Taking Up Space: The Black Girl's Manifesto for Change

By Esther 11X

Book Review

This unputdownable book tackles the issue of racism within the scope of education in an
extremely candid and honest way. What makes Taking Up Space stand out is the
empowering collection of real life experiences of black university students and how they
overcome - and continue to overcome - adversity. 

A vast array of topics are discussed in detail such as mental health, impostor syndrome and representation. Written by Cambridge University graduates, Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi, this book will definitely pique your interest if you would like to learn about black people excelling in their fields of education.

Taking Up Space was the flagship 2019 release of #Merkybooks which "was set up by publishers Penguin Random House and Stormzy in June 2018 to find and publish the best writers of a new generation and to publish the stories that are not being heard."



Want to see your own review here? Type your response and send it to Ms. S. Patel.

Remember, you can also fill out a book review slip from the library lending desk and return to Ms. King or Ms. Parkin.

Star Switch

By Dhriti (7Y)

Year 7 students at Alperton Community School have the opportunity to take part in the Star Switch competition to launch the new book of the same name by Alesha Dixon. The winner will not only get a signed copy of the book, but also meet Alesha Dixon at her recording studio in London, receive VIP treatment with a private car and other Star Switch goodies! 

Star Switch is available from 5th March

To enter students need to write down which celebrity they would want to swap lives with and explain why. This could be anyone: Ed Sheeran, Greta Thunberg, The Dalai Lama, JK Rowling - anyone really! 
I think this is a great competition and I am entering as this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Alesha Dixon! I would want to swap lives with JK Rowling. Ruby (7V) is also entering and chose a singer to be the person who she switches lives with. There are many more year 7 students entering this competition who are just as excited. Good luck to you all!

The competition is also going to be judged by Alesha - a British singer / rapper, songwriter, dancer, author, model and television personality. A woman of many talents. She will be reading the contestant’s stories and choose the lucky winner to accompany her on the 5th of March, also known as World Book Day! The competition is being delivered by Scholastic who publishes books and also creates educational material for schools.

The deadline for the competition is Tuesday 25th February.

You can keep up to date with this news stories with the hashtag #starswitch and also though Alesha’s Instagram account @Aleshaofficial

ACS students: journalists of the future

Words by: Chelsea (10Q), Jiya (10S), Samira (10X) and Shivani (10P)

Media studies students from Alperton Community School visited The Guardian Foundation Education Centre on the 6th of February. This gave them the opportunity to further their understanding of the newspaper industry, its careers and also prepare them for their GCSEs.

Students were paired and tasked with creating a broadsheet newspaper front page using Mac computers and Adobe InDesign. This involved teamwork, working towards tight deadlines and decision making as they had to produce elements including the masthead, headlines, standfirsts and body copy. 

Y10 students creating their newspaper front page

The pairs were fed the day’s stories from the wire service which provides newsworthy information to The Guardian. They made editorial decisions by selecting which two stories they wanted to report on. Stories varied and included: the passengers quarantined on board a cruise ship due to the coronavirus, the 68th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and Nike’s Vaporfly trainers. Students carried out additional research online, just as a journalist would do, to ensure their facts were correct. They each wrote an article and incorporated suitable images and captions to anchor the preferred meaning. Each newspaper was named by the pair to give their newspaper a sense of brand identity.

By the end of the day students had completed their front pages, which were printed for them to take home as a memory of their experience. The media studies students had many positive things to say. Lucky (10R) said: “It was interesting and fun! There was lots to do and it was really interactive.” Shyam (10Q) was also very appreciative of the support provided on the day: “The task at hand was more difficult than I first thought, however throughout the day I was supported by Jan who was always willing to help.”

Miss. Patel, Head of Media Studies, took photographs of the class as she was so pleased to see the students engaged in the activities all day. “It was clear that they were really enjoying themselves, whilst also gaining experience and knowledge of the industry. By being producers themselves, it will give our students a better understanding of bias within the press and the intentions of media companies when targeting their audience.” Avan (10R) felt that he and his peers “showed so much creativity in their writing...they (the newspapers) were amazing and looked professional.” Student work will be displayed in the media rooms to celebrate their success.

Y9 students enjoying the challenge of editorial decisions

                                           

Students were also given an introduction into careers and working for a newspaper. They learnt that The Guardian has various offices in different parts of the world, such as the USA and Australia, in order to keep up with the latest news 24 hours a day. Journalism has plenty of opportunities for travel! The Guardian and Observers head office is located in Kings Cross, London. Of the building, Shayaan (10P) felt “quite overwhelmed” and thought it appeared “prestigious and sophisticated”. Many students could see themselves working there one day.

The Guardian Education Centre describes its mission to "empower young people to access, understand, participate in and critically analyse media." They are clearly meeting their aims according to Aksath (10S): “I think that the education centre was wonderful...it was a very pleasant experience and I learnt a lot from it.” The Centre itself is in such high demand that it gets fully booked for the academic year so students were fortunate to have experienced this.

Students attributed their successes of the day due to the wonderful guidance given by the “helpful, marvellous and lovely Jan” who taught them how newspapers are made, the editorial process and educating them about the technical terms used in the industry. This was one of the main purposes of the visit and everyone left happy and thoroughly enjoyed it.

A very special thank you from all of our class to Jan Trott who made the day one to remember.

Jan Trott providing students with feedback of their work

Visit theguardian.com/gnmeducationcentre or follow them on Twitter @GuardianEduCent
to find out more.

Read more reports from ACS students at http://acsbbcyoungreporter.blogspot.com/. All ACS students are welcome to report on the stories that matter to them.

Meeting the thirteenth Doctor!

Mohamed A 7K & Russell 7Y 

On 17th of November 2019 Alperton Community School students from year 7 and 8 were chosen to go to the BFI Southbank to watch the premier of Doctor Who (Series 12), which was later to be broadcast on the BBC on New Year's Day. The students were amongst some of the first people to watch the premier with some other schools. This year is the new series of Doctor Who starring Jodie Whittaker in her second series playing the lead role. 

We were all really excited to head to Central London and took the train to BFI Southbank. One of the students said “I was really excited and surprised to be chosen”. Once the students arrived in the bustling city, some year 7s were jaw-dropped and amazed by what Central London was like as they were not expecting the city to be full and busy! For some, it was their first time visiting the Southbank. There were colossal buildings towering over them as their eyes were fixed on the city. As we walked along we came across cinemas, monuments, The London Eye and plenty of shops and restaurants. 

Whilst we waited for the premier to start we got to wander around the BFI Southbank building, take photos and some students eagerly contacted their families by text telling them what they had done so far. 

We then watched the amazing new Doctor Who episode. After, we were told there was going to be a press conference with a special guest to come and speak to us, but we weren’t told who straight away. 13 is an unlucky number for some, but clearly not for us! Once the episode had finished, we heard a familiar voice from behind the screen. It was none other than Jodie Whittaker! Everyone was so shocked to find out they were face to face with the Doctor! Whittaker then went onto the stage so we could ask her questions and also to some of the producers of the show about the episode and what will happen in the other episodes of series 12. 

On the way home we were still so excited about the trip but we couldn’t talk about it too loudly on the train as we were under embargo - which means we’re not allowed to tell anyone about it until it’s been broadcast on TV! However, now we can finally talk to all our friends about this amazing trip.

Alperton community spirit shines bright

By Skye (LS1)

On Saturday 13^th July, housing developers St. George held their third Alperton Summer Festival at Heather Park. The festival focused on the need for community spirit for the children of the borough. Each year the event also aims to create awareness for a local charity. This year money was raised for the Jason Roberts Foundation; a foundation that raises money in memory of Cyrille Regis, a former English international footballer who grew up in Stonebridge but sadly died in 2018. The foundation initially focused its support in Brent but now works to support young people across the UK, celebrating diversity and promoting respect. They provide “mentoring, life skills, education and training projects within its wider sports activities and work with young people at risk of offending, those excluded from school or struggling in the school curriculum, and young people with physical and learning difficulties.”

Entry was free and there was an array of live performances, music and food to give families a chance to make a day out of the event. Children were entertained with slime making and crafts, allowing them to play with friends, siblings and family but also offering an opportunity to befriend new people. It was clear that such events are important to the families who attended who wore huge smiles on their faces. Many students from Alperton Community School also enjoyed the event. When asked about their favourite part of the day, one student said “Alperton Community School’s performances… especially the drama group, the impressive steel performance…and the Dhol group, obviously, who never fail to surprise us with their performance.” 

Alperton Community School drama performance

Alperton Community School students Dhol performance

There were also performances by the soulful school choir. Other acts included a performance from a former Miss. Nepal. With her group, the women performed dance acts in traditional Nepalese dress and songs, displaying that they were proud of their culture and further highlighting diversity within our community.

The festival also featured fairground games, live music, slime Olympics, a wide variety of food stalls and an art exhibit where children could create their own crafts. Art pieces made by Alperton pupils were displayed. This presented true talent in which our school holds, giving students a chance to express themselves creatively.

A large fire truck escorted by firefighters from the local fire station also attended the festival. “We are here to let the public come and see the fire engine, give fire safety advice and just to let them know that we have an open service where people can come and talk to us.” On the importance of community, the firefighter said “It’s very important because community is who we work with, who we work for, who we serve and also live with. Because we are part of the fire brigade we also live in communities in London so it’s important to work alongside them and integrate with them.” The crew were happy to be interacting with local residents, displaying that being part of a community means a lot to them.

Another student was asked what their favourite part of being in a community was and she replied with how she likes the idea of people coming together. “Everyone is really busy with their lives, everyone’s doing their own thing and to finally come out and meet everyone and just be a part of something, feels quite special.”

A sense of community is important to many people. It is often described as a way to get close to others and to build relationships with those you never thought you would. This sense of community can be said to be particularly important in tight-knit places like the borough of Brent, an area of such diversity where everyone has to work together to make a change. We should all take on some sort of responsibility in a community like Alperton otherwise everything will stay the same. A summer festival is a great way to make this change and to break any divisions within the community.

Community means something different to everyone, but to everyone it means something.

Momo Challenge is a HOAX

BY SHREYA 7P

Parents have been incredibly frightened for their children, in fact absolutely terrified by the Momo Challenge. Many national newspapers covered this story and it was shared hundreds of thousands times on Facebook over a short 24 hour period. However, it has transpired that all of those rumours started as a result of ‘fake news’.

The Momo Challenge initially started to spread by parents and adults via social media. It was believed that a creepy looking creature popped up on the screen while children were watching videos, such as Peppa Pig, on YouTube. This creature has a distorted face, big bulging eyes and black hair. The image itself is genuinely terrifying to look at, especially for young children. Adults believed that this creature was telling their children to harm their family and themselves. A student in year 7 said, “I was horrified when knowing that false news spreads so easily.”

It is not the first time the Momo Challenge has been in the news. In August 2018, the Daily Mirror had an article about a boy’s apparent suicide as a result of the Momo Challenge. It has to be asked, why has the Momo Challenge resurfaced? It is a coincidence that the government are looking to try and put stricter controls on social media and the Internet?

As a school community it makes people feel scared as this kind of thing normally affects children. We should learn many things from this experience. We should not easily believe in things like this and research it before we start to share information so that we don’t become the distributers of fake news.

It is interesting to note that the NSPCC received more phone calls about the Momo Challenge from media outlets than concerned parents. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recently published a report titled ‘disinformation and fake news’ in which they recommend that digital literacy should be “a fourth pillar of education alongside reading, writing and maths”. Perhaps adults also need to be better educated so that they too are more media literate. If we all have a better understanding about fake news then we’d be less likely to fall into the trap of believing fake news stories.

In year 9 media studies students are taught a unit dedicated to media literacy and fake news.