neige presque jamais à cause du changement climatique et le réchauffement de la Terre. En été il peut faire très chaud de temps en temps. Normalement, je vais au collège en car de ramassage à huit heures six car mes parents n'ont pas assez de temps. Le trajet dure trente-cinq minutes s'il n'y a pas de circulation. Malheureusement, quelquefois, le car est en retard ce qui est irritant.

Josh, Year 10 Teacher comment: Tom's written work below is from his Module 3 assessment. He had to respond to 3 bullets: are you sporty, what do you do at the weekend, what do you use your computer for?

This work is particularly impressive given that he has included the perfect tense (which, of course, we have yet to do as a class), he's included subordinate clauses like "when I can" and "if the weather is fine" as well as reference to the future with "I would like" Je m’appelle Tom. J’aime le sport. Le week-end, je joue au foot le samedi et je joue au rugby le dimanche. Une fois que j’ai fini l’entraînement, je fais mes devoirs et puis je regarde un film avec ma famille ou j’aime trainer avec mes amis.

Sur mon ordinateur, j’aime regarder YouTube ou je tchatte sur Skype avec mes copains.

Sur mon portable j’utilise Instagram et j’envoie des textos à ma famille. Je joue sur mon Xbox quand je peux. Quelquefois je joue au golf s’il fait beau.

Je voudrais manger chez McDo ou chez KFC. J’aime sortir aux restos mais je déteste le centre commercial.

Tom, Year 8 Teacher comment: The aim of the piece was to practise room names within a house and prepositions. Mia has used a variety of prepositions and room names but she has also used correctly agreed adjectives and several opinion phrases. The accuracy of her work is very impressive.

Ma maison est à la campagne dans les banlieues de York. Il y a deux étages et trois chambres, deux salles de bains et une piscine. Au réz-de-chaussée il y a un vestibule, un salon, une cuisine, une piscine, un bureau, une salle à manger et un jardin. Le nouveau vesitbule est à côté de la piscine et le salon moderne. Le bureau est en face du salon et la salle à manger est entre le bureau et la cuisine. Le jardin est à côté du salon.

Au premier étage il y a ma chambre, la chambre de mon frère, la chambre de mes parents et deux salles de bains. La chambre de mes parents est en face des escaliers et il y a un dressing et une salle de bains attenant à côté de notre salle de bains. Ma chambre a un dressing et est au-dessus de la cuisine.

J'adore ma maison notamment mon dressing et la piscine. C'est moderne mais jolie, c'est parfait!

Mia, Year 9

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¿Cómo utiliza el director a) Las técnicas cinematografías b) La luz y el color c) El sonido para crear efectos determinados y para atraer la atención del espectador? ¿Tiene éxito en tu opinión?

En este ensayo, voy a examinar la manera en que el director del ‘Laberinto del Fauno’, Guillermo Del Toro, usa las técnicas cinematografías, por ejemplo, la alegoría, los ángulos de la cámara, los efectos especiales, juntos con la luz, el color y el sonido para lograr su visión deseado en la película. Además, voy a considerar como estas técnicas provocan el interés del espectador, y finalmente evaluaré hasta qué punto Del Toro tiene éxito en hacer esto.

Primeramente, la alegoría es una de las técnicas del director usada para expresar el gran contraste entre el mundo real, justo después de la Guerra Civil Española, y el mundo de la fantasía. La yuxtaposición de estos conceptos agrega una gran profundidad a la película, y debe notarse que el único personaje presente en ambos casos es Ofelia, por lo tanto, se puede decir que ella es el principal conducto de la alegoría de Del Toro. Su naturaleza rebelde y aventurera le convierte en un símbolo apropiado para representar la izquierda y la resistencia española, y últimamente la anarquía. Ofelia también es retratada en una luz favorable por el director mientras que, al contrario, la derecha se mostró muy negativamente a través del símbolo del personaje despiadado del Capitán Vidal, lo que podría ser una indicación de su inclinación política hacia la izquierda. Guillermo Del Toro tiene una posición política bastante liberal, por lo que su descripción del conflicto entre Ofelia y Vidal es, por extensión, una crítica de las fuerzas franquistas que destaca su apoyo a la izquierda. De hecho, los villanos en la mayoría de las películas de Del Toro, como Vidal y la derecha en 'El Laberinto Del Fauno', los nazis en 'Hellboy' y el industrial en 'Cronos', comparten un factor común de autoritarismo, que recalca aún más su tendencia izquierda.

En un momento de la película, Ofelia cuenta a su hermano nonato una historia que transmite la ira y la frustración que sienten los rebeldes que intentan luchar contra el régimen de Franco: ‘Entre los hombres, solo se hablaba del miedo a la muerte y al dolor, pero nunca de la promesa de inmortalidad. Y todas las tardes, la rosa se marchitaba sin poder otorgar sus dones a persona alguna. Olvidada y perdida en la cima de aquella montaña de piedra fría solo hasta el fin de los tiempos…’ Esto es un ejemplo claro de la alegoría, que atrae la atención del espectador porque lo hace reconocer la tragedia de la situación de Ofelia: tiene que usar la fantasía para escapar de la realidad brutal de la España de posguerra, pero aún así no puede evadirla por completo porque es parte de su mundo de sueños también. La 'rosa' podría ser un símbolo para el objetivo de los rebeldes, de derrocar a la derecha, pero sola y ‘perdida’ en la cima de la montaña sugiere que está desierta e inalcanzable, enfatizando que, a pesar de sus esperanzas desesperadas de victoria, sus valores e ideales tienen que seguir siendo un sueño, al igual que la 'inmortalidad'.

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Guillermo Del Toro utiliza la contraposición de escenas para resaltar el entrelazamiento del mundo real y el mundo de la fantasía a lo largo de la película. Varias imágenes vuelven a ocurrir, como cuando Ofelia tomó la llave del sapo en su primera tarea, iguala a la clave de Mercedes para el almacén de provisiones que usa para ayudar a los rebeldes. Un factor común de rebeldía es evidente en ambas escenas y, por lo tanto, en ambos mundos. Otra yuxtaposición de escenas es esa en que Ofelia obtiene una daga de la guarida del Hombre Pálido, mientras que Mercedes usa un cuchillo para herir a Vidal y escapar de la tortura. Ambos pares de imágenes recurrentes sirven para crear un paralelo entre los personajes de Ofelia y Mercedes, que son caracteres recalcitrantes y valientes.

Quizás el ejemplo más sorprendente del montaje paralelo es la combinación del banquete que se presenta frente al Hombre Pálido en la guarida, y el banquete que Vidal organiza para los funcionarios republicanos. Del Toro puede haber elegido comparar a los dos antagonistas de esta manera para expresar la monstruosidad del Capitán Vidal, que es el mismo que el monstruo del Hombre Pálido. Esto atrae la atención del espectador porque lo pone nervioso por los personajes bajo el control de Vidal, ya que su capacidad para el mal parece ser ilimitada, mientras que la naturaleza verdadera atroz de su personaje se desarrolla a lo largo de la película.

También hay evidencia de paralelismo intertextual en la película. En algunas entrevistas, Del Toro ha hecho referencia a las influencias de los cuentos de hadas en 'El Laberinto Del Fauno', como la serie de 'Alice' de Lewis Carroll, ‘The Blessing of Pan’ y las obras del artista española Francisco Goya.

En particular, la pintura de Goya, titulada 'Saturno devorando a su hijo', es una de las inspiraciones temáticas de la película. La imagen de Saturno, o Titus Cronos en la mitología griega, comiéndose a su hijo para evitar que sea un usurpador, le muestra como el devorador de todas las cosas. Esta es una representación alegórica de España en la posguerra, como si la Guerra Civil española hubiera consumido a su propia gente. La pintura se alude sutilmente en la película por las imágenes en las paredes de la guarida del hombre pálido y el momento en que devora a las hadas en la misma manera en que Saturno devora a su hijo.

Además, en la película se utiliza una interesante variedad de ángulos de la cámara para fortalecer la percepción del espectador de los personajes diferentes, una técnica cinematográfica utilizada para atraer su atención. Cuando el Capitán Vidal está en la escena, el ángulo de la cámara tiende a ser un primer plano de abajo arriba a una distancia corta. Este hace que el espectador le mire de abajo, lo que magnifica su presencia, enfatizando su naturaleza dominante y el control que tiene sobre los otros personajes de la película. Por el contrario, Ofelia también se muestra en primer plano, pero de arriba abajo a corta distancia. Alternativamente, es mostrada en algunas escenas en los planos medios, que se asemejan a los planos de ángulo alto y los planos medios utilizados para mostrar a las mujeres en la película, posiblemente para resaltar el tema de la masculinidad en comparación con la feminidad. Vidal, por ejemplo, se presenta encima de las mujeres visualmente, lo que podría ser un paralelo de la marginación de las mujeres en la sociedad bajo la dictadura franquista. Los planos generales también se usan en escenas donde se muestran los rebeldes, especialmente en las escenas vastas del paisaje, para retratar cómo se mezclan con la naturaleza.

Estos, en comparación con los primeros planos de Vidal, podría mostrar el poder de Vidal sobre los rebeldes, una representación de la situación política de España con la derecha persiguiendo y dominando encima de la izquierda.

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Los efectos especiales son una parte integral de la película, y se utilizan en la mayoría de las escenas para crear monstruos del reino subterráneo, lo que atrae la atención del espectador porque da vida al mundo de fantasía, sumergiéndolos así. Por ejemplo, los efectos especiales que constituyen el sapo enfatizan su repugnancia, de manera similar a cómo el maquillaje y el vestuario usados en la creación del Hombre Pálido expresan lo asqueroso que es. La mandrágora que el Capitán Vidal arroja al fuego no solo recibe características sobrenaturales mediante el uso de efectos especiales, sino que también muestra la monstruosidad de Vidal por los gritos agudos de la mandrágora, como si hubiera sido asesinado a sangre fría. Los efectos especiales desarrollan aún más la noción de la naturaleza bárbara y sádica de Vidal, particularmente en la escena en la que cose la cuchillada en su cara. Es una escena muy gráfica y horrible que llena al espectador con repugnancia hacia Vidal.

Guillermo Del Toro usa los contrastes de la luz y la oscuridad de manera efectiva: la oscuridad se usa predominantemente, lo que da un aura gótica a la película para complementar la realidad desoladora de la España de posguerra. La oscuridad también se usa en el laberinto para crear una atmósfera misteriosa y una ambigüedad moral que rodea al fauno. Además, la prevalencia de la oscuridad hace que el espectador tenga un sentido de presentimiento y la tensión lo atrae hacia la película. La oscuridad muestra el coraje y la valentía de Ofelia, ya que la mayoría de sus hazañas tienen lugar en ella y parece que nunca tiene miedo. Gran parte de la tortura y la crueldad tiene lugar en la luz. La luz generalmente simboliza la esperanza, pero en este contexto muestra cómo, incluso en la luz del día, no se puede evitar la realidad brutal del conflicto: no hay escape.

Asimismo, para reflejar la diferencia entre el mundo real y el mundo de fantasía, hay colores contrastantes utilizados en ambos reinos. En el mundo real, Vidal y los nacionalistas tienen uniformes azules que contrastan enormemente con la naturaleza que rodea al molino, lo que indica que no encajan en el medio ambiente, que son personajes hostiles que reflejan la aversión de Del Toro hacia los fascistas. Sin embargo, los rebeldes llevan colores terrosos, verdes y marrones, para mezclarse con el paisaje silvestre. El mundo real consiste en estos colores relativamente apagados para retratar la atmósfera melancólica de España en ese momento y la falta de esperanza, a diferencia de la paleta rica y uterina de rojos y dorados brillantes en el reino subterráneo, reservados para la realeza. La posguerra no ofrece tal vitalidad.

El sonido es otra parte importante de la película. En la primera escena, se escucha un chasquido fuerte cuando Ofelia camina hacia el bosque, creando una atmósfera inquietante que atrae la atención del espectador. Más tarde, Carmen reflexiona 'aquí las casas son viejas. Gruñen, se quejan... ¿A que parece que hablan?' después de escuchar los chirridos y los gruñidos, que se suman a la atmósfera inquietante. Los sonidos contribuyen a la presencia amenazadora de Vidal y la violencia, como el chillón de sus guantes de cuero, el sonido agudo de los cuchillos, el sonido metálico de la daga en la guarida del Hombre Pálido, el rasguño de la navaja de barbero y la cuchillada del cuchillo de cocina en su cara. Todos estos sonidos se acumulan para resaltar su carácter cruel. Además, la opresión de las mujeres podría destacarse por los sonidos de susurros, pero esto también podría expresar el secreto y la traición que existen en el campamento militar. La canción de cuna que Mercedes canta a Ofelia es un motivo musical recurrente a lo largo de la película, y comienza a tocar justo antes de los momentos tensos o extraños de la película, porque hace que el espectador se sienta ansioso por lo que sucederá siguiente y, por lo tanto, atraiga su atención.

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La elección del director de un final tan ambiguo hace que no sea claro para el espectador lo que realmente sucede a Ofelia al final. Podría interpretarse que simplemente muere al final de la película después de sacrificarse por su hermanito y que el reino subterráneo no es más que un sueño, pero también se puede percibir que a través de su muerte trasciende a su lugar en la familia real del reino subterráneo. Este último es un final más satisfactorio para el espectador, pero la estructura circular de la película que muestra a Ofelia muriendo al principio y al final podría evidenciar el final más trágico.

Básicamente, está abierto a la interpretación, pero es un poco frustrante para el espectador cuando la película no está resuelta.

Finalmente, creo que Guillermo Del Toro es un maestro en la forma en que ha utilizado técnicas cinematográficas para crear atmósferas apropiadas y expresar las complejidades de cada personaje en la película. Personalmente, la película me pareció intrigante por la forma en que me atrajeron los personajes y la estructura de la película, especialmente al principio, ya que quería saber qué sucedió a Ofelia antes de su muerte. Sin embargo, las técnicas del director no solo son efectivas e inteligentes en mi opinión, sino también en las opiniones de los críticos de cine de todo el mundo. Según a A. O. Scott, un crítico de cine del 'New York Times' escribió que 'la brillantez del 'Laberinto del Fauno' es que su corriente de energía imaginativa funciona en ambos sentidos. Si esto es realismo mágico, también es obra de un mago real. El director, Guillermo Del Toro, jura sin pretensiones y sin remordimientos su lealtad a una tradición de fantasía que abarca cómics, películas de ciencia ficción y terror, pero pastiche de fanáticos es lo último en su mente.' Además, la película es aclamada por la crítica y ganó tres Oscares en 2007, incluida la "mejor cinematografía", que da una indicación del gran éxito del director.

El director de 'Laberinto del Fauno', Guillermo Del Toro, utiliza técnicas cinematográficas, por ejemplo, alegoría, ángulos de cámara, efectos especiales, junto con luz, color y sonido para lograr la visión deseada en la película de manera muy efectiva, y así atraer la atención del espectador con éxito. Todas las técnicas cinematográficas agregan gran profundidad a los personajes, la trama y la experiencia visual, sin mencionar la película en conjunto. Guillermo Del Toro se ha asegurado que esta película destacará durante mucho tiempo como una obra maestra de dirección cinematografía.

Emma, Year 12 Teacher comment: An excellent essay which analyses the cinemagraphic techniques employed by the film director Guillermo del Toro whose film ‘El laberinto del fauno’ (‘Pan’s Labyrinth’) is studied by pupils in Year 12. This essay is particularly impressive as it uses a wide range of sophisticated ideas and structures/vocabulary to explore the topic in a mature, analytical and comprehensive manner. Pupils also study Spanish literature on this course.

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Photography

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Component 1, personal investigation titled 'Storytime'. These images are inspired by the famous photographers Tim Walker and Annie Leibovitz.

Maisey, Year 13

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Physical Education Teacher comment: This is an outstanding piece of work which describes the path of a molecule of Oxygen as it enters the body and makes its way to the working muscles. Not only does it give specific details of gaseous exchange, the flow of blood around the body but also describes how energy is produced.

My Journey.

By Oxygen.

I was floating in the air when I suddenly bonded with another oxygen atom; together we made an oxygen molecule (O2)! As I was getting to know him we were both instantly pulled into a huge cave and shot through a dark tunnel, called a trachea which led to the lungs. The lungs were expanded by the diaphragm muscle, sucking us in very quickly. But then, as we were travelling, the tunnel split into two and we ended up going through the left side where I realised we were in a bronchus.

The passage split again, again and again where eventually we found ourselves in a bronchiole. This bronchiole split then became narrower and narrower until we arrived in an alveoli sac. We didn’t stay there for very long and we quickly found ourselves in a red blood cell! His name was Mr Red Blood Cell and he told us that his friend, called Haemoglobin, on his back would carry four of us to our destination. He also explained to us how, through the process of diffusion, we moved though a concentration gradient into a blood capillary.

The capillary became a venule and the venule became a vein, where we then travelled through a pulmonary vein to the heart! In the heart we entered the left atrium; flowed into the left ventricle, and then as it contracted we were hauled through the aorta into an artery. They seemed to be the same size as the veins but it travelled away from the heart.

All of a sudden, the heart started pumping VERY quickly. Worriedly I asked Mr Red Blood Cell what was going on, “A change in the physical activity of the body has caused the cells to use more energy faster than they are getting it. So the heart is compensating!” he explained.

After hearing this I relaxed on top of Haemoglobin and asked him a few questions.

I queried about when we would get off Mr Red Blood Cell and he told me that

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the walls of the artery were too thick so I would have to wait until we reach a capillary.

We flowed on and on through many networks of arteries and arterials (the equivalent of venules – according to Mr Red Blood Cell) until we became singlefile with the other red blood cells. Haemoglobin said we were in the big toe of the body!

Mr Red Blood Cell dropped us off and I waved him sign of gratitude before I was diffused through the thin walls of a capillary then through a semi-permeable cell membrane of a muscle cell. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a muscle cell thanking us for coming. He also told me that I was an important part of ‘cellular respiration’ (the process in which the muscle used to gain energy).

The next few moments were a blur, but they told me I ended up being used in the process of creating ATP (the energy storage for all cells). However, I was also separated from my companion, Haemoglobin and was bonded to two hydrogen atoms to make H2O which was a waste product of cellular respiration. Some of the other molecules were bonded with a carbon atom to make carbon dioxide.

Haemoglobin had told me that carbon dioxide was another waste product of cellular respiration and it needed to be removed from the body.

Not so long after this I found myself back in the bloodstream flowing back towards the heart in a vein. This time I was pumped through the right atrium and then the right ventricle and in a few seconds I was diffused back into an alveoli sac. After this, the diaphragm pushed onto the lungs and I was shot out of the body.

Javeria, Year 10

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The Sciences Science in the early years may not be easy to spot but it is actually happening all round us each and every day. The job of the early years is to spark curiosity, to encourage the asking of questions and to inspire. Here in the nursery the children will develop their skills of observation, prediction, critical thinking and discussion. Our scientific discoveries are often accidental, stumbled upon as the children explore and play. It is the awe that occurs as you discover that with a hard enough squeeze you can force the water to shoot out of the bottle vertically (forces). It is the mixing of flour and water to find that it creates a dough (changing materials) and the wonder as you stumble across a ladybird or frog in the secret garden (biology). We may not always be giving a name to the skills and knowledge that they are acquiring but the foundations of a scientific knowledge are being firmly laid.

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Key Stage 2 Stem Club making bridges

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Investigation work completed by Harry, Year 2

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Year 4: Tinkering is now part of the science curriculum. This involves children using real tools; taking apart redundant items with lots of rich discussion about how they work.

Year 6 pupils Imogen, Alice and Daisy design a new species

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Reception pupil Darcie made boat models and held compare bears successfully.

Year 1 work by Natalie

Year 3 Skeletons

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All children in Y5 and 6 (and children in KS1 STEM club) completed the Primary and Secondary Engineer Leaders Award as part of their science curriculum. This involved interviewing engineers then designing a new product to solve a problem. Each child submitted an annotated design and letter to outline their product and persuade the judging engineers to create a prototype.

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Teacher comment: Year 9 are studying the transport of substances within living organisms. This piece of work explains how the small intestine and the lungs are adapted for the transfer of nutrients and oxygen/carbon dioxide. The pupil has identified the key adaptations correctly and included detailed drawings which will improve her understanding and consolidation.

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Teacher comment: Amy in Year 9 was asked to produce a poster on electrical safety and went above and beyond with detailed circuit diagrams of RCCBs, earthing and more.

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Teacher comment: Connie in Year 10 was asked to identify passive safety features in cars and to explain how these reduce the risk of injury/death in the case of an accident.

This work was excellent, well presented and factually accurate.

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Religious Studies Teacher comment: Will's short essay fully achieved the objectives to gain knowledge and understanding of different extremist attacks and evaluate various lessons that people can learn from them in order to promote a more understanding and inclusive society.

Extremism Malala Yousafzai was protesting for girls rights to an equal education in Pakistan. The Taliban believed girls should not have an education. Due to distorted discriminatory views.

The Taliban shot Malala because she was spreading beliefs about how girls should be given the opportunity to learn and better themselves. In the Hadith (the book of the Prophet’s sayings) “seeking knowledge” is a duty for every Muslim.

Malala wanted to learn so she could get a good job and a successful future as a woman in Pakistan.

She is an example of bravery as even though she had been shot, she still fought for woman rights though the Taliban threatened to strike again at any time.

Muslims in the UK and around the world are caring and charitable because this is taught as essential in Islam. They are completely against any kind of extremism; they just want to promote peace as this is what the Quran teaches.

In London there is a very multicultural society with people from nearly every religion and culture which means that there are many people wearing many different religious clothing.

In the Muslim community some women wear a burqa which is a piece of religious clothing that fully covers a woman’s face. Some people might not like the idea that you cannot see the persons face under the clothing and might be a bit on edge about that. Personally I would not mind being sat next to someone wearing a burqa as I would see it as their way of paying respect to their faith and their religion. There is nothing wrong with that if she has freely chosen to where it!

I believe that society needs to learn that even though there are many religions we are all united as humans and any one of us could have been born into a different religion. Think how we would feel if we were being constantly stared at just for wearing something that we believe was respectful to our God. It would be better to see everyone as part of the human race rather than just different to us because of their religion.

I think that the terror attack at the mosque in Christchurch New Zealand shows how any group has the commit a horrific terror attack if they are full of fear because someone is different. This time it was a far right white extremist group trying to force division and hatred on society. People should not just see a Muslim and immediately assume that they are a terrorist because they are not! Extremism corrupts and distorts Islam just like the Australian terrorist shooter and far right groups distort what it means to be Australian.

Muslims want a peaceful and holy life which is something that all people can celebrate.

William, Year 8

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Teacher comment: This is an example of an 'A*' grade A level Philosophy essay that demonstrates an excellent critical analysis of the validity of religious experiences. Ryan effectively utilizes the pertinent theories and scholars to thoroughly debate and evaluate the topic

Religious experience shows that we can be united with something greater than ourselves William James described a religious experience as an experience which is passive, transient, ineffable, and has noetic qualities. This means that they are experiences where the experience is not playing an active role and gains unique knowledge and wisdom, but is unable to describe in words exactly what it is that they have experienced. This leads to the idea that they are, therefore, evidence that we can be united with ‘something greater’, but this is opposed by many atheists such as Richard Dawkins, who believes that all ‘religious experiences’ can in fact be explained biologically.

One convincing argument as to why religious experiences show us that we an be united with something greater is the fact that the experiences are ineffable and noetic as argued by James. This is because an experience which cannot be explained and which provides us with a wisdom which other experiences do not could be seen to clearly indicate that they are a result of contact with God. Examples of this are near-death experiences, and how they show that these types of experience appear to only be explainable by them being caused by ‘something greater’, as many people describe these as having ‘spoken to God’.

It could be said, however, that whilst this certainly does allude to a unification with something greater, it cannot ‘show’ us this because it is impossible to know for sure whether or not the person is lying or telling the truth, or even then if what actually happened is what they thought happened. This is backed up by Freud’s argument that religion is a form of neurosis as this would explain a false claim to have ‘seen God’, as if the person’s account cannot be trusted then we have no reason to believe in a unity with ‘something greater’.

Swinburne would disagree, however, as he believed that the principles of credulity and testimony could be used to reinforce the argument for religious experience showing unity with something greater. This is because he believed that people naturally told the truth, so long as there was no explicit reason why the story could not be true, or why the person could not be trusted, what they say should be believed. This is a strong point, I feel, and it successfully backs up the notion proposed, but it must be said that if we are to believe Freud and say that religion is a form of neurosis, we do have a valid reason to reject their testimony.

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This can be countered by religious experiences from non-religious people, where neurosis of religion cannot be used. This can be seen by St Paul on the road to Damascus, and how this experienced caused him from rejecting completely a Christian God to being a devout Christian. In this case Swinburne’s argument holds up, and it matches James’ description of a religious experience, and Paul’s experience clearly shows unity with something greater, so therefore it must show that the discussed statement is true.

Dawkins would think not, arguing that whilst Paul previously not being Christian avoids Freud’s criticism, everything described by Paul can be described biologically as his experience, as well as accounts of how he reacted, show remarkable similarities to a stroke. Using Ockham’s razor, Dawkins therefore argues that it requires many less assumptions to simply then assume that the experience of Paul was in fact just a stroke, rather than a connection with ‘something greater’.

This does not explain corporate religious experiences, however, as with cases of the dancing sun in Portugal in 1917, and the Toronto blessing, there is not a clear scientific explanation and hence it could be argued that Ockham’s razor could potentially lean towards the religious experience actually being unity with something greater.

In conclusion, I believe that the premise of a religious experience does show that we can be unified with something greater than ourselves, but I am unsure whether I believe that genuine religious experiences can be proven. This is because whilst Swinburne’s arguments make them convincing, I know that many religious experiences can in fact be described scientifically and hence they do not prove unity with something greater. That said, the evidence proposed by corporate religious experiences does heavily sway my argument towards agreeing with the notion that religious experiences show unity with something greater.

Ryan, Year 13

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Sociology Teacher comment: This is a piece of work which was set for Year 12 A Level Sociology students

after studying the subject for only one term. It is a very good piece of work as it considers the Item fully, the style of writing is lucid, the main points are outlined with clear explanations and supported with sociological evaluations.

There are clear social class differences in educational achievement. Some sociologists argue that these are as a result of factors outside school. Some claim that working class parents place less value on education and so children see it as less important than do middle class pupils. Differences between speech codes and in the level of the family’s material resources may also have an important impact.

Applying material from item A and your knowledge, evaluate the view that middle class pupils’ higher level of achievement are the product of factors outside of schools.

Educational achievement is often said to be affected by external factors outside school. This is mainly based on ‘social class differences’ as stated in the item. These external factors include employment, class, wealth and values. Because of this, it is said middle-class pupils have a higher level of educational achievement.

In the item, the external factor referenced is ‘speech codes’. Bernstein discovered there were two main speech codes used in society. The working-class tended to use the restricted code which consists of limited vocabulary and use of slang words. Contrasting this, middle-class generally used the elaborated code which was language with higher levels of vocabulary and a more sophisticated tone. Bernstein said that education used mainly elaborated code, in textbooks and exams, and therefore the language deprivation of the working-class would put them at a disadvantage in school. This supports the view that middle-class pupils’ achievement is a product of external factors because they are more familiar with this language. Because of this familiarity, they find it easier to grasp the concepts and learn from the textbook in lessons. Therefore, this proves speech codes have an ‘important impact’ on educational achievement. For the working-class, it is more challenging and so middle-class pupils’ high level of achievement can be as a product of the external factor of speech codes of classes.

As said in the item ‘the level of the family’s material resources’ can also impact educational achievement. Material deprivation is how poverty and class affect educational achievement. Many working-class pupils have material deprivation. Douglas (1964) investigated how monetary factors affect educational achievement. He found that the working-class have less money than the middleclass and therefore are unable to afford computers, printers, stationary, that the middle-class can afford. Therefore, the middle-class have a wider range of subjects available to them and have the ability to study a subject properly with the correct resources. Because of this, they have a better chance of achieving high grades as they can study effectively and efficiently. Also Holloway et al (2014) studied uniform. If a middle-class student has a higher level of material resources, they can afford the correct uniform, meaning they are less subject to bullying, isolation, intimidation and have a higher self-esteem. Therefore, their educational achievement will improve due to this external factor as they will be more likely to work hard and have a better school experience. The middleclass have a larger disposable income overall and therefore can afford school trips, resources and uniform, enhancing a pupil’s learning.

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ASPIRE

The item states ‘working-class parents place less value on education’, which is said to make education less important than middle-class parents believe it is. Working-class have a fatalistic attitude, meaning they believe they cannot change their position in society. Because of this, they have a present-time orientation, compared to the middle-class’s future-time orientation.

For the middle class this means they are more focussed on the potential future than the present.

This attitude is proven to work as the middle-class tend to have more high status jobs. Also, the middle-class have ‘deferred-gratification’ which means that they realise they need to put off the short-term rewards in order to work towards a larger long-term goal, such as getting a more wellpaid job. With this attitude the middle class work harder at school in the long-term and achieve higher exam results overall. However, because the working class has an immediate-gratification outlook, they are more likely to drop out of school and enter employment at the earliest possible opportunity.

Referring to the item stating ‘working class place less value on education’, they are more likely to drop out of school, into employment, or alternatively have a part-time job on the side. The affects of this are that it means there is less time to study, which means employment will be lower. Also, it means the pupils are likely to be tired in school and therefore lack concentration. The puts middle-class pupils at an advantage, as they have more time to study and better concentration levels. Employment outside of school is valued more by working-class, as found out by Douglas and Kahl which will mean their overall focus on education is low. Also, middle-class parents most likely had a better education themselves, therefore meaning they understand the negative affects of employment more as well as understanding the processes of education better. Because of this, middle-class pupils value education more and achieve higher grades than working-class.

These external factors mean that middle-class pupils’ high achievement is evident in school.

However, internal factors also play a role in their achievement. In schools, pupils are often put in sets for subjects. The effects of this setting show that pupils in higher sets, which is most commonly middle-class pupils, are more likely to receive better quality teaching and have a higher selfesteem. Setting can also lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy. This means that pupils in lower sets – often working-class – will live up to their label and behave badly or act in an inappropriate manner as they are in a lower set. They are also likely to receive a worse level of teaching. Therefore, middle-class pupils have high educational achievement due to internal factors, inside the school.

Another internal factor affecting educational achievement is the hidden curriculum. This is the values, norms and beliefs of the school that are not part of the national academic curriculum. It is said the hidden curriculum is focussed more on middle-class values and beliefs and ensures that long term rewards are valued. Therefore, middle-class pupils are more likely to achieve higher results, because working class cannot conform to this type of life and mindset.

Overall, middle-class pupils do achieve more highly because of external factors, such as cultural capital and values and beliefs, compared to working-class, as their up-bringing and home-life has typically been more focussed on achieving high results and getting good jobs. They understand the education process better and are able to succeed more because they can go to better schools, afford the correct resources and access the top results because of their speech code. With these factors they will succeed no matter how the internal factors affect them. Therefore, middle-class pupils’ higher level of achievement is the product of factors outside of school.

Ruby, Year 12

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Hull Collegiate School Tranby Croft Anlaby East Yorkshire HU10 7EH T: 01482 657016 enquiries@hullcollegiateschool.co.uk www.hullcollegiateschool.co.uk