Stop Animal Cruelty

Half a term in to school and we have done all sorts of things already, with some great successes. One of the main projects we are working on is for our Enterprise subject. In essence, the project is to make money and spread awareness of a chosen charity using £50 as starter money. Firstly though, what charity would we support?

Around the world, millions and millions suffer because of major issues that have struck our world. And we realized this. When asked to come up with one charity, my class come up with various charities with a vast variety of goals and ideas. After a full 2 weeks, we came up with our class charity: PeTA.

As they say on their website 'PeTA is a UK-based charity dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. Like humans, animals are capable of suffering and have interests in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use – for food, clothing, experimentation, entertainment or any other reason.' 

Charity chosen, we planned and discussed, coming up with roles and ideas. Now that is after half-term we have started making items to sell, doing events for awareness, etc. We also have been talking with the charity to give us some merchandise and talking with shops, companies and estate agents such as Lush (who also promote the stop of animal cruelty) to donate samples or products in order help promote the charity. I ,also, as Project blogger am writing about what we are doing on the Giving Nation organization website. This organization is one that lets schools across UK do projects like ours.

So far we raised around £200 from a school cake sale and a 'Popcorn and Candyfloss Wednesday'. With the bag packing we are due to do in the local M&S shop and the Christmas Fair which will include stationary, perfume, make up, cakes and bakes and jewelry, I believe that we can raise around £500 at the end of the the project. The project is a great opportunity that will benefit no only the charity but ourselves :)    

I can code a new world

Back to school today and not excited...Sorry, guys. However my half-term was more exciting. But I wasn't planning my Halloween costume or deciding how to get the most sweets trick or treating. No.

I was going to code..Code a whole new world.

Wait, does making a rock, paper, scissor game count?...No?! Nonetheless, I planned to learn Python, doing the basics first, working through some websites and finally making a game and program. 

I went through the basic such as if and else statements, arrays, lists and functions referring to a website called http://usingpython.com/ which I found was very useful. I did one exercises for each basic info I needed to know throughout 4 days.

Then I made two working programs: 

• Takes away the items in list 2 from list 1 to create list 3 
• Rock, paper, scissors game

Although the first one looks simple, I actually found that one a lot more difficult in terms of finding a solution. Both of them were great fun though.

A trip, a run and a wild goose chase...

My cast (smaller one)

Okay, summer is over and it's back to school for a new year of work now I'm a Year 8. But I'm sure you want to know what I did for 6 weeks during summer hols (yeah, I know you didn't hear from me). I spent my days in India and I definitely did a lot of things. Along with having the opportunity to meet relatives and experience the culture over there, I also managed to make a bunch of new friends and memories to remember, good and bad.

Me in The Hindu

It’s funny thinking about it now but it definitely wasn't fun when I fractured my arm only 2 days in to my holidays. While running after a goose in my friend’s farm, I slipped and, lo and behold, my arm was stuck in a massive cast for 5 weeks. Eek! :( Arm stuck in one position, I spent the next week unable to play anything but cards with my cousins before they were off to USA again.

The village area

Guess who ran cast and all for 10k and then was in the The Hindu newspaper the next day. Yes, meeeee! :) Me and my mum ran in a night marathon, it was sure hard especially at the end but I persevered and for my first run managed to finish just 5 mins off my target time of 1 hour 30 mins. I made good friends with all the kids too, rushing to get multiple Glow-bands. The next day, we went to the movies as a treat, me and one of my new found friends enjoying popcorn and ice cream throughout.    

Fun in the stream

With the upcoming of Independence Day, a couple of messages around and we were going to Agali, Kerala. At this point, I had a removable cast, so I was okay going. On August 15th, we all met up and trooped into two minivans ’sorted out' by moi and set out on our Freedom Agali trip. 

Freedom Agali group

On the way, I saw the Western Ghats and beautiful sights and then we arrived at Agali, to swim in the river for hours. It was absolutely amazing because I had never swam in a river in such beautiful surrounding, making my way through the rocks and current while posing for photos, playing in the water and falling. One of the Best days ever!! :) 

Fixing the casing

A few days after, one of my relatives let me and my parents visit their Transformer factory which I have to say was a life experience. I was fascinated to see the whole production line from plain steel to workers coiling the wire to fixing the casing and even final quality checks. 

Finished Transformer

I saw the making of the plastic moulds just like how I had made Injection-moulds in school but on a bigger scale. I even got a view of the gardens, its unique plants and koi fish as well as getting a lesson in how a generator works too. I learnt so so so much and saw the way factories worked in India especially compared to here in the UK.

Local restaurant

Arm finally healed, I said goodbye to my friends and then we took a sleeper bus (yes, I know, it was pretty cool) to Pondicherry to spend a week doing eye exercises in the School of Perfect Eyesight because my power is -6! I went in the morning and in the evening for a week checking my power at the beginning and at the end. It was different to how I expected but at the end of the week I had improved by 0.5. During lessons I went through all the given exercises including Palming and Candle-lighting reading. The lessons were a different way of benefiting the eyes and I thought it was actually really effective.

Chennai beach

Holiday almost coming to an end, we headed to Chennai for the last three days and it was impossibly HOT! We went to the B.M Birla Planetarium and Science Museum indoors. Although it was pretty quiet that day, we had plenty of time to view all the areas and learn a couple of things too. The planetarium was really cool and I loved being immersed in the stars! We also went to the famous Chennai beach in the evening on our last day.  

Finally at the end, we took our plane home, happy yet tired, a great holidays behind. Yep, it was definitely one of the best summers :)

France Fun!

At France!

On Friday 26th June 7:00 am, I left my house with my suitcase in my hand, grinning madly in anticipation. Why? As part of a school trip, the whole of Y7 were going to France for 3 days. To apply our knowledge of the French Language. Yeah ok, but I was waiting for the roller coaster rides and awesome hot weather.

Day 1

Our dorm group

After everyone arrived at school that morning, the teachers hushed us towards our coaches, doing registers and taking suitcases. We were all given pink (yeah, pink of all colours) hats to wear at all times so that they could quickly point out an Newsteadian. We all waved goodbye to our parents with promises of phone calls every night and finally the coaches, one by one, left heading towards the port, Dover, to take our ferry. 

Nausicaa Aquarium

During the drive, we sang, played games, ate sweets and talked loudly, very loudly. The time passed quickly and we boarded the ferry. The ferry was basically an hour of roaming around with my friends after we had eaten a small snack. to different places. 

Turtle just peeping

From France, Calais, it was a quick drive to Boulogne-Sur-Mer where we visited an aquarium called Nausicaa. It was good fun and we did see plenty and beautiful fishes, turtles and sharks. One we had all completely seen the whole of the aquarium and manage to successfully find the exit (I admit this may have been a small problem), we were pretty hungry and drove to Flunch (a french restaurant) to eat dinner. 

My yummy dinner

Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as it sounds. We had to make our way through the salad and desert areas to face the till where we all spoke in French to order our meals. I had fish and chips with some salad plus a strawberry and custard tart. I was full to the brim! After this we settled into our rooms with our trios at the Ibis hotel in Roissy de Paris, unpacked, tried to get the TV working and eventually managed to sleep.

Day 2

Breakfast at hotel 

The next one of my roomies and I woke up at a very early 4:30 am in excitement for supposedly the best day ever at Parc Asterix (a theme park based on the stories of Asterix and Obelix). As we woke up so early, after having breakfast downstairs we watched a French cartoon called Les Lapins Cretin featuring some really cute rabbits! I was suprised to understand most of the plot as it was all in French. At 9:15 am, Y7 gathered together in the lobby and set off to the theme park only half an hour away. 

On the way

It did take a long time to get our ticket and enter but then we had 5 hours on rides so we didn't care! Through the day, the sun shone continually and I went on various rides and rollercoaster. Some of the best rides was the Menhir Express (X2 because it was sooooo good) where we literally got soaked to the bone and the La Trace Du Hourra which was simply exhilarating. 

Parc Asterix

Some of us went to the Seven Loops but I was way too scared to go on it and stayed with the bunch of other 'wimps'. At lunch we ate burgers and chips at one of the theme park restaurants. After all of that, we went to a French mall and tried out our French as we bought souvenirs, french specialties and our dinner for that day. We had planned a mini feast back at the hotel but as we were so tired fell fast asleep.

Day 3

Official building

The last day was of a more calm sightseeing type compared to before but it was a warm welcome after such an fun packed two days.
In the morning, we drove into the center of Paris viewing many sights and famous streets, including a talk by one of our teachers as we past each sight. We stopped straight in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

River Seine

But this was to see later as we firstly made our way to the River Seine to take a boat trip that gave me an opportunity to use my photography skills. I have to say I got some great shots! 

Eiffel Tower

As well as this, I enjoyed seeing the French culture and way of life.we sat under the great Eiffel Tower of France and marvelled at its beauty while we ate a small lunch just before we were to leave. We bid goodbye to France and headed back all the way home. It was a great trip that I would definitely do again but I did miss my family and home too. I reached home and snuggled into my warm bed, happy. Au Revoir, France!