Google Expeditions – from London to France to Rio to the Amazon Rainforest. All in a day.
French Visit to Strathclyde University
Happy (slightly belated) New Year to all our readers! It’s all very exciting over here in the classchat office right now. It’s the news you’ve been waiting for – the news of the century! Yes, Classchat can exclusively reveal the principal cast for this year’s West-End worthy production of “Rock of Ages”! The show has it all: awesome music, a girl-meet-boy love story and – of course – a down-right nasty villain who is hell-bent on destroying the rock scene on Sunset Strip.
It’s the mid-80s when Kansas actress-wanabee Sherrie (Genna Allan, S6) seeks out her fortune in LA, meeting Drew (Ross Maiden, S5) a barman looking for his lucky break as Rockstar alter-ego Wolfgang Von Colt. Sherrie is soon starstruck when hot singer Stacee Jaxx (Finlay Quinn, S5) comes to perform at the strip. The show is narrated by Lonny (Finlay Morrow, S6), who puts the flamboyant in glam-rock and is best friend to bourbon room owner Dennis Dupree (Addison Mann, S4). The strip is also inhabited by the Venus a-go-go dance club owned by motherly Justice (Sophie Cotton, S3). Add in a baddie – Hilda (Star Penders, S5) – whose evil plan is to replace the clubs with a Footlocker, and her son Franz (Aidan Phillips, S5), whose real passion lies in German candy; layer on a passionate activist – Anita (Rhionna Inwood, S3) – and a bumbling mayor (Michael Smith,S5) and you’ve got one exciting and just slightly crazy night of entertainment!
Tickets for Rock of Ages: High School Edition will be on sale very soon. Meanwhile, please save the date – Sunday 18th June until Wednesday 21st June. Get ready to don your best 80s rock garb and come along to the hottest rock show to hit Largs this year.
I know what you’re thinking – June is so far away! Fear not! The music department have also been working hard with our junior pupils to bring you the school’s first ever junior show – Something Nuts! – on 23rd and 24th March. More about that in next week’s classchat.
Over in the science faculty, there was recently a visit from Google, showcasing the new Expeditions technology. This new innovation allows learners to be instantly transported to field trips without leaving the class room, and during the taster day, pupils were given the opportunity to see the principal sites of scientific and historical importance. Our classchat correspondent popped in to see what the fuss was about. It was certainly a unique experience being able to walk through the amazon and visit the slums of Rio through an app which allows the teacher to guide the virtual tour. (See the pictures!)
And finally… here’s Ellyn Barclay (S4) with new of a recent modern languages trip. On Friday 13th January, some French students accompanied Faculty Leader Miss Gall to a Business Brunch at Strathclyde University. Attending this event allowed the students to see how languages can be used throughout the workplace. There was a huge variety of companies taking part from ‘Sheppard and Whedderburn’, a Law Firm, to Strathclyde University itself. It gave the students a great insight into how languages can be used in life after school.
Students attended a market place to discuss opportunities for languages in the workplace and completed questionnaires. Students got a taster session in Russian by staff at the University. The group went to their second workshop with Mark Pentleton, Director of Radiolingua. The Radio Lingua Network is a Scottish company headquartered in South Ayrshire that provides language-learning materials through podcasts, YouTube videos, the iBookstore and other Internet-based media. Mark spoke to students about the opportunities offered by continuing to study languages. Having spent all of his professional life working with languages, Mark shared his experiences with students and talked about the opportunities he has had through speaking various languages to a greater or less extent. A key message of the day was that “a little language goes a long way”, but the best experiences come from not worrying about making mistakes and enjoying communicating in other languages.
The day finished on a high note, with a plenary from Mark Pentleton, who got all the students speaking in Chinese. At the end of the event, the students had to answer : “Are you intending to continue language learning after the academic year?” and a strong majority said Yes. This was an enjoyable and highly informative opportunity to speak to successful people who can partially or entirely attribute their success to use of language. The Business Brunch certainly makes it clear to learners that languages are an essential skill and are highly regarded by employers.
