‘The Langley Legend provides a positive platform for young people voices and build their confdence. I more positive platform than social media, and that many members of
to express their hope this be a that our community will
will engage with the publication.’
- Miss Kavanagh
We are the Langley Legend, and this is the frst edition of our newspaper. We are a group of Year 9 and Year 11 students who have worked alongside Miss Kavanagh to produce, what we hope, is something that all Langley students will read and enjoy. The Langley Legend is committed to sharing all diferent aspects of student life, and giving you a voice. Designing this newspaper has been a brilliant experience for all of us, and a real team efort. Below, we have included what the Langley Legend means to some of our reporters.
‘Being involved in writing the frst edition of the Langley Legend has defnitely helped in developing my reporting skills, and I am very grateful to Miss Kavanagh for always giving helpful advice and tips when reporting on diferent issues. In addition, being a member of the student team which is dedicated to giving our Langley students a voice is something that I am very proud of, and I cannot wait to start writing the second edition!
‘For me, the Langley Legend is about encouraging students to write and I think that’s a really positive thing that the school is doing.’
‘The Langley Legend provides a positive platform for young people to express their voices and build their confdence. I hope that this will be a more positive platform than social media, and that many members of our community will engage with the publication. I am very proud of the young journalists who have started the club with such enthusiasm, and am so excited for our frst edition to be shared with you all.’
Aoife McNamara By
- The Langley Legend
- Aoife McNamara
- Hattie Payne
- Miss Kavanagh
through, this year seems to be going brilliantly. A lot of brilliant staf members joined this year, including Mr Cadney, who runs the library and chess club, and Mrs McLarnon, the head of English and so did a fantastic new class of Year 7s. They are doing a brilliant job adjusting to Langley!
So far, many new clubs, such as
Even though we’re only one term debate club, newspaper club and chess club have opened! These excellent clubs are incredibly
interesting: debate club has a new interesting topic each week, in newspaper club, you get to help make the school newspaper, and in chess club, you get to play fun games of chess with friends! Clubs are a great way to meet like-minded people, and make new friends!
while for chess club just go to the library on a Thursday lunch, and for newspaper club, speak to Miss Kavanagh, or simply go to IT4 on a Thursday lunchtime. We’ve also had many exciting trips, such as the trip to the WW1 battlefelds for year 9, and the year 11 trip to the Royal Shakespeare Company to see a Christmas Carol.
From the sports awards in November to Langley’s Got
If you are interested in debate club, come along after school on a Thursday, and go to E7, Talent in October, this year
has been flled to the brim with exciting events! With activities such as the Year 7, 8 and 9 residentials and the Year 9 trip to Germany on the horizon, we can be sure that this year will be even better than the last!
By Hattie Payne
She loves her art lessons which she didn’t have many of at her
drew closer, we were interested had three lessons of form in the
to fnd how Year 7s were adapting to life at Langley. We wanted to discover what their original impressions of our school were and how they feel about it now. her frst choice on her application and she came to the open evening as a Year 6. There morning, graphics design and RE. She enjoyed these lessons,
doesn’t particularly like PE
she found the teachers to be nice and the school appeared to be good.
This is an interview with a student in 7K, Charlotte. Charlotte said that Langley was Moving on to her frst day, she
and found them interesting.
After the day had ended, she felt excited for the next and happy. The social aspects of the day had also gone well for Charlotte who made two new friends.
At frst she found the school a
to be huge. She got a little lost at frst but had a map to use. Now Langley is less huge and she has adjusted well to life here.
primary. At her old school they didn’t have much humanities either and she is enjoying the wider variety of subjects. She lessons as she isn’t very sporty. But fnds most other aspects of her day to be fun. She believes the canteen food to be better than that of her primary. During breaks and lunches she spends her time with her friends in the canteen and looks forward to the time of lessons.
Charlotte’s experience here
reflects just how great this school is. Hopefully the rest of her school journey is just as positive as it has been so far, with many amazing memories, fantastic trips and enjoyable lessons!.
Just a few weeks after Year 11 mocks fnished, students were feeling a sense of relief which soon turned into stress for the next set of mocks in just a few weeks’ time. Feelings before December mocks were ones of anxiety, fear and nervousness as seen in these responses from students: “extremely stressed but gives good idea of what to expect in the future.”
“feeling lots of pressure.”
“optimistic and excited for results but the amount of work is tough at times.”
“good as it prepares you for the real thing.”
Although mocks just recently fnished, the pupils of Year 11 are revising content for
February mock examinations. We received a variety of responses when asking “not happy knowing we have more.”
students how they felt after the exams: “relieved but nervous for results.”
“frustrated and rewarding.”
provide students with
support and hope for their exams!
Some felt awakened and comforted however the sense of stress is still looming. As we arrive to the last few months of our Langley experience, revision sessions continue, to Good Luck to all of Year 11!
By Elizabeth Baptiste
The Christmas spirit at Langley
School was palpable last year. The Christmas tree in the foyer sparkled with lights and colourful baubles. A member of the newspaper club has been talking to year
9.
Students and teachers on how they spent their Christmas holidays. The results from both students and teachers have been amazing! Here are some people and here is how
Sophia in 9U opens stockings with her family and goes to church on Christmas Eve. Also, displayed in her house, every year, she has a real Christmas tree.
Meanwhile, Amelia in 9G puts up her Christmas tree in the frst week of December and she goes to church on Christmas day and has a big Christmas dinner afterwards with her family and friends. Jasmine in 9G has explained that she always wakes up extra early on Christmas day!
The students of Langley School were really excited last year and here are some of the traditions that were
they spent their Christmas! included.
Imogen in 9S has described how she decorated the tree in the last weekend of November.
Elizabeth in 9E has a long list of traditions including role playing the nativity story every Christmas eve, dancing round the Christmas tree to a traditional song with mini presents for each person in age order, and baking Christmas cookies and Lily in 9K bakes gingerbread on Christmas eve.
In 9E, Bella has explained how she had a great time with her family with her annual lucky draw.
The Christmas spirit was full of
excitement for the teachers too! The head teacher Mrs Thorpe boxes on Christmas Eve with pyjamas and Christmassy things! Go out for lunch on Christmas day with family!
By Aoife McNamara and Sophia RoseOn Wednesday 16th November 2022, Year 9 students visited The Alexander Theatre in Birmingham to watch Noughts and Crosses live. Pupils had been reading the play in drama lessons, and both analysing and re-enacting a multitude of diferent scenes. It was a highly enjoyable evening, and both Blackman’s society of opposing racial power struggle. It was interesting to see a world that reversed racial stereotypes and supremacy - where black people who were represented as Crosses, ruled over white people who were represented as Noughts. Seeing the scenes we had recreated brought to life really inspired us, while demonstrating a life pursued on stage. We have received a wide range of reviews following the performance, from students across Year 9, but have included some of our favourites below:
students and staf loved watching it. Split into two halves, we followed along the dual narrative of the protagonists Sephy and Callum, in Malorie
‘I loved the amazing performance and their choreography for the shops exploding! It inspired me for my own re-enactment of the play’s scenes in Drama and gave me loads of new ideas.’
- Amelia Giles 9G‘In my opinion, I felt the drama production was a really incredible trip as it taught me a lot about controversial topics like racism, terrorism, death, imprisonment and that has inspired me to be a better person.’
- Abi Williams 9G‘I think it was a really interesting and engaging performance. It dealt with some really key issues that are relevant to all of us. It was a good opportunity for our students to see how efectively you can take a play from a page to the stage.’
Overall, the Noughts and Crosses play was a really fun and interesting trip that inspired many of our Drama students. We would love to have the opportunity to go on many more trips like this, and are very grateful to Mrs Aserie, Miss Keogh, Mrs Attenborrow and Mrs Boyle, for organising it.
Hattie Payne
The 27th of January marks Holocaust Memorial Day, chosen on this date to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945. On this day we remember and reflect upon the millions of people who lost their lives in this genocide in the hope that such violence and murder will not be seen again. It is dificult to determine exactly how many people were killed during the Holocaust as there is no single document that gives a precise number. As the Nazi reign drew to a close, many documents of the killings were destroyed but it is estimated that over 6 million Jewish people were killed. About 1 million of these murders occurred in Poland at the Auschwitz Birkenau. There were also many other groups targeted by the Nazis. These include people with disabilities, those with Socialist and Communist beliefs, Soviet prisoners of war and members of the LGBTQ+ community amongst many others. As time progresses historians may uncover more documentation but there will never be an accurate count of those murdered in the genocide. Some of our students attended a memorial service held by the Solihull council on the 26th and read poems they had written for a competition. George Vulcan, a Holocaust survivor, spoke during the service, online. He recounted stories of his experiences and hardships and told how his family was split up and many were killed. The students read their poems aloud in the council chambers which impressed all those listening. One of the students who attended described the experience as eye-opening. She said she found it ‘surreal’ listening to the tales of a person who lived through such horrors and found it upsetting that anyone ever had to go through something like this.
The Holocaust was a brutal section of our planet’s history but it is important that each year we recognise the cruelty and ensure that we never repeat such violence and discrimination.
