ISSUE 12 SECONDARY MAGAZINE

Dolor

June 2015

Inside

GRADUATION 2015

• Y13 Graduation

• Year 7 & 8 Camp

• Summer Fair 2015

• Year 13 Leavers

• Interview with Geographer, Martyn

• Summer Concert

• Musical Star Blanca

• Summer Books

SUMMER EDITION

SUMMER FAIR …2015

It’s all smiles from Year 13 as they celebrated their graduation on Friday 19th June.

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Year 13 Leavers We asked our Year 13 group their thoughts on leaving Los Olivos. Here are some of their comments…

I’ll miss the friendly, informal atmosphere and the fact that the

toilets have soap and paper! (REMUS)

The British system is more challenging and

it has helped me to really improve my English. (REMUS)

I’ll really miss the teachers –

honestly – and the friendly way we can interact

(ELENA)

I’ve learnt lessons on tolerance and open-mindedness

– valuable life lessons! (ELENA)

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Leaving Los Olivos… I’ll really miss the

dedication and personal attention

of the teachers. (RICARDO)

Our school has taught us to live in harmony and

to think for ourselves. (FITO)

Los Olivos has taught us to think

independently with a critical

perspective. (CARMEN)

Everyone cares about everyone.

Nobody gets left out. Something other

schools cannot claim to have. (RICARDO)

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LOS OLIVOS SUMMER FAIR 2015 A Wonderful Effort for a Worthy Cause

More than 2000€ was raised for the local charity CREATE FOR CHILDREN and the earthquake victims of NEPAL. Many thanks to all those who took part…

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RISING STARS

This issue we feature another Los Olivos Rising Star. This time it’s the turn of talented young musician Blanca Muñozo Camps in Year 7.

Blanca Muñozo Camps, a Year 7 pupil, won a Sax competition in l’Eliana. On 28th

May, Blanca demonstrated that she is the best at playing the saxophone after beating 34 other children who were trying to win the €300 to spend on musical materials. “I felt really nervous before I started playing, and I wanted the Earth to swallow me up. But when the song I was supposed to play ended and everyone clapped, I thought that I hadn’t played as bad as I had expected “

Apart from the saxophone, Blanca knows how to play the guitar, the flute, the bass and the piano although she doesn’t take classes. She has been playing the saxophone since she was 5 years old, and these 7 years of experience have taught her to think: “My life is music!” Blanca has also won other competitions but, in this case, with the help of her band members. Together, they have won 5 medals, 3 trophies and 1 important certificate of music. “When they told me

I had won, everyone congratulated me and told me how good I was at playing the saxophone. The part I loved the most was when my teacher told me that I should keep on playing forever because it was worth it. She also told me that is was completely clear that I loved playing the saxophone, that the effort I had made to study music was excellent and that it was giving good results.”

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By Sara and Carlota in Year 10

Martyn Crockett:

the Derry man with the jumper

Have you lived in other cities? Certainly, I have lived in Barcelona, New York and San Francisco in the USA. Really? Did you like them? Yes I loved Barcelona. It’s a beautiful place. San Francisco too, but very expensive. New York is amazing! Do you speak Catalan? I understand Catalan yes, I am learning Spanish at the moment, just about enough to get by. What do you think about bull fighting? Never went to any bullfighting really. Don't really agree with it. Why did you come to Spain? I like Spain, I wanted to live in Spain, the weather is very good. If the weather was good in Ireland I would probably live there but certainly it's not. It snowed a few weeks ago. I really like Spain and I love its food so those are the main reasons I am here.

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Why did you decide to study and teach Geography? Mmm. I always liked E.M when I was at school and I’ve always cared about the environment. Oh, Okay. What about... Your Hobbies? We've heard you like boxing. Boxing, yes. I was boxing for about 15 years. They damaged my nose so it's not that good... I also play football. So boxing firstly and football secondly. Why did you get into boxing? Well, my father was a boxer and my brother too, so I grew up in a boxing family. Furthermore, in Ireland boxing is very popular. What about your clothes? You always look so elegant. Why is that? *Laughs* Well thank you very much . *Laughs* it's easier for me to wear these clothes than normal clothes to my job. From which part of Ireland are you from? Derry. In the very North; North – West. A big city. It’s beautiful! When it’s not raining! AND THANK YOU FOR BEING OUR TEACHER! GOOD LUCK IN THE FUTURE!!!!

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SUMMER BOOKS 2015

Reviewed by YEAR 10

We looked at the best reads for teenagers this summer. Why not lose yourself in a book? On the beach, by the pool…

The Maze Runner When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by stranger boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls it’s surroundedby a maze. It’s the only way out and no one’s ever made it through alive.Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. Remember. Survive. Run. Perfect Book for fans of the Hunger Games. Divergent On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen year olds must select the feature to which they will dedicate for the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is, she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. We Were Liars A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant damaged girl, a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends,the Liars, whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

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Mocking Jay (The final book of the Hunger Games) KatnissEverdeen has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.Katniss doesn’t know it. It seems that everyone has had a hand and carefully laid plans but her. She must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mocking jay, no matter what the cost. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children As Jacob explores the abandoned bedrooms and hallways ofMiss Peregrine’s Home, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow, impossible though it seems, they may still be alive. The hunger games The nation of Panem, is a country that consists of a rich Capitol surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment each district must hand one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and Peeta(the male tribute), have to fight against bigger, stronger representatives, some of who have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

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Year 7&8 Camp: Villargordo del Cabriel

Year 7 and 8 enjoyed three days of fun and games at the summer term camp.

The first day at camp was the best day because we did all kind of exciting things. At first, it was quite boring because we were nearly 2 hours on the bus. On the bus I mainly heard music and took photos but when we arrived to the river we were all very excited. We ate our snacks and then we got into our neoprene. Then the instructor explained the main things: how to row and the safety positions. We were divided then into groups and I was with Nour, Maria G and some Y-7´s. We started to row and just when it started to get a bit deep Cristobal, the instructor, threw me into the water. It was freezing cold!!! Every time we saw a canoe we tried to get

into it but the only thing we did was to get wet and we never really got into another canoe. But the worst thing was that every time we saw rock we stopped rowing and we ALWAYS bumped into a rock. The best parts were when we went into a “rapids” (part of the river that went fastest than the rest due to the slopes of the river) and we stood up, we nearly always full!! Then we

went through a “rapido” and then we stopped with all the other canoes. We walked by the side of the river and we jumped in the river into the “rapido” then we climbed an enormous rock and then we jumped from the rock to the river. It was great and I repeated!! Then we got inside the canoe again and we decided to try to get inside the boys canoe but when we shouted “Al abordaje” we didn´t move from our canoe and 3 boys from the other canoe (Pau, Pablo R and Gonzalo) jumped to the water and the only one that was able to get into our canoe was Pau that after getting into it, he threw me into the water but then I got in the canoe again and we all threw him into the water. Finally, we got where all the other canoes were, we carried the canoe up the “hill”, we ate our lunch and we got changed. Then we went to the bus that took us to Kikopark where we went to our rooms and got changed for the swimming pool. There were 2 swimming pools a little one and one a little bit bigger but much deeper. Then we went to our room we showered and we got dressed and then we went to have dinner but because we got there early, we danced a rather “funny” and, how to say it, strange dance. It was called The Butterfly or something like that. Then it was time to go to eat our dinner and we went inside the dinning-room. The food was delicious!! Well after having dinner we went to our rooms and got our flashlights. Then we played a game and we were divided into groups and I was with: Nour, Carlota, Lucía F, Alejandra H and Alberto.

Day 1

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We played a game that consisted in: they gave as a map of the camp with little crosses and numbers in it. The instructor said a number and we had to look for it in the map and go and find the place where the number was. So if they told us to look for number 2 we had to look for number 2 in the map and then we had to go to the place where number 2 was hidden. Then when we had arrived to the place where the number was hidden there were 6 papers, one for each group and we had to pick the paper with the number one written on it because

we were team number 1. To win the game you had to be the first group to get all the papers and to have a sentence because all the papers had a word written on it and joined together they would form a sentence. We went through all the numbers until we got to number 8. Number 8 was the most difficult to find because we started to go through some paths that were the

wrong ones and we went through a path that was full of camping tens but Lucía said that if we continued to go forward we would find a square were the number would be, so we continued to go forward and we found some trees that formed like a wall and I was very scared because it was night time and it was all silent. Then we heard noises from the other groups and we saw a light from one of the tents so we started to go the way we had come. Then we looked at the map again and we found the correct path and we ended up in the square Lucía had mentioned before and then we found the paper, we also saw the trees that formed like a wall and we realised that before we were going in the right direction. When we had all the papers we made the sentence but unfortunately we weren´t the first ones. When all the groups had their sentences we sat around and everyone read their sentences. Finally, we went to our rooms we brushed our teeth, we changed into our pyjamas and then Lucía, Alejandra, Nour, Carlota and me played Truth or Dare until 1 in the morning. Then the instructor turned off the lights but we didn´t go to sleep we started to dance and to sing and the instructor told us to shut up a million times until he once entered and said that if we didn´t shut up we would go to the instructor´s room so we fell silent instantly and finally we fell asleep.

CABRIEL CAMP

Adventure!

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A sound. I tumbled and rolled in my bed, my eyes fighting against me to close. I, strongly but steadily, tried to sit up “Huh?” But, however the tone wasn`t totally unfamiliar - in fact, it was a song one of us was addicted to. “Morning, Alberto” He laughed as he sprang out of his bed. Well, actually it was a bunk bed, and he surely woke up the person below him (if someone wasn´t awake yet) and walked towards a source of light which I hadn`t noticed yet. The light made my eyes blurry. Even if few possibilities came up to my mind, I couldn´t come with a sure guess. More people realized the alarm was going on and started scolding him, too. But he only chuckled and proceeded towards the light. With a slide on the light, the spoilsport music stopped. Finally. But, all of us being awake and having nothing better to do, we started talking. I started questioning myself what time it was. Knowing that they should wake us up at 8 o´clock, it would be a fine guess to say that it was around 5 minutes after. But, just to be sure, I asked him “7:30”. Was he crazy? We continued talking until 8, when they came to wake us up and told us to dress up. In less than 5 minutes, I was ready to breakfast, because last night I slipped into bed with my clothes on. But, unluckily, the other people weren´t as fast. So I had to wait fifteen

full minutes. When all of us were ready, we moved onto breakfast. We lined up to get our juice and our glass of milk and then sat down, where a croissant waited for us. I started eating my croissant and milk as soon as I sat down. However, I couldn´t stop thinking about them. How could I, if everybody talked

exclusively about them? They said they were a couple, but they never even spoke to each other. It seemed as if “being a couple” only required both people to sign a paper. When I came back from my thoughts, my croissant was gone, along with my milk. So I grabbed my juice brick and started sipping it. Other people were extremely slow, so, by the time I finished, I still had a full half an hour of waiting to leave. The monitor that was taking care of us (as in “being sure nothing bad happened”) told us to wear trainers and a bathing trunk and sent us to our bedrooms to organize ourselves for the incoming day as well of taking care of personal hygiene.

DAY 2…

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I put my flip-flops and my sun cream into my plastic bag – I forgot my rucksack – and went out of the year 8 boys´ bedroom. I sat on a bank on the inside of the building, but not within any bedroom. Essentially, the group was to split into classes (year 7 and 8) and each class was to do a different activity. After lunch, we would swap over. I had to wait (yes, even more) for the remaining children to ready their selves. Unlike the year 7´s, who had to walk 2 kilometers, we were only supposed to travel 500 meters to get into our activities. Then, we split again: the girls would be doing some fun things with harnesses – such as a Tibetan bridge and a zip wire – meanwhile we boys practiced archery. To be totally honest, I was proud of my shots: one in the middle(worth 7 points), one in the ring near next to it (5 points),the blue one(3 pts.)and two reds (4 pts). Then, we had a tournament: because there were two bullseyes, we had divided so that we could use the two bullseyes (along with the two bows). I came last, when I got to shoot within the tournament, we were 11 points behind, which meant that we actually lost, given that the maximum score you can get is 7, but I got 4 points out of it, which only shortened the distance, but anyways. Given that we still had some time left before the girls finished, we did the tournament once again, but shooting two arrows at the same time.

This time, we won; but by a tiny bit. We were two points behind when it was my turn, so it all came down to me. Luckily, I scored exactly 3 points. Then, it was our turn to put the harness on. Getting the hang of putting it correctly is difficult, I suppose, because

the monitor in charge of this activity was helping people all over the place, but I found it pretty easy. The first thing we were to do was a Tibetan bridge. Some people were very scared and couldn`t stand up straight, losing their balance every few seconds. Personally, me jumping on the Tibetan bridge to make it tremble didn`t help. Once we were all up, they threw us, one by one, on a small zip wire (if it were clothes, it would be classified XXS) to put us back at where we started the Tibetan bridge. Then, we got a bit upwards on the way we went down to start the activities (if you don`t understand why do we separate from the road we were walking on, think of the bow and arrow) to walk through a straight cable (like trapezists in a circus, but with a harness). This time, I didn`t try to bother other people; well, not until we were waiting the last ones to cross the cable, where I entertained myself untying other´s shoelaces (I have no idea why I found that entertaining). When the last person got over the cable, we got over a slope, where the big zip wire (M, if you want your clothes size) and went down, crossing the ravine again. Each time we made a “harness activity” we crossed the mini gorge , just to make us be higher. Then, we joined with the girls (who were practicing archery) and headed to where the year 7´s were. The distance was long, and the sun shone hard, but we managed to get to where we would do the activities without any major problem. At first, I was astonished by the large amount of water that had dried out the lake where we did these water activities last year, but getting to the place the year 7`s were only took us five minutes from then. In that time, we met another school which was walking in the opposite direction we were. When we got there, we found ourselves below a giant bridge; surely part of a highway, so, if we wanted, we could be under the shade that the bridge gave us. The monitors here lay a blanket in the shade so we could eat the sandwich they gave us. By the way, the blanket was a Cofidis advertisement, the size of two trucks placed together. The sandwich was made of ham (the redder, saltier one) with some water. For the people who wanted, there were bananas to eat.

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After eating, the other group had to leave to do the activities we did before, while we stayed doing the water activities. After eating, some of us started walking on the shore, but the monitor in charge of us didn´t let us get our hip under water. I didn`t want to get wet, so I

didn´t get in. I watched how they dabbled with the water, splashing each other. When everyone finished eating and the leftovers were thrashed, the afternoon activities started. We started canoeing, but the lake was so enormous we couldn`t move freely and limited to a small edge. After some basic training, you had to laze yourself out with your partner. Then, you had to get up;

but, because of balance issues, we had to get up together, so the canoe didn´t tilt to the direction you were on. When we all finished, we played a catch-up game with the canoes. The idea was that one of the canoes was to bump into one other one, and then the “caught” canoe was to bump into someone else. We were playing this for half an hour (the remaining time of the activity) and then we changed over. For this activity we had to stand on a pad in the middle of a lake, tied to the shore by a single rope. We were to play some games on there, but we were so amused goofing with the floating platform that we only had time to play “Gladiator fight”. In this game, we were provided a helmet and a long, soft stick to throw each other off the platform in a 2v2 duel. When that was done, we decided to use the pad to “celebrate goals” (throw ourselves to the water as if we scored a goal). Then, we went back to the camp. We met the year 7`s on the way back and we joined. Once there, we were given some time to go and swim in the pool, but I wasn`t in the mood, so I stayed apart. At 7, we were told to go and shower and get ready for dinner. Because dinner was at 9 o´clock, we had some spare time in our bedrooms. The dinner was something I loved: ribs. Just like at breakfast, I finished way earlier than the others, but there were some fried potatoes in the middle of the table (in a plate) so I kept myself entertained with this. Then, we were told to get ready for the night activity. The activity ended being a disco in which someone acted as a TV presenter in a programme in which people were to dance and only some would get admitted into a “Dance Academy”. I found this a bit childish, so I stayed behind, not doing much. I was actually happy that the activity ended, but, unfortunately, we only had half an hour to prepare for bed and talk. At 1 o`clock a monitor told us to go to sleep. But this actually is Day III (3), so I´ll let the third one of us do this.

By Ana Giner - Y8

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SUMMER CONCERT Music teacher, Nick, organised a musical morning on the last day of term displaying the great talent we have at Los Olivos. More than twenty students took part in a live music extravaganza.