Legislation Tops Trump
My View
On Friday 28th January 2017, Donald Trump - the USA’s new president- enforced a ’travel ban’ preventing muslims from entering the us for 90 days. Trump has stated that he’s not trying to be racist, but that he’s doing it for the “benefit of America”. As a muslim I disagree with Donald Trump for numerous reasons. But the question that stands is why is Donald Trump doing this?
Press, media and citizens are asking what have muslims ever done to us? in attempts to recognise what the whole point of the ban is. A day after the executive ban was signed, Somali olympian Mo Farah was denied to come into America! The question I ask is: why is President Trump generalising all muslims? Why can’t he see the difference between radical islamists and normal muslims?
On the following day, a federal judge put a temporary halt on the ban. The case was applied by lawyers from DC and Minnesota. Due to this, the house appealed but overall the three judges on the ninth circuit upheld the federal judge's ruling, meaning the muslim ban was against American constitution and quite clearly against a whole religion.
The ban was officially considered illegal. In the other words, the muslim ban was banned.
Habiba & Layla (Year 8)
Not enough beds!
Four-hour emergency wait has risen to 300% in some Hospitals
The number of patients waiting for four or more hours at A&E has risen more than 300% at some hospitals.
2.2 million patients have not been seen within the target time in 2015-16 which is more than double the figure of one million in 2013-14. The NHS England have said the the hospitals were under pressure but are coping.
Since the start of December, hospitals have only seen 82.3% of patients who attended the A&E within the four-hour target. This is the worst performance since the target was introduced in 2004.
NHS bed occupy is not meant to exceed 85% - giving staff time to clean beds, to keep any risks of infection low, and have beds ready for patients who need them quickly. However, in the last year, 130 out of 179 hospital trusts have been exceeding these rates for general hospital beds; hospitals have reported using corridors to hold sick patients and more than 95% of beds in hospitals were used every day last winter.
Bed blocking has been a big impact of the ‘low amount of beds’ crisis. The elderly who do not have anyone to support them in their homes are staying in the hospitals, where they are being provided with care, leaving no room for those awaiting treatment.
Experts have been warning that the current four-hour waits can mean that some patients are 'being seriously put at risk'.
Mr Petrenkov, who’s friends work in the health care, has said: "We have lost all faith in accident and emergency.". To what extent do you agree?
Majida and Kiran (Year 8)
Grab your Waterstones voucher because here are some books you’ll want to read before they come to a screen near you.
1.Starting with one of my favourites WONDER BY R.J. PALACIO is due to be in cinemas by April 7, 2017.
2. Second on the list is another book that I love and read after it was recommended to me on many occasions and that is ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES BY JENNIFER NIVEN. The movie’s release date has not yet been said but the movie will be in cinemas some time this year.
3. Next, is a book that I haven’t read but watched the previous movies and enjoyed very much! MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE which will be released on January 12, 2018.
4. For our last book, I thought we’d include a very popular story which you may not have heard of but will probably recognise the cover, THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO BY PATRICK NESS which is still TBA.
There’s a few noteworthy books that will be on screens near you, personally I really enjoyed All the Bright Places and Wonder, both were very emotional novels which opened my eyes.
By Thea and edited by Elizabeth
(Year 8)
Books you need to Read Before they Hit The Big Screen
Do we actually like chart music?
We interviewed a variety of different age groups to see if they felt like the charts represented their individual music tastes, and the results we found were rather intriguing.
The year sevens mostly agreed that although they disliked the charts, they listened to quite generic pop music, including popular artists such as Drake and Louisa Johnson.
The year eights, surprisingly, leaned more towards alternative music, dismissing the charts. Five out of six students would rather listen to meaningful music than Ed Sheeran, and they agreed that bands such as My Chemical Romance and artists such as Lana Del Rey produced both better lyrics and tunes.
(above) Drake - an artists year 7s are fond of
A few of the words they used to describe them were ‘relatable’ and ‘deep’.
The year nines seemed to have more of a varied music taste, also rejecting the charts because they were too wearisome and repetitive.
“I just want to dance,” a year nice student told us. “Yeah, I would say I don’t enjoy the chart music - I prefer genres such as grime and indie.”
A few of the artists they prefer are Josh Dun, Tyler Joseph (from twenty one pilots), Fifth Harmony and Mariah Carey.
In conclusion, the charts represent the music tastes of young adults, or perhaps they solely display the works of already popular artists. In any case, here at CGS we have a wide music taste, and don’t enjoy the charts as much as we thought.
By Issy and Erin (Year 8)
May says 'nay'
Theresa May has said that ‘now is not the time’ to hold a referendum in Scotland, and if anything ‘we need to help each other’. Since the UK voted to leave the EU, Scotland have been debating whether or not they should remain in the United Kingdom and proceed with Brexit, or leave the UK and stay in the EU.
Theresa May, however, who campaigned to stay in the EU, wants to put a stop to Scotland leaving the UK as it would be ‘unfair’ to hold a vote until we are completely certain of our decision.
May has said that she is putting all her focus in finding the best possible deal with the EU, so if Scotland held a vote it would sidetrack us, as she believes that ‘all our energy should be focused on our negotiations with the European Union about our future relationship.’
By Izzy (Year 8)
Mental Health: Do teens act more on the matter than adults?
Teenage rates of depression have soared in past 25 years
Due to the modern day society and how judgemental it has become, teens have felt more pressured into bottling up all of their feelings instead of talking to family. This then causes mental heath issues at a very young age which is being unsuccessfully dealt with. This then makes teens resort to alternative organisations such as Childline or Kooth, and speak to counselors through the internet, text messages or calls.
On an average, Childline receives 400 calls a day, eight of which are about gender identity issues and one call every 30 minutes from UK children with suicidal thoughts. The question is, what is happening for children to feel like this?
The parity of physical health and mental health are far from even but there are teenagers trying to level the bar and recently, 4 girls created an app for childline. Children in need of help will be able to get counselling on smartphones through an app launched by the NSPCC’s Childline. It will allow them to obtain advice on issues such as bullying and includes a private “locker” area for children to record thoughts. Childline has said that the app was the first of its kind. The idea came from four teenagers who were asked in a school lesson to look at ways that technology can benefit the community.
However, even with all of these apps and websites, sometimes it can a hard topic to talk about, not just teenagers but adults too, and this can be one of the hardest parts of the experience for people. But, it is extremely important to talk about it. It can help us to recover, strengthen relationships and take the taboo out of a subject that affects us all.
The number of children and young people turning up in A&E with a psychiatric condition has more than doubled since 2009 and in the past three years, hospital admissions for teenagers with eating disorders have also almost doubled. The American College Health Association has surveyed that 100,000 college students at 53 US campuses found that 84 per cent of US students feel unable to cope, 79 per cent are exhausted, 60 per cent feel very sad and more than half are experiencing overwhelming anxiety.
Positively, Rizzle Kicks singer Jordan Stephens has taken his mental health campaign to a school in Hove in East Sussex, using his platform to tackle the stigma associated with mental health.
"In school during my GCSEs I got diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)," Jordan says. He was called the ‘hyper kid’ and was always told to ‘calm down’.
He said fame and fortune "gives you all this stuff" but that it did not help him emotionally.
1in 4 of us will have mental health problems in a year...
Mental health affects the way we think and feel about ourselves and others. Not just managing mental health but the way to deal with it is important. This is precisely why we, even at Colston’s Girls, are making a change; addressing mental health; taking away the taboo stigma.
By Emily, Majida and Kiran (Year 8)
Do your GCSEs actually affect your future? We spoke to some teachers at our school to get their views on the new GCSE system and how their lives are affected by their choices. At our school in Bristol, it is compulsory to choose a language but how useful can they actually be?
Out of the seven sixth formers we questioned, two took Spanish GCSE; three took French and Spanish GCSE; one took Russian and one took Latin. Of those seven students we asked, only two were continuing with a language for A level. All of the teachers took a language for GCSE with a strong trend of French and/ or Spanish. All the teachers had taken the subject that they now teach however said that they don’t really use the other GCSEs so with all the pressure on Yr9s to pick the perfect subjects and to have decided on what they want to do for the rest of their lives at the age of 14, in the long term, does it really matter? With the new system that was introduced in September 2016 lots of controversy came and the Yr10 s preparing to take them next year is all the stress worth it? We spoke to some teachers to get their opinion on the new curriculum; the main consensus was that it is definitely much tougher, one Music teacher said “It allows top students to be more challenged and really shine through” however the students involved have slightly different different views. One student said “it makes you feel worse about yourself because you are constantly being compared to other years who were ‘doing better’ than us”. This is just one example of the pressure people can face...is this new ‘rigorous’ system really the best system there can be? We even spoke to sixth formers who did their GCSEs before the new change and they also say it’s a bad idea with one of them going as far to call it ‘gross’.
This is still a new system though and no one has yet sat the actual exams or gone on to have a career so we still can’t say if the stress does pay off and if it actually affects what you do in life - whether or not grades go up or down and if in ten years time all the new teachers will have taken a language for GCSE.
By Betsy and Julia (Year 9/Year 8)
CGS Es-What our school thinks about GCSEs:
‘Be Our Guest!’ Welcomes Us To The Big Screen!
The new and upcoming magical production of Beauty and the Beast is making its presence on the 17th March with inspiring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens. The story following the gorgeous fairytale of Beauty and the Beast where bright and independent young woman Belle is captured by a Beast, despite her fears she befriends the Beast and the enchanted staff, revealing the true kind hearted person the Beast is.
The tale has been very adjusted during the modernisation of the traditional story as Lefou is now openly gay. The character, Gaston’s manservant has now been taken in as an openly gay character, the screenwriter Linda Woolverton and director Bill Condon have received backlash as Disney will not cut the gay scene of Beauty and the Beast. Many are very supportive as in this generation, LGBTQ+ has made a great movement and Disney fortunately has been considerate to this. Disney has had a lot of pressure to have LGBTQ+ related storylines in their TV shows and films.
When on The Late Show Ewan Mcgregor said,“It’s just like, he’s a gay character..It’s 2017” stating why people should not be so heated about the situation and should be glad. Also the first gay kiss was put in a scene of Beauty and the Beast which is such an achievement!
One million mothers are frustrated about the gay kiss as Disney is the least expected place they think their children will be exposed regarding to sexual orientation. Bill Condon the director told Attitude magazine, “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. He’s confused about what he wants,”explaining the story of LeFou, “It is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie,” he added.
By Jasmine (Year 8)