VOICE

The holidays are here! ISSUE06 DECEMBER2012 these people...

Principal Mr P Morris Vice Principal Dr S Clark Staff Editor Mrs N Owen Designer Marshall & Kemp Press Officer Ms S Pearsall Photo Editor Mrs S Thompson Student Editor Michael Cartledge Music Harrison Marlow Catherine Groucott Film Michael Cartledge Abigail Evans News and Politics Sonia Wright Dylan Waldron Literature Shannon Randolph New Technology George Harding Science Namrata Mishra Gaming John Brittain Motor Vehicle Robert James Sport and Health Lauren Berry Fashion Rebecca Cutmore Emily Driscoll Gossip Natasha Crook made this possible...

02 The Principal’s Comments

News 03 Academy News principal’s comments 04 News In Brief One Christmas was so much like another, in about the commercialisation of Christmas and Factual those years around the sea-town …… to look back with “rose-tinted glasses” about 06 Politics So begins “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” how much better it was when we were young, 07 Science by Dylan Thomas. I have fond memories of but, quite simply, it is a magical time. So enjoy 09 Technology Christmas in Swansea when I was growing it, make sure that you share it with your family up. Waking up at four in the morning to find a and friends, and never lose that, childlike, pure Entertainment pillowcase of toys at the end of my bed. Playing enjoyment of this time of year. 10 Fashion with my new red bus. Seeing all my relatives on 12 Games Boxing Day. Nadolig Llawen, 12 Film 14 Music As we get older the magic of Christmas tends 16 Literature to fade until we go through it again with our own 18 Sport children and experience the joys of seeing their 18 Gossip happiness. It is far too easy to become cynical

2 academy news children in need landau forte style Dressing up, having fun and raising money; participating in various activities in college. Children In Need. In total, we raised £684.38; these were the highlights of Landau’s Children in These activities not only enabled us to wax the every penny of which will be donated to Need Day this year. On Friday 16th November, leg hair from male students and tutors and re- disadvantaged children in the UK. Thank you to students and tutors were given the chance to create a famous T.V show, but they also helped everyone who took part! let their hair down and enjoy themselves by the Academy to raise hundreds of pounds for

landau forte comes together for trussell trust landau forte The Trussell Trust provides emergency food Pentecostal Church, Steve Jonathan, with and support to people experiencing crisis; it many items of food in order to help poor day out offers a minimum of three day’s worth of food young families in Tamworth. This year, Dench to those families who need it. In 2011, 128,687 collected food to the approximate value of £70. people benefited from food banks. The one Once again, the Pastor, when he came into nec skills show that has now opened in Glascote, near the college, was overwhelmed and truly grateful for Not going to university? The NEC skills show old Manor House Coffee Shop has established the amount of food we had provided for families gave a considerable amount of advice to a successful partnership with LFATSF. Last in crisis in Tamworth. Year 13 students who had decided not go to year, Dench provided the Pastor of the Elim university or were undecided as to which career path they should follow. It was a great chance to learn about different careers; in fact, the exhibits gave us the chance to increase our knowledge of all the different jobs available to us and enabled us to understand what it would be like to be part of a big organisation. There were so many different types of careers to look into due to the size of the exhibit.

Lauren Berry, Natasha Crook www.lfatsf.org.uk 3 do you want to news in brief adopt a spire? pac-man Milan’s main Cathedral has put its 135 spires cost €100,000 (£80,000) and donors will have up for adoption to raise money for essential their names engraved on the spire. So far, eight in space maintenance to the Cathedral. The spires spires have been adopted. Saturn “Pac-Man” spotted – astronomers have seen features on Saturn that look like the icon arcade game character Pac-man.

tamworth floods Tamworth was flooded recently due to heavy local traffic. Other towns and villages around rain fall. The river, which is normally between the Tamworth area were also flooded. This isn’t 0.86 and 1.30 metres deep, rose to well over unusual: Tamworth was hit by bad floods in lost 1.68 meters. The Snowdome car park was 2007 and 1932. island also badly flooded and caused disruption to A south pacific island, Sandy, shown on marine charts and world maps such as Google maps and Google earth, does not exist. This island was considered to be a strip of land in- between Australia and New Caledonia. When scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they just found blue Ocean.

4 Sonia Wright VOICE hurricane sandy start to finish

Began on October 22

An estimated $50 billion worth of damage was caused.

New York subway, a lifeline for millions of people, was left paralysed for days after the incident.

A fire reduced 100 homes to ash in Queens, New York. 40 people were killed in total.

New York required $3.5bn to fix damaged bridges, $1.65bn to rebuild homes and $1bn to reimburse emergency services and city officials for overtime.

Ended on 2nd November

Dylan Waldron www.lfatsf.org.uk 5 politics U.S. election the results are in

After over a year of campaigning and three In the speech President Obama gave to What will Obama do in his second term? Presidential debates, Barack Obama has won America just after his win, he said “We want the Presidential election for his second term our kids to grow up in a country where they Ins Obama’ next term in office, he will hopefully in office. The Democratic President fought a have access to the best schools and the best be able to do more of the things he wanted to do close race with the Republican candidate Mitt teachers. A country that lives up to its legacy as in his last term. There will be the obvious things Romney. Americans took to the polling stations the global leader in technology and discovery that he will want to address, such as making on Tuesday 6th November. Barack Obama won and innovation, with all the good jobs and new the US economy stronger and continuing to by a narrow 0.5% majority. The Republican businesses that follow”. decrease unemployment, but also the not so party have also managed to hold on to their obvious, like trying to get equal pay for women. majority in the Senate. What has Obama achieved so far in his 4 President Obama also wants to focus on years in office? America’s immigration system and for America Up until Hurricane Sandy hit New York, Mitt to rely less on foreign oil. Romney was just ahead in the polls. Many think In Obama’s four years in office he has that hurricane Sandy helped President Obama accomplished, amongst other things, the Who would you have voted for? win the election as, after he visited New York, following: the polls started to suggest that Obama was creating a narrow lead. • He was elected America’s first Black President • During his time in office, the US found and killed terrorist Osama Bin Laden • In 2009, in a worldwide poll, Barack Obama was voted the world’s most rated leader • Obama set an estimated date of when American troops will pull out of Afghanistan.

6 Sonia Wright science & technology VOICE This Christmas season has brought about is very lightweight. Moreover, it could have some scientific questions. We were pondering nanostructured porous skin which can reduce the science the whole Santa Claus logic. ‘Would his drag by 90 per cent. magical sleigh really work?’ and ‘Can reindeers fly?’. While discussing whether Santa could fly, And finally flying reindeers! with. Mr Smith (Curriculum Leader for Physics), we came up with a few ideas such as using a Moving on to the ‘flying reindeer’ theory, super conducting magnet to attract the sleigh. there are a lot of species that have not been behind Super conducting magnets are ‘diamagnetic’. discovered and evolution can occur at a faster A super conducting magnet is similar to an rate due to changes in environmental conditions electromagnet. The idea is to place the coil (selection pressure i.e floods or other natural underneath the sleigh so that the sleigh can act disasters). This can lead to mutations (changes as the superconductor. The earth’s surface will in DNA sequence) of particular reindeers have to have a large magnetic field so that the causing evolution and development of new santa sleigh can ‘levitate’ above it. species of reindeer which can fly. However, this can take years to happen. A quicker way is to Sleigh Science: try and genetically engineer a reindeer which has wings! According to Dr. Larry Silverberg, an expert on Unified Field Theory from NCSU, the framework of Santa’s sleigh could be made claus up of honeycombed titanium alloy, which

Here’s a fun experiment you could try at home!

1. Purchase an Insta-Snow packet. 2. Then use the blue scoop and add about 1 teaspoon of Insta-Snow powder into an grow empty cup. 3. Quickly add about 8 ounces of water (at room temperature) into the cup. Sit back and watch as the snow erupts! 4. If you leave the snow, you will see the water evaporate and then it becomes dry, your which turns it back into the Insta-Snow powder, making it reusable.

This type of snow has been used a lot in movies. It is actually derived from superabsorbent polymer found in baby diapers. The long chains own of Insta-Snow polymers, however, absorb the water and swell up into an enormous size. This happens by the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the process by which the solvent particles,(in this case water), move through a partially snow permeable membrane (which is the powder particle membranes) from a region of lower solute concentration to a region of higher solute concentration (air to powder).

Namrata Mishra www.lfatsf.org.uk 7 cafeDr. Heidi Sowter arrived to give a talk on Cancer treatmentssci: to people who have undergone on Thursday 8th October. Sadly, however, the surgery. I am looking into Yoga and its talk had to be postponed and instead we (Mr practices. We take some participants who have Davison-Fenn, Matthew Norton, Mr Hill and undergone surgery to practise Yoga and see if myself) enjoyed having a chat (while happily it helps them with stress issues. munching on cakes and drinking coffee) with the brilliant scientist about her interests, career and I have run trials for breathlessness which is much more! Below are some of the questions actually a symptom of cancer. These trials we asked and her answers. involved people suffering from breathlessness undergoing exercise. What do you think about our College? Is think it’ very smart and I’d like to come here again sometime.

I heard you did a Marine Biology undergraduate course, what made you consider research in cancer?

In Marine Biology, we had to work for the waterboard. I didn’t want to do that so I went off to work for a technician. I liked a particular cancer paper and this made me apply for a the Cambridge Postgraduate course. I got an interview and I ‘gambled’ saying that I’ll only study there if I did a PhD as well.

So, how did you progress in your career? Did you do any scientific conferences?

Yes, I have done quite a lot. I even showed one in San Francisco, based on ovarian cancer, which was quite fun. I did one today in Liverpool as well. After the conference, I got to meet the life Beatles manager down at the pub, so that was quite exciting!

What are your other interests besides cancer research?

As part of the University of Derby, I do lecture a variety of branches in Biology. I teach statistics and how it is applied in Biology & Epigenetics, of a which is the way in which genes interact with proteins. I have also run clinical trials for scientist 8 Namrata Mishra VOICE christmas tech for all the family for dad for mum

Does your Dad listen to music? Over-ear Technology for Mums can be quite a rare thing, headphones produce much better sound but a great gift would be getting her favourite quality than most in ear headphones and you film or TV show in one convenient box set. don’t have to break the bank to get some Box sets can be found quite cheaply and will decent ones. I would recommend that you provide many hours of pleasure. Examples are get dependable brands, however, such as hard to pick out, as all Mums are different, but Sennheiser, Bose, JVC and Sony. The Sony how about Harry Potter years 1-7 for £18 from foldable headphones are only £13 online and play.com? have great sound quality. for brother for sister

Brothers can be tricky, but here is a nice gift Sisters are most likely more technologically idea for a brother that may be too old for toys. inclined than mum, but can still be tricky to buy The Nanodots are little fiddly magnets that you for. If your sister listens to music on her iPod, can build interesting shapes out of. You can get an iTunes gift card wouldn’t go amiss, available a small pack off the internet for only £15. If your from high-street shops. If a younger sister is brother is younger, however, Lego is a staple what you have, then I’m sure a DVD of her boys’ toy. favourite Disney film would go down a treat.

George Harding www.lfatsf.org.uk 9 fashion face exam stress with a Face mask

Exam preparation stressing you out a bit too much?

Try a soothing cucumber face mask.

Cucumber cools, soothes and hydrates the skin and this mask couldn’t be easier. Wash and slice a chilled cucumber into thin circles, then The ‘Breakfast’ Mask apply to the entire surface area of your face, Complete with protein and whole grains, this even on top of your closed eyes. Relax and let breakfast-themed mask is used to correct and the coolness soak into your skin. calm oily skin.

1. Combine an egg yolk, a tablespoon of honey, then a tablespoon of olive oil and one to two tablespoons of oatmeal 2. Apply to the face for 15-20 minutes. 3. Rinse with lukewarm water and then moisturise.

Honey & Papaya Lightening Mask This mask is specifically for those who have hyperpigmentation, sun spots and uneven Preparation pigment. Start by cleansing your skin, then apply your homemade face mask, leave on for up to 10 1. Blend together two tablespoons of honey and minutes, rinse-off with warm water, gently pat a tablespoon of mashed ripe papaya. skin dry and apply usual moisturiser. 2. Apply to the face evenly for 15-20 minutes. 3. Rinse with lukewarm water and then Organic Banana Face Mask moisturise. Your skin will have a healthy glow after applying this tropical mask to your face. This Heavenly Honey Citrus Mask recipe is designed for all skin types. This honey-and-orange-based mask is a quick fix to give your face an organic healthy glow. 1. Mash one half of a banana. 2. Mix in a tablespoon of orange juice and a 1. Combine three tablespoons of orange juice tablespoon of honey. with a tablespoon of honey. 3. Apply to the face and keep the mixture on 2. Apply to the face and leave on for half an for fifteen minutes. hour. 4. Rinse with lukewarm water and then 3. Rinse with lukewarm followed by cool water, moisturise. and then moisturise.

10 Emly Driscoll VOICE

True Bath Solid Perfume & Soap Gift Set gifts under www.feelunique.com - £8.50 lushLush is a hand-made organic cosmetic company who have a wide range of bath and body products, including handmade natural soaps, bath bombs, face masks, hair products and much more. With so many different products, you will be sure to find something that you will fall in love with. Why not try some of the Christmas products £10Struggling to find Christmas presents for ALL of that Lush have on offer this season? They your friends and worrying about spending too have a variety of gift hampers that your friends much? Well worry no more as we have found or family will be thrilled to open on Christmas some great organic cosmetics for under £10 to day as they are filled with bath bombs and help you out. soaps that smell gorgeous.

Lush’s products are unique and we recommend Shower, Scrub & Moisture Set trying some out. One product we especially like The Body Shop - £7 was the ‘Party Popper bath bomb’. Drop one of these into your bath and watch it spin into action as it spreads colours, fragrance, popping candy and soap confetti into the water. We also loved the Christmas themed ‘Magic wand bubble bar’ which is a reusable bubble bar star that gives mounds of sweet-smelling foam that you can use again and again.

Lush believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not test on animals. They invent their own products and fragrances, using little or no preservatives or packaging. There aren’t many companies that are eco-friendly and use natural products as well as working Cranberry Joy Shower & Moisture Set towards increasing awareness of issues across The Body Shop - £7 the. world Local stores are on Birmingham New Street and in Solihull; they are definitely worth a visit!

www.lfatsf.org.uk 11 games & films

PC Gamers are not to be left out this Christmas. Thes world’ 1st zombie MMO was released games for mid-October! WarZ! With 95% of the human population gone, you must survive in this world by being a scavenger, a strategist and a killer. christmas Nintendo have got so much happening this love This Christmas is looking to be the best Christmas, one game that you should look out Christmas for all gamers. Whatever console, for is Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask. whatever genre, there is fresh material that will In the game, an old high school friend of Layton keep you playing for hours upon end, … but requests his assistance in solving the mystery what games do you want? of a man terrorizing the city, the Masked actually Gentleman. Love actually; the title alone suggests that it On 6th November 2012, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Also, the Mario series returns once more in is a romance film. The film is typically found welcomed Halo 4, rated 9.8 out of 10 by IGN! New Super Mario Bros U, for the Nintendo Wii on television around Christmas time and has Halo 4 sees the return of the much loved Master U! Rekindle your love for the series and put been a firm favourite since it was first televised Chief after his absence from the popular game this game with the Wii U on your Christmas 11 years ago. It contains a star studded cast series. list! ranging from Hugh Grant to Liam Neeson. The Michael Cartledge rated the game as “quite film caters for all ages as it follows eight couples good”. There are of course more games out including at Christmas time, all of whom are either in Black Ops 2, Assassins Creed 3 and Far Cry 3. love, falling in love or ending relationships. It’s a Sony PS3 released a new game for the typical romance film set around Christmas time, LittleBigPlanet Series, LittleBigPlanet Karting! All of the mentioned games are looking great! but is full of comedic genius provided by Kris Rated 8 out of 10 by Metacritic! Which game will you choose? Marshall as Collin Frizzle, a typical Englishman You fire up your engines, jump behind the who goes to America to find the American steering wheel and take on your friends and Dream. Love Actually is full of laughs, perfect foes in breathtakingly unpredictable battles for those who are looking for a light hearted through an ever-changing world of content. chuckle whilst catering to those who want to Reviewer, Tom Orry said “LittleBigPlanet see a romance movie with a partner. Karting is an enjoyable game”.

I would highly recommend the movie as it has been one of my top Christmas films for a long time. I find the cast brilliant, as do most who watch it. It is full to the brim with comedy legends such as Rowan Atkinson, who makes a cameo appearance, as well as various other well known celebrities. The film is the perfect watch at Christmas, full of love and comedy, a perfect mix between the two genres for those not looking for a traditional festive movie. However, it’s not one for younger siblings or children, don’t say I didn’t warn you…

12 John Brittan, Abby Evans VOICE top 5 christmas films

Elf An Elf, who is kicked out of the North Pole for inadvertently wreaking havoc because of his size, tries to find his way in the world independently. Starring Will Ferrell. Home Alone Bad parenting at its best. When Kevin The Muppet Christmas Carol McCallister’s family go away on a Christmas The classic tale is retold by everyone’s favourite vacation, they accidentally leave him behind. puppets. The tale is brought to life for young Hilarity ensues as a pair of incompetent thieves and old with perfect expertise, with narration attempt to steal from the family home. Starring from Gonzo. Starring Michael Caine. Macauley Culkin and Joe Pesci.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington, King of Halloweentown, discovers Christmas Town and is entranced by the idea. After returning to Halloweentown, him and his ghoulish residents attempt to celebrate How the Grinch Stole Christmas a Christmas of their very own, with Jack being From the weird and wonderful mind of Dr. Santa of course… Starring Danny Elfman. Seuss, comes the tale of the Grinch, as he attempts to destroy Christmas for the citizens of Whoville. Starring Jim Carey and Taylor Momsen.

Abby Evans, Michael Cartledge www.lfatsf.org.uk 13 Lady Antebellum Colbie Caillat Cee Lo Green On This Winter’s Night Christmas in the Sand Cee Lo’s Magic Moment An American country-pop twist on Christmas. This is the first Christmas album by the Cees Lo’ Magic Moment is the first Christmas The, band which was formed in 2006, cover American singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat. The album by Cee Lo Green. The American artist some of the most popular Christmas songs; album includes covers of Christmas songs has recorded various collaborations with artists such as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for such as: Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”, and also such as Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera, and Christmas”, Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself four original tracks written by Colbie Caillat and even included a track featuring The Muppets! a Merry Little Christmas” as well as their own other song writers. single “On This Winter’s Night.” Christina Perri A Very Merry Perri Christmas (EP) The American singer-songwriter takes on Christmas as she covers five festive tracks with one original seasonal track “Something About four new December”. christmas albums 14 Catherine Groucott music VOICE the battle recommended single of the bands “I Will Wait” is a song released by the British Mumford & Sons folk band Mumford & Sons. The track can be The Landau Forte battle of the bands night found on Mumford & Sons latest album ‘Ba- featured music from ‘Pineapple Incidence’, The bel’, which was released in September (2012). Matador’s’, Inersia and the ‘Staff Band’. In the US, the track sold over 153,000 copies in the first week. “I Will Wait” reached the The event took place in the theatre at Landau number 1 position on the US Alternative Songs Forte. It was a good experience for everyone as Billboard whereas over here, in the UK, it only each band played a set of three or four songs. i will reached number 12. The band who won were the youngest band ‘Pineapple Incidence’. album review Greenwait Day said they were aiming for a different fans of this type of music. This is a totally new Green Day sound in this trilogy of albums; they wanted move for Greenday. to go for a mix between early ‘Metallica’ and ‘The Beatles’. Although this is a strange mix of You can certainly see what Greenday were artists, you can definitely hear the new sound going for in the album, and you can hear the throughout the album, mainly in the songs difference between this and their early albums. “Stop When the Red Lights Flash” and “Stray There is very little energy in this album, Heart”. The mix works really well. however, I can say it is a very enjoyable album, the songs are very catchy, are a pleasure to ¡Dos! It can be easily said that “¡Dos!” is a lot listen to, and they make you feel extremely more lyrically and musically pleasing than its relaxed. Although it’s not what we’re used to predecessor “¡Uno!” which makes the album from Green Day, it works really well and is an ‘¡Dos!’ by Green Day is the second album in the much more appealing to fans of the band and album I would recommend. trilogy the band are releasing this year. It is the follow up to the album ‘¡Uno!’ which the band released in October. The third album ‘¡Tre!’ will be released on the 11th of December 2012.

The album is very reminiscent of the 1950’s style of early ‘rock and roll’, although there are many cases of more ‘punk’ sounding songs in the album. All of the songs in the album are different from Green Day’s more well-known albums such as “American Idiot” and “Dookie”, although you can hear the band’s attempt to sound like they did in the 1990’s. Instead of making you feel “pumped up”, the music seems to make the listener feel more relaxed than anything else, and it could easily be described as “chill out” music.

Harrison Marlow www.lfatsf.org.uk 15 literature let’s review... The Casual Vacancy J.K. Rowling greatest amount of conflict that little old Pagford Personally, I actually found myself enjoying has ever seen. Teenagers at war with parents, this book, even though it’s not the best thing wives at war with husbands, teachers at war Rowling has ever written, and probably wouldn’t with pupils, and most importantly, the traditional have sold as many copies as it has if it wasn’t Pagfordians at war with the modern council for her reputation. I think the main issue with estate Yarvillians. The main question is who will this book was the high standards set out by the win the race for the council seat, but the book is sheer success of the Harry Potter series and so much more than that. the expectation for it to be better, which only set it up to be a bit of a disappointment to many. I will be the first to admit that had this book not had the words ‘J.K.Rowling’ on the front cover, Love it or hate it, the interest and speculation there is next to no chance that I would have behind this novel has been vast. So much picked it up; a story about small town politics so that it knocked the immensely popular ‘50 with not a single mythical creature in sight? No Shades of Grey’ from the top of the bestseller’s thank you. But as a self-confessed Harry Potter lists on its release. Faith in humanity: restored. geek, I had to at least give it a go.

Considering the death of Barry Fairbrother and the election of a new council member are advertised as the two main plot lines, surprisingly, they do not dominate the story. The “casual vacancy” is all about the characters, you get a slice of everyone’s point of view and they are all perfectly crafted, so you can never quite decide whether you love or hate them, without the option of any middle ground. With its sub-themes of grief, love and heartbreak, it is This hotly anticipated book is sure to feature a story containing more problems than Jeremy heavily on people’s Christmas lists this year. Kyle could resolve within a year of shows, and Pagford is a seemingly idyllic English village, it deals with them effortlessly, in true Rowling but behind the pretty façade is a village at style. However, be warned, children’s book this war. After the shocking death of Councillor is not, with its large share of crude jokes and Barry Fairbrother, the town is left reeling, and colourful language this is definitely not a book the empty council seat is the catalyst for the for the family.

16 shannon Randolph VOICE books for books for christmas girls boys in the LRC Christmas in the LRC. A time of peace on Earth, Brother / Dad / goodwill to all men and time to curl up in front of a roaring fire (or failing that a radiator) with a good book. But what type of book? A classic Boyfriend / Uncle ghost story? How about a bit of mindless videogame inspired Sci-Fi? And after all that The Guinness World Records 2013 you can’t beat a nice warm feeling inside that Crammed with the weird and the wonderful, isn’t indigestion. any boy will spend hour upon hour poring over this book and is guaranteed to come back to it I reckon the best bits of Dickens are set at regularly to get their fact fix. Christmas. What with all the food (or not) and dancing and frivolity (or not). Great Expectations has a dramatic Christmas while A Christmas Carol has a miserly one, then a happy party one and then one where lots of main characters are dead, until finishing off with one where everyone has enough to eat. Phew! It’s like that episode of The Vicar of Dibley where Geraldine has too many Christmas dinners.

Divergent While you’re there don’t forget that Dickens Veronica Roth wrote two other Christmas ghost stories which Ifs she’ a fan of ‘The Hunger Games’ then she’ll are just as good as Carol. The Chimes where a love this. The story follows 16 year old Tris as Scrooge like character is taught a lesson and she has to leave her family and make her own the Cricket on the Hearth about an unlikely way in the harsh, divided place the world has guardian angel. They all appear in the same become. Plus there’s a sequel so if you’re stuck edition as Carol so you’ve no excuse not to for ideas on her birthday… problem solved. read them all.

Got a new console for Christmas? How about Mum / Aunt / a bit of videogame inspired fiction to go with it? Bed warne Assassin’s Creed III: Foresaken by Sister / Grandma Oliver Bowden is full of spoilers if you haven’t finished the game but it also contains Connor’s P.S. I love you Younger Brother backstory if you can’t get enough of the hoodie Cecelia Ahern wearing hero. A heart wrenching tale of a woman who The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas devastatingly loses her husband and then gets Dougie Poynter and Tom Fletcher. Love in a Box by Emma Carswell is the amazing him back in the form of the monthly letters he It’s got the words poop and dinosaur in the and inspirational story of the people behind has organised to be delivered; each signing off title. Any little boy is going to be requesting this Operation Christmas Child. And that really is with the words P.S, I love you. It will make her book at bed time for the whole festive season. what Christmas is all about. cry but she’ll love it all the same. Written in rhyme, with lots of humour, it is sure to entertain people of any age.

shannon Randolph, Mr Cross www.lfatsf.org.uk 17 sport and gossip Road to Rio 2014: celeb How are the home nations faring? Autumn 2012. gossip

The start to the regular football season has once again been interrupted by ‘The International Break’. So after four games, who’s in the best position to qualify?

Wales and Scotland sit bottom of Group A, looking the least likely of the home nations to Strictly Come Dancing qualify, with respective defeats to Croatia and Danni Harmer said her ‘bum has been shrinking’ Belgium. Wales looked promising after beating while being a part of Strictly. She said ‘I am Scotland so dramatically (thanks to the magic happy with my body’. To date, Strictly Come of the ‘Welsh Wizard’ Gareth Bale) until the red Dancing has been beating the X-Factor in the dragons lost away to Croatia but, as England television ratings for the first time. will tell you, it’s never easy to go to Croatia and Louis explained that he’s now ready to settle win! down with a girl. While cosying up with a girl watching the telly, maybe he’ll switch on Strictly. England themselves are in a strong position to Looks like the celebs have loved working with qualify after a convincing win after San Marino, the dancers so much that Brendon is said to be and a narrow defeat against Poland. Northern choreographing Victoria’s wedding dance. Ireland have an outside chance to qualify with 2 points after 3 games, but they have a game in hand in November against Azerbaijan. This should give them their first win. The Republic of Ireland are hot on the heels of Group C leaders, Germany, having taken 7 points from their first three games.

X-Factor It is rumoured that Simon Cowell feels threatened by the boy band Union J (mentored by Louis Walsh). He feels their success could lead to competition for the boy band One Direction, who he currently manages. Lucy Spraggon has now left the X– factor. X- factors Facebook page stated that she chose to leave after being ill for two weeks. However, many people are suspicious of how true this statement really is. Allegations that the show is fixed have risen higher this year due to backstage dramas.

18 Lauren Berry, Natasha Crook VOICE

Our rating system this issue is Christmas based. How could we think of a better way to get into the Christmas spirit than picking out our best and worst celebrity stories of the season? Sos let’ see what‘s happening in the celeb sub- culture of the world…

Our angel this issue is Fearne Cotton. While Our Santa is James Buckley (some of you may Our elves are all the people who took part in being a regular on Celebrity Juice, an owner of know him as Jay from the Inbetweeners). He the no make-up campaign for Children in Need. a fashion line in a popular catalogue and a star recently got married to glamour model Claire Many celebs’ faces were stripped of make-up in the advertisement for this catalogue, she is Meek. They got married in Dundas castle in and replaced with a Pudsey bear tattoo. In also going to be a mother. Scotland and, in honour of the setting, James some cases, the celebs were unrecognisable wore a kilt to look the part too. I guess he’s due to the amount of make up that must have already got his Mrs Claus. been taken away!

who’s hot who’s not & Natasha Crook www.lfatsf.org.uk 19 CHRISTMASTREE SANTA F C N K X I G O K E K A K H CRACKERS REINDEER PRESENTS SNOWMAN U H I Z N A M W O N S K R A TINSEL ELVES D C C R H J N P O P V E A S BAUBLE GIFTS NEWYEAR PARTY I A H E Z L R L L L V E V S

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