I think that boys should be able to play netball and girls should be able to play rugby in lessons than having to go to a club.

In order to make this change to work I would make it so girls and boys played net ball or ruby from the same set or class. This would obviously mean changing the rules when boys played with the girls the boys wouldn’t tackle the girls as hard and there would be at least two teachers watching.

This morning we interviewed Mr Pearsall the head teacher of Plymstock School to talk about the effect of sport on the community and students. We are students and we want to see an improvement in the P.E department.

We thought it would be good to discuss whether competitive sport in school does more harm than good and we interviewed Mr Pearsall, who said, “Failure is good and competitive sports build your resilience and make you learn it’s not all about winning. Also sports isn’t all about being able to win it builds your determination.”

We also asked Mr Farrant who is a science teacher the same question, he both disagreed and agreed that competitive sports helps in school. Students may think this because sports builds resilience, determination and overall health but if done wrong it can cause arguments between friends. We asked Mr Farrant how sport impacts the community: ‘It has a big impact because thousands of people go to argyle matches every game and each time they get excited if there team win. How if there team loses they may be frustrated but will still be a fun experience.’ Does sport affect mental health? “Yes it can be very good for mental health because it release hormones that can boost your happiness and even if you do lose and feel mad, in the long run it will help with physical and mentally.”

Another question we asked Mr Pearsall was “How do sports impact the community?” He said: “It is great to be able to come here after hours and be able to play sports. Also nowadays are brains are always going like what are we going to do in the future and sports release your stress about it”. Another question we asked him was “Are you planning to add more of a variation of sports in school?” “Yes we are always planning to improve the schools facilities for sports in Plymstock School.”

We also explored how sports affect your health. Sport, recreation, and physical activity can promote and encourage social interaction, which supports good mental health. Athletes are subjected to sport specific stressors, as well as stress from everyday life. Good mental health is characterised by emotional wellbeing and resilience to all sources of stress. Sport and excises boosts your morale by releasing hormones such as endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. In addition it decreases the chance of getting different health conditions such as cancer, diabetes and Dementia.

Playing sports helps reduce body fat or controls your body weight. Sports allow you will gain the satisfaction of developing your fitness and skills. Sports can help you fight depression and anxiety. Many sports can help improves stamina and concentration.

Sports have both positive and negative impacts on our society. Sports are one of the few things that transcend socio-economic status and bring people together. It encourages people to get off their couches and exercise. By encouraging activity it helps build a healthier society.

Participating in football—like any sport—provides many health benefits for children. It’s a physically demanding game that provides an opportunity for players to improve their speed, agility, strength, hand-eye coordination and overall cardiovascular endurance. Also it helps with students grades as it boosts student’s moral. In addition it will help with other place like hospitals because people will be happier and healthier to release stress of a medical condition they might have. (some research from Google).

Football benefits the community. Participating in football-like any sport –provides many health benefits for children. It’s a physically demanding game that provides an opportunity for players to improve their speed, agility, strength, hand eye coordination and overall cardiovascular endurance.

International Women’s Day is a celebration that happens on March 8th, it is to understand the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. People gather to celebrate women’s rights and gender equality. One of the huge achievements of women is that they are able to vote in a general election, they were not allowed to do this for a long period of time in the past; they gained the right in 1918. However, after gaining the right, gender equality was still prevalent in the era and beyond. Marie Curie was a huge part of women’s achievements, as she was the first women to win and receive a Nobel Prize.

We have been interviewing various people today with a set of questions:

The first person we interviewed was Mr Pearsall ( the Head Teacher of Plymstock) : he believes that International Women’s day is a very important day to celebrate women’s achievements ‘and that it is a historical day because women’s equality has grown over the years considering women only got the right to vote in general elections just over 100 years ago. He believes that that all laws should be followed and that the government need to challenge discrimination

The second person we interviewed was Mr Chivers, (the assistant head of year 7) . He explained that It is a very important day globally and how the success of women has increased throughout the years. The person who inspires him is Jane Corkhill, who is a traffic sergant for the police who deals with major accidents.

After that, we interviewed Miss Evans (from the science department), she explained to us how women have improved the world of STEM. She believes that very powerful women will have the same equality as men. She stated that as long as we celebrate International Men’s Day everything is good because if we didn’t celebrate Men’s Day ,it would not be fair.

The last person we interviewed was Miss Graham( from the maths department): she believes that International Women’s Day is an amazing and important day and that we have allot of voice as women and we should not underestimate our power as women. She also believes that women will have the same equality as men as equality has changed allot over the years.

We have also made some phone calls to some charities, the first charity we called was the Faucett Society and we spoke to a lovely women called Bea. She told us that women are still not equal but it is gradually becoming more equal and there are lots of things to celebrate. She is inspired by Millicent Fawcett, the women who started the organisation. This interview was about international women’s day and equality between men and women and how people have changed through the past 100 years. And we called a few companies unfortunately some couldn’t help us but the ones that did gave us fab advice! They told us everything that we need to know and answered all our questions. One of the ladies where called Liz Prinz who was an insite manager who helped us with all our questions.

In conclusion, we have had an incredible day and we now know allot about International Womens Day and we hope you have learnt something too.

Just recently, one of my favourite pasty shops had gone bankrupt and out of business. This really got me thinking: are the government doing enough? And how are online shopping websites (such as amazon and ebay) affecting the high street and small sized businesses.

This morning I interviewed Sir Gary Streeter MP and asked him a few questions about the government and unemployment.

First I asked him about whether the government plan to do anything about businesses going bankrupt. He replied that he likes to visit a business every Friday to help keep them running. He also stated that the Bank of England are cutting out interest rates as the Coronavirus is hurting stocks a lot.

I also asked him if the government are going to help open more jobs to help unemployment. He answered, “Governments don’t create jobs however we create economic conditions so people can work successfully.”

Finally I asked Sir Gary if people should shop at high streets instead of shopping websites. He replied, “Well we can’t stop people from making choices and of course we technology is changing the way we live and now the way we shop. We accept that the high streets will change and the government will make them more exciting. The shopping websites do pay tax however so I think it is rather equal.”

Thinking about how I can link this to my school I asked one of our business teachers Mr Davies a few questions:

Firstly, I asked him why is business and employment important to him? He felt it was because a good economic climate is good for everyone. Then, I asked him, Do you think websites such as Amazon and eBay are bad for smaller businesses and why? He replied, “ Yes, because they earn a big market share and they are hard to compete for smaller businesses.” Do you think that the government should start helping businesses more? He answered, yes if they can, lowering the rent on the high street would help. Finally, I asked Mr Davies, Do you think that people should start creating more jobs for the unemployed? He replied, yes if possible but it will be limited.

Considering it is budget day today, lots of local businesses will be hoping for a fresh new financial start.

The corona virus is a new disease that was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. The disease is much like a cold and can only kill people who are very young, very old or people who already have illnesses or have weak immune systems.

We have been investigating how this links to Plymstock School. Throughout the day we have been interviewing staff and pupils of Plymstock School. We interviewed Mr Pearsall about what he is doing to help prevent corona virus from the school and what he would do if a pupil at school had the corona virus. Mr Pearsall said, ‘If you believe that a child has the symptoms of the corona virus you should notify the school and tell them. You should self-isolate for 14 days and get tested for it. If you are tested positive then the he would have to contact Public Health of England and they would instruct him on what to do. The school would most likely close for 5 days and be deep cleaned if the person was tested positive.’ To help prevent the corona virus in Plymstock School Mr Pearsall is instructing people to wash their hands often and is also working on ordering hand sanitizer, however it is difficult to get hold of it at this moment of time due too that fact that loads of people are buying it because they are panicking.

We also talked to Sir Gary Streeter (an MP for Devon), who said: `The coronavirus is definitely going to spread around Devon but he also says life must go on. Early next week, there is going to be a fresh announcement about what will happen with the coronavirus. This may or may not affect schools. Their biggest goal is to protect all the vunerable people (old and young) with weak immune systems. Therefore, the best thing to do to avoid getting the virus is by making sure you wash your hands with hot soapy water for at least 20 seconds, or sing happy birthday twice whilst washing your hands.`

The NHS says that the symptoms of coronavirus are:
• a cough
• a high temperature
• shortness of breath

But these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness.

The symptoms are similar to other illnesses that are much more common, such as cold and flu. They do not know how the virus is spread due to the fact that it is a new virus. It is very unlikely that the virus is spread through things such as packaged food.

The NHS says that to avoid catching or spreading the corona virus too:

• Wash your hands with soap and water often – do this for at least 20 seconds

• Always wash your hands when you get home or into work

• Use hand sanitizer gel if soap and water are not available

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze

• Put used tissues in the bin straight away and wash your hands afterwards

• Try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell.

• They say do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean.

A student had an opinion on the corona virus. He said, `People worry too much as they don’t know what it is and all you have to do is wash your hands with hot soapy water. They also said that if you get it to go to the doctors. He said that most germs are from phones, TV remotes and controllers.`

In conclusion Plymstock School has most things under control and people don’t see that worried about it. The school has plans if anything were to happen.

Mental health is increasing by enormous amounts, and we need to do something about it. Mental health isn’t just anxiety and bipolar, it can be in different forms such as: depression, eating disorders, obsessive and compulsive disorders, personality disorders, post- traumatic stress- disorder (PTSD), psychosis, and schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia, self-harm and suicidal feelings.

People in society today need to be supported by making them feel safe and help them to understand that they are not alone and that they can get through the tough time that they are going through right now. People shouldn’t be ashamed of what they are going through and they should embrace the fact that they are going to be okay and going to get help.

In 2019 mental health, cases have raised by 48% between 2019 and 2004, that’s a 44.1% difference from 2004 till 2019.

Mental health usually affects people from ages 8-40 but it can also age above and below. Anything can trigger a person’s mental health, it can be something a little as rage or anger but it can also be a big as a family trauma (e.g.: death, illness etc.) So we really need to recognise when someone is feeling this way and how we can prevent this on happening again.

We need to make everyone more aware of mental health and make them realise how it can affect young adults.

We can help by improving the way people with mental health are supported and how we can recognise the symptoms of mental health even if one of your friends or family members doesn’t want to admit it. Mental health is important and it needs to be dealt with the same priority as an injury.

Schools around the world need to have a better understanding on how young students today feel like in the society we are in as many students feel unhappy about themselves, teachers and safeguarding officers need to act on these issues and help the student feel okay again.

I interviewed Mrs Robs, and she demonstrated how she would act around a student and believe that teachers should be empathetic around the students and help them get the support that they deserve.

I have also interviewed some students and they have said that they don’t believe that mental health is taken to the proper care that it needs, and that if they were in a position they would like more care towards them.

Mental health shouldn’t be at the bottom of people priorities and it needs to be taken seriously, many doctors would send suffering patients home with medication to ‘help’ with their issues but that’s not what people need, they need a description on what the doctor is going to change with how their feeling, not some medication that physically changes their health, they need something that emotionally changes it.

Mental health I getting treated a little better than it did 16 years ago but that still doesn’t mean that we can just stop helping the people around us. People constantly are suffering and with only a limited amount of doctors to help, people in society need to change their view on mental health and act on it.

We also need to help bullying, as that cant spread into a long chain of emotional issues, one of them can lead to mental health, and that can cause people a lot of stress. Schools need to take action on bullying as it can’t wait, now’s the time to act on it before its too late and it affects the people around us.

Plymstock School is great for dealing with mental health and bullying issues and deals with them in a careful and empathetic manor, schools across the UK could focus more on how the students feel and not piling exams on top of them, I understand why it’s necessary to test the students for their academic kills, but schools should also focus on making sure that their students feel comfortable in what they are currently doing in school and that they don’t feel like they are getting pressured or made to get 100% right in a test.

Plymstock School is a highly academic school but they also focus on making that their students are okay and that they don’t feel like they have to do 10 hours of revision for a test. They also make sure that the students know that they don’t have to get every single question right on their test.

The United Nations were the first to begin celebrating International Women’s Day in the International Women’s Year, 1975. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace. International Women’s Day (IWD) is dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the social, economic and cultural spheres. The day, founded by a group of important women, also brings attention to gender equality and women’s rights. International women’s day is very important, but do the suffragettes get enough attention?

The suffragettes formed in 1903 founded by Emmeline Pankhurst. The suffragists were a collective group of women, who were members of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, and were lead by Millicent Garrett Fawcett. These women fought against parliament for years to make the future better for Women.. They campaigned many times because they wanted all middle-class and house owning women to have the right to vote. The group was formed in Manchester at Emmelines home. After many failed bills the suffragettes turned to violence, their new motto reading ‘deeds not words’. The determined girls were force fed 49 times and arrested around 5 times each. You may have heard of a few of them like: Emily Wilding Davison, Dora Thewlis or perhaps Christabel Pankhurst.

Mrs Robs (head of year 11) believes women shouldn’t be treated any differently to men whether its in a good way or bad, and teachers should have the same expectations for all genders.

Mrs Tyrell (head of PE) is a determined woman who has never allowed her gender to interfere with her career. We asked her ‘In Plymstock School, why are girls not allowed to do Rugby as a topic’. She replied saying, “This is because only male teachers are trained in contact rugby,’ this means as a female teacher she is unable to teach us rugby. Answering the question she also said, “we have limited rugby facilities.”. Being a female and wanting to be a footballer she decided to not let her gender decide her future, this lead her to play football in America and later try out for Arsenal.

The Plymouth Raiders are a professional basketball team based in Plymouth. Formed in 1983, they are the only basketball team based in the city. They play their home games at the Plymouth Pavilions, which has a capacity of 1500. They play in the British Basketball League, or BBL, which is the UK’s premier basketball competition. The Raiders currently sit 10th in the 11-team league after a slow start to the season. After the season started in late September, the Raiders found themselves languishing adrift at the bottom of the table. However after three wins in the last five games the team has climbed off the foot of the table and now hopes of making the play-offs at the end of the season are a realistic aim, despite the bad start to the campaign. The head coach is Paul James, who after a successful playing career has been in coaching since 1996, where arguably his main achievement was coaching the England men’s team for six years from 2010-2016. He has been at the Raiders since 2018.

The Plymouth Raiders’ most recent match was on the 1st March. They played away to the Manchester Giants, the team bringing up the foot of the table, and after the match finished 82-82 at the end of the regular 40 minutes the Raiders triumphed 96-90 after overtime. The Giants took a commanding 50-38 lead at half time, but a resurgent Raiders outplayed their opponents in the third and fourth quarters to force overtime. The Raiders carried their form into the extra period, outscoring the Giants 14-8 to come out on top in a topsy-turvy match.

The Raiders’ next game is on Friday 13th March as they welcome Glasgow Rocks to the Plymouth Pavilions. The Rocks currently sit 2nd in the BBL after winning 10 of their 13 games. However, the reverse fixture on the 31st January ended in a brilliant 76-67 win for the team, and the journey, the longest away trip in the BBL, was rewarded with one of the Raiders’ best performances of the season.

The Plymouth Raiders have just recently secured a global education investment partner – BAU Global. The president of BAU Global, Mr Enver Yucel, has provided educational services around the world, especially in his native Turkey. Raiders Director, Richard Mollard said, ‘This is a truly historic moment in the history of the Plymouth Raiders Club, and one that every fan should be incredibly excited by.’ Due to this partnership, Mr Yucel will be welcomed as the new Plymouth Raiders Club President. Mr Yucel said, ‘We are delighted to be involved with Plymouth in general and with the Raiders in particular. Through this partnership we will help to encourage participation in sport for all ages and abilities, promote basketball as a great participation activity and also as a family friendly event to attend. We are particularly enthusiastic to encourage the linking of sport and education and of course we want to develop the Raiders into a BBL winning team.’

Aside from on the court, the Plymouth Raiders promote basketball in the community through a variety of activities they run for all different age groups. As well as the first team, the Raiders’ have an academy for players aged 16-20 and development squads for under-18 and under-16 age groups. There is also a ladies team who now play under the supervision of a professional set-up, and sessions for girls only. As well as this, the Raiders have a wheelchair team, with ages varying from 12-55 and a mix of male and female players in the squad. The club have also set up seven junior basketball teams for budding young players. They are coached by club coaches and are even joined by players to enhance their skills. The Raiders’ also support a programme called Hoops for Health. Raiders’ coaches and players visit primary schools to promote the importance of a healthy life through basketball. The club also run sessions for 3-6 year olds. Finally, the Raiders organise sessions for over 60 year olds and walking basketball sessions for all ages. These sessions enable easy exercise that is accessible and also help to combat loneliness.

We were able to ask some of Raiders squad some questions before their match against Surrey Scorchers on 7th February, which they won 111-82.

The first group of players we interviewed were Isa Brandon, Leslee Smith and Isaiah Walker.

Brandon said, ‘I feel that we have come together more as a unit – tonight we are going to get them (Surrey Scorchers) back!’ When asked about his diet, Brandon said, ‘Personally, I am a pescatarian. I try to eat healthy things. Obviously as an athlete we have to eat carbohydrates. I try to stay away from fast food.’

When asked about living in Plymouth, Smith said: ‘It’s a bit different. I’m from the Virgin Islands. I played in the USA, and it’s a lot different. It’s a bit gloomy! It’s not the best place I’ve ever been to.’ Smith also described what some of the Raiders players do off the court: ‘We often go to the cinema. We recently watched ‘Bad Boys’!’

Walker thought: ‘Yes, I think it (basketball) definitely should be encouraged more in schools.’

We then interviewed Liam Langridge-Barker and Frenchman Ron Mvouika, the scorer of a memorable three point shot during the match.
In the days before the match, NBA legend Kobe Bryant died after a helicopter crash. When asked about this, Langridge-Barker said: ‘It was tough. He was an idol for me.’ Mvouika added, ‘I’d seen him come into the NBA. You grew up watching him and you feel like you’ve known him your whole life.’ When asked what advice he would give to young people and his hoped for the rest of the season, Mvouika replied: ‘Work hard. Work hard. Work hard. Believe in yourself; you have to have faith. I have faith in God – God first, and then hard work. You can get to wherever you want to, there is no limitation. The aim for the season is to get to the play-offs and then we will go from there. We have a good group, we get along really well.’

Next, we asked Polish shooting guard Kostas Jonuska and fans’ favourite power forward Rashad Hassan about all aspects of the game, and what they do in their free time.
‘I started playing just to get close with my friends, and then I got into a deeper level of the game. I hope basketball can be as big in the UK as in the USA. I’m trying to promote it. Football and rugby are very dominant here but basketball is a great sport. Kids play it around the world, we definitely need to put more funding behind it. Eventually you will see it on TV and see more games and kids will pick it up. In my spare time I like learning how to cook,’ said Hassan. Jonuska added, ‘We train every day in the morning. We start early and finish by midday. Off the court, I really like to spend time with my family and relax.’

We then interviewed the Raiders’ club captain, Australian point guard Josh Wilcher, and new signing Will Neighbour.
We asked Neighbour about his view on Bryant’s death, and if the NBA logo should change from Jerry West to Bryant. ‘It’s difficult, they are both legends, but personally I’d like to see it.’ He then went on to say: ‘Outside of basketball I play other sports – golf, tennis and squash.’ We also asked Wilcher what he does outside from basketball, and how he got involved in the game. He replied, ‘I like to read and watch Netflix and YouTube.’ As to why he got involved in basketball, Wilcher responded: ‘My first teacher was a basketball coach.’
Finally, we interviewed the British trio of Denzel Ubiaro, Tola Okiki and Joshua Palmer.
Okiki said, ‘I started playing basketball at school. My older brothers played and I just started playing with them.’ When asked about funding, Ubiaro replied, ‘I don’t think it will be an issue. It will be a struggle but hopefully it will increase.’ Palmer’s thoughts about the upcoming match and the Surrey Scorchers were: ‘It will be a good contest. It will be good to see players we have played against before. I learn from them.’

In our school, we are helping the environment by cutting down on plastic and the school is investing in water fountains to be built which cost £3,500 to have fitted. They are also looking to get the bins cleaned so they are more appealing to students but still stop the seagulls from getting in and spreading the litter along the floor.

Mr Schindler, one of our Geography teachers, is looking to help the galley cut down on plastics such as bottles. They are also planning to bring in recycling bins in classrooms. The galley is trying to use everything eco-friendly at the moment. They are using veg ware for their products which is compostable apart from there plastic water bottles, muffin wrappers and plastic straws. They have also said that they are working with the baker who makes the muffins to try and find something that can replace the muffins wrappers with something which is better for the environment and recyclable, but still hygienic.

The English department cuts down printing to a minimum as well as the Maths and History departments. The English department makes sure students use up the entire page and then will recycle old exercise books when finished.

The Science department when interviewed said that they are trying and are doing everything they can to cut back on all materials and harmful gases that are used in experiments and in science classes across the school.

The school is also going to move some of the bins to places where more people go so that more people stop littering. The head teacher Mr Pearsall has said that the staff will now be giving detentions to people they catch littering and that the school is becoming more strict about the litter.

We first asked about Mrs Demora’s time with the Plymouth Raiders. “we usually trained once a week and if there was a game we would play the game and train.”

We then asked how their season went. “Oh God, this is going back a long time (repeats question). This is an interesting question (makes a weird face) it’s a mixed bag ,we had some good games and some bad games. I remember more about my time at Marjons playing basketball. In 2004 we were in the best league in the South of the country but the team before us put us in that league. When they all left and we joined we weren’t nearly as good as the previous team, and we got our butts whipped every game for an entire year. And they were big losses one game, I missed when I was injured with a broken hand, they lost 120 something to 27. In the second season we dropped down a division, when we won our first game against Exeter we all cried, we finally knew what it felt like to win that was a very memorable moment.”

However she stopped playing basketball due to injuries.” I’ve had a few injuries over the years, fingers,hands and wrist. I don’t play anymore because of my head injury. I fractured my skull in 2011 and since then I haven’t felt confident enough to play in a team because if I get hit on the head hard enough it could potentially kill me. The injury wasn’t through basketball it was through white water rafting in New Zealand. I got a paddle to the head as we went over a waterfall.”

However she is still very much involved in basketball.” But I still watch the Raiders every game, since the 2000-2001 season and I also coach the Raiders under 16s girls team.I did my level 2 England basketball coaching award which meant I could coach the under 16s girls.”

We then asked about the need for publicity for women’s basketball and the difference with the facilities and funding with the men’s team.” It definitely needs more publicity, I went to the London 2012 Olympic Games and watched the women’s basketball and there were 12,000 people in the stadium watching, that’s amazing. But at my Raiders games we would have one man and his dog watching us play. We don’t play in the pavilions like the men, the women play at city college and we have to pay to play whereas the men’s team get paid to play.”

We then asked how it felt to play basketball when you are vertically challenged.” So… at uni (University) I was called ‘shortie’ because everyone else was so much taller than me and I wanted to play basketball. Generally you have to be quicker and better at ball handling than everyone else on the team and just have a tough persona. You’re not going to be knocked around and made to feel bad because you’re short. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, yes it’s an advantage to be tall but if you shoot well and handle the ball well that shouldn’t make a difference. Obviously if you’re guarded then pass the ball out.”