WE SPEAK - Issue 2- Final 4

ISSUE 2 WSA Student Magazine by The English Department WE SPEAK GEMS WINCHESTER SCHOOL, ABU DHABI Introduction Welcome to the second issue of the English Communique, where we share ORIGINAL and REAL student experiences in the English lessons during the week and also matters relating to WSA and the world of the English language.

Table of Contents: 1. A New Record in Achieve 3000! 2. The One and Only Mighty Book of The Week 3. Experiences with English Class 4. Thoughts on A Christmas Carol 5. Artwork of A Christmas Carol 6. What we are reading from Yr 8 7. Are Games Good? A Short Essay 8. NOT an English Game 9. English is important. 10. Word of the Week 11. Book-Based Movie Recommendation 12. A Short Spooky Story 13. Shakespeare of Today 14. Jokes! 15. World News 16. ELL News 2

Achieve 3000! Oh? What’s this? A new achievement set in Achieve 3000 by one of our very own fellow students! Congratulations to Deema for accomplishing such a feat! Book of The Week: 3

Actively Learn Reading Certificates: 9G 4

9B1 & 9B2 5

6

Book of The Week: \"I am Ivan. I am a gorilla. It is not as easy as it looks...\" The One And Only Ivan is an absolute masterpiece. It is, simply, beautifully narrated by Ivan, the mighty silverback, who has been held captive in a solitary failing zoo-installed mall for 27 years. With his friendly companions: an old mother elephant and a dog, he ignites the lost passion he once had, painting beautiful pictures which soon spread fame across the world. Growing tired, until that is, he meets a curious, enthusiastic baby elephant who sparks his artistic mind with an idea for them to plan an escape. This story was an inciting read. The chapters and sentence structure are quite unique, rather short, direct than otherworldly. It unveiled the other side of the story that there are animals suffering and being held captive. That animals do indeed need rights, that animals are humans too. The One and Only Ivan taught me that it is important to fight for my dreams, though even in a small cage you can burst through the bars and change the world. With stapled promises, heaps of longing, the mighty silverback would reach out of his cage and touch your hearts. - by Mary 9G 7

English lessons - Real Experiences - Y6- Y9 The English lesson was a blast! Aside from the hilarious jokes by Mr. Mario, our teacher supported and pushed us to our potential (especially in reading 'A Christmas Carol'). I took pictures of my classmates who finished reading the story while Miss Mary stood aside the said student from a safe distance. Overall, it was a rather fun and fruitful lesson. :) - By Mary 9G Today in my English class we learned new words and the meanings and we used dictionaries to find more meanings for the words and then we got a worksheet and we answered them about the meanings of the words. - Maryam Ahmed 7G2 - - Aaqil Nasleem 8B2 What we learnt in English this week? This week, we learnt a lot in English. Basically, our main aim in English for the next few weeks is to successfully write a cool fable. So, to do that, we learnt about the features of fables, read some comprehension texts and scanned the text to answer the questions, learnt some grammar by learning about modal verbs and adverbs and even learnt some cool new words, like veteran, aloof, haughty, gripe and scuffle. In fact, I really enjoyed learning about them. Well, my favorite part of English this week is the comprehension text which we did. For your information, we read a folk tale from Senegal which is all the way in Africa! The text was called the 8

discontented fish. The big little fish was really discontented and did not appreciate what he had in his little pool with the other little fish. He was aloof and haughty. He liked to show off as well. So, he went to the big river to live the life he always dreamed about. But there the fish were really big and started hunting him. So as you might have guessed, he did not like that at all. Somehow though, he was able to escape back to his little pool and From then on he never griped about what he had ever again. Now for the conclusion, I was very excited when we found out that we were going to be writing a fable in the coming weeks. There are a few reasons for that. To list it out, first of all, fables are those stories which have been with me ever since I was 4 or 5 years old so I have great memories of me enjoying those short tales. Second of all, they have great morals because of which, I learnt to be a kind person from a young age. Last but not least, we had written a fable in either year 3 or year 4. I don’t remember when, but what I do remember is that I have improved in literature a bit from year 3 to now. That means I will be able to write a better fable now than I had been able to back then. So I’m excited to see what I’ll turn up with. I hope you enjoyed my summary of what we did this week. “This week we’re learning about fables The ones which Aesop had told. After 2000 years they still reach our heart And now new fables we will behold” - by Vaishnavi Chauhan, Y6E This is my experience for the new year. At first, I was really nervous because I really didn't know my teachers, so I really was scared! But, in the next few days, I really started to get used to it. I don't know why, but English was really fun. And, although I’m not really a big fan of English, this year is different. We started to use Literatu, which is really good, because my writing skills are weak. We also read about ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which was a really interesting story. And, next week, we are going to watch the movie which I am really excited for, because I am coming to school for the first time after 2 years of being online. 9

- Mohamed Daoud, 9B1 My experience of \"A Christmas Carol\" was awesome. It was a really interesting book and it is full of adventure. It is a unique book because it explains the feeling of poverty and the joy of Christmas Eve. I had a lot of fun using websites such as Actively learn, where I read the amazing novella, Literatu Scribo, The writing website where it helped me a lot in my writing skills, and Achieve 3000 ,Where you have unlimited articles to read. Achieve 3000 helps your reading skills and helps you reach your career lexile or reading level by scoring good on reading and answering articles. I would like to thank the English Department, Mr. Mario and my class for giving me a wonderful experience in my English class. - Ethan Shaun Fernandez 9B My experience reading “A Christmas Carol” A Christmas Carol is quite an interesting story and I had a lot of fun reading it. The story is quite funny with its memorable characters and how it revolves around a central theme of helping the poor and charity is very thought-provoking. I have already read the story before so it was a breeze while reading the novel, but the use of archaic language (it was written during the 1800s) made it a bit hard to understand and in my opinion, the story contained many parts which didn’t affect the story at all. We read the book on the online platform “Actively Learn.” It is a very convenient way to read books since it has many features. You can “hear” a word to know how it’s pronounced, you can find definitions of any unfamiliar words and see them in a sentence. A very useful feature is the teachers notes, the teacher can highlight different parts of the text to give definitions, further information or a question about the sentence. You will also find questions scattered around the story which check how much you have understood before progressing. After answering, you can see what your peers have answered and you can compare between your answers. All in all, this is a very interesting book and the platform on which we read it makes it even better. - Sachit Vibhor Vhagat 9B 10

My experience of reading the “Christmas Carol '' was amazing. This book was very interesting to read and it built a lot of suspense. My favorite character was Scrooge because his attitude changed throughout the novella. He started to like Christmas and spread the joy of it. My favorite part of the story was when Scrooge got to see the Ghosts of Christmas. The message Dickens told us is that we have to take care of poverty. If we don’t take care of poverty it will get out of hand. In conclusion, I really liked reading the book and it taught me a great lesson. There are many great websites we do in class. Some of them include Achieve 3000, Actively learn and Literatu. Achieve 3000 is a great website for practicing reading and answering comprehension. It shows us the daily and weekly leaderboard. Also, it shows us the highest scorer in the UAE and in the whole world. The point of Achieve 3000 is to boost your Lexile level. The lexile level is the reading difficulty you are reading on. Actively learn is a great website in which you do comprehension. Mr. Mario assigns you books to read like a Christmas Carol. You have to answer questions about the book you are reading from time to time. Literatu is a great website to help you fix your grammar issues and fix your sentence structure. Overall, these websites are very good for practice. Thank you Mr. Mario for giving us the opportunity to use these websites. - Muhammad Saad Bilal Bilal Mustafa My experience of reading “A Christmas Carol” Is that I like the book and the movie. I read the book but can’t wait to watch the movie next week. Achieve 3000 is good and hopefully getting a higher lexile level. For me, this academic year is going to be a great year to shine! Hopefully I can join Student Leadership from now on. I would have a good grade in the first term but a bigger one in the final report. I like to be in Mr. Mario’s Class and others as well. - Austin Cyan Albano Austria This week in class I read a book called A Christmas Carol. The book was about Scrooge, a cold greedy loner who was able to become kind and helpful with the help of some Ghosts. I was also one of the first people in my class to finish the book. I also did achieve3000 and I learned about recipes from 4,000, solar panels, getting good sleep and much more. I mostly 11

enjoyed the Vocabulary workshop this week because I got to learn new words that I have never heard of before and now I use them all time , words like ethical, assert, ample and so much more. I have also learnt to use them in sentences. \"You are an ethical person\" is my new favorite phrase. - Fauziya 9G Hi I am Fatema Murtaza, I am a new student here at WSA and I love it. To be honest it has been a life changing experience, I made a lot of friends, they are very sweet and welcoming. I love all my teachers, they teach me very nicely. I am very happy in WSA.in my old school I was very behind and I was not very interactive. But in WSA I feel very confident. I want to be able to achieve all my dreams at WSA.in my old school I did not have a lot of opportunities but here in WSA I have so many opportunities like Vocabulary workshop, Literatu, achieve 3000 and Actively learn. And most importantly I love my English class. I have improved a lot compared to last year. I feel like I have achieved a lot by coming to WSA.Thank you! - By Fatema Murtuza 9G (NEW STUDENT) Being in GEMS Winchester I have always felt happy, cherished and safe. Things changed for me since the pandemic because now I am just an online learner. At times I feel lonely sitting in front of the screen and at times I feel happy with just the way things are. Though online, school is still fun and engaging. Some lessons are obviously my favourite compared to rest, English and Science obviously tops the list. In two of my English lessons, we were writing about the book Holes by Louis Sachar. My other three lessons were reading and vocabulary classes. During this week my favourite lessons were the ones where we wrote about the book Holes. I feel thankful for being blessed to have such hard-working teachers. During the lessons they work hard in giving attention to the students in class as well as the online learners. Any time I have a question the teacher tries to respond as soon as possible. Even after the lessons she makes herself available to answer our queries. In short, I can feel the efforts that my teachers are putting in to educate us. A big thank you to Miss Caroline and Ms. Sonia for delivering such interesting and engaging lessons. A happy learner, - By Sukena Hussain 7G2 I want to tell you about my experience in the 3rd week of learning English… It was very fun , I really enjoyed how the teacher would give everybody a chance to participate and encourage them even if they were online. 12

We learned mostly about fables/folktales , Adverbs & modal verbs. In my opinion I really enjoyed English class! I hope everyone from year 6 enjoyed English as much as I did! Thank you!! - By Fatema Ali 6B - By Anoshay 6A This week, In English we had a Comprehension Quiz, i scored 12/15 in it, i also got mastered in it, in lesson 2, I wrote a summary of Holes from Chapter 11 - 20, i wrote more than expected in mastered In lesson 4 and 5, we did the Character Analysis and for lesson 6, we did the Vocabulary Workshop, lastly for lessons 7 to 8 We got the Achieve3000 user and passes, and i read 3 Articles in the same lesson, i also received my Lexile which was 885! - By Syeda 7G2 13

- By Shaheer Ahmed 6C 14

What we are reading in Year 8 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson narrating the tale of “buccaneers and buried gold”. The book is based on adventure; it is very interesting to read. In our class, we read the book from chapter 1 to 8. It was mostly exciting and thought provoking to read. It really grabs the attention of the readers. The story embarks on an adventure to find a hidden treasure. A seaman named Billy Bones stays at Jim Hawkins, Father's inn. When Billy dies, Jim goes through his belongings and finds a treasure map and journeys to find the treasure. - Sam 8B2 15

A Summary of ‘Treasure Island’ A young boy who watches over an inn in an English seaside town with his mother and his gravely ill father. A new guest at the inn, Bill, terrifies everyone at the inn with his raunchy sea songs and threats of violence. Bill falls ill and dies just as pirates descend on the inn to kill Bill and to ransack his things. Just before the pirates can burst in and find Jim and his mom, the two of them escape with a number of coins and a pouch. Jim finds out that there is a treasure map hidden in the pouch. After showing this map to the doctor that waited on his father and Bill, Dr. Livesey, the doctor and his friend Squire Trelawney decide to set sail to uncover the treasure. Jim goes along as a member of the crew. The squire and doctor hire a number of men to head the voyage, including Long John Silver as the ship's cook. Along the journey at sea, Jim falls asleep inside a barrel and awakes to hear that Long John Silver has planned a mutiny along with most of the crew! Once they reach the island with the treasure, Jim slips onshore with Silver and some of the mutineers. After the mutineers kill two men that don't want to join the mutiny, Jim runs away into the jungle on the island. While there, he meets an abandoned man, Ben Gunn. Meanwhile, Trelawney, the doctor, and the other men get ashore and find a stockade, or a giant wooden enclosure, something like a mini-fort. Eventually, after a meeting between Silver and the captain of the ship in the stockade, there is a battle. While a number of mutineers are killed, two men die and one is injured within the stockade, and Dr. Livesey goes out to find Ben Gunn and enlist his help. Jim sneaks out of the stockade and cuts the ship loose, crashing it on the beach, securing it for the crew, and killing a pirate left on the ship in self-defense. Jim sneaks back to the stockade where, to his surprise, Long John Silver and his men are now staying! Silver explains that the captain and Dr. Livesey agreed to give up the map and the stockade for free passage. However, when the mutineers get to the treasure, they find that someone has 16

already dug it up! Before the angry mutineers can attack Silver and Jim, the original crew pop up and ambush them with guns, having already dug up and hid the treasure. Though Silver slips away from the crew during the journey back to England, evading a trial and hanging, Jim still has terrifying dreams of him for many months afterward. - By Sonam 8B 17

What we are reading in Year 7 Holes by Louis Sachar “Stanley Yelnats, a boy who has bad luck due to a curse placed on his great- great-grandfather, is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, for a crime he did not commit. Stanley and the other boys at the camp are forced to dig large holes in the dirt every day.” I have enjoyed this lesson we got to know about the biography of Louis sachar, and we also wrote summaries about his famous novel “holes”, it’s about a camp with no lake and how bad boys can turn good boys there, it was actually a very interesting story about Stanley’s experience at the camp green lake, I also enjoyed writing about the story and giving my review for it. Thank you - By Mariyam Mustafa 7G2 18

Thoughts on ‘A Christmas Carol’ I absolutely had an enjoyable time reading 'A Christmas Carol.' I was utterly flabbergasted at Dickens' ability to paint the words. It is amazing! I have felt myself, as well, in the presence of The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, alongside Scrooge. The story seemed to have sucked me in, because I could see, smell, hear and feel everything! A Christmas Carol also taught me about kindness, to appreciate what we have and to think about others' needs.\" - by Mary 9G 19

Okay, so, my experience with the book ‘A Christmas Carol’ was alright. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but I watched the movie a while ago and the book was a bit hard to understand. But, using Actively Learn really helped me improve my understanding of the book. And Achieve 3000 is great, it’s really up to date and interesting to do. And, as for me, Scribo is the best (but I did face one issue that I emailed it sir). Scribo literally improved my English by showing my mistakes and possible ways to change. It was great. By the way, Sir Mario is awesome in every possible way. - Mohamed Inaam Mohamed Najeeb 9B 20

A portrait of Ebenzer Scrooge from ‘A Christmas Carol’ - By Hawwa 9G - 21

- By Thea 9G 22

Are Games Good? A Short Essay Adults who never played a video game think that gaming leads to violent behavior, sedentarism, lack of social skills, or addiction. There are a lot of good points when playing games like: Gaming Improves Digital Literacy and Technical Skills: Students who enjoy gaming are unfazed by digital obstacles. Gaming Improves Problem-Solving, Critical Thinking Skills, and Creativity Gaming Improves Attention and Memory Capacity. Games mostly engage in areas related to social and psychological well-being. Most games are social games where you communicate and play together. Although there are dangerous things in video games, as long as you know about them and avoid them, you are all good to go. - By Zannatul 9G 23

HAH! An English Game! You got fooled! Read these out loud, 3 times fast! ‘Brisk brave brigadiers brandished broad bright blades, blunderbusses, and bludgeons—balancing them badly.’ ‘Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.’ ‘Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.’ ‘Thirty-three thirsty, thundering thoroughbreds thumped Mr. Thurber on Thursday.’ 24

English is important An Essay Hi, my name is Prattay today I am going to type about our English subject and why it is essential to learn more than the language itself. You might think that learning the language itself is enough but it is not, you have to learn grammar, vocabulary, spelling, speaking and punctuation.There is more, but these are the most commonly and importantly required. First of all we have grammar, grammar is necessary because it helps the reader understand the comprehension of an essay or a story. Grammar basically gives clarity to writing. Think of it as a windshield, the windshield allows a better visibility of the environment. Grammatical errors might change the meaning of a sentence entirely. Next we have vocabulary, teachers always tell us to enhance our word choice but there is a reason for this. Using the same vocabulary over and over again might make the reader weary, while using different words might help the reader engage into a story not by much but it still engages them. They are not asking you to speak/write like a person in the 1800s but to add some variety into your writing/speaking. If you are writing a novel and you have to use the same word again (that has a synonym), use some variety in it. Then we have spelling, spelling is obviously one of the most important components in English. If you get a spelling wrong, it will either change the meaning or mean nothing. You see why spelling is important, if you get a spelling wrong the word is worthless. Think of it as a treasure box that has no treasure in it. 25

Second to last we have speaking, speaking is one of the things that is nerve wracking and gives anxiety for me and maybe even you. When you are speaking you have to talk at a moderate speed, so everyone understands you and it does not take as much time as talking slow; look straight at your audience instead of looking at the paper, if use a paper when you are speaking; stand up instead of sitting down on a chair; and say all your speech with clarity. Don't ask me how to get rid of anxiety while doing a public speech, I don't know. Ask your teacher how to do that. If you are looking to be a youtuber this is very important. Last but not the least we have punctuation, punctuation also gives a lot more clarity to a sentence. You have to use the correct punctuation at the correct place. Punctuation is primarily used to emphasize pauses in a sentence. There you go, there is all the basic importance of each of the categories. Bear in mind that I have not given all of the categories like poetry or comprehension because they are not the most important thing in the world. They are important but not as important as spelling, VGP and spelling. Hope you understand why English is important. -By Prattay 7B2 26

Word of The Week Myopic (adj.) lacking foresight; having a narrow view or long-range perspective (The talk show host has a myopic viewpoint and is never willing to listen to his guest’s perspectives.) Visit the following link and post your best phrase! Whoever manages to write the most unique/interesting sentence will be mentioned in next week’s issue of the We Speak Communique! https://padlet.com/wespeakofficialwsa/730hke9v64jdppp5 \"Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.\" —Edward Thorndike Example: 27

A Book-Based Movie Recommendation! “Thomas, a teenager, arrives in a glade at the center of a giant labyrinth. Like the other youths dumped there before him, he has no memory of his previous life. Thomas quickly becomes part of the group and soon after demonstrates a unique perspective that scores him a promotion to Runner status -- those who patrol the always-changing maze to find an escape route. Together with Teresa, the only female, Thomas tries to convince his cohorts that he knows a way out.” This movie was much better than expected. When looking at a movie adaptation, you need to keep a few things in mind, such as whether the director will take into account the actual story-line, or if the characters are similar to the books. Those are key factors in helping realize whether it’s good or not. It’s safe to say that this movie fulfilled that and so much more. The cinematics, the acting, the story-telling, everything was perfect. I couldn’t look away, and found myself listening to every word said, every scene shown was beautifully shot. Overall, I heavily enjoyed this adaptation and really do recommend it for all the thriller lovers out there! - By, Faryal Mirza, 9G 28

A Short Scary Story “The Friday night” It was a wonderful night yesterday, but a horrific night for me. It was winter, when my friends and I headed to a birthday party at a grand hotel. When we reached the hotel, it was surprisingly enormous from inside. We met our friend; the birthday girl. We enjoyed the party. I drank a few cold drinks, after a while I felt dizzy and it all got blurry, then I just blacked out. I woke up feeling a sudden chill in my body in a dark, cold, gloomy forest. An ominous silence filled the atmosphere with occasional howls of nearby wolves. The moon was at its closest peak, it was bright and big. A haunting fear took over me. I stood up struggling to see in the blinding darkness, I checked my bag and found a torch. I thought about my journey to this place, however I did not have even the slightest recollection of it. I turned on the torch and started walking through the never ending freezing forest. I walked for a couple of miles, sat down to take in the air. I then heard a small rustling from the dense bushes, thinking it would be a wild cat so I ignored it and continued walking. I then again heard the rustling, so I ignored it once again and continued walking again, but the sound continued but it was more piercing this time. I started to wonder what it was, so I ventured towards it. As I reached closer to the sound, it grew louder. I was surprised to see a strange looking, humongous creature which had a cat’s face but a dog’s body, IT ROARED AT ME SO LOUDLY THAT I GOT GOOSEBUMPS ALL AROUND MY BODY. Without making any sound I walked away in fear from that terrifying mutant. After a few hours of walking I finally saw a bright light coming from my right side. I proceeded towards the bright light. When I reached, there was a huge laboratory standing in front of me. There was a window, so I peeped in to see what was going inside. I saw three mad 29

doctors, they were wearing metal masks, brown color coats and metal gloves which were glowing. I read about them online. They were called ‘The Dread Doctors’. They were experimenting with various frightened animals. In a farther corner of the room there were innumerable cages packed with creatures similar to the one I had seen outside. Upon trying to get a better look l slipped and lost my balance. The intimidating guards hurriedly ran towards my direction. They grabbed me before I had a chance to escape. I screamed loudly as I could and fought with all my energy but it was all to no avail. Things happened so fast that I lost track of how I ended up in the claustrophobic cage. The people (I don’t even know if there were humans) working there all silently whispered while pointing in my direction. I was then taken out of that cage but to my dismay was thrown into a dim and dull room. Helpless, I continuously cried for help but no one came to my rescue. I started to breathe with difficulty and started to have a soul wrenching panic attack. I wake up from my sleep after a painful fall from my bed. I was profusely sweating and soon came to realize that all the events that seemed so surreal were nothing but a dreadful dream. - By Laiba 9G 30

“Where Shakespeare, plays, poems, quotes and news thrive!” “William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the \"Bard of Avon\".” Shakespeare Quotes and analysis: “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, as daylight doth a lamp.” This specific quote taken from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is Romeo who thought that Juliet was beautiful and a light in darkness. The way Shakespeare uses personification of Juliet's cheek and the stars is exhilarating. From myriads of other ways to describe Juliet, Shakespeare compares her to the stars as well as how a lamp is dim in bright daylight. - By Mary 9G 31

Jokes for the day! 32

English Language Tips How to infer meaning of unknown words 1. Use the context (it could be the entire article) 2. Use the cotext (roughly ten words before and after the word) 3. Break up the word (example: underfed, ‘under’ which means below what is expected and ‘fed’ which obviously relates to food. So now you know that underfed could mean someone who has not taken enough food) 4. Identify the parts of speech as that will help in deducing the meaning of the word. Eg. is it a noun or verb. - By year 9 Editorial Team 33

Thing to remember as a student Sleep, eating right, exercise, doing acts of kindness Sleep Sleep plays a vital role in our mental, physical development, especially as we are students. It promotes cognition and memory, facilitates learning and recharges our sore bodies after a long day of work! Tips exclusive for you :) 1. Create a regular sleeping schedule and wake schedule. Maintain it as possible as you can, it does good to your health! 2. Set up a clean, calm and relaxing space before and/or after sleeping! (It does wonders!) 3. Don’t eat within 2 or 3 hours before bed time. 4. Lastly, enjoy sleeping! Eating right Other than sleeping, eating right is highly important as well. “Research has shown that students are able to learn better when they're well nourished, and eating healthy meals has been linked to higher grades, better memory and alertness, and faster information processing.” A healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition. It protects you against many chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars and saturated and industrially-produced trans-fats are essential for a healthy diet. What can a student eat to keep healthy? Students with a busy schedule and who engage in sport regularly often have higher energy requirements. Aim for quality carbohydrates including brown pasta and rice, cereals, whole grain 34

bread, and potatoes. Protein is also important – beneficial for supporting immunity, increasing satiety and promoting muscular health. Exercise There's loads of evidence which shows exercise is an important key to reducing our risk of major illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. Research also shows that regular physical activity can boost our self-esteem, mood and sleep quality, making us less prone to stress, depression and dementia. Students who are physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, cognitive performance (e.g., memory), and classroom behaviors (e.g., on-task behavior). Higher physical activity and physical fitness levels are associated with improved cognitive performance (e.g., concentration, memory) among students. Tips exclusively for you! At Least dedicate an hour to physical fitness whether outside or inside. You can walk around your house or do intense physical activity, anything which includes physical cooperation is fine! Doing acts of kindness Finally, do any simple thing that would make someone's day. It can be anything really. List of Acts of Kindness: 1. Tell a joke, any joke. It can even be a bad one 2. Leave a letter in a library book 3. Give a jolly ‘Good morning’ to whoever you pass by 4. Give compliments to your friends. Eg: ‘You are shining today’ 5. Ask someone, anyone, how they are feeling 6. Put change in a vending machine 7. Hold the door for people! 8. (bonus: leave an encouraging kind message on people’s cars) Year 9 Editorial Team 35

Thank you for your time! If you have any concerns or submissions for the WE SPEAK Newspaper, then please contact out email! Email: [email protected] Credits: Main Directors and Editors, Give a big thank you to: Faryal, Mary and Fadilah from 9G. 9G: Zannatul, Laiba, Fatema Murtaza, Hawwa 9B: Austin, Tristan, Mohammad Inaam, Sachit, Mohammed Daoud Teacher in charge: Ms. Madina Teacher Contributions - Ms. Roanie, Ms. Caroline, Ms. Sonia,Mr. Mario 36