Carl Alvey

Today Carl came in to talk to the children about his job as an Expedition Guide. He has travelled all over the world leading teams of people to fulfil their ambitions of reaching spectacular destinations. Carl has recently led teams to Mount Kilimanjaro, making 5 accents in one month and is about to take a team of teachers to the South Pole. He told us about his trip in May this year where he used wind power to travel across Greenland using a kite. At times it seemed to be a lot of fun but due to the effect of Global Warming the trip was very scary. The conditions were so bad due to the extent of unexpected melted ice that Carl and his team were unable to travel safely off the ice cap and had to be helicopter rescued. As Carl was only back in the UK for such a short time before he flies to Antarctica tomorrow we know we are very lucky to have had him spend the morning with us.

More information about his time in Greenland can be found at

http://weather.thisconnect.com/2010/04/kite-greenland-2010/

Thank you Carl for a really interesting morning.

Forest Fields In the News!!

Our journalism unit had an exciting conclusion over half term as we were published in the Nottingham Post on Wednesday 27th October. We featured in the Education section on page 19 and it was fantastic to see our work written about by reporter Bryan Henesey. It covered our work on the Chilean Miners Rescue in the Daily News and Forest Fields Fortnightly's coverage of the 'earthquake that destroyed the school' just days before. There were some excellent quotes in the paper from Lilly, Saima and Alvena who spoke about what it felt like to be an Editor in charge of a team of reporters. There were some super photographs of some of our reporters (with supporting captions) and Zak's team had their work published too!

To read the article in full click the link below

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Chilean-miners-inspire-pupils-reporters/article-2800857-detail/article.html

Brilliant work Year 6!

We remember the victims of the Aberfan Landslide Disaster

'In that silence you couldn’t hear a bird or a child.'
Aberfan resident

On Thursday 21st October it will mark 44 years since the tragic landslide disaster in Aberfan, South Wales, where 144 people were killed, 116 were children of Pantglas Junior School.

At 9.15 am on Friday, October 21, 1966 a waste tip slid down a mountainside into the mining village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. It first destroyed a farm cottage in its path, killing all the occupants.

At Pantglas Junior School, just below, the children had just returned to their classes after singing All Things Bright and Beautiful at their assembly. It was sunny on the mountain but foggy in the village, with visibility about 50 yards. The tipping gang up the mountain had seen the slide start, but could not raise the alarm because their telephone cable had been repeatedly stolen. (The Tribunal of Inquiry later established that the disaster happened so quickly that a telephone warning would not have saved lives.)

Down in the village, nobody saw anything, but everybody heard the noise. Gaynor Minett, an eight-year-old at the school, remembered four years later:
"It was a tremendous rumbling sound and all the school went dead. You could hear a pin drop. Everyone just froze in their seats. I just managed to get up and I reached the end of my desk when the sound got louder and nearer, until I could see the black out of the window. I can't remember any more but I woke up to find that a horrible nightmare had just begun in front of my eyes."

The slide engulfed the school and about 20 houses in the village before coming to rest. Then there was total silence.

144 people died in the Aberfan disaster: 116 of them were school children. About half of the children at Pantglas Junior School, and five of their teachers, were killed.

Source: http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/politics/aberfan/home.htm

The Evening Post

On Monday 18th October we had a very interesting visit from Bryan Henesey, a reporter from The Evening Post, who came in to our class and speak about the newspaper industry. It was really good to hear how newspapers are put together and how a reporter spends his working day. It inspired many of us who enjoy writing articles as we heard how Bryan became a journalist and what he had to learn and study in order to become one. Bryan interviewed the Editors of the Press Teams to find out how they found the role and what the challenges were. Look out for our story coming soon to The Evening Post!!

Adrian Hayes: Polar Adventurer

Exciting news!!!

On Friday we are going to be talking to polar adventurer Adrian Hayes. Adrian is a Guiness world record holder for reaching the '3 Poles' (North Pole, South Pole and Mount Everest) in the shortest period of time in history and a second record for the longest unsupported snow-kiting expedition in Arctic history (Greenland).



Visit his website to read more about his amazing expeditions and generate any questions you may like to ask him.



http://www.adrianhayes.com/

Malcolm Leick

Last Thursday we were very lucky to have a visit from Malcolm Leick. Malcolm is a climber who has climbed mountains all over the world. We were able to see all the equipment that he needed to take with him when he went climbing. Malcolm told us about the time he climbed in the Lost Valley in Glencoe, Scotland in bad weather and had to dig a snowcave for the night. As a result of his adventure Malcolm was in the newspapers and he showed us some of the headlines from his story. He was really interesting to listen to and see what it takes to be a climber.

Natural Disaster Art

This term we've been reasearching natural disasters for our topic about Survivor's. We have been inspired to create some art about natural disasters. We did our art with charcoal, so it can blend in to the pictures such as Tornado,Hurricanes and Earthquakes. We did it so it can show off our exciting topic.

by Shazmeen and Alveena

Press Conference

Yesterday the world's media gathered at base camp in Siula Grand in Peru and got their chance to interview the people from Touching the Void and delve deeper into their characters. At 9:45 am Joe Simpson, Simon Yates and Richard Hawking came into the press room and answered the questions from journalists representing newspapers, television, radio and the Internet. This was a chance to ask the more pressing questions that the people who had heard this amazing story wanted to know. Richard explained how he spent his days at base camp, how he felt when Joe and Simon were on the mountain and his reactions to hearing the news about Joe being presumed dead. Simon hestitantly described how he came to the decision to cut the rope and how the moment still tortured him. Joe was able to speak about how desperate the situation he found himself was and how he was convinced he was going to die. All of the characters spoke of their relief of being reunited again at the bottom of Siula Grande.

After the interview, the three men were then taken to hospital where they would undergo further tests and Joe can begin his long road to recovery.

Survivors

Our theme this term will be all about Survival. This week we have been conducting research on mountains around the world, how to survive in extreme conditions, the mountain environment to inspire our artwork, and artic adventurers. Our literacy work has been inspired by the extraordinary story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates depicted in the film 'Touching the Void'. In 1985, these two climbers attempted to climb the Siula Grande mountain in Peru, what happened on this journey remains part of mountaineering legend. Its a brilliant film and we are really enjoying it.