News Archive : May05 - Oct05
Michael Morpurgo Visit
by Haiden, form 8O
On Thursday 6 October 2005, Simon, Sean and I went to see Michael Morpurgo at Worsley Courthouse.
Michael was in the city because he was the winner of the 2004 Salford Children's Book Award, but was unable to collect his prize in January.
Whilst he was here he gave a speech about the award winning book Private Peaceful. He also told us about what gave him inspiration for this and previous books. He gets his wife to check over the books he writes by hand, before she types it up on computer.
He said he leaves her for the day so she can read the book, and she always said that not one was as good as War Horse, also set in World War One.
But when he wrote Private Peaceful, he went home and said to her, “I know what you are going to say, that it's not as good as War Horse”.
But she said, “No, it is. Not better, but as good as.”
We spoke to Michael afterwards as he signed books for the school. He told us that the idea of Private Peaceful, a soldier whose brother is shot for cowardice, came from a letter he had seen in a museum in France, sent to a mother in Salford. Her son had been killed, after a trial lasting twenty minutes, for the same offence. The mother's character in the book is very strong, and he agreed he did this as a tribute to the lady from Salford.
TSHS celebrates Harvest 2005
On the morning of Wednesday 19th October, we held our annual Harvest assembly. As usual, we were overwhelmed by the vast amount of produce donated by our pupils.
During the afternoon a group of prefects unpacked the boxes and made up the harvest parcels and boxes, ready to deliver the following day.
Mr Dunnet, Mr Goldie and four year 11 pupils delivered around 150 parcels and bags, in record time, to a variety of places, including:
Age Concern, Agnes Hopkins Day Centre, Rainbow Nursery, Crandon Court, Laurence Lowry Court, Heath Cottage, The Fountains, Pennine Court and Sindsley Court.
A further 63 bags were delivered later in the day by individual pupils to their nominated elderly people.
We have received many messages of thanks from the recipients and they would like to pass on their thanks to all who took part. Many thanks are also due to staff, parents and pupils who contributed so generously.
Pupils, Visitors and Staff Enjoy Open Evening!
On Tuesday 4th October, The Swinton High School hosted a very successful Open Evening. We estimate that we were visited by over 700 people, making it one of our best ever.
Visitors were very impressed with our school, and commented on the excellent behaviour and the helpfulness of our pupils, who were there to help for the evening. There were many activities for people to see, including exploding cans in science, sampling medieval food in history, the steel pans and a superb performance from the dancers in The Swinton Globe.
The Big Deal - September 2005
What a fortnight! Religious studies and PSVE lessons were transformed by a group of young people who are called ‘The Big Deal'. They are a Christian group who are working with Salford schools to promote an understanding and appreciation of the Christian faith.
They delivered a packed programme of thought provoking RS and PSVE lessons, and fantastic assemblies alive with music, dancing and audience participation.
The two week programme ended in spectacular style with a professionally staged music and multi-media presentation for all of years 7, 8 and 9. The pupils bopped along to live singing, dancing, drama and rapping – backed by lots of cool video footage.
The Big Deal have really given Swinton pupils an insight into the significance of religion for young people, and we all had a brilliant time.
The Swinton Globe Opens
On Wednesday 7th September the school officially opened “The Swinton Globe Theatre”. We now have a state of the art theatre within our school that can hold an audience of 250.
The pupils within the school took part in special assemblies. Mr Biddlestone made a speech, they watched our ‘Story of Success' on video and were treated to a live performance by ‘Vintage' – one of our school music groups.
One year 11 pupil said, “A vast improvement on the old facilities”.
“I can't wait to see a performance in the theatre. The lighting is excellent and the sound system is great”, said a year 9 pupil.
In the evening, former Emmerdale actor ‘Emma Atkins' made a guest appearance. VIP guests were invited to tour the new facilities, enjoy wine and canapés and watch a performance given by our students.
Emma gave a short speech about how she came into the performing arts industry and commented upon how talented our pupils are.
Thank you to all pupils and staff who have worked so hard to make The Swinton Globe the fantastic theatre it now is.
Performing Arts Summer School
July 2005
After everyone had started their summer holidays a few staff and thirty two dedicated students took part in our ‘Performing Arts Summer School'. The week consisted of seven days of dance, drama and music based on a circus theme. Pupils were chosen from year 6 and year 7 as they showed talents in the performing or visual arts.
Thursday 21st July
Circus Art and Music Workshops.
Pupils took part in circus skills sessions led by an expert from SPLATS circus specialists. They learnt how to balance feathers, juggle scarves and also use more dangerous equipment such as wheel runners and unicycles.photograph of pupils enjoying summer school
Friday 22nd July
On this day pupils learnt a new dance routine to ‘Barnum', pieces of mime based pantomime and also took part in a drumming session led by professional drummer Dave Kelly. The workshops were energy packed and stretched the pupils experience.
Monday 25th July – Chester Zoo
All pupils and staff went to the zoo to gain inspiration for some visual arts work. We saw elephants, lions, seals, penguins and even had bats from the bat enclosure landing on our heads. One group even took the monorail to view the animals from ‘on high' and saw the great range of animals the zoo has.
Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th July
Groups created their own movies taking on the role of production team, technical crew and actors. The films were then edited and each pupil received a copy. They also learned ‘Come Follow The Band' with Howard Gray, a professional musical director.
Thursday 28th and Friday 29th July
These days saw the culmination of the week. The art exhibition and live performance in front of a packed audience of parents, families and friends. Frantic rehearsals and painting sessions took place. Each pupil performed for the appreciative audience and they shared their circus presentation.
Pupils were awarded prizes and certificates for their hard work and they celebrated their talents and art, music, dance and drama.
Sports Day at TSHS
July 2005
Sports day 2005 was another huge success with the events being spread over two days. All of the field events were held on our sports field with some fantastic performances from all of our students.
Those competing in the track events had an extra-special treat, a trip to the Bolton Arena and the use of their superb outdoor athletics area. Fortunately, the weather was with us and everyone had a really enjoyable day. Some students beat the current school record in their event and received certificates for their achievement at the end of year assembly.
Those who didn't quite beat the school record still took something nice away from the day, a close up of Amir Khan as he left the venue (which just happened to be at the same time as the staff and almost 300 students!!).
Many thanks to our students for their brilliant efforts in their events and thanks also to all of the staff who helped out on the day.
Primary Action Sports Challenge
July 2005
Once again, we hosted the primary schools sports action challenge in our sports hall and gymnasium for the whole of the new year 7 intake. The participants were put into groups and they performed in a series of different activities which involved tests of speed, coordination, strength and agility. Each group scored points in each activity and at the end of the day, those points were added up to reveal an overall winning group.
Everyone worked hard for their teams and achieved the overall objective of HAVING FUN!!
Many thanks to our GCSE PE students who organised the teams and ran the events. They were a credit to the school.
The World's Largest Music Lesson
July 2005
On Tuesday 5th July, The Swinton High School set out to break a world record by undertaking the world's largest music lesson.
The record stood at 211 people simultaneously playing the guitar. With the help of our year 6 intake pupils, the whole of year 7 and a few older helpers, we managed a recorder lesson for 248 people.
All the pupils learnt to play a simple tune and had to play it together for at least 10 minutes. The overall sound was pretty incredible, but we managed to keep going and are sure that we have broken the record!!
The Rainforest Visits The Swinton High School
June 2005
On Monday 6th June 2005, Dave Shaw and his wife came into school and gave an entertaining, interesting and dynamic talk about the rainforest and its resources.
Pupils were shown typical rainforest animals including a tarantula spider, large stick insects and a piranha fish. They were also able to see artefacts such as the bow and arrow used by a 4 year old (bigger than the child itself) and a blow pipe, at least 3m long which was used to burst a balloon from across the hall.
The tribes people used all parts of plants and animals, even if this involved removal of poisons, eg. cyanide soup. Pupils were shown the materials for nappies, nail files made from fish scales, tool sharpeners made from fish teeth, poisons from frogs, arrows from leaves, flutes from bones, necklaces and much more.
Pupils had a greater understanding of the rainforest and its importance to the Earth. They enjoyed the session immensely. I was pleased that Dave complimented the behaviour, interest, courtesy and involvement of our pupils, especially as he rarely gives to give presentations to secondary schools.
Christina Francotte wins Salford Pop Idol Competion
May 2005
At the end of December 2004, Salford CLC created an opportunity for a year 10 pupil to become a Pop Idol. Entry was open to all Salford schools. Auditions began in February where contestants had the opportunity to perform their pop songs in the recording studio at The Swinton High School.
The 50 competitors were whittled down to the 10 best performers from the live auditions which were held at Eccles College. I was excited to be selected for the final ten. So, it was down to hard work and more preparation ready for the big night.
The 10 finalists sang their hearts out at The Willows in front of a full house. The was an X-factor style panel would select the winner. As each person finished their performance they had to stay on stage and receive comments from the panel. At the end of all of the performances the panel then went away to deliberate the winners.
It was a very long half an hour before they returned. We were all brought back on stage along with Richard Dodd (EIC) who was going to present the prizes. I stood on the stage and my heart was beating. Third place went to Ashleigh O'Brien from St. Patrick's High School. Second place went to Mitchell Holmes from Ambrose Barlow. So at this point I was really nervous and excited because I knew I had sung really well and was in with a chance.
Then it was announced –
"With her extraordinary rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Christina Francotte is the 2005 Salford Pop Idol."
When they announced my name I was absolutely ecstatic and couldn't believe I had won. I received a bunch of flowers and also won a week in a recording studio in Salford to record a demo CD, a professional photo shoot and my own personal website. I was then asked to sing my song again.
It has been a brilliant experience and I hope it will bring me further opportunities as my life ambition is to be a singer. I would like to thank the school for supporting me all the way and thank all the teachers for turning up to watch me perform on the big night.