William Brookes School Blog

Four budding film makers have secured first place in two categories of the Shropshire CreateIT Awards. Daniel, Oliver and Zach won a trophy and a £50 Amazon voucher for their Batman film –  ‘Joker’s Last Laugh’, whilst Tara took top honours in the animation category with her warning about global warming, ‘The End of the World – Almost.’

The CreateIT Awards are an annual event, open to all schools in Shropshire, and reward excellence in the creative use of ICT.

One of the boys, Zach, also picked up an award for first place last year, and has already decided on the short film for next year, hoping to make it a hatrick. Although a secret project, it is fair to say it will be ‘all action’.

As a Performing Arts College, William Brookes School has always been enthusiastic about creative pursuits, and this latest success story has inspired yet more students to explore animation and video making.

We’re confident that those numbers will grow even more, as we take advantage of our new school, the new facilities, the generous space and Diplomas in Creative and Media and ICT, all starting in September.

William Brookes students will have stars in their eyes this term as the school has just received a free SPA 1YA2009 telescope from the Society for Popular Astronomy. Over a thousand telescopes have been donated to schools by the Society, and ours was presented to us by Miss A Bailey, the Society’s Publicity Officer - who is also a Cover Supervisor at William Brookes!

The telescope will be used to study the Moon and other celestial wonders. It will make the Moon appear 60 times closer, and under good conditions can reveal galaxies at least 50 million light years away. The telescope will also show the rings of Saturn and the major satellites of the giant planet Jupiter, which will be visible later in the year.
Dr Hearle says “This is a great opportunity to enthuse students in astronomy and show them how observations and measurements are so important in all aspects of Science.”
Miss Bailey added “It was lovely to see the excitement and enthusiasm of the students who will have the opportunity to use the telescope. This made all the work of the last two years, bringing this project to fruition, very worthwhile!”
The project, which is also supported by the Royal Astronomical Society, is part of the International Year of Astronomy held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609. Thomas Harriot in England and Galileo in Italy both observed the Moon with the newly-invented instrument. Galileo’s discoveries helped to convince people that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe, but orbits the Sun.

Student, Martyn Pridmore commented “I have just one question: how are we supposed to use a telescope during school/club time? Will we have to come to school at night?”
In response, Dr Hearle invites students to talk to him about forthcoming (evening) events at an astronomical society, where the telescope will be used. Thanks for your comment Martyn.

See www.popastro.com and www.astronomy2009.co.uk for more information.

Year 8 students attending Science Club got to put their observation skills to the test on January 29th, when they took part in a bird watch for the RSPB. They saw 2 bullfinches, 2 blackbirds, 2 robins, 2 chaffiinches, a dunnock, a carrion crow, a wren and a magpie.

One of the students commenting on the activity said “When you think of bird watching, you think it is so BORING, but when you get around to it, it is kind of fun in the right kind of surroundings”.

The Science Club have put together an identification parade of some of our feathered friends and are hoping to release it as a small quiz in the near future. Watch this space!

Where better to hone your bit blitzing skills than a quiet corner of the Library at lunch time?

 We have pictured just some of the many jigsaw constructors who have very, very, very nearly finished a 1000 piece pictorial pastiche of historical events.  Unfortunately, the last 3 bits were missing, so the crew have drawn a line under the project and called it a day.Spurred on by their problem solving success, the puzzle-pounding pack are putting out a request for any neglected jigsaws to be handed over, so the team can make them whole again.If you would like a broken jigsaw mended and it’s in bits at the moment (at least 1000 bits) please hand it to Mrs Herdson, who will look after it until the puzzle practitioners are ready to work their magic once again.

Posing proudly are six of the many who helped complete the picture: Kim, Rosie, Adam, Nicola, Tim and Lucy.

P.S If you do happen to have the missing three pieces, we would be grateful for their return.  One is jigsaw shaped and has an apple with a bite taken out; another is jigsaw shaped with a man in a helmet looking closely at an arrowhead and the third is jigsaw shaped with some writing on it (e = mc).