INSPIREEdition No: 1July 2014

The Magazine of St Andrew’s Catholic School

From the HeadteacherIt gives me great pleasure to introduce the first edition of Inspire - the magazine which show-cases the enormous wealth of talent that we have here at St Andrew’s. It aims to show life at school from the students’ perspective: this pilot edition provides a small snapshot of the range of activities they experience on a day to day basis.The 6th form editorial and production team have worked extremely hard to produce Inspire within a short space of time: next year we intend to publish a much bigger version on a twice yearly basis, so we would welcome your feedback and comments. Please tell us what you think about this edition, and what you might like to see included in any future publications. I know that you will enjoy reading Inspire and that you will share my pride in the work that your children have produced.

God Bless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Production:

Asuka YoungJordyn RobinsonMr Sharp

Editorial:

Molly FordSarah Harcourt-VernonDaisy NeedhamKim DeslandesMathu MannivananMiss Starkey

Administration:

Iqra AdamJacob Crimi-ApplebySeb KennyKarim KrakuLucas Malins

Alan Mitchell.

Trench Diaries

21st June 1916, 5:25amI have survived my first night sleeping in a trench – it was a lot worse than I first thought it would be. In all honesty, it was the worst night of my life. In the trench that I was sleeping in there were dozens of rats scurrying across the ground and flies buzzing above our heads. I slept in my uniform on a muddy ‘dug-out’, I had only my coat to keep me warm and I used my bag as a pillow. The trenches do not have chamber pots so us boys have to share a bucket in the corner. Almost all of us (even after just one night) have picked up head lice and already, our uniforms are inhabited by lice as well.

24th June 1916, 7:45pmIt has been a good few days since I last updated my diary, sorry about that. The war has just become real for me, I have seen some horrible stuff in my time (I saw a man have his head crushed by a motor car, I thought that was bad!!) but today I have witnessed a truly horrific charge. I must have seen hundreds of men being blown up by artillery fire, I am lucky to have survived. Our troops were no match for the German machine guns, we were cut down in vast numbers. Now all that is left is the rotting corpses of innocent men, the foul stench of decomposing flesh is too overwhelming for many of us to contend with. Lots of the new boys (myself included) have been throwing up. I suppose soon we will learn to get used to the smell. The other guys have.

29th June 1916, 9:45pmIt’s nearly 10 o’clock and it’s a peaceful summer’s night with a beautiful full moon shining bright above us, it’s about the only beautiful thing for miles around us as I am lying wide awake in a filthy trench on the Western front looking up to the sky. For a long time now, the war has been getting nowhere. At the moment, neither army have an advantage – we are playing a stalemate game. The army (on both sides) have lost thousands maybe even millions of men – in factright now I can hear the cries for help from the men left dying on no man’s land. It’s painful to listen to, I mean to think that there’s many men out there dying all by themselves, they have probably got a wife or a girlfriend – maybe even children of their own. It’s heart breaking, if only our families knew what we are going through out on the front line. I want this war to end, I don’t think I can handle it much longer and I’ve only been out here for a few days. To think that shortly it could be me dying all alone on no man’s land – I’d rather be shot for cowardice.

Joseph Meakin 9F

Scarred Soldier

A battle on the Western Front,To break the defences in Artois and ChampagneLives have to be lostThey have to be slain, First time for British gas and plenty ammunition,To make this war have movement this battle needed precision,A soldier marches in with fear in his heart, Little does he know his life is to be torn apart, The battle begins as they open fire,All soldiers shooting with a major desire,To not die To come out fighting,Both sides were shooting and many dying,Then many days passed before the battle drew to a close,Every soldier who was still alive stopped and froze,They looked to see thousands of bodies on the floor,It was their fellow men they had saw,And one of those survivors who was distraught, Was that small soldier scarred from the dead people who had fought,If only the war could’ve had a truce,Lives wouldn’t have been lostAt the Battle of Loos.

Luke Peacock 9F

History

Tourist Destination Homework

I chose to complete my tourist destination homework about Barcelona because I had been there before and its tourist attractions really interest me. I chose to present the statistics and facts about Barcelona on a colourful poster because I enjoy being creative with my homework no matter how long it takes me. Because I put in a bit more effort in this homework, I think the learning potential for tourism for me would be higher as I spent more time researching. This is beneficial for my geographical skills and my progress in geography, because I put in more time to do independent research outside of class which helped me during the tourism unit.

Sophie McNicholas 8F

Geographical Inspiration

The final rivers homework is a creativity choice assignment.We decided to make a video for our Geography homework because we both enjoy making videos and we thought it would be the most entertaining homework out of everyone else’s for the class. We tried to add a bit of humour to make it enjoyable - it worked! We could tell from the start that we would have a great day out filming our documentary about rivers at the bottom of Box Hill at the stepping stones because it’s always fun pushing each other into rivers off stepping stones! Even though we wanted our film to be funny we needed geographical content to get the full marks so we used our geographical knowledge to help us with our homework!

Ed Potter and Luke Uliasz 7H

* Their clip can be found on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPdQl-0C3ak

Physical Geography

I was inspired to draw the volcano because Geography interests me; in particular Physical Geography, and I wanted to convey how a distinct physical feature such as a volcano can be found in both rural and urban settlements and impacts that area differently. Also I wanted to show the many features that make up a volcano. When creating the volcano drawing I incorporated two distinct sides to represent an MEDC and an LEDC with a volcano. I demonstrated how the wealth of an MEDC can help it to deal with an eruption and in contrast how an LEDC can struggle. The MEDC had many skyscrapers to symbolise its thriving industry and economy whilst the LEDC had shanty towns and vast amount of land for agriculture. This tied into my geography GCSE as we had studied the resulting variation in the severity of the effects on whether a place was an LEDC or an MEDC, and therefore whether it was likely to be better equipped, have better prediction methods and management strategies or have more severe primary and secondary impacts.

Stephanie Peacock 11W

Environmentally Challenged

At the very beginning the club was called Eco Club but later on we decided to change the name to Environmentally Challenged. Our aim was to create a school garden and we have spent all year getting the plans together.Within the after-school sessions we mapped out a diagram of the specified area and designed the layout; then we went onto plot this in the space provided next to D2. Additionally, we thought about the specific plants and the conditions they need for them to survive. Furthermore we hope to start the build early next term by constructing some raised beds.

Leonie Ansett 10F

Geography

Physical EducationItaly Trip

The Easter 2014 Italy trip that the P.E department organized was a one that we will never forget. We were given opportunities to try so many new things.We went to the Aosta Valley, which is bordered by France and Switzerland. The whole week was packed with a huge range of sport and adventure activities. All the instructors who worked at Aosta were so friendly and helpful, and we all had a laugh with them, which made everything so enjoyable. The only thing we all got bored at was the 21-hour coach journey to Italy! But once we got there, after nearly a whole day of travelling, we got into our tents which most of us were pleased about; and unpacked. All of the days that we had there were action-packed: first we would have breakfast, then by 11 am every day we were on the coach on our way to awesome activities. These ranged from rock climbing to gorging – climbing into a gorge from snow melt and jumping off the rocks into the icy waters! Another favourite activity was white water rafting because all the Italian helpers were so helpful and friendly, it made the day so much better. I loved rafting down the rapids and singing as we rowed.The activities were all amazing and exciting, and everyone enjoyed them all, even those of us who might have been nervous about trying an activity. We all encouraged each other to have a go at everything, so we did! When we got back to camp we had some free time before dinner where we played football, volleyball or cricket. Or we just hung around with friends, having a laugh. Also the trip helped us to get closer to people we don’t usually tend to talk to and we all got along so well!

Amy Gardiner and Marcus Caprano Wint 8B

Our SAS cheerleading experience

We have had a fantastic time this year on the St Andrews’ Shooting Stars Cheerleading squad. We have made lots of new friends in all the year groups, learnt to work as a team, secured many new skills and won two major school competitions. We have done extremely well in competition, becoming BCA Southern School Level 2 champions and NSSSA Level 2/3 champions. However, these successes haven’t come easily, we have had to train very hard and have had some falls on the way, but as a team, and within our stunt groups, we have overcome many mental blocks and frights to perform and execute our skills to our full potential. As a squad we have learnt the importance of trust, as we have all had to help each other out as a team to achieve our performance goals. The flyers especially have had to learn trust and put all their faith their bases to catch them when they wobble or when they execute a technical stunt. I have really enjoyed being a flyer this year; I have worked really hard on my stretches to become as flexible as possible and to look aesthetically pleasing in the air. The whole squad have become much stronger and overcome many fears in the last year but we are now all ready to be even better and perfect our already amazing squad. Overall it has been a great experience and we have all enjoyed it lots, we can’t wait to next year.

Olivia Wilde and Josie Bishop 7M

Running to Victory

I started doing athletics in Year 4 at primary school, competing in the long jump and sprint events and representing my school. After taking part in District Sports and enjoying it, I began training with a local athletics club. With a lot of encouragement from school, I now train on average for two hours, three to four days a week. A normal session may include a lot of short sharp speed drills and runs, or still quick but slightly longer runs to build on endurance. In June this year I won my heat in the boys’ 300 meters at the Surrey Schools Championships in a time of 37.77 seconds which was a championship record. I then went on to win gold in the final, setting another championship best time in the process. At the start of the race my aim was to break the 36-second barrier but the conditions got worse during the race but I was very happy to run 36.17 seconds and break my county record. Because I won the county gold, I’ve been selected to compete at the English Schools Athletics Championships in Birmingham. It’s a great honour to represent my school and my county, and I’m just looking forward to competing against the best athletes in the country.

Joseph Massimo 9C

Love Poem

I can feel it taking control of me;This little love affair.

It’s growing bigger and bigger inside of me;But I don’t really care.

Its flourishing inside of me;Making me more beautiful by the day

It marks everywhere I lay;I still don’t know what it is;But I am going to take a guess.

My guess is LOVE!

Lucy Gratsy 7F

Darkness

Darkness is a bottomless black holeWaiting to gobble up your soul

Darkness is a hiding placeShadowing your sinister face

Darkness is invisible But somehow always thereWe sit in it and waitAnd always get a scare

Darkness is a reflectionConcealing the Devil himselfHe’s like that spooky ornamentWatching you from the shelf

But if you look closerYou may one day seeDarkness is beautiful, magical, enchantedWith wonders yet to be.

Frazer McGill 7W

Frankenstein Assessment

Why? Why did this have to happen to me? I should never have started all this. It was meant to bring happiness and create life. But oh no, it just had to go and bring sadness to everybody. Everything always goes wrong. I wish I could turn back time... However, until then, I will not let this monster escape. He wants me to chase him until I reach the edge of the world? Then that is exactly what I am going to do. He killed my friends and my family. Now I will kill him.Only he saw the bad side of humanity; the horrible side. And the reason he saw the second of the human race’s two faces is because people are scared. Scared of anything unordinary. In addition, he was most certainly not ordinary. He wanted to help and make people happy but they would not let him, and now look what has happened. Why do people not listen? They look at what is on the outside but not what is on the inside, and then if the outside is not to their liking, they want to get rid of it, for they hate it instinctively. But now the monster is a killer. He already gave us a second chance; if I would make him a bride he would go away and live with her in peace; but Clerval and Elizabeth ripped that dream away from him just as said dream was about to become reality. He is not going to give me another chance. He is a destroyer now, just like everyone thought he was in the beginning; there is no turning him back to good now.He told me about that time when he was in the forest and met a blind girl, if I recall correctly, her husband had gone into town when the monster came in and started chatting and helping the girl, and she didn’t attack him because she couldn’t see him; they really liked each other. But then, the man came back and shot him. He was too scared to help anyone again; he was afraid that they would not allow him to, and attack him, like so many have done. And the time he killed William, again, all he wanted was to make him be happy, but William did not understand that, because again, human nature took over and because of way the monster looked, he screamed and threatened the monster; he was afraid. Therefore, the Monster killed William - for the sake of taking revenge on me, for creating him into the first place, to be hated, as he wrongly thought that that was my original intention. The Monster even said that killing William was the one and only time he had acted like a human. Destroying for the sake of it. If only I could have made him look more acceptable, or not made it at all. Then perhaps they would have let him be kind; all would have been fine, a happy monster and an appreciating community. However, that is not what I did. I made him ugly - not deliberately, but I did. And so it happened.

Matthew Byde 8W

English

Hannah White 11M Year 10’s current work

Art

Aimee Dennel 11C

Lauren Barrett 11B

Stephanie Peacock 11W

Hannah White 11M

DIY

Bunting is a fun way to decorate. It is also sustainable, as you can recycle old textiles and make a unique, re-usable product. Here’s how we made ours – you could give it a try too!You will need:

• Paper template

• Scraps of fabric

• Pins

• Needle and thread or sewing machine

• Fabric scissors

• Bias binding

1: Gather your tools & materials

2. Pin your template to the fabric. (I’m cutting two layers at a time for speed).

3. Pin the fabrics right sides together. Then stitch the two fabric shapes together leaving the top open.

4. Clip away the excess fabric & turn the pennant the right way so that the stitching is now on the inside.

5. Fold over bias binding along the top of your bunting & sew

6. Don’t stop at triangles, you can use ANY shape…

Design and TechnologyTextiles Technology

Year 7 Bunting

Learning new skillsTo make our bunting some people in our class had to learn new skills such as using pins to hold the template on (it’s harder than it looks), tacking & using the sewing machine. Our teacher is very fussy about the scissors we use; the fabric scissors or paper scissors- some people get very mixed up! Before we stitched the bunting together we used a decoration called appliqué to put our initials on the yellow side using felt in our house colour.

Working togetherSome students in our class have not had much experience of sewing but some are really good. Our teacher would give us a demonstration to explain what we had to do and then we just got on with the activity. If we got stuck, especially threading needles or tying knots, it was really good as we could ask each other for help.

The final productEach student made an individual flag shape - some were better than others - but as we had a template they are pretty much the same. They were then stitched to some bias binding to make each tutor group a string of bunting. They look really fun now they are all sewn together. We hope they will be put up in our tutor room!

Marta Lopez, Freya Mobbs and Sofia Trigo 7H

Resistant Materials

A Level Product Design

The work has been inspired by a mood board created at the beginning of the project. From this initial ideas were created, and this final product is a combination of these ideas. The design brief specified that the product should combine a range of functions. After brainstorming different possible functions I decided to focus on storage, lighting and sound. Although simple, these functions are useful and would appeal to a wide range of people. Because this design brief was open and not limited, it allowed me to express creativity, providing sound, storage and lighting were included. The product has been created to be used specifically in teenagers’ bedrooms. It includes two lights (side and top) and can play music from any phone. It has been manufactured from walnut and acrylic.

Jonathan Guy SX4

The definition of scope which my project was based upon was to make an iPod docking station that was inspired by shapes, colours and textures. The way I interpreted the brief into my design was by having curved shapes and calm colours. It also incorporated many aspects making a final product which simulated complex life forms much like a cell, and was constructed on a pewter base. It has two pods which can connect and disconnect at will, allowing for sound to be produced in multiple directions, and then connect back to the main dock afterwards.

Peter Hazlehurst SX4

My product was inspired by microorganisms and is based around a modern theme. I interpreted it by looking at organisms within the body or living things, focusing on the design structure of a cell to format the base of my design.I have produced an easily portable functioning speaker. It has a unique feature of being expandable so it can change size and pack down small to be easily transported. I combined the traditional workshop skills with new CAD/CAM technologies to manufacture my product predominantly from acrylic.

Sebastian Newman SX4

Design and TechnologyFood technology

St Andrew’s was one of only six schools from ten thousand applications which were chosen to go to City Hall for Jamie Oliver’s live cooking lesson for Food Revolution Day 2014 – and only six students lucky enough to go! At 2pm on Friday 16th May, Jamie was streaming LIVE into classrooms around the world.The studio was weird because there was giant fruit everywhere! It was so strange seeing such famous people up close when we had only ever seen them on TV before. Jamie complimented me on my ‘kipper’ tie! Aaron Craze was cooking with us on our table: he was such a nice guy and we were so glad we had him with us. We also saw lots of other stars from Jamie’s Food Tube including DJBBQ, Cupcake Gemma, Michela Chiappa and John Quilter, but also Chris Moyles and Boris Johnson. We had practised the recipe in school the day before, but we were still nervous when watching Jamie and the others run through the recipe first. We managed it in the end, even though we made some mistakes. It was not the sort of food that we would normally make, but we all enjoyed them. Here is the recipe in case you would like to make them yourself – they are really simple and delicious!

Ben Wain 7B, Amy Tubb, Demi Edwards 7W

Rainbow Salad Wrap

Ingredients Method• 2 small raw beetroots, different colours if possible (roughly 150g)

• 2 carrots

• 150g white cabbage

• 1 firm pear

• ½ a bunch of fresh mint

• ½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley

• 6 small wholemeal tortilla wraps

• 50g feta cheese for the dressing

• 5 tablespoons natural yoghurt

• ½ teaspoon English mustard

• 3 teaspoons cider vinegar

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Wash the beetroots and carrots under cold running water, scrubbing with a scrubber to get rid of any dirt (there’s no need to peel them).

2. Pick off and discard the wispy ends from the beetroots.

3. Hold a box grater steady on a chopping board, then gripping the root end, coarsely grate the carrots, stopping before your fingers or knuckles get too close to the grater. Place the grated carrots into a large bowl.

4. Coarsely grate or finely slice the cabbage, then discard the core and add to the bowl.

5. Remove the stalk from the pear, coarsely grate (core and all), then place it into the bowl.

6. Finally, hold the root end of the beetroots and coarsely grate (you may want to wear rubber gloves for this), then add to the bowl.

7. Pick the mint and parsley leaves, then discard the stalks. Tear or finely chop the leaves on a board and add to the bowl.

8. Add all the dressing ingredients to a jam jar.

9. Put the lid securely on the jar and shake well.

10. Have a taste and see whether you think it needs a bit more yoghurt, vinegar or oil – you want it to be slightly too acidic, so that it’s still nice and zingy once you’ve dressed your rainbow salad.

11. Drizzle most of the dressing over the salad – just remember you can always add more but you can’t take it away, so be cautious.

12. Divide the salad between the tortilla wraps, then crumble a little feta over each.

13. Roll up the wraps, tucking them in at the sides as you go, then serve.

Silver Expedition

The Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition: a three-day gruelling trek in the wet, drudging through swamps of muddy bog and eating some foul concoction of baked beans and pot noodle, is perhaps what many students imagine the experience to entail. This is far from the truth! A challenge it may be, but a bore it is not. Last Friday morning, our group of year 12 and 13 students clambered into a minibus and made our way to the New Forest to begin our D of E adventure. The journey comprised of chatting, music, or in my case, catching up on some well-needed sleep (not to mention taking a little detour to allow one member of staff to drop his dirty washing off at his mum’s!)

On arrival, we separated into our two walking groups, said cheerio to the teachers and set off, with a scrambling of maps and compasses. We began walking in the blistering heat and sunshine, dodging the numerous horses and ponies as we went from field to field. Regular breaks were a must, and were a chance to gorge on our delectable snacks of our favourite chocolate and sweets. Whilst my friends and I dug out Galaxy and Oreos, to our surprise, the boys revealed punnets and punnets of fresh fruit, now rather squashed fruit, which were apparently the result of a last minute shop in Sainsbury’s that morning! After a couple of hours of walking, getting lost, a skill we all excelled in, then walking some more, we finally reached our first check point. The teachers were great company and they chatted to us, cracking jokes – some funnier than others!

After another few hours of “adjusting” our route to avoid any unnecessary trekking, getting lost, again, and finding ways to cross rivers ten feet wide, we reached the edge of our campsite. Unfortunately we were at the wrong end of the site, so instead of doing the logical thing of walking round to the other side, we decided to try and prise ourselves, and our packs, through a tiny hole in the fence. We later found out that the area was a designated pigeon shooting spot... on hearing this we settled on sticking to the main entrance! The evening consisted of pitching our tents and cooking risotto on our Trangia as quickly as possible, before the heavens opened! Despite the lively atmosphere at camp, when you’re trying to sleep in a tent that feels far from sturdy in the pelting rain and strong wind, you do begin to question why you came! The same can be said for being woken up at 7:00am by a certain member of staff banging a pan with a wooden spoon.

Nonetheless, drinking rich hot chocolate outside on Saturday morning certainly boosted our team morale as we prepared for a second day of adventure! The walking was fairly relaxed and we even had the chance to stop for lunch as a wildlife site where we were introduced to the New Forest’s most deadly foes. I couldn’t say that gazing at snakes which could be sleeping on the ground next to me was the highlight of my weekend! Feeling fairly tired today, our group took many extensive breaks where we collapsed on our packs and pretended that we didn’t have another 6km to walk. Yet it wasn’t long before we reached camp late in the afternoon, pitched our tents and began cooking our dinners for the second time. I think the teachers enjoyed watching our envious faces as we strolled passed their large gazebo to eat our meagre meal of pasta, as they tucked in to what looked like a plate full of heaven: fish and chips! They did show their kindness though by supplying us with a stash of Pringles and marshmallows for the night, and all thirteen of us decided to huddle under a deer shelter with tons of food and a pack of cards. As it got late, we all went to bed totally exhausted; to my surprise, the teachers seemed far from tired as they both burst into song whilst brushing their teeth.

On the third day, I began to welcome the idea of a warm bath, having not showered in 48 hours, and we all hastily packed up so we could begin our final journey. Despite feeling fatigued, the thought of sleeping in our own beds that night was motivation to get us through a third day of hiking. When we finally reached the end-checkpoint, an overwhelming sense of tiredness and achievement came over us all, as we began our journey home on the minibus; but of course not forgetting to go past the home of a certain member of staff’s mother, to pick up Sir’s impeccably washed and ironed attire! So overall, D of E is strenuous and exhausting but it doesn’t come without its rewards... bring on the Gold award!

Isabelle Williams SX9

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme

Institution of Great Britain Yr12 Masterclasses

A busy day was planned for us with masterclasses, puzzles and a quiz, giving us the opportunity to investigate new mathematical topics with both new and familiar faces.First we had an intriguing lecture by Dr Snezana Lawrence, a senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at Bath Spa University and a historian of mathematics. Snezana spoke passionately about the history of geometry from its many manifestations in cultures and historical periods. She discussed with us the unimaginable intellectual leaps that were made ranging from BC to modern day and how we could expect mathematics to continue to evolve. It is amazing how, with none of the technological capabilities we have today, mathematicians were able to prove basic concepts which we now in modern day take for granted, for example, how two tangents of a circle are equal. Time for my favourite talk, The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, by Simon Singh; a science journalist and TV producer with a PhD from Cambridge and also producer and co-director of the BAFTA award-winning documentary Fermat’s Last Theorem for the Horizon series. Our first two lectures were great as they introduced Sean and I to both the history of Maths and its practical uses, but Simon pretty much just talked about the ‘cool’ parts of maths such as patterns and codes, specifically those found, surprisingly, in The Simpsons! From palindromic squares (2,2852 = 5,221,225), to Fermat’s Last Theorem. By far my favourite, though has to be narcissistic primes. These are numbers that are thought to be ‘in love’ with themselves. For example, 8208 is a narcissistic prime because there are 4 digits in the number so you raise each digit to the power 4 and sum them ( 84+24+04+84) the answer is…8208! Well I thought it was cool anyway. We had a great day of wonderful mathematics and if you’re ever wandering past the RIGB, it is well worth a visit.

Sofie Dennel SX3

Mathematics How I’ve found Maths in Year 7

I have to be the first person to admit that I’m not good at maths. It’s definitely not been my best subject nor my favourite either… in fact in the past you could say that I HATED MATHS! But when I started at St Andrews I was certainly a little worried as I knew the maths was going to be a lot harder than at primary school.Well I needn’t have worried! The first thing that happened to me was that I was introduced to my lovely maths buddy Ciara, and we have met up on Wednesday lunchtime every week until Ciara had her exams. Ciara helped me with my time tables, dividing and anything else I have found difficult but she did it in a fun way which helped me to learn.Finally I have joined Maths club after school on a Thursday where they helped me with my maths homework or any other maths problems. So it’s been great in year 7 with my Maths, my marks are definitely improving and I am going to get there! I feel I can now actually say I enjoy Maths!

Amy Cooksey 7W

Maths Inquiry

Maths, one of my favourite subjects, allows me to use logic to work out sums or find patterns. Maths is about breaking down the question and – eventually – answering it. On Fridays our class abandons the concept of answering the question and moves a few rung up the mathematical thinking order towards analysis.We call this inquiry. Our teacher starts by showing us our prompt, something that at first glance looks fairly simple. As we look at it more, we form questions about our prompt. Sharing these ideas with our partner always surprises us: there is always something we haven’t noticed.Inquiry lessons usually start out in a logical pattern although sometimes we are liable to go off on a slight tangent. One thing my class is always willing to do is prove the prompt with algebra, as that is always an interesting line of inquiry.In our class we aim to be more like ‘a mathematician’, who spends more time evaluating, analysing and answering than he does exploring. Every time we undertake an inquiry we are one step closer to the mathematician.

Sebastian Kenny 8B

Below is a question from a prac-tice sheet we were given…

The Target

On the target above I scored exactly 100. What were my hits and how many shots did I fire?

It’s Out Of This World

Recently in Science, Year Seven have made models to do with space and the Solar System. Everyone put in a lot of effort and you can see that by looking at the models produced.In science we had been looking at the Solar System, this is why we made our models.It was our choice what we made, so some people made a model of the whole Solar System, but some people made a model of specific planet or they made a rocket. We all had to make our models at home and bring them into school. The homework was Some people made their models out of paper maché, others used materials from around the house, and some bought materials like polystyrene balls to paint and use for their models. Some people used big pieces of card to put their planets on, others used sticks to stick their planets different distances away from the sun. I chose to make mine out of polystyrene balls and garden sticks because I thought it represented the Solar System well. I cut the garden wire different lengths so I could put the planets on the end of the wire, stick the wire in to the sun to show how far each planet is away from the sun. I painted the polystyrene balls to help people see which planet is which. I also used different sized polystyrene balls to show how big each plant is compared to the others, for example Pluto is the smallest planets but Jupiter is the biggest so I used a very small ball for Pluto but the biggest ball I had for Jupiter. We peer assessed each other’s projects and gave them feedback on how well they did and what they could improve on. Then our Science teacher gave out prizes to the best models. There were quite a few prizes given out as everyone’s models were so good.

Amy Doherty 7C

Science Forensics Day

On 7th July, Year 9 students embarked on a Forensics Day, which was an exciting opportunity for us to spend a day in the life of a forensic scientist. Former Metropolitan Police Investigation Officer, Mr Clive Lucy, kindly came in to talk us through real crime scenes that he had investigated, and the procedures carried out. We were split into small groups named after popular crime shows: Silent Witness, CSI, Waking the Dead, Law and Order and Criminal Minds. With a crime scene (complete with police incident tape, disposable paper suits and protective gloves) set up in the hall, we had five lessons to figure out who had murdered Mr Mitchell. We had four suspects (all members of St Andrew’s staff), and we were challenged through a number of thorough tasks to solve the crime: activities included soil sampling, DNA extraction and genotyping, forensic psychology and fingerprint analysis. All sessions included samples of evidence found at the crime scene and students were able to match them to one of the four suspects. I found the hardest lesson was the psychological investigation, where we had to think outside the box.There was a great buzz throughout the day as we all tried to put our cases together, regarding the identity of the murderer. The day concluded with The Big Reveal, where all the evidence was closely analysed and the killer was identified ... it was Mrs McEnaney! It was a really enjoyable day.

Bradley McAuley-Kinchin 9W

Science Crest Award

CREST is a UK award scheme which recognizes success, builds skills and demonstrates personal achievement in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) project work. At St Andrew’s we can work towards the Bronze and Silver Crest Awards.Silver Crest award has allowed me to delve deeper into my interest in the structure of DNA and how it determines human variation and characteristics. I researched the structure of RNA and DNA, looking into the changes in the bases and the effects this had on protein structure. I also carried out an experiment to extract DNA from a kiwi fruit; this is a similar process that can be used to extract and analyse DNA. Silver Crest has been a unique experience that has enabled me to expand my knowledge in a plethora of different ways, whilst enabling me to open my mind to the whole world of science. Furthermore, it has helped me to be able to formulate scientific hypotheses, whilst learning how to prove and explore certain theories to optimise my learning potential. Ultimately, Silver Crest has been a fascinating experience, and I would recommend it to any students who are considering it in the future.

Sam Barmby 9F

French Lessons at St. Andrews

À St Andrew’s j’adore que le français (comme toutes les autres langues) est enseigné avec de la passion et du dévouement. Toutes les leçons commencent avec une présentation sur ce que nous allons apprendre pendant le cours. C’est bien parce qu’au moins on sait ce qu’on va apprendre ! On enseigne tout le monde en groupe de niveau et tout le monde participe – sinon, les profs nous obligent à être volontaires J. C’est génial parce que même au milieu des leçons, tout le monde sait deux fois plus qu’il savait au début du cours. Moi,

comme ma mère est française, j’ai déjà commencé à préparer mes GCSE de français. Donc pendant mes cours, on me donne des exercices différents pour améliorer mon vocabulaire et ma grammaire. Le plus difficile, et le plus important c’est sans doute de parler en français, donc dans presque tous les cours on fait des activités amusantes pour s’habituer à parler la langue dans des situations de tous les jours. On a aussi régulièrement la chance de faire de la compréhension d’écoute, mais moins que le parler ou l’écrit, que je pense sont les deux catégories les plus importantes car elles te donnent la possibilité de t’exprimer dans une autre langue.

Aussi, on apprend plein de choses sur la culture française et les traditions. Par exemple, dans ma classe, nous avons appris beaucoup sur le sport et le foot quand nous avons suivi la Coupe du Monde au Brésil. C’était intéressant et j’ai appris beaucoup de nouvelles expressions que je pourrai réutiliser, même si d’habitude, je n’aime pas vraiment le foot ! En plus, en ce moment, on étudie les médias et le cinéma français à travers une bande dessinée qui s’appelle Astérix et Obélix, qui est très bien connue en France !

Pour finir, je pense que le français c’est bien parce que ça aide si on va en voyage à l’étranger ou si on veut avoir un bon travail. Parler une deuxième langue est toujours une bonne idée !

Lucas Malins 8F

Modern Foreign Languages

Spanish lessons at St. Andrews

Para mi estudiar español en St. Andrews me parece muy fácil. Hacemos muchas cosas en clases que son muy interesantes como aprendemos nuevas palabras con fotos para que nos ayuden a saber cuál es la palabra. Yo observo la clase y yo veo que las imágenes los ayudan mucho para conocer la palabra, lo que me parece muy interesante.

Como yo hablo español con fluidez me parecen las cosas que hacemos en clase muy fácil. La profesora me hace ayudar a los otros estudiantes con sus pronunciaciones cuando ella cree que el trabajo es muy fácil para mí. Pero como el español que yo hablo es un poco diferente al español que aprendemos en clases hay unas palabras que nunca he oído y me parece fascinante que el español venezolano (que yo hablo) es muy diferente al español de España. Hablar español en clase me ayuda mucho para que no se me olvide nada y mi madre me habla con palabras que no casi uso para que mi vocabulario sea variado. En clase aprendemos muchísimas cosas como el pretérito, el presente y el futuro. También aprendemos de los verbos para que nos ayuden a escribir oraciones con mucho detalle y explicaciones.

Los exámenes que tenemos que tomar en la última parte del ano causo a los demás de los estudiantes mucho estrés porque tienen que recordarse de mucho para escribir en el examen. A mí no me parece tan difícil recordarme de los párrafos pero si me parece difícil recordarme de cómo se escribe las palabras que necesito usar en mi examen porque no soy muy bien en deletrear las palabras y se me olvidan poner los acentos. En mi clase los estudiantes son muy inteligentes porque si yo tendría que aprender un nuevo idioma empezando el tercer año me parece algo muy difícil que hacer y es extremadamente fascinante como se lo han aprendido.

Andrea Martinez 10W

Religious EducationPhilosophy And Ethics

Why is the subject of philosophy and ethics so great?Does God really exist? Can we even begin to contemplate, let alone prove or disprove God’s existence? Can science and religion coexist harmoniously? These are just some of the great, thought-provoking questions addressed in the enthralling subject of philosophy and ethics.What makes this subject so interesting is the insight into certain situations you would not usually come across, such as the exploration of controversial everyday issues - for example, abortion and war - discussed through the exciting medium of a class debate. Philosophy and ethics is an all-encompassing subject that everyone can relate to in some way.Additionally, the nature of the controversial and stimulating subjects covered within the course has meant that this fantastic subject has taught us how to consider both sides of an argument, whilst also enhancing my ability to reach my own strong conclusion. It introduced us to different schools of thought, and has displayed to us how different philosophers have influenced the way our world thinks today. Philosophy and ethics is also a wonderful subject as it interacts with so many other classes such as English literature and history. Philosophy and ethics is a delightful subject which, through heated debates of an intriguing and complex curriculum will cater for all of your intellectual needs!

Esme Quantrill SX4Sophia Georghiou SX4Jack Davies SX2Cameron Shaw SX2Alex Rogers SX2Joe Tisi SX5Jake O’Hare SX8

RE in Year 7

During the past year, our RE lessons have been very interesting for a variety of different reasons, but we have particularly enjoyed learning about Christianity and other world religions.We were asked to research different parts of the Bible, and choose one aspect to make a presentation in any form. For my Bible project, I decided to make a cross of recycled Pringles tubes. I then used string and tape to stick all of the boxes together, and made a scroll to go inside it. My project included the story of Moses and why he was an important figurehead in Biblical stories as I was very interested in this aspect of RE. Additionally, as part

of my introduction there were ten questions I wanted to know the answers to about the Bible and its teachings. I feel really proud of what I achieved – it’s my best piece of work so far! The projects on Christianity and the Bible were very popular within my class because were given the freedom to do whatever we wanted with the information and present it creatively. Alongside our individual study, we learnt many key words to have more sophisticated language and incorporated them into our work in order to achieve a higher level in religious studies. We learnt a lot that we didn’t know before and this really helped me to have an even greater understanding of Christianity and what the main beliefs are.

Lewis Davies, Aaron Roy, Olivia Morgan, Ciaran Gray 7F

RE at Key Stage 4

In Year 10 and 11 we are given the opportunity for more independent learning. We share ideas and learn not just to listen to the views of other students but to be able to use them in our own answers and to further develop our opinions and ideas. We discuss controversial, ethical and moral issues which help us to grow in our faith and further understanding of Catholic and other teaching. In RE we are constantly having our ideas and views challenged in different ways using different styles such as group work, discussions and games. I have thoroughly enjoyed debating as it allows me to utilise this skill as a means to understanding my own faith, the unknown aspects of other religions and to comprehend not only what I already believe but why I do and the history of Christianity. Additionally, the media aspect allows me to consider the perspectives of ethnic minorities which is important in a multicultural society.Watching Karol – A Man Who Became Pope was inspirational. This is a film about the background of Pope John Paul II. It was cross curricular as it involved the history of the Polish people during the war and how Karol Wojtilla overcame adversity and went on to become a great world leader for Roman Catholics.

Rowan Munson, Hollie Clarkson, Joshua Wildman, Ellie Edwards 10M

MusicThe year in Music

This year in particular, I have found music at St Andrew’s incredibly enjoyable and I can see the progress that my fellow classmates and I have made both in lessons and outside also.

In the autumn term, I was in the band for the school production of Bugsy Malone; and, being a fan of the film, I must say the choir and band performed the music excellently – it was a lot of fun. Another particularly successful event of the year took place in the spring term - the Confirmation Masses at St Joseph’s in Epsom. We learnt many new songs for the day itself, some of them modern twists on traditional hymns. The choir sang with passion and set a perfect atmosphere for those being welcomed into the adult life of the Catholic Church. The Bishop was very complimentary about St Andrew’s music and we have now even been asked to lead the music at YouthGather 2014.

There are a number of clubs in the Music Department which include Rock Choir, Boys’ Choir, Harmonise (girls only!) and Noteworthy, which is a group of tremendously talented Key Stage 3 singers and dancers. In June this year Noteworthy were highly commended in the Surrey Show Choir Competition at Dorking Halls.Another notable event has been the purchasing of new keyboards and ukuleles! I have found the improvement in music resources really fun as I play uke so have enjoyed using both new instruments.

James Saw 9C

Extra Curricular Activities in Music

During this academic year, I have been lucky enough to take part in many extra-curricular activities. For instance: the ‘Bugsy Malone’ production; the ‘Action In Africa Concert’; the ‘Deanery Confirmation Band’ and also many others.

For the ‘Action In Africa Concert’, we were raising money for Action In Africa – a local charity based in Ashtead. Overall, we had many rehearsals with all the different music clubs and decided on what songs we should perform. I was an instrumentalist playing the drums and ukulele! After some weeks of rehearsals and meetings, we eventually got to the day of the concert. Arriving at the Leatherhead Theatre, we rehearsed all afternoon and completed the sound checks for the instrumentalists.

Later on the Catholic Primary Schools came to rehearse their own songs at the Theatre as well. Although we were all slightly nervous of keeping in time with the singers – everything worked out well in the end. The night was a success and pleased the whole auditorium – but the best thing was that we raised money for a great cause, while having loads of fun.

Louis Hook 8C

DramaDrama at St Andrews

Earlier this term my drama group and I went to see ‘The 39 Steps’ as part of our AS course – it was this production that really provided us with a lot of the clever ideas that we ended up using in our interpretation of ‘Ubu Rex’ which we staged at school back in May. We enjoyed the storytelling techniques, the way in which the company showed sweeping epic events on a small stage and their genius use of multi-role – all of which we tried to capture in our version of Jarry’s absurdist work. It was a style that both we, and our audience, found entertaining and visually exciting, and it matched our performance skills well. I find working in this kind of ensemble theatre very enjoyable – there is a much greater sense of ‘team’ as we perform. We received lots of very positive feedback following our performance – the audience appreciated our use of levels, music, stylised movement and pantomime horses. We combined genres of film and general entertainment to create a piece of theatre that was both hilarious and bizarre – just as Jarry would have liked it to be! I’m delighted to say that our current project seems to be following along similar lines. We are being tasked with producing an adaptation of a Shakespeare play for a primary school audience and we have been looking at Shakespeare performance style and adaptation in preparation for this. A scene from ‘The Merchant of Venice’ has provided an interesting basis for a large amount of this work as we have been discovering how to adapt and deconstruct Shakespeare for a young audience. We have been encouraged to draw upon the work of existing theatre in education companies especially that of ‘Shakespeare 4 Kidz’ who are well known for their adaptations of the Bard’s plays. Studying A level Drama is such a brilliant experience – we have countless opportunities to create theatre for a range of different contexts as well as learning all the theory – different practitioners, differing styles and spaces; most importantly we learn about making theatre is relevant to today and the issues that we face as a society. Drama A level is challenging, practical, mind-bending, relevant and diverse – I would thoroughly recommend it.

Jake O’Haire SX3Rob Blaker SX5Feargus Bracken SX8Joshua Mobbs SX3Rob Magee SX7

Glossary

Absurdist: A style of theatre that often doesn’t appear, on the surface, to make much sense. Often absurdist plays are comedies such as Ubu.

Ensemble: Actors working together – no sense of a ‘lead actor’ – the emphasis being on team.

Jarry: A French playwright of the 19th century.

Multi-role: A technique where actors play more than one (sometimes several) different characters in a performance.

ST ANDREW’SCatholic SchoolLeatherhead