Are school holidays to long?

Everyone looks forward to a bit of a break after a long term at school. Plans have being announced from Nottingham city council  that the 6 weeks holidays will be shortend down to 4 weeks! Every kid will be dissapointed. Not only this but they're also thinking about splitting the school year into five terms.

Apparently the school holidays are too long and children from poorer families can fall behind because of the lengthy summer break. Some teachers in the city have been on strike because they don't agree with the changes.

I want to know your opinion,
Do you think that the school holidays are too long?

Perhaps you think that the big breaks take you out of the swing of the classroom and you should have more short breaks throughout the year?
Or maybe you think they should be longer!

Rovio introduce new Angry Birds

The popular Finnish games company Rovio have published the new Angry Birds game - Angry birds Space! Not only that but it has been helped along by NASA aswell!

This was released on the 22nd of March. Pettit introduced the new Angry Birds from the international space station. He even created a slingshot and balloon pig to demonstrate the physics.
it is expected to be the hardest one yet! Angry Birds fans beware, youo have a challenge ahead!

Nial scared of pigions?

It can be a strange and weird life being a pop star, but something pretty odd has got One Direction's Niall Horan in a bit of a flap.

The 18-year-old has revealed he's terrified of the feathery animals that fly over our heads every day.

Apparently the fear started after a pigeon flew through a window when he was on
the toilet when he was younger.

Rumours are that the band have even had to hire extra security to scare the
pesky birds away from the stage before their US shows.

The Wanted to Sing at the Olympics!

The Olympics is arriving to the UK soon  and you will never guess who is planned to sing there as well...

THE WANTED!

The Wanted have announced that they'll be headlining a special Olympic concert in London for the Olympics.

However the boy band won't be performing on their own as the amazing "Rizzlekicks" and "Dizee Rascal" will be performing along side The Wanted at the gig in Hyde Park the day before the opening of the Olympic games. 

There won't be much of a wait until you see all of the bands and singers perform as the reason why they have been chosen to perform there is because their performances will celebrate the end of the Olympic Torch Relay.

As well as the huge London show the boys will be playing special gigs around the country following the Olympic Torch's route throughout July.

Matilda the musical.

Matilda musical gets 10 theatre award nominations.
Matilda the Musical has swept the nominations board at country's biggest theatre awards.

The amazing show was named in every possible category at the Laurence Olivier Awards - giving it 10 nominations in all. The musical comes from the book written by Roald Dahl, where there is a little girl, who happens to be a genius but she has the worst parents ever.

Earlier this month the production won four awards, including best new musical. The award-winning-shows auditions for the New York production are scheduled to start next month.

        Matilda is currently played by four different actresses, who take turns in the role.

Bus fares rising in South Yorkshire

After the recent rise from 40p to 50p for juniors it is rising again and will be eeven higher at 60p from the 1st of April 2012 (this Sunday coming). This means that a two way journey (even to school and back!) will cost £1.20! I'm pretty sure the younger readers will have heard their parents at least once complain that in their day it was only 2p! If prices keep rising then students will no longer be able to afford transport and will not be able to turn up to school, which then means they won't get as good a job and not have money in the future to then pay for the bus fares which will have most likely gone up!

Men in Black 3 alien photos

Rise of the Guardians Trailer

Total Recall Teaser Trailer

As the nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai vie for supremacy, a factory worker (Farrell) begins to suspect that he's a spy, though he is unaware which side of the fight he's on. (IMDB.com)
This is a remake of the 1990 film Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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US helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Incredible film of US helicopter crash in Afghanistan

The crash happened in February but we do not know what caused it, so an investigation is under way to find out.

The film above shows the helicopter flying low over buildings before it spins out of control.

Lukily the 2 people on board both survived and no one of the ground was injured.

Sport Relief Mile!

                                                  All of the students lined up for the mile


An event took place on Friday 23rd March 2012 in schools, pupils got sponsored to run a mile in fancy dress and/or in a strange way e.g. Piggyback ride. Sainsburys were in charge of this event and there was over £200 raised in our school. Many students took part and often in groups or pairs. Over 100 students took part and ran first by the fence to the astro turf, then a whole lap of the plato after it was a whole lap of the field, overall a mile. Some of the teachers took part as well including: Mr Gardener Mr Walters and Mr McSeveney, who came in first with a time of about 6:00 which is equal to 10 miles an hour, on average. 

Christopher Woodrow and Andrew Barringer SCAN

Miley Cyrus denies engagement rumours...

It seems strange that Miley Cyrus got quite annoyed when denying engagement rumours last night.

Yes, we can imagine it gets pretty boring having to deny rumours all the time and yes, her private life really is no one else’s business other than her own but still... If you go to a public event and pose for the paps with a sparkly ring on your engagement finger then you have to expect tongues to start wagging.

Predictably that’s exactly what happened on the Twittersphere, so Miley spoke out to say:

"I'm not engaged. I've worn this same ring on this finger since November! People just want to find something to talk about! It's a topaz people!"

Yes, Miley must have just hated all that gossip about the ring, which is why as well as showing it off to the paps at this event over the weekend, she also tweeted a picture of it!!

People With Bigger Brains Have More Friends.

Oxford University researchers found maintaining friendships requires more brain power.

Their study concluded that people with real friends have to use more cognitive skills to understand what someone else thought. This, however, did not occur with "online" friends, such as those made on social networking sites including Facebook or Twitter. Scientists discovered a link between the number of friends people had and the size of their orbital prefrontal cortex, which is a region of the brain found just above the eyes. The conclusions, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows for the first time that competency in social skills is determined by the size of peoples' brains. People who have a bigger brain have more real friends, a British study has suggested.


"We found that individuals who had more friends did better on mentalising tasks and had more neural volume in the orbital frontal cortex, the part of the forebrain immediately above the eyes," said Prof Robin Dunbar, who led the study. "Understanding this link between an individuals brain size and the number of friends they have helps us understand the mechanisms that have led to humans developing bigger brains than other primate species. "The frontal lobes of the brain, in particular, have enlarged dramatically in humans over the last half million years."

Three rescued from balloon crash.

Three people had to be rescued from a hot air balloon, after it had crashed into some over head power lines in Northamptonshire.

The canopy of the balloon got in tangled in the over head power lines, as the pilot was trying to land into a playing field.

Firefighters had to wait for a long time for the power to get turned of to make it safe for the rescue to begin.

The passengers were stuck 15 metres in the air for almost five hours, but fortunately no-one was badly hurt.

Meet the world's smallest puppy

The world's smallest puppy? Meet Beyonce!

Super star Beyonce might have a bit of record breaking competition, from this super cute little puppy.

Beyonce was born on the 8th of March 2012. The dog was so small she could fit into a spoon. California rescue centre reckon she is the smallest puppy in the world. Her details have being submitted to the Guinness Book of Records and people are waiting to hear if shes a mini-record breaker!
Beyonce was the last pup to be delivered from her mum, her mum was found on the streets in San Bernardino, California. She was giving birth to five so it's a good job animal shelter workers took her into the centre at the right time. Unfortunatly because Beyonce was the last born she was born without a heartbeat - but lukicly vets were able to get her heart started again.

Hopefully she will be fit and well soon so she can find her new home!

Please watch the video above to see how small this cute puppy is!

Japanese Ghost Ship

A large fishing vessel has been spotted on the coast of Canada. It was swept across the ocean due to the Japanese tsunami and earthquake disasters. Most of the debris isn't expected to reach North America until 2014!

Luckily, the Japanese think there is nobody onboard the vessel.

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Matthew Wolfenden wins Dancing on Ice

Emmerdale actor Matthew Wolfenden has won this year's Dancing on Ice after winning Hollyoaks actress Jorgie Porter in Sunday's final.

Wolfenden performed his versions of Ravel's Bolero with his partners Nina Ulanova before the public cast their vote for him to win.

Slimani had joined the ITV1 show as a replacement for singer Chesney Hawkes.

both Wolfenden and Porter drew praise from coaches Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean for their takes on Bolero, the routine that won them gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Dean said Wolfenden and Ulanova were "sublime", while Torvill said Porter and Evers "did us proud".

"That's going to take a few days to sink in," said Wolfenden following his triumph. "I can't believe it, I'm shaking.

"The first time I stood on the ice I thought I made the worse mistake of my career," the actor went on. "How times can change."

Previous winners include EastEnders actor Sam Attwater, Emmerdale's Hayley Tamaddon and former Hear'Say member Suzanne Shaw.

Sunday's final drew an average audience of 7.3 million viewers and was watched by 8.1 million at its peak, according to overnight figures.

by alex and luke

Have You Tried It Out Yet...

 Down at Sheffield, next to Ice Sheffield, there is a huge outdoor high wire course called Aerial Extreme.

Personally I think it is a great day out for those who are adventurous and like heights! This course is NOT for those who are scared of heights though!
This high wire course has amazing and challenging obstacles from a simple bridge that you cross, a climbing wall, rope swings and all the way to swinging platforms, and lot's more as well! This has it all! Also, this high wire course is open roughly for all ages to parcipitate. (Obviously not like 1,2 year olds!) But you know what I mean! 

The most spectacular part of this course is at the end. It's when you have completed all of the course, you get hooked onto another wire, then you jump off the highest platform there! You can either choose to hold onto a smaller piece of rope, or you can choose to keep your hands out to the side and not hold on at all! But the time I went down there, I was lucky enough to be able to jump off BACKWARDS! It is an amazing experience, not to be missed!

In my opinion I think anyone who hasn't been down there yet, should definately give this a try! (As long as your not scared of heights!) This could seem a bit expensive, at £15 a person! BUUUTTT, you definately get your money's worth as you are aloud to go around the course as many times as you like! (One go round takes about 40 minutes, depending on how busy and how fast you are at completing the course.)

The Voice

A new episode has arrived and appeared on Saturday the 24th of March. The episode has being named The Voice. Baisically there is four famous coaches, Will.i.am, Jessie J, Tom Jones and Danny O'Donoghue, a singer enters the stage and performs whilst the coaches are facing backwards, so it's a blind audition. If the like what they hear they turn around! If more than one person turn around, it's all up to the contestant.

Watch this clip to find out more...

One In Three Babies That Are Born This Year Will Live To 100.

One in three babies born this year will live to the age of 100, official projections have concluded.
Tens of thousands of extra people will live to see in the milestone, according to the Office for National Statistics. The official projections on “mortality”, published on Monday, suggested that “at every age”, females had more chance of reaching their 100th birthdays than males did. The projections said that a third of babies born in 2012 would live to be 100, with nearly 40 per cent of baby girls compared to just under a third of baby boys reaching the milestone. The ONS report, titled "What Are The Chances Of Surviving To Age 100?", also suggests more people will live to get a card through the post from the Monarch of the day. More than 95,000 people aged 65 in 2012 are expected to celebrate their 100th birthday in 2047. Researchers found that only 10 per cent of men aged 65 this year and 14 per cent of women the same age would reach this milestone. According to the latest figures there are 826,000 babies aged under one year in Britain, with 423,000 being male and 403,000 female

Of these, 135,000 men and 156,000 women, who were born in 2012, are expected to still be alive by the age of 100, the ONS said. Meanwhile of the 395,000 men and 417,000 women aged 65 this year, 10 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women respectively will reach 100. According to the ONS figures, the number of people who are aged 100 years or more has increased from just 600 in 1961, the first year for official midyear population estimates, to nearly 13,000 in 2010.

Gym and Dance evening a sucess!

As the hall filled to the brim with students and parents ,on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd of March 2012, the gymnasts, dancers and trampolinists of Dinnington Comprehensive School got ready to perform. From first-timers to the elite squads we had a range of talent from modern dancing to solo gymnasts. We also had a taster for the drama production 'We will rock you' that the school drama team will be performing later this year. DVDs will also be available of all of the performances for just £1!

cat survives a 19-storey fall.

A very lucky cat from Boston, Massachusetts in America has survived a fall from a window 19 storeys up!

The cat (sugar) had no broken bones or cuts from the plunge, just bruising, after she fell an estimated 45-60m (150-200ft).

She was taken to vets at the Animal Rescue League, who say that when cats fall from such a height, they act like a flying squirrel - spreading their legs apart like wings.

This action may have saved Sugar from getting any serious injuries.

Sugar is one very lucky cat don't you agree?