REPORTS
SOLAR ECLIPSE
By Isobel
The Moon orbits the Earth once every 28 days. Once a month it moves between the Earth and the Sun. Usually the Moon passes above or below the Sun as we see it in the sky. Occasionally however, the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun, blocking its light. This is an eclipse.
Although the Moon is nearly 400 times smaller than the Sun, it is also roughly 400 times closer. So, coincidentally, they appear as a similar size in the sky. This means that when they line up exactly, the Moon can perfectly block the Sun causing a total solar eclipse.
The next eclipse is going to be on Friday 20th March 2015. It will be visible all over the UK. During an eclipse, the shadow of the Moon is cast on to the Earth. If you're standing in the path of the shadow then you will see a total eclipse.
The Wet Wipes Crisis
By Dominika
Recently, the number of wet wipes deposited on our beaches has increased critically, by approximately 50% since last year’s measurements. This is due to the rising number of our population flushing these wipes down the toilets, instead of bins, that were purposefully set up in order to prevent this environmental pollution.
Wet wipes often include synthetic fibres to increase softness or durability and consist mostly of paper. Nonetheless, research has proven that they will not decompose, but rather break up instead of breaking down. Therefore, the disabled function of breaking wet wipes down can have fatal effects on our wildlife, as well as the atmosphere, leading to us, humans.
Would you like to live in a world that was trashed by our artificial creations? Would you be able to replace the creatures that have evolved from the tiniest micro-organisms with these harmful substances? Well this is the time to act. Unless this action is broken, we will endanger everything around us, and potentially even our future generations.
If you value the purity of this planet, then think…
Let’s recycle and respect the gift of living!
MORE NEWS SOON!
LATEST NEWS
World Book Day
On the 5th of March 2015, the 18th year consecutive national World Book Day was held. This event led to teachers and pupils across all ages dressed up as characters from their favourite books. World Book Day was designed by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books. Its main aim was to encourage young pupils to read and enjoy books. Here are some teachers from our school, Bluecoat Academy, as characters from some of their favourite books.
Click here to download the full report
The Impact of Technology on Learning
It’s amazing what we can do with technology these days. It can do almost anything from allowing this report to be viewed by you, to even replacing a heart! But what about schools? What can technology do to help with the learning process?
This website is already a great example of this. After reading this report, try clicking on the ‘Quiz’ tab at the top of the page. It will take you to a page with two games on it. One is a hangman puzzle based on Computing whereas another is a wordsearch to find words related to mathematics. These games are just a small part of what technology can do for the future of learning.
But what comes next? We could be using holographic screens to teach people about mechanics. We could be using large touch screen tables to encourage multi-user learning. We could be using robots to teach people without the need for textbooks. However, the most amazing thing is that a lot of this technology already exists and is either being used or being developed for use in schools right now. It’s almost impossible to think how our technology could get any better, but there is always a way we could improve. Maybe you could develop the next advancement in technology…