Year 8 Trip to the Synagogue

The trip to the Synagogue was an amazing experience! It was very interesting because it linked perfectly to what Year 8 have been studying in their RS lessons. We got the opportunity to ask the experts lots of questions, which was definitely not wasted! We were shown around and taught about the main features of a Synagogue and what happen when Jewish People worship. I learnt a lot from this trip. For example, we were told that Jewish People have a prayer for the Royal family, which originated as a way of thanking the Royal Family for allowing the Jewish Population back into England after their previous expulsion. Also, the fact that we got to see the Torah, Jewish people’s holy scripture was very exciting!! To be honest, I expected the Synagogue to be architecturally similar to a church; old and traditional. But to my surprise, the Synagogue was very modern. Overall, this was an awesome trip and was very valuable in helping with my understanding in this particular topic about Judaism.

Written by Fatima, Year 8

London Trip

The Y11 and Y10 citizenship classes went on a trip to London to explore the Supreme Courts and visit the Houses of Parliament. The journey to London, in all honesty, was incredibly exciting but also tiring, we took a tram to Piccadilly and then a train to London, Houston. We took the London underground, but we didn’t anticipate the noise, so I think a couple of us were left partially deaf! It was an incredible experience but also rather frightening as the crowds in Altrincham could not hold a candle to the influx of people that we faced in London. But, the train did have a café and they had free chocolates with every purchase and that was the highlight of the journey!

We went into the Supreme Court and we sat on the chairs that the judges, barristers and solicitors would have sat on. We did not spend too much time at the workshop within the court but in the time that had, we learnt a considerable amount, but what was most surprising is the fact that Supreme Court was formally established in 2009, only 10 years ago.

When visiting the Houses of Parliament, we had an amazing tour guide who was evidently passionate about her job. We were lucky enough to see the Speaker’s Procession where the speaker of the House of Commons moves from Speaker’s House through the Library Corridor, the Lower Waiting Hall, Central and Members’ Lobbies to the Chamber. We were stood in the Central Lobby and waved at the speaker and he waved back at us, he seemed really friendly.

Our guide took us inside the House of Commons and we watched the politicians discuss the issue at hand, and then we left a couple of minutes before Theresa May was due to come into Parliament and join in the discussion. We then did a workshop where we were split into two groups and had to argue about making one issue a law. Our topic was the curriculum for life and whether it should be mandatory to teach at schools. In the end, the votes were in favour of including the curriculum for life in the school curriculum, however we did hear impassioned arguments from both sides and our “speaker” had to bring order to the court more than once. Overall, it was enjoyable, and we did have a lot of fun arguing over the law.

After this, we met Graham Brady, our local MP and he talked about his experience in Parliament and what his role was in the House of Commons. We were allowed to ask him questions at the end of his talk and there were many people who were interested about his opinion on Brexit and also how he was able to become a politician. It was very interesting to be able to speak to a politician and ask him about his opinions on current issues because it is not something that we’re able to do often.

Overall, the trip was incredibly exciting but also very educational as I think I was able to understand Parliament more clearly and it was easier to understand what went on inside the House of Commons once we actually visited. It helped me to understand the difference between the roles of the House of Commons and the House of Lords since I was physically able to see what was different about the two and our tour guide helped a lot.

Written by Malaika K

Year 11 General Citizenship challenge: ’The Body Myth’

Students were asked to create a campaign message in line with the aims of the ‘Dove self-esteem project’ to help to build body confidence in our school community: staff and students as well as parents and friends of our school. Here is a sample of the messages they created that they wanted to share with you.

Miss Mitchel, Head of Citizenship and Mrs Charlton, Teacher of Citizenship

My experience at the 2018 MGSMUN conference

We started the day with an opening ceremony where a teacher from MGS gave us an inspiring note to start the day and the Former Labour MP Nick Bent gave us a talk on the importance of Education and his work in Politics and how he had co-founded a non-profit organisation to help children from families who can’t afford much needed to tuition and give them a personal tutor.

We were then told where to go to find the room when our committees would be held. Once we had reached our committee room (I was in EnviroSoc) we sat behind a label of our designated country (for example, I was the delegate of Myanmar). We were then introduced to our chairs and were asked if we would like to read out our Policy Statements (for example, “Honourable delegates, esteemed chairs. The delegate of Myanmar is delighted to be here today and looks forward to debating (this was what I said) the issue of overpopulation and the issue of the problem with plastic. We hope to pass some effective resolutions and look forward to a fruitful debate. We then were given time to meet the other delegates and get as many as possible of them to sign our resolution (the first issue we debated the issue of the problem with plastic).

After we had all handed in our resolutions, the chairs picked the one they thought would be best to debate and we were all given a copy of the resolution. We then debated the resolution by asking questions and also at this time we submitted amendments. We then debated some amendments and then voted for the resolution as a whole (there was a break in the middle of this when you could go to the bathroom or the tuck shop). It was them lunch where went to the school canteen and ate as well as caught up with our friends in other committees. We later when back and debated the next resolution in a similar way. We were then show a video about the crisis and then went to a second break. We then debated possible solutions for the crisis (by submitting clauses) after we had finished we went the General ceremony.

We started by going through each committee and the clause that had been voted for in theirs. The different committees focused on different aspects of the crisis (for example, as I was EnviroSoc (which stands for Environment and Social committee) we focused on the social aspect (the crisis had little to do with the Environment) aka, how it affected people. We then, as our countries (we were sat on a table each with other delegates from other committees but we were all the same country (so should have all the same beliefs), voted on the clauses. Just like when we debated our resolutions a representative for the clause would debate for and then later another against, prior to voting. After this there was the award part of the ceremony.

During all the debates the chairs would mark down if the delegates had submitted amendments resolutions or just commented a lot if so the delegate could receive one of four awards, best young delegate, commended, highly Commended or Outstanding (which was the highest accolade). I received an award for commended which I was absolutely thrilled about. Another delegate for Myanmar received an Outstanding so our country had done very well. After all these awards the chairs announced how well the countries as a whole had done. Our country (Myanmar) overall came third which was a huge achievement. France, which was Manchester High School came second and Poland, which was Saint Ambrose, came first. Overall, I had an amazing day where I learnt lots and had lots of fun. Also special thanks to Mr Humphrys who was our supervisor for the day.

Written by Katie Y, Year 9

RS Quiz No 3

10 Questions to debunk Christmas Myths


  1. How many wise men are there?


  2. Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th?


  3. What, in the traditional nativity story, may be a clue as to why this event could not have happened in wintertime?


  4. Where (what dwelling place) does the Bible say that Jesus was born?


  5. How many Gospels actually retell the birth of Jesus?


  6. Can you complete the end of this well-known carol?

    “the cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little lord Jesus ____ _____ _____ _____.”


  7. ChristingleWhat does a Christingle symbolise?


  8. Where does the Christingle originate?


  9. Why does Santa wear red?


  10. What is the traditional name of Boxing Day?


Bonus Question

What did people traditionally do on Boxing Day?


Click here to see the answers for this quiz

RS Quiz No 2

Hindu society

Question 1

om_sacred_symbol_hinduismWhich Hindu festival is known as the ‘festival of light’?

Question 2

Who is celebrated in the festival of Navaratri?

Question 3

Which Hindu God is believed to have the head of an elephant?

Question 4

Which Hindu group can often be found in the streets of Manchester, chanting and handing out free Hindu literature?

Question 5

In which month is the festival of colour celebrated by Hindus?

Our next ‘Did you know?’ quiz will be 10 Questions to debunk Christmas..



Click here to see the answers for this quiz

RS Quiz No 1

This quiz is about Islam

Question 1

How many Muslims fought with the Allies in the First World War?

Question 2

What language does the term ‘alkali’ come from?

Question 3

Who said, ‘What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of human beings, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful and to remove the sufferings of the injured.’

Question 4

Saint George, The Patron Saint of England, hailed from which countries?

Question 5

Where does the term ‘checkmate’ originate from?

Bonus question:

How many times is Mary, the mother of Jesus, mentioned in the Qur’an?

Our next ‘Did you know?’ quiz will be written by one of our own faith groups: Hindu society.

Click here to see the answers for this quiz