The Acorn, issue 9, Spring 2024

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The Acorn

House Events By Maiya Singh

House Music: Victory is Sweet for Cadbury

Showcasing artistic talents from all houses, house music was definitely the event of the term.

Starting strong with the junior soloist. Charlie singing, Reuben on the bassoon, Garret on piano and Ollie playing trumpet, they showcased some amazing talents. The first double points of the night went to Cadbury who had Charlie singing ‘Man in the Mirror Michael Jackson. Then there was the senior soloist, Lewei playing the piano, Natalia singing, Freya on her violin and Eliza playing the harp and singing. The second double points of the night went to Kojo’s Eliza who had an amazing performance, looping the harp and singing.

Small ensembles were a massive hit with the crowd, Tubman’s ‘come on Eileen’ had the crowd clapping along, then there was Fox’s feel-good ‘Get Lucky’ leading to Cadbury performing the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ hit, ‘Can’t Stop’ and then

finishing on ‘Misery Business’ by Paramore for Bentsi -Enchill.

Back in Anger’ by Oasis which made the whole room get up on their feet and sing along. Shortly after, Su took to the stage, yet again, and sang a stunning rendition of the hit song by Radiohead, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, that had the audience swaying along. Pablo also returned, this time bringing his son who played the guitar as he sang a sweet and heartwarming song that moved the whole room. New time performer, Lucy, played the flute for ‘Part of your from the Little Mermaid. Another newtime performing group was the teachers choir, with ‘Ain't no mountain high enough’ that really had the whole MMC singing

Afterwards, the own compositions took place. From Tubman's rock song, written by Daisy Matthews, to Fox’s Alana Basinger’s solo, then Cadbury’s gentle folk ballad with music written by Alice Mackenzie, inspired by Carol-Ann Duffy, and then ending on Kojo’s heartwarming love song by Laura Phillips. Alana was the third double of the night with her song ‘Burn’.

The tense competition ended with the large group mashups. The wedding of the year from Tubman’s Katy Perry and Ice Spice mashup, then Cadbury’s ‘American Dream’, leading to the Spice Girls takeover from Fox and then ending on a ‘Killer’ performance from Bentsi-Enchill.

The interval performers were sensational. Starting with Jacob’s ‘Don’t Look

The night ended with Eddie announcing the results, Fox in fourth, Tubman third, Bentsi Enchill in second and Cadbury doubling their winning streak. Congratulations to Laura Phillips who got the best performance of the night. And well done to everyone who was involved!

By Thomas Battye

Chromebook Tips and Tricks

Chromebooks have some limitations, while being fast. They're not able to provide large and consistent amounts of computing power due to thermal limitations.

The Chromebooks provided by the school have 4 gigabytes of ram, which is sufficient for most tasks, as ChromeOS automatically kills processes not being actively used when short on RAM. ChromeOS, despite being a lightweight operating system designed to run on Chromebooks, has evolved to add more and

Tech News

more features, even though the hardware may not be ready to run it.

I have a few tips that help to improve your browsing speed. I advise that you enable extended page preloading, meaning that pages you're likely to visit will be loaded ahead of time by your Chromebook and stored locally. This can increase the speed of browsing significantly on sites such as Wikipedia. You can enable preloading by going to chrome://settings/performance and scrolling down to preloading, and selecting extended preloading.

Another useful feature, that I

By William Jewell

Apple Vision Pro: What’s to know?

The Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s leap to Augmented and Virtual Reality.

During the release event, Tim Cook (Apple’s CEO) said that he believes that “Augmented Reality is a Profound Technology”. Mr Cook also said in the event, the Apple Vision Pro is a “revolutionary product". Now after 9 months it’s finally been released.

Youtubers say...

Immediately after release, floods of videos have come out about it. A few reviews from Youtube have shown every detail of it. Casey Neistat said “In conclusion, you should definitely invest in Apple stock.” Whilst youtuber

'Mrwhosetheboss' focused more on the negative side saying “For the $3500 price tag it has no real killer app, it has no blockbuster augmented reality game and instead of one or two key headline features it focuses on doing all those little things really well.” Both of these Youtubers

bring up good points about the product and its positives and negatives.

Stand-out features

Where it does have standout features, it does also have drawbacks to those stand out things.

From my brief view of the product online, some big advantages are that it’s the best product that has been out there so far for working

use myself a lot, is the diagnostics app. You can access it by pressing Control + Search + Escape and it shows useful information such as RAM usage, CPU usage and battery usage. Together these help paint a picture of the performance of your chromebook. If you don't have much RAM available, it's likely time for a restart. If your CPU is at 100% usage, you might need to close some tabs running in the background.

The Acorn is very grateful to Lee Carter (LP’s IT guru) for her help with writing this article.

on productivity and managing your work; it gives you the feeling that you are in the room that you were in a second ago.

Luxury headset

There is no doubt this is the most luxury headset ever made for this time but that is slightly affected by the negatives of it.

The first issue is that the front weight of the product, weighing 650g with the light seal, has led some users to experience discomfort from the weight at the front.

The second issue is the battery. Like most products in this age that use battery technology, even with the latest lithium ion battery for the headset it only lasts up to 3 hours.

Worldwide views - By Lilia Abassi and Dillon Sondhi

The Ambiguity of NATO

NATO is an acronym that stands for “North Atlantic Treaty Organization”. It is a political and military alliance founded on the 4th of April in 1949 and whose purpose is to “guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means”. It not only promotes democratic values but also empowers members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems. And while many people might think that the only purpose of NATO is to offer military support under circumstances such as attacks

Why was it founded?

NATO was initially founded in 1949 by the USA, Canada, and other Western countries to provide a united front and security against the Soviet Union. Following the destruction wrought on many Western countries in the Second World War, NATO was also used as a platform to help the USA give Marshall aid to European countries damaged by the war, as the USA was considered to be an economically strong country after the war.

Following the liberation of many countries annexed by the Nazis in the Second World War, the Soviet Union took control over many of these nations, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia

Easter recipes

By Millie Easton

With Easter around the corner it’s great to treat yourself to some easter food, here are some of The Acorn's favourite recipes withan Eastertwist.

Easter nests (10 mins)

Ingredients

and East Germany, imposing their communist rule.

On the 5th of March 1946, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously referred to the Soviet Union’s control over the nations of East Europe as the ‘Iron Curtain’ and brought widespread awareness of the spread of communism across Europe. This was another factor leading to the formation of NATO and the growing tensions between East and West Europe during the Cold War. The primary objective of NATO was to keep peace and reduce tensions; however, should diplomatic solutions fail to resolve conflict, or if a NATO country is attacked, NATO would deploy its own military peacekeeping force. This is documented under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty and has only been used once in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which occurred on the 11th of September 2001.

Why has NATO become Ambiguous?

One of the main reasons why NATO can be seen as ambiguous is because NATO countries are also part of other alliances, such as the EU. This could be problematic since the current 23 European NATO countries would move away from their original purpose of defending their own members to protecting a country which isn’t part of NATO. If the

150g chocolate (milk or dark)

50g butter

100g rice krispies

36 mini eggs (roughly)

2 tbsp honey (optional)

Method

Line the cupcake/muffin tin with the cases

Break the chocolate into small pieces and place into a bowl

Add the butter and honey(optional) into the bowl and place into the microwave for 30 second bursts and stir in between until the chocolate has melted

Make sure the chocolate is well mixed and then add the rice krispies

Carefully mix into the chocolate Spoon in the chocolate rice krispies to the cupcake/ muffin tin and then push the spoon into the rice krispies to create a nest shape

Place 3 mini eggs (roughly) to each nest

Next, wait for an hour so they can cool and they are ready to eat!

Hot cross buns (50 mins)

Ingredients

300ml full fat milk

50g butter

500g strong bread flour

1 tsp salt

75g caster sugar

1 tbsp sunflower oil

7g easy blend yeast

1 beaten egg

75g sultanas

50g mixed peel

1 orange

1 apple (peeled, cored and finely chopped)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

75g plain flour

3 tbsp apricot jam

Method

Boil the milk and remove heat once boiled Add the butter and leave to cool until it reaches hand temperature

Put the bread flour, salt, caster sugar and yeast into a bowl

Create a bowl shape in the mixture and add the milk and butter, then the egg

aggressor starts to attack one of the EU countries, which is part of NATO, then NATO would also get involved. But in this scenario, NATO would be the aggressor and not the defender anymore since they initiated a bigger conflict. Thus, their original purpose of being a defender when one of its members is in need of support changed to being an aggressor who defends any country that is slightly connected to one of its members.

Another instance in which NATO has been quite ambiguous is in the RussiaUkraine conflict. Ukraine kept on insisting on becoming a member of NATO, which Russia did not want since NATO’s original purpose was to be a united front against the Soviet Union, and Ukraine is located directly next to Russia, which would mean that a Part of NATO would be right next to Russia. On top of that, Russia always warned about how joining NATO would have consequences long before the war started, and Russia also acknowledged Ukraine as an independent country. Now, NATO and the EU are struggling to find a solution to help Ukraine when, in fact, some believe they are the root of the problem, and their interference is what led to a war in the first place. Therefore, if NATO now decides to step in to support Ukraine with military means, then it would go against what it stands for, namely being a defense alliance which supports only its members.

Mix with a wooden spoon and then with your hands until you create a dough( that may be sticky)

Flour your surface and place the dough onto it

Knead the dough for 5 mins until smooth

Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film

Leave for 1 hour

Still in the bowl put the sultanas, peel , orange, apple, ground cinnamon and spice into the dough

Knead the dough and leave for 1 hour with oiled cling film overtop

Next, divide the dough into 15 pieces and roll them into a ball shape on a floured surface

Put them onto a baking tray with parchment paper and cover with oiled cling film

Leave for 1 hour

Heat the oven to 200 degrees

Mix the flour with 5 tbsp water but add 1 tbsp at a time

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a small piping tip

Pipe a cross onto each bun and bake for 1820 mins on the middle shelf until golden brown

Heat the apricot jam and sieve, then brush over the top of the hot cross buns and leave to cool

Who Are the Liberal Democrats?

Last time it was all about the Labour party but move aside, here come the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats have been around since 3rd March 1988 and currently have 15 members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 84 members of the House of Lords, four members of the Scottish Parlia-

ment and one member of the Welsh Senedd.

Here are their proposals on what they are going to do for 2024:

A fair, prosperous and innovative economy that promotes opportunity and wellbeing.

Fair access to good public services and a strong social safety net.

A flourishing environment, with fair access to nature for all.

A strong United Kingdom and a fair international order.

See our previous editions of The Acorn to read about the Conservative and the Labour parties.

As part of our ‘ Student Spotlight’ series, I interviewed our very own Year 10 student Ryan (Chenrui) Liu on his recent involvement in an international robotics competition.

Fin: What is the competition you entered?

Ryan: The competition in winter is called the EDU Edu Cup in Hungary. It is based on a Hungarian university called EDU. The robot we designed was made to convert PET plastics directly into a 3d printed object skipping the costly filament creation, which has a high carbon footprint. In robotics, winter is the least busy season, it is usually in the summer when events such as the World Robotics Competition, European Robotics competition and others take place.

Fin: Who did you compete with in the event and what can you tell us about it?

Ryan: I don’t specifically know [who I was against] but I'm on the leaderboard. This is a project challenge. It is themed around earth overshoot day. We got 69 points out of 100 and ultimately came 2nd in the sustainability category. The competition is pretty worldwide since it is online. The

plans are sent via videos, docs and photos.

Fin: Have you done things like this before?

Ryan: Indeed. I was a mentor, a registered teacher in the Robotics Robocop Junior 2023 in Croatia to guide four kids in the age range of 5-7. I’m a substitute along with my teacher. We earned the best innovation award with our AI tech representing Hungary. Also I competed in a Chinese' robotics competition four years ago. Basically it was about creating a selfsustaining automatic port. Our team also came second. It had a high value in the wider Chinese community and was quite important.

Fin: Why did you enter?

Ryan: Because I really love the sustainability setting of this competition. I also like the thrill of the competitive nature in general because in every one I was involved, it strives forward innovation and gets the youth to invent. In the winter’s competition, it was more open to our imagination and not setting us to a specific lane. The judges judge based on authenticity, innovation, complexity

and real world technical usage.

Fin: How long have you been interested in robotics?

Ryan: I have been interested since I was nine. I started doing basic scratch competitions and then I developed into more hard software such as the LEGO EV3 and landing in Microbit.

Fin: What keeps you going when you hit an error or roadblock?

Ryan: I feel like the competition is about courage. A thing that I love about robotics competitions is the errors. They give me the opportunity to challenge and innovate. You have more to do to fix the error and in the process change your view to best fit the issue.

Fin: Any future plans that anyone else can get involved in?

Ryan: I am currently working for the Hungarian final of Robocop Rescue 9. It is where you have to design a robot to overcome a set of challenges on a scene or rescuing people during times of disaster.

Thank you to Ryan for this interview and well done on your achievements!

This machine recycles plastic bottles into 3D Printer filament

Photo credits to The Liberal Democrats

Student Spotlight– Year 10 student (and Robotics champ) Ryan Liu interviewed by By Fin Walker Robots, Roll out!

How to Conquer your Revision ~ By

As exam dates draw nearer, make sure you go in on the day feeling confident.

As exams draw closer revision becomes more relevant and usually a worry. Most students feel stressed around exam time, but if your revision is done well the stress will be less and the results higher.

At the start of this academic year, my grades in a specific subject were at a S=, with a two for effort and a three for organisation. At the start of 2024, I began to learn a new key word each night. Now my grade has risen to an E=, with a effort and organisation at 1, all because I changed my revision techniques.

Follow these four revision techniques and advice from Leighton Park’s study skills and academic intervention practitioner, Rebecca Meekings:

1) Flashcards

As much as this cliché takes time and is dreaded by most, once made takes no time at all! Before dinner or even before bed just quickly learn a keyword to make exam waffle disappear, even a word a day works!

2) Match-up tasks

Quickly print out two columns of words and definitions, cut them and at any time rearrange to match-up the word and definition. This easy method is fun

and effective.

3) Mind maps

This overworked phrase is an easier way to organise messy notes in a visual and straight forward method. Rebecca recommends that when making a mind map have the subjectbook shut so that you can practise retrieving information from your brain just like you would in the real exam.

4) Quizzing

Making a quick Kahoot or paper questions and answers can be a fun way to memorise key words and notes. You can easily find time to look at these and link questions with answers.

‘Your brain is like a filing cabinet, during revision you take the information out and staple it to the walls.’ (Rebecca Meekings)

Should I revise regularly?

Rebecca: Revision is usually related to exams but revision is just retrieving the information out of your brain and processing it further than the day you learnt it. Rebecca also says that when you know that no exam is expected soon it is still good to regularly check up on revision and recap what you have recently learnt so when an exam comes up the stress wave is less because you have the security of already having started revising.

Is Election Season Spreading?!

As we all have seen and heard there is a current election going on in Leighton Park all about British policies and also mock exams.

Alongside this, our country is also very near the extravaganza of election season and that means lots and lots of election fever.

For those who don’t know, election fever is a phrase used to symbolise election season. Different parties attempt to hold onto or go into power. From the articles of

guest writer Clara Ramos-Galvez

This doesn’t mean that you always need to go home and revise because homework also gets your brain ticking over and if you have homework for most subjects then no revision is necessary. When you know that a test is coming up it is recommended that revision becomes a daily habit. This tightens the staples that attach the knowledge to the walls of your brain.

Should we dread revision?

Rebecca: Some people believe that revision is bad because it can cause even more unnecessary stress so they choose to ignore it. But surely with more revision and practice on a subject you will know more about it and therefore do better in the exam. It is advised to make sure you manage your time wisely and make sure you keep allocated time slots for specific subjects. When revising make sure anything that may distract you is out of reach. It is always good to have a clear space when revising.

Revision should not be dreaded; it should be useful and enjoyed because it can be the difference between 100% and 0%. Just remember; “Revising gets you one step closer to perfection”. So this year, as exams draw closer, go into the exam feeling confident, ready and prepared. Good luck!

This article was the winner of our Year 8 article competition in English this term. Well done to Clara on her superb reporting! -Ed

News - By Isla Walker

the different issues, you would have read information about some of the most popular election parties and what they want to do if they win the election.

A couple of weeks ago, students got an email about a mock election happening until 19th March and have created three different groups on voting for your opinion of the British policies.

Election fever has been dated to have been around in 1929 when Geoffrey Trevelyan was

up for the Labour party and had been for the fourth time.

This is just one of the posters from over 101 years ago of an example of election fever.

Who knows what will happen next with election fever and which direction will Rishi Sunak go?

Picture from the Mumbai newsHindustanTimes

The Discussion - By Charlotte

Parker

Your future, Your Choice

Ever wondered what universities really look for in a student? I asked two different universities some questions so I can help you when you move on to the next step after Leighton Park.

During half term I travelled to Birmingham and had a look around. It was a great experience and everybody there was so lovely. This is what Rhea and Aaliya of the student comms team at Birmingham had to say

Q: Beyond grades, what do you look for in a potential student?

Rhea: Having recently graduated, I've come to realise that universities consider more than just exam results when evaluating potential students. Don't get me wrong, good results are important as long as you try your best, but they're not the sole focus. I think the key thing to communicate is a passion for learning, regardless of what you're interested in studying. Similarly, what truly matters is understanding what drives a student – their extracurricular activities, creativity, what inspires them, how they express themselves, and their individuality in their essays and interviews. It's really important to get a sense of who they are as a person, so just be yourself. The right university will find you!

Q: What courses have been the most popular in the last two academic years?

Rhea: I'd say that all courses are over subscribed and each person finds their own discipline. Some might be chasing their dream job, like teaching or medicine, so they'll go for those kinds of courses. Others might just follow their passions, whether that's delving into history or exploring the world through geography. Speaking from my own experience, I've always been a bookworm, so I went for an English degree., as it sounds!).

I'm really thankful for what my English degree taught me it's been a real asset for my career path. So, I guess the takeaway here is to follow your heart when it comes to picking your degree (as cheesy

Q: What's the most popular place on campus for the students?

Aaliya: It really depends on the time of year and for what purpose – I’d say the Main Library is very busy, especially around assessment season as students are busy revising and prepping for exams. Otherwise, the food spots on campus, like our Cafeteria and Costa or Starbucks, are usually busy – anywhere with good food, you’ll find students!

Q: What’s the best thing about living in Birmingham? Any hidden gems?

Aaliya: I personally love how multicultural the city is; you’ll meet people from all over the world. We have such a big international student population at the University of Birmingham. In terms of hidden gems, I might be slightly biassed but the Lapworth museum on campus – where we have cool fossils and a huge dinosaur skeleton!

The other university I interviewed was Manchester. This response comes from Laura C, a marketing and recruitment officer.

Q: Beyond grades, what do you look for in a potential student?

Laura C: Understanding – have you done your research and do you understand the skills the course you’re interested in is looking for, and what the course entails? What academic and personal skills do you have that demonstrate you have the potential to study at a higher level? Independent decision making - are you motivated and driven to study this course? How can you demonstrate your independence and show you can work without much supervision?

Contribution – what will you contribute to the University community both through your studies and also through your extra-curricular interests?

Q: What courses have been the most popular in the last two academic years?

Laura C: Psychology, Medicine, courses within our Business School and Computer Science. However, the latest UCAS data confirms that The University of Manchester was the most popular UK University for undergraduate UCAS applications in 2023 so this question can apply to many of our courses.

Q: What's the most popular place on campus for the students?

Laura C: Our Students’ Union has lots of cafes and places to eat and meet friends. When the sun shines in Manchester, you can find many students sitting on the grass or benches near Brunswick Street. We also have our very own Museum on campus, the Manchester Museum where amongst lots of other exhibitions you can find the Fossils and Dinosaurs galleries and come face to face with prehistoric giants such as Stan the Tyrannosaurus Rex!

I was so glad to get all these wonderful responses and I found this article so interesting to write.

Feel like testing your brain? Want to get your mind in a muddle? Welcome to Leighton Park’s very own

By George Verry

House Music 2024 Photo credit: LP Flickr