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We‟ve also got an interview
with local upcoming band De-
Koda and a link to their website
which has music and videos cre-
ated by them.
Have a look nearer the back
and you‟ll notice that Guess the
Teacher is back, have fun!
If you have anything you want to
say, or know of anything that
has happened recently and you
want people to know about,
email us at jour-
h.uk and we will happily include
an article for you! Or if you‟ve
got any ideas but don‟t want to
write anything just send us an
email and we could do some-
thing for you!
I really hope you enjoy this edi-
tion of the paper, so I‟ll be quiet
now and let you read it!
Rebecca Packwood –Editor
Hello everyone, hope you all had
a brilliant Easter and received lots
of chocolate (remember, choco-
late helps you think better…).The
weather was gorgeous for most
of the break which was great for
everyone taking exams in the
next month or so as you can im-
prove your tan and your brain
just by revising outside!
The past month has been packed
with action and excitement and
we‟ve tried to cover some of the
more interesting parts in case any
of you missed them (which, I‟ve
gotta be honest, is very unlucky
as there really has been some
quite cool stuff going on).
I‟ll start with the start of the is-
sue, and that is Amy Bevis‟s re-
port on what happened on J-Day.
Pretty much everyone at the
school got involved in some way
or another which is great because
all the money raised went to a
good cause (Japan, if you didn‟t
know).
We‟ve also got an account of the
night that a celebrity in a white
suit visited our school and pre-
sented a very informative and in-
spirational evening.
Rob Hart grilled Mr. Thatcher to
get a teacher‟s opinion on the
closure of the Lime Kiln. Since it
burned down many people have
suffered from lack of exercise but
the PE department have worked
hard to provide lessons for you
that would normally have been in
the Lime Kiln‟s sports hall.
Jak Whitfield went to Wootton
Bassett’s Next Top Model, (as much
as he wanted to he wasn‟t al-
lowed to participate), and nabbed
an interview with the new Carni-
val Queen Leanne Wallace to see
what her plans for the future are.
Our new „Governor of the
Month‟ is Mr Dave Gardner so
check out the interview with him
to see what he does for you!
Welcome back!
Bassett Street Journal A P R I L 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 3
S P E C I A L
P O I N T S
O F I N T E R -
E S T :
J-Day!
Lime
Kiln
Carnival
Queen
Mention
for the
gover-
nors
Martin
Bell
Music
Funny
fun stuff
P A G E 2
“”
Lime Kiln: How have the PE
Department coped? The Lime Kiln as
we know is one
of the most im-
portant facilities
for the education
of physical per-
formance for our
PE department. It
improves the con-
fidence and psy-
chological relaxa-
tion of our stu-
dents, especially
near exam season for
those taking their
GCSE‟s. Until, the drastic
occurrence of a devastat-
ing fire in the cold winter
months, incinerating the
majority of equipment,
facilities and jobs. Unfor-
tunately, for Mr Thatcher,
the head of PE, this in-
volved only having one
indoor space to teach, so
a majority of students had
to face the freezing cold.
Also, the Lime Kiln was
another changing space, so
for lessons occurring at
the same time, things got
a little cramped... as you
read this some of you can
relate to this irritating
situation, but from the
very words of Mr
Thatcher: “to be fair as
always in Wootton Bas-
sett the pupils have been
the ones who have made
the process easier by not
getting frustrated by the
situation and continuing to
work as hard as ever” so a
massive thanks to you guys
for your cooperation and
positive attitude! Also, it was
a joint effort; Mr Thatcher
continues with, “the staff
worked exceptionally hard to
make the most of the facili-
ties we were left with and
have adapted the curriculum
to accommodate each
other.” So, a fantastic affilia-
tion between students and
teachers alike by Wootton
Bassett School, really press-
ing to make sure PE was
taught to a consistent high
standard as always!
-Rob Hart
B A S S E T T S T R E E T J O U R N A L
What do
chromosomes
wear?
Genes
On the 7th April the stu-
dents of Wootton Bassett
school once again rallied
together to raise money
and give to another worthy
cause, the Japanese red
cross which is helping the
country after it was torn
apart by an earthquake,
raising over £2000!
To raise money some wore
„Jammies‟ and clothes be-
ginning with the letter „J‟,
including a „Jedi‟ and a „
James Bond, some sold „Jam
Tarts‟, and five Sixth-‟formers
even sold Fizzy Jelly Shots that
raised over £120 alone!
As a huge success not only did
the day raise awareness and
charitable funds, it also allowed
students the opportunity to
experience the far eastern cul-
ture, as mothers of Japanese
pupils gave students the chance
to try sushi and learn about
Japan‟s traditions
The day received support
from Honda and local me-
dia, but most importantly
many thanks must go to
Mrs Ellis, the Assistant
Head Teacher, who organ-
ise the day. Mr Croxford,
the head teacher, stated, “I
especially wanted to thank
Mrs. Ellis. She has done a
staggering job organising
it.”
-Amy Bevis
J-Day!
Royal Duties…
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 3
It‟s not often that we can
beat Buckingham Palace to
the chase… in this case,
however, we had a royal
event even before the re-
hearsals started for the
marriage of the Wills and
Kate! This was Wootton
Bassett’s Next Top Model,
which took place before
Easter: there were prizes
for junior princesses that
came from primary schools
across the area to descend
on Wootton Bassett in a
dazzling display of glitz and
glamour, which they put to
good use (courtesy of a
dance routine choreo-
graphed by Hannah Soden
and Drama teacher Mrs.
Markham-Lee (who later
held an amusing musical
stand-off of their own)).
Yet there was a bigger
prize at stake for the sec-
ondary school participants,
the chance of being the
school‟s monarchical figure-
head at the Wootton Bas-
sett Carnival, which is due
to take place on 21st May.
Competition was tight, but
one girl stood out from
amongst the crowd: the
eventual winner was
Leanne Wallace, whom I
managed to interview re-
cently on her success. On
this note, I wondered if
there were any tips that
she could give to partici-
pants in any similar future
events. “Just think of your-
self as a fabulous woman,”
she said as advice to any
wannabe-carnival queens.
“And think of what a
queen would normally
wear!” Well, with the on-
slaught of press at the
Royal Wedding, this task
has just been made that
little bit lighter…
However, Leanne thought
of herself as more than
just Carnival Queen – she
was very eager to have an
active role in the commu-
nity. “I thought it was a
great opportunity to take
part in a competition that
allowed me to do some-
thing good for the commu-
nity,” she told me – but
why the Carnival?
“Everyone can get involved
in something… the chil-
dren… the elderly… it
would be an amazing ex-
perience to be in the Car-
nival for the first time”.
This was commendable
enough, except that she
had done even more work
in the community be-
forehand; it just so
happens it was also an
experience with the
stage. “I‟ve already
been involved with
the pub theatre Any-
thing but Ordinary. It‟s
a good experience at
the moment, but I
thought if I could get
my name out there, I
could help everyone
in the community
more”. It‟s certainly
impressive to have
this level of stage
presence – to be al-
ready in the acting
profession but also to win
WBNTM simultaneously –
but I feel the community
presence of Leanne is also
going to increase extraor-
dinarily: which fits the
„local community‟ ethos of
the school very well in-
deed.
-Jak Whitfield
“I thought it
was a great
opportunity
to take part in
a competition
that allowed
me to do
something
good for the
community”
P A G E 4
“our
objective is
to produce a
school that
everyone
can be proud
of”
Gov of the month Alright guys! Hope
you all had a really
nice Easter break. For
the Wootton Bassett
Street Journal its time
for another release…
continuing with the
Gov of the Month fea-
ture, this term it‟s Mr
Dave Gardner who is
the vice Chairman and
Community Gover-
nor. Again, just like I
did with Mrs Bell, I in-
terviewed him: Having
the title “Governor”
seems pretty impres-
sive, but do you enjoy
being one? Eagerly he
replied with “yes, but
there are times when
it can be less reward-
ing, making unpopular
decisions, but always
in the interest of the
school in the long
term run”. I went on
to ask him what his
Governor role entails,
with a dedicated state-
ment he replied “it in-
volves devoting as
much time coming
into school, communi-
cating with teachers
and the leadership
team to gain a good
picture of how the
school is running.” He
continued to say that
“I am looking for the
right balance
between deliv-
ering the cur-
riculum, focus-
ing on staff and
students and
providing new
buildings and
facilities” As a Gover-
nor you need to
speculate the commu-
nity‟s perspective of
the school, so Mr
Gardner finished to
say “our objective is to
produce a school that
everyone can be proud
of, and so far this year,
I am proud to say, I
think the school is do-
ing very well.” From
this, we can see the
evidence as the school
is simply outstanding!
Personally as a Gover-
nor what does Mr
Gardner do? “As a
Vice Chairman, I or-
ganise meetings Full
Governing Body Meet-
ings when the chair-
man is not available.
Also, I bring in my per-
sonal experiences to-
wards the school; cur-
rently I am using my
commercial skills to
lead the school's con-
version to an Acad-
emy.” For a volunteer-
ing job, Mr Gardner
really does try his best to
incorporate his skills to-
wards the school, as he
finished to explain
“which is vital to secure
our future financially”. I
continued to question Mr
Gardner on his experi-
ence as a Governor: “I
have been a Governor
for 12 years, starting as a
Parent Governor when
my eldest son was at the
school, and continuing to
become a community
Governor whilst being
the Chairman of Woot-
ton Bassett Hockey Club,
meeting up with some
students on the astro on
weekends!” This really
does show Mr Gardner‟s
commitment towards the
school and other clubs, a
great participant and
dedicated Governor we
have on the Governing
body to ensure Wootton
Bassett maintains its fan-
tastic reputation.
-Rob Hart
B A S S E T T S T R E E T J O U R N A L
Why did the
Mexican push
his wife off a
cliff?
Tequila
An Evening with Martin Bell
P A G E 5 V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 3
On the opening of the evening of
the 6th April, Mr Croxford likened
us as a „global school in a local
community‟, and related this con-
nection to our developing aware-
ness of events such as the Holo-
caust and other Genocides
throughout history. However, this
would not be the only thing I
would relate this evening to: con-
troversially, I would also say it has
a little to do with luck. It could be
argued by some that the events
that led such individuals as Kemal
Pervanic and Eva Clarke to talk to
us at the school may have boiled
down to luck; moreover we were
incredibly lucky as a school to be
able to listen to their powerful sto-
ries of the struggles of humanity.
But today, the most evident symbol
of luck was Martin Bell‟s famous
white suit.
Having been to this school before,
Martin Bell has already left a strong
image in the minds of our students.
In last year‟s Holoacaust Day, Han-
nah Meredith and Megan Hannay-
Young were startled to find the
man in the white suit coming in to
their classroom. “Before Martin
Bell came to visit, I‟m sure my
class, myself included, were pretty
ignorant of the nature of his job,”
Hannah told us in her presentation
to the Martin Bell Evening. “His
visit has completely changed all
that… needless to say, his visit was
invaluable. He came into our class-
room and talked to us about the
Genocide he had witnessed in
1990.” And, most importantly, “he
made us aware that Genocide be-
tween different nationalities did not
stop with the atrocities of the
events that took place during
World War Two.” This was a sig-
nificant part of our evening: Holo-
caust Day is, naturally, a hugely im-
portant and significant event to
take place in our school, however
we must also realise that there
are crises which have happened
since, and are still happening to-
day.
Martin Bell gave us a glimpse into
the extent of some of these
events: he had selected a short
selection of news reports and
films to show us what he had
seen over the past few decades;
the images of such conflicts can
very often surpass the power of
words. His first film was not one
compiled himself, but a montage
of footage from the Bosnian con-
flict in 1992, when Mr. Bell was
reporting from there. It was simi-
lar and unique from Kermal Per-
vanic‟s interpretation of struggles
in Bosnia in many different ways:
there was suffering and distress,
but instead of the image of camps,
torture and starvation, it was the
images of broken villages and in-
nocent children. In a conflict
where the young and elderly suf-
fered as much as those directly
involved in the fighting, he was
quick to point out that “The wars
of today are not like the wars of
30 years ago. We no longer have
massed formations of infantry and
warships and warplanes… instead
we have wars among the people.”
But again, he balanced this theo-
retical talk of war with cold facts:
giving us the statistic that “The
casualties are 90% civilian,” in
conflicts such as these and most
likely more.
But, for Martin, merely reporting
isn‟t enough: he has also been
working in partnership with UNI-
CEF for several years, including in
the warzone of the current gen-
eration, Afghanistan. There is
change, he believes, but the out-
look is somewhat bleak. “I have
seen the work UNICEF has been doing,
but we must be realistic in what can be
achieved in Afghanistan,” he warned,
pointing out that, “This is our fourth war
in Afghanistan. One must ask who won
the other three.” But this does not mean
that we should necessarily give up on the
humanitarian side of supporting Afghan
people, and giving them an alternative to
Taliban rule; he pointed out the impor-
tance of this aid from his experiences in
Vietnam: “it told me that you cannot win
a war by the application of military
force.” So he has carried on fighting his
own humanitarian battle in warzones
with UNICEF. Despite his experience as
a journalist and an MP, he is still humble
about his role in the organisation. “I call
myself,” he admitted with true authentic-
ity, “the expendable ambassador.” This
contrasts greatly from the image of the
man in his „lucky white suit‟: not invinci-
ble, not even with the desire to be so,
but a man who works to help those who
need it. And, when others believe that
such aid is futile, he will keep on sup-
porting an organisation which turns a
little good into a greater livelihood for
someone living amidst the gunfire.
After his speech and the finale of the
evening, Martin Bell continued his down-
to-earth approach by talking to the many
guests who had listened with him that
evening; shaking hands, engaging in inti-
mate discussion with local people, and
the cliché of having your photo taken
with the great and the good.
-Jak Whitfield
P A G E 6
B A S S E T T S T R E E T J O U R N A L
Music and fun!
through fans‟ contribu-
tions. A concept that Lars
has used the whole of his
career, whilst battling
ADHD, he has attended
universities such as Ox-
ford and Stanford. This
time round Lars has
a very special treat
for everyone with a
special hour and a
half set from the man
himself, starting at
9pm…yet another
reason to get their
early!
On Friday 13th May,
MC Lars headlines all
-star crew along with
Weerd Science, MC
Chris, who has fea-
tured on a number of
Lars‟ singles and
Akira The Don an Internet
sensation. For a mere £6,
doors open at 7.30pm for
anyone over 14, and if over
18, you have Swindon‟s only
Metal/Rock/Punk night
„Rage‟ at 11pm.
Jay-Z, Bowling for Soup,
Zebrahead, Gym Class
Heroes, Simple Plan and
Snoop Dogg; what is the
one thing they all have in
common? They‟ve all
toured with the incredi-
ble MC LARS.
The pioneer of post-punk
laptop rap, touring with
just his laptop and some
craftily written lyrics, he
returns to Swindon head-
lining with WEERD SCI-
ENCE also known as Josh
Eppard, who in 2007 gave
up the prog-rock stars
Coheed And Cambria.
The two are releasing
their next albums
through Horris Records,
but with one big differ-
ence, all funds are coming
Local gigs, famous bands...
Customer:
Waiter, waiter!
There is a frog in
my soup!!!
Waiter: Sorry,
sir. The fly is on
holiday.
Which way is up? I can’t tell
Where do lions
get their clothes?
Jungle sales
Music and fun! P A G E 7 V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 3
De-Koda are an up and coming band
with members from our school and as
we like to promote local talent we
thought we‟d interview them to let
you all see what Wootton Bassett
School can produce...
Joel – Drummer
Luke – Keyboard / Writer
Heydon – Guitar / Writer
Frankie – Singer
How did you all get into the band / how
did you start up?
Luke: Me and Heydon were just talk-
ing at lunch, saying, „we‟re both good
at music, why don‟t we start a band?‟
From there, we tried to get others
involved.
Heydon: We were a bit inspired by
the fact that Joel was already in the
school band, and that was going to
break up at any moment, so we could
just nick him.
Frankie: We were on a French trip
and we did a talent competiton, and
then Joel asked me if I wanted to sing
for the band, so I said, why not?
Do your influences / tastes vary?
Heydon: [discussion] …we‟re totally
different.
So you have a great mix of influences,
then.
Joel: Well, you say great… Luke. Pen-
dulum.
Luke: [laughs] yeah, he doesn‟t like
Pendulum at all.
Frankie: and I like Paramore, and the
others don‟t really like that.
You’ve played live a few times now; do
you get a buzz out of that?
Heydon: Yeah, we enjoy it, it‟s good
fun.
Frankie: Yeah, I enjoy it, but the first cou-
ple of times we were really… not the
best, so you‟ve got to get used to per-
forming out loud. But it is a real confi-
dence
boost.
Would
you pre-
fer re-
cording
to play-
ing live?
Joel:
Well,
we
haven‟t
had a
chance
yet,
but
we‟re
currently doing a few songs for an EP in
the future.
Frankie: We‟ve got one good song, but
we‟re still playing around with it; making
it longer, seeing what should go where…
The new songs you’re writing: are they the
same style as the ones you’re doing live?
Frankie: We‟re covering all our bases, so
we can do one Luke wants to do, and
then one Heydon wants to do, and then
one that covers what we all want to do,
so we get a different variety of sounds.
Luke: It sounds pretty similar though,
when we actually get down to it.
[Laughter]
Have you got future plans for after school?
Could you imagine yourselves in Wembley
stadium at some point?
Joel: …I hope so! [laughter]
Frankie: When we get a good amount of
songs and our relationship as a band im-
proves, I think that could become more of
a possibility.
Joel: Well, there‟s Battle of the Bands
coming up, so if we win that, that would
be quite cool.
Heydon: Yeah, and there‟s the
Arts Festival aswell.
Joel: We‟re going for that.
How much do you use the audience
reaction to work on your songs?
Luke: Well, in Help You Out, we
do have a bit where we get the
audience to clap their hands a bit
of the way through, so that works
quite well.
Heydon: We do like it, because
we have some people coming
along to our practise sessions to
have a listen, and they clap
along…
I hear you’re on Youtube?
Luke: Well, not altogether as a band…
pretty basic stuff
Heydon: At the moment it‟s just Luke on
the keyboard… we haven‟t done a music
video yet, as we haven‟t recorded.
Frankie: I think a video would be a bit awk-
ward, because we don‟t really know what
to do…
Heydon: We‟ll have to dream up some
amazing storyboard or something.
Joel: You can actually download Help you
out, but it‟s the live version at the moment.
Heydon: But we do have a website…
www.de-koda.mfbiz.com
Heydon: …bit of a plugin there.
Luke: But it‟s filtered on the school web-
site… [laughs]
-Jak Whitfield
De-Koda -> the interview
De-Koda‟s EP Cover
Did you hear the one about the magic tractor?
It drove up the road and turned in to a field!
PUPIL: Would you punish me for something I didn’t do?
TEACHER: Of course not.
PUPIL: Good, because I haven’t done my homework.
E-mail: [email protected]
Bassett Street Journal
Yes, its finally back and the photo is just as obscure and funny as ever... Take your guess,
this teacher‟s true identity will be revealed next edition!
Where were you born?
RAF Lyneham but I was only there for a few
months
What did you want to be when you were a child?
An actress
What was your first job?
In a shop
Did you have a favourite subject at school?
English and drama
How to you like to spend your free time?
With my nieces and nephews
Describe yourself in three words:
Exuberant, loyal, always hungry!
Do you have a catchphrase?
I don‟t really have a catchphrase, but I do talk
to myself all the time!!!
How long have you been working at the school for?
2 years
Guess the teacher!
