So what’s it to be? Underwater cricket? Frisbee Fury? Extreme Crazy Golf on Ice? You may not have heard of these exciting new sports yet but who knows? They may yet make it to the list of Olympic sports! They were just some of the original ideas the Year 8s came up with on Learning Enrichment Day on Wednesday February 3^rd, when they were given an enterprise challenge to invent and market a new Olympic Sport.

Working in teams they had to think of a new sport suitable for all ages, then work out the cost of equipment for one team to play the sport (a strict budget kept their ideas from going too wild!) and complete a skills card clearly describing how to play their sport. The afternoon sessions were devoted to designing a t-shirt with their sport’s logo and slogan and preparing a 30-second TV advert to promote their sport to a teen audience.

Each tutor group chose a winning team to enter the finals where the judges had to decide on Best Presentation and Best Skills Card, T-shirt and Costings Sheet. There were some fantastic presentations but narrowly beating 8JO to first place were 8LS with their fun and engaging advert. 8JO won Best Skills Card, 8SU showed off the Best Costings Sheet and Jade Elton won Best t-shirt. Congratulations to all of them!

Mrs J Wilkinson, Enterprise Coordinator

You can see the winning advert on the following YouTube site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x3sCDVh160

As everyone is aware there has been a huge earthquake in Haiti was has caused much devastation to the country. There is currently a massive relief effort to help those who have survived. Money is urgently needed to provide medical care, food, water and shelter to men, women and children. Many people have lost members of their family, homes and businesses which will cause problems for many years to follow.
8VB as part of their PSHE programme were discussing “Global Citizenship” and decided to go away with a challenge to raise £10 each in whatever way they could within a week. Many of the pupils washed parents’ car, asked for donations from members of their family, did chore around the house and donated their pocket money. In total 8VB raised £172 towards the Haiti fund. A special mention goes to Jamie Perry who raised £20 and Jordan Garraway who raised £18.61, the highest amounts for girls and boys within the tutor group. Mrs Buchalik commented, “I am extremely proud of every member of the tutor group as they have gone away and thought of others and managed to raise such a huge amount”.
Greendown Community School has a policy of “Think of the other person” and this was certainly demonstrated by the pupils this week.
If you would like to donate to the Haiti appeal please click on the link below:
www.dec.org.uk

On our final day we woke early (again!) to pack our bags ready to store at the hotel and make our way to breakfast. We had planned a 4-hour coach tour around New York seeing famous sites. We visited an area which has featured in 'Friends' and the Brooklyn bridge.

We stopped off in Central Park and saw the dedication left in the memory of 'John Lennon' who was shot just across from where we stood.

Once our tour finished we stopped for a quick bite to eat at 'Subway' and then walked down for our tour of 'The United Nations'. This was a fantastic insight into the running of the UN.

We were at this point quite worn out and were looking forward to seeing friends and loved ones back in the UK, but also going to miss the big CITY!

We however had a problem, we had to make our way to JFK knowing that our British Airways flight on Monday night had been cancelled. Luckily we only had to stay at the airport for around an hour while Mr Jones and the teachers arranged alternative flights for the next day on American Airlines.

We were all really tired as we waited for our flight home. We landed to falling snow at Heathrow.

On Sunday we woke early again for our breakfast 2 blocks away from the hotel. We were to visit the famous Ellis Island, taking the boat to the Statue of Liberty and a view of the city skyline from across the water.

The wind chill on the island was around -12c but we were all wrapped up warm. It was a magnificent site, and we all walked up 156 steps (as the lift was out of order) to the foot of the statue.

In the afternoon we spent some time walking through the city to visit the shops and Times Square. In the evening we had dinner at 'Planet Hollywood' which was for some the best evening meal of the visit.

On Saturday we had our 4 hour walking tour of Manhattan. We travelled by the New York subway. Taking in the American Museum of Finance on Wall Street and the World Trade Center site.