The TCA Reporter

Thomas Clarkson Newsletter Issue No.1 Dec 2017

TCA Festive Newsletter The news publication brought to you by the students of - Thomas Clarkson Academy.

The Newsroom Our student journalists report on a plethora of topics, including: current affairs, events, news, technology, art, history, Wisbech, and very importantly - our successes!

Our student editors work behind the scenes to design the newsletter and decide on the content for each issue—this being our first of course. :)

It may be starting out small, but we intend for it to get BIGGER with each issue.

Congratulations to Sammy-Jo Hart (yr 7), the competition winner for our first front cover!

If you would like to contribute to THE TCA REPORTER, please email: [email protected] 1 In this edition: March sparkles  Festive Edition front cover competition winner (pg 1) with  March sparkles with Christmas cheer (pg 2) Christmas Cheer  An artist’s life - Inspira- tional Artist: Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (pg 3)

 Celebrity chef cooks up a fun day with TCA students (pg 4)

 MFL trip to Paris (pg 5 & 6)

 Competition festive cover, runners-up (pg 7)

 Mystery poet farewell (pg 8)

 TCA’s Christmas Pro- duction - Performing Arts (pg 9)

 Just for laughs (pg 10) I was blessed to witness the majestic lights switch on in  Sport (pg 11) March on the 24th of November 2017. There were a variety  Technology (pg 12) of things to do while people waited for the lights to be

 Remembrance service switched on. (pg 13) The lucky people, who had made it on this wintery night, en-  Library Ambassadors joyed fun fair rides, Christmas songs and an endless supply (pg 14) of food such as hotdogs, burgers, hot donuts and candy floss.  About Thomas Clark- son (pg 15) The lights were switched on at 7pm by Santa. Even though it was very cold, everyone was having fun. The boats had lights  Adverts (pg 16) on which were as bright as stars.

As most of the rides were on the road, lots of the roads were closed. My favourite part was when Santa threw chocolates at us - people were leaping into the air to catch the chocolate!

By Lucy Hunt (yr 8)

2 Inspirational Artist

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. She was Nationality American best known for her paintings School of the Art of enlarged flowers, New Education Institute of Chicago York skyscrapers, and New Columbia Universi- Mexico landscapes. ty University of Vir- O'Keeffe has been recog- ginia nized as the "Mother of Art Students American modernism". League of New York

Painting Born: 15 November Known for 1887, Sun Prairie, Wiscon- sin, United States American modern- Death and Legacy Died: 6 March 1986, Santa Movement ism In her later years, O'Keeffe Fe, New Mexico, United suffered from macular de- States Alfred Stieglitz generation and began to lose her eyesight. Spouse(s) (m. 1924; his death 1946) Siblings: Ida O’Keeffe, As a result of her failing vi- sion, she painted her last Claudia O’Keeffe, unassisted oil painting in Alexius Wyckoff O'Keeffe, National Medal of Awards Arts (1985) 1972, however, her urge to Anita O’Keeffe, Catherine Presidential Medal create didn't falter. With the Blanche O'Keeffe, of Freedom(1977) help of assistants, she con- The Edward Mac- tinued to make art and she Francis Calyxtus O'Keeffe Dowell Medal in wrote the bestselling Jr. the Arts (1972) book Georgia O'Keeffe (1976).

"I can see what I want to paint," she said at the age of 90. "The thing that makes you want to create is still there."

By: Lillie-May Groves (yr 9)

3 Mark Lloyd cooks up a feast of fun at TCA with our students

We organised an evening meal for par- The task was to prepare, cook and present a ents and the public with Mark Lloyd who 3 course meal for 60 members of the pub- is a celebrity chef. lic. Our parents, a news reporter and the Mayor of Wisbech There was a group of year 10 and 11 stu- (Steve Tierney) dents and we all had a role to play: some were also present as of us were in the customers for the kitchen, and two meal. were decorating the dining area. It Our customers were asked to donate a sum taught us what it of money for which they thought the 3-course would be like to meal was worth. This was a fantastic experi- work in a restau- ence for all, and it helped us with our culi- rant or any cook- nary skills, independence, communication ing environment. skills and team building. We loved working together, it was really fun and we would all The people in- do it again. volved were:

Courtney Hill (me), Leo Ma- vor, Lily Pomfrett Beecham, Jas- mine Manderson, Connor Benbow, Gabi Ferreira, Bethanie Graham, A big THANK YOU to Mark Lloyd from Ben Marshall, Lo- Thomas Clarkson Academy and our student ran Hawkins and chefs! Courtney Price. By Courtney Hill (yr 11)

4 The Modern TCA Trip Foreign Languages to (MFL) department PARIS

Miss Willows put a huge amount of effort into organizing a fun-packed four-day trip for a coach-load of TCA yr 8 pupils. Mrs Njikang, Mr Arrowsmith and Mr Woodruff went along, too. Here are some highlights of the itinerary:

The ‘Parc Astérix’ theme park, where all the rides were based on the well-known and much -loved French cartoon character of the same name. Some of us got wet!

5 The Modern TCA Trip Foreign Languages to (MFL) department PARIS

A boat trip down the river Seine which allowed us to see some of the great monuments of the city such as La Cathédrale de Notre Dame, (although the Hunch- back didn’t show). None of us got wet.

The Vimy Ridge First World War Memori- al, built to commemorate the sacrifice made by Canadian troops during the 1914- 18 conflict. Canadian guides gave a very detailed account of the horrible conditions which the soldiers were made to endure in the trenches and tunnels.

La Tour Eiffel-all 310 metres of it! We made it to the top by tramping up hundreds of steps, before reaching the lift which takes tourists for the final section. The view from the summit was stupendous!

Speak to miss Willows if you would like details of the Yr 9/10/11 PARIS trip which will take place in the February HALF-TERM break! 6 TCA Festive front cover runners-up

A very big thank you Ellie Wallace yr7 to all of our competition entrants! Here’s the runners-up.

Becca Black yr8

Emily Kirby yr 7

Kacey Johnson yr7

Skaiste Tlembetovaite Kiah Jones yr7 yr7 Jack

Angel Vingoe yr8 Kzy Appadoo yr8 Chantelle Lott yr8 Wiktorija Trifanova yr7

Imogen Collins yr7 Wiktoria Przychodna yr7 Meida Rucinskaite yr8

7 Poets Corner

‘Twas the Week Before Christmas…

‘Twas the week afore Christmas A mince pie and some fizz And all through the school, Are what’s needed for staff, Students and Teachers were ready for Yule. Who swap Secret Santas, a joke and a laugh. Christmas themed lessons were applauded in Maths, And that’s where we must leave you Whilst kids read Darles Chickens For leave you we must - Just for the laughs! For a new school, a New Year and a new trust! Christmas Lunch was delicious, Full with crackers and hats and “So on English, on Science Nobody cared if they looked a bit daft. On Maths and on all, For you have the magic to grow the school Something for the needy and most deserv- tall!” ing, As Food Drive filled boxes Wished a bony old teacher Send a true Christmas serving. Who flew out of the door. In a wink she was gone before anyone saw. Then it’s on with bright sweaters Some light up - some sing, But she shouted: “Dear Sirs, A Christmassy school really makes the day Dear Ladies, whether Miss or Mrs, swing! A Merry Christmas to all and my Best New Year Wishes!” To celebrate Christmas (and holiday glee), Soon we gather in Eden (Anon) Around the tall tree.

The carols have started and Sweet voices are ringing, Student goodbyes sound just like Angels’ singing! Farewell to our mystery poet :(

Can you guess who?

TCA’s Christmas Production

Christmas Concert Date: 6:30pm – 8:00pm 13th December 2017 Where: Thomas Clarkson Academy @ Theatre

9 Ho! * * Just for laughs! Ho! * * Ho! * * Q: What do you say to Santa when he’s This one’ll sleigh you! taking attendance at school? Q: What is the best Xmas present in the A: Present. world? A: A broken drum, you just can't beat it!

Q: What did Mrs. Claus say to Santa Claus when she looked up in the sky? Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? A: Looks like rain, dear! A: Frostbite!

Q: How much did Santa pay for his Q: What do you call Frosty the Snowman in sleigh? May? A: A puddle! A: Nothing, it was on the house!

Q: How will Christmas dinner be different Q: What do you get when you combine a after Brexit? Christmas tree with an iPad? A: No Brussels. A: A pineapple.

Q. Why do mummies like Christmas so Q: Why are Christmas trees so bad at much? sewing? A. Because of all the wrapping! A: They always drop their needles!

Two snowmen in a field, one turned to the Q: What song do you sing at a snowman's other and said "I don't know about you but birthday party? I can smell carrots."! A: Freeze a jolly good fellow!

Q: How does Good King Wenceslas like his pizzas? A: One that's deep pan, crisp and even!

Knock knock! Q: What happened to the man who stole Who's there? an Advent Calendar? Hanna A: He got 25 days! Hanna who? Hanna partridge in a pear tree!

10 The Goblins Den

With Mr Birch

Magic: The Gathering The TCA Reporter needs Warhammer 40K. Journalists to report all the news, events Board Games and successes of our Games Workshop wonderful academy. You’ll be responsible Wednesdays for researching and Session 5 and 6 writing up your articles. Room P201

(20 students maximum)

The TCA Reporter needs Articles of interest: Editors to create our Recipes, Fashion tips, termly publication and Games, Comic Strip, to respond to our Historic Wisbech, Pho- readers. You’ll be re- tography, and more… sponsible for editing Let us know here at and laying out con- the Newsroom. tent.

Reply to: [email protected]

11 By Max Van Tongeren (Yr 11)

The other more powerful type of GPU is Graphics Cards and the dedicated GPU which is connected to GPUs the motherboard, this can be done via a few different connectors, the Nvidia has just released its most common connector used new line up of tesla GPUs for on desktop computers is the the heavy video editing mar- PCI Express Connector but ket, with over 3000 Cuda other slots have been used cores and 9 Teraflops of per- over the years such as AGP formance, they are definitely and normal PCI. These con- fit for the purpose. A Teraflop nectors all have superfast transfer is a measurement of how fast the speeds but the PCI Express Connector graphics are processed by the Graphics the fastest transfer speed which can be Processing Unit (GPU). These New GPUs up to 63 GB/s using 16 PCI Lanes from Provide Enough power for the new 4K the CPU. This is known as PCI E x16. Video Resolution Standard of 2017. VRAM is similar to System RAM because Talking about GPUs (Graphics Pro- it still runs at a superfast speed to ensure cessing Units) in general, they are a key that it doesn’t limit the performance of the part of any computer system and no mat- graphics card, VRAM is very simply Flash ter what, any computer you come about in memory which on dedicated GPUs is built your time that connects and displays to a onto the graphics card but most iGPUs monitor, will have some form of GPU on use the system memory which can result board. There are in system slow two main types of down. The graph- Graphics Solution ical data, unpro- in a computer sys- cessed or pro- tem, The Lower cessed, will al- powered type ways find its way which is found in onto the VRAM at most Office/Media Systems is Built-in I- some point as any data flowing through GPUs, this stands for Integrated Graphics the GPU to be processed needs to be Processing Unit. This is usually Built-in to stored because the GPU can only pro- the CPU in the system (Central Pro- cess data at a certain speed, which is cessing Unit) and the I-GPU shares Sys- much slower than the transfer speed of tem Memory to store the unprocessed the VRAM. and also the processed graphical data. 12 The Remembrance Day at Thomas Clarkson Academy

Our school Thomas Clarkson has always celebrated Remem- brance Day which is now a tradition where everyone in the school takes part. Many members of staff, both teaching and non-teaching, as well as students, participated in this historical event. This Remembrance Day was special to me because I had a very important role in recording the event with my camera.

Why is Remembrance Day important to us?

Our school has always been known for its involvement with the Military through the Cadet’s programme. As a result, remembrance day has special importance to us all. One of the students noted: “I think that remembrance day is highly important as it represents all the people that fought in world wars even if they’re dead or alive” indicating how special this day is to all students in the school.

“I think that Remembrance Day is important to celebrate all of those who had risked their lives to save their country and some of them had died during World War One & Two which some people would have been very hurt by losing a family member or friend, which meant a lot to them and who they loved.”

Members of the Academy had taken part in the parade in the school, such as people holding flags, playing the trumpet; we also had the cadets take part in it is well. We had the Mayor come into the school to take part and care for those who had been lost. Also our local police officer who works with our academy (PC Terry), also took part in the ceremony.

We wear the poppy to show peace and remembrance of all of those who are lost and who have battled fighting for their country.

By Shannon Johnson (yr 11 )

13 Hi, my name is Amy. I am in year 9 and I am one of the school’s Library Ambassa- dors. This means I do some exciting work in our lovely library at Thomas Clarkson Academy. I work with two amazing librari- ans; Mrs Trafford, the head of the library, and Mrs Collier, the head of the Library Ambassadors.

This is the Library Ambas- I also asked Mrs Collier “Why did you set sador’s badge up Library Ambassadors” She replied “I you will get if set it up because I wanted a group of peo- you’re chosen. ple who were inspired by the library and There are four love reading books.” responsibilities that the Library Ambassa- I enjoy being a Library Ambassador dors have to know; confidentiality, com- because it is fun and it also teaches you mon sense, good customer service and some customer service skills. It also helps attention to detail. you gain skills for jobs later in life. I asked Mrs Trafford “How does the sup- I would recommend you join as it is really port from the library ambassadors help fun and you will learn some customer ser- your work in the library?” She replied vice skills. If you do sign up you can ex- “Library Ambassadors are essential to the pect to complete training (Thursday ses- smooth running of the library. At busy sion 5) and help out in your own time in break time, students would not be able to the library. When authors come into borrow books if there were no library am- school Library Ambassadors get to meet bassadors behind the desk.” them.

Amy Parkinson (yr 9)

14 Thomas Clarkson

About Thomas In 1833, parliament passed the Slavery Clarkson Abolition Act, which gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. Clarkson was a lead- Clarkson retired to Ipswich where he died ing campaigner on 26 September 1846. against the slave trade and slavery in My opinion on Thomas Clarkson Britain and the British I think Thomas Clarkson was a big part in empire. history of Wisbech as we might still have a Thomas Clarkson was born in Wisbech slave trade today. Without Clarkson our Cambridgeshire, 28 March 1760. His fa- academy would not be called what it is to- ther was a Priest who also taught at the day. local grammar school. In 1779, Clarkson This era was before factories were made went to Cambridge University where he (Industrial Revolution) so most slaves were won a Latin essay competition on the sub- put to work in fields where they would sing ject of whether it was lawful to make and create music. From this, a new gener- slaves of others against their will. ation of music was made, Blues, and is In 1785, during his travels from Cambridge now known as ‘Country Blues’. to London by horse, his thoughts were on A lot of the slaves suffered the pain of slavery and feeling that someone should working long hours, not eating enough and do something about this evil. His idea be- being forced to do what they didn’t want to. came a passion to help the slaves of the I think that without rich men. Thomas Clarkson a After years of hard work by the Clarkson’s, lot more slaves would Sharp, Wilberforce and many others, the suffer twice as bad slave trade was abolished in the British with the industrial rev- Empire in 1807. The following year, Clark- olution. son published his book 'History of the Abo- The Thomas Clarkson lition of the African Slave Trade' and, alt- memorial in Wisbech hough his health was now failing, contin- was renovated in Au- ued to campaign for the complete abolition gust 2011, with Wisbech Society providing of slavery. £20,000 towards the costs.

By Olivia Virgo /(Yr 11)

15 SPORT

Year 8 Rugby

TCA year 8 rugby team have had a great The TCA Tigers, as they call themselves, flew past Ely and Neale Wade again. season as they’ve gone from strength to strength. Last year the Year 8s suffered When the boys played against Witch- defeat across the board losing all their ford at home they beat them 3 tries to games. 2. But as the season progressed both Now, after some expert coaching from Mr teams had become stronger, faster and had bonded.

When they clashed again at Witchford’s ground, the boys were hoping to cruise past them but were met straight from the word go. Witchford started the game passing in out to the wings where TCA were weaker, they were leading all through the first half scoring a whopping 5 tries to TCAs 3!

Smith they are not only Isle of Ely champi- After some strict words from their coach, ons but are unbeaten too. the Tigers showed Witchford why they are a force to be reckoned with. After first half tries from Michalczyk, Mrozik and Baltus- The first game they played they knew right ka, captain Connor Loughlin and Dawid from the first whistle they were going to Michalczyk brought the try total up to 5 win. Super tries were scored that day, and earning a really well-fought draw. amounting to 7 and conceding nothing. The captain put on an incredible performance scoring a hat-trick. Joshua Putterill Connor, the team’s captain is over the moon with how his team played and so is close in pursuit gaining another 2 tries. Mr Smith. Dawid Michalczyk, Domantas Baltuska and Joe Tierney scoring one each to add to the total. By Connor Loughlin

16 SPORT

Year 9 Rugby

The last game in the Isle of Ely league Both teams won all games apart from the has now been played, and we WON THE last one that we drew, but due to a best try LEAGUE!!! difference from Brooke Weston Academy, they secured first place.

We also participated in a Kings College Ely rugby tournament where we finished 2nd behind Kings Ely. We won all games apart from the match against Kings Ely “A”, because being a private school they are ex- posed to more hours of rugby training during the week as well as having more students that play rugby regularly.

players that participated in this season fix- tures: Aironas Jacina, Brandon Rust, Kacper Bembenek-Wuduch, Reeve This is the second year in a row that we’ve Brighty, Lukas Alexsandravivius, Redgford won league, an achievement that has never Kilby, Danny Grieve (Captain), Tomasz happened before in the history of our Hajdukiewicz, Matthew, Hollis, Joshua school. Larner, Raivo Krastins, Connor Loughlin, Tyler Knowles, Sonny Lynn, Brunon Bajal- The students have displayed a fantastic ski, Alex Alden, Erikas Vysniauskas, Mitch- spirit and level of rugby throughout the ell Buckingham, Saulis Mockus. league, and their commitment to the sport and to the team has been outstanding. This Our students deserve all the credit and is a massive success and achievement for merit, they are outstanding young students the students, showing that with work, dedi- and rugby players, and it is a huge pleas- cation and commitment you can achieve ure to be their coach and teacher. regardless of what context you’re in. Mr B Porfirio To add to this success in the Isle of Ely, the boys took part in a Northampton Saints Rugby Tournament with the schools in our trust. In this tournament we came 2nd, behind Brooke Weston Academy due to try difference.