The Wyvern - Issue 14

SHINE AWARD WINNING!

The Wyvern Issue 14

Darlington School of Maths and Science

@DSMS_Wyvern

Winter 2012

Vertical Tutors DSMS’s way to go up in Darlington

Newspaper

TV

When DSMS pupils returned in September the school had brought in the much anticipated vertical tutors system.

This means that 2 pupils from every year are put in the same tutor group together.

Online

They spend 20 minutes a day together after first lesson with 2 tutors to guide them however the year 11’s are taking on the role of leading the tutor groups.

Vertical Tutor groups have

When you have finished reading this magazine please pass it on to a friend or relative, line your budgie’s cage with it, make inner-soles for your wellies with it, craft it into a fabulous new hat or just recycle it.

Thank You, The Wyvern Editing Team

been tried and tested around the country and the response to them have been mixed. In some schools, vertical tutors has worked really well because both teachers and pupils have been working as a team to make the new system a success.

Mr Kipling says “Vertical Tutors are a wonderful new innovation at DSMS and they have made the relationships between the school and parents even better.”

There is a new housing system too. All form classes are in either the Topaz Tigers, Sapphire Sharks, Emerald Eagles or Ruby Rattlesnakes.

The pupils have assemblies in these houses and raced for them in sports day (back).

In conclusion both the new housing and tutor system has been an amazing success.

By Liam Pape

DSMS Fundraising Over the last few months DSMS has done fundraising for a number of charities, one of them being the 10 for 10 campaign which helps the families of soldiers who are serving or who have previously served in warzones like Afghanistan or Iraq.

DSMS held an own clothes day and the year 11 senior prefects ran the assembly.

They talked about the families of those who have a relative in the army and how much it means to them knowing that they are safe.

On the 16th of November DSMS pupils raised money for the charity ‘Children in Need’, they did a dress down day and bake sales in order to help this charity.

Altogether the whole school

raised £570. This charity helps children who are disadvantaged. They send money to small and large organisations who help young people all over the U.K. The money raised by Children in Need changes young peoples lives everywhere.

By Liam Pape and Lauren Hebden

PAPE“R”MAIL Christmas TV Ratings

The TV ratings are out and it looks like soaps dominated most people's televisions over Christmas Day. EastEnders came in first with an average of 9.4 million viewers watching their Christmas episode. The BBC 1 soap led the ratings chart followed by ITV 1's Christmas episode of Coronation Street.

That had an average of 8.6 million ratings.

Although these ratings look quite high and make the programs look successful they are actually down by quite a lot compared to last year. EastEnders alone had over half a million less viewers than its Christmas special of 2011. Doctor Who got 7.6 million viewers which is over 1.3 million less than last year.

Controller of BBC One, Danny Cohen, said "It's been brilliant to see so many viewers watching BBC One on Christmas Day." Despite the ratings being considerably lower than last year on all channels, most stations are just blaming it on the rise of people using catch-up services like BBC player, ITV player, 4oD and Demand 5. This means that people can catch up on their favourite shows after Christmas day when they don't have the stress of family round for dinner or children crying because they didn't get what they wanted off Santa.

website: www.papermail7.blogspot.com

Kick-starting Kickstarting websites are websites that start-up companies can use to raise money for their product.

It is like an online version of 'Dragons Den'. You pitch your product, maybe upload a prototype photo, state how much you want to raise and the time you want to raise it in.

Then, if people like your idea, they can donate as much as they like in return for a free model or something like that (whatever you think if right).

One of the most successful ideas that came from kickstarter.com was the Pebble Watch which you can connect to your iPhone or Android phone via Bluetooth 4.0.

It sends notifications, text messages and other useful information from your smartphone to the watch. It can also be used to send information back to your phone (like if you want to change the track or if you want to use your phones GPS for a track-

Below: kickstarted star, the Pebble Watch

ing app on the smart watch).

The Pebble Watch has an epaper screen and the battery life that can last around 7 days. Unfortunately, the watch does not currently work with Blackberry or Windows Phone however hopefully that will be coming soon.

The Pebble Watch is going to cost around £100.

What makes the pebble watch so special is that it made $1,000,000 in 28 hours when it's goal was only $100,000. By the end of the 5 week deadline it had 68,929 backers and had raised $10,266,846 in the end.

Central Perk opens in Beijing A fan of the American TV Sitcom 'Friends' has opened the iconic 'Central Perk' Cafe in Beijing in China. The man who opened the Cafe unfortunately isn't called Gunther however he is called Du Xin and he is a 'Friends' super fan. After watching the show, he started searching around Beijing for a place where he could actually sit on an orange couch just like the one his favourite heroes relaxed on in the sitcom.

When he couldn't find one in Beijing, he decided to open his own Central Perk. In order to nail all the things he wanted, Du studied thousands of photos of the show’s set and watched endless reruns. Five months later and he had the Cafe of his dreams.

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Features

Brain Teasers No:1

Book of the Month My book of the month would be ‘The Mystery Of the Hidden House’.

It was a fantastic read and was really entertaining and had a very good mystery to it.

It was all about a group of children who were told not to go mystery hunting these holidays as they did the previous times in the other books. But of course they somehow found themselves right in the middle of something very 'peculiar' as they described it.

The mystery was that cars were being stolen and stored in a big warehouse lost in the middle of the countryside.

One of the children got kidnapped by the gang who were worried they knew too much about what they were doing. So the other children set out to

try and rescue their friend solving the mystery on the way. The local policeman who knew nothing of the mystery was very angry to find it solved by 'those pests' as he calls them. It was a brilliant book by my favorite author Enid Blyton who is brilliant author of lots of other books to. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of mystery and adventure!

By Poppy Hutchinson

Can you think of a Solution?

You are out playing with your group of friends and suddenly you come across a river which is about 2 metres wide. There is no bridge in sight so your friends start to wade across it for there is no current and it is quite slow-flowing. You are left on the other side but when you are about to follow your friends actions, the river starts flowing very fast and it is impossible to get across without being drown. Trees line the river and your friend has a long length of rope. Can you think of a way of getting across the fast flowing river bearing in mind there is no bridge?

By Poppy Hutchinson

Where are they now: Alec Llewellyn Hello – and although it is over 30 years since I left Branksome, 1982 in fact, the time seems to have flown by and some of the experiences and memories of my time there seem as if they happened just yesterday.

Schooling was very different then – I remember we were the first year to do Computer Studies O level ( what’s O levels you ask ?) and we had to go to the Technical College and write simple programmes on blue-cards as the school only had 1 computer – look in your history books about card and tape readers, BASIC computer languages, floppy disks and all that stuff!

We seemed to spend lots of time in cold draughty classrooms – especially the top floor of the ‘new’ block - and especially double French on a wintery

Tuesday afternoon – why did this seem to last for hours and hours ?

However, I must have listened to some lessons, as I left Branksome with 10 O-levels, as well as being Head-Boy and captain of the school Rugby team. I think it was the friendship through playing sports that I remember most – and that along with some of the teachers who taught me along the way, helped contribute to the values that have steered me through my life – including team working, effective leadership, loyalty and commitment. It’s amazing how many friends I still have from my school days, and how when you meet some of them after several years absence, they always so – “ Can you remember when…..”

an Water for 16 years after going to University and working away from Darlington for several years; working my way up through various operational and management positions. I am very lucky in having a job that allows me to use the bedrock of skills I learnt whilst at Branksome, and add other skills I have picked up through the years.

You may not enjoy all of your time at school, however the memories and experiences you have will keep friendships alive, and allow lots of laughing reminisces many years after you have left .

I have now worked for Northumbri-

The Wyvern Our website: www.wyvennews.blogspot.com Follow us on twitter: @DSMS_Wyvern If you would like to contribute an article, join the paper or have any ideas/criticisms, you can e-mail us at: dsmswyvern@gmail.com

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New e-mail

DSMS

DSMS is currently no longer using the old Frog e-mail system. Instead you can log in to www.mail.office365.com. Your username will be the same as your school login however with @dsms.org at the end of it.

And your password for the new Outlook e-mail is set as ‘password’ unless you have changed it already.

Crack the Code!

Posters about the DSMS Learning Code have been up around school for months now and on Monday 24th September 2012 pupils were finally able to access www.thecodebank.co.uk to crack the code.

Every few hours over the 24th September to the 1st of October a new question was launched on the Code Bank website for pupils to answer and send away to win prizes.

Quality Cooking Just before we broke up, the school harboured a cooking day for the parents of West Park Academy. In school to help with this came a Morrisons representative and a professional Chef to teach them how to cook quick and easy meals from scratch and on a budget.

Throughout the day the parents were shown recipes and demonstrations.

They also got to do a bit of cooking to.

We caught up with everyone at the end of the day to sample some of their products and speak to the representative and the chef.

We asked them what the aim for the day was and this is what they replied: “This was more to do with getting the parents and the carers involved and how they can cook for their family when the kids are back at school. The pasta bake we cooked this morning only took about fifteen minutes. Dishes are good if they are cost effective, healthy and which feed your family the right portions. Some people think that you have to pay over the odds for ingredients but just because you have a wonky carrot doesn’t make it any different to or less good than a straight carrot because they all come out of the ground.” We then went on to ask the

Changes in the School Over the summer holidays so many changes happened at DSMS, it almost made the school unrecognisable.

From new windows and fences to redecorated maths classrooms and a new wall outside the school.

There is a full report on the changes during episode 5 of the Wyvern TV.

chef if he enjoyed teaching and encouraging people to eat healthy?

“Yeah I do like teaching people and I love to see people walk away really excited by an idea or ‘think hang on a minute I can do that’. You could probably come with the same idea you did that they are all full of horrible stringy things and that it doesn’t taste the same as the expensive things. A lot of the time there is nothing between them.”

Why would you encourage people to buy value foods? “It’s really about showing that by taking a potato and no matter what it costs it can be delicious. That it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be washed and it doesn’t have to be all whatever. The less you do to it than the more natural it is, the cheaper it can be and the more wholesome it is for you anyway. I love that they come with the pretence or idea that oh no I wouldn’t buy the cheapest potato; it’s horrible, well actually they’re not.”

After we spoken to them we got the chance to taste some of the food the parents had made. It was gorgeous and actually our very own cynic, Liam

the editor, who didn’t believe that the food could be just as good proved what our chef was saying that just because something wasn’t perfect didn’t mean it tasted badly like he thought. After Liam had tried it though he finally understood what the chef was trying to explain.

So next time you’re out in a supermarket don’t just look at the value food products and decide that they won’t be as good, buy them and try out a recipe with them yourself. You may be surprised.

By Katie Appleyard

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DSMS Rewards

Miss Kelly Runs North

The previous award system at DSMS meant that if pupils behaved, did well in lessons or deserved a praise they would get achievement points which would build up until they wanted to spend them on a DSMS Mug, a pen, pencil or even iTunes vouchers if they got enough points. However this system has been scrapped.

New Assistant Head teacher , Miss Kelly, ran the great north run this year for Children with Cancer.

She ran it in a time of 2 hours 23 and she raised £100 however she is doing some more fundraising in School at the moment.

Unfortunately she didn’t beat Mo Farah but Miss Kelly says “That’s only because he didn’t run it this year but I wouldn’t have wanted to embarrass him so I ran slowly!”

Miss Kelly added that she did enjoy it. “It’s hard work and a challenge to train but it’s very satisfying sprinting over the finish line and knowing that you've ran 13.1 miles (without stopping).”

Miss Kelly also said that she would definitely be doing the great north run next year.

buying footballs and even buying camping mats. All of the options will be available for pupils to see when they log in.

Outstanding pupils at DSMS were rewarded at prize giving evening on Tuesday 13th of November 2012.

Noteworthy pupils from each subject were awarded 1000 Vivo miles.

The new system is called Other pupils who Vivo and they currently have have either done reover 1,172,578 users around markable things to help the globe. Pupils build up their the community or who points the same way and they get have been exceptionlogged on a computer howeval doing other er the main difference is things were also that it is an online system rewarded with so pupils can see how a trophy or many points they have The Wyvern certificate. from home. When the points have built up, puNewapepr and TV pils then use them to team won the Bernie buy prizes from the Coyne Team of the Year Vivo website. They have loads of options award for the 2nd time in of things to do with 3 years at the DSMS their points including Prize giving getting phone top-ups, donating money to charity, evening!

Tortoise tributes as Lonesome George dies Lonesome George, a giant tortoise believed to be the last of the subspecies of Pinta tortoises, has died at the age of 100 years. As yet, the cause of death is not clear but a post mortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death. However, it was not old age that killed him since Pinta tortoises can live up to 200 years old!

Giant tortoises were common on the Galapagos Islands until the late 19th century but were later hunted for their meat and shells by sailors and fisherman to the point of extinction. Their

habitat was also destroyed by the introduction of goats from the mainland.

Since there are no known other individuals from his subspecies left, Lonesome George became known as the rarest creature in the World.

For many years, scientists had tried to help Lonesome George find love with other similar giant Galapagos tortoises. Although he live with a female tortoise for 15 years, the eggs they produced were infertile.

Charles Darwin studied the tortoises from different islands and the differences between them helped him create his theory of evolution.

Lonesome George is going to be embalmed to converse him for future generations. By Miss Kelly

Grease

The musical extravaganza, Grease, has came to DSMS! On the 18th and 19th December 2012, the school performed ‘Grease’, a musical set in the late fifties. The cast was made up of 28 pupils, ranging from all years, and they were supported by 7 teachers, who helped with costume, choreography, music, stage changes and just generally making the production altogether.

With two year nine students taking the roles of Danny and Sandy respectively, the performance was one of many interesting and entertaining levels. The performance was a pupil – led production, with pupils saying if they could change speeches or even roles. Also, a lot of the pupils, if not all, provided costumes themselves.

Before the final show Caitlin Sear, who plays Sandy, said “it’s going to be a once in a lifetime performance!”

However, let’s not forget the people who weren’t on stage, yet were still a part of the production; the live band supporting many of the songs

and the Border Studio providing sets (right). Teachers put many extra hours into making sure the production went without a hitch, and involved both live and pre – recorded aspects.

As well as the production, refreshments and raffle tickets were sold to help raise money for the Kenya trip for 20 stu-

dents. They also sold biscuits and helped with the look of the hampers that each tutor in the school had provided items for.

Overall, the school provided a great show for the community and we know this because on the last night, was super show was sold out!

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Darlington “Full of Life Day” Christmas Dinner Review The Darlington “Full of Life Day” in my opinion was a great idea. For people who don’t know what this is, it is an annual event aimed at elderly people on the 4th of October.

Companies and services like the NHS were there to do stuff like checking people’s blood pressure. It helped a lot of people although not all of the things there were a great success.

When I asked Sam Wears what he thought of this he replied “It’s not bad”.

Pupils from DSMS were there to help out so our first job was to help set up tables, chairs and equipment.

First I started off by playing Dominoes and after about 4 games the Mayor arrived. Later on in the day I ended up talking to an elderly lady called Jean. She was very appreciative of the service provided; the people from the NHS informed her that she had high blood pressure and helped her with the treatment.

I then spoke to a man called Harry Longmoor, an old Branksome caretaker. He was a member of GOLD, (Growing Old Living in Darlington) although he was mainly there to meet a friend. After talking to him for some time I decided to try something new.

So my friends and I tried just Dance 2.

We got really good at it, but sometime around the third game we realised that half the room was looking at me and Sam dancing to M.C Hammer’s’ Can’t Touch This’. In humiliation we sat down and made a really big domino run.

After that it was time to go back to school. The Darlington “Full of Life Day” was ok, but I don’t think it lived up to the expectation of the council or any of the people setting up. Many of the stalls were unused and not many people that I spoke to visited the market. Despite this, most people still had a good time.

By Matthew Currey

Rebecca talks to Sam Kane On the 11th January, 20 students and 2 teachers, Mrs Loughlin and Mrs Davison, went to the Civic Theatre to watch the Sleeping Beauty Pantomime, as a rewards trip for all the commitment and dedication they put into the schools production of Grease. The show starred Phillip Meeks, and husband and wife Sam Kane and Linda Lusardi, as Odd Job and The Witch respectively, and Darlington’s own Zoe Birkett as Beauty. After the pantomime, which left us uncontrollably laughing, we interviewed Sam Kane.

Q. Was it hard directing and acting in the same show?

A. Not at all. It was a great experience but a lot of hard work went into it. We only got 10 days rehearsal before the show, with only 2 of them being dress rehearsal, so the more we put into it, the

more we got out of it.

Q. What is your favourite pantomime?

When hot tasty gravy trickles down your throat that’s when the fantastic flavors hit you. But when the fabulous smell of roasting meat oozes up your nose, your stomach rumbles and your taste buds tingle. But an even better feeling is when you get a plate full of roast turkey followed by colourful vegetables and irresistible gravy. So many flavors and colours and smells all put together to make a delicious Christmas dinner.

And usually this once-a-year celebration dinner is topped off with a traditional Christmas pudding.

A delicious rich cake filled with dried fruit and nuts sometimes served with brandy crème or brandy butter. Or the other option we had at DSMS is an orange cheesecake with white squirty cream.

Results Table

A. Probably Snow White and the Seven Dwarves which I did 18 years ago, because that’s where I met my wife.

Q. Why do you enjoy pantomime experience?

What a great Christmas dinner!

A. I like the experience because, unlike TV or film, you get instant gratification from the audience, and I like that.

By Adam Plumb

Q. What’s next for you?

A. Hopefully more pantomimes and I have a small role in a Danny Dyer movie.

Afterschool

Lunchtime

Sport Monday Inter-house 5-a-side Year 8/9 MHI Girls Rugby Year 7/8 Coach Badminton All Years KPH

Football Training Year 7/8 MHI / QE

By James Allison, Liam Pape and Ewan Barr More DSMS sport at www.wyvernnews.blogspot.com

Below is the PE ExtraCurricular Timetable from January - April 2013

Tuesday Netball Year 7 HFR

Wednesday Netball Year 8 HFR

Thursday Dance All Years KPH

Friday Badminton All Years KPH

Football Year 7 CGR

Hockey Year 9/10 KPH

Hockey Year 7/8 HFR Circuits

Martin Gray FA Practical

Badminton All Years MHI Netball All Years / KPH

Girls Football All years HFR

Duke of Ed Year 10/11 KPH

All years KPH Football Match Year 7 & 9 CGR / BFI

Martin Gray FA Practical

Martin Gray FA Theory

PE Prefects Days: Year 7 - Monday, Year 8 - Wednesday, Year 9 - Friday (lunchtimes on MUGA)

Watt Bike Challenge

Sports Day

The Watt Bike Challenge was at DSMS on Tuesday 6th November 2012 for the 2nd year.

A boy and a girl were nominated from each house to cycle 1 kilometre in the fastest time possible.

The fastest people will be going through to the town championship which is held later this academic year.

Sports Day Results: TOTAL BOYS TOTAL GIRLS OVERALL 125 120 247 152 118 271 121 153 277 167 165 336

Samantha Gould who came first at this years town sports for the Year 7 Shot Put beat her personal best. Town Sports Result: 6.56 meters. DSMS Sports Day Result: 6.95 meters. She also carried the Olympic Torch earlier this year in Hartlepool for outstanding efforts in PE. Alex Palister who came first at this years town sports for the Year 9

Shot Put also beat his personal best.

At Town Sports he threw a distance of 10.11 meters and at the DSMS sports day he threw a distance of 10.25 meters.

Sam Hutchinson smashed the School record for the 1500 meters. He did it in a time of 4.45, the previous record was set at 4.54. Jordan Blore who came 2nd in the 1500 meters also beat the record coming in one second after Sam Hutchinson.

Both boys are in year 10.

Most of the races were really close with competitors finishing seconds apart. The winner of a field/track event would receive 4 points, 2nd place would receive 3 points, 3rd place - 2 points and 4th place - 1 point. The only time no points would be rewarded was if someone was disqualified or if they didn’t turn up for their event.

Below is a breakdown of the points. The bold numbers are the highest scores.

7 BOYS 7 GIRLS 8 BOYS 8 GIRLS 9 BOYS 9 GIRLS 10 BOYS 10 GIRLS 11 BOYS 11 GIRLS MASCOT SHARKS 14 20 19 35 31 27 31 23 30 15 2 TIGERS 19 14 33 21 37 29 30 23 33 31 1 EAGLES 18 11 34 36 23 38 16 28 30 40 3 RATTLESNAKES 15 22 40 35 38 29 41 42 33 37 4

"When one door closes another one opens; but we to often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which have opened for us" ~ Alexander Graham Bell.