5 Day Weather Forecast for Balerno

Created by Dean Allan and Max Glover

Thursday:

Rain showers for most of the day, cloudy and feeling quite cold, windy from the South-East.

Friday:

Gets colder in Balerno with bitterly winds from the East, with a moderate chance of snow and sleet.

Saturday:

Drops rapidly in temperature and isolated snow showers around, but we’re likely to have ice as well. Wind is from the East.

Sunday:

Possible snow showers, low temperatures, feeling near minus double digits with the wind from the East.

Monday:

Temperatures rise with low chance of snow showers, however there’s likely to be ice and wind coming from the North or East. 

 

All information is gathered using the Netweather website, including the video forecast above, we do not claim any of this information as our own and give full credit to Netweather for the forecast data that we have gained.

If you seek to visit the Netweather website go to:

  http://www.netweather.tv

 

Dunblane Stands with Parkland

By: Lucy, Maisie and Emma

The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane primary school near Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on March 13th 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children (all between the age of 5 and 6) and one teacher before turning the gun on himself. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
At around 8:15am on Wednesday 13th March 1996, Thomas Hamilton, aged 43, was seen scraping ice off his van outside his home at Kent Road in Stirling. He left soon afterwards and drove about 5 miles (8 km) north to Dunblane. He arrived on the grounds of Dunblane Primary School at around 9:30am and parked his van near a telegraph pole in the car park of the school. Hamilton headed towards the north-west side of the school to a door near the toilets and the school gymnasium. After entering, he made his way to the gymnasium armed with four legally-held handguns. From entering the gymnasium and walking a few steps, Hamilton had fired 29 shots with one of the pistols, killed one child, and injured several others. Hamilton then moved up the east side of the gym, firing six shots as he walked, and then fired eight shots towards the opposite end of the gym. He then went towards the centre of the gym, firing 16 shots at point-blank range at a group of children who had been incapacitated by his earlier shots.
Public debate about the killings centred on gun control laws, including public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official inquiry, which produced the 1996 Cullen Reports. In response to this debate, two new Firearms Acts were passed, which outlawed private ownership of most handguns in Great Britain. This drastic change is something that will never happen in America, because the amount of Americans who cherish their guns is in the millions. And it doesn’t help that the President is taking donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA). There has been a lot of controversy over this resulting in protests where teenagers have had signs saying “save kids not guns”, “fear has no place in schools” and “enough is enough”.
On February 14th 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. By shooter Nikolas Cruz aged 19, killed 17 and seventeen more were wounded, all by bullets, making it one of the world’s deadliest school massacres and the 6th school shooting of the year. He was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
Cruz was previously expelled from the school. Many are saying the reason for Cruz’s outbreak was that he has not have the easiest life dealing with his biological mother being a drug addict, his adopted mother and father’s deaths and dealing with PTSD. Many people defended him because he has behavioural problems, ADHD and attended a school for children with emotional or learning difficulties. Others are fighting this just because he had a bad life he has no excuse to end the lives of many and putting others through such a traumatic time.
Broward County Sheriff, Scott Israel described Cruz’s online profiles, accounts and websites as “very, very disturbing”. They contained pictures and posts of him with a variety of weapons, including long knives, a shotgun, a pistol, and a BB gun. Police said that he held “extremist” views; social media accounts that were thought to be linked to him contained anti-black and anti-Muslim veiws. CNN reported that Cruz was in a private Instagram group chat when he supported the killing of Mexicans, blacks, and gay people. He said his hate for black people was “simply because they were black”. He referred to white women in interracial relationships as traitors and expressed anti-immigrant views also the Florida Department of Children and Families investigated. In September 2016 Cruz shared Snapchat posts in which he cut both his arms and said he planned to buy a gun. State investigators reported he had depression, autism, and ADHD. In their assessment, they concluded he “was at low risk of harming himself or others”. He had previously received mental health treatment, but had not received treatment in the year leading up to the shooting.
The sheriff’s office received a number of tips in 2016 and 2017 about Cruz’s threats to carry out a school shooting. Investigators found out about a YouTube user with the username “Nikolas Cruz” who wrote in September 2017 about becoming a school shooter, but could not identify the user. In January 2018, a direct complaint of a death threat by Cruz was not forwarded to the local FBI office by the FBI tip line. When Cruz was at the school he was a member of his school’s varsity air rifle team.
Many students have been protesting for gun control and one of them is Emma Gonzalez. Gonzalez is a student at Stoneman Douglas High school who survived the tragic shooting, she is also an American activist and advocate for gun control. Her work has made a major impact on social media, her twitter account now has 1.2 million followers and the National Rifle Association only has 626.1K followers. Gonzalez’s primary uses it to spread word and appeal to get more gun laws put into place. She does this so terrible events like the Parkland shooting never happen again.
March 13th 2018 marks the 22nd anniversary of the Dunblane Massacre, where 16 children and one teacher were brutally murdered due to Thomas Hamilton bringing in legally-held handguns into Dunblane primary School. This wreaked devastation in the town of Dundale and all over the world. Something like this happening like this in Scotland is completely unheard of, therefore it was on the news for months in Scotland and the rest of the world. But in America there is on average one school shooting per day. Some make the news, like the recent one in Parkland Florida, but many don’t.

Social media has had a very positive impact on the recent Parkland shooting and it’s helped the Dunblane victims show their support and speak out about personal experiences. On the 22nd anniversary of the massacre, some survivors and relatives of the shooting spoke out with a message for Parkland survivors. “We wanted to reach out and offer our deepest and most heartfelt sympathies to you, to your teachers and to the families and friends of those who lost their lives at your school on the 14th February” says Jack Crozier who is a brother of a victim at Dunblane. There are many views on social media such as many people these days find it easier to access information via social media or the internet. The media is often used to spread news and show support to others at times like this. The community have gained a lot of support from the Dunblane School shooting families and survivors. The hashtag #neverforget has been used to spread awareness on many social media such as Instagram, twitter and Facebook.

Mental Health in Schools

Mental health issues have sent young people to A&E with psychiatric conditions such as depression anxiety and stress, the numbers have severely risen since 2009. These numbers have increased due to influence on social media, causing eating disorder numbers in teenagers to almost double throughout the years. A report says that 93% of teachers have noticed the changes in schools, claiming they’ve seen a drastic increase in mental illness amongst students. 62% of teachers deal with pupils issues on a monthly basis and 20% of teachers deal with it on a weekly basis.  

Around exam time pupils find themselves getting more stressed than any other school time. 

70% of 16 year olds report feelings of sadness, anxiety and being overwhelmed as they prepare for their exams. This stress stems from a number of things, for example: Feeling pressured to get a good mark, high expectations from parents or guardians, rejection and failure. 

Some ways that students relieve stress are:  

• Sports 
• Drawing or painting 
• Playing instruments  
• Spending time with friends 
• Going outdoors  
• Visualising success  
• Talking to an adult about their problems 
• Practicing breathing exercises to lower their heart rate  
• Practice self-care  

Overall studies have shown that rates in anxiety and depression in young adults has dramatically grown by 70% due to influences in social media, pressure from school and parents, and bullying. If you are familiar with these problems or know someone who is going through issues such as these, report it to a trusted adult or friend for their or your own safety.  

A Seventies Special

Lately a few beloved seventies singers and bands such as Pink Floyds Roger Waters, The Rolling Stones and Elton John have announced UK tours, preforming in an assortment of different venues across Scotland. Elton John’s announcement consisted of a tour and a retirement, after being part of the music industry for almost 50 years. This decision was driven by his desire to spend more time with his husband and children. The next question would be, will this be the last of Roger Waters or The Rolling Stones? Mick Jagger and his fellow band mates have spoken about the future of the band, claiming he is not planning to end The Stones after their summer tour, bringing relief to die-hard fans. Meanwhile Waters hasn’t mentioned anything about a retirement but has caused a bit of political commotion by publicly reciting a Palestinian poem in his new anti-Trump song, “Supremacy”. Waters tour will follow the theme of Pink Floyds most iconic album, The Dark Side of The Moon.

All in all the only retirement or break up known to be around is Elton Johns, his music will continue to be an inspiration to many others in the music and fashion industry.

Underdogs AC Monaco Overcome Pep’s Rich Kids

BBC School News Report (1)

A sluggish Manchester City defence was exploited last night by AC Monaco’s young, explosive attack. In the first leg City came out on top with an emphatic 5-3 win at the Etihad. In Manchester, Guardiola’s inexperienced back line were ripped to pieces in the first half, but fortunately for them Agüero and the rest of the punishing attack rescued the first leg, which seemed to give them a great advantage over their opposition. Hopes were high for the men in blue as they arrived in Monaco, but the elaborate city disguised the team’s ruthless nature. AS Monaco’s manager Leonardo Jardim went for an aggressive 4-3-3 whilst Pep’s side set up with a contrasting 4-1-4-1 formation, with an aim to maintain their 2 goal advantage. If Manchester City won, they would join fellow English side Leicester City in the quarter finals, after their well fought out victory ended 2-0 over Spanish side Sevilla. Little did they know, Monaco had other ideas. The first five minutes were looking shaky for the City defence, and this continued when Sagna left space on the left for Bernardo Silva to play a brilliant ball into the promising, young talent Kylian Mbappé who fired it past Willy Caballero, giving him his second ever goal in European football, after only eight minutes. Things continued to deteriorate as Monaco kept pushing at the Man City defence on the chase of the miraculous comeback. Their efforts were rewarded on the half hour mark when the young goal scorer started an attack. He made it to Stones before releasing Thomas Lemar who picked out Mendy beautifully. Once again Sagna was at fault allowing Mendy to spot the run of Fabinho who advanced his run past Kolarov and finished a wonderful attack and fired it home, giving the home side a great advantage ahead of the interval. Keeping the dream alive! The second half got underway and things began to shape up for the English side. Tactics changed in the second half as Pep Guardiola switched to a more compact formation to deal with the potent Monaco attack. Sagna improved immensely after the break, beginning to shut out their opportunities. Manchester City continued to dominate the possession, creating more and more goal scoring chances for the main man Agüero. The hard work eventually paid off in the 71st minute, as a shot from Raheem Sterling forced a save from the AS Monaco keeper Danijel Subasic, allowing summer signing Leroy Sane to smash it in at the back post, putting Manchester City 6-5 up on aggregate. Spirits were high for the away fans. Just minutes later, Kevin de Bruyne conceded a cynical foul outside the box on the right hand side. Bernardo Silva stepped up and floated a nice ball into a dangerous area, a difficult one for the Manchester City players to defend. This proved lethal as Tiemoué Bakayoko took full advantage of the poor marking, planting the header into the bottom right corner, with pace. Monaco were winning the tie on away goals with 15 minutes to go. Manchester City were rushing their play, trying desperately to score the goal they so desperately needed. Their attempts came to nothing and Monaco managed to hold onto their lead and progress into the quarter finals of the Champions League. Players, staff and Leonardo Jardim, ecstatic, rushed onto the pitch to celebrate with their team-mates and loyal fans. On the opposite side of the pitch was grief. City players could simply not believe they had just led that two goal lead slip. The game lived up to all expectations. City did not put in the best performance but nothing should be taken away from Jardim and his thrilling team. They thoroughly deserved to go through thanks to the youthful talent of Bakayoko, Bernardo Silva and Mbappé

Insight into Growth Mindset

Our news team interview Judo star Sarah Clark, Hibs defender Jordon Forster and Hearts winger Sam Nicholson

Behind the scenes at BHS school report

Stress levels in Scotland

INDY Ref 2 discussion

SuperWhoLock

SuperWhoLock news report

 

SuperWhoLock is the name given to the shows Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock, when referred to as one. Although the shows may seem very different, it has adopted many of the same viewers. Read more to find out about these shows, and what lies in store for them this year.

Supernatural

Supernatural is an American fantasy horror TV show, and it first aired on September 13th, 2005, starring Jensen Ackles (as Dean Winchester), and Jared Padalecki (as his brother, Sam Winchester). Since then, it has adopted Misha Collins (as Castiel) in its 4th season. When it first started, no one thought it would last very long, but as it celebrates its 12th season, and the news that there will be a season 13, many could not think of a life without it.

The show follows the life of two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, tracking and killing supernatural monsters, whilst travelling across America in Dean’s ’67 Chevrolet Impala, with the phrase ‘Saving people, hunting things, the family business’.

Spoiler Warning 

As you can imagine, the show has had to adapt and add characters, storylines, and creatures, to keep its average of 2.02 million viewers entertained. So far, we’ve had angels, demons, actual Death, gods from different religions, and even God and ‘His sister’ Amara have made an appearance. So, what could they possibly add, we’ve already had Sam and Dean die multiple times, both brothers have died a combined total of 124 times (although around 100 of those were in the episode Mystery Spot (Season 3, episode 11), where Dean was under a curse from the hands of The Trickster. Well, so far in season 12, we have the Winchester boys’ mother, Mary Winchester, back alive, and hunting, after being resurrected by God in the last episode of season 11. We are also reminded that Britain exists, as the British Men of Letters have come to America to clean up after, and ridicule, the American Hunters’ ways. So we are left with the question ‘What could the writers possibly do in season 13?’

Spoiler Warning Over

Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins, are the three main stars of this show, and it wouldn’t be the same without them. But, as much as someone would love the famous actor’s life, it doesn’t mean it can’t get tough. During the filming of season 3, Jared Padalecki ‘broke down’ in his trailer, and, after a doctor talked to him and said ‘I think you’re clinically depressed’, he realized that no matter who you are, depression, and other mental illnesses, can still affect you. This is what sparked his idea, and a friend from another show, to create the ‘Always Keep Fighting’ campaign, to help raise money for a non-profit organization To Write Love On Her Arms. So, he created a t-shirt design, and since then has continued to do so, now with multiple shirts, jumpers, and hoodies; and on march 4th, it celebrated its 2nd birthday. Jared Padalecki has used the fanbase to help a wonderful cause, helping those who deal with depression, suicidal thoughts, mental illnesses, and addiction. He says ‘I don’t want somebody to wake up and say, “Don’t give up today — I hope this isn’t the day I get beaten down.” I want somebody to wake up and brush their teeth and think to themselves like, “Today’s not going to be easy. Today’s going to be a fight, but I’m going to fight.”’

 Doctor Who

This year, the tenth season of Doctor Who returns on April 15th, and will see Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, with Pearl Mackie as the new companion, Bill Potts. This is Capaldi’s third season as the Doctor, and will sadly be his last. But as we watch his last adventures, we will be asking ourselves, ”who will be the 13th?”

We have had 12 Doctors, and by now, it is a very well-known role.

1. William Hartnell
2. Patrick Troughton
3. Jon Pertwee
4. Tom Baker
5. Peter Davison
6. Colin Baker
7. Sylvester McCoy
8. Paul McGann
9. Christopher Eccleston
10. David Tennant
11. Matt Smith
12. Peter Capaldi
13. ?

Many fans have said who they would like it to be, and they vary greatly. Some want a ‘more diverse cast choice’, as in, something other than a white male playing the doctor. So we have had many choices for males, females; and here are the most common.

Olivia Colman

Andrew Scott

Richard Ayoade

Any of these are plausible suggestions, as Capaldi’s leave also sees the leaving of Steven Moffat, the producer of the hit show, as Chris Chibnall takes over after this season. We interviewed a Doctor Who fan about his thoughts on the show.

Who do you think would be good as the new doctor?

I think that the Doctor’s daughter, who was cloned from his DNA would be good.

What did you think of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor?

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy him as much as I had done the previous new doctors. I didn’t like his energy, it wasn’t quite right, it didn’t have the same manic feel as the others, I didn’t really like him as much.

Writer Steven Moffat has just announced that he is leaving Doctor Who. How do you think this will affect the storyline?

I think it will have an effect, but he was the kind of overarching one, so all the individual episode authors are still there, so we will see a change in the way the interlocking stories are done, and that may be good for a refresh, because we’ve seen the interlocking stories and it would be good to see something change about them, but the episode by episode will still be the same writers.

Sherlock

Sherlock is a crime drama television series, first aired on the 25^th of July 2010. Based on the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the series stars Benedict Cumberbatch (as Sherlock Holmes) and Martin Freeman (as Doctor John Watson). Since 2010, four seasons, each featuring three one-and-a-half hour long episodes, have been made, plus a special episode aired on the 1^st of January 2016. Sherlock has received many positive reviews, describing how well written, performed and directed the show is, and the dramatic finale of season four, aired earlier this year, has left fans with an important question on their minds; will there be a season five?

Severe Spoiler Warning

The fourth season of Sherlock was dramatic from start to finish. The first episode ”The Six Thatchers” begins with Sherlock and John doing what they do best, solving crimes. This particular case, however, is quickly discovered to be in no way ordinary. After numerous links to Mary’s (Amanda Abbington) previous job, and a man from her past bent on revenge, the episode rounds up to a dramatic stand-off in the London Aquarium. After discovering who was behind the crime, Mary jumps in front of a bullet, meant for Sherlock, and dies. It is then revealed that John blames Sherlock for her death.

The second episode is in no way a break from the suspense. Titled ”The Lying Detective” it begins with Sherlock meeting up with a young woman, who explains that her father confessed that he had to kill someone, but she could not remember who. Sherlock realizes that her father is a serial killer, and tries to expose him for who he really is. Sherlock is then hospitalized and nearly killed, but is saved just in time by John. Sherlock then fulfills Mary’s dying wish, ”Save John Watson”, but discovers that he has a sister, named Eurus. The episode ends with Eurus firing a bullet at John.

The season ends with an episode dramatically named, ”The Final Problem”. In this episode, Sherlock, John, and Sherlock’s older brother, Mycroft (Mark Gatiss), visit the secure mental hospital Eurus has been kept in since she was a young girl. They later discover that Eurus has manipulated the entire hospital, and has all its staff under her control. She forces the three of them to make life-threatening decisions in order to survive. Throughout this, Sherlock had to choose between his brother and his best friend, make the woman who secretly loved him, Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey) admit to it, and discovered that Redbeard, his childhood dog that went missing, was actually his best friend that Eurus killed in order to join in with Sherlock’s games. They survive, and life goes back to normal, with Sherlock and John living in Baker Street as they used to. Fans are desperate for a fifth season, but if the show were to be discontinued, many will still be satisfied with the happy ending.

We interviewed a Sherlock fan about their opinion of the show.

What do you think of the latest episodes of Sherlock?

I did really enjoy them, I can see where the concern about them having too much action, and being kind of insane comes from, but I did really enjoy them. It was good to be back in shot after the wait.

Would you like a fifth season?

I would like a fifth season, because I’ve really enjoyed all the episodes there have been so far, but the ending of the last season is one I am happy with being the end.

If they could make a fifth season, what would you like to be in it?

I would like ‘The Engineer’s Thumb’ which is one of the short stories in which he goes to investigate a printing press and the only proof that it happened is that the engineer from the printing press has lost his thumb and that’s the only concrete evidence. It’s the one where he is foiled. I’d like to see how they could take that and turn it into a victory we’d be looking for.

We’ve had the mystery involving Redbeard revealed, along with the third Holmes sibling, Eurus. What did you think of her addition?

I quite like her character. I quite liked how they played on how there is this mystery in the actual canon that there is this cleverer Holmes brother, so I’d quite like to see her crop up in the same way that Mycroft does, when he pops up and you get that interaction between Sherlock an Mycroft, and it would be quite interesting to see the interaction between Sherlock, Mycroft and Eurus

Do you think there is a secret fourth episode?

Everyone tuned in the week after to see if there was a secret fourth episode, but after so many weeks I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Spoiler Warning Over

The director of Sherlock, Steven Moffat, has described how eager the cast and crew of Sherlock are to continue into a fifth season, but it is evident that that is going to be difficult. Both Cumberbatch and Freeman have busy schedules that are difficult to match up, and as much as they will try, a fifth season may not be possible.