1st Edition Autumn 2014
INSIDE!
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Mr Bray tells all in: SCOANE OR SCOHNN?
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The official magazine of Wellsway Sixth Form
Welcome! After many months of planning, designing and collecting
Ellen Mitchell
That means there will be no mindless propaganda on how we could think of nothing better to do than write essays or how we all love to do our homework on the day it was set, and definitely not at 2am in the morning the day before it’s in (guilty). I like to think that there’s a little bit of everything in this magazine: from baking (see Hannah Keegan’s recipe for Black Forest cupcakes on page 14) to music reviews (see Leonie’s gig review on page 12) and even the odd inspirational heart-warming article (see Marianne’s article on page 8). Hopefully, you’ll enjoy reading this as many people put a lot of effort into it and I’m very grateful to those who contributed! I’d like to just say thanks to Jamie who dedicated most of his summer designing the whole publication and without whom there probably wouldn’t even be a magazine, so cheers dude.
Content Editor
articles, I can happily say HELLO and WELCOME to the first edition of BTW! If you’re reading this then it means we have finally and successfully managed to finish and print it, and hopefully it will be the first of many. When we started passing round ideas about the magazine, one of the main aims was that it would be our magazine, meaning that it would be a 100% genuine student-run account of life at Wellsway sixth form. None of this, with the exception of the dates at the back, was written or supervised by teachers.
Ideally, BTW will run once every term and anyone is welcome to write for it. So, if you have a passion for writing, or have something to say, then this is your opportunity to actually take an active role in the student voice. Or, if you just fancy something to take your mind off of the serious, course-work-filled side of sixth form, and focus on the fun bit, then BTW might just be your cup of tea. I am sure you’re all undoubtedly itching to discover what’s in this magazine by now, so have fun reading!
Early Covers
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Contents
Meet The Team Jamie Stainer: Design Editor When not cringing at the photo to the left of this text, Jamie is busy working, composing, and generally daydreaming a bit too much. In his spare time he enjoys playing football (badly), taking part in a musical theatre company and generally stressing over the making of BTW; one cup of tea at a time. Look out for his article on page 9!
Louis Nicholson -Pallett
Louis Arthur Charles NicholsonPallett, rightful heir to the throne of Skyrim, Harbinger of the companions, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, and UFC champion, (probably), spends the majority of his spare time throwing articles together at the last minute whilst his editors shake their heads in shame.
Ellie is the fashion writer for BTW and in her spare time she writes a fashion and beauty blog which has over 1000 followers. Look out for her article on page 6!
Ellie Hughes
An avid fan of Bake Off, Abi, when not obsessing over the manliness of Paul Hollywood and Colin Firth; reviews TV and Film for BTW.
Craving adventure and endeavour, Marianne creatively portrays her opinions and observations of the world surrounding her. As well as a love for writing, she likes music, science, tree climbing and good company.
Marianne Collins Hannah is in Jamie's History class and was bugged for three months to give him the recipe after she made it for cake Friday. it's not even her recipe. Tastes delicious though, so have fun baking!
Hannah Keegan
Abi Slade Leonie is a Colourful haired activist, feminist, avid giggoer and music lover. In her part of this magazine, she will be showcasing up and coming, bands and updating you on what’s going on in the music scene throughout Bristol and Bath.
Leonie Cameron
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Louis Nicholson Pallet provides you with essential tips to survive the jungle of Life in Sixth Form.
So apparently I’m supposed to write a list of tips to help you survive in Sixth Form. Well, apart from inhaling oxygen and converting it into Carbon Dioxide, selfishly leaving less for the rest of us, here are my ‘tips’ on how to make your way through A-Levels, or any other Level 3 qualification thing, which I definitely did not throw together at the last minute.
Firstly, use the word ‘firstly’ in your history essays. Okay, so this one is a bit of an inside joke, but my History teacher had a go at me when I used the word to start my first essay, saying that it was a terrible way to start an essay. Well, that’s how I started my essay in my exam and I got 90%. So, yeah, it’s the golden word.
Revise. This is an obvious one, but it often gets ignored. Teachers will start telling year 12 to revise as soon as December time, to which everyone assumes they are being absolutely outrageously unreasonable and ignores them completely. However, by April/May time there is a 99% chance you will be sat at your desk in despair, questioning why you didn’t start revising any sooner. Learning the content back to front surprisingly does take time, so plan wisely.
Do not use the toilets under the Psychology room. Have you ever seen the film ‘The Silence of the Lambs’? I feel like the toilets under the Psychology room are part of that prison that Hannibal Lector is kept in, and Anthony Hopkins is stalking around there waiting for some more humans to question and torment. Honestly, going to the toilet constantly contemplating the possibility of Anthony Hopkins’ face staring into my soul when I open the door is literally worse than ‘Insidious’.
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Buy a Hole Punch. No, seriously, as obvious as this may seem, it is important to have one. That’s right; the teachers are lazy sometimes too, and won’t always hole punch sheets of paper. As stupid as this sounds, last year it led to me having super exciting folder organisation days! If you don’t fancy losing a day’s work, get one.
Get a Job. Yes, sadly, due to the fact that there are more jobs in Narnia than there are in Britain it doesn’t really matter what qualifications or university you went to, if you haven’t ever had a job before you won’t get a job later on. Yep, the world’s unfair I’m afraid – welcome to capitalism, guys.
Pre-plan . It’s true that every A level student will try their best to wiggle their way out of homework at any opportunity, saying stuff like ‘my computer crashed in the middle of writing the essay, I’ll finish it tonight and send it to you, or the classic ‘Miss, if I handed it in today it wouldn’t have been very good, but if I had another day it would be so much better’ . But be warned: one of the very little known facts about sixth form is that you can still get detentions as A level students, and failing your exams isn’t fun. So, although we can all be partial at times to leave our homework to the last minute and have a game of thrones or Skyrim marathon instead, it is definitely advised that you actually do your homework at some point. Otherwise you will inevitably end up with a mountain of homework that you don’t finish until the early hours of the morning. Well that’s it I’m afraid, time’s up! End of the article. A levels are hard guys, deal with it, but they can also be fun. Luckily, I’m already half way through my two years, so happy days for me! It’s not like I’ve got another three years of exams after my A levels if I get into university, is it? Follow my tips, be prepared and enjoy it while you can!
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One
o f t he b ig ge s t dif fe re nc e s be t w e e n S i xt h F o r m a nd S e c o nd a ry
S c ho o l i s t h at yo u a re al lo w e d t o w e ar yo u o w n c lo t h e s e v e r yd ay. A s I f o u nd o u t la st ye ar t he t r an sit io n f ro m u ni fo rm t o y o u r o w n c l o t he s i s su rp ri si ng ly st re ss fu l : c ho o s in g a n o u t fit e v e r y da y, t r yi ng t o av o id o u t f it re pe a t in g an d t he m an ic mo r ni ng p an ic o f t ry in g t o fin d t he c l o t he s yo u w ant 5 mi nu t e s b e f o re yo u le av e t he ho u se be c au se y o u w e re t o o la zy t o pl an yo u r o u t f it t h e n ig ht b e fo re ( gui lt y ) . S i nc e t he m ajo r it y o f u s c an’ t affo r d t o ha v e a w a r d ro be t he s ize o f Ca r rie B ra ds ha w 's , a c a psu le w ar d ro b e w i ll be yo u r S ix t h Fo rm sav io u r. H av i ng int e rc ha nge abl e b as ic s t ha t f o r m a c ap su l e w a rd r o be w il l a llo w yo u t o c re at e hu nd re ds o f dif f e re nt o u t fit s a nd t ran si t io n f r o m u nifo r m w it h e a se . T he re fo re I hav e c o mp ile d a li st o f ba sic i t e m s y o u ne e d i n yo u r S i xt h Fo rm w a rd r o be .
A G o o d Pa i r O f Je a n s E a sy t o st yle an d a s afe o pt io n if yo u ar e st u c k o n w hat t o w e a r; a g o o d p ai r o f je an s w ill la st y o u ye a r s. T o fi nd ‘ a go o d pa ir ’ lo o k fo r a s t y le t hat su it s yo u r bo dy sh ape an d j e a ns t ha t a re m ade f ro m a h ig h pe rc e nt a ge o f c o t t o n as hi gh p e rc e nt age s o f po lye st e r w ill re su l t i n je an s t h at s t re t c h o u t o f s ha pe an d s ag a lo t qu ic k e r.
A L i t t le B la c k D re s s
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P a rt ie s ar e a bi g p ar t o f S i xt h Fo rm so c i al lif e a nd t he re w i ll be a fe w t h ro u g ho u t t he ye ar. A n L BD i s e sse nt i al f o r a p ar t y bu t it s v e r sat ili t y a ls o a llo w s f o r it t o be sm a rt e ne d u p fo r a fo rm al o c c as io n o r d re s se d do w n fo r e v e r yd ay w e a r.
“A Capsule Wardrobe Will be your
Sixth Form Saviour”
A B a s i c Te e T he g re at t hi ng abo u t a ba sic t - s hi rt is t hat t he re i s o ne t o su it e v e r yo n e : l o n g s le e v e , s ho rt sl e e v e , ro u nd ne c k o r V - ne c k , yo u r pe rf e c t t - shi rt i s o u t t he re . O nc e yo u f in d i t , yo u w ill be re w a rde d a s it g o e s w it h e v e r yt h in g, y e s I m e a n eve ryth in g. It al so ne v e r l o o k s lik e y o u t r ie d t o o ha rd w he n pic k in g so me t h in g t o w e a r g iv i ng o ff t hat e ffo rt l e s sl y c o o l v ib e .
T he Cr i s p W h i t e S h i r t T he re w i ll p ro b ab ly c o me a t im e w he n y o u n e e d t o d re ss u p sm a rt a nd a c r is p w h it e s hi rt i s pe rf e c t fo r t h at o c c a sio n. Bu t do no t d o u bt t he w h it e shi rt as it c an al so be w o r n o n a n e v e r yd ay b asi s if i t s st yle d mo re c a su a ll y. Ju st ro l l u p t he sle e v e s, k e e p it u n bu t t o n ar o u n d t h e ne c k an d u nt u c k e d w it h a p ai r o f j e an s an d yo u a re go o d t o go . A lt e rn at iv e l y; st yle it w it h a b ri ght an d c o lo u rfu l s t at e m e n t ne c k lac e t o k e e p it sm a rt bu t no t a v o i d lo o k i ng lik e yo u a re go i ng t o w o r k .
“Long Sleeve, Short sleeve, Round neck or V Neck, your Perfect t–
shirt is
”
out there
T he Le at he r J a c k e t L e at he r j ac k e t s ar e t he p e r fe c t i n be t w e e n j ac k e t t hat c an be w o rn all ye a r ro u n d. It ’ s a t ime le s s c l as sic t h at go e s w it h e v e r yt h in g, t hi s me an s i t c a n e asi l y be c hu c k e d o n t o p o f a ny o u t f it a s yo u ’ re ru nn in g o u t t he do o r t o pe rfe c t yo u r lo o k .
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Anti Social media is certainly useful, but have we taken its use too far? Marianne Collins and BTW investigate. Let me begin with a definition:
Call me old-fashioned, but “Social media [noun]: websites and applications that I’d much rather go on a enable users to create and share content or to par- walk or climb a tree than tweet ironically about why ticipate in social networking.” life is so boring. There’s something much more satisWith technology advancing so quickly, communica- fying about writing a letter rather than an email. I tion has become almost effortless. This has become won’t deny that I use both Facebook and Twitter behighly beneficial; questions can be asked and ancause of their convenience and ‘keeping up with the swered almost simultaneously and conversations that times’ and all that. But apart from this, I fail to gain would’ve been too awkward in person can now oc- much from them and overall, I think I’d be better off cur. Photos, videos, music and opinions can be without them. shared worldwide and ‘internet fame’ has come into The name ‘social media’ is both ironic and contraexistence. dictory. As an online presence, you are being soThe problem occurs cial but if it’s stopping face-to-face interaction, when social media prethen it is making you antisocial. I’m not saying that vents people from realsocial media doesn’t have any positives because it life interaction and when does, but it really can make people antisocial if relationships only exist in used as an alternative to actual social activity. a font. Understandably, it We’re always told to use our time wisely, so why is difficult to be in the waste it? I’m just trying to point out that social mecompany of others all of dia isn’t quite as social as it’s made out to be, with the time. But to replace this ‘old-fashioned’ apthe hope that you will absorb yourself in real life and proach with the company of a phone or an iPad is new experiences, rather than the deep vortex that is the opposite of beneficial or healthy. In addition, the internet. miscommunication through social media is a common occurrence because emotions cannot be represented just with a smiley face. To be “antisocial” is to “not be sociable or wanting the company of others”. There is little, if any, gain from ‘deep’ and ‘meaningful’ conversations on Facebook chat. You aren’t learning a skill, trying something new, expressing yourself fully or enhancing your qualities. You’re not even having a great time, rest assured. Why not leave the comfort and familiarity of your room and adventure outside to see the real world, and not the virtual one?
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Ellen Mitchell and Jamie Stainer rediscover the games of the early 2000’s Remember the early Noughties? If you switched on your TV, shows like Jungle Run, Kerching!, and Woody the Woodpecker would captivate you for hours, with the highlight of your viewing being Dick and Dom’s frantic antics in Da Bungalow. You wouldn’t be seen dead in the playground without your Match Attax cards and your scoubidous, none of this loom band rubbish. But today, we focus on one of the most influential parts of our early lives: The top 2 videogames that had us hooked throughout Primary School, voted for by You.
Winner: The Sims 2 When Sims 4 arrived on 5th September 2014, it was easy to see that the Sims franchise has always been, and continues to be, one of the most popular computer games. I have wasted a good day or so on Sims 2 building mansions fit for royalty and then spending hours choosing the perfect wallpaper for the master bedroom. Lavish lifestyles were no obstacle either as financial problems were eliminated with a sneaky ‘motherlode’ cheat code. Admittedly, Sims 2 was often used to create as many hilarious scenarios as possible: for example, removing the ladder of a swimming pool that a Sim was using so they couldn’t get out or befriending the Grim Reaper just to see what would happen. Sims 2 has sold approximately 20 million copies since its release a decade ago and has led to the development of expansions packs, Sims 3 and now Sims 4, proving that the ability to create your own private world (and effectively play God for some) is still as entertaining as ever.
2nd: Simpsons Hit and Run I first played this game on my godfather’s PlayStation 2 , and its sheer ridiculousness had me captivated in an instant. From fighting robot wasps, to collecting cards (they were so hard to find!), to wreaking havoc around the streets of Springfield in the rocket car, this game, laced with classic Simpsons humour never failed to entertain. Being able to play as Apu was also an interesting feature as well the ability to change characters’ clothing. The game also offered an impressive range of unlockable cars as well as a bunch of hilarious cheat codes, just in case crashing into cars without them exploding on impact wasn’t enough. Hit and Run, to this day remains in my top 5 list of games.
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Honourable Mentions: SSX 3, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Pokemon: Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald, Ratchet and Clank.
Nancy wins! Slade Complains! The Great British Bake-Off
(BBC 1) Well, Bake Off’s finished, and the winner is: NANCY (I HATE NANCY). I now have nothing to do with my Wednesday evenings (OTHER THAN HOMEWORK AND REVISION, OF COURSE). Now, for any of you who haven’t ever watched the Great British Bake Off, I’ll try and explain the basics of each episode. The series starts off with 12 bakers, all of different ages and backgrounds. For example, in this series, there was a 17-year-old baker called Martha, and every week she made me feel extremely sad as she was very good because she read a load of cookbooks whilst revising for her A-levels (which included chemistry - how she managed that I don’t know) and Mary Berry loved her and she was basically the Hermione Granger of the Great British Bake Off. Each week, the bakers focus on a different type of baked goods; for example, in the first episode they focused on cake and in the second they focused on biscuits. The bakers have 3 tasks: the signature challenge (a bake that the bakers have already prepared for), the technical challenge (a bake in which the bakers have to use ingredients and a recipe provided by Paul and Mary, but the recipe is usually extremely vague) and the showstopper challenge (a bake that is basically just there to impress the judges). At the end of every episode, Paul and Mary vote someone to be ‘Star Baker’, an extremely prestigious title that means you were their favourite baker that week.
lenge and technical challenged hadn’t gone too well. He decided to try to wow the judges by making baked Alaska, but not all went to plan. There wasn’t enough room in the freezer for Iain’s ice cream, so he put it in Diana’s freezer (the biggest mistake of his life). Diana then took out the ice cream and left it on the side for a whole 40 SECONDS (it’s not really enough time to melt the ice cream but oh well). The ice cream melted, Iain freaked out, put it in the bin and left. In every interview since, Iain’s insisted it was his fault, but I just think that Diana was a cruel, conniving cow (A* on alliteration there). Then, when they were all out, all my loyalty went to Richard. He’d won Star Baker 5 times, a new record for Bake Off, and he was everyone’s favourite to win. However, due to extremely unfortunate circumstances (the fact that he’d never made a tarte au citron before), he didn’t win because his baking in the final wasn’t very good (according to Paul and Mary, but I thought his baking was top notch).
So, Nancy won. I didn’t want her to win; she was never my favourite, but she wasn’t my least favourite, either – my least favourites were Jordan (because he was annoying), Diana (for obvious baked Alaska related reasons) and Chetna (because she was really boring and never did anything exciting). This series of Bake Off turned out to be a tragedy; the tragic hero was Richard, and his tragic flaw was that he’d Obviously, my favourite baker the whole way through never made a tarte au citron. My heart is broken due to some of the judges’ awful decisions, but it was quite a good series, the series was Martha (she was my idol), but then she went and messed up in week 7 (the advanced dough episode). My so I’m going to give it a 4 out of 5. second favourite baker was Iain (because he’s beautiful) but then came the baked Alaska incident… It was the fourth week of Bake Off (desserts week) and Iain’s signature chal-
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Describe yourself in 3 words
What is your favourite word?
Workaholic, optimistic, happy.
Love.
Are you a Marmite lover or hater?
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Actually neither – I can take it or leave it.
An F1 driver. I still do.
Aside from a house, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
What is your current favourite song?
A couple of trips around the world. When have you been closest to death? In the 2004 tsunami. I was on one of the islands first hit, ill in bed, when my wife ran in to get me up and out; we literally ran from the waves as they hit the land. When we got back the next morning, neither our bungalow nor the resort were there. It was a very, very surreal and difficult experience.
I’m listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix and The Hoax at the moment, so maybe ‘Little Wing’ or ‘Two Steps Back’. And film? Guardians of the Galaxy – very funny. I love sci-fi in general, film or books. What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?
Cats. Mine is called Hercules.
A pirate probably, because that is what my little boy is currently into. Or maybe a dinosaur. Or a piratical dinosaur.
What is the weirdest thing you’ve eaten?
Do you have any pet peeves?
Deep fried spiders and locusts– actually they are very nice!
General impoliteness/ingratitude. Being polite/ thankful alone will also get you a long way in life generally.
Cats or dogs?
What has been your strangest experience whilst teaching? Teaching a class full of children of which not one had English as a first or second language (to help them settle into secondary school). It was unbelievably hard but amazing to see how quickly their confidence and communication skills developed. What is the worst job you’ve done?
Do you have any regrets? None. Regrets are pointless. When you make a mistake, accept it, learn from it, and move onwards and upwards. Tell us your best joke. In the pub the other day a man said to me, "I'm going to attack you with the neck of a guitar." I asked, "Is that a fret?"
A kitchen porter – 2 months of washing up dishes, And finally, the most important question of all: pots and pans at 16 taught me the value of an Scoane or Scohnn? education! I absolutely hated it. SCOHNN 1 Scohnn. Tea or coffee? Coffee. Tea is horrible, I just don’t get its appeal at all.
SCOANE 0
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Leonie Cameron Introduces you to some of the lesser-known bands of the music industry. Starting with The Neighbourhood
Despite still being relatively unknown, you might recognize this band for their track “Sweater Weather”, or for supporting artists such as The 1975 on tour. The five piece are: Jesse Rutherford (curator and vocalist), Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels (guitars), Mikey Margott (bass) and Brandon Fried (drummer). Their name may be spelt the British way, however, The Neighbourhood are actually from California. They burst onto the indie music scene in early 2012, releasing nothing but a single moody track (“Female Robbery”), and nothing else. No pictures of themselves and no biographical or geographical information. They were musical ghosts. It was only with the release of another track, “Sweater weather”, the song that they are most famed for, that fans and the press started to piece together who and what they actually were from snippets of information online. The sound of big hip-hop drumbeats, with lots of guitars and strong bass lines, paired with Rutherford’s subdued, mellow vocals, makes for an interesting, fresh and alternative sound. Rutherford is quoted for having said that he “wanted to do that hip-hop aesthetic on an indie platform”. The Neighbourhood’s first studio album, “I Love You”, is available now, as well as various EP’s released early on in their career, and they are embarking on a US, UK and European tour this autumn entitled “el tour Blanco”, playing an almost sold out gig in Bristol on the 18th October at “The Trinity” (a tiny music venue for this band!!).
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Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bradley Cooper, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Bartha, Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates It’s a bit weird for my first review to be from 2006, but it looked like a good film and I had nothing better to do, so I watched it (OBVIOUSLY I had done my homework first and I definitely wasn’t procrastinating). The film focuses on the life of Tripp (Matthew McConaughey), a boat salesman in his 30s who still lives with his parents (Bradshaw and Bates). His parents try and stage an intervention, and hire Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) to go out on dates with him and try and make him want to move out. Anyway, he falls in love with her, and she starts to develop feelings for him, so she tries to break it off BUT he’s already found out she’s just been hired by his parents (what a surprise). They don’t talk for weeks, she tries to move away, but they realise they’re in love with each other and get back together. No one saw that ending coming, did they? The entire plot was very predictable, and there were side stories featuring Zooey Deschanel, Justin Bartha and Bradley Cooper that didn’t actually have much relevance to the main storyline, but they were nice additions. With a rating of 5.6/10 on IMDB, I didn’t have very high hopes, but it was better than I expected. It wasn’t an amazing film, and I probably wouldn’t watch it again, but it’s a good film to watch if you’re bored, so I’ll give it 3 STARS.
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Makes 12 You will need: Syrup: 150 ml water 60g (2 oz) caster sugar 3 tbsp. kirsch/ cherry or blackcurrant liqueur Cupcakes: 90g chocolate, chopped 115g / 4 oz butter 115g / 4 oz caster sugar 2 eggs 150g self-raising flour 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
Recipe supplied by Hannah Keegan
Black cherry jam Topping: 284ml double cream 12 fresh cherries with stalks 1-2 tbsp. chocolate A piping bag Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 180°C / Gas 4, and line muffin/cake tin with cases Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water, then leave to cool Beat eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs (one at a time). Beat in the melted chocolate, then sift the flour and coca in, and fold the mixture. Spoon the mixture into paper cases evenly and bake for about 20 minutes, then remove from tray and leave to cool Decoration: TO MAKE THE SYRUP: pour the water into a saucepan and add the sugar. Place pan on a low heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and boil rapidly until mixture reduces by about half, then remove pan from heat and leave to cool. After about 5 minutes, add the liqueur. Cut the top of each cupcake off for ‘lids’. Scoop out a little of the cake to create a shallow, before pouring a little of the syrup in with a spoonful of the cherry jam. Put the ‘lid’ back on Whip cream until it forms soft peaks, spoon into piping bags. Pipe a swirl of cream onto each cupcake before placing a cherry and a sprinkle of grated chocolate on top.
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One Final Note...
That’s right! It’s back! The Challenge Cup last year was the scene of fierce competition between all 6 tutor groups. Below are the dates of the upcoming cup events in terms 1 & 2. Will WSW be able to retain the title? Or will JTA (MDN) and NLN (PKM) be able to get their revenge? More crucially, will GHT finally be able to lift themselves out of 6th place? With a new year and lots of new faces, anything could happen! The dates for the first three challenges are below.
Term 1 October Tues 21st – Mega Quiz
Term 2 Term 2 December Weds 10th – Fancy dress mixed sports Y12 Netball and Y13 Basketball Tuesday 16th – Apprentice Task 1 – The Panto Challenge
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BTW is the official non-profit publication of Wellsway Sixth Form; made by students, for students.