In the Easter holidays I went on a residential course with the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain (NCO). The orchestra ranged from 11 year olds to 13 year olds and the standard was about grade 5 to 8+.  The course was 9 days working extremely hard for a concert open to the public in the Brighton Dome. We rehearsed for 7 hours each day which was tiring as the repertoire was extremely challenging. During sectional rehearsals, the music tutors would try and help us as the majority of us had never experienced such difficult music to learn in a week. The experience of being in a full symphony orchestra is an amazing opportunity. I have been in this orchestra for 4 years and I have led the viola section throughout this time. Next year will sadly be the last year that I can be in this orchestra, but the NCO spirit and enthusiasm everyone has will stay with me. NCO is something that has changed my life and inspired me to think about being a musician  in the future.

In the Easter holidays my family and I went on ourskiing trip in Zermatt, Switzerland. I have always gone skiing every year since I was four. Every morning I wake up early and walk to the bakery to buy a fresh baguette ready for lunch. From nine o’clock to half-past eleven, I  have my skiing lesson with my ski instructor,Bruno. This year I was working very hard for my silver badge which was very hard for me to achieve( but I managed to accomplished it in the end )  After a tiring lesson I usually  go back to our chalet to have a refreshing lunch break.Then all afternoon my family and I go out skiing together until it is time for supper.I love going skiing and I cant wait to go again next year.

It is the last half term of the year which is probably the most relaxing time of the year. All the exams are over, the sun is shining , and we have  some trips to look forward to! On Wednesday lunchtime , our class is walking down to the Nature Centre and having a picnic there during our Biology Lesson. Then  on Friday we are going to the Space Centre. 3H have already been, and they said that one of the activities was ‘ A mission to Mars ‘ , and that they really enjoyed it! On 22nd of June , the whole year is going to the Malvern Hills , but I can’t go because I am getting braces on that day!

About 3 and a half weeks ago my auntie had a baby boy called Ruben. He was a little overdue and unwell when he was born so I only got to see him for the first time when he was 2 weeks old. Even though he was overdue he was still tiny! But he’s a very long  baby  and has dark brown hair. He is really cute.

I am really looking forward to seeing the next installment in the cinemas this summer(it comes out on 15th July, I think). I was annoyed that they split the film into two parts but maybe this way the films will be better. I hope it will be as good as the previous films because I have high expectations! I think it will be interesting to see the ‘19 years later’ part at the end. I still prefer the books to the films.The 2nd film is my favourite. Which one is yours?

My Mum’s birthday is coming up soon and I was wondering what she would like as a gift. Maybe flowers or jewellery? Or even chocolates? What do mums’ like? I looked in every single shop in the Bullring and couldn’t  find anything. Any ideas would be welcome!

During half term I went to stay in our tiny flat in Dunbar, Scotland. I went up with my family. It was my birthday on the first Sunday of the half term. We opened my presents at 9:00am. I got some lovely presents from earphones to hoodies. Later that day my cousins came over and we went to a beach. We played French cricket and some ball games. We also paddled in the sea (which was freezing even on the warm day it was). We then had a barbeque on the beach with extremely burnt sausages with a hint of sand. After another hour or two my cousins left and we had an extremely healthy dinner of pizza.
Later that week we went out for my birthday dinner since we were too busy earlier on in the week. We also went to other beaches and did the same kind of things. I then went home on the Thursday with my two brothers and my Mum but my Dad and my sister stayed up in Scotland. Great memories of a lovely holiday!

Elspeth Crombie

My Dad and 11 other doctors from the Queen Elizabeth hospital, Birmingham, set out on their bikes and cycled to Dover in late May. They slept in a hotel and awoke fresh and early to continue cycling. They boarded a ferry which took them to France, where they continued to cycle for a few days until they reached Belgium.
The bike ride has raised 10,000 pounds already and the number just keeps going up!!! One interesting thing about the ride is our family history. My dad managed to find his great grandfather’s name on a large WW1 memorial.Well done to all the riders, for doing the cycle ride and raising so much money!!!!

Over the holidays I read an interesting book about ‘black holes’. Stars like our sun die over billions and billions of years, eventually losing their power; before its ‘death’ the star explodes into a supernova; so much energy is used up in this process, the matter of the sun gets denser and the gravity gets greater therefore the star turns into a black hole; a floating corpse with immense power. Black holes are very hard to find as they suck in virtually everything including light.The ‘event horizon’ is probably the only thing you can see as it bends light and traps it within it’s gravitational field, if an object aproaches a black hole it is ripped apart, atom by atom until its sucked up and destroyed.

We made the most of the long weekend and we went to Legoland. There were loads of rides there- we couldn’t fit them all into the two days we went to the park! My sister and I always enjoy water rides the most so we were glad to see there were plenty. The ‘Viking River Splash’ was funny because there were Lego models squirting water at us as we went past. We went on that twice the first day because there was hardly any queue but the next day the queue was much bigger. That was probably because it was a Sunday and the weather was better. There was a massive water slide that you went down on in rafts. That was called the ‘Extreme Team Challenge’. We got wet but it was sunny so it didn’t matter. My little sister especially enjoyed the ‘Driving school’ where you drove little Lego cars around. They were two very enjoyable days!