Train to Teach |  01730 812451 |   |   |  Sixth Form |  Arbor
GO
 

Our BBC Young Reporter club were lucky enough to interview a Journalist, Megan Ford from the Nursing Times. "Pupils planned and asked questions about the ins and outs of Journalism and the best way to get into the profession. It was a really great insight for the pupils and they were excellent!" Mr Hickman

Vapes Are Being Banned in the UK

The UK government are banning the sale of disposable vapes to under 18s. This is due to several environmental concerns, and concern for the health of young people. This ban is said to be in place by the end of 2025.

What are the dangers?

Studies have shown that vapes contain harmful chemicals e.g.:

  • propylene glycol (a solvent used in fog or smoke machines)
  • polyester
  • anti-freeze (typically used in the coolant of a car)
  • vegetable glycerine (a liquid from vegetable fat).

Many contain high of lead, chromium, and nickel. High lead levels in children can cause serious health problems, such as brain damage, learning difficulties, behavioural issues, increases the risk of cancer and kidney diseases. This means that by vaping children are damaging their health permanently.

Who is currently using them?

Figures from the Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) charity suggest 7.6% of 11 to 17-year-olds now vape regularly or occasionally, up from 4.1% in 2020. Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it has not been around for long enough for its long-term risks to be known, according to the NHS. Sunak suggested the proposals struck the right balance between restricting access for children and maintaining access for adult smokers trying to quit smoking.

Why are people using them?

Many children use them because of their bright packaging aimed towards children with many flavours that some children feel replace dessert, one MRC student said, “in a time when many young people are getting an increase in mental health conditions, a lot of people want something to use as an escape.” Another student said that they believe that there is an increase in vaping due to “pressuring,” this is due to the publicity from the media, that has subsequently made children interested in vaping, in turn making it cool to vape, despite the health risks.

By Calla

 

The lost city

The Lost City is a 2022 American directed by Aaron and Adam Nee, who co-wrote the screenplay with Oren Uziel and Dana Fox, based on a story by Seth Gordon. Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Davine Joy Randolph and Brad Pitt, the film follows a romance novelist and her cover model, who must escape a billionaire who wants her to find a lost ancient burial chamber described in one of her books. During this film a female writer is kidnapped by a crazy man and taken to a island, then her cover model and a ex-navy seal.

The project was announced in October 2020 with Sandra Bullock joining as producer and star, and Tatum joining that December; the rest of the cast was announced the following year. Filming took place in the Dominican Republic from May to August 2021. The film premiered at South by Southwest, on March 12, 2022, and was theatrically released by Paramount pictures in the United States on March 25, 2022. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $190 million worldwide against a $68 million budget.

The cast/characters

Sandra bullock as Loretta, a successful yet depressed best-selling romance novelist. Bullock also plays Dr. Angela Lovemore, the heroine in her book series. She acted very well and contributed massively to the theme of comedy in this film.

Tatum as Alan, a dim-witted cover model for Loretta's novel The Lost City of D. Tatum also plays Dash McMahon, the hero in her book series. Made this movie hilarious and added a lot of laughs into my household.

Daniel Radcliffe as Abigail Fairfax, an egotistical, eccentric billionaire who seeks to find the treasure of the Lost City. He made this so funny because he was so dedicated to Loretta.

Brad Pitt as Jack Trainer, human tracker, and action man. He made this movie funny because in the cutscene during credits he comes back to life and says” I only used ten percent of my brain”.

Overall review:

My overall review of this movie is that it is pointed at 13+ because of some of the violence but on the whole, this is a great movie to watch with family and friends and is an overall great, funny.

By Harry

 

Oppenheimer film review:

It won seven Oscars Cillian Murphy as best male lead, personally this was deserved as he played his part well while not dramatizing his importance too much. Robert Downey Jr. as best supporting role, this was also deserved as he managed to collaborate extremely well with all other actors when I doubt, they all got along. it won best picture, Christopher Nolan as best director, Jennifer lame as best editor, Hoyte van hoytema as best cinematographer and Ludwig Goransson as best original score and received thirteen nominations in total may I just add that John Cena was naked to bring attention to a normally unrecognized category of costume designer.

The story starts with Cillian murphy playing Oppenheimer in school when he is punished by his teacher, so he poisons him but someone else attempts to eat the apple he injected with poison he slaps it out of his hand. It then shows him in his new school (this time as a teacher) and he is approached by the US military who talk to him about the possibility of atomic weapons, and they begin to plan the Manhattan project which will take place in New Mexico.

They begin to go down to New Mexico and build a village to get the scientists and their families the only major scientist that isn’t working there is einstein who is also in New Mexico when they consult him on someone’s maths that says that the nuclear weapon could ignite the atmosphere and trigger a chain reaction that ends the world.

This same person creates the idea of an H-bomb which Oppenheimer rejected as he did not believe it would give a tactical advantage. They create the nuclear weapon while spectrographs enrich uranium and plutonium, and they track the amount needed to make a single weapon When they slowly progress, we are shown the room erupting with cheers.

Personally, I enjoyed the film and would recommend it to anyone in its age bracket as it is quite adult and may not do well in front of younger audiences.          

By Milo

New Banksy artwork appears on a north London home

Banksy is an unknown artist. He creates art out of paint on buildings. Some of his most famous being girl with balloon, kissing coppers and slave labor.

Recently a new art piece has appeared on the side of a North London home, he has confirmed he is the creator. It uses the natural aspect of a leafless tree in front of a white wall which he has spray painted in the shape of branches of leaves. It also depicts a woman with paint which makes it look like she painted it.

People love it, but the residents of the home this mural is painted on are worried the rent will skyrocket due to the value of the art piece. However, they are still extremely excited this has happened.

We know it is infact by Banksy because he posted variable photos on his Instagram displaying his masterpiece. People were excited to see this giving many kind compliments towards the artist.

I personally love this new art piece and think his use of the natural aspect is very creative. Although his identity is secret, Bankey is truly an inspiration to people across the country for his unique art style.

By Ava

 

Eurovision Updates!  

Your hot spot for everything Eurovision!  25/3/24

Eurovision 2024 will be held on the 11th of May in Malmö Sweden, following Loreen’s win in Liverpool, 2023. Here is a quick version of all the main news:

  • The contest will be held on the 7th and 9th of May for the semi-finals, and the 11th of May for the final.
  • The contest will be held in Malmö Arena, Malmö.
  • 37 countries have been confirmed to be in the contest, with Luxembourg being among them, returning after 30 years.
  • All countries have songs! You can listen to them here: https://tinyurl.com/Eurovisonworld
  • The slogan for this year, which will show up in promotional material and during the contest is ‘United by Music’.
  • The stage design has been released for the upcoming contest.
  • The hosts are Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman!

The way Eurovision works, for anyone wanting to get into it, is a series of semi-finals, and one grand finale. There are 2 semi-finals, which are going to be on the 7th and 9th of May. All countries besides the Big 5 (Explained later) and the host countries, participate in these semi’s, half in one and half in the other. The final then consists of the winning countries from both semi’s (Usually 10 qualify from each) as well as the Big 5 and the host country. The Big 5 are the countries who pay the most to upkeep the contest. They are the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The host country, who also qualifies automatically, is Sweden this year. However, the EBU (European Broadcasting union, who run Eurovision) has decided to let the Big 5 and host country perform in the semis to get rid of any advantage other countries may have by performing earlier. They still automatically qualify for the final but get to perform with all the other countries, so the audience gets to see them.

Eurovision has lots of countries participating every year, with the amount exceeding 40 in the years recently, but it wasn’t always like that. Eurovision back in 1956 when it first started only had 7 competing countries, who put in 2 songs each. The votes weren’t made public, so there was only a first and second place. The year later, it was taken slightly more seriously, with 10 countries as well as a Jury system. Ever since then, the contest has been growing, gaining more and more popularity every year.

All 37 songs have been released! Over the last few months, artists and songs have been slowly being released, and on Friday 15th we got the last one, the Azerbaijan entry. The link to listen to them is here: https://tinyurl.com/Eurovisonworld (Eurovision World songs list).

This year, the 37 completing countries are:

Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal

San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Before the contest, there are two main ways a country can pick an artist and song for Eurovision. The first way is through an internal selection, which is done in secret and scouts out upcoming music artists. The other way that songs can be selected is in national selections, which include the public voting for their favourite of a small batch of songs to send to Eurovision. These range of scale, from the smaller contests of just a few songs, to the larger celebrations such as the Melodifestivalen, which is the Swedish contest for their entrant which contains 28 different songs which get brought down by 5 Heats and 1 final. The UK used to have a national selection, but this was changed after 2019 with James Newman.
The EBU has decided that from now on, all slogans for Eurovision contests will be ‘United by Music’, the same one used in the 2022 contest held in Liverpool, UK. In past contests, since 2002, different slogans were used to refer to the contest, chosen by the host country. In 2002, this was ‘A Modern Fairytale’, but others include ‘Dare to Dream’ in 2019, ‘We are one’ in 2013, as well as more, only missing 2009. These all represented the contest for the year, so instead, a visual artwork has been released, based on the northern lights and sound equalisers.

ABBA won 50 years ago in the Eurovision Song Contest for their home country Sweden, and with Sweden hosting again for this anniversary, fans were hoping for a reunion on the stage. However, 2 of the 4 members have confirmed that they are not reuniting, this being Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, who have also confirmed that they will not be composing the entry either. While this is sad, there is a documentary releasing in 15 countries about ABBA called ‘ABBA – Against the Odds’ in the run up to the contest!

By Alice

 

The modern problem with Grunge

Grunge is only well known for a few reasons, it ruled music in the early 90s, the story and music of Kurt Cobain/Nirvana and Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. People who are really into grunge like me and some of my friends love more than just the big grunge bands, Nirvana may be my favourite, but I love everything from Nirvana too Mad season and Mudhoney. With Grunge peaking in the 90s, it is not as popular as it was, and the clothing and lifestyle of Grunge is often considered second class and poor, which is a completely wrong assumption, I wear the stuff I do and listen to the music I do because Grunge is so unique and unlike any other genre it resonates with me as a person. The government also consider Grunge as a plague, having no real expectations, being in a band, doing grunge things and acting like grunge people want is not only unreliable but also frowned upon by many people in society. With cost of prices going up, and the popularity of grunge not really being at a bit of a low, making money off music and concerts which is what anyone who plays an instrument wants to do is extremely unreliable and will generate minimal money. Another common thing I get, is that I am “emo” or “depressed” and I might be suffering like that, or I might not, the reality being that we like this music, and we like to dress this way because it is a choice. We also love the people involved in Grunge, Kurt Cobain, Layne Stacy, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, Courtny Love they are all icons of grunge and will go down in history as some of the greatest punk and grunge icons in history. I also feel like the genre of music is also not appreciated by schools, we have done rock music but never grunge that had massive influence on modern rock bands and even pop groups.

Clothing Style

When I go out, I wear my style of clothes, but now it is just considered “Emo” or “Ragged.” The problem is my family have perfectly enough money and the stuff I wear is not always cheap either, doc martens can be a few hundred pounds. And I like to wear ripped clothes, and that does not mean I have a tough life or a bad home.

Music

Personally, I love grunge and alternative music, not just the big bands like Nirvana but I hate having everyone call me different for having a different music taste. I am happy that I like the music I do, and I do not say things about other people's music taste. And I am not a drug addict or an emo just because I listen to grunge. This is one of the main problems with modern grunge is because the majority listen to rap or pop, and it is hard for grunge bands to earn money.

Lifestyle

This is the main problem with grunge, most of the people who listen to grunge and follow a grunge style of living, will be considered unhealthy, unsanitary, dirty, druggies, alcoholics and more. Not everyone who follows grunge is any of the above but there is a minority who are, which will always be the problem. I love grunge for the music, freedom and the lifestyle but being labelled as a part of a minority that you not will always be a problem. And employers and the government will shut you down or turn you down, for being a minority and not being modern enough. Plus earning money off reduced music royalties, records being expensive to produce and sell, limited concerts will not even cover a week's food shop let alone rent or water. Becoming a popular grunge band is also a big problem because as much as grunge fans may love it, more listen to rap or pop, even though rock and grunge are still very popular. This I think will always be the central problem of modern grunge.

By Oliver

United Learning comprises: United Learning Ltd (Registered in England No: 00018582. Charity No. 313999) UCST (Registered in England No: 2780748. Charity No. 1016538) and ULT (Registered in England No. 4439859. An Exempt Charity). Companies limited by guarantee. Registered address: United Learning, Worldwide House, Thorpe Wood, Peterborough, PE3 6SB.

Financial Accountability and Freedom of Information
Website Terms, Cookies and Privacy
Policies

United Learning