Big news today as GEMS basketball team took down rivals Gosforth Central in a dramatic sudden death shoot out. The undefeated side also thrashed local school Gosforth Junior Academy 6-0 in the round robin stage of the year 5 Hoops for Health competition. Due to their excellent run of form, they then had the chance to play in front of 3,000 fans at half time at Sports Central in the big game Newcastle Eagles vs Sheffield Sharks! The game took place on Friday 19th of January.

In a previous Newsletter we wrote about the Lit and Phil Young Writers Competition. Well, fourteen entries from Year 7 were submitted. On Wednesday all the entrants went to the Lit and Phil to find out the winners, and GEMS won not once, not twice, but three times! Samaha won the fiction category, Freya K. the non-fiction category and Katie P. was runner up.

We though that you might like to read one of the entries just to get an idea of the quality of the work produced. Here is Charlie’s poem in response to this year’s theme ...Journey.

The Voyagers

It’s nineteen seventy-seven,

Two rockets soaring to heaven,

A planetary procession,

From the planetary precession,

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune,

Aligned perfectly, once in a blue moon.

 

An astounding delight,

Watching the rockets, heat and light,

Slowly rising, mesmerizing,

Into the night, out of sight,

Towards the giants,

In their world of silence.

 

Over the passage of time…

Jupiter looms slowly, sublime,

Europa, her moon,

Icy, immune,

Next the slingshot,

And the receding red spot.

 

Further on they go,

Guided by radio,

More distant Titans,

Human expectation heightens,

Past Saturn, ring after ring,

By Uranus and Neptune, they swing.

 

Now they take flight,

Through the weakening starlight,

Toward the dark, this latter-day ark,

Into the deep,

Going to sleep,

In the eternal cold, disc shining gold.

 

Born a generation before I,

To charge to the sky,

And millennia hence,

Reveal mankind to friends

Hostile? or peaceful? although,

probably, I’ll never know.

 

What we particularly like in Charlie’s poem is some of the very evocative images … we loved ‘the latter-day ark’...and his clever manipulation of rhyme—using full, half and internal rhyme. Well done Charlie!

At the early time of 5:00am, on the 20th of January, 30 year 8 students met at Newcastle airport. From there we began our journey on the 2 hour flight to Grenoble. When we landed there was less snow than in Newcastle and the sky was grey. We then got on a coach that took us on an hour and a half drive up a windy mountain road. Luckily, nobody was sick. Everything was covered in snow; the view was completely different from the one at the airport. Mountains surrounded us and there were piles of deep snow everywhere. When we arrived we unpacked and got our ski boots fitted.

The word ‘fun’ completely sums up the stem workshop that myself and another 23 girls participated in.  Two women from Newcastle University, who have a degree in Stem, came into the school to teach and to inspire us - to consider pursuing a career in stem.  Although it’s not for me, the way that they presented this area of study, certainly had a big impact on lots of the girls.

At first I wasn’t too excited about the workshop, I had never really been interested in stem, but as the workshop progressed, I realised that I was wrong. I actually really liked it and I’m sure all of the other girls did too.

This half term, Year 5 were informed about an especially serious issue, bullying. Dave Burns came into the hall with two year 5 classes at a time. He got everyone’s attention with his ‘very hilarious’ jokes but, more importantly, it was very informative. Pupils and even teachers, including Miss Wilson and Miss Simon, got involved in an important demonstration, which showed the consequences of bullying.