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BBC SCHOOL REPORT 2010
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Click on the School Report Banner to watch the nationa and international news, as reported by St Joseph's College pupils.
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Click on the School Report Banner to watch the local news, as reported by St Joseph's College pupils.
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Click on the School Report Banner to watch the entertainment news, as reported by St Joseph's College pupils.
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Click on the School Report Banner to watch the sports news, as reported by St Joseph's College pupils.
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Click on the School Report Banner to watch the weather, as reported by St Joseph's College pupils.
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Guid Nychburris
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Guid Nychburris is a festival celebrated by many people in Dumfries. Lots of things go on over the Guid Nychburris weekend such as, the ceremonial crowning of the queen, the big parade and lots more. Every year a ‘Queen’ is chosen from a certain school. The schools change round every year. This year the ‘Queen’ or ‘Queen of The South’ was chose from our school, St Joseph’s College. One of our fourth years, Beth, has been chosen as the Queen this year. The ‘Queen’ has lots of attendants such as Stephanie who is also from our school. “I’m surprised that I got picked to be the attendant, I’m not sure how many people put their names down, but it was a large majority of my year. I basically do everything thing that the queen does and go everywhere the queen goes. She has twenty attendants, 2 from her school, one from every other secondary school in the burgh, and one from every primary in the burgh.”
There is also a big parade every year where there is a competition to see who can do the best float. There have been many ideas such as, pirates, the jungle, hippies, rock n’ roll and tonnes more!
“Thousands of people come every year to see the crowning and the parade even if it’s pouring so I hope the turnout will be good this year even if it’s raining again.” Said Mrs. Barbour, a teacher at St Joseph’s College, also Director of Ceremonies for Guid Nychburris.
We hope this year will be as good as any other year and we also hope that the rain will stay off this year!
Jayde & Ellen
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St Joseph's College 100th Year
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St Joseph's College
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This year is the 100th year of St Joseph’s College on its present site. We interviewed many important people including the school head teacher Mrs Jones, Acting Depute Head Mrs Carroll and Maths Teacher Mrs Barbour.
Mrs Jones said, “Now pupils only attend for part of the day but a 100 years ago it was a boys boarding school so they would have stayed 24 hours a day. Girls arrived from the Benedictine Convent and St Andrews Girls School in 1982. Before then only a very few girls were taught with the boys-one being Mrs Barbour.”
The school uniform is quite different today.
“They had a royal blue school blazer with gold braid and caps for the boys. I think boys could have worn short trousers”, said Mrs Jones
Mrs Carroll then said “It’s a lot more casual now.”
The teachers also would have taught differently back then.
“Yes - pupils did not speak in class they raised their hands to answer and boys were called by their surname. Pupils were punished by detention or by the belt. You were belted for late coming, bad behaviour and for not working hard enough. This happened in all schools at this time.” said Mrs Barbour.
We then asked about behaviour.
“Pupils are more relaxed than they were way back”, said Mrs Barbour.
Mrs Carroll said, “The behaviour has definitely changed. The pupils are more challenging and more confident.”
The school celebrated by having an activities afternoon and a celebration dinner following mass. Following mass, the school pipers led the way to the assembly hall. The evening also included the St. Josephs community choir singing the school song. A dance display and a number of musical items from a group of past and present pupils and staff.
Mrs Carroll said, “For the pupils we had an activities afternoon and the teachers and pupils really enjoyed it!”
We then asked if the school had been successful in the past 100 years.
“It certainly has and we continue to build on that success.” said Mrs Jones.
Mrs Carroll said, “It has produced some great students and pupils and teachers get along excellently.”
And finally Mrs Barbour said, “Yes, it has produced doctors, lawyers, chefs, racing drivers - indeed success in every possible career.
We have found out many things we have never known about this school, and we can see this school flourish for many years.
By Louise &+ Catriona
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Lenten Appeal Hits Home
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Ecuadorian women
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St Joseph’s College in Dumfries are doing a Lenten Appeal to raise money for charities in Malawi and Ecuador for people less fortunate than us. The Lenten Appeal takes place over the 40 days before Easter.
The school is going to be organizing a photography competition and the 5th years will be taking part in a lot of sponsored events to raise lots of money. The school do not have a set target for the amount of money to raise but as long as they raise lots then they are happy.
When I asked Miss Ryan who was helping with the Lenten Appeal, I was expecting to hear a list of teachers but instead we were told, to our amazement, “The 5th years are helping as it is part of their course.” The school gets donations to fund the event. Some of the most successful events include: discos, coffee mornings and some sponsored events.
By Liam, William and James
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Bored at Easter?
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Easter Activities
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Bored at Easter? Well not anymore. If you’ve got nothing to do over the Easter holidays, come along to the Oasis Youth Centre. They have many different activities on offer for people aged 12-25 such as Drama, Street Dance, Trash Drumming, Guitar Tasters and Digital Photography. Did I forget to mention that it’s free?
Today we interviewed Alison Goldie, Community Learning & Development Worker who told us “Dumfries & Galloway Council, Community Learning & Development Service are excited about the re-launch of youth work within Nithsdale. All of the events will be taking place from Monday 6th April 09 until Friday 18th April 09, so hurry up because you need to pre-book your recommendations. So no need to go to your mum and dad and say you’re bored. Just get them to phone the Oasis Youth Centre on 01387 260243.
Community Learning Development Service also known as CLD wanted the price to be free so local people could participate without worrying about money.”
If you take part in any of these activities then on Friday the 17th of April 2009 at 7pm you will have the opportunity to perform at the Re-Connect concert starring Diana Vickers and the McDonald Brothers. If you want to remember this event you can even get a signed autograph from Diana Vickers at Oasis Youth Centre at 4.30pm on Friday 17th April 09.
If you want to come along to this great event then tickets are £3 per person which are on sale at the Oasis Youth Centre/ North West Resource Centre (The Attic), and the Kirkconnel Resource Centre.
By Megan & Ellie
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Support for SCIAF
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SCIAF
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SCIAF is an organization run throughout the year that helps raise money for building schools and fitting in water pumps and giving them food and seeds to grow their own.
To raise money, the S5 do an R.E course on learning about outside communities. In their course they learn about raising money and awareness for people less fortunate than ourselves.
The Wee Box is kept in most classrooms and some teachers and pupils contribute some of their loose change because, as Miss Hefron said, ‘‘Every little Helps.”
Researching about SCIAF has shown us how lucky we really are and how often we take a lot of things for granted that we might not even know about.
Miss Hefron said, ‘It’s like Comic Relief in the way that it shows our support for 3rd world countries.’
‘When I was about 14 my parish and school were raising money by doing the longest running fast. Ally McCoist, Tommy Burns and Annie Mac all did something for SCIAF and that’s what interested me in it.’
Hopefully, St. Joseph’s College will start to raise awareness for SCIAF in every year group.
SCIAF was set up in 1965 by the Catholic Bishops of Scotland to give practical help to the worlds poorest people and to raise awareness of the causes of their poverty. In it’s first 40 years SCIAF raised over £65 million thanks to the generosity of many thousands of Scottish supporters.
SCIAF visits 200 schools across Scotland annually, speaking directly to over 30’000 young people.
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Fun Day
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Team Building
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The Fun Day to celebrate the Centenary at St. Joseph’s College was a great success! Everybody liked it and had a great day. The reason we had the fun day, was because the School was 100years old. Al the teachers told Mrs Carroll there ideas to celebrate it and they came up with this activity.
The fun day was filled with different activities such as, Treasure Hunt, Talent Café, Team Building, Rugby, Golf, Football, Nail Bar, Dance, Henna, Photography and X- Box rooms.
We spoke to Mrs Osman and she told us ‘The Talent Café was excellent! I definitely think the fun day should be a annual event.’
I also spoke to Mrs Carroll and Mr Rosindale and they feel the same.
There are arguments that it didn’t educate us like we should have been, but Mrs Carroll Says ‘ Children learnt how to work with teams , also that we can have fun at school, and that we see teachers in a different light.’
We Spoken to Hannah, a pupil who took place in the treasure hunt, and she told us ‘I think it was a great day! We got a break from work but still learnt new and different things. I would definitely like another day like this!’
I also spoke to Beckaa and she said ‘It was good to see the teachers in a different light; they showed us that there two different people during class and their own time.’
By Shelbie & Suzanne
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Falcons vs. Seagulls
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Due to seagull attacks in Dumfries, falcons have been brought in to scare off the bird menaces. The reasons behind this were answered by falcon trainer, Mike Cole. Mike’s first experience of looking after a bird was when he was 7 years old, where he flew a Kestrel.
The reason that falcons have been brought in is that, in the wild, falcons scare the seagulls because they put out a strong predatorily signal in the air that the seagulls sense. This forces the Seagulls to move out. When the Seagulls come back, if the falcon is still there, they will leave again.
This tactic is in place to stop the seagulls nesting as seagulls usually return to where they were born to lay their eggs. The falcons have been out since Monday 22nd and will stay out for 10 weeks during breeding season.
Today, Minnie, an 8 month old peregrine cross, was out twice for training. The falcons won’t hurt the seagulls because the sense alone will scare them off. There are three other falcons stationed at DG1 and another four are stationed elsewhere in Dumfries.
This is the widest area covered yet by NBC. Normally, they would just cover one building but due to backing by the Scottish government and the local council, the falcons have been set to cover all over Dumfries.
Mike Cole feels very confident that this will work because he has done this thing before on smaller areas. He is also sure that the falcons will not hurt the public because they are trained birds.
The CSL are monitoring how many seagulls are in the area and how well this is working.
The best thing to do if you get harassed by seagulls is to duck down low and raise your hands, as seagulls will rarely hit you but will dive bomb at you, aiming at the highest point, then you should get out of the seagulls “territory”.
“The falcons won’t harm anyone or anything due to being trained but pigeons might be a little bothered but since they are harder to shift, they will stay.”
The falcons will be making regular visits to Dumfries until the seagulls stay at they bay areas where they are most comfortable.
Matthew, Glen and Jordan
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Roaring Reunion
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Christian the Lion
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Christian was a lion, bought by John Rendall and Anthony Bourke from Australia. They bought the lion cub from Harrods in 1969.
After one year, Christian’s owners decided he was too big and wanted to take him to the wild, so they got in touch with George Adamson, a conservationist from the Kora National Reserve.
Three years later the Australians were reunited with Christian after they were informed about his successful reintroduction to the wild. Adamson advised Rendall and Bourke that Christian might not remember them, but he leapt into their arms.
Rendall’s final reunion was without Bourke and was unfilmed. This final visit Christian was successfully defending his own pride, had cubs of his own and was twice the size he was on their last visit.
Rendall said “We called him and he stood up and started to walk towards us very slowly, then, as if he had become convinced it was us, he ran towards us threw himself onto us, knocked us over, knocked George over and hugged is like he used to, with his paws on our shoulders.”
The 1st reunion with Christian is a youtube hit, with over 2m views. Bourke and Rendall are doing a book and a publicity tour all for a lion named Christian.
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Hunted Puppies Find New Homes
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Puppy
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Homes have been found for four puppies that were hunted for sport
after been born on a landfill site in Lanarkshire. The puppy’s names are Kayleigh, Zara, Shiloh and Teddy.
They were handed to the Scottish SPCA, which will re-home them this weekend. The mother of the puppies is understood to have been living wild at the Greengairs landfill for two years.
There are 2 boys and 2 girls, and they were caught by north Lanarkshire Council and taken to the Scottish SPCA’S Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre in Hamilton.
They decided to interview potential parents for the puppies. Debbie Bottomley, who manages the Mellerstain centre, said: "Before we did the interviews we thought that we wanted only the most experienced people. But then we met some applicants who were not so experienced but who were just great with puppies, were very kind and caring and had really done their homework on the breed.
"We are happy that the puppies will be going to good, loving homes."
The centre's assistant manager, Heather Shaw, added: "We will be sad to see them go as they are adorable puppies, but we are delighted with the response we have received and that they will be going to good homes."
By Catriona and Louise
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Wii - Fastest selling console EVER!!
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Wii
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The Games Console Nintendo Wii is the fastest selling games console of all time, with more than 50 million of them now sold.
It took Nintendo 28 months to sell 50m Wii’s, beating the old record set by Sony's PlayStation 2 by eight months.
The news was revealed at a big event in America for the people who make video games. And Nintendo announced some new features for the Wii at the same time.
One of the key developments will let Wii gamers use much bigger memory cards to store their saved games on.
A pupil in our class said " Having a Wii is a great thing for family fun, but boring to play on your own, but some games get very addictive and thats makes the family play it aswell."
By Liam, James and William.
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Saving Beached Whales
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Beached Whales
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Seventeen beached whales are being saved after being washed up onto a beach in South-West Australia.
On Monday around eighty whales and dolphins were washed up and many of them have already sadly died. The animals were being hit by very rough waves. Whale experts are planning on moving them all to a calmer bay. Experts want them to be released back into the sea to have a good chance of survival.
Western Australia’s Conservation Department have said “Whales and Dolphins were washed up onto the beach early on Monday morning, there was around four miles of them.”
At first it was thought that the whales were false killer whales, but experts looked at them closer and it was then later discovered that they were Long-Finned Pilot Whales.
It is very unusual for Whales and Dolphins to become stranded together. It is not unusual for Whales to become stranded on beaches, as they travel to the Antarctic Waters. Scientists are still not sure why this happened.
Jayde & Ellen
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Teenager jailed for Life
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Karen Aim
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On 17th January 2008, Ms Aim, 26, died in hospital after she was attacked by Jah che, 15.
Jah che admitted the murder of Karen Aim, from Orkney. He is now the youngest New Zealander to receive a life sentence.
Mr Aim’s is very upset that his wonderful daughter has died, he said:” I would have been so proud to take Karen down the aisle in her wedding dress. Instead I took her down the aisle in her coffin.”
On the night of her murder she was out with her friends and her body was found by police who were investigating vandalism.
Ms Aim’s parents travelled from the Orkney’s to New Zealand in February for the trials against Jah che to begin.
By Ellie & Megan
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