Bilingual Arenas

Saturday, 19 March 2016

DAY OF ENGLISH 2016

Here are some photos of the Day of English 2016. We took part in four different workshops: making pineapple trifle, decorating a T-shirt, darts quiz, and karaoke.

Monday, 7 March 2016

Saturday, 13 February 2016

I like it!

Listen to this anti-cyber bullying rap performed by the GMCBeats Youth Crew to celebrate Safer Internet Day 2015. Don't forget to post a comment!

Lyrics:

Coz I like it

Chatting with my friends online

When there’s nothing to do or it’s raining outside

Coz I like it

Expressing myself but I never let a bully get into my head

Coz I like it

Chatting with my friends online

When there’s nothing to do or it’s raining outside

Coz I like it

Expressing myself but I never let a bully get into my head

Everybody here put your thumbs up high

if you think these bullies should be taken offline

When we’re online or using an app

We should never have to deal with that

I wanna snap like my screen in half

But really they just want me to react

But I won’t give in, I’ll step on it

Put the message in the bin and won’t let them win!

Cyber bullies live off intimidation

Calling people names humiliation

So if you see something nasty and you don’t know what to do

Don’t let it put you in a mood

If it makes you feel bad then don’t reply

Tell someone that you trust or report it online

Just block the sender

Block the sender

There are so many ways you can stop the pressure

Coz I like it

Chatting with my friends online

When there’s nothing to do or it’s raining outside

Coz I like it

Expressing myself but I never

let a bully get into my head

Coz I like it

Chatting with my friends online

When there’s nothing to do or it’s raining outside

Coz I like it

Expressing myself but I never let a bully get into my head

I like it

Watching YouTube

I like it

Listening to new tunes

I like it

When my best friend texts me

I like it

Putting up my status or a selfie

I like it

Playing some games

I like it

Challenging my brain

Thought these trolls will never affect me

When I’m online you better respect me

If it’s turning into a problem

One way to stop them is block them

Keyboard warriors and trolls

I will never let them get control

If it’s turning into a problem

One way to stop them is block them

Keyboard warriors and trolls

I will never let them break my soul

Coz I like it

Chatting with my friends online

When there’s nothing to do or it’s raining outside

Coz I like it

Expressing myself but I never let a bully get into my head

Coz I like it

Chatting with my friends online

When there’s nothing to do or it’s raining outside

Coz I like it

Expressing myself but I never let a bully get into my head

I like it

Watching YouTube

I like it

Listening to new tunes

I like it

When my best friend texts me

I like it

Putting up my status or a selfie

I like it

Playing some games

I like it

Challenging my brain

Thought these trolls will never affect me

When I’m online you better respect me

Wednesday, 20 January 2016

Inventions that save people's lives: from poop to potable.

Did you know that one out of every eight people in the world have no access to fresh water?

Watch the video below to find out about an ingenious machine that turns feces into drinking water, as part of a project financed by Microsoft's tycoon Bill Gates.

Find out more at:

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Omniprocessor-From-Poop-to-Potable

Watch the following video to find out more about the water crisis:

Thursday, 17 December 2015

Asa

Listen to the song and fill in the gaps

There is __________on the mountain,
and _________ seems to be on the run.
Oh there is __________ on the mountain top,

and no one is'ah running.

I wake up in the _________...
tell you what I see on my TV screen :
I see the blood of an innocent _________,
and everybody's watching.

Now, I'm looking out of my _________,
and what do I see ?
I see an army of soldiers that're
marching across the _________, heh...

What did they say to _________ you so blind,
to your conscience and reason ?
Could it be love for your _________,
or for the gun you use in killing ? So...

There is __________ on the mountain,
and _________ seems to be on the run.
Oh there is __________ on the mountain top,

and no one is'ah running..

Heh, Mister Loverman !
Can I get a chance to_________to you ?
'cause you are fooling with a dead man's corpse,
and you don't _________ what you do. Oh...

So little Lucy turns _________,
and like the movie she's been seeing,
she has a lover in her daddy.
She can't tell _________...
'till she makes the evening news.

There is __________ on the mountain,
and _________ seems to be on the run.
Oh there is __________ on the mountain top,

and no one is'ah running..

One day the river will overflow,
and there'll be __________ for us to go ;
and we will run, run...
wishing we had put out the __________, oh no...

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

Art detectives

After the Art School teachers’ visit to our school on 24^th November, the news item below, appeared today on BBC news, will certainly prove most interesting.

Hidden portrait 'found under Mona Lisa', says French scientist

An image of a portrait underneath the Mona Lisa has been found beneath the existing painting using reflective light technology, according to a French scientist.

Pascal Cotte said he has spent more than 10 years using the technology to analyse the painting.

He claims the earlier portrait lies hidden underneath the surface of Leonardo's most celebrated artwork.

A reconstruction shows another image of a sitter looking off to the side.

The Louvre Museum has declined to comment on his claims because it "was not part of the scientific team".

Image copyright Courtesy Brinkworth Films Image caption Pascal Cotte said he spent more than 10 years analysing the Mona Lisa

Instead of the famous, direct gaze of the painting which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the image of the sitter also shows no trace of her enigmatic smile, which has intrigued art lovers for more than 500 years.

But Mr Cotte's claims are controversial and have divided opinion among Leonardo experts.

Will Gompertz, Arts Editor

I'm sceptical. It's perfectly common for an artist to overpaint an image as it is for a client who's commissioned that artist to ask for changes. So it's not surprising that there are those underpaintings on the Mona Lisa.

The data that the technology generates is open to interpretation, which needs to be analysed and corroborated by the academic and curatorial community, and not just an individual. I think the Louvre's decision not to make a comment is telling.

This is the world's most famous painting which, like a celebrity, always makes for a good story. But in this case I think caution is required.

The scientist, who is the co-founder of Lumiere Technology in Paris, was given access to the painting in 2004 by the Louvre.

He has pioneered a technique called Layer Amplification Method (LAM), which he used to analyse the Mona Lisa.

It works by "projecting a series of intense lights" on to the painting, Mr Cotte said. A camera then takes measurements of the lights' reflections and from those measurements, Mr Cotte said he is able to reconstruct what has happened between the layers of the paint.
The Mona Lisa has been the subject of several scientific examinations over more than half a century. More recent techniques include infrared inspections and multi-spectral scanning.
But Mr Cotte has claimed his technique is able to penetrate more deeply into the painting.
He said: "We can now analyse exactly what is happening inside the layers of the paint and we can peel like an onion all the layers of the painting. We can reconstruct all the chronology of the creation of the painting."

'Shatter many myths'

Leonardo is believed to have worked on the painting between 1503 and 1517 while working in Florence and later in France.
There has long been debate about the Mona Lisa's identity. But for centuries, it has been widely believed that she is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant.
But Mr Cotte has claimed his discoveries challenge that theory. He believes the image he has reconstructed underneath the surface of the painting is Leonardo's original Lisa, and that the portrait named Mona Lisa for more than 500 years is, in fact, a different woman.
He said: "The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever.
"When I finished the reconstruction of Lisa Gherardini, I was in front of the portrait and she is totally different to Mona Lisa today. This is not the same woman."
He also claims to have found two more images under the surface of the painting - a shadowy outline of a portrait with a larger head and nose, bigger hands but smaller lips. And he says he has found another Madonna-style image with Leonardo's etchings of a pearl headdress.

'Mona Lisa is Lisa'

But Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford, is not convinced.
Professor Kemp said: "They [Cotte's images] are ingenious in showing what Leonardo may have been thinking about. But the idea that there is that picture as it were hiding underneath the surface is untenable.
"I do not think there are these discrete stages which represent different portraits. I see it as more or less a continuous process of evolution. I am absolutely convinced that the Mona Lisa is Lisa. "
Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon has made a new BBC documentary called The Secrets of the Mona Lisa, studying historical documents linked to the painting alongside Mr Cotte's scientific findings.
Mr Graham-Dixon said: "I have no doubt that this is definitely one of the stories of the century.
"There will probably be some reluctance on the part of the authorities at the Louvre in changing the title of the painting because that's what we're talking about - it's goodbye Mona Lisa, she is somebody else."
The Secrets of the Mona Lisa is on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on 9 December.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Present continuous

Practice the present continuous tense with some exercises and games.