Tipping point for Ukraine and Russia?

On the morning of the 24^th  February 2022, Russia decided to take matters into their own hands by starting to use nukes on Ukraine. The incident between Ukraine and Russia has been a continuous problem, starting in 2014.

Ukraine used to be a part of USSR, along with quite a few other countries, including Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, and Armenia. Ukraine was soon planning in joining NATO, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, this includes a lot of western countries including UK, the USA, Canada, and France. There are over 30 NATO states.

What would happen if Russia did anything to any of the bordering countries of Ukraine? The simple answer would be that all NATO would then be involved in the war. At this point in time, NATO countries are only supporting Ukraine economically with money, weapons, food, and water. Vladmir Putin warned that ‘whoever hinders us’ (referring to Russia) would face things ‘you have never seen in history.’ This infers that he would bomb any other country that gets involved.

Russia’s military power is extraordinarily strong, he has a total military personnel is +3,000,000, he has more than 4000 airplanes and helicopters, he has 12,000 tanks and a total of 79 known boats and submarines, including destroyers and aircraft carriers. Russia is also in possession of the largest nuclear bomb in the world (tsar bomb) and the largest underwater weapon, capable of causing exceptionally large tsunamis.

Many Ukrainian immigrants have travelled to the Poland and Romanian borders. They have also travelled as far as the UK, due to the UK relaxing visas for them. Many people are saying that Russian soldiers are heading to the borders of Poland but while this may be true, it most likely isn’t as if the Russian army attack anything or anyone outside of Ukraine, all of NATO will attack Russia.

When interviewed, half of the people said they knew very little about the war between Russia and Ukraine. This may be able to be changed however, those interviewed also say that the school could help raise awareness through assemblies/ lessons (potentially) on the tensions and could help donate to causes with fundraisers like non-school uniform days, competitions. All of the people who gave their opinion thought it would be a good idea if all the tutor groups could paint, colour or draw sunflowers in the Ukrainian colours and put them outside the classroom doors to show their support.

Sian

SHOULD SCHOOL START LATER?

Later school starts are proven to have many benefits to students. These include improved health, reduced health risks, higher test scores/grades, improved sleep duration, better attendance and behavior, less reliance on caffeine and reduced participation in unhealthy activities.

Improved health and reduced health risks

When investigated further, it’s proven by ‘OU Academic’ that absences due to illnesses dropped by 50% plus after 10am start times. This suggests that earlier start times can result in sicknesses. Sleep deprivation is not serious, but a big problem amongst students and there are lots of health issues which relate to it. These issues include obesity, type two diabetes, high blood pressure, drinking alcohol, smoking and using drugs. Sleep deprivation can result in obesity, lack of involvement in physical activities, depression, poor school performance and unhealthy behaviors. These unhealthy behaviors are mainly smoking, drinking, and using drugs, which have already been mentioned as health issues relating to sleep deprivation.

Higher test scores and grades

Later school starts also benefit test scores and grades. Better amounts of sleep can make teenagers more alert, especially in school, and improve their academic performance. It is proven that students who get more sleep have a better memory and learning capabilities which result in higher test scores and grades.

Improved sleep duration which meets requirements

The debate on school start times was the result of an e-petition on a government website which attracted nearly 200,000 signatures. It stated: "School should start at 10am as teenagers are too tired." It also said that "Teenagers are so tired due to having to wake up very early to get to school. The Government should require secondary schools to start later, which will lead to increased productivity at school." Teenagers should have no less than 8.5-9 hours sleep on a school night; however, hormonal shifts make falling asleep earlier for teenagers difficult; if not impossible. Currently, it’s proven that adolescents sleep for around 7 hours each night, even though they should be getting 8 to 10 hours sleep. Teenagers’ biological clocks don’t allow them to fall asleep before 11pm, even when they’re tired, as the teenage body clock works differently to others. During puberty, teens become sleepy later at night and need to sleep later in the morning, although current school start times don’t allow that. Studies show that adolescents experience a sleep-phase delay, meaning that their sleep is nearly always delayed by two or more hours from conventional sleep times. Waking up while it’s still dark outside can be very disruptive to an adolescent’s natural internal clock and sleep researchers, teachers, and physicians agree that delayed school start times would be better for the overall health of the students and their success in the classroom. The website ‘Each Night’ conducted a 4-year study in 2017 to examine the relationship between start times and academic performance. Students were observed before and after a 70-minute time change was put into place. Researchers found that academic success improved significantly after delaying school start times. From this study, a behavioral sleep specialist observed that, “Start times were at 8:50AM for a year, 10AM for two years, then switched back to 8:50AM. The change to 10AM produced positive changes in students’ health and academic performance, which went back to baseline levels when the start time was moved earlier again.” This supports the idea of delaying school times having a positive impact on students and the school. When deprived of sleep, teens tend to experience more frequent mood swings, higher levels of irritability, attention, attitude, and behavior related problems. Sleep deprivation is linked to poor academic performance and delayed start times can help teenagers sleep more in their natural sleep and wake cycles. Students can use their natural sleep and wake times, which are generally from after 11pm to 8 or 9am. This can give the body time to repair and restore itself, benefiting the immune system, muscle recovery, athletic performance and reducing daytime sleepiness. This will all lead to higher productivity in class and students benefiting overall.

Better attendance

It is also proven that later school starts can result in a better attendance for students. This may be because of students being late for school or missing buses, or even because of how tired they are. Whichever reason, later school starts benefit teenagers in this way too.

Less reliance on caffeine

Since it is widely known that teenagers don’t get enough sleep, they must rely on other things to keep them awake during a school day. Teenagers put a lot of reliance on these products, which most often include caffeine, tobacco and alcohol and are linked to poor sleep. However, these products are not healthy for teenagers, and they should not have to use them.

Delaying school starts can have a huge impact overall

Delaying school starts by even the tiniest bit can have an absolutely huge impact on students overall. By delaying the beginning of the school day by just 30 minutes, studies show that this can have a drastic impact on teenagers’ health and their school performance. Most schools start at 8:30am and students who live close get up around 30-60 minutes before the beginning of school each day, with the exception of those who take a bus to school. A slight change in starting times could have a significant impact on students daily. Those who take the bus can get up as early as three hours before the beginning of school, meaning that some students get up at 6:00am each day just to get a bus to school. These teenagers would most likely face the biggest changes in association with their wake times. This proves just how huge an impact the delay of school starts can have on the students.

Getting home later

With schools starting later, students will also get home later. This may not be seen as a good thing in many teenagers and teachers’ eyes, but it also has benefits. This would reduce the time which is spent at home alone and reduce the likelihood of teenagers taking part in unhealthy activities such as smoking, drinking alcohol and using drugs.

Breakfast

When running late for school in the mornings, breakfast is usually the thing which is skipped. Or sometimes it’s skipped because students are still sleepy and feel it’s too early to eat each day. Skipping breakfast can result in low concentration in class and bad eating habits; with extra time in the morning, teenagers can eat breakfast and focus more on learning at school.

Behavior

Behavior is a problem in every situation. However, teenagers are particularly unpredictable, behavior-wise. Teenagers experience mood swings because of puberty. Poor sleep habits only worsen their moods and outbursts and therefore their behavior at school. Students who are exhausted tend to skip school more or work too hard, making themselves more exhausted.

The negatives

Although delaying school starts is proven to be incredibly beneficial, it has its disadvantages. It can interfere with bus schedules, after-school activities, whole district events which don’t fit into agreed times, and childcare. Teens who provide childcare for younger siblings may not be able to anymore if school finish times are put back. Especially if they sometimes stay even later for extra-curricular activities, which may mean that they quit things which benefit their mental health. Teens who provide childcare for younger siblings may be unable to do this if school finish times are put back as a result of later start times. These are only a few ways which cause delaying school starts to become negative.

Student views

When asked, 100% of students said that they thought that school starts should be delayed. When asked why, sleep was a commonly re-occurring factor. They told us that they get up at times which vary from around 6:00am and get home as late as 50 minutes after school has finished. Teenagers should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep each night, but students feel as if they are always tired and do not get enough sleep. One student was interviewed and told us that they thought school should start later. They argued that the biggest benefit was higher concentration levels due to less fatigue and the biggest negative impact was less time in school. However, to solve this issue, they said that school should still end at the same time, but it should have only 5 lessons in a day and there should be less of a particular subject each week. They said that delaying school starts would benefit health and improve behavior and test grades as they will be less tired and more aware. The question remains but there is an obvious answer which has been portrayed by students – yes it should be delayed.
 

By Hannah

Students went out interviewing around the College

“England has come back, again"

“We refused to lose” explained former England rose Tamzin Greenway in a post-game interview. After trailing behind the Diamonds throughout the whole match a draw felt like a win to the England Netball community in the penultimate game of the Quad series. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats when Helen Housby turned to the post in the dyeing seconds of the game, took a final breath and shot. As we saw the shoot plumet through the hoop houses erupted and netball fans got a hint of deja vu from the commonwealth game.

Quarter 1
Both head coaches explained in a pre-game interview that they were not going to be holding back tactically, and England's said that she’d, “do the opposite.” England and Australia both put out strong starting sevens backing up their statements. England started with tight defence, yet Jess Thurby decided against putting Geva Mentor (arguably the best GK in the world) on the court and instead chose Eboni Usoro-Brown stop the Diamonds.

Stacey Marinkovich (Australian head coach) also stuck to her word and put out her best players to make an impact that England couldn’t come back from. Steph Wood started on court with the goal attack bib. Australia fans felt she deserved that bit as she is an 89% shooter and a vital playmaker in the circle.

However, England had a secret weapon, Ellie Carwell and Helen Housby. The almost unstoppable pair started in goal shooter and goal attack. Ellie took most shots in the first quarter and proved to her coaches that she deserved a place on her team. However also being an 89% shooter meant that it was all down to defence. Australia just got the edge and the quarter ended 9-12.

Quarter 2
At 12-9 down, Thirlby shuffled England's cards while Australia shifted just one. Guthrie moved up into Centre and Beth Cobden arrived at wing defence, with Cardwell and Housby switching bibs.

Without shooting sensation George fisher on the bench England were left without many options after the switch between Helen and Ellie didn’t settle initially. Laura Malcom was brought on as wing attack to try and calm things down in the attacking third, yet this didn’t seem to help the scores.

These changes didn’t work in England's favour as the second quarter was messy and full of unforced errors, while Eboni fought from the back to pull the score line closer at the end of the half the score was 19-23 to the Diamonds.

Quarter 3
After half time England proceeded to make more changes and brought on Geva Mentor at goal attack to play earn her 151^st cap for the international side. Mentor’s presence helped to settle England’s defence and increase pressure on Australia's shooters. However, despite getting opportunities it continued to be a struggle down the other end for England's shooters.

England continued to struggle from behind on the board as the game continued, but another one of England's shuffles started to shift the momentum in their favour.

Sophie Drakeford-Lewis' speed in the wing attack position gave Australia something fresh to think about and Malcom looked more comfortable back at Centre.

Quarter 4
Going into the final quarter England were down by 6 but after an intercept the roses were back in contention and where only 3 down with 3 minutes left to play with sheer determination and the ability the shake off the pressure, England were able to claw our way back into this game after a mistake from the Australians.

After getting the ball to the shooting third, Helen Housby sunk the shot, she became an inspiration for every netball player, ever. Every viewer had their eyes stuck to their tv in awe of her ability to keep calm under pressure and do what she does best. She became an instant idol within 7 seconds.

“This feels like a win for England, and it feels like a loss for Australia, because of the situation they were in at three-quarter time. England will take more momentum into the final than Australia will off the back of a draw.” said Sara Francis-Bayman, a former rose. “I think that sets tomorrow up perfectly” explained Jess Thurlby, England head coach.

“Resilience form England has beaten them.”

By Scarlet