chester zoo blog

Another Day at Chester Zoo

By Hannah the Giraffe

Hi, my name’s Hannah Giraffe and as you can probably tell, I am a Giraffe. This is my blog about yet another day at Chester Zoo.

 It suddenly became very noisy and I soon realized that Clayton Hall Business and Language College had come yet another year! The noise of screaming and shouting really irritated me but it is all worth it because, as usual, we get lots of visitors in our enclosure; it’s not a surprise! This meant we got more food and we got to play about. However, it’s boring staying in our enclosure all day and all night. I just wanted to break free, live life on the edge.

 So I decided to escape.

I started to wonder round in the enclosure planning my escape and I thought of disguising myself as a human. I got some straw that I eat and placed it on my head. I made sure that none of the other giraffes grassed on me and then I set off on my adventures.

The first animals I went to were the rhinos, there were two of them just lying around and chilling. I met some Clayton Hall Business and Language College students there and we went off to see the Meerkats and Porcupines.

 I helped the humans answer some of their questions they had in their booklet, then we went to the Asian Elephants and filled in some more questions. I was very surprised that no zoo keepers or any other humans realized that I had escaped but they did keep on staring at me, I wonder why?

After that, we visited the indoor monkeys and the humans took lots of photos of them.

Here is one of the photos they took of some in the enclosure…

 We went back to the elephant enclosure and we listened to an animal talk because the humans had to fill in some more questions.

When we were walking back, this small human came running up to me and started hugging me. The humans said her name was Amy and they said she loved giraffe’s lots and lots! I think it was my lucky day.

We soon went on to the bat cave but I had to duck down when we went to the entry because I was too tall! However, when we got into the proper bit, it was all very high and I fitted in. All the bats were flying around in the pitch black room but they could still see because they aren't blind although there is a saying which is, ‘as blind as a bat’ which isn't true. They also have very sensitive hearing so they know whether they are going to bump into another bat because they make very precise noises that only the other bats can hear.

After a long time in the dark, we finally got back and because we loved it so much, we went in again. It wasn't as good as the first time because we knew what was coming.

 Next we went on to the butterflies and the room was so steamy that when the humans took photos of the butterflies their cameras steamed up.

This is my favourite part now; we all went to the giraffe’s enclosure and they met all of my friends and we sat down and had a rest because we had been walking for about an hour. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up there were no humans to be seen; at least I’d had a good long sleep. I know this because it was quite dark when I woke up. I think the humans went off to the tigers and komodo dragons to finish off their booklets and then I heard a loud noise. This only meant one thing; Clayton Hall Business and Language College had finally gone home. Hooray, some peace and quiet.

That’s all for today but I will see you another time, Hannah Giraffe out…

Optical Illusions- by Aaron Stalker Y7

With this blog, I will be looking at Optical Illusions.

What's this?

   

Well if you look closely, you can see what it is actually made of...

   

If you can blur your eyes or zoom out, then you can see Marilyn  Monroe.

Health Warning!!!

Don`t look at the top right one for to long (too late if you already have!)

St George’s Day

On the 23^rd of April it was St George’s Day celebrating the patron saint of England.

We’ve all herd of St George, the legend that surrounds him is one of the most famous in England. In his story all of the girls in a town were being sacrificed to a dragon and George was sent to kill it. He obviously kills the dragon and is a hero and is now the patron saint.

The real St George probably didn’t kill a dragon and most likely didn’t even go to England, so what was the real St George like?

The real St George was born in Cappadocia in Turkey and he joined the Roman army when he was just 17 whilst he served a pagan emperor he was Christian and stayed true to his faith. When Emperor Diocletian started to prosecute Christians George begged for him to stop, Diocletian would torture George so he would deny his faith but George always stuck to his religion. He was beheaded on the 23^rd April 303.

Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed St George’s Day and K10’s assembly.

By Rosie Edwards  

Year 11’s Guide to Addiction

When we get older we have strange cravings or we want to forget something negative, we may turn to drugs and smoking. This blog is a lot more serious than the others and hopefully some people might learn from it.

One of our previous blogs is about motivation, that has some tips that could help you with your intentions of driving away from addiction. When we have a bad experience, we automatically want to forget it and sometimes we turn to drugs and smoking simply because we just can’t face the pain, so if you come under this category we have a few tips to help: Beware the consequences, think before you take them. Smoking excessively damages your lungs; and drugs, while addictive, are extremely dangerous to your health. If the addiction has already found you and you want to stop, be sure to ask for help.

We know year 11s aren’t old enough to drink alcohol, yet we strongly urge you to not drink too much as it is the bane of the life of many a person.

We will name no one, as we know no names, but to those who are out there and have fallen prey to cigarettes, take our advice and stop for your own good.

Concept and co-written by Jamie Tait.

Also co-written by Rosie Edwards.

Motivation

 

                                                          Motivation

The New Year is a starting point for many future prospects, and as the end of the month awaits us, we can all push the thoughts of work and resolutions to the back of our head. Can that be avoided? Well it can, through determination and the key Ingredient, Motivation.

Motivation is needed for every activity in our everyday life to push us along the path of success and to sometimes encourage us to do something different and out of your ‘comfort zone’. Let’s be real, we can all get pretty lazy. So, how can you stay motivated to work hard and stick to your little resolutions?

No.1

Get a notepad and a pen, and write down all of the reasons why you made your resolutions or why you should work harder in 2015, it may seem silly, but by doing this you will see all of the benefits of why you should keep your resolutions.

No. 2

If you feel that a notepad is a tad old fashioned, there are many smartphone apps out there to give you some inspiration and ideas when it comes to keeping your resolution creatively. You could even schedule daily reminders on your phone as to why you should go jogging today, for example.

No. 3

Get a friend or a member of your family to help, it will be a lot easier. They can help to remind you and give you a little bit of a push if you’re feeling sluggish.

Most importantly, you should know for yourself how much progress you’ve made, if you failed a few times, then try again! It doesn’t matter how many times you try, just keep trying your hardest, because you will feel very accomplished by the time that 2016 comes around.

 

By Holly Croxton K3

My Partnership With Into Film

Over the past year, I’ve been a part of a talent development program at a film education charity called ‘Into Film’. Into Film is a film charity which seeks to put film at the heart of children and young people’s learning, contributing to their cultural, creative and personal development. They create lots of great content for all sorts of young film fans. The website features many reviews of newly released films, exclusive interviews with the stars as well as many great short films made by kids and teenagers alike.

It all started way back in February 2014 when I applied for a talent development program run by Into Film. Three months after I sent my auditions and applications, I travelled down to London to meet the team over at Into Film and have a try-out session with them. It was easily one of the most productive and enjoyable days that I’ve ever had! I’ve met a lot of great people who had many of the same interests and aspirations that I had!

 About a month later, I was accepted into their community and my first assignment was to attend a screening to 2014’s, Earth to Echo, two months prior to its release. The screening was held at London in a private theatre where many guests we’re attending.  

Being a part of the Into Film community is such a huge honour. I felt as if I was able to further express my love for film better than ever. As of right now, I’m doing another assignment for them. I’m reviewing three movies based on the theme of ‘Robots and Artificial Intelligence’ and then writing a 300 word report on what I learnt from watching them, which one was my favourite and why, whether it made want to watch more films or not and if it made me appreciate science and technology.

As of right now, I’m planning to study film-making once I finish my GCSE’s and go to college. I’m not sure about what the future will hold for me, but I can assure you that whatever I do, it will have something to do with my love for the world of film.

Written by Kyle Snape.

Into Film’s Website: http://www.intofilm.org/.
My Sentinel Article: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Westlands-teenager-film-critic/story-22866752-detail/story.html.

Newspaper… is it being forgotten?

From what I have heard on the news, it sounds like the newspaper is being forgotten. About 12 million people read the newspaper and 8.95 million of them are read online- so that leaves 2,420,000 million people reading the printed newspapers and if you are one of the people that still read the printed newspaper, then you are getting more information than the people who are reading it online; the stuff online is less informative then the one that is printed. Or to simplify it, reading online is like seeing the bones and reading the print is like seeing the skin as well.