Izzy Harris in the Upper Sixth has recently been appointed the school's first Laureate, a role her excellent poetry truely deserves. She took a memorable assembly on Tuesday, talking about her work, reading examples of it and encouraging others to explore creative writing. Here is an extract from it:
I’m Izzy, the Grange School Laureate. My job isn’t to sit round acting poncy in a waistcoat, though admittedly I do rather enjoy doing that occasionally. Rather, my position is to promote writing in the school, both prose and poetry, we don’t discriminate, and with any luck get a bunch of you involved too. When I started writing I never thought I’d end up reading my poetry to the whole school.
There are many reasons to write, there’s the creativity aspect of course. Expressing yourself in new and experimental ways can be really entertaining, exciting, and helps to broaden your mind, as well as your understanding about yourself and your opinions of the world around you. It’s also a great way of challenging and enthusing yourself outside of the classroom, and I would recommend it to everyone to try, even if it’s just once. You’re first try isn’t going to be a masterpiece, but developing and practising to find a style you enjoy is part of the fun. And I do realise how this all sounds utterly naff, but it is true!
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Doing a little bit to change the world
Lauren Holmes, one of the Sixth Form leaders of ECO, the school's environmental action group writes about a new initiative.
Environmental responsibility and sustainability are issues vital to our future. One message which environmentalists are trying to put across is that 'every little bit helps', and although The Grange School cannot save the world, it can do its share.
In September 2009, the school’s ECO team came up with the idea of creating an eco-garden on the school site. With plenty of hard work, support, time and determination the garden was finished by the end of January 2010. Pochins plc were a great help in clearing the area and putting in five sets of raised beds, so now the garden is ready to be put into use!
Our first job is to decide on what to plant and when it needs to be planted; a shed and modern greenhouse will maximise the possibilities. The hope is that by using what we grow in the canteen, and even for Food and Nutrition lessons, the school can become more self sufficient and in the process we can reduce our carbon footprint a little by reducing deliveries.
What is so great about this project is that, it will not only benefit the environment, but will also bring so much to the school itself. With students from all years and many members of staff excited to help, relationships within the school will flourish even further. It will provide an opportunity to learn new skills outside of lessons, make new friends, do a little exercise and learn important values for the future. It should be a fun and fulfilling experience for everyone involved.
Our hope is that by starting this project, it can carry on and grow so that The Grange can do a very little bit to change to world.
Environmental responsibility and sustainability are issues vital to our future. One message which environmentalists are trying to put across is that 'every little bit helps', and although The Grange School cannot save the world, it can do its share.
In September 2009, the school’s ECO team came up with the idea of creating an eco-garden on the school site. With plenty of hard work, support, time and determination the garden was finished by the end of January 2010. Pochins plc were a great help in clearing the area and putting in five sets of raised beds, so now the garden is ready to be put into use!
Our first job is to decide on what to plant and when it needs to be planted; a shed and modern greenhouse will maximise the possibilities. The hope is that by using what we grow in the canteen, and even for Food and Nutrition lessons, the school can become more self sufficient and in the process we can reduce our carbon footprint a little by reducing deliveries.
What is so great about this project is that, it will not only benefit the environment, but will also bring so much to the school itself. With students from all years and many members of staff excited to help, relationships within the school will flourish even further. It will provide an opportunity to learn new skills outside of lessons, make new friends, do a little exercise and learn important values for the future. It should be a fun and fulfilling experience for everyone involved.
Our hope is that by starting this project, it can carry on and grow so that The Grange can do a very little bit to change to world.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
A New Year Reflection
From Assembly last week: a reflection based on the words of Stephen Cloud
As we look into 2010 we look at a block of time.
We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds.
And all is a gift from God.
We have done nothing to deserve it or to earn it;we have not purchased it and we don’t own it. Like the air we breathe, time just comes to us as a part of life.
The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.
And you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.
And you cannot bring back time.
Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. You may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but you really have no guarantee that you will experience any of it.
Obviously, then, time is one of our most precious possessions.
We can waste it.
We can worry over it.
We can spend it on ourselves.
Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in lives that truly make the most of it for the good of all.
The new year is full of time.
As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window,
Or will you make every minute count?
As we look into 2010 we look at a block of time.
We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds.
And all is a gift from God.
We have done nothing to deserve it or to earn it;we have not purchased it and we don’t own it. Like the air we breathe, time just comes to us as a part of life.
The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.
And you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.
And you cannot bring back time.
Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. You may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but you really have no guarantee that you will experience any of it.
Obviously, then, time is one of our most precious possessions.
We can waste it.
We can worry over it.
We can spend it on ourselves.
Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in lives that truly make the most of it for the good of all.
The new year is full of time.
As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window,
Or will you make every minute count?
Family History
Tom Dickerson from the Lower Sixth shared with us the story of his grandparents:
I come from a Catholic Polish family; they like the Jews and many other groups, were unable to escape the impact of the holocaust. When Germany invaded Poland, the majority of my family were considered a threat by the Nazis: some were sent to Auschwitz as ‘political prisoners’, others were murdered wherever and whenever the Nazis found them, needless to say not a single member of this captured family survived. Those lucky enough to escape the concentration camps and the shootings continued their day jobs, but at night they aided the Polish Underground Resistance in whatever way they could. It wasn’t long until the Nazis came after them too, but only my grandparents managed to escape. They came over to Britain with only a suitcase between them and had to rebuild their entire lives.
I come from a Catholic Polish family; they like the Jews and many other groups, were unable to escape the impact of the holocaust. When Germany invaded Poland, the majority of my family were considered a threat by the Nazis: some were sent to Auschwitz as ‘political prisoners’, others were murdered wherever and whenever the Nazis found them, needless to say not a single member of this captured family survived. Those lucky enough to escape the concentration camps and the shootings continued their day jobs, but at night they aided the Polish Underground Resistance in whatever way they could. It wasn’t long until the Nazis came after them too, but only my grandparents managed to escape. They came over to Britain with only a suitcase between them and had to rebuild their entire lives.
Lessons from Auschwitz
Sixth Formers Sian Dobbs and Matt Shaw visited Aushwitz for a day in November as part of the 'Lessons from Auschwitz' Programme. This post follows an excellent assembly they presented with Tom Dickerson on Holocaust Memorial Day.
65 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz, and we are facing the fact that soon there will be no one left to pass on there first hand accounts what happened. Auschwitz will always be associated with the worst sins of humanity, and with good reason as over 1.5million people lost their lives there, for no other reason than they didn’t fit with one person’s ideals. The Holocaust, however can also be associated with the one of the greatest qualities of mankind: hope. “Legacy of Hope” is this year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day, the intention being to illustrate the extraordinary tales of holocaust survivors, in an attempt to ensure that in the future such acts will never occur again.
65 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz, and we are facing the fact that soon there will be no one left to pass on there first hand accounts what happened. Auschwitz will always be associated with the worst sins of humanity, and with good reason as over 1.5million people lost their lives there, for no other reason than they didn’t fit with one person’s ideals. The Holocaust, however can also be associated with the one of the greatest qualities of mankind: hope. “Legacy of Hope” is this year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day, the intention being to illustrate the extraordinary tales of holocaust survivors, in an attempt to ensure that in the future such acts will never occur again.
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