OAKBANK Sixth Form Magazine

Top 10 Christmas presents p8

An end to applying to university as we know it? p9

From St Nicholas to Santa Claus p11-12

ISSUE NO. 3 DECEMBER 2011

It’s Chriiiistmaaaasss!

Contents Welcome.....................................................................................................................................p2 Random Facts.............................................................................................................................p3 Christmas Food Time..................................................................................................................p4 Special Christmas Specials.........................................................................................................p5 Top 10 Christmas Films..............................................................................................................p6 What is our School Council for?.................................................................................................p7 Top 10 Christmas presents..........................................................................................................p8 An end to applying to university as we know it?.......................................................................p9 Sixth Form Poll: Should the way we apply to university change?...........................................p10 From St Nicholas to Santa Claus.........................................................................................p11-12 Top 10 Christmas songs............................................................................................................p13 Charity Work in India...............................................................................................................p14 Christmas Events......................................................................................................................p15 Sports Page: Manchester City Roar to the Top of the Table....................................................p16 AQA Baccalaureate Christmas Event.......................................................................................p17

Welcome With Christmas nearly upon us, I would like to welcome everyone to a very festive OSFM! This themed fun-packed festive issue contains all things Christmassy (it’s a word!) as well our usual: articles around issues relevant to You! Hope you’re all working hard on January exam revision/coursework/getting into uni - but it is important to take a break every now and then - so grab a cookie from Annie’s bar, chill out in the common room and take the time to peruse this issue (did I mention it’s Christ-massy?) You won’t regret it. Now for your own amusement I give you some Christmas cracker jokes: Katherine Harris OSFM Editor

By OSFM Team

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By Lauren Moore and Katherine Harris

Random Facts

US scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world's presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.

Dickens’ original line for Scrooge’s hatred of Christmas was ‘Bah Christmas’, but he decided to change it to the now infamous ‘Bah Humbug’.

It is the law that one must attend Church on Christmas day (though admittedly not a regularly enforced law!)

Gold-wrapped chocolate coins commemo-rate St Nicholas who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.

Statistically, you are most likely to be killed by a member of your family on Christmas day (so try and avoid those Christmas arguments!)

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was invented for a US firm's Christmas promotion in 1938.

English Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, banned Christmas be-tween 1647 and 1660 because he believed such celebrations were im-moral for the holiest day of the year.

An old wives’ tale says that any woman who passes under the mis-tletoe, and is not kissed, will be married the following year.

In 1999, residents of the state of Maine in America built the world's biggest ever snowman. He stood at 113ft tall.

Nearly 60 million Christmas trees are grown each year in Europe.

The number of gifts in the 12 days of Christmas adds up to 364 - which is intended to be one gift for every day of the year. Of course, now our year is 365 days long which means we need an extra present!

Christmas was abbreviated to Xmas as the Greek use ’X’ as an abbreviation for Christ. This has now developed to what can be seen as an irreligious version of Christmas.

Christmas tree needles are an excellent source of vitamin C when eaten.

The definition of a white Christmas in England is when one snowflake falls on the roof of the London Weather Centre from 00:00 to 23:59 on the 25th of December.

The tradition of hanging presents on the Christmas tree may come from Druid culture, where they believe the tree is the giver of all good things.

The first Christmas cracker was made in 1847, based on the traditional sweet wrapper design.

By Victoria Turner

Food Time Winter’s arrived! So keep nice and cosy with classic toad in the hole and some festive yummy puddings!

1.Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 7). 2.Then add the required amount of water to the Yorkshire pudding mix and whisk it into a batter. 3.When the oven is at the correct temperature, put some lard in a fairly large, oven friendly tin and pop it in the oven. 4. When the lard has melted, pour in the batter and then arrange the sausages. 5.Put the tin back into the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes. 6. While the toad in the hole is cooking, peel and cut up the carrots. Boil some water, add salt and put the carrots in a saucepan. These will take approximately 8-10 mins. When soft, drain and keep warm. 7. When the toad in the hole is almost ready make the gravy. Add water to the gravy granules and stir vigorously until thickened. 8. Serve and enjoy!

1. This is easy-peasy, add the required amount of water to the mixture and stir it until thickened. Then roll out to approximately 3mm thick. 2. Cut out circles to fit the bun tin, pat these into the holes then put a spoonful of mincemeat into each one. 3. Cut slightly larger circles out of the remaining pastry then place these on top of the mince ‘meat’ filled ‘bowls’, press the edges together to seal the pies. 4. Brush the pies with egg and then put in the oven at 180°C (gas mark 6) for 20 mins, leave to cool before getting stuck in!

Ingredients All prices from Sainsbury’s Toad in the Hole - Pork Sausages £2.79 -Yorkshire pudding mix £0.21 -Gravy Granules £0.98 - 2 Carrots £0.34 - Smidgen of Lard Mince Pies -Short crust Pastry £1.00 -Mincemeat £1.49 -1 Egg whisked

For something different

why not try another flavour

of sausages?

-pork and leek

-pork and apple

-pork and onion

-spicy Sicilian

Toad in t’ Hole

Mini Mince Pies

Bon-appetite!

Vegetarian Option Substitute lard with butter and

use Quorn sausages, also come in different flavours! - £1.99

TOTAL £6.81

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By Kim Bowe

Special Christmas Specials

It’s that time of year again – CHRISTMAS! Every year we expect to see our televisions being blessed with many special programmes for us to watch. Whether it’s a chil-dren’s programme, a TV soap, or a comedy, you can always guarantee they will pull a Christmas special out of the bag. There’s always the guarantee that the soaps will create a Christmas special for the viewers with a oh-so-dramatic storyline. In rare occasions, some bands even create a special festive programme to be broad-casted on TV. Let’s start with the TV soaps. A few weeks pre-vious to Christmas, a dramatic climax slowly builds up - and in the Christmas episode the storyline erupts and a big secret is revealed. Normally, in soapland, an affair is revealed or DNA results are dis-covered. It’s usually a huge storyline, which shocks and appals the audience, however, on the other hand some storylines have a happy ending because Soaps like to create a happy Christmas episode, for example, there’s a wedding between the main characters in the soap. TV soaps usually win in the battle for viewing figures at Christmas due to their dramatic plots. In other genres, we can always expect TV favourites to return to our screens during the festive season, such as Friends, Doctor Who, My Family, The Royle Family and many more. Whether the programme finished months previous to Christ-mas, there’s always the possibility we will be blessed with a one-off special. Programmes like Friends were known for their Christmas specials,

and even though it has finished, the classic Christmas episodes of this well known and loved programme are shown every year. Even though the final series was shown in 2000, The Royle Family still create one off specials for Christmas. They first made a comeback at Christmas in 2008 and they have made consecutive Christmas specials ever since, with the possibility that one will be made this year. Other programmes which make comebacks for

Christmas include: My Family and Jonathan Creek. Furthermore, there’s usually specials from the hospital dramas, Casualty and Holby City. Comedy programmes have Christmas specials as well like: Gavin & Stacey and The Catherine Tate Show, which include all the regular characters but with festive storylines. It doesn’t matter which channel you watch during the Christmas period, there’s always a guarantee

that a festive programme will be shown and nearly every programme are Christmassy in some way so eve-ryone will enjoy watching the TV. Tis’ the season to be jolly!

The cast of Gavin and Stacey, during their Christmas Special

Heather, dressed as an elf, in Eastenders Christmas world.

The infamous ‘Holiday Armadillo’ episode of Friends

Don’t forget to turn on your TVs this Christmas - in order to catch all these Christmas Specials!!

Top 10 Christmas films By Katherine Harris

As Christmas comes around, we are bombarded with many feel-good festive films. OSFM has put together a list of our favourites including some Christmas classics. 10 The Muppet Christmas Carol This is a puppetesque take on the most parodied novel of all time. In this memo-rable version - Scrooge and other charac-ters are followed by Kermit the Frog and his friends. 09 Bridget Jones’s Diary This classic chick-flick starts and ends in the festive season. Bridget Jones is in her early thirties and looking for love. This is funnily explored with many a catastrophe and, of course, a love triangle. Home Alone 2 08 The second in this series of films, and the last with the same cast. This film is pretty much the same as Home Alone, but this time Kevin is not actually left on his own. In a bizarre twist, he ends up stranded in New York and he’s trying to prevent the newly escaped burglars with his typical dodgy booby traps! 07 Home Alone Shown without fail every Christmas, an unlikely tale where a young boy who is accidently left at home (alone!) manages to cleverly create a series of sadistic, though rather amusing, booby traps for the burglars who are trying to break into his home. 06 Millions This film brings to life every child’s (and many adults’) dreams - when two brothers find a bag full of money. The film shows the joys and conflicts of having so much money and allows audiences to ponder on what they would do with so much money.

Elf 05 Set in Santa’s workshop, Elf, follows an ‘elf’ in his realisa-tion of his true identity. It is clear from the offset that Buddy is not a regular elf - given his size and abysmal toy-making ability. 04 Hogfather This film is set in a parallel universe, with the Hogfather as an equivalent of Father Christmas. When the Hogfather is eliminated, Death decides to take over - to ensure that children still believe in him. Things get complicated as Death takes all the children’s wishes literally, and it is up to his granddaughter to find out what has really happened to the Hogfather. Shrek the Halls 03 The Shrek Christmas mini-film is highly entertaining for all the family as it follows Shrek and Fiona as well as Donkey and Puss. This is told through festive storytelling to the ogre-babies. 02 Nativity! A modern tale of the primary-school clas-sic performance. The children performing this nativity believe that their school play is going to be made into a Hollywood film! With a crazy new teaching assistant to control, Mr Maddens must also somehow try and fulfil his kids’ dreams of appearing on the big screen! Love Actually 01 This film is (not) just another chick-flick. This film follows ten people in the build-up to Christmas. They come from all walks in life and their lives are intertwined. Brilliant cast and a film with many twists.

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By Katherine Harris

What is our School Council for?

So, we all know that our School Council Reps get to regularly avoid tutor period - but what do they actually get up to? And do we really need a School Council now we are in Sixth Form? Well, a School Council meeting is structured as follows: 1. Everyone arrives and signs

the register for their tutor. 2. The ‘Reps’ are told any particular aims

of this meeting. 3. There then begins an onslaught of

concerns (complaints) about the sixth form block, our food, the facilities etc.

4. The Chair of the council aims to quickly resolve these issues by allocating tasks to ‘Reps’ or by promising to speak to the senior management team.

5. The Chair talks about the progression of previous concerns and what the further plan-of-action is.

6. The date of the next meeting is set, as well as the agenda.

So our School Council is the place where the Sixth Form team listens to our issues. You could therefore call our ‘Reps’ the ‘voices of the students’, or alternatively, the ‘conveyors of our complaints’. This year, however, the School Council aims to be more than just a voice for the people - it wants to be an eco-team. This School Council, exclusively Sixth Form-ers, is joining with Climate exCHANGE, an international conservation company,

to make our school more environmentally friendly. This involves being part of a climate blog, and interacting with students from other schools to ensure that all worthwhile ideas are shared and put into action! As part of this action council ‘Reps’ may be participating with a real-life exchange, in the form of a residential trip. This will involve meeting up with a fully-pledged eco-team, from an independent school, in Glasgow. Our ‘Reps’ have been very positive about this cultural visit, with year 13 students offering to participate after they have left Sixth Form!

Issues discussed in Council meetings so far: Fob access on both sides of doors The possibility of a microwave in the Sixth

Form block The desire for new foods to be offered in

school (any suggestions? Speak to your ‘Rep’)

More plugs to be available in the Common Room Wi-Fi in all of school Redecorating the Common room

Current ideas from Climate exCHANGE’s website.

By Jonjo Robb and Lauren Watson

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By Robyn Holmes

An end to applying to university as we know it?

It is under discussion that the cur-rent UCAS system of applying to university could undergo some serious changes, most likely to be implemented as early as 2016. The current system of applying before a January deadline – over 4 months before the summer exam season – and having offers or rejections based on predicted grades, personal statements and references is widely acknowledged as unfair towards state school pupils.

Under the proposed new system, appli-cations for university would be sent af-ter exam results are published. This would mean an entire change of the exam season, with exams beginning up to two weeks early, and results be-ing issued early too. To coincide with this, “clearing” would become redun-dant, and equally would predicted grades. In short, there would need to be reshuffle of the whole system. The need for change is primarily a re-sult of the current system being favour-

able towards private schools. Tutors in the private sector are more likely to set inflated predicted grades for their stu-dents, in the hope of sending more stu-dents to Oxbridge. However, in state schools such as ours, it is believed that staff are less likely to predict high grades, and so progression to the top institutions is drastically lowered. As it stands, statistics show that only 10% of a student’s predicted grades are all reached or exceeded, and so it’s no surprise that an overhaul of this system is required. Also, students in private schools are said to have an advantage over us minions as they have early in-ternal deadlines, and a “better student support system”. But what do our Sixth Form students believe about all this?! It would appear that our Sixth Form breaks the stereotype in so much as: we have an excellent application sup-port system, October deadlines (not always met, but set with good inten-tions), and we achieve well. Furthermore, a spokeswoman from the Russell Group confederation said “We are concerned that the UCAS propos-als might restrict the ability of institu-tions to make a fair and thorough as-sessment of applicants.” So is the system truly this unfair and, with the majority of year 13 students applying to university despite the hike in tuition fees, is it really detrimental to our progression? And, of course, do we feel the need for such a radical change? It’s a no from me.

UCAS reforms means that students will end up applying after they receive their results.

The UCAS logo

By Marissa Pysarczuk

Sixth form poll: Do you think the system for applying to university should be changed?

There are plans to change the way in which students apply to university, instead of applying before receiving your grades, proposed changes would mean apply-ing after receiving your A2 results. I asked 23 Sixth Form students their opinion on the changes, (awkward number, I know.) Results:

Of the twenty-three people asked: ten said yes, twelve said no and one person said they were unsure on changes to the uni-versity application system.

Comments: One person who answered yes, said they agreed the university application system should be changed, as when receiving conditional offers it is like being given false hope. Another who answered yes said: thank you whomever. Comments which were given for the response ‘no’ included:

and

Thanks to those who took part in the poll.

Do you think the system for applying to university should be changed?

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Yes No Unsure

Answer

Num

ber o

f peo

ple

Just ‘cos’

Seems to work as it is.

It would be too much of a rush!

10

By Lauren Moore The Saint There is not much historically accurate information on St Nicholas, other than that he lived in the fourth-century and that he was the bishop of Myra (now situated in Turkey). It was said he dedicated his life to serving God, using his inheritance money to help the needy. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships. There were many stories told about him, the main one where there was a poor man with three daughters who were subject to slavery, due to his inability to offer any prospective husbands a dowry. On three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home - providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the cus-tom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas the ‘gift-giver’.

The Evolution Over the medieval period the legend of St Nicholas continued to develop and spread enormously. St Nicholas was known as the Patron Saint of sailors and children. This important development was a consequence of the popular tale of his rescue of three chil-dren, who had been captured, to be eaten, by an innkeeper. When combined with his reputation as a gift-giver, all the key elements were in place for the transformation of St Nicholas into the modern giver-of-gifts to children.

Above: St. Nicholas

Dutch Sinterklaas There were several unsuccessful attempts to stamp out the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition for religious reasons at the time, but more recently it has been attacked as a 'racialised tradition', due to Sinterklaas' companion Black Pete being a threat to naughty Dutch children (the story was that he would take them to a pirate's hide out and beat them.) At the time "Black Peter" was a euphemism for the devil, and it was thought that St. Nicholas, being a representative of God, had beaten the devil and made him his servant, so it fell to Black Peter to hand out the pun-ishments, while St. Nicholas dealt with the more pleasant sides of Christmas. The more recent interpretation of ‘Black Pete’ is that he is a helper of Santa.

The English Father Christmas The English Father Christmas seems to have had an en-tirely separate origin from Sinterklaas, being a personifi-cation of Christmas and a Yule-tide visitor - not a gift-giver - rather than a version of St Nicholas. The earliest reference to him comes from the mid-fifteenth century, when a Sir Christëmas appears in a carol. Whilst strenu-ous efforts were made by the puritans of the seventeenth century to do away with this character, they did not suc-ceed. In the nineteenth century Father Christmas benefited from the general Victorian revival of Christmas and can be found in, for example, Dick-ens’ Christmas Carol. How-ever, from the 1870s onwards Father Christmas became in-creasingly like the American Santa Claus, both in terms of his actions - he started giving gifts - and his appearance, with the result that two are nowa-days virtually inter-changeable.

Above: An original interpretation of Black Peter

A later interpretation: Black Peter as a helper

Above: Dickensian in-terpretation of Santa

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By Lauren Moore

American Santa Claus The American Santa Claus is generally considered to have been the invention of Washington Irving and other early nineteenth-century New Yorkers, who wished to create a fig-ure that might help calm down riotous Christmas celebrations and refocus them on the family. So, the American Santa is a largely secular visitor who arrives at Christmas, not the 6th of December; who dresses in furs rather than a version of bishop's robes; who is round rather than thin; and who has a team of flying reindeer rather than a flying horse. Contrary to popular belief, Coca-Cola didn’t turn Santa red, but advertised the Americanised version, with the result that he is now the 'standard' version of the Christmas visitor and has largely re-placed the traditional Father Christmas in England.

What’s in a name? So, there are many different origins of Santa Claus, but actually many of the names are originated from good old St Nick! The Dutch Sinterklaas is actually a colloquial of Saint-Nicholas (Saint-olas) This was then Americanised into Santa Claus. In Britain, the name Santa Claus is now also used, but we originally had Father Christmas - a yule-tide visitor. The same carol that bore this name also gave us the common Christmas phrase ‘Noel’, then spelt as ‘Nowell’.

Left and below: Coca-Cola’s Christmas advertising campaigns

Timeline 301: Primary inspiration for Santa Claus 343: Death of St. Nicholas 400: St. Nicholas is reserved by the Eastern Church 1087: Santa Claus – patron saint of Amsterdam and Moscow 521 The first Christmas is celebrated in the UK 1201: Parallels surrounding he figure of Odin (A Ger-manic god, a gift giver also) are drawm 1601: St. Nicholas day starts 1601: Pre modern representation of Santa Claus begins 1616:December: Santa is known as Father Christmas 1668: Santa condemned as ‘The Devil’ from a play 1801: The common depiction of Santa Claus is begun 1801: The American commercial Santa Claus is born 1809: Sinterklaas is Americanised into Santa Claus 1823: The poem is written that defined the lasting images of Santa 1823: Modern ideas of Santa Claus are formed 1840: The tradition of Christmas presents is started 1889: Poet Katherine Lee Bates created Mrs. Claus 1902: Children’s book on Santa Claus published 1915: Santa Claus in advertisements and fundraising 1945: Saint Nicholas is helped by a group of Zwarte Piete (Black Pete as a helper) 1948: Santa Claus is inspiration for writers and artists 1950: Saint Nicholas remembrances with Odin 1958: Santa is declared a ‘pagan goblin’ (After Santa's image was used in fund raising) 1990: Weihnachtsmann competes Christkind 2001: Good Bishop rides to Jesus’s manger 2004: Modern depiction of Santa’s residence formed

By Alyce Houldsworth

Top 10 Christmas Songs

The festive season is best known for the repetition of the same songs for a whole, entire month… Yet we can’t help but love getting into the Christmas spirit with these cheesy and addictive tunes! So, here is the lo-down of the top 10 Christmas songs of the decade…

10 is Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by Dean Martin Curiously this song was written in Hollywood, Califor-nia during one of the hottest days on record and al-though it’s commonly regarded as a Christmas song due to its seasonal lyrics it never actually mentions “Christmas”.

9 is Bing Crosby with White Christmas According to the Guinness Book of World Records this is the best-selling single of all time. The song was writ-

ten by Irving Berlin and reminisces about an old-fashioned Christmas. The version most heard today is

not in fact the one Crosby recorded in 1942; it had to be re-recorded because the original master became

damaged through overuse.

8 is Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie Although this song was never intended as a Christmas hit, the line “Wish I was at home for Christmas” as well as the brass band arrangements made it an appropriately styled song to play around Christmas time. The song peaked at number 3 in the UK singles chart in Decem-ber 1980.

7 is Driving Home For Christmas by Chris Rea This song was written by Chris Rea and released in December 1988 as a non-album single. It peaked at number 53 in the charts that year but re-entered the

charts in 2007 peaking at number 33.

6is the Band Aid single, Do They Know It’s Christ-mas? The song was written by (Sir) Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for relief of the famine in Ethiopia and was released by Band Aid on 29th November 1984, It sold a million copies in the first week alone and went on to become the biggest selling single in UK chart his-tory until 1997.

5 is Wizzard with I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

This Christmas song was written and produced by Wiz-zard front man Roy Wood and was first released in

1973 when it reached number 4 in the singles chart. The song was actually recorded in August, so in order to create a wintry feeling the sound engineer filled the

studio with Christmas decorations and turned down the air conditioning to cold forcing Roy Wood to wear a

woolly hat he found in lost property.

4is Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade The song was written by lead vocalist and guitarist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea and was the band’s sixth number-one single in the UK. Despite being an amalgam of melodies from discarded songs written sev-eral years earlier it went on to become Slade’s best-selling single. It was also their last number 1 single. In 2009 PRS for Music announced that around 42% of the world’s population at the time may have heard the song.

3 is The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York After its release in 1987 the song rapidly became a hit after being performed on Top of the Pops. It peaked at

number 2. The song features the late British singer Kir-sty MacColl, was written by Jem Finer and Shane

MacGowan and was featured on The Pogues’ album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.

2is Wham! With Last Christmas Released in 1984, Last Christmas was written by George Michael, one half of Wham! The single was expected to be a winner of the coveted Christmas num-ber 1 spot but the Band Aid single beat them to it. How-ever, George Michael’s involvement in Band Aid did at least ensure Wham! had some representation in the Christmas Number 1 and Wham! Subsequently donated all their royalties from Last Christmas to the Ethiopian famine appeal.

1is Mariah Carey and All I Want For Christmas Is You

Released in November 1994 as the lead single from Mariah Carey’s 4th album Merry Christmas it was writ-ten by Carey and Walter Afanasieff. An up-tempo love

song combining pop music and traditional beats. The song is one of only a few recent songs to be considered

a Christmas classic and continues to set records each year. It reached number 2 in the UK and stayed there for three consecutive weeks and is her best-selling single in

the UK, being certified as platinum.

Mariah Carey in true Christmas style

By Katherine Harris

Charlotte’s Charity Christmas

How are you planning to spend this Christmas? Well, Charlotte Harrison, of year 13, is spending hers giving out presents to orphans in India. As many of you are probably aware, Charlotte has been fundraising for her ‘India trip’ for nearly a year now. This fundraising has involved end-less fairs and events as well a music concert in Leeds. (See Left). To participate in this once-in-a-lifetime experience Charlotte had to undergo two selection processes. She will be going with 12 other Guide leaders and working with the charity, Maher. Maher is a charity which specialises in the helping of or-phaned children and abused wo men. Charlotte’s group will be staying in Sangam, in one of the five World Guide Centres. The group will be staying there for almost three

weeks and will spend the fi-nal five days touring India. The charity, Maher, was

found in 1997 and since then has helped at least 1741 women and 1641 children. They run 12 nurseries, 2 classes, 25 orphanages, a crèche and nearly 300 self-help groups. These have a massive impact upon 85 different communit ies. Maher is currently working on a project to facilitate women and children who are HIV-positive.

Charlotte will be using her ex-perience of working with chil-dren, as a Guiding Leader, to give much-needed attention to the orphans and make them feel special. This is vital medicine, as their group will be allowing the children some time to just be kids! They are also renovat-ing which the Guide leaders are looking forward to getting stuck in with!

Charlotte: Cheery as always

A Maher House

14

By Emily Wilkinson

Christmas Events

Friday 9th : Stanbury Christmas Fair - 2.30pm Saturday 10th : Open Kross Challenge Cliffe Castle Haworth Church Christmas Fair 10am Oldfield Christmas Fair 11am 10th and 11th : Haworth Torchlight Weekend 5.15pm 12th : AQA Baccalaureate Christmas Fundraiser Lunchtime Tuesday 13th : Carols around the Christmas Tree - Crossroads 7.15pm Sat 17th - 18th : Haworth Baptist Church ‘Alternativity’ Sat 6pm, Sun 4pm Sunday 18th : Haworth Church Christingle 10.45am Monday 19th : Carols in Oakworth Park 6.30pm Saturday 24th : Haworth Main Street Nativity 12pm Christmas Eve Communion 11.30pm Tuesday 27th : Vintage Tractor Road Run

By Joe Hoyle

Sports: Manchester City Roar to the Top of the Table

Manchester City are top of the Barclays Pre-mier League having won 12 out of 14 games, drawing the other two. They have combined lethal attack with a mean defence and have been sweeping teams aside with ease, includ-ing rivals Manchester United 6-1 and most recently Norwich 5-1. David Silva has been in particularly fine form in midfield chipping in with 4 goals and assisting 12. Manchester United have begun on the road to recovery after the aforementioned 6-1 Derby demolition, with four 1-0 victories and 1-1 draw, without even playing particularly well. Hard-fought wins at Everton, Swansea and Aston Villa represent a recent emphasis on defence. Tottenham are also on a brilliant run of form, with 10 wins in their last eleven games, drawing the other. Gareth Bale has been dev-astating on the left of midfield and Emmanuel Adebayor and Rafael Van Der Vaart have pro-vided the goals with 7 and 6 respectively. Chelsea are stuttering under new man-ager, Andre Villa-Boas, suffering defeats at home to Arsenal and Liverpool, with Fernando Torres’ form a particular worry for the Blues. Despite this, they most recently won 3-0 at Newcastle. With upcoming games at home to Manchester City and away at Tottenham look like being massive tests of their title creden-tials. Arsenal have seen a dramatic turn-around in their fortunes, mainly due to the blis-tering goal-scoring of captain and talisman Robin Van Persie. The Dutchman has scored 14 League goals already this season and has fired the Gunners to 6 wins in their last 7 matches and keeping him fit over the busy Christmas period looks top priority for Arsene Wenger. The surprise package of the season Newcastle have seen a recent tough run of

fixtures deflate their early season joy some-what, but a draw at Old Trafford should be enough to satisfy the fans after defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea. Liverpool have been looking increas-ingly confident and were unlucky to not get three points at home to Manchester City. Also a recent win at Stamford Bridge will give the Reds hope that they can mount a challenge for a top four spot. Stoke are looking certainties for another solid mid-table finish after recent wins against Blackburn and Everton got them back on track after a 5 match losing streak. The Potters’ form after European matches will cause con-cern as fatigue may set in later in the season. Aston Villa, Everton, Norwich and QPR are all deadlocked on 16 points in the middle of the table, teetering on the edge and flirting with relegation. While this may be concern for Villa and Everton, who would like to be chal-lenging for a top eight finish, newly promoted Norwich and QPR will be very happy. Norwich earned a valuable point at Anfield and QPR recently beat London rivals Chelsea and won away at Stoke. West Brom will be looking over their shoulders and will be eager to pick up points in the upcoming fixtures against struggling Wigan and Blackburn. Likewise Swansea and Wolves will be desperate to pick up points over the busy festive period where a couple of results can make all the difference. Wolves’ recent win against fellow relegation candi-dates Sunderland, who have just replaced manager Steve Bruce with Martin O’Niell, who will be looking to pick up three points against Blackburn. Fulham will also be scrambling for points in the next few weeks as they sit just 2 points above the relegation places. Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan look set for a long hard season toiling for points in the lower reaches. Blackburn’s recent victory over Swansea did little to quieten the fans calling for manager Steve Kean to be sacked. Bolton have lost their last three and despite an im-pressive 5-0 victory over Stoke, they find themselves joint bottom of the table. Manager Owen Coyle will be keen to recapture the form of last year where they finished in a solid 14th. Wigan are also looking to try and get out of the relegation places, and will be hoping to pick up points in their upcoming fixture against West Brom. A 2-1 win at Sunderland kept the Latics in touch with the teams above.

16

Staff

Monday 12th December

When? Lunchtime. Where? Quiet Work Room, in the Sixth Form Block. Why? To enjoy a festive treat, whilst raising money for charity!

THERE WILL BE MINCE PIES! (AND OTHER FESTIVE FOODS!!!)

Sixth formers are welcome from 12:50