MTOiRK'IiEXPiERIENeEWe had been planning our work experi-

ence for what had seemed like months. Ex-pectations and hopes of a wonderful work ex-perience were increasing and then the weekfinally arrived. Here are a few highlights ofour week in work from three members of

12SAS.~~,;,\ '(

r.:) ~ I spent my week in the~> opthalmology department of

>~ ) ,t,,: Burnley General Hospital (the

~...j~'

.~'r ~ eye department? The first day

\--:> I~'d"/~ was spent III the day ward~..

:.

.'

.

.

.

~~.

;1J.!) (.

where old l~dies in particu-i~>(:(;/ lar were gOIllgto and from\tfi theatre to have ~ataracts

""J'~= removed. I assIsted the

'(hilnurses III accompany-ing them to and from

the theatre and

discharging them.Tuesday I spent in the theatre observing mi-

nor operations, again on old ladies who were havingcataracts removed and a child who was having a

L(

squint corrected. I felt very professionalin my blue NHS pyjamas - very fetching.

I also spent time in the clinic observ-

ing pre-op assessments - eye-tests to you and

me. I also helped with eye tests for ethnic pa-

tients who had difficultyspeaking English.

On the last day I focused on one par-ticular patient - May - who had come in forcataracts to be removed, but she had broken

her back twice previously. She was still quiteactive and allowed me to observe her ECG

cardiac assessment, chest x-rays and meas-

urements for her new lenses. She had her oplater in the day and did very well apart fromproblems with the anaesthetic.

I was very impressed with the alreadyoverstretched nurses and surgeons who made

the best effort to put variation into my week

and I was sad to leave. (Gemma Lee).(Contu)

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11%fJ

Jenny-Lee Crozierspent her week with theMET Office:

I arrivedlate formyfIrstmorningbecauseofthe snow - if onlyI'd knownwhat the weatherwasgong to be like! An anxious cloud hung over myhead as I ran up to the front door, but the pressuresoonlifted whenI waswelcomedby sunny smilesallround.

My bossexplainedeverythingin anintroduc-tory talk, whichI foundveryuseful,andI couldal-ready see that the MET Office was a whirlwind ofactivity. I wasworking with the CommunicationsManager and I couldn't afford to have my head inthe clouds as there was constant pressure to meetdeadlines.

Throughout,; theweekIdid

/\ Jl13 the weather

if/' Y,A44 for ~he Daily

1// <;;> M~ll (my;/ clanntofame!)

.~ and various

other newspa-pers includingtheManchester

EveningNews./~

;> I also helped~~.

~./ -. witbtwo chemi-

< .. \ cal disasters, one

(. ". \ of which in-

.~ ~ volved nuclearc.1: waste. We had

- to decideandplothow the waste would be dispersed (consideringwind speed / direction), in case people had to beevacuated, which created a very busy spell in themiddle of the day. It calmed down later when Iwent to North WestWaterin Warringtonto checkthat their weathersystemwas in workingorder.

I got to sit in on various radio broadcasts,andI helpedwithall sortsof graphs,involvingtem-peratures of roads in case they had to be gritted aswell as runwaytemperatures. Wealsohad to com-pile weather informationfrom aroundthe countryand sendit to the GasBoardso theywouldknow ifdemand was going to increase (i.e. people weremorelikelyto use theirheatingmore).

Overall I learned a lot, not only about theweather,but about office life and what a working

~12

day is like. I really enjoyed myself and by theend of the week I felt like one of the team and Ididn't want to leave! (Jenny-Lee Crozier).

On my first day at St. Rilda's I felt like thenew girl at school. Firstly I met my work experi-ence co-ordinator and then I met Mr. Alveston -the Read of Art. Over the course of the week, Mr.Alvestonshowedme somenew techniquessuch asdrawingwithinkpens,diffusinginkwithadiffuserandmonoprinting(amethodofprintingwithspecialprinting inks). Monoprintingwasalso a techniquethat the pupilswerenew to, thereforeMr.Alvestonletmedemonstratemonoprintingto variousclasses.

I also used the art package on the computerwhichwasveryinterestingandusefulformyA-level

D

f,;~

'~

coursework. During the week I managed to getinvolvedin a textilesclass. This wasvery interest-ing for me as we don't do textiles at BRGS, so itwas like learning a new subject. Towards the endof the week I was abit sadto be leaving, however,I was gratefulfor the experienceI had gained overthe week. All the staff were friendly towards meand Mr.Alveston went out of his way to make mefeel welcome. The experience openedmy eyes tothe world of teaching, which before was just anoption. Now I feel I am going to head towards artteaching. I found that each day was differentwithdifferentlearningexperiences. (YvonneIrWin)

Climbing is a sport on which it is very easy tobecome hooked. I was introduced by my father whotook me on a family holiday to the Alps at the age ofthirteen, and then learned a lot with an enthusiasticgroup of friends - mainly by trial and error. In theyears since, climbing has taken me to the Alps, Paki-stan and South America and I have met some greatpeople.

Amemorable tripto the KaghanVal-ley in Pakistan saw us buying food in themarket before setting up base camp underMalika Parbat (5,300m) for two weeks.We camped next to a group of nomadicherders and eventually managed to getfresh milk each morning in return for oneof our two chickens (called Malika) - thescrawniest little chicken you have everseen. It looked as if it had walked all theway up from the valley - which, of course,it had. We didn't have the heart to eat it anyway.

Our unusualliason culminated in a party forwhich they cooked a huge goat curry. Aremarkablyfriendly people who shared their all before setting offwith their belongings for the three month trek back toRawalpindi for the Winter.

Through the challenge of organising and tak-

. CLIMBINGCLUB

.

Such a civilised bunch of people these climbers.

ing part in trips such as this, I have developed a keenawareness of other people's cultures as well aslearned a lot about myself. I have encountered dan-gers, but become more resilient and self-confidentand have come to realise that there is more to lifethan the telly! By far the most valuable benefit how-ever has been the companionship of the friends I havemade, with many an evening planning a trip in thepub - not all of which have taken place!

Wenow have a small,but activeClimbing Club

Mr. Haworth's tent at the foothills of Rawalpindi

at BRGS. We have regular trips to the indoor climb-ing walls in the Winter, and to local crags in the Sum-mer term. Last Summer's inaugural weekend tripsaw us staying in a luxurious (?) scout hut in the LakeDistrict, after a sweep search offields in the dark tofind it.

Despite Dennis' snoring we managed to getparties up Striding Edge on Helvelyn on the Saturdayand climbing up an exciting, if rather wet, Ghyll onthe Sunday.

Many thanks to the PTA for providing the fundsto start up the club, and to all who supported the spon-sored abseil this year off the school roof which pur-chased more equipment and raised £250 for Shelter.The next weekend is to the Peak District in the Sum-

mer. Watch this space...(MR.IlAWORfH)

~.;,,~~~

'~.~.}-<

13~

One of the school'smost exciting newprojects is under wayright now: the con-struction of a brand newsixth form building.But what does it looklike? Why do we needit? What will it be used

for? How is it beingbuilt? All your ques-tions will be answered ...

Be' d t :b

Form Comm

Room hildill:P . t' "r' o'I\'I ec""""" ",' ,"

, . de, ' "

The new sixth form block has been designed byGeoffrey Cowan & Company, a Preston based charteredarchitects. The building work itself is carried out byan entirely different company called Wardens, alsobased in Preston. It is a massive undertaking and build-ing should be completedat some point in Augustof this year.

The old sixth formcommon room was de-

molished to make wayfor the new building andmany were surprised tocome back from the

Christmas holidays tofind it no longer there!The new building willjoin on to the extensioncorridor and the kitch-ens. As the plans standat the moment two of thekitchen's windows will

now be looking out ontoa beautiful view of ... a

classroom, a problem

",II:IE~t::V!\1l0N t::ASn

What the building will look like:

that will no doubt beremedied before

completion.So what will

the new buildinglook like? A copy ofthe architect's draw-

ing of the front viewof the building can beseen below. This ishow it will look from

the slope wheremembers of staff

park their cars.Above: This is what you will see as you look upfrom the bottom of the,slope.

Below: This is the .frontof the building. There is an entrance at the frontof the building and at the side where the wall is. The building will adjointhe kitchens as you can see on the ground plan over the page.

).

~14

iiI00

<

A BUILDING CONTRACTOR'SPERSPECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

One of the huge blocks of concrete, manufactured in Leeds,that forms the base for the floor, being lifted into place bythe special all-terrain crane especially hired to work on the

uneven slope at the top of Glen Road.

From a Building Contractor's viewthe major considerations with a projectof this nature are safety and access.

Erecting fences may keep us in and youout but that is only the start. The contract be-tween the school and Warden Builders has a

number of rules. For instance, no deliveriescan be made between 8.45am - 9.30am, 12.00-1.00 or 3.15 - 4.00. This shouldn't cause

any problems - you shouldjust be able to tellthe suppliers, but traffic, weather and othersites on the delivery schedule can delay wag-ons which then turn up in these times. Whatshould you do? Send him away? Make himwait? Try and come up the hill as you're allgoing home?

The access to the school isn't great. It'snarrow and steep with a sharp rising bendwhich is a nightmare. Early on in the

The Sixth Form CommonRooms.

Reflections on the Past andVisions for the Future.

Located in Mr. Elkington's office, in pride Iof place next to the 'Trev Train' and with a lit-tle green frog perched innocently on top, thereitr.emains. A historia:Q's lastJJlinute gesture to

I form common room.Built shortly after the War, a temporary

'classroom' accommodation, the old Common. Room was extensively renovated in 1990 to pro-

the,gtow"Iing number of post- students. With the ar-

rival of the snack bar ("Eileen's Eating Empo-rium") in 1992, the building buzzed and bulged

i ~t lunchtime, .reverberating to the sounds ofBy 1'998, however, it was becoming increas-

ingly clear that 350 sixth formers could not fitinto a room with 60 seats. Sixth Form academic

facilitie.s had been dramaticaIly improved withof Bui,~~lingiil') 199.1 (ex-

tended 1994) - now .it time to providecommensurate recreational facilities to meet ourgrowing numbers at post-16.

The new building - as yet unnamed - willThe

IThe Sixth Form Common Room in 1990 - not a pretty sight!

Mr.I blKlllgton' s OIIlce, WhIlst the downstairs area

wiIl contain more seating and also house a cou-ple of pool tables. Toilet facilities and an addi-

I

tional classrooms complete this excitingseen

We orward to being fully installed in ournew accommodation for September 1999. Come

: and visit us! (TJE)

15~

project we placed the precast concrete floorin position. A normal crane couldn't cope withthe slope of the hill, so a larger 40 tonne, all-

~

First the concrete weighing 3.5 tonnes per piece must be liftedfrom the lorries. (Hope the handbrake works!)

terrain crane had to be brought in, with railwaysleepers to jack it up. The floor itself was de-livered from Leeds on articulated wagons. Asection of the road was coned off and twentytwo tonnes of lorry carrying twenty four tonnesof units was manoeuvred up the hill.

Just putting the floor in is a difficult job.All the parts for the job are made off-site, which

. 'fl~ ~.::u.L,..!I! ""

The crane reaches far into the sky. If the bell rings on thecrane then it means that it could overbalance - care is needed!

~16

means that nobody who is making these partshas actually seen the site where the parts aregoing to be placed; all they get to see are plans!This can lead to difficulties- or example, themeasurements for the floor were a couple ofcentimetres out when the area was remeasured.

Fortunately the concrete company were justabout to cast them when I phoned them to alterthe measurements, so they were changed just

in time.

Each concrete unit weighed 3.5 tonnesand if handled wrongly could do a great deal ofdamage. Clearly a special piece of machineryis needed to lift these huge lumps of concreteinto place: an all-terrain crane. This can endup costing around £1,000 per day to hire. Un-fortunately the crane driver was ill on the fIrstday and couldn't come. However, all the lor-ries with the concrete flooring had driven allthe way from Leeds! That costs money andthey want to be paid even if there is no crane tounload them. Then the mobile concrete mix-

ing lorry has to be phoned up and cancelled asthey're no longer needed. When you add all ofthis up and bear in mind the fact that it's all gotto be done again the next day, it comes to anawful lot of money.

So, when the crane arrives, is it a

simple case of lifting the concrete off and drop-ping it in place? Of course not. A weekendmust be spent calculating how far the crane canreach with a 3.5 tonne weight across an increas-

ingly large angle. Strong or gustingwinds increase the strain on the

crane rapidly. Why make allof thesecalculations? The simple answer isthat we'd all be in the news head-

lines if the crane came crashingdown: it would go through the kitch-ens, the dining rooms, the changingrooms, the gym and the end wouldland in the top yard! Therefore wework out all possible conditions.[That must be what they meant in physics

and maths when they said that sums do mean

something in real life, but I'm still not sure

- ed.]

~

JmJ

With the floor in place it's now a case of building the outerfabric of the building from stone that has been transported

from Halifax.

Below: The first floor will containa further two classrooms, a tutorialarea, the common room itself with

fdjOiOiOg >em" ,"d o[fire.~ - . ::::se--::r....'"""""~

:::ISe--::r.... :::I:se--::r....

........

-

I

__hove: The room plans for thefirst floor incl. two classrooms, aresource centre and toilets.

All of these factors have to be considered

for every operation. Imagine if somebody hadchosen to park in the coned off area and wecouldn't move the car! Nothing comes in orout! So we always try to establish a good work-ing relationship with not only our client, but alsothe neighbours.

Joining the EU (European Union) has af-. fected our industry as much as any. Brussels

now dictates that no one person should be re-quired to lift in excess of 21kg at work. Thatdrastically affects the planning of our operations.

So as you can see, the task of creating yournew sixth form block is far from simple and itrequires care and planning at each step; and all

of this has to bedone for thesecond floorand I haven't

even begun todiscuss how the

roof joists areerected!

(Simon Bower)(Site Foreman)

~

:::::se--::r....

--...........

17~

Ycu've got to ask yrnrself me qJeSticn...Ib ya feel lucky, p..mk?Well, do ya?

So what exactly is Ju-Jitsu? It started origi-nally as the vision of one man who was a master ofKarate and Judo. He wanted

to develop a more aggres-sive defence technique,rather than the throws that

were favoured in Judo. Ag-gressive defence is certainlythe word - asked what shewould do if she was ever at- The Dangers of Competi-tacked, Becky calmly stated tion:that she would break the of- At the moment Becky hasfender's knee with a swift entered these competitions askick and then run away! an amateur competitor (one

Becky started Ju-Jitsu who doesn't get paid), how-when she was seven years ever, there are also profes-old in Haslingden, then went sional competitions. The mainto Accrington as a yellow difference (apart form thebelt and has now moved to prize money) is the risk. InRawtenstall, where she has professional competition, freejust started to teach others fighting is allowed, not justthe art of Ju-Jitsu. She is demonstrations ofthe actions.able to do this because she Of course this means that in-is a black belt. She would RebeccaClaytonof lIS. InternationalGold juries are very possible and allhave a dan rating, but you MedallistinJu-Jitsu. participants must have insur-cannot start getting dan levels until you are sixteen. ance before they enter competition! So far BeckyInstead she does Koshagumi awards which are an has been very lucky and has only fractured her toe.under-16 equivalent. The whole Ju-Jitsu organisa- She hopes to enter the British Championships in Maytion is voluntary, so Becky doesn't get paid for her and this will be a professional competition.teaching. At junior level (at which Becky fights.at the

moment) you are not allowed to punch the face, butyou can kick and punch to the head [ohwell- that's

alright then - ed!]. Becky has been disqualified in com-petition before though, after arather poorly judged kick thatended in the lower trouser re-gion of her quickly disabledcompetitor!

Who knows what lurks beneath the unas-

suming exteriors of many of the pupils that walkthe corridors of BRGS. One thing is for certain,you'd get a shock if you tried any funny stuffwith Becky Clayton (lIS).

She is an international Ju-Jitsu championwith Bronze, Silver and Gold medals from vari-

ous international competitions.

tive of the GB Ju-Jitsu team to the United Nations

Ju-Jitsu Congress. The strongest countries were Italy(where the sport is very popular), Germany and GreatBritain. Becky came away from this competitionwith a silver medal for her junior demonstration.

Spain:The Spanish International took place in Sep-

tember of last year. She reached the quarterfinals inrandom attack. This is a discipline where somebodydoes a set move and you get points for the quality ofyour defence against it. Unfortunately she was beatenby the person who went on to win the bronze medal(he was from GB).

Becky did meet with moresuccess in other areas though:she won a bronze medal for the

team demonstration and a goldmedal for the paired demon-stration.

Moment of Glory:Becky identifies her mo-

ments of glory as being thetwo major internationals inwhich she has taken part, inGermany and Spain.Germany:

Becky went as a representa-

~ 18