Activities Week 2011

At Thornton Grammar School for one week only, staff and students take a week out of lessons to complete a range of activities. The week is busy and fun packed, with everybody having a brilliant time! Activities include Marketing, Acting, Bollywood, Dancing, Pizza baking, Bun baking and even F1 Racing.  The BB News team has been working all week to give you an insight into Thornton Grammar School’s week of activities.  Other examples of peoples work include, The F1 Racers, preparing their cars for the big race on Friday…

 

The costume design for Wizard of Oz production! Over all the week has been a success and we hope that everyone achieves their goals and has something interesting to show on Friday!

  A group of students took part in the "Media Hounds" activity and the content below is thanks to them.

Media Hounds

This week the media hounds have been very busy collecting pictures, writing articles, reading the news and even visiting the National Media Museum in Bradford.  Our aim of the week was to discover what everybody was up to in activities week, and turn it into top news.  We have seen everything from F1 racing to shape making to bun baking and it has been interesting to see what everyone has been doing, working not only with each other but with everyone in the school.  A favourite day amongst the media hounds was Tuesday when we visited the museum; we watched a short Wallace and Gromit film, looked at old cameras, and read the news at a professional news desk.  The media hounds have really enjoyed becoming real reporters for the week, and getting to know new people in their groups. We enjoyed interviewing everyone and finding out what they thought of activities week.

On Tuesday the media hounds went to the media museum in Bradford. The people on the picture on the right were on the blue screen where you can change the background to make it look like you are somewhere different like the desert or the Teletubbies garden. We also used the cameras to shoot videos.

The Wizard of OZ

On Wednesday 13^th July Thornton Grammar school students where practising for there play, The Wizard of Oz. “It looked spectacular from what I saw” pointed out one student. We interviewed and took some photos. One of the interviewees said “I am really optimistic and can’t wait for the final production. They are all working really hard and I am very pleased with them.”  The play is about a girl who is whisked away by a tornado to a magical land called Oz. It shows what a true relationship is and how even though it is never quite true, it will always remain.

The Wizard of Oz Chorus

On July 11^th 2011 The Imperial News Network interviewed some of the Wizard of Oz Chorus staff. Dr. Smith had this to say; “It’s an early start but they are doing well”, while Mr Beaton, the man on the piano said that “They’re doing pretty good under pressure”.  They will be singing a few songs in the Wizard of Oz production. They will be singing most of the well known songs from the film, and are doing very well. They will be doing a Show and Tell on Friday, and there will be a big production sometime next week.

During Activities week at Thornton Grammar School teams of students are working hard on making the set for the production of “Wizard of Oz.”  We investigated behind the scenes, asking students and teachers what they thought of this exciting task. It was a positive response from everybody, as they all seem to be having fun bringing this production to life. 

Hannah in F2 were doing set deign, Hannah said “ I’ve met lots of friends and I am excited  about painting the background for the play Wizard of Oz”

By molly in F2, Molly said “I am doing the house that Dorothy lives in at the beginning of the play” Miss Cain in F2 said  “we will be doing a total of 10 backgrounds for the Wizard of Oz play". She also said “it will improve the art skills of the girls that are painting the backgrounds and that they will be leaning to be a part of a team”.

Written by calum borders

During our time spent investigating we interviewed various people on what they thought of their activity. My chief reporter Saniyeh Zahra interviewed year nine student Sadie Schofield, whilst she was painting the set for the production…

Saniyeh- “Why did you pick this activity?”

Sadie- “I did not originally pick this activity but I’m glad I got it because it is quite fun”

“Do you enjoy it?”

“Yes it is very enjoyable!”

“What are you making for this activity”

“We are making props for the Wizard of Oz

Gleeful!

Activities week at Thornton Grammar School, the Glee club has been hard at work practising their songs ready to perform at show and tell on Friday.  We interviewed year nine student Shakeel Brar and he told us that it has been a brilliant experience for making new friends, getting better at singing and even increasing his confidence. 

The teachers for the glee club are English teacher Mr Belle and RS teacher Mrs Jno Baptiste, who was helping the group to learn new songs, and work as a team, Mr Belle also helped out by playing some songs on the piano! During our time spent observing the glee club we saw an activities week success, it was a large group of people coming together to create something interesting and worthwhile in only one week, so well done to the Glee club!

Bollywood

On the 13^th July Thornton Grammar School continued their activities week Bollywood dancing.  At the activity the pupils and teachers seemed to be getting along with the activity by doing lots of research on Bollywood.  Some of the students who were doing this activity didn’t find their activity very fun and said “we only enjoyed the trip to Starbucks.”  However they also said “by doing this activity we want to become better Bollywood dancers.” Another pupil explained “I wanted to try something different. It is fun doing Bollywood because we get to watch famous Bollywood movies and create word searches about the activity.” We also interviewed Mr Atwal, a teacher at Thornton Grammar School. He told us that “Pupils chose it because they wanted to find out more about Bollywood dancing. Those who already know about it wanted to find out more.”

Fundraising

At Thornton grammar school the some of the students spent their activities week fundraising in h2. Pupils got into different groups and did different activities to help raise money for the charity of their choice. There were henna tattoos and normal tattoos, cake sales, face painting activities, friendship bracelet making and nail painting.

Bonkers Baking

In the early hours of Wednesday morning some enthusiastic pupils decided to try making some pizzas and cup-cakes. In G9 the majority of pupils were readying their ingredients to make cup-cakes. Ellise Roebuck said: “The activity was my first choice, and I got it (laughter), I really think that my cup-cakes are going to be delicious.”   In the neighbouring classroom, G7 a smaller group of children were designing elaborate patterns that they could for their cup-cakes. Megan Carr said: “We are making posters to get design ideas to get ready to bake them.”

Cycling

We visited Thornton Grammar schools new bike track being constructed as part of the schools cycling activity which is one of many activities in the schools annual activities week.  Students have been constructed the track from dirt wood and stones, We interviewed Ben Dickerson,15, who said “ I chose my activity and now I am really enjoying it.” Ben also commented on his group saying about how he had met new friends and how his teachers have  been very helpful.

Please find below news videos made during the week.