The year 12 Biology visit to Cannon Hill Park was an eventful day in which we carried out several activities to assess the diversity of certain areas in the park. To begin with, we walked to woodland where we sampled the different plant species along a 30 metre strip.  We also measured other factors such as humidity and light intensity which affect the number of plants throughout our sample.  Upon finishing our sampling in the woodland we moved onto a section of the River Rae which flows through the park. There we collected samples from the water at different spots and identified the animals we found as indicators of pollution. The species present suggested the water was fairly clean.  We also measured rates of water flow, oxygen concentration and other elements that would have an impact on the number of animals in the water.  It was very interesting to see the different types of plants and animals and was a welcome change from the classroom.  The weather was very hot indeed and we all had a valuable experience that will benefit our A2 studies.

Rohan Langi

Footnote from Mr Arnold:  Over 70 Year 12 students took part in the Biology A Level Field Study visits during the week, over four days.  A special thank you to Mr Ahmed, Miss Hurley, Dr Wallach and Miss Pell for their hard work during the week.  We were, indeed, blessed with the weather.

During the summer term, 3 groups from the year 10 geography classes went to Carding Mill Valley for our data collection for use in our controlled assessment. It was a cloudy day and a bit dull, but surprisingly it wasn’t too cold. We left school approximately at 9:00 and it took us about 1 and a half hours to get to Carding Mill Valley. On arrival, we changed into our wellington boots, gathered our equipment which consisted of ranging poles, clinometers, corks and a stopwatch and headed up the valley towards the source of the river, taking in the views of Light Spout waterfall on the way.

We ate our lunch on the Long Mynd plateau and had a wonderful view of the hills, which had lots of sheep. The sheep came towards us, probably from the smell of our lunch but they ran off because we scared them!

After lunch, we started our data collection with help from our teachers. We did our data collection at 4 sites and we measured velocity, width and depth of river and load size. To measure the velocity, we measured out 10 meters using our measuring tape along the river. We dropped the cork and timed how long it will take to reach the end of the 10 meter tape. To measure the width and depth, we got a tape measure and measured across the river. To measure the depth, we put a meter stick vertical to the ground and measured it along at each 10 cm interval of the measuring tape along the river. To measure the load, we got one person from each group to pick out 3 random rocks and measure the longest length and the shortest length of the three rocks. From our results we learnt that the further you are away from the source of the river, the velocity, width and depth increases and the size of the load decreases.

After we collected our data, we went back to the mini bus and packed the equipment away and changed our boots back to our trainers. We left at about 3:30 pm and arrived back to school at 5 pm. It was a long and hard day, with a lot of walking and getting wet, but it was really fun!

Adil Mahmood 10 Alfred.

Some lucky Year 7’s and 8’s were chosen to attend the new History Club which takes place on Wednesdays after school for an hour in room 5 with Miss Hartill. In History club we discuss and learn about Ancient History, particularly Ancient Rome. We enjoy learning about how people in Ancient Rome lived. We have investigated Ancient religions; how Romans were entertained; their cuisine and the social hierarchy. History Club is so enjoyable because it is not taught in the normal way, it is very interesting and Miss Hartill is an expert so we find it informative and fun! We have had the chance to watch parts of ‘Gladiator’ and decide whether it is accurate, as well as learning that there were many different types of gladiators. Our favourite part of History Club was the cookies (yum!) and making life size gladiators in groups and designing the weaponry and armour. We are looking forward to this club continuing next year.

Written by Shuja Mehmood and Mohsin Sadiq, 8 Henry

Cherry Orchard Primary School have enjoyed the use of our playing fields over the course of the year and most recently held a very successful Sports Day. As another part of our community links Holyhead School approached us to help them with a Year 5/6 Primary Rounders Festival. This was organised and held on Wednesday 19th June on our School fields where for the first time the primary children were able to use properly marked out pitches. Three Primary schools attended and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Between July 3rd and 5th a number of Year 7 students went on a residential trip to Whitemoor Lakes. The centre is just outside Birmingham, near Alrewas (north of Lichfield, Staffordshire) and it took us around forty minutes to get there.

We all took part in various activities. These included canoeing, raft-building, archery, zip wire, fencing, climbing, abseiling and many more. The two water sports (canoeing and raft-building) took place in the 40 acre lake that the site boasted. On Wednesday (the day we arrived), we had 3 activities, on Thursday 4 (plus a camp fire) and on Friday 1.
There were four ‘lodges’ where everyone slept during their stay. In each lodge there were around twelve dormitories which contained a bunk-bed, two single beds and had an en-suite bathroon.

During our stay, we were served high-class food over three meals. Breakfast was at 8:30am, Lunch 1:00pm and Dinner/Tea at 6:00pm. We had a good variety of food to choose from however, if you did get a bit peckish in between meals you could purchase a snack or refreshment at the ‘Trading Post’ shop or, alternatively, buy something from the vending machine.

Overall, Whitemoor Lakes was a brilliant trip and we had a really enjoyable stay. I would definitely go again as it’s a great place to do things you haven’t done before.

Gugandeep Sohal 7N

The following are some Student views on the recent trip to Whitemoor Lakes:

• Harjot 7G – Whitemoor Lakes was amazing, I loved the zip-wire and I made lots of friends from different forms and the instructor was great.
• Balkaar 7G – It was the best, I liked the high ropes particularly the Leap of Faith…I hated the spiders when we were changing after the canoeing and raft building!
• Ismail and Rehaan 7G – The lounge was cool with snooker, table tennis, vending machines, comfy chairs and DVD player.
• Aziz 7G – It was exciting I would go again.
• Qasim 7G – The activities were amazing.
• Neroshan and Eesa 7G – Fantastic! Zip-wiring was awesome.