October 2019 – JMAC- The Blog Experience

Top 5 Best Things About Halloween

October is here and spooky month is upon us!! And that means Halloween, truly one of the best holidays. And here only the top 5 best things about Halloween though there are many.

Decorations

Let’s be real, when a house puts out a single bowl of sweets with a sign saying ‘take one’ disappointment doesn’t begin to describe that house. Pumpkins litter people’s doorsteps with carvings from the classic pumpkin face, to witches hats, to intricate designs, to pumpkins throwing up their guts. Get creative.

And then there’s the inside. Houses begin to put up fake cobwebs, hanging ghosts, and skeletons. A parties cool and all but a Halloween party with skeletons, frozen hands as ice, hanging ghosts, and fake dead body outlines are the best.

Trick or treating

Okay maybe it’s a ‘kid thing’ but it’s also amazing. Dressing up, going up to strangers houses, asking for sweets and getting them! For free! As someone who grew up with 2 brother’s close in age we were set for weeks. Imagine a pile of sweets, nuts, fake tattoos, and even sometimes a juice spread across your living room. For free! Some people even home baked treats for the trick or treaters.

And there’s the jokes. Oh the jokes. Although I’m ‘too old’ to trick or treat answering the door and hearing the jokes is spooktacular. Who doesn’t love a dumb Halloween pun? And sometimes they get creative with their jokes

If this spooky season you’re too old to go trick or treating find a brother or sister or even a cousin to take round! It’s worth it. It’s one of the perks of having a two year old brother.

Pets in costumes

This had to be its own category. Pets can be cute. Cats, dogs, even snakes can all have there moments. But on Halloween?

What better thing is there than when you answer the door on Halloween and it isn’t a bratty kid but a bratty kid and a dog? And that dog is a pumpkin! I don’t even need to say anything else.

The aesthetic

Halloween is an aesthetic. Fall colours, Halloween parties, spooky movies. Plus since its autumn you have the bonus of fall. You can watch scary movies with a blanket and hot chocolate since its October and who cares?

Recently October has become its own aesthetic. Orange, pumpkin spice, Halloween makeup. Instagram floods with ‘scary’ makeup. Carving pumpkins is becoming a trend. Every country has its own little extra like Americas candy corns just to make it even better. The Halloween aesthetic is own of the best.

Costumes

Best for last, am I right? Pet costumes aside it’s the human costumes that are the best. You can do your own thing, a family costume, a couple costume, a group costume, or even where a shirt saying ‘this is my costume’, though that is a let-down let’s be honest.

And costumes cater for all types. Minimal effort people draw six lines on their face and call themselves a cat and spooktacular people bust out the latex and fake blood and look like they got lost on their way to the hospital. Costumes aren’t even just scary any more. Punny costumes, political costumes, cute costumes, and much more. Some people are using body paint to morph themselves into something not even human.

Who doesn’t want to be someone else for a day? Okay maybe not completely but still. Halloween gives you that (kind of). You can at least dress like whoever you want and act like them with little to no judgement.

So get your costume, get your trick or treat bags ready. It’s Halloween this Thursday and the Victoria Park Halloween party is tonight, it’s not a drill. Its spooky time

S1 Book Giveaway

As part of the Read to Succeed initiative, S1 students got the chance to get themselves a free book, funded by PEFT.

On Wednesday, during the afternoon the students were taken out of their classes to pick a book from a wide selection of authors who took part in the Read to Succeed program.

Our school librarian, Mrs McGough commented that “myself along with the English Department want to encourage students to read more in the school, and this was part of our initiative to do so”

All 184 first year students got the chance to order a book of their choice to take home and keep.

Active Girls Day 2019

Every year our school organises a wide range of activities to celebrate active girls day. This day encourages girls to get involved with sports and to be more active in general.

The spectacular day was organised by our very own S5 and S6 sports leaders along with the PE department and girls from all year groups took part. It was a fabulous event.

When asked about the day, S6 student Sophie Farrell said, “Active girls day was great fun and I really enjoyed it! It is so important that girls get involved with sports both in and out of school. We also got to wear our own clothes all day which was fun.”

Many activities were offered to students and they were able to pick one to spend just under an hour participating in. These included bench ball, gymnastics, trampolining and dance.

Gabriel McClymont, S6 sports leader and school vice captain commented, “It’s rare that we get an occasion like this, it only comes once a year. The sports leaders were all hyped up and ready to go!”

European Day Of Languages 2019

Every year people across the world come together to celebrate Languages and the benefits they have had to our lives. St. Aidan’s High schools very own Modern Languages department organised treasure hunts for the junior pupils and speakers from all different walks in life for the senior pupils. Kulwinder Bhumbra from Volvo commented “I think promoting and educating people on cultures, languages and other valuable skills goes a long way”

Mr Bradley Head of Modern languages department commented on the organisation of the event “there is a lot of work and a lot of preparation that goes into organising the speakers, it begins months in advance to make sure we get everything we need. its always a great event and very worthwhile ” . The day brings awareness to the rapid decline in pupils choosing to take on a language to qualification grade and teaches the young people of the many doors having a second language can open for them in the the future. Lorraine Donegan ” don’t brush over languages just because you don’t plan on using it to teach in the future”

Michael McGregor -director of corporate banking at Santander-commented on the importance of these talks for young people ” It’s quite an important session and its something I have been doing for a couple of years because I can give back relative and recent experience of why to choose modern languages, if that can help even one person then that is the benefit from my perspective”

2019 Auschwitz Visit

On the 3rd of October, two S6 students went on a reflective visit to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in the South of Poland. Joined by approximately 200 other visitors from Scotland, S6 R.E Vice Captains Carla Foley and Kate Hughes, had an emotional experience as they visited one of the most important sites of European history.

“I feel like dissociated would be the best way to describe how i felt, I just couldn’t comprehend this was where I was” explained Kate. She said she didn’t realise herself that this was where everything happened until she saw a ‘work makes you free’ sign while walking around. Kate also mentioned the tragic side of how the holocaust had a big impact on religion for Polish Jews as many synagogues were destroyed but never rebuilt. Oświęcim, the town near where Auschwitz is located, had a 50% Jewish population.

Kate and the community near Auschwitz urges people to talk about the severity of the genocide that occurred and to find some stories from individual survivors as it is “easier to connect to one person than 6 million.”

World Mental Health Awareness Day

The 10th of October is world mental health awareness day. Although mental health is a daily issue world mental health awareness day was designed to empower people to talk about it. This year’s theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is suicide prevention.

In 2018 there were 6,859 across the UK and the Republic of Ireland and the deaths by suicide rose 11.8% in 2018. It’s not a ‘female’ issue. Men are 3 times as likely to die by suicide in the UK and 4 times as likely in the republic of Ireland. In Scotland, the suicide rate of young people between 15-24 has increased by 52.7%, the highest since 2007.

Don’t become another statistic.

It’s not a foreign issue; it isn’t just some old guy in a newspaper, it isn’t just a friend’s cousin’s girlfriend or just a celebrity with the world at their fingertips. It’s us. It might be you, your neighbour, friend, teacher, family. But why do we still treat it like it is? Why don’t we talk about it?

It’s a question I can’t answer for you. We need to change the question, not the answer, to why don’t we talk about it? When a disease sweeps across the nation, killing thousands, we look for a cure. There isn’t a pill you can take or some exercise you can do but what you can do is support people.

We can’t cure people by telling them to just smile or fake it till you make it but we can listen. Talking about it is step one. Another step maybe some form of therapy or maybe even medication and that’s good too. But talking is the most important.

Telling people how you feel, listening when they tell you, is essential. Whether it’s a friend, family member, teacher, or a professional someone out there wants to help you. Even if you think “I’m not that bad” or “there’s worse” talk! There’s no shame in what you may feel.

1 in 10 aged 5 to 16 are affected by a mental health problem but 70% of young people with mental health problems don’t receive the appropriate support. Unfortunately, this means if you or a friend need help you may need to fight for it.

I won’t lie and say it’s a walk through a flower field for recovery. There are weeds and litter and you might get stuck in the mud along the way but you keep walking. Talk to a parent or a teacher (or if you’re old enough go to your GP on your own) and you can ask for help. They’ll be able to refer you to someone who can help.

Or call one of the numbers listed below:

Anxiety UK Phone: 08444 775 774 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5.30pm) Website: www.anxietyuk.org.uk

No Panic Phone: 0844 967 4848 (daily, 10am-10pm) Website: www.nopanic.org.uk

OCD UK Phone: 0845 120 3778 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) Website: www.ocduk.org

Samaritans Phone: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline) Website: www.samaritans.org.uk

Young Minds Phone: Parents’ helpline 0808 802 5544 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-4pm) Website: www.youngminds.org.uk

You may see teachers wearing yellow for world mental health awareness day on the 10th. This is to help reduce the stigma.

Never give in. you never know what will happen tomorrow. It might take a while to get better but that doesn’t mean it won’t.

top 5 games of 2018

5. Pokemon lets go eevee and lets go pikachu

These games are the second time Nintendo have remastered the 1st generation of Pokemon and are the first Pokemon games on the switch although they are not part of the main series. But they do give Pokemon fans a good idea of what the next games sword and shield will be like. 5/10

4. God Of War

This PS4 exclusive is about the returning Greek god Kratos but he has now switched his mythology to Nordic. The game is about Kratos and his and his son BOY trying to take his wife’s ashes to the top of a mountain. This game also wrongfully won game of the year. 6/10

3. Spider-man PS4

This spider man game is easily the best one or at least is up there. this game is so good not for its story but for its open world it looks exactly like New York and there is so much to. Such as collecting back packs or taking down villain hideouts. plus there are so many Spidey outfits to chose from from the one in homecoming to the future foundation suit. 7/10

2. Assassins Creed Odyssey

Odyssey is definitely a great addition to the Assassins Creed series. this is the earliest setting in the Assassins Creed series being set in 431 BC during the Peloponnesian war. This game is absolute riddled with amazing features introducing new features and reusing older great ones. Ubisoft brought back navel conflict reused from III, black flag and rouge. 2 amazing new features were the ability to chose the gender of your character and allowing players for the first time too play as a main female character and to choose your dialog giving us an almost full RPG experience. you can also fight the Minotaur what more do you want. 9/10

1. Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption II is a prequel to the first game which featured a man called John Marston but in this game we play as Arthur Morgan. So to be fair the start of the game is pretty slow and kinda boring but the rest of the game is amazing. the story has some amazing twists and is extremely emotional at times and is great at filling in gaps from the first game, leaving some unsolved and creating more. The graphics look almost life like and there are some amazing game mechanics like having to clean your gun, or feed your horse and the best one the ability to pet dogs. The game also has an impeccable soundtrack created by the same composers as the first game Woody Jackson and Bill Elm.

This game is just the best game ever it should have won game of the year. 10/10

Scholastic Book Fair

Recently, the school librarian, Mrs McGogh held the annual Scholastic Book Fair in our very own school Library. Students from S1 to S3 were able to visit the library during English to buy books from a wide variety. Our librarian, Mrs McGogh commented that “there’s a great selection of books, there’s also prizes and free book tokens “.

There was a lot of cool stationary and handy school supplies available at the book fair that the students really loved. The students were also able to take part in fun competitions,with some being lucky enough to take home special prizes.

The event was a huge success and many books were sold. Half of the funds raised by the book fair will go towards buying new books for the Library.

Polish and Scottish Schools Unite !!

St Aidan’s were recently given a fantastic opportunity to host for a group of 50 students and a few teachers visiting Scotland from Poland. Liceum Ogólnokształcące nr VII im. Krzysztofa Kamila Baczyńskiego is a secondary school from Wrocław.

The students were warmly welcomed by senior staff, the school captains and our own Polish students representing St Aidan’s. Upon arrival, the visitors received a traditional performance of the bagpipes by Kerr Smillie.

Once they were officially welcomed by Mrs Connelly, both St Aidan’s and our Polish visitors had prepared presentations about the school and the culture in both countries . Afterwards they were given a tour around the school by our own polish students.

Before leaving, they stayed for an early lunch where they tried a classic roll and sausage and were later given another traditional performance by Highland Dancers Alicia Taylor and Niamh Donnelly.

One of the Polish students visiting , Matthew Chris Przyłup commented that “meeting the people here was really exciting because we’re meeting another culture, this experience has been amazing opportunity for us”.

Macmillian Coffee Morning

Macmillan cancer support is one of the UK’s biggest charities and provides specialist health care, information and emotional and financial support to people affected by cancer. Macmillan have a free phoneline, online community, and many other resources for those affected with cancer.

Fundraising is crucial to an organisation like Macmillan. On the 26th of September 2019 the s6 year fundraising committee hosted 2 coffee mornings, one for staff at break and one for S6 at lunch.

Staff and students brought in home baked and bought cakes, biscuits, and even tablet for the event. For £3 staff were able to go into the coffee morning at break and feast on the treats brought in with coffee and tea to match.

S6 years got their turn at lunch. For £1 they came in, got a sticker, and had their coffee morning in the hall. Everyone was able to help themselves to cakes, tablet, and biscuits. Many didn’t expect to spend their whole lunch there but soon nearly the whole of S6 year was in the assembly hall.

What started as a coffee morning with some music in the background soon turned into an impromptu S6 year lunch party. With music playing a couple S6 years danced as they walked leading a few to begin dancing at the back of the assembly hall. By the end nearly everyone was up dancing. Miss O’Neil and Mrs Devlin soon joined in. Miss Conley even showed up just in time to be sung happy birthday. The S6 year coffee morning finished with a raffle with 3 students walking away with a prize.

Nearly £600 was raised for Macmillan and it was enjoyed by everyone. S6 year student Samantha Reynolds said “It was a great day for a great cause and seemed like everyone had a brilliant time at the coffee morning and we raised a lot of money for Macmillan as well as hosted a raffle “