Category: Blogging

JMAC Update! 18/12/20

So many things have happened with JMAC!

We are now part of the Mental Health Committee and are thinking of new ways to push forward our message and campaign, even getting our Black Wall spray painted in our school to have the MHM logo on it.

Although we haven’t been able to participate in our tradition with Victoria Park, last Friday the entirety of six year had a socially distant get-together for the full day, while dressed up as Elves! Evan and I where asked to take photos, sell festive masks, and even make a short video wishing all the rooms at Victoria Park a Merry Christmas.

From everyone in JMAC we wish you a very happy holidays and wish you luck for the New Year

See you in 2021 🙂

     

Here are some of the photos of the day!!

   

JMAC Update! 30/10/20

We have presented the Mental Health Matters Campaign to the S6 Captains and the Mental Health Committee, and we in JMAC plan to collaborate on MHM together to get it out there for people to see. And we have started to think about designs and other ways to promote the brand.

We have completed other works as well, such as the Enterprise Story and The Young reporters project

More Coming Soon…

St.Aidan’s SCIAF Fundraising week 

Last week there was a very special event in St.Aidan’s High School. A fundraising week. SCIAF did a collaboration with UK Aid, every pound that is donated to SCIAF – UK aid will match those SCIAF donations. St.Aidan’s is giving £800 to SCIAF meaning SCIAF will get £1600 in total. The money is collected in R.E classes using the WEE BOX. Students donate money in return for certain activities in the classes for example watching a movie or extra study time. 

 The reason for this SCIAF fundraising week in September is due to during lent we were not able to do charity work because of the lockdown in March. 

SCIAF – Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund – does many fundraiser and campaigns to help poor families grow their food, stand with communities to build peace and promote justice as well as educate the poor to help them fulfil their lives. 

Mark booker, an education officer who would often come to the school to do retreats, is contacting the school thinking of ways how to do these activities due to the Covid-19 Restrictions. One of those retreats would be ‘care for the environment’ with 2nd year in return to raise money for SCIAF. The students donate money before–hand as payment for the retreats which then the money will be donated to SCIAF. 

St. Aidan’s has been doing charity work for years now, they have been successful to fundraise a very large amount of money to various charities and we are looking forward to work with many more charities and organisations in the future. 

Top 5 Movies for the Halloween of 2020

As the spooky day of October draws near, you would probably start thinking;

“How am I supposed to celebrate Halloween this year??”.

Due to the new restrictions and the outbreak of Covid-19 makes celebrating Halloween difficult, No parties, No get togethers. However, there is one thing we’ve always been doing to get into the spooky mood. Watching movies! If its horror, thriller or simply a Halloween movie, it does not matter, in the end it always gets you the mood! Here is My Top 5 Movies to watch on Halloween;

1.  The Nightmare Before Christmas

The very well known family movie that’s a mix of Christmas cheer and Halloween excitement. Who doesn’t adore the animated character, Jack Skellington and his accidental adventure into Christmas Town?

2. The Shining.

A well known Thriller classic! The acting will definitely give you Goosebumps and the amazing cinematography will keep you immersed in the movie like no other. It’s a brilliant movie and you should watch it if you haven’t already and if you’ve watched it then… Watch it again! It’s a great movie to watch on Halloween, you won’t regret watching it!

3. Corpse Bride

This movie definitely gave me a few shivers, the eerie atmosphere throughout the whole movie made it extra spooky along with the animation style using stop-motion. The concept of the film is very unique. The story of this film is quite unsettling and grim, something you wouldn’t really expect from an animated film. However, Its a Tim Burton film, so you would definitely know what to expect! (Unless you’ve never watched a Tim Burton film).

4. Coraline

Another famous Tim Burton classic that’s very well known for its unsettling scenes that often gives younger children nightmares, at least it certainly did for me. The lingering creepy atmosphere adds so much to the film, making you constantly anxious that something might jump out!

5. Scream

A well known film from the 1990’s. A horror/mystery film about a killer murdering multiple people in the area using similar methods. This Concept is now considered a lot more cliché than it did when it first came out. So many of films follow this concept now to the point it’s not as enjoyable anymore. However you can’t go wrong with one of the originals of this concept!

Since I was really young I always loved watching movies, I spent a lot of my time watching them and exploring different genres. As I gotten older I haven’t had the time to watch as many movies as I did when I was younger, but I still enjoy watching them whenever I have that time. I enjoy looking at the small details in films and the soundtrack of the films!

Experience of S1 

The first year pupils of St.Aidan’s High school have arrived after the National lockdown and have been settling in. Due to the pandemic the transition has been a slightly different transition for S1 with small but many differences. A first-year group has been interviewed by sixth year students, the group that was interviewed were Andrew Irving, Olivia Kelly, Caoimhe McCann, Ellie Smith and Anthony Lamarra. 

 

We questioned our S1 group what their opinions were about their teachers, Ellie Smith shared her opinion on her teachers and classes. “They’re really nice and all the stuff we’re doing is really fun!” The group has very positive opinions on the teachers. On the topic of their teachers we were curious what subjects they have enjoyed the most, Ellie told us she really enjoys Drama, Music and Art and Design the most. “I like Drama because we get to do a lot of things and the teacher I have is really funny and nice.” All pupils we interviewed stated they really enjoyed certain subjects as they’re doing fun activities and that the teachers are friendly and open to help if anyone needs help in the class! 

As only a small group of S1 was interviewed due to Covid-19 safety guidelines We asked Ellie and Olivia what their opinion is of the other S1 pupils of the school and if they met any new people, Ellie Smith explained she met many new people through her friends she already knew. “They had friends that they introduced to me, then there’s people you’ve heard about from your friends and that’s just you getting to meet them.” Olivia Kelly had a similar experience meeting new people by being introduced to others by her friends, but she also met people through school activities such as Kilbowie. “I’ve actually met a whole group of people, I kind of met a bunch of them in Kilbowie.” Majority of the group has met many new people which is a great memory of their experience of their transition from Primary to Secondary school. 

However there are also difficulties when moving into new surroundings, Caoimhe McCann shared her feelings on her difficulties when she first arrived to St.Aidan’s High School. “I was just nervous in general about everything because I never went on a tour around here or anything.” Throughout our interviews majority of 1st year pupils stated that they were nervous when it came to the transition of Primary to Secondary. 

Olivia Kelly also commented on her difficulties with navigating around the school. “I was scared to ask people where to go around the school.” Some advice from a 6th year myself, please don’t be scared to ask for directions! Most of us will give you the right directions, most. If you’re still unsure where to go ask a teacher! If it comes to the worst go into a class and ask a teacher for directions there, as awkward as it may be, it will certainly get you to your class! Caoimhe commented as well that the older years were friendly and helped her with navigating around the school “I’m surprised how nice a lot of the people are” Ellie was worried that due to them being new to the school people might not like them as much however it was the opposite, “A lot of the older years are actually really nice and help you find your way around the school.” 

Due to the pandemic, school timetables had to be altered to follow the guidelines that were set to prevent a rise in infections, S1 now has double periods while last year only years from S5-6 had double periods Andrew Irving commented on this change “It’s good for classes like art”. Our group had positive comments on the change as it allowed them to focus more on classes that perhaps need more time to work on different things that may take a very long time to do. 

The group has really enjoyed their experience in St.Aidan’s High School so far and are enthusiastic about their classes and they’re looking forward  to what they will do in their classes in the future! 

This Months Top Five Tunes (In Lockdown)

Having been in Lockdown for the past two months I have had plenty of time to discover new artists and songs. Music is a great escape during these tough times locked inside ( I listen to music out a walk, tidying, reading or when I inevitably get bored and spend hours perfecting a full face of makeup for no reason.)

  1. Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus- The Strokes. This is my favourite song on their new album ‘The New Abnormal’ its very upbeat and – dare I say- dance worthy for a strokes song but to be fair there is only about one song on this album that has the OG strokes vibes to it.
  2. NEW MAGIC WAND- Tyler, The Creator. I’ve always been aware of Tyler, The Creator and I know he has a very prolific fan base but I’ve never taken the time to properly listen to any of his albums – despite the massive success they have had. This is my personal fave on his newest album ‘IGOR’ although it was a difficult decision between this song and A BOY IS A GUN – quite different songs considering it’s a bit ‘softer’ than NEW MAGIC WAND.
  3. ARIES- Gorillaz feat. Peter Hook and Georgia. My second favourite song from Gorillaz new series ‘Song Machine’ featuring the bassist from New Order which gives it a very distinctive New Order ‘sound’.
  4. Night Running- Cage The Elephant, Beck. I’ve always loved Beck but not so much Cage The Elephant, so Beck’s feature on this song is what really sold it for me. I feel like this is definitely going to be one of my ‘summer songs’ this year.
  5.  Strawberry Fields Forever- The Beatles. Who doesn’t love the Beatles? This is probably one of my favourite Beatles songs and it has a similar sound to my all time favourite band Sunflower Bean. My interest in the Beatles was re-ignited after watching the movie ‘Yesterday’ a few weeks ago. The plot of the movie is very interesting and I thought it was very well executed. If I tried to give you a rundown of the plot I would probably end up not doing it any justice so I will leave it to you to look it up if you wish. 🙂

Did Disney Ruin the Star Wars Franchise??

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars was known as a collection of six constructed movies which delved into the nooks and crannies of the sci-fi universe. 

The way our current generation see franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men and Harry Potter is the same way that the generations before us seen the Star Wars franchise.

The return of the franchise marked the beginning of a new era in the Star Wars universe. The seventh movie which started this off was the Force Awakens (2015). This received many mixed signals from the general public. Some fans were ecstatic for the Star Wars legacy to continue, meanwhile others felt uncertain that it could surpass the high expectations of the previous movies.

Despite the doubts, The Force Awakens generated a total of 2.066 billion US Dollars at the box office. This success made doubtful viewers see a different light on the new era.

Until………….The Last Jedi was released.

Surprisingly, there was a divide in opinions regarding the movie, between the critics who seemed to love the film – most likely because the critics are more watchful of different aspects of the movie compared to an ordinary person, they see movies as a work of art-. Whereas the general public had a conflicting response. They value entertainment over art therefore the fans were left disappointed by the messy story lines and plot holes which consequently left the audience at a cliffhanger with many questions unanswered.

The Rise of Skywalker brought back a familiar face. Emperor Palpatine, undoubtedly the manipulator and mastermind behind Order 66 and the Jedi genocide made the appearance in this movie. A major plot twist reveals that Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine.

As the new Star Wars trilogy comes to a close, we are able to see the positive and negative aspects of the release of these movies. Fans were excited with anticipation to watch new Star Wars content, especially after the ten year anniversary since Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

However, many weren’t impressed with the poor character developments. Rey, one of the main protagonists, was seen by the public as too perfect. The fact that she didn’t have any flaws to her character irritated the audience. The unfortunate development of Finn was seen as a disappointment too. His story line in The Force Awakens was the peak of this character as he faded away in the last two movies. Kylo Ren’s character already had high expectations to follow up after the iconic Darth Vader made the legacy the high status is even to this day. His character was seen as a bad excuse of a villain and was a disappointment compared to Darth Vader.

Disney bought Lucasfilm in October 2012 for 4.05 billion dollars. This decision received mixed reviews in the future from fans. Although this chapter of the Star Wars trilogy is over for now, Disney have no plans in stopping the story of the Star Wars universe. Movies such as Rogue One, Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian – which has had a flood of fans in awe over Baby Yoda – have been created to expand the horizons of fans and broaden the complex world that is Star Wars.

 

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