Year Two were thrilled to visit MTBS science laboratories last week! Linking to our History topic of The Great Fire of London, we wanted to explore the reasons why the fire spread so easily though London and why it was so difficult to contain. An afternoon at the Senior Boys’ School was a wonderful way to bring to life our History topic and explore practically the reasons why so much of London burned during the Great Fire.
We were invited to don our safety goggles, whilst the Senior School teachers helped the children to understand the effects of burning different materials, whilst exploring different methods to extinguish a flame. We concluded that water can be used to extinguish a fire and that flames needs oxygen to burn. We were able to watch a super experiment showing how fire spread along a row of connected houses and how a fire break can stop this.
The children also enjoyed other exciting demonstrations. Dr Clay held out his palm filled with bubbles. He chose a child to take a lighted taper and place it in the bubbles mixture on his hand. Imagine our surprise as he held a ball of flames in his palm. In a further experiment, demonstrated by Mrs Wright, the children watched in eager anticipation as she was able to make flour explode. The miracle of science!< All teachers emphasised the importance of safety at all times. Whilst enjoying ourselves immensely, we were constantly reminded that these experiments were only safe to conduct, because we were in the school science laboratories, watching demonstrations by fully trained scientists, who were using the correct safety equipment. Year Two thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon and really appreciated the time, effort and care shown by our colleagues in the Senior school- we are greatly looking forward to our next trip!
This Wednesday we had an assembly about MacMillan charity because last year we did a Sportathon and we had a Cake Sale recently. We participated in fun games and prizes were passed out – and we raised £4,602.20! So some people from MacMillan and a mug called Muggy came in to school to collect a cheque.
Then they told the history behind MacMillan. A man called Douglas MacMillan started the charity and they have helped lots of people who do not have anybody to help them: MacMillan help people with cancer. So a big THANK YOU to all of the people of Merchant Taylors’ Junior Boys School. The nurses of MacMillan work a lot to help so we need to say thank you to MacMillan and everybody who helps the MacMillan charity in any way.
By Danish Rajkumar
On 1st November 2016, Year 6 were taken down to the Girls’ School for an evacuation day to help us with our World War Two history topic.
When we arrived at school there was a steam train video clip on in our dark classroom to help us imagine what it would have been like for a real evacuee in World War Two. Everyone was dressed as evacuees except for the teachers who were dressed as Billeting Officers. They got us into lines and took us down to the Girls’ School.
On arriving, we were taken to the Lower Library. There were neat rows of tables and chairs, which we sat down at. Our teacher put on real footage from the war. It showed pictures of children that made you almost feel like you were in their position. When it had finished we were “billeted off” to different classrooms. I was sent to where the Year Tens were having a Spanish lesson. After the lesson, some of my friends and I were taken to have our photos taken for the school website.
A few minutes later, we found ourselves back in the Lower Library where we were told to write a letter home to our parents. We had to visualize ourselves as evacuees and imagine what they would have felt like. Group by group we were also taken to the Green Room to film a short piece of work about being evacuated. When it was finally time for lunch we were all starving but because of rationing, we could only have a meal of beef stew, bread and jelly. When we had finished lunch we had a short break and then went inside to watch some of ‘Carrie’s War’.
After a few hours, we were taken off to do PT (Physical Training). We did something called drills, which is when we all had to march around the hall in exact unison. We also had to do some of it in gas-masks (which we had made in school the day before) as they would have done back in World War Two.
After PT, we headed back to the library. Just as we were sitting down an alarm rang. Everyone recognized the sound from lessons immediately. It was an air-raid siren. There was a mad rush for our gas-masks and then we all hid under the large tables. Mrs Oakes put bombing sound effects on. Just the sound of them was enough to scare me and I could hardly imagine what it would have been like in real life. Finally, the “all clear” siren came on and everybody was relieved to get out from under the cramped tables.
When we arrived back at school we were all worn-out but happy after our long day experiencing the life of an evacuee!
by Sophia Neophytou
Since leaving MTGS in 2010, Helen Gaskell has embraced her creativity, turning her attention to music in pursuit of a dream career. Helen sang and played piano throughout school, having been captivated by jazz from an early age. On leaving Merchants however, she went on to study Chemistry at Newcastle University. During an exchange year in Versailles, her desire to pursue her creativity led her to quit the research project she was working on and move to Paris where she moved into an underground art commune and worked as an au pair by day. Here she developed her musical capabilities, quickly teaching herself to play the guitar and singing in a band with her housemates. This ignited her love for the seminal electronic rhythms of Jamie Woon and influential beats of Robert Glasper.
Inspired to write songs from an early age, Helen’s first composition ‘Jazzy Chocolate’ on clarinet was driven by discovering a love for Nina Simone. Helen has now traded in the clarinet for guitar and is writing her own material inspired by singers like Etta James, Melody Gardot, Lauryn Hill, and India Arie. Performing her music as ‘Gazelle’ regularly in Liverpool bars she was picked up by the management company ‘tri-tone’ and has since been working in Parr Street Studios on her EP.
Her unique vocal sound has impressed listeners on BBC radio 6. BBC radio Merseyside listeners tune in most Saturdays to hear her on the BBC Introducing show and Helen’s first official ‘Gazelle’ gig was for the BBC 1xtra music showcase. Helen is now working towards writing an album in hope of getting signed. These exciting steps for Helen have enabled her EP to now be available on Spotify, Apple Music and can be downloaded on iTunes here https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/undiscovered-love-ep/id1160325956
To stay tuned with Helen’s latest releases follow her SoundCloud account at www.soundcloud.com/thisisgazelle.
You can also find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thisisgazelle and follow her on twitter and Instagram @thisisgazelle.
On Monday 10th October, Year 2 went to Staircase House in Stockport. We have been learning about ‘The Great Fire of London’ in History and we re-enacted parts of the story. We had the opportunity to dress up as Samuel Pepys, Jane the Maid, a Link boy, Charles 11, maids and soldiers.
We went into Jane the maid’s kitchen and made bread and ship’s biscuits. We designed our own fire marks and learned that they were used as a way of telling the insurance company which buildings were insured, so help would be given to put the fire out! We explored the use of wattle and daub in building.
We had an enjoyable and exciting day!
Earlier this week Sophie Ennis appeared on our TV screens in Junior Bake Off, the Great British Bake Off ’s spin-off show for children.
She overcame hundreds of contestants, through months of auditions, to win a place in the TV heats where one of the judges is the 2015 Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain. Sophie’s specialty is carrot cake. Her proud mum Gail said, “my husband quite likes cooking so from a very early age he’s always been in the kitchen with Sophie. We started making crispy cakes when she was a toddler and it’s just gone on from there.”
Sophie wasn’t at all phased by the prospect of appearing on national TV, Gail said “Going through the process was not an issue for Sophie. It was something she really wanted to do, she was never nervous and always excited. I was the nervous one and I didn’t have to do anything other than chaperone her. I am so proud.”
Year 10 Rugby Union players Lewis and Ewan have achieved great success over the summer playing Rugby League. Lewis Lambert (Sefton RUFC) and Ewan Rooney (Waterloo FC) both represent the school and local clubs at Rugby Union but have spent the summer season playing for the newly formed Liverpool Lions Rugby League team at U14. Lewis also captains the team and is a fantastic ambassador for them.
This team have won every game in their division, the promotion play-off series and the only knockout completion they were entered in (the plate), leading to an unbeaten season.
The team has been built with Rugby Union players from schools across the region including boys from Liverpool College, St.Edwards and Bluecoat and their success is especially significant as they are the only Rugby League team in the Liverpool/Sefton area, playing against teams from the traditional heartlands across the northwest. Ewan and Lewis were two of the first players to join the team and helped to build it over 18 months, attracting new players until they had a full squad.
Congratulations to both boys and good luck with the rest of the season!
The children at Holiday Club have been having lots of fun this week! Activities have included pupils designing their own T-Shirts and participating in a variety of sporting activities!
On Tuesday the boys and girls created their own robot called Milo and used the Lego WeDo app on the iPads to control him. They also added a sensor to make him stop whenever he saw an object in the way.
We also used Makey Makey to control different games. Here Thomas is playing Tetris using buttons made out of playdough!
Outside we took advantage of the dry weather and worked on our mental addition skills by playing turtle darts.
