Written by Susan Correia
Christmas is rapidly approaching and 2017 is coming to an end but there is still time to squeeze in some Christmas movies, so grab a blanket and some snacks of your choice and snuggle up on the sofa. Everyone has to at least watch one Christmas movie during the festive season, or maybe you prefer to watch them in July, whatever floats your boat. There is nothing I enjoy more than a fantastic movie to boost my mood for the upcoming holiday. Here are some of the go-to Christmas movies. -The Polar Express On Christmas Eve, a boy who is doubting the existence of Santa Claus witnesses a train called the Polar Express that is about to depart for the North Pole. The boy meets other children, including a girl and a know-it-all-kid. The train picks up another boy, whose name is Billy. Billy initially declines to board but changes his mind. The girl and conductor go to deliver the hot chocolate cup to Billy, but the hero boy discovers the girl’s ticket is unpunched. He loses it before he can return it. -Elf On Christmas an orphaned infant boy stows away on Santa Claus’ sack. He is soon adopted by Papa Elf. Papa Elf names his son Buddy. Buddy grows up at the North Pole believing he is an elf, however due to his human size it is impossible to perform elf tasks. When buddy accidentally learns that he is human, Papa Elf explains that he was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells, and was given up for adoption without Walter knowing. -Home Alone 1, 2, 3 and 4 The McCallister family is preparing for a Christmas vacation in Paris. The night before they leave their son, Kevin, is ridiculed by his siblings and cousins. After a scuffle with his brother, Buzz, Kevin, is sent to the third floor of the house, where he wishes that his family would disappear. During the night, heavy winds cause damage to power lines, this causes the alarm clocks to reset; the family oversleeps. In the confusion and rush to get to the airport in time to catch their flight, Kevin is accidentally left behind. -Scrooge The movie starts on Christmas Eve with Scrooge. Scrooge despises Christmas and subjects his clerk with hours of work and low pay. He shows his cold-heartedness toward others by refusing to make a donation to the less fortunate, claiming they are better off dead. While he is preparing to go to bed, he is visited by the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley, who has died seven years earlier on Christmas Eve. Like scrooge, Marley had spent his life hoarding his wealth and exploiting the poor. As a result, Jacob si damned to walk the Earth for eternity bound in the chains of his own greed. Marley warns Scrooge that he risk meeting the same fate and that he will be visited by three spirits of Christmas: Past, Present and Future. These are some classic Christmas movies which you can enjoy watching over the Christmas and New Year break. Some of these movies are also attached with books that you can read if you enjoy that best. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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Written by: Ryan Casey
I have been playing bass for nearly 4 years now. It has been a hobby that I have enjoyed doing. I believe that it will get me somewhere in life at some point. This instrument is the most well-known instrument in the world. Those people who don’t know what their talent is, I will inspire them to pick up a bass and begin to learn. Many of the world’s greatest bass players were inspired to play even though they never found interest in it. I was inspired by my Dad when I saw him in the bedroom playing and was blown away by the way it sounded. At the age of eleven, I asked him to teach me. Every day I was improving, every day I was playing, and every day I was getting there. When I play, I always try to get myself in this position where I let the rhythm take over and ride this wave of beautiful energy. When you feel it, you feel like you can do anything. People who hate this instrument don’t know the greatness they can receive from this beautiful invention. I was also in spired by other bass players like Stanley Clarke, John Deacon, and Mark King. Their music helped me to keep going. You should know how it feels if you play bass. When I appeared on the school stage this year at the Christmas fair and was by myself, I made a lot of people feel amazed from my hidden talent. There was a lot of people supporting me through the performance, and that made me feel special inside. It made me feel like I could do anything. So many people were saying how talented I was, some people were saying that I should do this for a living, and that I have been gifted with a gift that God gave me the most brilliant gift that anyone could ever have. Before this I was letting computer games take over and wasted my time on them too much. At the beginning of year 10, I found out that gamming is a waste of time. So I sold all my games and consoles. The money that I got from selling them was then used to buy something that was very useful, a bass guitar. It was the best decision that I ever made. I hadn’t made that decision, I would be getting anywhere. As part of a community of musicians, we will try to inspire many people to pick up a guitar, bass, piano, drums, anything that they feel like they will be able to do. We will inspire them through the way we play and through the way we sound. I will leave you with one question. If you are getting teased or bullied for being good at and instrument, why are you listening to them? They are only doing that because deep down inside, they wish that they could do what you could do. One way I can protect the environment is by informing as many people as I can.
This will help them know just a small thing, like a packet of crsips, not being in the bin can have a big imapct on the environment. Plastic can take a long time to decompose but if you reuse it or recyle it, it would be better for the community. If you recycle your waste into compost it could help many things in your garden. It is all a chain reaction. If you tell your friend about recycling and they tell their siblings then they tell it to their best friends and soon this will spread the word. Also, posters are a good way to show the destruction of waste. If people see horrible pictures they would not want this to happen to them. This could also be discussed in form time or in Geography lessons. Written by Susana Correia
I can officially say that I have lived a hundred different lives from reading books. I have learnt so much from them. My writing and reading has boosted rapidly over the years. Books are my escape, my escape from everything, If something is happening in real life I write about it, every single detail, however I always end the story with a happy ending. I might not know if there will be one for the situation happening outside in the real world but it makes me feel at ease. I love reading. Actually, let me rephrase that, I am so passionate about books that I will spend hours and hours with my nose inside a book. I remember my first every chapter book. I used to think that they were a waste of time, however, I realised that it was the best way to pass my time. Trying out new books is like going on a new adventure, learning about new things. What about History? Without books hwo would we extend our knowledge? It is a priviledge to be able to have access to books but not many people realise that. Written by Sonya-Marie Dariya
Last week I went to an event in the Commonwealth secretariat that was set up to advocate the elimination of violence against women in the UN. There was a panel of speakers, including Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, second counsellor of education from the Kenyan High Commission, Margaret Lesuuda, chief scientific advisor and director of research and evidence at DFID, Professor Charlotte Watts, and Commonwealth Girls Education Fund ambassador, Ladi Dariya. They all gave the most moving and empowering talks on the effects of acts of violence on women in commonwealth countries, they mainly focused on female genital mutilation (FGM) and the impacts it has on millions of women physically and emotionally. FGM is the process where girls as young as 5 are taken to places to partake in a ‘cutting’ ceremony in order to be perceived by their community as women. This means that they can be married off at that age to a man almost 5 times their age. If you agree that this is despicable you know it needs to change. We watched a video about a young girl called Nancy who started a revolution against FGM by at first refusing to have it done and then giving girls who didn’t have her confidence a voice. You can read more about it here https://nancysgirlrevolution.com/ One talk that particularly took my attention was that of, Ladi Dariya. When she was a young girl her father died. His other wives took all the money leaving her family in poverty. She was sent off to live with her uncle and had to work as a goat herder. In a nutshell, she was bad at it. She would often let the goats run wild while she stuck into school. This was because in her community only boys went to school as it was seen as a more valuable investment. Soon after the village started complaining about the goat-related destruction of their crops, which eventually led to her uncle reluctantly letting her go to school. This was going great all until secondary school. At that point she was in trouble. This was until a charity, then know as the Commonwealth Countries League, sponsored her through secondary school. She eventually went to university and met a lovely man, before going on to have three amazingly empowered daughters. After the talks I felt empowered. I knew that people my age were worrying about marriage while I worried about homework and that needed to change. Not every girl is as lucky as Ladi was and that needs to change. We need to stand up and (not physically) fight for as long as it takes to abolish these injustices forever. From, Your friendly neighbourhood feminist. Ps: If you couldn’t tell Ladi is my mum. |
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