Our reporters spoke to staff on how Burnside has changed over the years.
After working hard over the course of today, our reporters, editors, producers, directors and camera operators have finally completed the BBC School Report.
https://youtu.be/Od2F3KNvUTk
When you think of foxes, you might think of woodland, rolling fields and winding countryside roads. However, Burnside, an inner city urban school has this year had a very fantastic visitor of its own.
In the early hours of the autumn term in 2016 school day a small peculiar guest stumbled into the grounds of Burnside. The curious fox wandered around the bird feeders hoping for a tasty treat! Later it was spotted by students looking out from windows between blocks 1 & 2. The animal was later reported to members of staff around school who took action and lured the fox into the large bike shed where they gave it some cornflakes to keep it satisfied. Staff reported that the animal was interested in many bikes as well as colourful scooters in the shed. A curious visitor indeed. A School Report member’s scooter was in there and the fox found his scooter quite fascinating, The creature came close to it since it had many colours it even thought it was a toy! 
Urban foxes are more common than you might imagine. The urban fox migrates to urban areas lured by the promise of free, easy and tasty food. They can become a real problem if they get in bins or yards as they will do anything for food. They do have a good side however, as they get rid of pests like rats and mice who eat food and carry or spread some horrible diseases and or fleas!
Although many people may believe urban foxes are a danger, they rarely attack, only if provoked. Urban foxes are fairly common and shouldn’t be classed as a danger. Indeed, they are incredibly shy and only come out at night when few people are about.
However, our Burnside visitor is always left well alone as reported sightings have been very early before students arrive at school.
Sean, a Burnside student and nearby resident, has told us that he has seen the fox near his home at Boyd Road. ‘I think there may be a family there. They are harmless and actually quite timid but I love it if we are ever lucky enough to get a glimpse of them.’
It’s not only Burnside residents that have seen the fantastic Burnside fox, teachers who come in early to plan lessons have also caught sight of the woodland creature. Miss Addison, English teacher, witnessed the fox. ‘One morning we were preparing for lessons and we heard Mr Richardson shout ‘there is a fox!’ So we all ran out to see it and we saw it wandering around the gardens looking like it was hunting for food while limping a little bit. We watched it for while after we just went back to lessons while the fox was walking around’ .
So next time, keep your eyes peeled for this fantastic fox. Burnside might be in the city but it’s a pretty wild-life too. Leaf Him alone!
Disclaimer: These images were re-enactments of the actual fox He’s far too sneaky and fast for our photographer.
By Reece, Rhys, Sean and Ahmed
After initial discussions Abbie and Daniel volunteered to be our presenters and have started rehearsing for the big event
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Nervous anyone?
With the recent rise in poverty around the UK it has been proven that the North East is one of the most affected places. A recent study carried out by Bernardos shows that 1 in every 3 children in the North East are living below the poverty line, and 1 in 5 of the whole UK population are below the poverty line as well. Shocking! In Newcastle alone up to 30% of families are living on out-of-work benefits. This meant that a local charity (the Gateshead Foodbank) gave out over 4,000 emergency three day meals last year.
We asked Mr Welch, a Burnside teacher, devoted to helping charity and people in need, what he thought about this. Mr Welch saw the need to help Food Banks and was the driving force behind Burnsides involvement with the Food Banks. We asked how effective he thought these local food banks were. And he told us in an interview, that ‘The local food bank that Burnside works with is very much serving the interest of the direct members of the local community. They work with people on a personal basis. Individual people and families come to the food bank to be assessed on their needs.This means that it is very effective for the local area.’
We also asked how food banks are helping people in the local area. He replied, ‘They give emergency food supplies to people and families who have no other method of feeding themselves. They also provide a vital link in the chain to stop families going without any food at all.’
Food banks all around the North East and the UK are working to cut down these shockingly high figures of child poverty every day. Food banks are not only looking for food but they do need some very unexpected items to help out as well. Information provided by the Newcastle East food bank shows that food banks also need:
- Toilet roll
- Tin openers
- Nappies
- Baby food
- Toiletries such as: shampoo, shower gel and deodorant.
- And sanitary towels
The Foodbank that Burnside works with collected over half a tonne of food that we donated as part of the Cans for Grans appeal. Burnside run this appeal every year to support the local senior citizens and they donate any supplies to our local foodbank.
Thanks to the generosity of pupils at Burnside and the kind efforts of people like Mr Welsh, families won’t go hungry just yet. However, in a society such as ours, it’s surprising that such measures are needed. We can hope this changes soon.
By Abbie and Amy-Leigh
North Tyneside elect a ‘Young Mayor’ every year and this year Burnside were lucky enough to have two candidates in the running: Bailey Askwith and Harris Auchterlonie in Year 9 Unfortunately neither actually won the election but Bailey Askwith was successful in becoming deputy Young Mayor.
The young mayor can benefit the future of many students job careers across the country. Becoming a young mayor will give you a good reputation for when young adults go for a job interview. With the young mayor vote just finishing we decided to dig deeper into what you need to do to become successful in the young mayor event.
We interviewed successful Deputy Mayor, Bailey Askwith in Year 9, to see what he thinks about his position as deputy young mayor. When we asked him why he wanted to take part in the event he replied ‘When I saw the opportunity to try and get involved with the community I wanted to try and help the community and our school.’ A smiling and relaxed Bailey added ‘before now I did not want a job in politics, but I am now interested in a role in politics. I want to help improve all schools all around North Tyneside.’
Staff and pupils alike at Burnside are thrilled of what Bailey and Harris have achieved, nobody more so than proud Year 9 Progress Leader Mr Morgan. ‘I am delighted that Bailey was voted in as Deputy Young Mayor. An honourable mention must also be given to Harris who made it through the preliminary voting stages. It meant we had two Burnside students in the final four candidates. Next year I would support either Bailey or Harris running again.’
But what about next year? What if future Burnside pupils want to run for mayor? What advice would Bailey give? He told us, ‘When taking a position as young mayor you need to use skills such as teamwork to decide on the best ideas for what people want. That’s the key skill as well as creativity.’
By Jack, Sam, Murray and Kyle.
It’s finally here, the day all of the BBC School News Report. Our reporters are ready and activity has already started in the News hub!!
We will keep you updated as the day continues.
After a busy morning, our first article is live! https://www.burnsidecollege.org.uk/2017/03/16/may-the-best-mayor-win/
Look North have used a story filmed by our Year 8 news team on ‘The Dab Craze’ and how it has been used in Burnside to aid learning. The Y8 News Team filmed the report was part of their ongoing work with the BBC News Report. Look North saw their efforts on the school website and chose Burnside out of many other schools to feature in their report on the nation wide School Report event. Look out for our intrepid reporters on BBC Look North at 6:30pm on Thursday 16th March.
Burnside’s very own BBC School Report Team have been selected to represent the North East in London at an event to celebrate BBC School Report when all participating schools will go live on the BBC Website, sharing their school stories with the world! The Burnside teams’s work really stood out and on Thursday 4 students and Miss Warren will go down to London to take part in a series of workshops at BBC Centre, including one where they will get to interview news-reader Fiona Bruce.
It’s been a busy week!As well as the 4 lucky pupils who were chosen to go to London BBC Centre to celebrate the BBC School Report, the rest of the Year 8 news team have been invited to take part in pop up workshops at Gateshead Sage. Pupils will learn about Radio and journalism in a series of talks and workshops- a well earned reward after months of hard work working on their BBC School Report stories. We are immensely proud of them
Dinner times can usually be full of hustle and bustle, however Mr Jamieson thinks he has a solution to the problem; Split Lunches. How will this work? The Year 8 reporting team investigates.
This is our BBC School News Report on Cyber-bullying. We have investigated what Cyber-bullying is and interviewed various members of staff at Burnside.
