Branksome Bugle Your magazine, your opinion, your school!!

Issue 9

Supported by the Courier 2011

Bugle helps Britain’s health On the 2nd March 2011, 5 members of the Branksome Bugle assisted by Mr Tearney and Mrs Hickerson

and went down to London to hand in a petition to stop people from smoking in cars if there is a passen-ger under the age of 18. We were going on this trip because last June we went to Darlington Memorial

Hospital and we supported the launch of the British Lung Foundation’s children charter. Since then the

BLF have received over 15,000 signatures. Here is the story of our day at London:

After our long train journey, Rebecca did a Metro radio interview at Kings Cross station. After that we got 2 tubes to Westminster station where we were equipped with British Lung Foundation T-shirts. We then

walked to the gates of Downing Street. There were lots of press there including BBC London. We met

schools from Liverpool, Birmingham, Charfield and Surrey. It was then the time, 5 of us were chosen to go into Downing Street and hand in the petition.

The walk down to number 10 was long and when we arrived at the huge black door everyone was very

nervous. We then knocked; a security guard answered and took the petition box off us. Everyone was

happy but even more nervous because we had a TV interview with Newsround. After that we were lead

back to the gates and had some more photographs taken.

After a short walk from Downing Street to Westminster we arrived for the British Lung Foundation recep-

tion. We walked down past Oliver Cromwell. After having a photo id taken, we had our bags scanned and we were searched. We walked down through the great hall, which had fabulous detail, and collected our

name badges. We entered room A, which had been assigned to us. We then lined up for Westminster’s

finest cuisine. After we were all stuffed, Dame Helena got up onto the plinth and said a touching speech about why we were all gathered. Once she had finished The Health Minster got up and gave us all of his

and members of his teams support. Then when all the speeches had finished we had one last chant and

the seven of us headed to the train station for our Last stop, home.

Overall the day was a success and we all came away learning something new. We all had really good fun and we nearly got stuck on the tubes. This brought back sad memories for Liam and he became teary.

We were all very tired on the train back home, even though none of us went to sleep on the way home.

Liam and James were customizing a toy they bought for their friend Ben.

For more info about the trip visit: www.branksomebugle.blogspot.com

By Elisabeth Davey, Liam Pape, Katie Appleyard, James Allison and Rebecca Parkinson

Feature on a Teacher

Name: Mr B Coyne

Subject: Deputy Head

Years at Branksome: 9

Most memorable

moment:

Playing rugby for Yorkshire at Ravenhill, Belfast against Bulste during the height of the Northern Ire-land troubles and getting a standing ovation when run-

ning onto the pitch.

Funniest moment: Watching the staff make making fools of themselves, including me at Branskome

red nose day 2 years ago.

Pets: Several goldfish in the gar-

den pond.

Advice

(Words of Wisdom):

A team is only as strong as it’s weakest person, never let your team down.

Teacher’s pet… Mr Greeves

PAPE“R”MAIL In this PAPE”R”MAIL I am going to be comparing 3 of the worlds best blog-ging web sites. I first came across this idea when Mr Sayers gave me the idea to set up a blog for the Branksome Bugle; almost immediately I chose Blogger to make the blog on. However now I have looked more into blogging websites I may have made the

wrong decision. The blogging websites I am going to review are Blogger, Posterous and Tumblr.

Lets start with Blogger, like Posterous and Tumblr they are easy to sign up to however unlike Posterous and Tumblr you can sign in using your Google Account. As soon as you have logged in you are greeted by lots of information, maybe too much information with Tumblr! To get started making your blog it is easy on Blogger you just need to follow the steps to change the design, edit your posts or see how many people have been

looking at your blog. On Posterous I just didn’t know where to start!

All 3 bogging sites can let you post pitchers and videos however it is very hard on Posterous. There are so

many small icons and little hyperlinks that you don’t know what they do.

Every good blog has photos, music and videos. All 3 of the blogs have the ability to include these features but, apparently, Blogger can only 10mb of videos and photos. Also when you update your blog it will update

your Twitter account if you want.

In conclusion I don’t think I made the wrong decision because Blogger seems to be the easiest to use.

Best

Blogs

Book of

the month

On the 25th March 2011 the revolutionary iPad 2 was released. The new iPad can now connect to computer screens and it has a longer battery life. It can also have a pro-tection case which seems to have been made by a magician it is so cleaver. As soon as you put the case down it goes to

sleep and when you lift it, it wakes up.

I-Pad 2 is

released!

This book is

called double

or die it is a

really good

read, by Char-

lie Higson,

this book is your every day ac-

tion and thrill book, I have read

it and I like it and I know you

will to, if you like action and ad-

venture books. There are lots of

other book by Charlie Higson

and I know I you like this you

will like the rest of them!!

By Thomas Buchan

Double

or Die

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logspot.c

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An

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go to

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We will Rock you

On the 9th – 10th February 2011 drama club pupils and people who are taking per-

forming arts visited London.

The day started at 5:30 when we they ar-rived at school. The bus was set to leave for 6am, though everyone was there for 5:40 so

they set off early.

They eventually arrived in London at 12:40, where they realized they couldn’t check in till 3pm, so they dropped their stuff off and went to Drury Lane for a backstage tour. Here they learnt some amazing things about the theatre and heard a few ghost stories. After this they went to Covent Garden for about 1 hour and a half so they could kill some time. Some of them went in the Transport Museum, whilst the rest went

shopping.

Once we had finished shopping, they then went to a burger and fries place for tea. Un-fortunately some people didn’t like the food, though they did like the pudding, Vanilla

and Strawberry Ice cream.

At about 6:30pm, they got back onto the coach and headed to the Dominion Theatre to see a performance of We Will Rock You. They got stuck in a traffic jam on the way there, so they climbed out through the emer-gency exit and walked the rest of the way

there.

They reached the theatre about 7pm and sat down to watch the film. It was full of bril-liant Queen songs and then rather a lot of lasers. There was a short interval at about 8:30pm and then the show carried on. They got back to the hotel at about 11pm and then went to bed, though most of them did-

n’t get to sleep till way past midnight.

The next day some of them woke at 6:45am

but most of them stayed asleep longer.

At 8:35 they had breakfast and then went to a organized singing workshop which was all about one song. They go together, which was

a mouthful trying to sing that.

After this they went shopping in Oxford Street, though after a while it started to rain, even the people in waterproof coats still got wet! After this they got back on the coach and headed back home. Halfway back, they stopped at a service station for a break, where they happened to see Paije Richard-son from the X Factor. After this they set off

home and got back to school about 8pm.

Name: Ferrari F430

BHP: 490

Top speed: 196mph

0-60: 4 seconds

Rating:

Car of the Month

On the 24th January 2011, the 5 members of the Branksome

Bugle went to Darlington's Civic theatre to receive a vibe award for their commitment to the community. The evening

started at 6:15 and ended at 9:10. Many people had turned

out to watch. There were 2 nights of the vibe awards and over

the 2 nights 715 people got an award. It is amazing how

many people are doing good things and achieving so much.

The Bugle had to wait until the second half to receive their

reward but they had support from Mr Coyne and Mrs Sur-

tees.

Between awards there were performances, all of them excel-

lent. We saw performances from Stagecoach, Push Chicago

and Pretty Little Sinners from QE college.

Overall the night was brilliant but exhausting.

Hopefully this will encourage pupils from all over Darlington

to try hard and achieve a Vibe next year.

By Rebecca Parkinson and Elisabeth Davey

Branksome held an impressionist show for red nose day it featured 4 year 8 pupils. It included Hayden Thomp-

son who organised it and wrote the script, Tyler Hutchinson who did the show in a girls uniform for red

nose day, Sam Hutchinson and also James Alison. The

impressions included Big brother, Paddy McGuiness, Baraka Obama, Michael McIntyre, an interview with

Shaun Ryder, all the main characters in Shrek and fi-nally the big hairy angle Susan Boyle. We raised approx-

imately £25 from the show. It was a performance to re-

member laughing and cheering. What a show.

Later on in the day there was a comic relief assembly which was amaz-

ing. Mr Burfard played the guitar to we will rock you and Miss Lough-lin was the host of the hole thing. Even the editor of the Branksome

Bugle, Liam lived his life long dream of singing a Beatles song in front of an audience. It was the most amazing assembly we have ever had.

Overall we made £500 . By Tyler

Hutchinson

and Hayden

Thompson

Rebecca Parkinson met Sir Ian McKellen when she at-

tended his talk at Education Village about his new Foun-

dation Stone Walls. was succulent, the stuffing was

Rebecca P meets Sir Ian

Vibe Award

Taylor and Hayden

Mount Pleasant Poems

Where are they now? I left Branksome Comprehensive in 2007 and in the 3 ½ years between then and now I have met some of the most fantastic people and done some of the most fan-tastic things, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to say that it has come easily. I’m not ashamed to say that I have worked really hard for what I have now and I’d encour-

age anyone who has ambition to do the same thing.

While I was at school I was also working at Alpha 103.2 as a volunteer assisting the production of the Saturday Sports Show, but in my spare time I had the opportunity to familiarise myself with the station equipment and computer packages in their spare production studio. I showed willing and commitment to the station and even-tually they gave me an opportunity to present one of their shows. One thing led to another and before I knew it I had a regular show and was interviewing some of the

world’s biggest acts like Coldplay and The Verve.

At this time I also began moving around various other radio stations in the local area and produced and presented weekend shows back to back over the stations. Some of these were specialist shows, like sports and dance music, and it wasn’t long before I was DJ-ing in night clubs and making a good

name for myself on the local scene. When the community station I was working for found itself in financial difficulties I started to look around for bigger stations and went on to work for the likes of Signal Radio in Stoke,

Silk fm in Cheshire and TFM Radio in the North East.

I had to make sure I wasn’t limiting myself to just the local area and when the opportunity came to move to North West England and work for a station that was regularly pulling in 68,000 listeners per week I couldn’t say no and I packed my bags. And that’s where I find myself now. In just 3 years I’ve gone from a young school boy to a full time commercial radio

presenter who has interviewed Kylie, The Script, JLS, Robbie Williams and many others.

As well as this, I have set up my own ‘radio school’ teaching young people how the industry works and how to present and produce their own shows. I’m really happy with how things have turned out, but I know it’s because I’ve shown commitment and worked hard. I have a busy time ahead of myself and am still

learning everyday, but I’m really fortunate to be doing what I love for a living.

If you have a dream or ambition then just go for it. I did, and now I get to test drive £50,000 cars and throw myself out of planes all in the name of entertain-ment! I’m having a great time and wouldn’t have it any other way. Just keep following in what you believe, work hard and listen to people who are in the know and you’ll go a long way. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I have,

but I’ve realised it’s the fastest and most effective way of learning new things!

By Martin Lowes

martin.lowes@2br.co.uk

“I’ve gone from a

young school boy to a full time

commercial radio presenter”

We are looking for people who used

to go to Branksome Science Col-

lege/School and are willing to tell

us their story. Tell us when you

attended Branksome and please

send a brief account of your life

since leaving school and if possible

a photo. Email to:

surtees@branksome.org.uk

Where are they now?

Winter Poem by Katie

Winter walked wildly wearing a white wardrobe,

Whispering, wintry weather.

Who has seen the wind? Neither you

nor I But when the leaves hang trembling,

the wind is passing by.

Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you

But when the trees bow down their

heads, the wind is passing by.

School Poem

by Chloe Richmond School is fun

The teachers say we are done.

We dance, dance, all day

All we want to do is gout and play.

Slop, Slop, stick down the

glue. Tell Miss Telfer you need the

loo.

Saturday night I had a fight, The teacher said it’s alright.

Snow By Poppy H.

Snow cascading to the ground. Swirling round and round.

It’s coming quicker.

It’s laying thicker.

In delight the children cry: “The snow is falling from the

sky!”

It is becoming clear, Christmas is edging near.

The snow is the colour of a

feather- Ohh what wonderful weather.

Game of

the Month

Bow master is a great game of skill were must shoot evil peo-

ple in order to progress to the next level. You earn gold pieces

to upgrade your army and bow

arrow. You use w, s, a and d to move and mouse to aim. One

child said its fun and enjoyable, and another child said it’s excit-

ing. There are many different options to make the gaming ex-

perience more enjoyable. Each level has a different map and it

is more and more enjoyable as it progresses. If you would like

to cheat use a magnifying glass

to read the next line. Press # while holding shift.

Gaming Halo reach is an epic shooter

where it is the year 2552 and the human race is at war with

the covenant, an evil alien race.

The game is based around

planet reach, the heart of all humans’ best technology and

weapons. You play as a Spar-

tan super soldier along with another 5 Spartans also known

as noble team. You are a new

recruit, noble 6, and must help to stop reach from falling into

the hands of the covenant.

There are 10 great campaign levels to tickle your fancy and a

great new way to do match-

making. Every time you play a

game you earn credits to rank up and customise your Spar-

tans armour. Have fun! 15cert.

The play station move is a

pointless waste of time and money and it is copying off

the Nintendo Wii even if

play station is bigger, so

what, the Nintendo Wii is

much better.

Skyrim is a fictional re-

gion in The Elder Scrolls series of games. It is the

home of the Nords. On

December 11, 2010 It was

announced by Bethesda's Todd Howard that Skryim

will be the setting of the

next Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls V:

Skyrim set for release on

November 11, 2011.

Halo Reach

Skyrim

Super Mario bros Wii: Super Mario bros Wii is a great multiplayer game that is fun for all the family. It is probably the best Mario yet and it has a new feature 4 player mode where you have a choice of Mario, Luigi, blue toad and yellow toad. For anyone who doesn’t know who Mario is, he is Nin-tendo biggest name. In this game you must progress through levels in order to save Princess Peach. There are various power ups in order to help you as

well as several new ones.

Super Mario galaxy 2: Super Mario galaxy 2 is another great way to play Mario, in 3d. You must progress through harder and harder levels the fur-ther you get. There are eight worlds each with many levels to try and take away your life total until you reach zero where you get game over and must load back to your last save. It is the same as every other Mario, collect pow-er ups to help you but you now have a selected life bar so you know how

much life you have left.

Mario Kart: Mario Kart is yet another great game from the Mario franchise where you race head to head against other Mario characters in different cars and bikes. You also have thirty two different tracks to race on and lots

of different power ups to help you win.

Mario

Yes Nintendo have done it again

(except four years earlier). Nintendo

have perfected their new way of

gaming (four years earlier). You can

now play great games like tennis,ice

hockey and even monopoly. You can

swing a racket or even role a dice

just by flicking your wrist. If you

don’t have a wii but you have a

playstation three, don’t get

playstation move get a Wii.

Nintendo Wii

Play Station Move

By Ewan Barr, Tyler Hutchinson, Hayden

Thompson and Sam Hutchinson. Darlington

Sports

Partnership

Tutor Football

It was a must win game for the Quakers they could concede 2 goal or

they were out. Darlington dominated the possession in the first half.

Then just as half time was coming up, a well hit free kick from brown

just tipped over the bar. The second half begun with gates head

pushing just missing a chance on goal but Sam Russell made a good

save sending it wide. Darlo progressed with Liam Hatch just shooting

wide. There was 4 minuets to go there was no real good chances . the

ref blew his whistle. DARLO WERE GOING TO WEMBLEY. The fans

ran on the pitch, hugging the player shouting and singing.

Branksome Bugle

On the 20th January 2011, 9

students from year 9 and year

10 went to the Dolphin Centre

to umpire the first of the four

competitions for the year 3’s

tennis finals. 8 pupils from

Heathfield, Alderman Leach

and Reid Street attended and

each school played 5 skill

games and then they played

matches. Mr Hillary helped or-

ganise the event and the results

were as follows; Alderman

Leach was last with 48 points,

Reid Street came second with

49 points and Heathfield won

with an impressive 59 points.

Well done to all schools taking

part.

Visit www.branksomebugle.blogspot.com

Or e-mail is at

branksomebugle@branksome.org.uk

Or read the Bugle at: www.branksome.org.uk

Quakers on

the road to

Wembley

Sport