A School Newspaper run by Prep School children in Years 3 - 6.
Tranby Croft... A Closer Look
Maths: Love it or Loathe it Musical Talent at Tranby
The History of the Guitar History Repeats Itself?
British Satellite Fail
Guinness Six Nations (Build Up) Around the World in One Article
Tennis - Australian Open Wildlife Around the World
Meet the team
During my days at Tranby, I often stop and pause to take in the beautiful surroundings of our school. I feel incredibly proud and lucky to go to a school with lots of interesting history. Last summer, I attended the school summer fair and went on a historical tour up to the tower and got to see the amazing view from the top. Our very own Mr Stephenson, who is Head of Modern Foreign Languages was the tour guide on the day. It made me fascinated to learn more about the history of Tranby Croft. I recently caught up with Mr. Stephenson to find out more by asking him my top 10 questions
6 My favourite part of Tranby is the main hall with the grand staircase. What is your favourite part of the school?
1.
When was the house built?
The house was built in 1874, which means in 2024 it will have its 150th anniversary
2. Who lived in this beautiful house?
The Wilson family, Arthur and his wife Mary, their 7 children who were Susannah, Ethel, Arthur Stanley, Edward Kenneth, Raymond, Muriel and Clive.
3. What were they famous for in Hull?
The Wilson family were famous because they used to own the largest shipping company in the world. They were very well known in Hull and supported many local charity events and churches. Arthur was the Master of the Holderness Hunt for 25 years, where they hunted for foxes. He was also the Sheriff of Hull, which was a ceremonial role and was a civic honour for important people
4. What 3 words do you think best describe the house? Beautiful, interesting and historic
5. Why does the house have a massive tower and what was it used for?
Arthur Wilson liked to watch his ships go past on the Humber with his telescope.
That is my favourite too because it is an amazing view and also the Drawing Room. There is also a lovely watercolour painting of Tranby Croft in the entrance which was recently painted by Clive Wilson who is the great-grandson of Arthur Wilson
Written by Joshua Year 57 I have heard that was a big scandal at the house many years ago, is that correct? Yes, it was known as the Baccarat Scandal, it took place in 1890 and was attended by Edward VII the then Prince of Wales. Sir William Gordon-Cumming allegedly cheated at an illegal card game. Now some people believe that he did not cheat because he came from Scotland, and they might have had different rules!
8. Are there any interesting facts about the school grounds?
The lake used to have boats on it and orphans used to play on the lake in them
10. If you could go back in time and be a Wilson family member, who would you be and why?
I would be Clive Wilson because he was a fun figure, he could sing and dance also everybody liked him He had adventures in South Africa during the Boer War.
9. What is your favourite fact about the Wilson family? Muriel Wilson used to know Winston Churchill and he came to Tranby Croft to propose to her. She turned him down because she thought he was a boring politician, and he had no prospects.
Thank you Mr. Stephenson for your time, I have learnt lots of interesting facts about the history of Tranby Croft. How amazing to think that our school has been visited by royalty and one of the most famous Prime Ministers our country has ever seen.
Written by Joshua Year 5Like at every other school, Maths is a core subject at Tranby. Everyone from Nursery to Pre-Sixth in the Senior School learn Maths, but not everyone enjoys it like I do. Here, I take a closer look into some of the reasons why we all have our different opinions about Maths.
We all use Maths every day, whether we think about it or not From buying things with my pocket money to working out what time to set the alarm on my Alexa for the next morning, I have become more and more aware of how much I use Maths to do basic things and will do for my whole life. Maths is used to predict the weather, and engineers need Maths to construct stable bridges that can withstand wind and vibrations caused by traffic like the Humber Bridge! Chocolate brownies and Tranby Mess would not taste the same if the chef and his team did not weigh the amounts of ingredients correctly
I have not always enjoyed Maths myself, because at my old school I was not being stretched, and therefore did not find Maths enjoyable. Since coming to Tranby, I have found the challenge system really helpful in solving this problem, and this year I have a Senior School teacher teaching me Maths - we are going to be hearing from her later I particularly enjoy pure Maths, including fractions. This is just my opinion, so let's hear from some other people who may think a little differently.
First, I spoke to Charlie in Year 6, who like me has a passion for Maths. He said, "I like Maths because I like testing my brain with big and small numbers." He went on, "I love adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, but I am not a fan of perimeter and area." I then asked him if he would like to have a job that involves Maths when he is older He said, "I would like to be a footballer when I am older, but if that does not work out, then I would probably be a Maths teacher instead " He added, "My favourite number is 5 because a lot of sporting achievements contain a number 5."
Written by Esme Year 6Next, I talked to Emily in Year 3. She is not a fan of Maths and she said, "I do not like Maths because I finds it annoying". She also said, 'Though I am not a fan of Maths, I still like adding, but I am not a fan of dividing though " Emily told me, "I would like to have a job that involves Maths when I am older, but I am not sure which job " I asked what her favourite number is "My favourite number is 0, because it reminds me of when I was younger " Finally, I talked to Pre-Prep pupil Clara in Year 1. Clara likes Maths like me. She said, "I like Maths because I like to know all about it " She also told me, "I like adding and subtracting. I feel that if I am stuck, I get help from a teacher Like Charlie and Emily, I asked Clara if she would like to do a job that involves Maths in the future "I would like to be a teacher when I am older who teaches every subject especially Maths and Reading," she said. Clara's favourite number is infinity Well, that's the pupil view, now let's hear from my Maths teacher, Mrs House.
I asked Mrs House about why she likes teaching Maths She said, "I enjoyed the challenge of Maths in school as a pupil and enjoyed the feeling when I got answers correct I didn’t initially find the subject easy, but as I tried harder, I found that my progress was getting better and therefore my confidence. Teaching is a very rewarding job, as I get the chance to try and help people to understand the subject. The ‘light bulb’ moment is wonderful to watch when someone suddenly recognises how to solve a problem. The variety of meeting new personalities each year and watching their journey through school is wonderful."
What is Mrs House's favourite Maths topic? She answered, "My favourite Maths topic is algebra. I find the topic to be rather balletic and it’s lovely to see how you can start with a rather difficult, ugly expression or equation and find a simple solution or answer by performing certain skills to it. When teaching Maths I like many of the topics Shape work such as angles is one I like to teach, however I find the majority of the topics enjoyable." Then I asked her what she would do if she was not teaching Maths. She told me, "If I could do any other job, I think I would have liked to be a set or costume designer for theatre. I love going to watch theatre productions and I am always amazed at the clever ideas that are used to portray different scenes and different atmospheres. Theatre is a great way to immerse yourself in a new world or escape the normality of life for a while."
It has been interesting to hear what other people love or loathe about Maths The one thing I take away from this is whether you really love Maths like Mrs House, and it is part of your job or like Emily you are not a huge fan and you find it annoying, there is one thing for sure, we all have our different reasons why.
Here are a few Maths riddles and problems to have a go at. There is something for everyone:
How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?
uoy evah =VI 4 ni( namoR .)slaremuN 779 slamina 001( x 2 = ;002 002 + 008 = ;0001 0001 - 32 =
If the zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo and if two pairs of babies are born for each and every one of the original animals, and then sadly 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
Jade bought a gobstopper. It cost 6p. She paid for it exactly. Which coins did she use? There are 5 different ways to do it. Find as many as you can. What if the gobstopper cost 7p?
This January, some Year 6 pupils auditioned for a music scholarship for Senior School. The auditions were held by Mrs Cook, the new Head of Music at Tranby. The test included; a sight-reading test, a simple aural test, a theory test and a Q&A. The audition also required you to play a Grade 3 piece of music. But what are all these music tests? And what is a scholarship?
A music scholarship is awarded to pupils in a school that can play a musical instrument at a high level, it supports their musical education and encourages them to represent the school in concerts and festivals both within school and outside of school. Scholarships at Tranby are offered to students entering Year 7. They are reviewed annually and are dependent upon maintaining both academic and musical excellence throughout their school life at Tranby.
Aural is singing back a phrase your examiner has played for you You also need to clap in time to the music demonstrating your skills tone, pitch and rhythm.
Sight-reading is playing an unseen melody by using only your recognition of music notes This is quite a difficult skill as you need to try to keep up with the rhythm!
Music theory is understanding music note values and knowing what music terms mean Reading music is also an important part of music theory.
Written by Jack Year 6To find a deeper explanation about the audition I spoke to Bethan, who auditioned for the scholarship, to see how her audition went and what her thoughtswere on the audition process. Bethan is a pianist and a singer.
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE?
My experience was fun and enjoyable, but it was a little bit scary because I did not really know what to expect.
WHAT DID YOU DO?
I had a quick 15-minute warm up then Mrs. Cook did a Q&A on me After that I played my piece on the piano and also sang my song. Next, I did a sight-reading test. I also did an aural test which I found challenging as I have never done it before?
HOW DID YOU THINK YOU DID?
I thought I did well and am proud of myself for taking it on.
Hey there! Have you ever wondered how the guitar became how it is? Without the guitar you couldn’t listen to songs like While My Guitar Gently Weeps (1968) by the Beatles, Hotel California (1976) by the Eagles, Blackbird (1968) by the Beatles and Wonderwall (1995) by Oasis
The guitar has roots stretching back to ancient Mesopotamia, more than four or five thousand years ago Other, similar variations like single-stringed lutes and harps began to make an appearance in the Middle East and Persia and then spread throughout the entire globe, influencing musical culture.
Storytellers and singers would often use these stringed musical instruments throughout ancient societies. The oldest guitar-like device has been spotted more than 3,500 years ago, in ancient carvings and statues from Egyptian civilizations.
It is believed by some that the modern guitar evolved directly from either this type of lute or the ancient Greek kithara. However, Dr Michael Kasha did extensive research in the 1960s that proved that these theories did not paint the full picture. He was able to confirm that the lute had common ancestors with the guitar, but that they later evolved separately. However, the guitar was influenced by the lute, as the early guitars looked very similar to the fretted lute. As for the Greek kithara, it is noteworthy that the Greek word “kithara” and the Spanish word “Guitarra” are very similar. However, a kithara is a square-framed lap harp and is not overly similar to the early guitar
Written by Oliver Year 3Another guitar-like instrument, which is also still alive and well today, is the tanbur family. A tanbur is a longnecked string instrument that has a small pear or eggshaped body. This instrument will have either an arched or round back, and often has a soundboard made of wood or hide, and a long straight neck. Tomb paintings and stone carvings show the tanbur and harps being played together more than 3,500 – 4,500 years ago.
The modern guitar is both related to – and different from – all of these ancient instruments. All of them has strings and a neck, but a guitar is distinguished by a flat wooden soundboard, a long, fretted neck, with ribs and a flat back, which some of these instruments lack.
The guitar may have originally gotten its name from the ancient Sanskrit word “tar,” which means string. Many of the stringed folk instruments that are used in Central Asia have names that contain “tar” and a prefix that shows the number of strings in the instrument. Therefore, because the early guitar had four strings, it came from the Sanskrit word “chatur ” When the fourstringed Persian “chartar” came to Spain, it evolved and became known as the Guitarra or Chitarra
The guitar as we know it was probably first played in Spain by the early 16th century It derived from the Guitarra Latina, a medieval musical instrument that had a waisted body and four strings
This guitar, however, was narrower and had a deeper body than the modern guitar, as well as a less obvious waist. The guitarra latina had four courses of strings, including three double strings, with the top one being a single string. These strings ran along from a pegbox that was similar to one found on a violin all the way to a tension bridge that was glued onto the soundboard. The bridge helped to keep the strings pulled tight. On the belly of these original guitars, you would find a circular sound hole, which was often designed with a beautiful carved, ornate wooden rose During the 16th century, this guitar would be tuned to C–F–A–D, which was like the lute and vihuela, which was a guitar-shaped instrument played in Spain.
Between the 16th and the 19th century, the guitar was improved upon greatly. By the turn of the 17th century, it gained another course of strings, making it five in total. Before the 19th century, a sixth course was added. In the 1800s, the double courses were switched out for single strings which were tuned to E-A-D-G-BE, which is the same modern tuning we use to this day.
It is believed that the guitar maker Antonio Torres designed the form of the modern guitar in around the 1850s. Torres made it slightly bigger and changed the proportions, making it more of a fan top He also utilised bracing, which helps to enforce the internal pattern of the wood and helps to prevent the guitar from collapsing under the tension of the strings. His modern design significantly improved the tone, volume, and projection of the instrument. The design of modern acoustic guitars has remained very similar ever since
Written by Oliver Year 3
Around the same time that Torres designed his guitar in Spain, German immigrants in the United States were making guitars with X-braced tops It is thought that this unique style of the brace was first designed by Christian Frederick Martin, who built the first guitar that was used in the US in 1830. X-bracing is popularly used in steelstring guitars Steel-string guitars became more popular around the 1900s because there were able to produce a louder sound, but the tension from the strings was too much for the fan-braced guitars created by Torres. The Xbrace was able to handle the strain much more effectively.
At the end of the 19th century, Orville Gibson became to design archtop guitars that featured an oval sound hole He merged together the steel-string guitar with a cello-like body. Therefore, the bridge would exert no torque on the top, and only created pressure straight downward. This new design helped the top of the guitar to vibrate more freely and was much louder. In the 1920s, Lloyd Loar joined forces with Gibson and invented the archtop jazz guitar that has f-holes, cell-type tailpiece, and a floating bridge
The need for the electric guitar began to emerge in the 1880s As more bands started to perform in large concert halls, the classical guitar was much too quiet to contribute in any meaningful way Instead, the bands in the early 20th century would get their power and sound from drums and brass, and the acoustic guitar would instead be used to produce melodies that were often too quiet for even the members of the band to hear. It became clear that a more powerful instrument was needed.
While many people might think that Les Paul was the creator of the electric guitar, this is not the case. There were several people that had a hand in the invention of the electric guitar The electric guitar is not merely an invention, but instead an evolution of several people’s ideas George Breed was one of the first who was granted a patent for an electric apparatus that helped to transfer vibrations into an electric current. However, this device did not create a very guitar-like sound, but he was one of the first to combine a stringed guitar with electricity
Written by Oliver YearYou come into school on a Monday morning, another five days until the weekend. Week A, Week B, Week A, Week B …. A loop. It feels like history is repeating itself. But it’s not (even if it feels the same). Mark Twain is credited as having said “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” Some examples of similar events happening again over the years are (a) mass extinction events, (b) pandemics and (c) mass migration. I’m not even going to mention parents nagging again and again and again! Looking quickly at these in turn, starting with mass extinction events, since life began on Earth there have been five periods with much higher extinction rates than normal (each a ‘mass extinction event’). The last was when the dinosaurs died out (not Godzilla) The diagram below shows these extinction events
Source: https://sjcinspire.com/mass-extinction-events/ This dinosaur is not sleeping extremely deeply. It is extinct
Written by Sylvester Year 5
Pandemics, meaning a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease over a whole country or the world at a particular time, have also happened throughout history. For instance, bubonic plague/’Black Death” in medieval times, so called Spanish Flu after the First World War, and more recently COVID19.
There have also been repeated example of mass migration by people across history. For instance
(i) emigration to the New World and the settlement of the American West,
(ii) in the last few years people fleeing conflict and persecution e.g. and Afghan refugees, and most recently the war in Ukraine.
The last of these is the worst instance of a repeated event – war George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It was efforts to avoid a repeat of global conflict which led to the creation of first the League of Nations (1920) and later the United Nations (1945)
Above is the official flag of the United Nations
Thinking of these bad events we should ask two questions ‘Can we prevent?’ and ‘Can we prepare?’ The dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid smashing into the Earth and making it very cold. Last year NASA’s ‘DART’ mission showed us that it was possible to divert an asteroid’s course, so hopefully we won’t have the same end. Another way to prevent mass extinction due to climate change is not to waste electricity because that helps to stop fossil fuel being burned which is polluting (you can do this too)
If we can’t prevent pandemics, can we prepare better for them? We could listen to organisations like the United Nations Children's Fund (“UNICEF”) which had recommendations for primary health care. Governments could continue to invest in vaccination technology and create laws to reduce the circulation of the disease
In conclusion, we shouldn’t be fooled into thinking every event repeats itself. If a football team loses one week, it doesn’t mean they will lose the next week. There are types of bad events which seem to re-occur and we should think about how to prevent and prepare for them. We should also, however, think about how to make good events happen again, such as countries accepting refugees Some good events seem to happen without trying, like weekends.
Written by SylvesterRecently Virgin Orbit sent out a starlight by plane, but the mission failed due to an anomaly; so, what actually went wrong? That’s what I’m aiming to answer today.
Picture this, your pilot Mathew Stannard (no relation) flying Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl (Cosmic Girl is a bit of an odd name, sounds like a K-pop band) After launching your first rocket, an error comes with it, and it flies off to who knows where.
We know that the error was a secondary thruster but why did it fail? A secondary thruster does not just fail for no reason. This leaves some pressing questions. Where did Launcher 1 (the rocket that was launched off the plane) end up? How does Mathew feel about his mission failing? All of which will be answered today.
Virgin are making no effort to find Launcher 1 - but I am Around the same time a fireball was spotted on the West Coast of Africa. This is widely believed to be Launcher 1.
The it was found somewhere in the circled area here
So, the error was apparently a failure in the Secondary Engine, which cause Launcher 1 to fly but not exit the Earth’s atmosphere.
Yes, it will be later this year and I will be updating you all about it.
By coverage I mean how it was available to the public eye (e g livestreams) For people who were in Cottingham had amazing coverage, the people watching the livestreams, not so much The stream was horrible quality you could barely see what was happening and to top it off there was talking in the background. This has made Virgin very unpopular compared to NASA and SpaceX.
Written by Ethan Year 6That concludes my coverage of the British satellite fail. I hope you enjoyed it and I have hooked you in, to continue reading to the next article
In the Guinness Six Nations six countries play Rugby and battle it out to win. The Six Nations began in 2000 although before that Five Nations battled it out between 1944 to 1999. The teams in the Six Nations are England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. Four of the six teams have won it, this includes England 7 times, Wales 6 times, France 6 times and Ireland 4 times. Since 2000 Italy have played a total of 105 games but only won 12 and drawn 1 this means Italy have lost 92 games. This year it all kicked off on Saturday 4th February at 14:15 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. England’s new head coach Steve Borthwick was recently appointed after Eddie Jones was sacked. Steve Borthwick debut was in 1998 playing for Bath and went on to play for Preston Grasshoppers, he is 43 years old.
When discussing this topic Mr. North (who is a massive rugby fan) said: “The team that will struggle the most is Italy because they don’t have a good record, but as well in Italy there is not as many youth clubs as in the other countries. A player who could be a rising star for England is Ben Earl, he was born in 1998 and came through the Saracens academy He played for England under-16, under-18 and was part of the team who came runners up in the under-20 world cup. A possible contender for player of the tournament is England captain Owen Farrell. A contender to win the Six Nations is France.”
England’s home ground is the massive Twickenham in London, it can hold 82,000 people. Now let’s find out about the other teams.
Ground: Principality Stadium which can hold 74,500 people
Coach: Warren Gatland
Captain: Ken Owens
Star Player: Ken Owens (Hooker)
Wales’s last game was against Australia at home and the score was 20 - 13 to Wales at half time. Although at full time it was 34 – 39 to Australia.
Wales Six Nations campaign starts off against Ireland at the Principality Stadium.
Scotland's head coach is: Gregor Townsend, he has been head coach since 2017!
Ground: Murryfield Stadium which can hold 67,144 people
Captain: Jamie Ritchie
Star player: Finn Russell (Fly-half)
Scotland's first game is away at Twickenham, the home of England Rugby on Saturday 4th February.
Written by Ted Year 5
Ireland’s head coach is Andy Farrell OBE, who was the former England rugby international and also father of England's former captain Own Farrell.
Ground: Aviva Stadium in Dublin, that holds 51,700 people.
Captain: Johnny Sexton.
Star player – Josh van der Flier, who play in flanker and has recently been crowned world's best male rugby player 2022!
Head coach: Fabien Galthie, who is also a former player
Ground: Stade de France, holding a massive 80,698 people.
Captain: Ollivon
Record of tries: Fabien Pelous with 118 (retired)
Head coach: Kieran Crowley
The Italian ground: Stadio Olimpico, that holds 70,634 people.
Written by Ted Year 5
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament where players come from across the globe to compete The Australian Open was founded in 1905, however at the time this was only for men, 17 years later women would be able to take part in this competition Today the tournament is home to men’s, women’s, doubles and wheelchair tennis The Australian Open is one of the four competitions in the tennis world that make up the Grand Slam. The other three tennis competitions are the French Open, the US Open and Wimbledon. This year The Australian Open was played during 16th – 29th January which is the first major tournament of the year. Before 1969 the competition was called the Australian Men’s Championship. Until 1988 the competition had four major sites, which included, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide Nowadays, the competition has one site in Melbourne, where it is called Melbourne Park; before this it was called Flinders Park. The court at Melbourne Park is a hard court, which means that Wimbledon is the only grass court in the Grand Slam series The tennis tournament was not held during the First or Second World Wars.
There are some interesting facts about this tournament, for example in 2003 Andre Agassi from the US was the first person to win this competition four times. The most singles titles won is ten, by Novak Djokovic; he was also the winner this year
Closer to home, the British player Andy Murray crashed out of the competition in round 3 to Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut. This was the same round that Cameron Norrie suffered a third-round defeat in this year’s tournament. Emma Raducanu lost her position in the competition when she lost in round 2 to Coco Gauff from the US. Meanwhile, Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won the Wheelchair doubles. Alfie Hewett, who was seeded number 1, as he also clinched his first solo victory.
Hi I’m Emilia! I have a passion for Geography and Politics, so I decided ‘let's merge it into one!’ So here I am. I’m going to be showing you basic news around the world in three different countries. Let’s begin!
So, we all live in England, you may watch ITV or BBC or some other channel at home, I’m just going to give a little review on what is happening
In southern England temperatures have dropped to -9! The stormy weather continued there for some time This is unbelievable but I suppose the weather is unreliable
The cost-of-living crisis is rising, The prices of basic goods are going up as well. This looks tough due to the massive cold points we are experiencing! I mean, this looks sad but I’m sure it will end soon
Rishi Sunak, the third PM of 2022, now entering 2023, he starts with giving someone the sack! The party chairman Zahawi has been sacked because of unfair tax fundings.
We all know Ukraine I’m just going to catch you up on how it’s going there. The war continues. Destruction and bombs are still falling over the Ukraine skies. Deaths are high, will Russia succeed? Pray for Ukraine.
USA… The place where bathrooms are restrooms and crisps are chips and rubbish are trash Ahh sweet America. Let's see what on earth is going on there! Oh People are demanding justice Freshman Rep.
George Santos told his House Republican colleagues Tuesday morning he will recuse himself from his committee positions. Lovely! The USA is crazy!
Before I go, I want to know where YOU’VE been! All your fun experiences in other countries and maybe you could share some facts with me? I don’t mind though! Just ask me if you see me so I can interview you!
Written by Emilia Year 6
Deer are very shy and have extremely sensitive hearing.
Written by Kate Year 5
Written by Kate Year 5
By Henry Year 5
By Joshua Year 5
