HW: Make at least four of your own top trumps cards using a search engine. Try and ensure that the research is recent (no earlier than 2013). Make your cards with a computer or by hand, talk to friends to make sure you don't do the same country; you can then play a better game.
You must include:
•Name of the country
•Population
•Death rate per 1000
•Birth rate per 1000
•Life Expectancy
•GDP per capita
For Greater Depth include
•Adult literacy
•Computers per 1000
•Doctors per 1000

Ten of our Year 8 Sports Leaders set off from school to attend the Dorset Leadership Academy held at Bryanston School in Blandford. This event is an annual event that has been running for the last five years and has grown in popularity tremendously. This year's event was attended by 36 schools from across the county who brought along pupils from years 7,8,9 and 10 to learn more leadership skills and to be inspired to take these new skills back to their own schools.
Our leaders were treated to an opening address speech from ex South African rugby player, Thinius Delport, who spoke about the challenges he faced throughout his career and how he overcame them:
https://www.youthsporttrust.org/thinus-delport

Pupils then headed off to their workshops which were led by a variety of sports professionals from across the county. Sporting their new t-shirts, our leaders stepped up and participated in numerous activities that encouraged them to work together, solve problems and use their initiative. 

We then all met in the theatre to end the day by watching the Dance team perform their final dance and to hear John  Pearce, GB Handball player (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pearce_(handballer), remind the pupils about how to thrive as leaders in the future and to seize every opportunity that comes their way.

A huge thank you to all the School Games Organisers for putting on such a wonderful experience, to Active Dorset for providing the funding for the event, and to Bryanston School for the use of their facilities and staff.

After a very wet and windy morning, congratulations to Cranborne First School who emerged victorious in the recent CMS cluster tag rugby festival. Despite the wet weather, the children enjoyed the experience. The sports leaders had participated in a training session run by Wimborne Rugby coach, Nick Elbourne, so were feeling confident with their newly taught skills. 
The festival was well received and a big thank you goes to all the schools who took part, the parents and family members who came to support the event, the sports leaders for giving up their time to run the festival and to Nick Elbourne for his invaluable expertise.

A small, select group of Year 8 pupils visited St Michael's Middle School, Wimborne to take part in the Active 30-30 initiative. This Youth Sport Trust initiative aims to encourage the least active pupils in schools to take part in up to 30 extra minutes of physical activity every day.
Our Year 8's met ex-paralympic swimmer, Kate Grey, who put them through their paces by challenging them to all kinds of different tasks throughout their day. The group now have to come back to CMS and organise a club for pupils at school. Watch this space for more details of the club!

For Geography homework this week Year 8 need a map of China. Over half an hour, ensure that your map is complete: accurate and neatly coloured displaying five main cities, three main rivers, two mountain ranges, at least one desert and any other features you think are important (but not too many). Add facts around the map from your own research to ensure it is complete to serve you through the unit. Don't forget a title, key, North Sign and scale!

Seven of our Year 8 pupils visited The Victoria School in Bournemouth today to take part in 'Step into Sport'. This event invites school pupils from all over Dorset to build upon their existing leadership skills and boost their confidence when working with pupils with disabilities. Upon arrival, our pupils showed their worth straight away by offering to help set up the sports hall for all the activities to come.
The day started with pupils being treated to an introductory talk from paralympic athlete, David Hill:
https://www.davidhillgb.com/

Our pupils then experienced a range of inclusive activities that could be adapted for a range of different people including: Boccia, Kurling, Target practice, skittle slalom courses and, their favourite of the day, Seated Volleyball.
The group were also tasked with drawing a picture that represented inclusion. It was lovely to hear all the pupils discussing confidently and openly what they thought it meant before working together to draw a picture of the world with people holding hands around it. It was the only picture that was commented on and singled out for praise from David himself!

We were set the challenge of going back to school to set up a club for specific pupils in order to promote inclusion and fun. The hard work has only just begun. Watch this space for more blogs about the club!

Mrs Williams

Mrs Eadie's group's English homework.                                         Watch this clip if you want to find out more. 
​

Our morning started off with the sports leaders setting up and waiting for our anxious teams to arrive. Sixpenny arrived first followed closely behind by Cranborne First. We could tell that they were all extremely excited to play.  Even though they were only twenty minute games (with a break at half time), the teams thrived in the dry conditions and in the end the Sixpenny Handley ‘B’ team was victorious.
Even though the other teams didn’t manage to take the crown, they played brilliantly, demonstrating great sportmanship and congratulating the other teams.
The winning teams received medals and the captain received a trophy the school could keep. In addition, all the other teams were presented with certificates for participation. We also congratulated the parents and staff for coming and supporting their children.
A special thanks to all the sports leaders that made this day possible.

Written by Emilie and Ethan (Sporting Ambassadors)

​It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I am sure it was a literal rainbow, the light refracting through its odd glass-like surface. However, its colours were in swirls. It was hypnotic, pulling me in with every passing second and if the window had not been there, I think I might have actually been sucked in. Under its cascading waves, was a dark abyss where no light reached. A black so dark, darker than night, darker than space. It was the darkest thing I had ever seen and contrasted blindingly with the rainbow-like colours on its surface. The tornado of colours kept pulling me in until, at its middle, I could see two minuscule white specks. Like eyes. They stared deep into my soul.
It was a face.
As we neared, I began to notice the features of this face. It was sucking in the colours in like a whirlpool. The thing’s mouth was gaping, cramming every ounce of the photons into its mouth. Moreover, it was this mouth where the brightest of the lights appeared to be coming from. The combination of these colours in such an enclosed, tight area had made a white brighter than anything I had ever seen before.
We had planned to land atop of the planet but our vessel began to phase through its surface. The surface was just colours and the centre was hollow. All I could see was the face.
This was no planet.
It was fake.
Just colours.
Mirage.
However, the face; the face was real.

​Tom

The planet
​
The surface of this planet was an orange, no not an orange but a peach, a white, a deep fiery orange too difficult to describe. Each individual colour swept around and through each other, pulling together so that they could create a tapestry, a piece of artwork too wild and uncontrollable to be contained within one small, insignificant word.
Its polished plains stretched on and on, never losing their simplistic, perfectly polished beauty. Staring at the horizon, one could witness the clash of roaring, blazing fire and cloaked, smothering black as they fought for control of the sky.

Every one of this strange planet’s whorls was pulled, each welcoming its inevitable end, into an explosion of white hovering just above the centre. As the splotch of white bloomed, each delicate tendril of peach, mandarin or soft yellow picked up its pace racing towards their end.

It was beautiful. Horrifying, yes, in the way that they ran eagerly towards their doom, but so destructively beautiful.
This wonderful, yet horrible plant’s soil was unlike any that I had ever seen before in the way that it had none. Its surface was so cleanly cut it was molten metal contained mesmerisingly by the space around it in a perfect sphere.
Its flat fields were red mixed with orange and yellow, mixed together like a campfire made solely with the purpose of roasting marshmallows, like a fireplace decked with holly-wreaths warming you on Christmas morning. Surrounded by the harsh, unforgiving abyss of space, it was safety and security with someone always there to pick you up when you fell.
It was family and friends.
It was home.
  
Emily

The planet

The faded orange, risen to the top, gradually became lighter as it neared the other end. Darker, more vibrant oranges and reds trapped the faded orange in a cage of brighter colours, like a wave of distorted lines and shapes, intersecting over each other as though it was a knotted string. It was a sunset so powerful it could fix your gaze and never let it go. A battlefield of oranges and reds, all fighting to be the brightest. A small disc of white, flooding the planet with light.
 
The heat was enough to scorch a human to death. Like a fire, but the warmth increased. Life was unsustainable on the sweltering surface of the planet.
 
Thin ropes were hot as fire, hot as molten rock. Explosive vines of peril and agony to touch. A cruel figure of spite and arrogance, too atrocious to verge upon.  A blazing heat burst through a cold airiness to reach a warmth with enough power to burn anything in its path.  

Georgia