What I really enjoyed about the English Curriculum Enrichment Day was the play that Mr Brownlie produced in the hall. It was really fun to watch all the pupils in other forms do the play with the help of the teachers.They put on an amazing play by Shakespeare.The play is called ‘Macbeth’.The characters in this brilliant play were Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo and his son, Macduff, Lady Macduff a messenger and three witches.There were also some soldiers, guards, murderers and King Duncan and his two sons.The play was really good because the teachers encouraged the pupils to do their best and not to be shy.

They even had boys producing sound effects and music on one side of the room and a stage manager organising props on the other side.The three witches were very good because they really got into character and they weren’t shy.They did their best because they had to work hard to be convincing witches. I really have enjoyed the English Curriculum Enrichment Day!

Matthew McLoughlin

The Macbeth play was enjoyable in many, many ways. It was interactive, funny and full of suspense. Around 35 students were chosen to perform the paly and I think that this contributed to it being enjoyable. I think it made it more exciting to watch because it was funny seeing students in a boys’ school pretend to be female but this is what would have happened when Shakespeare wrote the play so it was quite realistic. It made us laugh to see our friends play female roles though.

I really enjoyed the play because the actors did not actually have a play script to look at.This meant they were able to sort of change the play a tiny bit although it still had the same key points. By adding bits the actors could make the audience laugh.

I also think that the play was good because it was not done by professionals.When I say this I don’t mean to say it wasn’t good, but I do mean to say that it was a bit unpredictable. Now, I knew we were going to see the play, but I thought that we would have visitors performing the play and that would mean us knowing exactly what would happen and yes, it would still be fun to watch the whole thing, but it was even more exciting performed by students.

Jermaine Ehigaitor

Year 7’s CED was based around the play ‘Macbeth’.While the play is about villainy and scary prophecies, the day was extremely fun and we have learnt more about Macbeth and Elizabethan England.The whole day has been fantastic but the highlight has to be the Macbeth play performed by members of the year group.We learnt about the story of Macbeth while telling the story ourselves – I was stage manager.

It started with the witches telling Macbeth that he shall be King and while the performers were a bit shy at first, they soon got the hang of it. Everybody laughed at the performances because it was friends performing which was unusual.When my turn came to hand Macbeth the dagger I couldn’t wait to see Macbeth murder the King!

‘The King is dead!’ shouted Macbeth, and I hung a red cross on the wall to signify Macbeth’s first murder of the play. As the climax of the play approached, I had hung over five red crosses on the wall. In the finale Macbeth was finally killed.

This has been an extremely enjoyable day and now I can’t wait to make my Macbeth Top Trumps cards.

Thomas Williamson

During the year 7 CED year 7 witnessed a fabulous day with many different and unique activities including a stunning performance by Mr Brownlie and Mr Jordan.

The performance was the play,‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, it was tense all the way through. It started off with Macbeth and Banquo coming back from the heat of battle, and meeting with the three witches, who made prophecies.The witches name him Thane of Cawdor and minutes later a messenger hails him ‘Thane of Cawdor’.

Macbeth then writes to his beloved Lady Macbeth explaining the events that have just befallen him.
Returning home, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth plan to speed the prophecies up by killing the King so that Macbeth will be King sooner.They place sleeping powder in the drinks given to the guards and then stab King Duncan and frame the guards.

The play ends with Macbeth being slain and Malcolm becoming King of Scotland.

The rest of the day was a thrilling experience. I personally enjoyed it and I know the rest of my Form did too.

Alex Morley

Today, so far, it has been really fun and I have enjoyed 110% of it. First of all, my favourite activity: we had to create a leaflet about crime and punishment in Elizabethan England using information we were given. It was really interesting to hear the sort of things that would happen to someone if they committed a crime. Also, I

enjoyed the performance in the hall. It was amusing to see some of my friends up on stage – especially the one dressed as Lady Macbeth!

We also had to think of disgusting words for a spell like the witches’ spell in Macbeth. I found that very fun but also quite challenging because we had to put them together in sentences and create a chant – at some points it was quite revolting!

I can’t wait to make my Top Trumps cards based on the characters from Macbeth and then we will have a go at playing Top Trumps with another Form using the cards we have made.

Kai Henry-Smith

Why the Internet Needs Refurbishment

The Internet. What a tool, what a token, what a topic. A stroke of brilliance from a man living right here in the UK. It’s your partner, a necessity in your daily routine, the backbone of modern society today, and the digital age we seem to be living in. Most people don’t even get out of bed in the morning before checking their emails, Facebook,Twitter, weather or news, or all of them at once. Yes, it’s fantastic, a virtually free encyclopaedia of knowledge you sometimes never even knew you wanted to have, but is it really all smiles and celebrations? Is the internet really perfect? Deep inside, everyone knows it isn’t, those little things preventing the internet from really crossing the threshold of true innovation, true brilliance, and true perfection. In fact, that frustration really makes you want to pick up your computer, phone or tablet, throw it against the wall and never look back, and that, is why the internet, as we know it today, needs a bit of refurbishment. Here are three things we all know about, in and around the web — logging in, emails and what I like to call “the tough stuff”- which really… push your buttons.

Firstly, it’s the very strenuous, yet frustratingly, always necessary, process of logging in.  Okay, let me break this down for you. After reaching the login screen, you type in your email address as the username – easy, nothing to it. Next… is the password. Right. Contrary to popular belief, passwords are more than just some secret word you’ve coined to keep your stuff private.

Due to the brain boxes of the world deciding to use the word ‘username’ as their username, and the word ‘password’ as their password, getting hacked and not understanding why, websites like Mozilla firefox have decided it’s a good idea for your password to contain… a plethora of different characters.

So as if remembering your passwords is bad enough, you now have to create ones that must contain an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a number, and probably a hieroglyphic, a roman numeral, and a partridge in a pear tree. Thanks Mozilla. Anyway, you carefully create your password, note it down somewhere you hope won’t go missing, and proceed to the next stage: the security question. Just in case your password isn’t secure enough, the security question is the last line of defence, asking you to pick a secret word based on a list of questions. The problem is, the answers… are impossible to remember.

Picture this: What is the last name of your favourite childhood friend? How am I supposed to remember the last name of my favourite childhood friend? Who is my favourite childhood friend? What was I thinking the moment I made this code word? Ugh! You end up just using the same security word for every security question ever kind of defeating the purpose. It’s not safe, but you remember it. Finally, after ticking off the terms and conditions (what they entail, we will never know), you confirm everything, wipe the sweat from your brow, and slump back into your chair. It’s over. You’ve done it, but clearly, the login process is way too strenuous, making it the perfect aspect to be refurbished.

Once we’ve logged into our website we encounter the second problem: emails. Sure, they’re controlled, private and free for everyone, but therein lies the problem. See, some emails… are more powerful than you think. Some emails, have more leverage in your life than any other means of fate. Some emails are so strong, they can singlehandedly kill your closest family members, or give you millions of pounds, just by sharing them to five other people. What are they, you ask? Chain; emails: the bane of human existence, able to change the fate of the universe… if you don’t share it to others. For example:“This picture is cursed, and this girl (insert scary photo of scary girl) is hiding in your closet. If you don’t forward this to twelve people, she will kill you in your sleep.” First of all, why does a little girl in my closet care about whether or not I’ve forwarded an email? Why would that prevent her from killing me? You’d think she’d do it anyway. Second, what kind of person would go out of their way, to create something like that? Terrorising the lives of others, for cheap entertainment? You could ask the same about horror movie makers, or the guy who made up clowns, but to sum up, this was not the best idea. Along with spam emails, from websites you’ve probably only clicked on once by accident, problems with email need to be fixed.

Thirdly, it’s the tough stuff. Aside from the bores of logging in, and the perils and annoyances of email, the internet can be very dangerous. Viruses – impossible to track, and very difficult to get rid of, they attach themselves to files and destroy hundreds of hours of work. Then there’s the threat of people, who aren’t who they say they are in social networking, claiming to be younger than they really are, with different motives than they say they have, easily able to access everything they need to know about you to do real damage, and that, in itself, is definitely wrong. If nothing else, stopping child predators alone is the most important thing on the internet, that needs to be dealt with.

To sum up, from the strenuous process of logging in, to spam and chain letters on email, to viruses and child predators, the internet does have its flaws, which is why I feel refurbishment is needed. However, just because the web has flaws doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s one of the most important advances in technology, ever created on earth. If you can’t see that, every second as you forwards an email, or log into a website, it’s you – not the internet- who truly needs the refurbishment. Thank you.

Spencer Caminsky