Red and Black | Christmas Edition | St Joseph's Academy magazine

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Red

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Christmas Edition

Editor - Michael Duff Sub-Editor - Kerry McGahan, Cona Maitland Senior Reporters - Dominika Bochenek, Ayla Murray, Rachael Steel, Julia Rameckers Photographers - Kass McGiffen Junior Reporters - Orla Duff, Sofie Rameckers, Keira Whitworth, Aimee Glass, Mya Anderson, Ben Rameckers

Contact us at: stjoacadmagazine@gmail.com Twitter: @StJoAcadYJS Instagram: young_journalist_society

Contents Remembrance Day Joke Competition Winners All About Us Trips DofE Awards Ceremony Author Trip Sports Council Awards Diocese Mass Editorials Top 10 DIY Halloween Decorations Book Review - Wayward Son Persuasive Article Top 10 Halloween Costume Ideas Halloween in Kilmarnock Halloween Movies Greenhouse Academy - Review IT Chapter 2 - Review Top 10 Halloween Facts

Remembrance Day Some S2s will be selling poppies at break and lunch to raise funds for the poppy appeal; the minimum donation is 20p. They are aiming to beat last year's record of around ÂŁ130 and will be selling them for roughly the next two weeks. If you would like any additional information about the poppy appeal, it is the social subjects department that organise it.

Remembrance day, or ‘Armistice Day’ is an international holiday to commemorate those who fought in wars to protect us. Poppies are often worn to show your support, which was inspired by the fields of poppies that grew where many of the battles were fought. However, there is more than just one colour of poppy, and each of them represent something different: the red poppy, which is the most renowned, is worn to remember everyone who sacrificed their lives to keep us safe. The purple poppy commemorates animals that have been victims of war. The black poppy is most commonly associated with the commemoration of black, African and Caribbean communities' contribution to the war effort - as servicemen and servicewomen, and as civilians. Finally, the white poppy is worn to show a opposition to war in general, and to try and stop fighting, and instead make peace. Remembrance day

Joke Competition How do you get Pikachu on a bus?

You Pokemon -Mrs Donaghy

What is a skeleton in the cupboard?

Someone who has won hide and seek!

Where’s the best place to go in a zombie apocalypse?

-Mrs McDaid

Congratulations to Mr Jones, who won the Hallowe’en joke competition with the following joke: What do you get when you divide a Jack O’ Lantern’s circumference by its diameter?

Pumpkin Pie!

The living room!

-Miss Blacklock

The YJS is updating it’s mailing list!

Having a paper-based mailing list was tough, so we have innovated and created an electronic mailing list so that you always receive the magazine. If you would like to sign up, follow the link below:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4W j0KVQTctawUZKZI3x9wa1XRNqBMsUaDR8NNUQjVKUFg3Mjg3UlUy N0xKV05QMDRTQ1NVSC4u

All About Us Hi, my name is Kass and I’m one of the magazine’s photographers. I’m in my fourth year at the school and being in the Young Journalist Society has opened up many opportunities for me and others on our team which will not only help us just now but will also be a great help to all of us in the future. I not only enjoy photography but writing for the magazine too. I hope that the upcoming year will be prosperous for all of our team and our magazine. Enjoy reading our work!

Hi, I’m Orla Duff. I am in S1 and have just recently joined the Young Journalist Society. I love gymnastics and writing stories. I am looking forward to producing great articles this year and I hope you enjoy reading them!

Hi, I’m Keira I’m 11 years old and I’m in S1. My favourites subjects at school are art, drama and technological studies. In my spare time I love to go climbing. I climb at Glasgow climbing centre every Saturday. I have 3 fish and 1 hamster his name is Nibble. I love animals and one day I would love to get a dog. I look forward to working with the YJS. Hi my name is Sofie Rameckers, I am new to YJS. I am in S1. Some subjects I enjoy are Maths, Computing/ICT, drama, social subjects and lots more. I have a dog, a rabbit and a hamster. I have an older sister, a twin brother, and a younger sister.

My favourite colour is light blue. I like sports, my favourites are probably gymnastics, ice skating and swimming.

Hi, my name is Ben Rameckers. I am in S1 and am new to the YJS, Young Journalist Society. I like to play video games and football. I also enjoy reading, especially when they are animal novels. When I am older I want make animal documentaries. I have a dog named Alfie. I also have three sisters, Julia, Sofie and Lexi.

Hello! I'm Mya, I am 12 years old and an S1 lately joined the YJS. I enjoy writing and English so I think I'll enjoy being in the school magazine. I am very patient and a good listener and I love to be creative. My hobbies are sports, writing, art and reading, and my favourite subjects are maths, science, English and PE. In my spare time I like to spend time with my animals, play my instruments read. Also there's one more thing you should know about me I LOVE MUSIC!

Trip

DofE Awards On Wednesday the 6�� of November, all of the Duke of Edinburgh participants that completed their award, were presented with a certificate at the Grand Hall. All schools from over East-Ayrshire were there getting their awards. We listened to really thought-inducing presentations from Patrick from Willowbank School, who shared his and his classmates’ Duke of Edinburgh experience We listened to Jean and Anna, they led the night and shared the road they took to achieve their bronze, silver and gold awards. We also listened to the head of education Linda McAuley Griffiths and Barry Fisher, who gave us statistics on the number of pupils participating. Overall it was a great, enjoyable night and we hope to go back next year!

Michael Duff

Author Trip On the 31st October Mrs Kirkwood took me and some other pupils to the Dick Institute for a Halloween themed science author talk.

The woman taking it spoke a little about writing and what she wrote and ten we moved on to the experiment part.

It was all about vampires and how the vampire virus spread throughout this village.

We started by using the “blood� serum on our name cards and then mixing and trading with others to spread the virus .

Initially there was only one vampire but as we traded the number multiplied even though we didn’t know who was one or not yet. We then used other serums to find out if we were a vampire or not and eventually traced it back to one person.

After it was over we had an opportunity to ask any questions we had about vampires, writing , being an author or just books in general.

Rachael Steel

East Ayrshire Sports On the 12�� of November, Grange Academy hosted an awards ceremony hosted an awards ceremony. The awards were split into two separate categories: ‘Sports Council Awards’ and ‘Talented Athlete Awards’ for representing their club or team, regionally, nationally or even internationally. Many pupils from St. Joseph’s Academy won awards; Michael Duff in S4 won the Jim Higgins Youth Personality award, Keira McManus, who gave a demonstration of her gymnastics routine, Sophie Anderson and Ronnie Cassels, all in S4 and Lily McBride, Sarah Poole and former pupil Jamie Johnson all won the ‘Talented Athlete Award’. Congratulations to everyone who won an award!

Diocese Mass On the 19�� of November the diocese of Galloway celebrated catholic education in the St Margaret's Cathedral in Ayr along with other representatives from all the other schools that are in the diocese of Galloway. I was one of the representatives from St Joseph's Academy and personally, I thought it was an amazing experience. Saying the mass was all the priests within the diocese of Galloway. During the mass a lovely sermon was spoken by Bishop Nolan. It read: “we should not want to boss everybody about and we should not want to have servants to tell them what to do, we should want to serve people”. I think this is a message we all need to take in. Overall the mass was very well said and i would encourage other people to want to go next year if they have the chance.

Orla Duff

Eco-Strike On Friday the 29th of November Serena and I took part in one of the many YouthStrike4Climate strikes going on across the world. It is truly amazing the amount of people that come out to support each other and show their concern for the most prominent issue of our generation. I especially admire the strength many people from our age and younger have, in doing a lot more than I could ever imagine that we could have achieved, but there is still so much more to do.

I want to speak about the young girl that started these strikes, which have started so much change in the world and in Scotland. Greta Thunberg started these strikes last year in August outside Swedish Parliament when she was just 15. Although Greta has been a face for change, she has al so been ridiculed and mocked by several powerful people with big platforms such as Donald Trump who constantly posts and tweets about why she shouldn’t be doing these strikes.

Although because of people like Greta Scotland became the first country to declare a climate emergency and are taking steps to become a much greener country. For example, Scotland has taken steps for 100% of electricity to be generated by renewable substances for 2020 and 50% of consumption, including transport to 50%. This is a big change in the past 5 years as in 2015, 50% of energy generated was from renewables.

You may not agree that these climate strikes are right and that students should be missing school but you can’t say that they aren’t effective.

Cona Maitland

Sponsored Sleepout On Thursday, 12th of December 2019, a group of young people from the senior SSVP group and S6 Caritas class, along with Mrs McCaffrey and Mr Hannah, took part in a sponsored sleepout to raise money for homeless people in local areas in St. Matthew’s Church Hall. Each participant was issued with a sponsor form, and family members or friends could donate in the form of money or a warm item of clothing to give to a homeless charity. The event started at 6 pm on Thursday, and the group got to know each other by playing a few icebreakers, including conversation starters, and sharing facts about themselves. They also participated in a scavenger hunt where they had to find a list of things around the church such as holy water, rosary beads, scarves and gloves. Later that evening, they played a quiz worth a total of 33 marks. The quiz was based around a variety of topics including General Knowledge, Guess the Song, Sports, SSVP and Homelessness Facts and Statistics, and TV and Entertainment. Afterwards, Fr. Chambers took all the young people to the chapel to set aside some time for a quiet reflection period, and they wrote a letter to Jesus thanking him for all the good things in their lives. They were also given a small wooden cross to take away and keep. Then, the young people settled down in their sleeping bags on the hall floor to go to sleep. However, most people slept very little – if at all. It was very humbling to realise how difficult it must be for the homeless people at night-time, and how awful sleeping on the streets must be if sleeping on the hard floor, shivering in a thin sleeping bag, with folded up clothes for a pillow is a step up. When those who had fallen asleep woke up, there were some more ice breakers including Fr. Chambers’ famous song ‘Super Crab’. Afterwards, they attended 10 o’clock morning Mass, returning to the school during break to stumble through Periods 3, 4 and 5.

Julia Ramackers

DofE Day Out On Saturday, 24th November 2019, pupils from St. Joseph’s Academy in S3, S4 and S5 spent an enjoyable day at Dean Park. This was an expedition practice for those working towards their Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh awards. The pupils met at the school for 10 am and travelled to Dean Park. Upon their arrival, the pupils were split into 4 groups and had to find their way to the other side of the park. There were much discussion and lots of looking over maps, but all groups managed to find their way there eventually. The participants then settled down to practise building tents and boiling water over trangias to add to their pot noodles. The group returned to the school at 2 pm. The day was very enjoyable and roused a lot of excitement for the real overnight expeditions!

Julia Ramackers

Editori

Book Review– 'Wayward Son’ by Rainbow Rowell is the sequel to the authors 2015 novel, ‘Carry On’, and focuses on the former Chosen One, Simon Snow, almost a year after the epilogue of ‘Carry On’. The sequel explores the question of what happens to a hero after their story is over?

What happened to Harry Potter after he killed Voldemort - Katniss Everdeen once she won the rebellion? Epilogues often only focus on the heroes life years later, and so in ‘Wayward Son’ Rainbow Rowell focuses on the mental toll that the events of the first book took on not only Simon, but his nemesis-turned-boyfriend Baz Pitch and his best friend Penelope Bunce.

The novel follows Simon, Baz and Penelope as they take a road trip across America to visit Simon’s ex-girlfriend and friend to Penelope, Agatha Wellbelove. Things almost immediately go wrong, and on their way across America, they encounter vampires, deadly animals, and a magicobsessed Normal named Shepard as they try to tackle the magic world of America.

The novel ends on a cliff hanger, and so if you are planning on reading be prepared - fortunately, Rainbow Rowell has already announced a sequel, ‘Any Way the Wind Blows’, which does not have a set release date. ‘Wayward Son’ is a sequel, and so, of course, it is required to read ‘Carry On’ first in order to fully understand the book, but as a sequel, it definitely holds it’s own and is a brilliant follow-up to ‘Carry On’. It allows a closer look into the mind of Simon Snow, a hero struggling with the loss of his power, and this innovative concept gives a highly gripping read, and a book that is easy to become emotionally invested in.

‘Wayward Son’ has a significantly different style from ‘Carry On’, focusing on only a short period of time where ‘Carry On’ took place over a year, and it is also a good bit shorter.

–Wayword Son Whilst I, personally, have not yet become as invested in the novel as I did ‘Carry On’, it is still an extremely well-written sequel and has brilliant character consistency and development. The books main couple, Simon and Baz, are a heavy focus of the sequel, and whilst it does show a realistic relationship where both partners struggle to share their feelings with each other and have doubts, Rainbow Rowell gives hope for future books and shows how much the pair care for each other. In addition, she also hints at a future love plot for Penelope Bunce, and further develops the character of Agatha by allowing her to step out of the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype that characters like her often are stuck in.

Overall, ‘Wayward Son’ is a great sequel to ‘Carry On’ and an impressive novel in its own right, breaking stereotypes and redefining tropes similar to the first book, and any fans of ‘Carry On’ should be sure to read the sequel before the next book is released in a couple of years.

Kerry McGahan

Top 10 Christmas Traditions We all know how Christmas goes here in the UK. Excited children hang up their stockings at 7 or 8 o’clock on the 24th of December, and jump into bed with a surprising lack of complaint, in the hopes that the sooner they can fall asleep, the sooner they will wake up to see Santa Claus has been. But this western tradition of the most exciting day of the year is just that – western. There are several other ways that many different countries celebrate Christmas in Asia, Africa – even different parts of Europe.

Sinterklaas, The Netherlands Like the infamous name Santa Claus, Sinterklaas is actually derived from the name St Nicholas. The legend goes that on the 6th of December every year, good children will receive presents from this man in their shoes, and naughty children will be put in a sack and Sinterklaas’ elves or Zwarte Pieten will take them to Spain for a year to teach them how to behave. It actually makes a lot more sense that they celebrate Sinterklaas on this day instead of on the 25th, as we do – since the 6th is Saint. Nicholas’ Day! However, in the Netherlands, most of the celebrations take place on the 5th of December in the evening. Imagine having Christmas on Christmas Eve! Gävle Goat, Sweden Every year since 1966, the people of Sweden have built a 13-metre tall goat in the centre of Gävle’s Castle square. However, this tradition has accidentally led to another one – every year, people attempt to burn down the goat. The people have been successful in their attempts 29 times sine 1966, and the last successful attempt was in 2016.

Krampus, Austria Austrian children have a much scarier time on St. Nicholas’ Day than we do here. It’s like Hallowe’en all over again – but only tricks, no treats! The Austrian legend goes that Krampus, St. Nicholas’ evil demon assistant of sorts, captures the naughty children and takes them away in his sack. Every year, during the first week of December, but especially on the 5th, young men dress up as Krampus in devil’s horns, black robes and a scary mask or face paint and go around the streets frightening the poor local children by ringing bells and clattering chains.

Around the World Christmas Dinner, Japan Here in the UK, we have a very specific menu associated with Christmas. Families will often eat together around a table and enjoy soup, roast turkey or other meat, brussels sprouts, roast cabbage and other vegetables, followed by meringues, ice cream or sometimes even a Christmas pudding. When compared with the eating habits in Japan, this is much more formal. Japan doesn’t celebrate Christmas all too much usually, but when you are sitting socialising with your family this Christmas Day, remember all the poor students in Japan working part-time in KFC, serving the country’s appetite. That’s right, in Japan, families love having KFC for their Christmas dinner!

The Yule Lads, Iceland In the 13 days leading up to Christmas, 13 tricksters called jólasveinarnir or jólasveinar come out across the country, and children leave their nicest pair of shoes in the window for them. Each night, a different Yule Lad will visit them, and these mischievous troll-like creatures will come to visit in their traditional Icelandic dress and leave presents for the good children and rotting potatoes for the naughty ones. They all have names which leave clues to the kind of mischief they are known for getting up to, including Hurðaskellir, Bjúgnakrækir and Kertasníkir, which mean Door-Slammer, Sausage-Swiper and CandleStealer respectively.

Julia Ramackers

The Goldfinch– ‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt is a novel which centres around the life of a man named Theodore Decker as he is slowly drawn into the criminal underworld by a small, priceless painting of a Goldfinch. The story begins when Theo is thirteen years old, as he experiences the bombing of an art museum that he is visiting with his mother- he survives, but his mother tragically passes away in the attack. On his way out of the museum he unwittingly takes a small, priceless painting titled ‘The Goldfinch’ with him on the instruction of an old man named Welty that he watched die due to his injuries from the bombing.

Over the next few years, Theo experiences much turmoil, as he is taken to Las Vegas to live with his father after months spent with the wealthy family of a childhood friend, and further experiences the death of his father. In Las Vegas, he meets a friend named Boris, and though he doesn’t know it until years later, Boris steals his painting from where he hid it in his locker and replaces it with a school textbook. After the death of his father, Theo returns to New York and lives with the business partner and friend of Welty, Hobie.

The story then skips forward to Theo’s adulthood, when he is working as a furniture dealer in place of Welty as Hobie’s new business partner.

Although his life appears stable, it is soon revealed that Theo is struggling with a drug addiction and also is embroiled in a web of lies resulting from his sales of fake designer furniture to wealthy buyers. Theo’s situation is worsened by the revelation that his fiancée, Kitsey, has been cheating on him, and by the return of Boris to his life. Boris has been using the Goldfinch painting as collateral in drug deals but has recently lost track of him, which leads Boris and Theo to fly to Amsterdam to try and regain the painting. This leads to the two of them being attacked, and in the altercation Theo shoots one of the men. He spends the next weeks hiding out in a hotel until Boris anonymously phones the art police and manages to collect the reward for the recovery of the Goldfinch painting. With this money, Theo once again returns to New York and begins to untangle the scandal he has created for himself by selling the fake furniture.

–Review ‘The Goldfinch’ is a novel which deals with themes of grief, loss, regret, and friendshipthe loss of Theo’s mother leads him to idolise both her and the last girl that he encountered before he lost her, Welty’s niece Pippa. He becomes desperate to cling to anything that reminds him of his mother, and it is due to this that he goes with Boris to Amsterdam and almost loses his life. Through Theo, the reader sees the dangers of holding onto the past, and is left wondering how different Theo’s life may have been if he and his mother had not visited the museum on that fateful day.

The novel is beautifully written, and this allows the reader to have a deeper understanding of Theo’s character and the emotional journey that he goes on during his life. Although it is a book that deals with heavy themes, it ends on a lighter note as Theo muses on the meaning of life and begins to fix his now fractured relationship with Hobie and rebuild their reputation. This gives a sense of hope, and it is truly nice to read a book that reaches a satisfying conclusion and has both enjoyable and realistic character development, rather than relying on shock value to tell a story.

Overall, although ‘the Goldfinch’ is almost 900 pages long, it is a book that is definitely worth the time taken to read, and is one that I would definitely recommend to anyone interested.

Greenhouse Academy The “Greenhouse Academy”, created by Giora Chamizer is a 3 season TV series that runs on Netflix. The story focuses on a pair of siblings that have lost their mother due to a failed space ship landing.

They are made to attend the Greenhouse Academy, where their mother was an alumni, there are two houses in the school, the ravens and the eagles, who are always competing with each other. During the season they discover something that will change their lives. They later face a variety of challenges and mysteries that all connect, I won’t spoil the rest of this dramatic series but I would give it a 4.5/5 stars and definitely recommend for any age group.

Dominika Bochenek

IT Chapter 2 - Review ‘IT’ Chapter 2 was recently released, starring Bill Hader, Bill Skarsgard, Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and many more. The movie focused on the Losers Club as they reunite in Derry, Maine, to take on Pennywise one last time as he has returned after 27 years. All of the friends except for Mike Hanlon left Derry, and subsequently forgot what had happened in their childhoods, but when they return their memories come back to them and they are once again faced with their worst fears.

The movie had a great cast full of highly accredited and successful actors, who played their characters with strong emotion and realism. Furthermore, the movie had a strong plot and was enjoyable during viewing, as well as having many scary and suspenseful moments, similar to the first movie.

However, I do not think that Chapter 2 was as scary as chapter 1, nor do I think it was as entertaining. It was a perfectly good sequel, and consisted of a very strong cast. I think that it’s problems lie in the fact that the movie was much more sentimental than the first one, focusing heavily on the relationships between the characters rather than the horror.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie and was entertaining to watch. Although it was not, in my opinion, as good as the first one, it still held it’s own as both a sequel and a horror movie, even if it did verge more into the drama and romance category rather than thriller- I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first chapter.

Kerry McGahan

Top 5 Christmas Movies There are many new movies being released around Christmas time this year, both holiday-themed and not, that would be great to see on the run-up to Christmas. Here are a few of this year’s new releases.

1. Last Christmas: Last Christmas is a new Christmas movie released this year, and it focuses around a young woman named Kate who is struggling in life, and her Christmas romance with a man named Tom, who seems almost too good to be true.

The movie is credited as a heart-warming story of love, grief, and reinvention, and has been well-reviewed.

2. Frozen 2: The sequel to Disney’s critically acclaimed ‘Frozen’ was released at the end of November 2019, and continues the story of sisters Anna and Elsa. It has catchy new songs to draw in younger fans, but also has themes of acceptance and sisterhood, and overall is reviewed as a great sequel.

3. Black Christmas: Black Christmas is a new slasher film that follows the story of sorority girls who are one by one killed by a stalker on their campus. However, the story heats up as the girls fight back, and overall this is a fun thriller for the holidays.

4. Cats: The movie adaption of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats admittedly did look very strange in the trailers, but it as has an all-star cast and overall seems like a movie worth seeing, if only for the nostalgia of the classic musical.

5. Star Wars- the Rise of Skywalker: The final instalment of the third Star Wars trilogy has been highly anticipated, and continues the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe as they face off with the First Order. The film will be released on December 19th and is definitely worth seeing.

Kerry McGahan

We are continuing to find as many ways as possible to keep parents/carers and the wider community aware of what is happening in the school.

As well as emailing and texting, we have the following in place; Website - https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/ Twitter- @StJoAcad (You can also follow each department in the school) Instagram- @young_journalist_society You can have your own personal view of the full calendar of events, activities and school news. Everything you need to know when you need it, at your fingertips!

If you have any articles, stories or feedback then you can email us at: stjoacadmagazine@gmail.com stjoacmag.info@gmail.com