Spanish Bank Takes Over -by Katy, Laura, and Jordan
Santander is a Spanish bank which has recently taken over Abbey and Bradford and Bingley (British banks).
These banks have been merged together to form a very large bank with numerous branches all over Europe.
Existing customers have been changed to Santander customers, and all new cards issued will have Santander on them, as that is the new company name.
We have spoken to a customer of the new British Santander, Ben, who had this to say ‘I think it has been a positive move so they have more money, and can offer better interest rates.’ From our interviews, we have found that most people have found the changeover a positive thing, which has not negatively affected them. Ben also said, ‘The changeover has not really effected me just Abbey has changed to Santander, a bigger bank.’
From research we found that Santander is one of the biggest banks in the world, so Abbey and Bradford and Bingley customers should be in safe hands. Also, this means when Santander customers go abroad to somewhere like Spain, it won’t cost them to withdraw their money, as Santander originated in Spain. More good points are that it has been named best bank in the world, has branches 40 countries, more than 80 million customers, over 180,000 employees, and 3 million share holders. These are just a few of the good points about the new Santander in Britain. The one bad point some people may say is that our British banks have been taken over by a foreign company that may run differently to what we know.
Some believe that they may handle things differently, which will upset some people. To conclude, people generally think Santander has been a positive thing, and hope it lasts long in to the future. However, there are still those with their doubts, who may change their bank accounts. It has been a new thing and bringing banks together could be one way to help banks out of this recession.
2012 Olympics and Alice in Wonderland
Smoking; bad for your health? and Football in the Olympics
.....more reports coming soon
Charity School Report -by Tom, Matty, and Tom
Belvidere School has taken part in numerous activities to raise money for charity.
On February 11 th 2010, they gave the raised money for the Lingen Davies charity appeal. From non uniform days, to selling cookies and cakes, Belvidere has lots of different methods for raising money for charity and this time they raised £615.
We interviewed a representative for the Lingen Davies cancer appeal and she said, “The money has gone towards new facilities and an improved cancer centre. We get a lot of support from local schools, clubs and families of patients - its mostly local work.”
Other teachers have done charity work as well, for example, Mr Johnstone our head teacher said, “I’m currently training to run the London marathon and so far it’s going well. The charity I’m raising for is national hospital for neurology and neuro surgery development centre. I have to run about 50 miles a week, some of which is at 5 o’clock in the morning. I have achieved my target of £500, but I’m hoping to reach around £1000. So far, I have raised £550.”
We have also asked the school receptionist who said, “We like counting and raising the money, it is extra work, however, pleasant work. There have been a few collections now, for example Help for Haiti, baby care unit and the Lingen Davies charity.”
“The form representatives for each form have been discussing the issue of charity events for the future and they think it is a good idea and are going to take it back to the form. Their idea is that they will hold a few charity events for each charity then move on to a new one.” Mr Seager said. Hopefully, pupils enjoy charity events and they will carry on in the future. This has been Tom, Matty and Tom reporting on the issue of school charities.
Fashion World Taken Aback by McCartney’s New Collection -by Ella and Jessie
Shrewsbury’s season has been stop-start at the best. Paris was the place to be last week, with all the celebrities lining up to see their favourite designers put on their autumn and winter shows. Chanel, Mui Mui, Sonya Rykiel, Yves Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood, Christian Dior, Chloe and many more displayed their collections at Paris fashion week. But the star of the show, never failing to impress was Stella Mccartney. She showed some magnificent pieces, dedicated to the legend that was Alexander McQueen.
Many of our most loved celebrities were seen to be attending the series of high trend catwalks for example Lindsay Lohan, a loved fashion icon , Alexa Chung , Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, a memorable music maestro, who was seen to be supporting his daughter Stella McCartney and her collection of items.
But it’s not all glamour behind the scenes. Almost 400 national and international designers use fur in their collections. Chanel has created a collection called ‘global cooling’ involving full yeti suits, furry coats and furry boots all made of fake fur. We interviewed some local people on this subject and most were for the idea of using fake fur. Mr. Garratt expresses that, ‘As far as I know, fake fur is 99% as good as real fur. I don’t think the 1% is worth killing an animal.’ Adam disagreed saying ‘If the animal’s not endangered then it’s alright to get the quality of real fur’.
We also interviewed some more locals on whether fashion weeks should be more available for the public. Miss Jones gave her opinion expressing that, ‘It should be more accessible. Paris might be hard to get to for students studying fashion, but if they had special access to the event, that would be beneficial.’
We asked Miss Jones again: what do you think makes the fashion week saga so special? She answered saying, ‘It’s where a designer can showcase their ideas in a creative and interesting way.’
To conclude, Paris Fashion Week was a major success from what has been shown so far. From Chanel and their faux fur coats to Stella McCartney and her much desired clothing, there were thought-provoking ideas for all.
The Champions League -by Adam, Jack, Joe and Steven
Shrewsbury’s season has been stop-start at the best.
After Manchester United’s massive 4-0 victory over A.C Milan, many people are wondering if an English club can win the Champions league again. The most successful club in Champions League football are Real Madrid with 9 victories, but in this millennia they are equal with Barcelona and Milan.
In terms of British clubs winning the cup, altogether we have won 11(the majority being won by Liverpool) second only to Spain and even with Italy. Hopefully, there will be a 12 th this year, with Manchester United as strong candidates.
Manchester United are in great form, with striker Wayne Rooney having already scored 30 goals this season; they will be among the favourites for the title, but will have strong competition from the holding champions Barcelona.
Another prospering English club is Arsenal who-on Tuesday-beat Porto 5-0 at The Emirates. Their backup striker (Nikolas Bendtner) got a hat-trick and they will play any other team still in the competition.
To conclude, I think there is going to be an excellent Champions league final because of the amount of great and unpredictable teams. Along with the English hopefuls, there are some French and Spanish teams.
Palm Oil Pandemonium -by Katy, Laura, and Jordan
Palm oil is found in rainforests and we use it in many products such as chocolate and soap.
Unfortunately people are tearing down the rainforests to provide us with household items. We are killing orangutans and destroying their homes, many are in captivity. Some products use palm oil, but from special reserved areas where palm plants have been specially grown and no animals live there.
If you buy palm oil, you are making rainforests shrink, as getting palm oil ruins rainforests. Most products don’t write in their ingredients that they use palm oil; it is just hidden under vegetable oil. 
If the rainforests go, all the animals that live there also die. Palm oil is the cheapest cooking oil in the world. Although there is a lot of harm being done by the use of palm oil, there are reserves which grow palm trees and don’t let wildlife live there so when they are chopped down no wildlife is harmed in the process. Habitats are still being destroyed in the rainforest, but people are working towards a better way of doing this. Tesco has joined the campaign to stop the use of palm oil, like many products. They won’t change over for quite some time because they need to wait for the new reserved trees to grow, so you will probably find that they will be changing over in the New Year.
We have interviewed people asking them about their opinion about palm oil. This is what Mr. Garratt, a teacher from a secondary school, thinks of palm oil: “I have heard of palm oil and if it was labeled on the products I wouldn’t buy it. The problem is you don’t really look when you have distractions around you. If there was a petition to stop using palm oil, I’d sign it. But you don’t know the other side of the story. I don’t want to damage someone’s lifestyle, but it’s good to help the environment.”
To end this report, although palm oil is bad for the environment and the animals, there are ways of avoiding this problem that are being trialed and are in working progress.
Button Backs Promotion Battle -by Joseph
Shrewsbury’s season has been stop-start at the best. With the recent surprise 3-0 loss at Grimsby, they need to get back to winning ways beginning with the visit of Rochdale. The keeper likely to start that game is David Button.
On Thursday 11 th March, I was lucky enough to visit the ProStar Stadium and interview him (David Button). I met him inside the changing rooms and I set about grilling him on the team’s current performance and his experiences. Here’s the interview in full:
Me: When you were younger did you go and watch football matches?
DB: When I was younger I used to go and watch my local team Stevenage Borough and when I could go I watched Spurs.
Me: What was your favourite ground?
DB: For me, when I was younger, I loved going to White Hart Lane but my favourite has to be Old Wembley just for the sheer greatness and aura of the place.
Me: Interesting, who is your footballing hero?
DB: I always aspired to be like Edwin Van Der Sar - still going at the age of 38, 6’ 5” and awe inspiring. With the trophies he has won with Manchester United, that’s why he’s my hero and why I figure myself in his mould.
Me: If you didn’t have football growing up, what would you be?
DB: If it weren’t for football, I would probably be studying at university. What I would be doing I don’t know.
Me: What is your earliest memory of football?
DB: Going up to the local team with my dad and signing up to play for them.
Me: What’s your favourite thing about match day?
DB: Winning.
Me: A good way of putting it. The future of football is?
DB: We need to start controlling the debt, so salary caps would be a good way to start. You look at Portsmouth and they are in a sorry state.
Me: Indeed, I feel sorry for Portsmouth as well. You love football because?
DB: It’s brilliant and diverse as it brings different people together and different cultures and helps make communities. With all the foreign players in the Premier league, that’s a wonderful example.
Me: What was it like at Tottenham?
DB: Amazing. That’s because of all the facilities and equipment, the quality of the coaching and the quality of the players. Just training with world class players is a brilliant experience.
Me: What is it like at International level?
DB: It’s great getting to play with the best young players in the country.
Me: Now for Shrewsbury, who is the noisiest in the dressing room?
DB: Dave Timmins, the goalie coach.
Me: Who plays the worst music before a match?
DB: No-one really plays any music. It’s always a really dodgy club CD.
Me: Who is the worst dressed?
DB: Dean Holden.
Me: How well do you think Shrewsbury can do in the promotion battle?
DB: Well we’re hoping for automatic but the more realistic hope is going up via the playoffs.
Me: Yeah that is more realistic. Who has been the most consistent player of the season?
DB: For me personally, being here only 5 months, it has to be Kelvin (Langmead).
Me: How have you found the manager Paul Simpson?
DB: Since I have come here, he has been really supportive and has helped me settle in.
Me: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
DB: Hopefully in the premier league playing for Tottenham.
Me: Are you better than Joe Hart?
DB: Personally, even though Joe Hart plays for England, I’d like to say so. You see it’s all about self belief and being mentally strong.
Me: Any goalkeeping tips?
DB: Practise at any chance you can. The more you practise the better you get.
Me: Thanks for the interview.
DB: Thanks. Bye
Me: Bye.
So if Shrewsbury can get up and running with a win against Rochdale and get a good final push in the run in, there is no bounds to what they can do.
