Crazy Gemini

Today, Elthorne Park High School experienced their first 6th Form Question Time. Based on the Political BBC One Programme Question Time, it was the first chance for 6th form students to ask those ‘in the know’ the difficult questions.

On the panel was Mr Sabhur (Head teacher at Elthorne Park High School), Mr Grant (Head of 6th form), Dayana (6th Form Head Girl, IB student), Layla (Btec Representative). The chair was George Thomas.

The first 6th Form Question Time of Elthorne Park High School discussed a number of issues including the running of the IB at the school.

Recently, the school board of governors decided, with Mr Grant and Mr Sabhur, that they were going to discontinue the offer of the IB course to future students in preference of A Levels. Mr Grant stated that this was because they wanted to give all students an equal chance of going to the universities they want. However, this move will not affect any of the students currently studying at the school. Prospective students will not have the choice of studying the IB rather than A Levels at the school. Continual monitoring of all students and and extra support will be given to IB and Btec students to ensure that current students do not lose morale by this move.

Elthorne Park’s 6th form is still in its infancy of 6th form, with its second cohort hoping to graduate this year, so time is still needed to get used to post-16 education. However, are the teachers afraid to grade the students accurately because of a lack of understanding of the course or of the assessment criteria? There seems to be a concensus amongst both IB and Btec students that they are being inaccurately graded at assessment points, where termly reports on student progress are sent home. However, Mr Sabhur and Mr Grant agree that this is nonsense, but if students feel that they are being undergraded, discussions should be taking place with subject teachers becuase they understand the assessment criteria for their subject and know best how to assess their students. Mr Sabhur insists that he trusts his staff’s professional judgement.

Another big issue raised by the 6th form students was being treated as children by being given detentions for lateness. Mr Sabhur wants detentions to be scrapped but students do not show that they understand the responsibilities that come with their rights to post-16 education. 6th former, Ifrah Ismail, understands why detentions are necessary sanctions for students who are late, but is outraged at them because they result in students being completely idle for an hour when they could, and should, be revising for their final exams in after-school Maths club.

Free time and free periods also seem a controversial issue in the 6th form. why should we come into school at 8:45, when we have no lessons until 2pm? However, it seems that this rule will not face review despite the frustration amongst students because free periods should be used for studying and reading around the subjects. This frustration seems to cause disruption within the 6th form, argues Dayana. She believes that attitudes on both sides should change.

There has always been a divide within the 6th form between IB students and Btec students because the courses are so different, the IB being highly academic and Btec being the vocational alternative. So, are IB students treated as being in higher preference to Btec students? It would seem that they are because IB students are reminded of the amount of contact time left until the beginning of their exams, but the Btec students do not get this reminder becuase they have no exams. Mr Grant was astounded at this question because he seems to have been under the impression that it was the “other way around,” and that IB students felt hard done by because the Btec students were treated preferentially. This seems to boil down to student voice, and communication between students and staff. Mr Sabhur wants better and more continual communication between students and staff.

Whilst on the subject of communication, the biggest revelation from today’s 6th form Question Time was the lack of communication between the desicion making higher up in the school and the student body, resulting in students having no idea what is going on. This seems to be a problem not only between 6th form and staff but also within the 6th form because 6th formers have no idea what is discussed at 6th form prefect meetings. Dayana claims that this is to do with a lack of interest on the students part as well as many other factors.

Student voice often deals with the more superficial issues within the school rather than the real important issues that are dealt with at SLT (Senior Leadership Team) level. This seems to be another way in which we, as students in post-16 education, are treated as young children because it seems that we are not trusted to be able to maturely discuss important issues that will have an affect on the whole school. There is also no student forum where we, as students, can be heard on issues, such as the quality of teaching in some subjects.

It seems that the first 6th Form Question Time has revealed many cracks in the foundations of the student-staff relationship at Elthorne Park. There are many issues that have been brought up that the school hopes to resolve so that it can better the relationship and communication channels between students and staff.

Today, my theatre class and I bunked off school to go to the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith to see Lovesong by Frantic Assembly (Othello, Beautiful Burnout, Tiny Dynamite) and written by Abi Morgan (Shame, The Hour, Sex Traffic). Hardcore, I know!

We set off with high expectations. With Frantic Assembly being one of my favourite theatre companies, I looked forward to seeing their techniques in practice - and I was not disappointed!

Lovesong portrays a couple in their 20s, and the same couple decades later, simoultaneously; still living in the same house, still very much in love. A beautiful, powerful and almost overwhelming story of love, loss and life - a difficult combination for any theatre production to pull off. Frantic Assembly and Abi Morgan didn’t just pull it off, they did it with class, sensitivity and originality.

The script was well written, and the dialogue and direction provided comedy, as well as captivating romance and heart-shattering moments. Frantic’s Chair Duets provided amazing and unreal interaction between the couples, both past and present. A refreshing and original portrayal of married life, and a resonance of the strength of real, true love that haunts you long after the performance has ended.

Edward Bennett and Leanne Rowe’s onstage chemistry as husband and wife was truly captivating. Sam Cox and Sian Phillips were incredible to watch, and the quartets’ interactions with each other, both in and out of Chair Duets, was a wonderful portrayal of how the older couple still see each other: young and beautiful, with a lifetime of unexplored adventures to live. The talent and skill of all four actors was at such a high standard that it could rival that of almost any Hollywood actor.

Lovesong is an amazing performance and yet another successful display of the talent and skill of both Frantic Assembly and Abi Morgan. A tearjerker in nature, so bring plenty of tissues when you go to see this performance. Lovesong illustrates that love is, indeed, a leap of faith.

                   www.franticassembly.co.uk

                   www.lyric.co.uk

Crazy Gemini xx

It is true for most of us teenagers in London, who have not yet been struck by teen-pregnancy, don’t have baby-brothers/sisters, or have not yet become aunts and uncles, that we know nothing about children. However, I am an aunt, and this time last week, I was still saying I know nothing about children.

On Friday night, however, my boyfriend and I were faced with his younger cousin. A 5 week-old baby boy. His mummy and daddy went out for dinner with his aunty and uncle, and we (two 17 year-old students with minimal experience of kids that young) were on our own. I’m not going to say that this experience hasn’t taught me anything, because it has, and I am now confident that I can look after my nephew, who is 2 months older than this gorgeous little bundle of joy, and I am going to pass on this knowledge of how to put a baby to sleep.

If you’re babysitting, remember this:

You’ll want the baby asleep if it’s in the evening so that some regularity and routine can be introduced into the little one’s life:

1. So, rub his/her tummy.
2. Sing to him/her and talk to him/her.
3. Go for a walk on the landing, gentely bouncing up and  down and from side to side as you walk.
4. Pat the baby’s back in a heart-beat rythm.
5. If all else fails, give the baby his bottle.

Apparently, my boyfriend wanted to admit defeat and give the baby his bottle. He didn’t mention anything, instead just looked at me with a concerned face and apologised for the silly things he’d said to piss me off earlier in the evening. So, if you’re babysitting with someone (which is a good idea), communication is key. But whatever you do, do not stand with the person you love, while holding a baby, in the mirror - speaking from personal experience, at least one of you will get broody.

Hope this helps for all your babysitting endeavours!

Crazy Gemini xx

Hey everyone!

Anyone who is doing any sort of post-16 studies will know how important revision is to passing your course. Anyone studying the IB will know how difficult time for revision and socialising is to come by. Anyone who is anyone will also know how addictive the social-networking site Facebook is.

I confess I am one of those who have been completely obsessed with facebook for a while, keeping one eye in my textbook and the other on the computer - however this only leads to bad grades (speaking from experience). So, today I took the first step towards a better me - deactivating facebook and making a revision time-table for the holiday. Of course leaving time for the all-important 18th-birthday party and my first new years eve with my current boyfriend!

I must say I did get a lot done today, and it felt good to know that if someone wanted to talk to me, they can get me by email or by phone, but I wasn’t going to let facebook take over my life… Again.

I shared an email conversation with my boyfriend, who’s on holiday in California (where, apparently it’s not sunny and hot all year round - incredibly disappointing) and is still suffering from Jet-lag, so wakes up at around 3AM CA-Time. I also had a lot of time for revision in 45minute bursts with a 15minute break at the end of every hour. It felt very productive, even though I didn’t revise all 6 subjects that I study (as it said on my time-table I should). But, hey-ho, it’s a holiday and we do still have chores. Emailing made me feel almost like I was back in the 90’s/early 00’s again - and it felt wonderful, because I barely email any more with everyone I talk to being on facebook.

Overall, my first day without facebook has left me feeling great and not lonely like I thought it would. I wonder what the next 4-5 months have to bring for me without facebook. But, I don’t think I’m ready to give up Twitter just yet.

Love and christmas cheer to all,

Crazy Gemini xx

Hey all,

I found out over the weekend that my 6th form is to discontinue the offering of the IB Diploma Programme in 2012. The reasons stated by the Sixth form Co-ordinator, the Head and the Board of Govenors being that it is not financially viable to carry on the running of the IB. To make it financially viable, however, we’d need about 70 students in each year group studying the IB. So it seems obvious that recruitment is a problem here since most year 11 students right now want to study A-Levels rather than the IB. This is more than a little disappointing for those of us now in year 13, who have given so much for the IB. Some of us have lost motivation to carry on.

The costs of the IB are:

• £5000/annum to subscribe to the IBO
• Exam entry fees
• Teacher training

As well as normal teacher’s salaries.

However, research has commenced and is currently ongoing. There is a total of six state funded IB World Schools in London, out of these six, Elthorne is unique in offering Theatre Studies, Japanese and Philosophy. It is the last remaining IB School in the Borough of Ealing out of three opening in 2009 at: Villiers High School, Dormers Wells High School and Elthorne Park High School. Also, most state funded IB World Schools in London have between 13-20 students in total, whereas Elthorne has 25 students in Year 13 and 15 students in Year 12, totalling 40 Students in the 6th form studying the IB Diploma Programme alone. An idea for gaining recruiting more students to the sixth form is to scrap the GCSE’s alltogether and run the IB Primary years and Middle Years which would mean that students are studying the IB from Year Seven to Year 11, which would make the transition from High School to IB a lot smoother. As well as making choosing the IB a natural choice when looking for post-16 education. This would be a very good idea because GCSE exams have become incredibly easy and have ceased to have much meaning other than which sixth form/college can I get into. I can also vouch for GCSE exams being so easy that revision is not completely neccessary to be able to pass, I did not revise much for most of my subjects and I left with A’s and B’s.

The plan, now, is to write a letter to the Board of Governors at Elthorne Park High School (the deadline for which student, Sama Barvary, has set for herself as Friday). Sama and I are also to go into the Year 11 PSHE lesson on Monday and talk to them about the positive and incredibly fun aspects of the IB, as they have probably heard the Year 12 and Year 13 students moaning about it on a daily basis (I also admit that I have been guilty of moaning about the IB a fair few times).

We all knew that the IB would take time to manifest itself and blossom into the true Sakura (Cherry Blossom) that it really is and it would be such a shame to see it taken off the Sixth Form curriculum.

Crazy Gemini xx

Hello all,

Just a moment ago I blogged my first post for 2 months. Now that its coming up towards half term I will be blogging more too. But I have my Major exams in May 2012 so after half term I will be gone for some time. But have no fear, I always return to my blog!

Enjoy life

Crazy Gemini

XX

I have had it with my maths teacher. She does not explain, she cannot offer opinions on what is working before she has marked my coursework which she will mark at her own leasure: she’d had it for about a month before she decided to mark it, and when she did, she only marked the first two pages, explaining this was because the rest of it didn’t make any sense because “the data was wrong, the introduction is wrong, you do not have any variables and your hypothesis is not a hypothesis.”

Hang on, double back, rewind! I handed in my introduction at the end of year 12, one week later I handed in my hypothesis. Not for one second was I stopped and told that anything was wrong - she couldn’t even REMEMBER that I had handed them in.

As for her teaching: Trigonometry: Find the length of a vertical line (Note the word VERTICAL) between the floor and angle A of a block leaning against the wall. “OK guys, find this” *Draws a horizontal line between angle A and point C on the wall* “length using trigs.” I decide to step in so that me and my fellow students are not learning the wrong things here: “Excuse me, aren’t we meant to be fining the distance between angle A and point F? Since that is what the question is asking us to do.” Teacher: “No, you’re meant to be finding this.” OK, she thinks a Horizontal line is a vertical line. But, surprise surprise, five minutes later the penny drops and she decides to say ”sorry, you’re not finding that, you’re finding this instead.” I’m sorry, but I had to say, “isn’t that what I just said?” - she hadn’t even understood what I was saying when I was telling her she was wrong.

She has not even taken her time to learn to use a Graphic Calculator so she could teach us to use it so that we can practice: we spent an entire lesson last week trying to figure out how to use it, and graphic calculators are very complicated to work with. I had never even seen one before last week.

My fellow students do nothing but complain about her, we’ve told our Head of 6th form on several occasions. I have even been asked my the Head Teacher of the school if I had anything I didn’t like in maths, where I told him my problems with my maths teacher. Something is just not right here: in another maths class, all the students complained about their teacher, and he is no longer teaching them maths. The only difference between my maths class and the other one is that they are doing Maths Standard Level and my class is Maths Studies (which is a lot easier). This seems, on one level, like discrimination: just because we do not wish to carry maths into our university education we have decided to study Maths Studies, and therefore, if we do not learn anything our teacher is “teaching” it’s tough luck for us?!
On the other hand, it seems like our teachers are saying: We’ve listened to your aggreivances and we have taken them on board, but we’re not going to do anything about it because your teacher has been teaching for quite some time at this school.

Now, another thing, she is constantly saying that she knows how we feel because she studied the IB too. What she doesn’t brag about is: What level she studied maths at: Studies, Standard or Higher. And she has never once admitted what grade she got in her final exams.

My fellow students and I do the only thing we can do, self study.

There is something incredibly wrong going on, either we’re being discriminated against or we’re just not being listened to. So, next time I am asked anything on this subject I will direct them here.

Please post your views on this issue.

Be thankful that your teachers can teach and that you don’t have to face the same nightmare that I do week after week.

Be intelligent Mathletes!

Crazy Gemini
XX

Today I’m testing a Toner, because I’ve been an idiot. I forgot it had been raining and decided that I was going to run up a skateboard ramp. I, of course, fell and banged the right side of my face, which is coming up in bruises, cut my nose on my glasses and made my glasses lopsided, as well as scrubbing up both knees - luckily my jeans didn’t tear. So I’m just really covering up my bruises now.

Smell

I think it smells of newly mown grass. It’s lovely, I really like it. This scent isn’t by perfume, it’s the natural scent that formed when the ingredients are mixed together to make the toner.

Texture and Feel on the Skin

The texture in the tube is runny (it is a liquid after all), but once you apply it onto the face it doesn’t run and it blends well with your natural skin tone perfectly. On the skin it feel soft and fresh. After application my bruises look like dark shadows, which is a good thing because now I won’t have to explain myself to anyone and no one can accuse me of getting beat-up.

Ingredients

The toner does contain inorganic substances and/or pure mineral pigments:
Potassium Hydroxide, which I have previously come to the conclusion of it being a preservative. It also contains Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499).

99.99% of the total ingredients are of a natural origin.

15.8% of the total ingredients are from organic farming.

As always with Madara, they indicate which ingredients come from where with an asterisk (*). This product contains ingredients from organic farming, Natural essential oils, and some inorganic substances and/or pure mineral pigments (you’ve got to have some pigments to get the colour into it).

Natural and Organic cosmetic certified by ECOCERT France according to ECOCERT Standard avalible at http://cosmetics.ecocert.com

Verdict

I love this product! It’s a great Toner, and you should use it. I’m giving it 4.5/5 because nothing is perfect, but this is damned near!

You can buy this product from http://www.ekoprincess.se

Choose Ecocosmetics,

Crazy Gemini x

I really doubt that one of the greatest makers  of cars have suddenly decided to go into the cosmetics business by making organic body lotions. What I can say for sure that it’s different from Madara, which is nice - it’s always good to try something new. So, again I reviewed it, to help you make a choice between chemicals and organic. (Do choose organic skin-care products, they’re so much nicer!) So here is my take on Bentley Organic: Balancing Body Lotion, with Lemon oil and Pomegranate extract.

Smell

This body lotion has an odd scent. Strangely, it reminds me of year 9 Art lessons when you use PVA glue. PVA glue - trying not to make this sound like wine-tasting, but I doubt I’ll succeed - with a fruity undertone, however, I doubt it would make a good desert wine (depending on what sort of desert you had in mind). The scent greatly improved as the aroma of the body lotion blends with the natural aroma of your skin.

Texture and Feel on Skin

This cream is soft, and unlike the Madara hand cream, does not leave an oily feel. Skin feels immediately moisturised, and definately softer than it was before I used it. The only negative I can put on this product is that while you massage it into your skin, it becomes white and streaky before it is completely absorbed into the skin. Many chemical-based products use nano-technology and are absorbed into the skin immediately without going white and streaky first.

It is worth mentioning here that you do feel better about putting an organic lotion onto your skin, just because it contains quite a few vitamins, like E, that your skin needs, and you know you’re helping the environment too by using a sustainable product. You feel better all-round.

Ingredients

Of course, “always read the label” still applies, I’m not going to post the entire ingredients list on here. But think about when you look at the ingredients list of a Ganier lotion, you find something like disodium EDTA, I haven’t got a clue what it is, other than it’s a chemical (chosen at random). It may be good for the skin, but what about the environment? I doubt it. So, getting back to Bentley Organic.

it says on the bottle:

Made with 90% organic ingredients.

It is made very clear on the bottle exactly which ingredients have been “Certified Organically Grown.”

Bentley Organic Body Lotion is Soil Association Certified providing an environmentally sustainable natural choice.

It does contain:

• Sodium Benzoate, which is a preservative (to make sure the lotion doesn’t go off straight away, is the most logical reason).
• Potassium Sorbate, another preservative.

Verdict

Overall, I think this product is worth trying out. But I’m only giving it 3/5 because two reasons:

1. It gives you white streaks just before it’s absorbed, not a major issue but not desirable either.
2. Only 90% of the ingredients are organically grown. It’s definately possible to push it up towards 95% or more.

Hope you’ll opt for the organics,

Crazy Gemini x

To continue my review of eco-friendly cosmetics, I have stuck to the brand Madara (mainly because I really like them). I decided to ask my friend, Becky, to help me, seeing as we were spending a couple of hours in A & E together because of her broken little-finger.

I decided to look at Madara’s regenerating night cream for all skin types (as part of their Ecoface range). I have used this cream before and it works, but I’m not completely sure about it.

Smell

I’m not too sure about the scent of this product. It has a scent of Lemon and Lime or Polo-mints. Becky really likes it, but I think it’s better to agree to disagree on this one. I don’t know how anyone could like the scent, but Becky obviously does. Each to their own preferences perhaps.

Texture and feel on skin

Becky and I do agree on this point. The cream itself is silky-soft and you can see it working immediately after the first use. We agree that it’s better than most moisturisers on the market at moisturising because you can feel it working as you massage it into the skin, whereas, with most moisturisers on the market, you don’t see any results until after a few days. Also we feel a lot better about using it on our skin because of the natural ingredients in the product.

Ingredients

Potassium Hydroxide is the only inorganic substance in the night cream.

99.99% of the total ingredients are of natural origin.

28.9% of the total ingredients are from Organic Farming

These figures are printed on the bottle. Most cosmetic-brands don’t do this, so Madara must have something to ensure their consumers about and be proud of.

Verdict

It’s no secret that I’m no major fan of this product, but it works and does what it’s meant to do, therefore, I gave it 3.5/5 - mainly because I don’t like the scent.

Becky, however, likes everything about the product and gave it a nearly-perfect score of 4.5/5.

This product can be bought at: http://www.ekoprincess.se

Try it for yourself and see how you like it,

Crazy Gemini x