Burnham Grammar School

I should again like to thank publicly our deputy headteachers, Mrs Fleet and Mr Gray, for leading and managing the school so well in my absences, due to hospitalisation for the first part of this term.

Unfortunately I was therefore unable to attend parents' meetings, the 6 th Form Open Evening, and Year 9 Options Evening as I have always done in the past. I am delighted that they all proceeded so successfully. I will be back full-time after half-term. I should also like to thank Mrs Trinder for including my weekly message in my absence.

This week we were again pleased to have Roop Singh and his wife Simran in school to raise awareness amongst our students of the value of inter-faith understanding and tolerance. This visit, which students have so enjoyed and valued in previous years, is particularly timely given the global protests in reaction to the cartoon in a Danish newspaper. A student has written an article in this Briefing as his explanation for why there have been such protests . I would however like to add that I greatly admire the muslim religious leaders who have been asking for a calm and peaceful reaction, rather than adding injury to the hurt already caused.

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They are building a safe pedestrian access at the school gate, to separate walkers from cars and buses. This initiative is part of the School Travel Plan.

Napster was axed, is file sharing to go too now? And did you know copying your personal CD to your computer hard drive is illegal? (I didn't!)

This week High Court judges ordered two people to pay the British Phonographic Industry between £1500-5000 for making thousands of songs available online. These sorts of cases have been going on for years, as the music companies have been trying (and failing) to stop breaches of music copyright.

The British Phonographic Industry say P2P sharing has lead to a decline in single sales since 1999, and research suggests Europeans download three times more music illegally, rather than buying them legally!

Sony BMG went to rather drastic measures to try and stop people copying their CD to their computers; they integrated a virus that went deep into the owner's computer without the owner knowing! Sony BMG had a wave of complaints and lots of publicity and they were forced to provide software to remove this virus from the computers affected.

Sony BMG however have now released a statement that they will continue to use viruses on their CD's; and such artists as Britney Spears and Alicia Keys have backed them up (in Sony BMG's defence they have agreed to have software readily available to remove the virus, however such tricks as drawing a line around the edge of the disk with a marker pen can stop the malicious virus).

Limewire and other such P2P file sharing software have so far escaped charge, however if kids are caught downloading music illegally it is the parents who will be fined thousands of pounds! This global action by music companies has not yet reduced downloading and the music companies are not surprisingly getting a bit peeved, as they estimate they lost £570 million pounds in 2005 (compared to £215 million in 2004).

But another question is what should we be allowed to do with our CD's once we have bought them? To stay legal we can't copy them onto our computers or MP3 players.

What do you think? Do you think you should be able to download your music free? Do you think free downloads threaten the existence of the music industry? Do you think music companies should stop you putting your CD music you bought on to your computer?

The Nintendo DS went on sale in the UK in March 2005, and more than 14.4 million have been sold around the world so far. Now Nintendo have revealed they have plans to make a smaller thinner version of the current DS. Naming it Nintendo ‘DS Lite'.

The DS Lite will be two–thirds the size of the current DS, and will be 20% lighter to look at, gamers will have four levels of brightness to choose from. Nintendo have also tweaked with the buttons, and given it the white iPod colour. The console is predicted to go on sale in Japan , in March for $175 (£82) no UK release date has yet been announced.

Nintendo still plan to keep on making the original DS for those who like the chunkier version.

‘OUTRAGE OVER CARTOON PUBLICATION'

This is a headline from a Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which has received a lot of media attention recently. They have published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb shaped turban. Any use of pictures of the prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam and they have therefore offended a lot of Muslims sparking protests around the world. Since being published back in September the carton was re-published in Austria in January, and then at the beginning of February a number of European newspapers started to publish it.

The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen appeared on Arabic TV to apologise for offence caused by the cartoons but he also defended ‘freedom of expression'. This controversy has lead to attacks on Danish Embassys and a boycott of Danish goods, and 3 Afghans and a Somali have died in the protests. By Zishan Afsar

Answer 6: Curiously water has a maximum density at 4'C so that a litre of water weighs more at this temperature than at 3' or 5'C. When water cools below 4'C it becomes less dense than the water at 4'C and floats to the surface, cooling further to form ice.

Problem 7: How does a balloon burst and what does this have to do with plastic surgery?

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dressing a life-sized doll group working preparing a poster

Students dressing a life-sized doll & discussing the suitability of at toys through different ages

Our babysitting course students are due to graduate this week. Last week they learnt about looking after infants, dressing and caring for them from a health visitor. We are most grateful to Mrs Diprose who has organised the course, and if you need a good babysitter, just ask!
The next course will run after Easter.

We've had 3 more complimentary letters from local companies praising our students who were out on work experience.

Firstly, James Maskell, who went to The Woodcarving Studio: “ we thoroughly enjoyed having you here and everyone still talks about you and how pleasant you were. Should you wish to receive a reference from us towards future employment or maybe consider doing a formal apprenticeship here, we would be happy to discuss it with you” Colin Mantripp, Master Carver

Secondly, Kamesha Herbert who went to Masterfoods, and who along with Simran Gill is pictured in this month's Masterfoods company newsletter, Chris Button is also mentioned but not pictured. The girls finished their week with a much appreciated presentation on ‘our week at Masterfoods'.

Thirdly, Iver Nature Study Centre, when they read in the local papers that Emily Stagg had won the Best In Year prize they wrote to the school to convey their appreciation too: “All at the study centre were thrilled to hear this news and felt she thoroughly deserved her award. We were very appreciative of her letter of thanks which detailed so much of what she had achieved during her week with us” Sally Munn, Centre Manager.

It's the end of an era! After years of kicking balls together, cheering each other on, and tolerating Becca's constant nagging to attend ‘never-ending' training sessions, the senior Girls' Football Team has played their last ever tournament.

As always, we trained exceptionally hard for this tournament because we were blatantly the best team there (modesty has always been my strong point!) As they say, it's the taking part that counts, which is fortunate because despite some convincing wins, in the short match time, sometimes we couldn't get going, so (& it hurts me to say this) we lost to some of the worst teams we've ever played against. Very frustrating! But hey! That's the way it goes, I guess!

We've had a fantastic time together. The team for this tournament was: Laura W, Becca, Bonnie, Jo, Amie, Jenna, Emily, Kathy, Emma & Lorna

Thanks a million to Mr Pilgrim, who has had even less of a life than usual(!) since volunteering to spend so much of his time coaching us – you're a star! Rebecca Todd

An opportunity to get involved with community radio this summer. Try presenting a radio programme or working on the technical side – excellent experience to go on your CVs!

This is what many businesses were asking last week when it was made public there would be a malicious virus that would attack the Microsoft Office files on their servers. This virus is spread by opening emails which claimed the attachments had nude pictures. The Nymex virus hit last Friday however it was not as big as expected because so many businesses had taken precautions against it! Luckily BGS was not affected, as our anti-virus software kept it out, but it could have cost around a whopping £25,000 to fix! Whew! By Ben Moffatt

Eacotts, a local firm of accountants, is looking for help 10 hours per week 4-6 pm Mon-Fri on reception, admin & mail duties – it's an ideal opportunity to learn about a career in accountancy too! £4.25 phr

Details from Deborah McCarthy on 01628-665432 hr@eacotts.com . Likely to suit Yr 11 or 6 th former.