Courage

As we return from our end of term break and start the last weeks of revision before the exam season, this weeks theme is courage.

It Takes Courage   

It takes strength to be firm, it takes courage to be gentle.
It takes strength to conquer, it takes courage to surrender.
It takes strength to be certain, it takes courage to have doubt.
It takes strength to fit in, it takes courage to stand out.

It takes strength to feel a friend's pain, it takes courage to feel your own pain.
It takes strength to endure abuse, it takes courage to stop it.
It takes strength to stand alone, it takes courage to lean on another.
It takes strength to love, it takes courage to be loved.

It takes strength to survive, it takes courage to live.

Anon

Ambition

With Year 9's in the throws of making some difficult choices and Year 11's revising hard for their exams and next steps in life the topic of the week is ambition.


If you would rise above the throng
And seek the crown of fame, 
You must do more than drift along
And merely play the game. 
Whatever path your feet may tread,
Whatever be your quest, 
The only way to get ahead
Is striving for the best.

'Tis not enough to wish to do
A day's toil fairly well;
If you would rise to glory, you
Must hunger to excel.
The boy who has the proper stuff
Goes into every test,
Not seeking to be "good enough,"
But eager to be "best."

Aim high! And though you fail today
And may tomorrow fail, 
Keep pounding steadily away,
Some day you'll hit the nail.
At no half-way mark ever pause
n smug content to rest,
Who would win honor and applause
Must want to be the best.

The best must be your aim in life,
The best in sport or work,
Success in any form of strife
Falls never to the shirk.
The crowns of leadership are few,
The followers move in throngs,
If you would be a leader, you
Must shun the "drift alongs."

By Edgar Albert Guest

World Book Day

Thanks to every tutor group who took part in the WBD quiz, I hope you all resisted the temptation to use the internet! 

Here are all the answer! We hope you enjoyed It!

Author (year)		Director (year)
Stephanie Meyer (2005)	Twilight	Catherine Hardwicke (2008)
Dan Brown (2003)	The Da Vinci Code	Ron Howard (2006)
Lauren Weisberger (2003)	The Devil Wears Prada	David Frankel( 2006)
Nick Hornby (1995)	High Fidelity	Stephen Frears (2000)
Michael Crichton (1990)	Jurassic Park	Stephen Spielberg (1993)
Ian Fleming (1958)	Dr. No	Terence Young (1962)
J.K Rowling (1998)	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Chris Columbus (2002)
Roald Dahl (1964)	Charley and the Chocolate Factory	Mel Stewart (1971)
Orson Scott Card (1985)	Enders Game	Gavin Hood (2013)
Rick Riordan (2005)	Percy Jackson Lightning Thief	Chris Columbus (2010)
J.G. Ballard (1984)	Empire of the Sun	Stephen Spielberg (1987)
Philip Pullman (1995)	Northern Lights	Chris Wietz (2007)
Meg Cabot (2001)	The Princess Diaries	Gary Marshall (2001)
Cornelia Funke (2004)	Inkheart	Ian Softley (2008)
Neil Gaimen (2002)	Coralline	Henry Selick (2009)
Louise Rennison (1999)	Angus, thongs and perfect full frontal snogging	Gurinder Chadra (2008)
Anthony Horowitz (2000)	Stormbreaker	Geoffrey Sax (2006)
Jeff Kinney (2008)	Diary of a Wimpy Kid	Thor Freudenthal (2010)
Cressida Cowell (2003)	How to Train Your Dragon	Dean deBlois and Chris Sanders (2010)
William Shakespeare (between 1591-1595)	Romeo and Juliet	Baz Luhrmann (1996)

The Choices We Make

As year 9 students begin to make their choices for their option subjects this poems looks at the nature of choices and why we make these decisions.

The Choices We Make

 

 

Take us in different paths.

We always stop to think,

Later on in life- What if?

Would the grass have been greener on the other side?

If I'd made the other choice, what would've happened?

Do the choices we make

Define our life,

Setting us on a particular path?

 

Life is always about choices,

And we never know for certain

Whether the choice we made is

Right or wrong,

Because, as it is said,

"In life, there is never a definite right or wrong,"

Rather, we take the path

That leads us to a better future

For ourselves, and those with us.

Revelations about life always come

At different points in life,

Forcing us to reflect, and wonder-

Is this the appropriate life for us?

That's just life, in general.

We may never know

What the other path may have been

Holding for us,

And we may never get the chance to.

But our obligation to reflect

Always makes us wonder,

About the current path we're in,

And the decisions we took

To chance upon the current path

We tread on.

The path we take

Also starts to really define our personality.

The choices we had to make,

The sacrifices taken,

And the maturity we seek

Define what really took us on path we are on now.

Any decision taken can lead

To a different turning point, or a dead-end-

Thus making us reflect on the decisions we took,

And seeing where life eventually took us to.

But, there is always one sure thing:

Like change being constant in our lives,

There are always choices.

These voice may or may not be good,

But they are there,

With every step we take.

It forces us to adapt,

Continuously testing us;

Our strengths, our weaknesses,

Our willpower, and the determination we have.

It compels us to see how well we fit,

And of our survival.

But that's life-Life is about survival,

"Survival of the fittest."

Truth

Who am I ?

My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading "Keep Off."

 

My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.

 by Carl Sandburg

Jaques Cousteau

Ms Hughes in English says.

"I was reading at the age of 12ish - would probably be one of  Jacques Cousteau's books 'The Silent World' - I was crazy about the oceans and seas and the world that existed beneath the surface."

Favourite reads as a child!

We are restarting the My Favourite read for all School Staff. Visit the label "As a child" to see what your tutor or favourite member of the Administration staff read when they were about your age!

First is Staff  Mrs Hughes IT

"I read many books as a child, like Mrs Nichols I read the Chalet School books and I also enjoyed many Enid Blyton books. "

"The books I remember most are the Barney Mysteries and 'Secret' series, both are about a group of children who have adventures whilst solving mysteries all over the world."