The Wyvern - Issue 12

The Wyvern Issue 12

Darlington School of Maths and Science

Book Of The Month S c o r p i o n R i s i n g By Anthony H o r w i t z This month’s book of the month Scorpion Rising By Anthony Horowitz.

It is here we meet Alex Rider again as he searches for a way out of MI5. As he is jetted out to Cairo, old enemies come back into the horizon.

While Scorpia plots against him will life be the same after he loses the one person who he has left? Will Alex meet his doom or will MI5 and Scorpia ever let him be a normal 15 year old kid a g a i n ?

By Katie-Jayne Appleyard

@DSMS_Wyvern

2011

Science Superstar in School The first DSMS award evening took place on Tuesday 8th November 2011. There was a variety of awards from Excellence in English to Citizenship awards and awards for helping the community. The previous year 11s received their GCSE certificates as well.

Professor John Kilcoyne from Brainiac was there to give people their awards and he also performed a stunning show at the end where he blew stuff up.

Headteacher, Mr C Kipling,

quotes “The award evening was superb. Well done to all those involved. Professor Kilcoyne was a star.”

Professor John Kilcoyne quotes “I was very privileged to be involved in such an evening which demonstrated all that education is about! Confidence of pupils and past pupils being strengthened by public celebration of their achievements. All organised by the dedicated staff who patiently took pride and pleasure in their students' successes.”

2nd Birthday of school newspaper On the 20th November 2011 the DSMS school newspaper turned 2 years old.

In the last year quite a bit has happened. We have changed the newspaper name to ‘The Wyvern’, the newspaper design has changed and we have had more outer school visits to report.

One of the highlights of the year has to be the British Lung Foundation trip to London where we visited Downing

street and Westminster to hand in a petition which proposed to stop smoking in cars if there is a passenger under the age of 16.

More highlights include being mentioned by Ofsted, receiving a TV for the library and winning the Bernie Coyne team of the year award.

In the next year the Wyvern hopes to maintain the title of the best pupil run newspaper in Darlington.

Roxanne Wood, 13, received 2 awards for MFL and History. She told us “I was very proud of my self, it inspired me to do well next year.”

For more photos of Professor John Kilcoyne at DSMS visit our blog.

(Address on page 5)

In this issue ...

Harry M! (Young Apprentice)

Jason Bradbury (Gadget Show)

Mr Sayers (ex-teacher) Printed by

Ruby Red Printing Ltd Unit 13 Nestfield Industrial Estate, Darlington DL1 2NW Tel: 01325 361124

PAPE“R”MAIL

Christmas Facts: 34-36 million Christmas trees are produced around the world each year.

Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas between 1647 and 1660 AD. The song “Jingle Bells” was actually written for American Thanksgiving.

People spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes wrapping presents.

website: www.papermail7.blogspot.com iPhone 4Scam In my opinion the new iPhone 4S was the most anticipated mobile phone of 2011. However I think that the phone was way overrated. The only major difference from the last model is a better camera and a new voice recognition software called Siri.

We asked Jason Bradbury (Gadget show) what he thought of Siri and he said “It is a fun distraction”. Evidence shows that last September Samsung outsold the iPhone which proves that people were waiting for the 4S and I think they were disappointed.

Reports came in November that after charging a couple of times the 4S’s battery had gone down to just a few hours.

0 Ex Geography teacher, Mr Sayers says “Not impressed with iPhone 4S at all.

1.1cm Siri is fun but a bit gimmicky.”

STEM NEWS

Porsche is a successful car company so they are probably only making a bicycle ‘because they can’.

The bike is called the ‘Porsche Bike RS’ (how original?) It is ridiculously high priced at almost £5000 for the carbon frame. It has 29” wheels and 20 gears. The design doesn't look that stun-

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ning however how creative can you really be with bikes?

It has disk brakes and no suspension because Porsche claim that that carbon fibre is good at absorbing bumps.

The bike comes out in February 2012.

Mrs Park wins the DSMS Shortest Pencil

Christmas, cash and cool knowledge I am going to start by telling you that the richest 3 people in 2011 were Carlos Slim Helu (Telecoms), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Bernard Arnaslt (LVMH). Together they are worth over £150 billion and I wonder what they got for their friends and family last Christmas. Maybe a sports car, a horse, an expensive watch or maybe even a boat!

That is them though and unlike them there are not very many people in Darlington who have vast amounts of money to spend. In a recent survey I asked them “If money wasn’t an issue, what would they like to receive for Christmas?” I got over

100 replies. Many said iPads, iPhones, clothes and makeup however it was interesting to see that some people like a surprise at Christmas and are happy whate v e r t h e y g e t .

One of the unforgettable and iconic parts of Christmas is ‘Christmas dinner’. Eating turkey on Christmas day was first made fashionable by Edward VII, before that many families ate goose or the head of a boar. Also, Christmas pudding used to be made as a thick soup called frumenty, with raisins and wine in it.

Christmas Day first got celebrated

as Jesus’ birthday on AD 440 because of Pope Julius I. That is around the same time as when Father Christmas was born in Turkey.

Boxing Day is called so because traditionally it was the day when churches opened their collection boxes to distribute the cash to the poor. However in the 1800s Boxing Day was also the day that some rich people would hand over boxes of gifts to the poor.

Young Apprentice 2011 The Wyvern doesn't usually report on TV Shows however we had to make an exception for Alan Sugar’s Young Apprentice. During the series, business minded teenagers took part in tasks and at the end of every episode one of the candidates was fired and had to leave the process. The winner received a £25,000 investment into their business.

This raises the question of what can young people do to get into business.

Luckily we got an exclusive interview with Harry Maxwell (Harry M) from the Young Apprentice 2011.

Harry M Says: For me, you can’t help not being drawn towards the world of business

as in my opinion it is what determines how the world ticks. Whenever I am asked, I will always say online businesses are the way to go. All you need to do is have an idea, buy a

“I will always say online businesses are the way to go.”

Christmas Tech

Thankyou to Harry Maxwell (@HarryMaxwell) and his business Luxury Five Star Hotel Guide.com

web-design software for about £50 and a hosting package for £10 and off you go! I am a strong believer that the only person who can stop you from doing something is yourself. If you have a good idea and have the energy, passion, motivation

Science With Christmas around the corner it is all too easy to look towards new technology for satisfaction. Text messages, email, Facebook, Twitter, iPad, iPhone... everything we do seems to be inextricably linked to a computer screen. Gone are the days of phoning or writing to family members. We spend our lives texting, asking “wot u up2”, “going 2 twn”, “wen”, “l8r”, “c u thre”. Has our life really been reduced to writing on somebodys “wall”? Have Scientists really worked for years so that we can express ourselves using a symbol L. Science is in danger of making independent thought extinct. Any adult who played with Meccano as a child knows that it consisted of bolting together strips of metal, building complex motors using cogs and actually designing objects that taxed the mind. An hour with Meccano?

Building a Meccano model used to take days, even weeks. Modern Meccano sets consist of pre-determined shapes that bolt together in minutes. Independent thought has disappeared into the ether. Reading a book almost feels like a pointless exercise. Why use a book when Wiki has every (wrong) answer you ever wanted? It seems as if the side effect of technology has been human

and drive, regardless of how old you are, nobody can stop you from persevering!”

laziness. Wall-E predicted a race of humans on motorised machines incapable of walking. I wonder how far we are from this reality. How many of us will sit and use the latest technology on Christmas day, creating a fantastic excuse to ignore our families, speak to nobody and instead, vegetate in front of a screen full of dancing pixels? Before you break up for your Christmas holidays, take a moment to think independently about what is really important in life. Take a day off from the internet. Turn your phone off for twenty four hours. Find something out the old way, use a book. Sit down with your family. Talk to them. Phone your relatives. Actually listen to them. Discover independent thought. Discover human interaction. Discover life. Then, and only then, use modern technology to further it.

By Mr Burford

Feature on a Teacher

Name: Mr Parr Subject: History, RE and CBL (Competency based learning.)

Years at DSMS: 2½ life sentences.

Most Memorable Moment: There have been many. How about, being the voice of the Giant Carnivorous plant in the school production of “Little shop of Horrors.”

Funniest Moment: Listening to the ransom tape played to the to the whole staff for Mr Simmon’s kidnapped gnomes.

Mrs Surtees says:

Lol

Advice (words of wisdom): Don't bring gnomes to School.

They belong in the garden.

Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part1 The latest Twilight film, Breaking Dawn, is the film everyone was talking about. It was a tension filled film. This film reaches out to Twilight loving teens.

Miss Ford, DT, says “I loved it at the end when Bella turned into a vampire. I can’t wait until the next movie. The wedding scene was good because I found it funny.”

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner was served to both pupils and teachers on Tuesday 13th December 2011. Turkey, stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and parsnips were some of the things on offer for the main course. For dessert there was an option of Ice Cream, Christmas Pudding and more. Once again the dinner ladies did a brilliant job of filling everyone’s stomachs.

DSMS Donators

Samaritans Purse, the Poppy Appeal and the 10 for 10 campaign are some of the charities DSMS have supported recently.

Unfortunately DSMS could not do as much fundraising for Children in Need because we were not at school. Children in Need raised over £26,332,334.

For Samaritans Purse, the year 7s, 8s and some year 9s decorated shoeboxes and filled them with useful supplies and toys to send off to 3rd world countries.

All together they made a brilliant 89 boxes!

Mr Parr quotes “It was young and enthusiastic, Mrs Dunn's idea to donate to operation Christmas Child and we have incorporated that into the CBL curriculum.”

There was also a bake sale in the main hall where tasty cakes were on offer.

There was also a raffle where pupils and teachers could purchase a ticket for 20p.

For the 10 for 10 campaign on the 10th October 2011 there was a dress down day for the whole school, with a charge of £1 of course. We raised somewhere into the region of £500.

On the 11th November we had an assembly from Mr. Tucker where he talked to the school about the Poppy Appeal. In an interview with him we asked “How important do you think it is that young people respect people who have given their lives for our country? “ He answered "I feel that it is vital in our society. Young people

School Houses During November Mr Thompson introduced a new housing system for the school.

Every tutor in a year has a different house. The houses are: Respect, Determination, Excellence, Courage and Inspiration. Pupils are able to get points for their house by taking part in School events.

Recently some of the opportunities to represent your house have been in the form of Basketball and Trampolining competitions.

Pupils are able to receive 50 points for their house by representing the school for sport or another activity. 20 points for attending an extracurricular activity. During a competition the winner receives 500 points for their

often get a 'bad press' from the way they behave but I was delighted by the attitude shown by our pupils during the Remembrance Day assembly. The two minutes silence to honour the servicemen who have given their lives was impeccably observed which says a lot for our children. Doing this assembly just reinforces my thinking that DSMS pupils are a brilliant group of young people."

house. 2nd gets 400 points, 3rd 300 points, 4th 200 points and 5th gets your team 100 points.

Leading up to house competitions pupils are able to go onto their house’s forum via frog and discuss who should be on the team.

Twitter The Wyvern has Twitter. You can follow us @DSMS_Wyvern for the latest news in DSMS and the Branksome area.

For the latest news and information regarding DSMS such as days off and educational visits you can follow @DSMSUK. Finally for the latest sports results within the school you can follow @DSMSSport.

What do you think of the new look school newspaper?

The comments below are from Mrs McDonnell (Attendance & Pupil Records DSMS) “Many thanks for the first edition of The Wyvern, great new format and fab logo, impressive. Such a mark of respect to the “old school” that the Wyvern has been kept alive and it really matters to those of us who have “history” with Branksome. My favourite books when I was at school were the “Swish of the Curtain” series by Pamela Brown and I always thought that I would follow in the footsteps of my favourite characters and end up on the stage! Good luck to you and the team with the new magazine, Hope it goes from strength to strength.”

Pensioners Party Thursday 15th December 2011 was the day of the DSMS OAP Party. Run by Mr Haylock in the main hall, there were refreshments, cakes, sandwiches and snacks on offer. Over 30 local pentioners turned up to the 5th annual Christmas party.

John was an ex - pupil from our school who was tragically killed in Afghanistan on 30th December 2011. Whilst a pupil here John was a highly popular boy with both

The cast from Oliver came back to give everyone a final 3 songs and to finish off the wonderful afternoon there was a raffle.

Alana Peaurt and Robyn Stasiak opened the afternoon by playing and singing ‘Someone like you’ by Adele.

They did a brilliant job.

Later in the afternoon the cast from Oliver performed 2 songs. Since this was their last performance all the cast were confident up on stage.

JOHN KING

Photograph by permission of Army Press Office

After that it was the bingo run by Julia Park, site manager.

staff and his fellow pupils. He had a mischievous smile and could always be depended on to keep everyone amused, but in a way that was never offensive or disruptive. It was always his intention to join the Armed Forces and he was the proudest young man when he joined up. As Miss Soulsby, his form tutor said, he was so "made up" the day he told her he was going into the army.

As a soldier he will be missed by all his mates and everyone who served with him. As a son and brother he will always be remembered for the brilliant person he was. As a former pupil at this school he will be commemorated in a way that is still to be de-

Christmas Poem

by Carl Slatter Santa, Santa on his sleigh, Santa, Santa flying away, With Rudolf’s nose glowing bright Guiding Santa through the night Santa, Santa on his sleigh, His elves have come to stay Morning’s come, Santa is the best, Now tired Santa can rest cided, which will happen after discussion with the family.

We all miss you John - RIP.

By Dave Tucker Assistant Headteacher

The Wyvern Visit our blog: www.wyvennews.blogspot.com Or e-mail us at: wyvern@dsms.org Or follow us on twitter: @DSMS_Wyvern Or read the Wyvern at: www.dsms.org

OLIVER

Oliver has been a great experience and the dancing is good. ~ Sarah Moitt

Oliver a very, very good production. I have enjoyed making it and I would love to do something like this again. ~ Katie J Appleyard

At first I thought I would never learn all the lines however eventually after a lot of rehearsals I learnt them. ~Connor Tomlinson

It is very interesting and I am happy I got involved. ~ Lauren Wennington

Cast & Crew

For more photos visit the Wyvern’s blog.

Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist has come to DSMS. The cast and crew in the show have been working hard since October when the first auditions took place to create the amazing musical. It was a success thanks to Mrs Wilson, Mrs Loughlin, Mrs Hill and around 30 devoted pupils.

They had 6 weeks to learn dances, songs and lines.

We asked Lauren Wennington how much effort had gone into the production. She said “A lot.

Everybody has been running around frantically.”

Connor Tomlinson, year 7, got the part of Oliver. He quotes “I

was very proud of myself when I was told I had the part.”

On Friday 9th December, only a few days before the show, the Wyvern went to the rehearsals to watch and talk to some of the cast. Everyone seemed confident. We asked Rebecca

Oliver - Connor Tomlinson Nancy - Rebecca Richmond Artful Dodger - Sarah Moitt Fagan - Audie Bridge Bill Sykes - Brandon Holloway Bet - Lucy Stead Mr Brownlow - Kelsea Honneyman Mr Bumble - Adam Brigham Mrs Bumble - Rebecca Parkinson Mrs Bedwin - Nicole Plevey Mr Sowerberry - Domonic Fairbridge Mrs Sowerberry - Lauren Wennington Noah Claypole - Daniel Pile Police - Kiera O Byrne Charlie - Robyn Scott Workhouse people/ Fagins Urchins Robyn Scott, Sarah Dowson, Sarah Moitt, Coral Nash, Elaina Jeffreys, Nicole Plevy, Demi Thomas, Caitlin Sear and Jordan Baigent.

Richmond, Nancy, how hard has it been to learn lines. She replied “Very hard. There are a lot of them.”

One thing that was clear was that everybody in both cast and crew had fun.

The Elder scrolls Most interesting person of the Month Its finally5theSkyrim RPG to end all RPG’s

I nominate Peter Elliott for this month’s “Interesting Person”.

I have only met him once but his niece has lived at our home for the past year and often speaks about him. He was born in North Yorkshire and as a boy Peter excelled at many physical pursuits, competing at international level in boxing and martial arts and at national level as a gymnast and high diver. At sixteen, he formed his own acrobatic display team which drew large crowds from all over Europe. These days he is an actor and director, but you may not recognise his face because he is nearly always dressed up as a gorilla or alien creature. Peter has specialised in studying primates and has worked on many films as an actor dressed in a very convincing primate costume. Peter has studied primates to such an extent that he is in great demand to choreograph scenes in very well-known films featuring monkeys and gorillas. He has featured in “Gorillas in the Mist” “Greystoke” the Tarzan film, “Buddy”, “Return to Oz” “Fierce Creatures” and many, many more film and TV roles. Recently he even made an appearance in the Big Brother house . Watch them again and try to work out which creatures were real and which ones were Peter Elliott.

on the X Box and PS3. It starts where your character is a prisoner and is about to be executed when a Dragon terrorises the town you are in and you escape with an army officer. You travel to the nearby town and start your epic journey. You can choose either the path of good or the path of evil based on actions you take. There are dozens of dungeons to search, friendships to make and powers to uncover. Plus there are many ways to make your character unique.

This game has so many improvements from the last one and the fun is endless.

The Wyvern rating:

Goodbye Mrs Soulsby On Friday 16th December 2011, Mrs Soulsby retired from DSMS. After 10 years of service, she has sported pink outfits for different charities, helped out in the LSB, taught in the English department and she has recently helped three year 10 students to get into the sported progression scheme at Durham University. When she leaves she will be leaving her tutor group who will miss her and lots of friendships that will stay strong for years. In my opinion, no one could replace Ms Soulsby.

By Rebecca Parkinson

By Mrs P Surtees

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Websites to help kids deal with bullying www.Childline.org.uk --- 0800 11 11 www.kidscape.org.uk www.antibullying.net www.beatbullying.org www.kidpower.org www.Bullying.co.uk If anyone at DSMS has any good ideas to help with the bullying problem please email us at the Wyvern. surtees@DSMS.org

Gary Speed On the 27th of November 2011 at 7:08 in the morning Gary Speed was found hung and dead in his home. He was 42 years old and was the manager of Wales who were on a role of 3 matches in a row. He was a legend for Leeds, Newcastle, Everton and many more teams.

When they found out the news just before the Swansea game many fans and players showed their respect to this magnificent and well thought of man that couldn't do anything wrong. He had one of the highest premier league appearances and was the most capped out field player for Wales.

Do you get one hour of exercise everyday?

Getting one hour of exercise every day is vital to lead a healthy life. Most of the school only gets 2 PE lessons a week so for the other 5 days there are extra-curricular activities pupils of all years can take part in.

One off extra-curricular activities included a sponsored dodge ball competition on Tuesday 13th December. They were raising money for the British Heart Foundation.

Sport

By Ewan Barr, Sam Hutchinson, Liam Pape and James Allison

Cross Country The cross country last term went very well indeed.

Thanks to everyone who contributed and allowed pupils out . We had some great performances- Lucy Bullyment 18th, Ellis Austen 9th, Harry Pape 16th, Sarah Moitt 4th, Sam Hutchinson 16th, Rebecca Thomas 8th, Jake Bainbridge 4th, Cameron Callaghan 6th.

We fielded full teams in every race and even had to turn GIRLS down to race in years 8-9 as only 20 are allowed. What a position to be in!

Overall the school was 5th.

The students above who came in the top 12 will be selected to represent Darlington in the Counties event at Meadowfield in the new year.

We will let you know how they progress.

PE DEPT

Sebastian Vettel Need More Money? rules victorious in 3G is the answer F1 2011 season I think if DSMS used some of its funds Since Japan, back in October, we knew that Sebastian Vettel had won the Formula 1 2011 season.

Hopefully the FIA will enforce some rules next year which will reduce the lead of Red Bull and so it gives some of the other teams a chance.

Confirmed name changes for the 2012 F1 season are Lotus will be Caterham, Renault will be Lotus and Virgin will be Marussia.

to buy a 3G pitch the size of a football pitch (like Humersknott) we could create more income than we paid out for the actual area. It costs approximately 8k to construct one of these and if we charged £100 to hire the full pitch for an hour and £40 to hire 1/3 of the pitch we would need 80 groups to hire the full pitch for 1 hour each to make the amount that we paid out and we would need 200 groups to hire the pitch for an hour each to make the amount we paid out. Also these facilities can be used for several sports that are in P.E such as rugby, football, cricket, hockey and netball.

Karting On Friday 21st October 2011, everyone who had taken part in a PE event in the last year was invited to go Karting at Durham.

After a short bus journey they arrived in Durham. Only 8 people could fit on the 200 meter track at once so everyone was split into groups of 8.

They were then briefed in the rules. No contact was allowed and if a yellow light came on it meant we were under yellow flag conditions and no overtaking was allowed and we need to go down to walking pace. Yellow flag happens when somebody crashes so the stewards have a chance to clean up the mess.

Elijah Bainbridge quotes “It was mint.” and I am sure everyone else who went enjoyed it.