The Acorn Press

Recently, Priestlands School

reopened the refurbished Robert Hole

building. The building, home to maths,

ICT and Business Studies, has been com-

pletely renovated to very high standards.

We interviewed Mrs Gibbs, who

is the business manager for Priestlands,

who told us that, “before I was granted

funds for the renovation I had to take

pictures in the Robert Hole to show just

how bad the issues were.”

“I had to prove that there were

leaks in the roof with lots of pictures. I

had to demonstrate that the rooms got

very hot in the summer and were really

cold in the winter. I had to demonstrate

that the building really wasn’t fit for you

guys to go in there and learn.”

The overall cost was an aston-

ishing amount of £742,000. This included

hiring five temporary classrooms between

70 and 80 thousand pounds. Fees also

had to be paid for management and archi-

tect fees.

Students had an art competition

to see whose work would be up outside of

the new building. The winners were Ellie

Reeves, Sabrina Macnuton and Grace

Lamprell from year 8. Also Ellen Crouch

and Jade Richman from Year 7.

Inside this issue: Parking issues at Priestlands 2

The new Head Boy and Head Girl 3

Puzzles 4

Reviews 5

The Walled Garden 6

Grease is the word! 10

Sports 15

Robert Hole

reborn

News 2

By Sammy Fraser

Is the car park too

crowded?

Teachers, staff and visitors

who need to park at Priestlands

are finding it increasingly diffi-

cult. Visitors have mentioned that

when they come to the school

they find it hard to park so they

are circling the car park for a

while trying to find a space free.

To visitors on a schedule

this is a great inconvenience

which, as a school, we need to

avoid.

We asked the librarian

Miss Squibb a few questions

about this problem and how she is

affected by it, this is what she

said:

Is parking an issue?

“For me parking is alright because

I get here early in the morning but

as the day progresses, it is harder

to find a space. For instance when

I go out to lunch it is hard for me

to find a space when I get back.”

Do you have assigned places?

“Not really, we just have to find

our own space.”

Is every day bad to park?

“Yes, for people that don’t get

here early enough. I am alright,

but a lot of other teachers I know

struggle finding a space when

they get in.”

Would you say it is worse when

there are open days at the cen-

tre?

“Oh yes of course, everybody is

going to the Rec on that day.”

It is still a struggle to get a

space at Priestlands car park but a

source has stated that Miss Gibbs

is moving the car park. She is in

the process of planning it and it

will be done over the summer.

This will undoubtedly help be-

cause people won’t have to park

on the site any more. There will

be more space for staff to park

and it will be safer for the pupils!

It is said this will all be

finished by September so no more

trouble with parking.

Parking Problems

News 3

By Lauren David and Daniel Drake

Charlie Yates and Mere-

dith Fisher have recently been

appointed Head Boy and Head

Girl. The candidates cam-

paigned and made a speech as to

why they should be the next cho-

sen ones.

Posters were placed all

over the school but the final deci-

sion was made by the Head

Teacher here at Priestlands, Mr

Willsher.

Once the votes were

counted the whole school was

brought together to find out which

pupils would be chosen to play

such an important role.

We interviewed Mr Wil-

shire about why he has chosen

these lucky pupils.

“The staff and year 10 stu-

dents all had one vote as to who

they think should be the next

Head Boy and Head Girl. They

then come to an after school meet-

ing and gave a speech to the staff.

Then to the whole of year 10. Af-

ter that, I had the top six boys

and girls who had great attend-

ance and report grades who I

have to pick. Charlie and Mere-

dith both got the highest amount

of votes from the staff and from

year 10 so I didn’t have much say

in it this year.

When asked what qualities Char-

lie and Meredith had that stood

out from the other students he

said, “they both had good attend-

ance, good behaviour and great

attitude towards their work.

“They have great initia-

tive and have great ideas and are

willing to work hard to follow

through their ideas.

Finally, we asked wheth-

er he thought they would succeed

in the challenges ahead: “I hope

so and they have proved to of

done so, so far they are already

ahead of schedule and if they

carry on to do as well as they are

already doing they will definitely

The Chosen Ones

Charlie Yates

Meredith Fisher

Menacing measles Recently there has been an

outbreak of measles that has gone

through Wales and is now going

through England.

This is affecting a lot of teen-

agers around England in a lot of schools

because a lot of them have not had their

MMR vaccinations.

The outbreak is a serious con-

cern as it might affect up to 1million

children, especially in schools. This is

even more worrying at the moment as

exams are going on right now.

A letter has been sent out to

parents from Mr Willsher but a lot of

students still don’t know about it.

To have the vaccination at the

NHS is completely free and you can get

a mumps and rubella vaccination too.

Make sure you are vaccinated

as soon as possible if you are not al-

ready.

Visit www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Measles

for more information.

Fabulous Features 4

PUZZLES

The Hobbit: Review By Peter Marsh

This is the film that everyone

has been waiting for after the amazing

Lord of the Rings trilogy came out.

Written by J.R.R.Tolkien, The

Hobbit was a single book but the film

has been split into three parts, the first

being ‘An Unexpected Journey’.

The film starts in the mild and

friendly village of Hobbiton, but then an

unexpected group of dwarves knock on

the door.

From then on the very normal

Hobbit, named Bilbo Baggins, is flung

into a perilous adventure to the lonely

mountain; his task to defeat the fear-

some dragon, Smaug.

It is truly a fantastic film, ac-

companied by an amazing soundtrack by

Johan de Meij which will have you in

tears!

The cast are another highlight

featuring, Martin Freeman as Bilbo, Ian

McKellan as Gandalf and a whole host

of dwarf actors, the leader being Richard

Armitage.

This is a must see and I would

recommend it to anyone, whether you’re

fan of the Lord of the Rings the book, or

not at all. It will have you sitting on the

edge of your seat!

The Acorn Press Editorial Team:

Editor-in-Chief—Bethany Adams

News Editor—Abi Miles

Features Editor—Maggie Hishon

Features Sub-Editor –Emma Pead

Sports Editor—Yasmin White

Photo Editor—Thomas Hopkins

Designer—Rhys Morris

Journalists

Omema Arfaoui

Grace Barnett-Cox

Lauren David

Leonie Dennett

James Doll

Daniel Drake

Samantha Fraser

Vita Heathcote

Thea Larkin

Hannah Makin

Peter Marsh

Abi Miles

James Shorey

Megan Tatlow

Rory Torrens

Yasmin White

Joshua Bradley

Rosie Carter

Fabulous Features 5

Ironman 3 is the final instal-

ment of the Iron man trilogy. It contin-

ues after the events of Avengers Assem-

ble (2012) and follows the story of multi-

millionaire Tony Stark, as he faces his

most fearsome villain yet; The Mandarin.

As the plot unfolds, Tony starts

to answer the question, does the man

make the suit, or does the suit make the

man?

Iron man 3 stars Robert Downy

Jr as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as

Pepper Potts and Sir Ben Kingsley as the

Mandarin.

It’s directed by Shane Black and

produced by Kevin Feige.

Iron man 3 has recently

achieved the honour of being on the top

five list of highest grossing films, having

reached 1 billion dollars at the box office

after just 4 weeks from opening weekend,

and still going strong.

The effects in this movie are

incredible. However, the amount of ex-

plosions do sometimes get a little repeti-

tive! This small attention to detail doesn't

spoil the viewing experience though. It

makes it more exciting and a lot more

thrilling to watch.

I would recommend this film to

children and adults who like superhero

blockbusters with lots of action sequenc-

es and clever storylines.

In conclusion, this film is a must

see. With a brilliant cast and an amazing

story, it is the perfect comedy/action to

see with your friends and family.

Written by Rory Torrens, aged 12

Iron man 3

review

The Hunger Games by Su-

zanne Collins

Fast moving and ex-

citing, the Hunger Games

leaves you wanting more.

Katniss Everdeen is the

main character who lives in a

post-apocalyptic society, where

life is cruel and hard.

The Hunger Games

have been designed by the Capi-

tol for two purposes; entertain-

ment and to keep people living

in fear.

When Katniss’ younger

sister, Prim, is chosen at the

reaping to be a contestant in the

murderous hunger games, Kat-

niss steps forward to take her

place.

The moment she steps

on the train bound for the Capi-

tol she knows her life is about to

change forever. But it won’t

change in the way Katniss ex-

pects it to.

Captivating and ab-

sorbing, a book you can’t put

down, it is highly recommend-

ed.

In a game you don’t

know who to trust – or who is

the enemy.

HUNGER GAMES

REVIEW

Written by Emma Pead, aged 13

THE WALLED The walled garden is one of

the features that makes our school

unique. It is situated near the back of

the Nichols building, a large, squatting

shape. The crumbling red brick walls

possess a strange sort of beauty, the

climbing plants that scale the walls

only add to the mysterious effect.

The walled garden was built

in the 18th century, restored by teachers

and kept alive by the group ‘eco warri-

ors’ the eco warriors’ job once was to

feed the pigs, de-weed the plant plots

and generally get involved in the up

keep of the walled garden. The eco

warriors are led by Mr Rogers with the

help of Miss Jamison. The eco warri-

ors would meet in Mr Rogers’ class-

room, M16, on Friday lunchtime. After

a briefing on what they would be doing

that week, they would go outside to the

walled garden and do the activity.

The eco warriors used to be a

thriving group but recently their num-

bers have depleted massively. The eco

warriors are fading out of existence.

There are so few now to look after the

walled garden it has fallen into a state

of decay. Whilst interviewing one of

the few eco warriors left, Miss Vita

Heathcote, I discovered that not only

the bees that Priestlands used to keep

in the walled garden have been sold,

but there is talk that the iconic

Priestlands porkers are also going up

for sale. Miss Heathcote said: “the

walled garden isn’t anything like it

used to be, there are lots of weeds and

everything is overgrown.”

Miss Heathcote also told me

that there is an idea to organise a big

de-weeding of the walled garden

sometime after school. She says that

she hopes that this act will restore the

walled garden to its former glory. This

restoration will include; the planting of

new flower beds, pulling up of weeds,

the pruning and cutting back of bushes

and trees. This will hopefully restore

the walled garden, even if this event

has not yet been organised and is still

in the stage of an idea.

I was lucky enough to receive

an interview with Miss Jamison; I

spoke to her mostly confirming facts

given to me by Miss Heathcote. When

I asked her about the state of the

walled garden she told me she thought

the garden had: “lost its way, and alt-

hough its focus had previously been on

growing and having a growing space.”

But this was of course expensive, and

the upkeep of a garden that large is

very difficult and requires a lot of

work. Miss Jamison told me that the

new focus of the walled garden was to:

“create a learning environment or an

outdoor classroom for pupils to use

and be inspired by to use in all sorts of

Fabulous Features 6

GARDEN

work.” She also confirmed the idea

of a clean-up in the walled garden,

except that it was not to be held af-

terschool but during activities week,

and that pupils taking part would be

those not going on their year trip,

the pupils would be helped by an

official company that would also

clear the debris.

Hopefully this will repair

the damage done by the elements. If

you wish to join the eco warriors,

please speak to Mr

Roberts, Miss

Jamison, or just

come along to the

meetings in M16,

Recently I travelled to a small coun-

try in north Africa called Tunisia. Tunisia has

a very hot and dry climate and is very beautiful.

There are some very rich parts and some poor

parts however overall it is an incredibly stun-

ning country.

This small country speaks the language

Arabic and most of the people who live there

follow the religion of Islam. People cook tradi-

tional foods that belong to the country’s culture

and in Ramadan many people fast and eat tradi-

tional meals at sunset such as; couscous, rice,

lamb and other foods. Ramadan is when people

in Islamic countries fast for a whole month and

only eat after sunset, though it is quite a big

meal.

The beaches there are amazing and the

view is breath-taking. There are beautiful green

trees, and colourful flowers. The sun and the

moon are incredible and it’s just a wonderful

sight to

see.

The streets are filled with delicious

smells and people rushing in and out of shops.

There are many towns and cities and Ramadan

is the best time of year for the real culture to

show through. When everybody is hassling to

get the food done and preparing the table you

can really smell the beautifully delicious lamb

and beef. You can smell the freshly baked bread

that has just been taken out of the oven. You

can smell the spicy red sauce trickle up inside

your nose.

If you want to experience a cultural,

colourful, and comfortable holiday, Tunisia is

the place you need.

Written by Omema Arfaoui

A POSTCARD

FROM...TUNISIA

Fabulous Features 7

Written by Emma Pead, aged 13

Fabulous Features 8

Grace Barnett-Cox and Megan Tatlow

Healthy eating. A provocative

topic within schools since Jamie Oli-

ver’s TV show: ‘Jamie’s School Din-

n e r s ’ . H e r e a t

Priestlands, the catering

department is changing.

T h e r e a r e

many different varieties

of foods in this school

which are all tasty such

as: Paninis , wraps, pas-

ta, noodles, roast din-

ners, shepherd’s pie and

many more. All are of

high quality, locally

sourced and use season-

al ingredients and be-

cause of this Priestlands

has been awarded with

many catering awards.

The food at our

school is produced by professional cater-

ers whose passion is to provide lovely,

healthy food.

As well as being high quality,

the food is also very reasonably priced

and a very good value for money. The

highest meal is only £2 so we don’t have

to spend too much money on food ,

which is very impressive. Also a small

pot of warm food is 60p which is an

amazing price!

However, it has been reported

that some students have been having

chocolate bricks at break. And it’s recent-

ly come to attention that some students

have even been having pizzas and burg-

ers at break too. Luckily, Students are

restricted to £5.00 a day so they don’t

overspend.

One of the lunchtime staff said ‘

I think our food is reasonable, and it is

all fresh.’ This shows the lunchtime staff

are trying to help students eat healthier

food. Some students agree and are trying

to help this scheme by not getting as

much unhealthy food.

Furthermore,

lunch staff have provid-

ed fresh salad for the

p u p i l s t o e n -

joy ,however to pur-

chase the salad you

have to go to the sepa-

rate deli bar which

many people find time

consuming.

Also most of

the drinks are quite

healthy and the inno-

cent fruit smoothies are

two of your five a day.

Priestlands used to sell

fizzy Ribena drinks but

stopped as they were bad for you and had

too much sugar which made the pupils

hyperactive in lessons. And our school

sells fruit and raisins as well.

Students at Priestlands have the

right options—now it’s up to us.

AN apple a day...

P.E.N By Emma Pead

PEN (Priestlands English

News) is a site where pupils can pub-

lish what they want, when they want.

PEN allows talented English

pupils to have their voice heard, in

the form of a range of stories, poems,

news articles, book reviews and much

more.

The site can be found at:

www.priestlandsenglishnews.wordp

ress.com/

But if you want to submit to

PEN visit Miss Lambert in M11.

Book review: War horse

This book is set back in World

War One and is about a relationship be-

tween a horse and a young boy named

Albert.

It starts when Albert is only a

young boy and his drunk father brings

back a horse from the market. The horse

and Albert grow very close, but there rela-

tionship ends abruptly as the horse (Joey)

goes to war.

A couple of years later Albert

also joins the army in search of Joey. Al-

bert is at war for a long time. He eventual-

ly finds Joey near the end of the war and

they go back to England together.

This book was written by Mi-

chael Morpurgo in 1982. The two main

characters in this book are Albert (the

young boy who makes friends with Joey)

and Joey the horse.

This book is truly gripping and is

a very interesting book. Its like a roller

coaster of emotions going from happy to

sad.

I

would recom-

mend the

book to any-

body who

enjoys reading

and/or likes

horses.

Fabulous Features 9

Roll up, roll up to

the school

uniform debate Priestlands school has a

strict (but fair) uniform policy, how-

ever some students have a different

idea.

A lot of the problem is girls

and their skirts or boys and their

sleeves. At the moment it is considered

a ‘trend’ to roll up the sleeves of the

polo tops because the students find it

looks better and more comfortable. One

student said ‘I like rolling my sleeves

up because they are too long and it

looks better’ however teachers disagree.

I interviewed English teacher

Miss Lambert to ask whether she agreed

with students rolling up their sleeves,

her response was clear: “No, I think it

looks untidy.” When asked why they do

it Miss Lambert respond-

ed with; “Because they

want to find a way to be

individual in their school

uniform. Some say it is

because their sleeves are

too long but I think it is to

look cool!” I think she’s

trying to say they defi-

nitely don’t look cool!

However, when

asked how we could stop

uniform malfunctions

from occurring she re-

sponded with: “That’s a

hard one... I think if peo-

ple took pride in their uniform then they

might not ruin it.”

The other common problem is

girls skirts. They are simply just too

high! I for one completely dislike wear-

ing my skirt long, however I don’t take

the height too far so that I am revealing

most of my legs. I spoke to two girls

who said that anyone who has a skirt

one ‘credit card length’ above the knee

should get an immediate detention. I

agree with this and so do others…

H o p e fu l l y we c a n f i x

Priestlands uniform code.

Priestlands School is well known

for specialising in performing and visual

arts. The school puts on a play with

singing and dancing every year which is

watched by friends and family of the actors

and actresses. The drama department holds

auditions for the new play, which are open to

the whole school.

All the plays have been very suc-

cessful: we have even had famous film critic

Mark Comode watch our performances. Each

year the stage is set to be an amazing scene,

like the 2012 production of Peter Pan when

the huge wooden pirate ship was built, ap-

pearing to burst out of the blue floor: decorat-

ed like the sea. And the year before that,

2011, in the production of Annie the pink

painted orphanage looked amazing in the

drama studio.

The studios themselves are an ideal

setting for such a performance to take place,

with the black curtains and floor the students

can really get in role and imagine the scene.

The drama teachers are Miss Strath

and Miss Laws and they are great at encour-

aging everyone to love drama and to get in-

volved. The pupils can choose to carry on

studying drama in year nine when they are in

year eight. Then they choose in year nine if

they want to do GCSE drama in year 10 and

11. This gives them the opportunity to take

part in school productions, you can go on

trips, have the opportunity to take part in the

Shakespeare’s School Festival and go on the

once in a lifetime trip to New York.

Mrs Strath has directed many of

Priestlands school’s performances such as

Peter Pan, Under Milkwood, Bugsey Malone

and many more. However she has not just

directed school plays. Every year the school

takes part in the Shakespeare Schools Festi-

val and has recently performed Macbeth and

Othello.

However her work isn’t just done

alone. Miss Bailey, dance teacher, and Mrs

Laws assist her with directing and she would

not be able to pull it all off without the amaz-

ing performers at Priestlands School. Par-

ticuarly, Andy Hall, Sophie Roberts and Mer-

edith Fisher.

This year’s theatre production is

the award winning Grease, run by our head of

drama and experienced theatre director Mrs

Strath. With her experience and knowledge

of drama, she will undoubtedly make the play

a successful triumph.

Mrs Strath kindly agreed to give us

the gossip on the school production Grease:

“Each year I put together a new production.

One year I will do a musical and the next

year I will put together a none-musical.

“The productions have to have a

large cast as many people from Priestlands

want to take part in the productions every

year. I decided to do Grease this year as there

are many roles available and it is very differ-

ent compared to other plays this school has

performed.”

In auditions for the school produc-

tions Mrs Strath looks for actors that are pre-

pared and have done their research into the

play. They must be enthusiastic, committed

and wanting to learn.

She also added that it is impressive

if you have been in past plays and are known

for being reliable. You may include these

features in your audition however you need

to be the right type of person for the role as

well.

Mrs Strath said: “My favourite play

By Rosie Carter and Maggie

Hishon

Go Greased

News 10

Fabulous Features 11

Lightening!

in the past 5 years has been Under Milkwood as

it is very different to any other play we have

done. I love the way it shows everyone’s lives in

this little village in Wales over a period of

24hours and I really admire Dillan Thomas who

wrote Under Milkwood. U n f o r t u n a t e l y

Miss Strath cannot reveal any information about

what she is planning on doing to make Grease

original. She also added: “The set for all the

school productions are made by a company

called M3technology, with help from Mr Gillet,

Miss Denning and the pupils.”

Mrs Strath and the rest of the dra-

ma department are looking for willing ac-

tors and actresses to take part in Grease. It

is a brilliant experience where you can

make friends, have fun and enjoy acting.

It is a great opportunity.

Year 7 & 8 auditions

are being held after

school on Wednesday

19th June.

Facts and

Figures

From

www.greasethemusical.co.uk/

Grease opened on February 14th

1972 at the Eden Theatre, New

York.

The film opened in the USA in

1978 and grossed over $400 mil-

lion.

‘You’re The One That I Want’

reached top of the UK charts for

nine weeks in 1978, followed by

a seven week stint with ‘Summer

Nights’ later the same year.

Grease re-opened on July 15th

1993 with Craig Maclachlan

playing Danny Zuko and Debbie

Gibson playing Sandy.

Since the show opened in London

in 1993 it has been seen by over

10 million people and has

grossed over £165 million in the

UK alone.

There are a total of 142 costume

changes in the show. These in-

clude 16 leather jackets and 59

wigs.

720 white T- shirts are washed

per month.

10 jumbo cans of hairspray and 8

pots of gel are used each week.

Grease was voted “The No.1

Greatest Musical of all time” in

December 2003 by ‘100 Greatest

Musicals’ – Channel 4

Fabulous Features 12

The changes will initially

be for nine core GCSE subjects -

English language and literature,

maths, physics, chemistry, biolo-

gy, combined science, history and

geography.

This may be a worry for

Priestlands pupils from all years

as, according to reports, it will be

harder to get higher grades.

But how will this affect

individual subjects? According to

documents from the Department

for Education, in English litera-

ture, pupils will be asked to study

at least one play by Shakespeare,

Romantic poetry, a 19th century

novel, poetry from the 1850s on-

wards, and fiction or drama since

the First World War.

In English language, 20%

rather than the current 12% of

marks will be awarded for good

spelling, punctuation and grammar

and a "greater range of writing

skills" will be required.

We interviewed some year

7 girls, who said, “I think that it is

annoying for the schools because

they have to change the way they

teach to ensure their pupils get the

best grades possible.”

Asked if they think it will

affect their grades they said: “Yes

I think it will because I am not the

best at spelling and I understand

that that will be a bigger impact on

the final grades.

“Like many I am dreading

GCSEs even more now because it

puts a lot more pressure on me to

get the higher grades so I can get

into college or university.”

Then we asked teachers

whether they agree with the fact

that the government are making

the GCSE’s harder.

“I don’t believe that they

have got any harder, however they

are changing in the future, the cur-

rent year sevens will be taking the

new GCSEs first. The new

GCSE’s don’t include controlled

assessments in classrooms, it’s

just a big exam at the end of year

11.

“It might be harder for the

people that find exams difficult

because they won’t have any con-

trolled assessment to fall back on

because everything is based on

one exam”.

Asked if they think that the

current GCSE’s were better or

worse than the up and coming

ones, one said, “I think that that is

quite a hard question to answer

because all we know about the

new GCSEs at the moment is that

they will have numbers instead of

grades, but that doesn’t mean any-

thing about how hard they are go-

ing to be.

“In my opinion I don’t

think this will be better because

some people just don’t work well

in exams”.

Only time will tell.

All change please! The government decide to change the way

GCSEs work.

Bullying is a serious matter.

It can make people feel really

upset and angry and on some occasions

bullying can make the victims do un-

thinkable things.

Sometimes the bullying can last

for months, however , if the victim tells

someone it is likely to stop sooner.

If the bully knows that the abuse

is getting to the victim they are more like-

ly to carry on. But many victims of bul-

lying are afraid to open up about what

they are going through. They are weak.

Many bullies are being or have

been bullied themselves, or have low self

confidence.

At Priestlands we have Pupil

Support Mentors. We interviewed the

PSMs to find out their advice on bullying.

What is the most common type of bul-

lying?

“Well, fallouts can often lead to bullying

which is usually verbal, so verbal.”

How often do people come to you about

bullying?

“It depends on the yeargroup. Year 11

GCSE students come around once a week

and year 9 come around 2/3 times”.

Are all the cases that come to you in

school or out, or both?

“Most are in school,but there are some-

cases of cyber bullying and even some

incidents on the buses”.

What advice would you normally give

people?

“We would normally talk about all the

important details like who? What?

When? Why? How? And things like that.

If it was really serious we would some-

times get the people involved in, to talk. If

that has no effect then we would speak to

the parents or the bullies themselves”.

How important is it to tell someone if

you are being bullied?

“The victim must say otherwise the PSM

can’t help”.

If you are being bullied you

must tell someone. If you don’t tell some-

one you can’t be helped.

The PSM are always at school to

support you when you need it.

These links below can also sup-

port you and offer advise about bullying:

www.bullying.co.uk

www.there4me.com

Bullying advice

By Leonie Dennet, Omema Arfaoui

and Rosie Carter

Have you ever dropped litter

on the field? Stuck chewing gum under a

seat or table? Scribbled on a desk?

Priestlands is trying to stop the

litter problem – BUT WE NEED YOU.

Prefects have been trying to stop

this terrible problem by doing litter picks

every so often.

We have interviewed a few stu-

dents from around the school, one said “I

think that everyone should do at least one

litter pick during their time at

Priestlands.” Other students then said the

same thing.

However, the litter has im-

proved in the past 3 years.

The school improved the litter

by being strict and telling pupils how it

affects the school. Many pupils took that

in.

Looking to the future, another

pupil said, “I think that tutor groups

could do litter picks during tutor time to

help litter problems.” That suggestion is

being taken into consideration.

The school has many bins,

meaning you can put as much of your

litter in the right place. We would like

our school to be litter free so when we

have visitors, we can show them how

much pride we take in our school and

how we want to impress other people.

Pupils, as you may have no-

ticed, have taken action and are going

round the school picking up litter in an

attempt to keep our school litter free.

Even some teachers have been

complaining about the amount of litter

that has been found around our school

and how other students have had to pick

it up.

So please, if you go over to the

bin to put some rubbish in there and it

misses, be a great student and help our

school community by taking a few mo-

ments to pick up that small piece of litter.

WE NEED YOU.

It’s rubbish!

Fabulous Features 13

Sports 15

“Prelim day” (in prepa-

ration for Sports Day) is held

on Tuesday 25th June and is an

event which holds all of the

events that don’t involve short

distance running and relays.

The events on Prelim day

are: High jump, Javelin, Shot-

put, Discus, Long jump, 600 me-

ters and 1000 meters.

This is held a different

day from sports day so year 7’s

who are on the French Trip will

be able to participate in these

events that are great fun and re-

quire everyone to work together!

This is also a competi-

tion between A and Alpha so

everyone is determined to win!

Priestlands School is pre-

paring for Sports Day which,

this year, is taking place on the 5th

July on a Friday for year 7 and

year 8.

Some of the many events

happening include: Relay, Olym-

pic relay, and 80 metre, 100 me-

tre, 150 metre, 400 metre and 600

metre runs.

This competitive event is

held between the two sides of the

school: A and Alpha.

So far the events in year 7

between A and Alpha have all

been won by A (Cross Country

and Swimming) but could it

change after Sports Day?

The school is hoping for a

great sunny day for all our events.

The day will be sensation-

al with hopefully everyone in each

year taking part.

Every person should have

their event ready for the day.

Sadly some pupils at the

school are on the French trip so

they will missing out on all the

great sporting activities.

This sports day will be just

like the proper Olympics as we

are a very talented bunch of pu-

pils.

The competition between

A and Alpha is extraordinary as

Alpha are looking for revenge in

sports day.

Overall this will be an ex-

citing day for everyone looking

forward to that day!

Sports Day Soon

Pre-

lim

plans

The Girls’ Tennis Tour-

nament was held on the 7th of

June. The 4 girls who got through

were Vita Heathcote, Milly

Boyle, Charlotte Boyle and Am-

ber Sallows.

The boys

Tennis Tourna-

ment was held on

the 10th of June.

The tour-

naments were

played in the cage

after school and

Mr Richie was in

charge of the tour-

nament.

There was

beginner and intermediate tourna-

ments and the top 4 of the inter-

mediate tournaments were offered

a place in the school team.

The semi-finals and the

finals were fast, clever and really

good to watch.

The school tennis team

will go on to play other schools as

a team.

The Priestlands Year 7

cricket team gained a secure vic-

tory recently, which ended with

them having 83 runs in 12 overs.

It was a big win with the

other team only scoring 30.

The team worked hard and

played very well, even consider-

ing it was their first proper match

as a team. They got many wick-

ets and were extremely good in

bat.

In the near future there are

games coming up against other

schools such as Ringwood school,

Burgate school and Hounsdown

school. The team is hoping to

carry on being victorious in future

matches.

What wicket Win!

Sports 16

Tennis team

tournament