A balloon race was held in aid of Oxfam and at the end of Planet X day the balloons were released in front of an excited crowd.
Although some baloons didn't make it off the ground - they were taken back in and refilled for a later launch - everyone who paid their pound had a good chance of winning and over £1500 was raised for Oxfam.
17th July - Already a ballon has been reported found at Caister, Near Yarmouth - will any have made it over the sea???
After a fun day of many activities the whole school assembled on the field for results, balloons and a chance to catch up and hear what everyone had been up to. Costumes were seen on many, waste coats had been made for a fashion show and one of the "Commanders" - head of Scott house - Mr J Stokes had gone one step further. He was modelling a new fashion for the new planet - hair stripes!
The Mayor and Lady Mayoress commenced proceedings with a speech thanking everyone for their hard work and dedication to make the new planet a better place. During the day they had been impressed with the ethos and ideaology being promoted by everyone they saw.
A musical interlude was providied by a group who had spent the day working on a new song, recorded it and were already playing live! The song was based around the lyrics of "Space Oddity" and contained lyrics from that song but entirely original music - watch this space for the download!
We also enjoyed a fashion show of the "waste"coats and a first look at a new machine for sorting your recycling. Recycling is going to be huge on Planet X.
As part of the process of colonising the new planet year 9 went off with the "Men in Black" (English department!) and learned about the political process. During the morning parties were formed, manifestos written and campaigning began in earnest. From the blog central room in A block parties were heard walking the corridors and chanting their name and views. Several candidates visited the blog room and canvassed for our support - leaving their leaflets and generally a smile on our faces.
Voting was a popular event with a turnout that would have our main political parties green with envy! The results were announced during the afternoon gathering. After the results were announced the winning party gave a short speech.
I found the trading game easy when I figured out what to do. The aim of the game was to make as many space pods as you could but you could only get a certain amount of resources at a time. There were four people including me in our group. I don’t know their names but they were very friendly.
By Kate Bunce
The trading game was ok but it weren’t that good because it was very easy when you started to get into it but it was very very hard to understand at first_x it was also very confusing because it was difficult to understand (i thought) because it was easy_!!_x also we got given a sheet of paper to tell you what you needed to get to make a complete space pod then you got another piece of paper to tell you what you was aloud to have at a time so like if you said to make a space pod you need 2 rubber tubes and on your other sheet it said you was only aloud to have 1 rubber tube at a time that means you would have to go up twice to get the same thing and it was just confusing and weird like that because it was annoying!!
BY
CHLOE
BUTLER_X_
Today we had to play a trading game. We had to get into groups and then we got a piece of paper with parts on. We had to have a certain amount of parts to build a pod. If we didn’t have the right amount of parts we would have to trade them with other groups, for example if you had 5 solar panels (you only need 2 per pod) and no oxygen (you need 1 per pod) you could trade with a group that had extra oxygen but not enough solar panels. The trading game was alright but a bit confusing because everyone was going up to the teacher at the same time. Nearly everyone group built at least one pod. The parts you needed were: 2 solar panels, 2 plastic pipes, 4 space rocks and 1 oxygen tub to make a space pod. In our group we built 2.
By Ahmad Zafar
My experience doing the Trading Game was not the best experience I’ve had on planet X day. It was quite hard to understand how to play the game; you had to build a space pod using the parts shown on the pierce of paper. You would then have to trade in the parts you don’t want, for the parts you do want. In the end the team made the most space pods, won… nothing. My team was called alphabet!!
SCOTT CURREN
The planetarium wasn’t very fun unless you are interested in stars and the galaxies but it was good when you could see the shapes form from the stars. There were many different shapes from unicorns to eagles to men that can’t shot arrows to save their lives. We also learnt that the sun will one day develop into a red star which means it will end up going out! There was many pictures of the star signs such as Leo the lion and Taurus the bull.
Frankie Seber
The planetarium was o.k. I found it a bit boring, but I learnt a lot. We learnt all the names of the galaxies. We learnt about all the shapes in the sky that are made from stars. They were really cool. My favourite was the lion called Leo it looked really cool. I liked it in the tent it made it a better experience and it was dark and you could see the stars really well and it was really clear we saw Aquarius and Taurus , Leo , it was good towards the end when we saw the stars. Planetarium overall was o.k. !
By Jamie brewer
The Planetarium was a big black dome that people can sit in and watch a presentation.
The guy showed us different pictures of planets, stars and constellations. He told us that the Sun was going to expand and die out in about 3 billion years time. He also projected stars and constellations on the walls of the dome and told us which ones were nearer to dieing than others.
Sitting on the floor was uncomfortable but my mind was taken off the pain once we got to something interesting. My favourite constellation was Leo as my star sign is Leo. When the guy span the light around it was really fun but made me quite sick!
But overall I quite enjoyed it!
By James Wilson
The planetarium was a bubble that you sit in and look at stars, planets and constellations. It tells you about all the solar system. We found out al about what shapes the stars make (constellations).
The sun is going to get big and it will explode in about 3 billion years. We found out that Pluto is not longer a planet because it is too small.
The downsides of the planetarium was that it was very hot and we had to sit on the floor , it made you feel sick at some point other than that it was Fun !!!!
Fearne Wilson x
The soundscape program was very interesting because we got to produce a piece of music on our own using any types of music we wanted. It was also interesting because we could use our own ideas and save them onto our piece. It was fun because the pieces of music fitted together well and the person I was working with played the drums so we had a good drum bass line. I found out how to store music onto a computer and how to use the computer keyboard for a proper keyboard. I found it very interesting.
Richard Hall
I thought that the activity Soundscapes was quite boring. Mainly because it was hard to use, unlike the other activities that were easy. It was not very fun but my partner was good. When sir told us that we were going to be making our own music I was excited but it soon dimmed down. There was four scenarios we could choose from but most of them were dull. Me and my partner chose a war in space. This was a bad choice because it was very, very, very, very hard and there was no sounds for this choice.
Richard Farbridge
I enjoyed soundscapes it was fun and I liked creating your own compositions. It was hard to use but I got round it. I liked being able to create your own sounds like drum beats and weird space like sounds. I think it will be exciting to listen to the winning piece of music, hopefully mine. We just did any random sounds and it didn’t sound
Bad. We based our composition on outer space
Jack Chandler
Today on planet X day I worked with Dionne Duerden during the soundscapes part of the day in the music department. We had to make a soundtrack for one of the images that was shown on the sheet, Dionne and I chose to do the space at war theme.
Unfortunately our computer was not working properly and this meant that we could not get on with our work like others even though we still spent all lesson spent all lesson trying to sort out the problem.
As soon as we thought we could possibly carry on with our work and start to look at experimenting and completing our piece of music, ANOTHER PROBLEM would occur.
Hannah Brogan
I found the soundscape program extremely interesting because the actual program had a lot of different sound effects. The amount of sound effects made it quite hard to find the ones you wanted but when you found you would normally find the sound very good. Its was very hard to compose the music because at some times you couldn’t find what was wrong with the piece of music and you couldn’t find where in the piece of music it had gone wrong. Whilst I was doing this I was still enjoying the activity, but when I was doing it, it was exercising brain because I found out how to compose a piece of music. The piece of music I had composed was quite interesting because I had made it up as I went along. We also got to make a piece of music on the keyboard and then put it onto the p.c.
By Dylan keth
Today we did a soundscapes lesson period 2 in C4. The lesson was after the planetarium and before blogging. We had to go in partners I was with Hannah Brogan. We chose to do our music thing on outer space. The bad thing about the lesson was that our headphones didn’t work so we couldn’t listen to our music. The teachers helped us but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. We could hear everything else apart from the things we actually chose to do. The teachers helped us a lot and finally figured out what the problem was. Its hard to explain what the problem exactly was, but we figured out that we should just do random thing to make it look like we did try.
Dionne Duerden
I thought that the exercise of sound scapes was quiet good but at the same time a bit boring. I found it quiet good because I haven’t done anything like that before, so it was new to me. we worked in partners and I worked with my friend Abigail. Sir told us we had to pick between four different things and Abigail and I picked the rocket take off out of, busy space station, space battle, rocket take off and out in space. I found it a bit boring because, I like challenges and I found this easy to pick up, Abigail and I finished and was playing around with the music and doing all the other types like space battle and we got bored. I found it fun listening to what other people have done and when Abigail had gone wrong and Abigail had to ask the teacher for help.
By Danielle Orwell
Today when I got into school it was really weird. The entire school had been completely transformed into planet “X” as they had said it would be. I spent half an hour walking around and looking at everything and laughing at the funny costumes the teachers were wearing until form. After form, my group went to do time capsule. We had to dig a piece of the past each and say about it. I found a pair of glasses, Jake found an invisible dog (?), Will found a carrot and started wacking people with and Alex found a teddy bear (WOW!!!!!)! I wasn’t really paying attention and got bored, though.
By Matthew Shynn
Today I arrived at school and there was a big model of something then I looked around the school. There was a lot of different things my favourite was the thing in the gym it was a big black blow up thing. Then I went form after that I went to first lesson. We were doing time capsules we had to dig up the sand pit and find things that MR Broomhead had hidden and we had to write about it draw it and say if it was useful to take to planet x. Then we had rocket science to enter the room we had to go through a really weird dark area with funny noises and it was cool. We had to make a rocket out of paper. We had to cut a circle for the pointy bit at the top, to make it pointy cut a triangle at and roll it up. Then we had to make thins for the rocket.
Louis Hilton
Blog
Today at school I had time capsule for 1st period I had that with Mr Broomhead and we had to dig holes to find items in plastic bags and choose of them that I would take to planet x with me. For 2nd period I had rocket science with Mr Simpson and Mrs Paul. We had to design a paper rocket and blow it up into the air to see how long it would stay up there.
By tom canty
Today when I got to school I walked into C block and noticed that there were banners hanging from the ceiling and a naked alien. First period I had Time Capsule in the sandpit where we dug and pulled out objects in bags (I pulled out a bottle of Dove body wash), then we filled out a sheet about the object, then we buried it again. After that we had rocket science where we had to make a paper rocket (well it was more like card). We launched them on the field (mine stayed up in the air for 4.23 seconds). And now I am in AH2 writing a blog to tell you every thing that I have done so far today.
Jamie-Lee Martin
Today when I came to school everything was different. There was lots of art work around the school and all the teachers looked funny, then I remembered it was Planet X Day. Our artwork that lilyann, somma and I made ( dance is passion banner ).
Then the bell went I checked my new time table and went down to the sand pit for Time Capsules. We had Mr Broomhead he explained to us what we were going to be doing, we grabbed a chair each and waited our turn to go into the sand pit and dig up an object. When it came to my turn i dug up a tape – it helps you to learn french! I went back and sat next to Vikki , she drew on my face so I nicked her pen and done the same to her- but the line on her face was bigger ! hehe
We had to describe our object and say if it would be useful on Planet X.
I said the best things that we would need would be water, veg, newspaper and glasses.
Natalie Ann Parr
Today I woke up at 8.00 o clock i felt like I had been punched in the nose although I actually hadn’t. I fell asleep until I woke up again it was really late so I quickly got dressed and went to school. In the first period in planet x I had to dig up time capsules which where actually plastic bags with rubbish products in with a sellotaped lid. I found it very boring and rubbish as it was very cold and the sand was entirely wet. At the end of the lesson toms hair was covered sand and he looked liked he had nits lol.
In the second lesson we were welcomed by a door which opened automatically and me Jake and terry were dancing to the really old music and the flashing lights. When we came out we were welcomed by ms.poole and mr.simpson then we spent the rest of the lesson designing our rockets . when they were made we went to the field and tested them to see who’s rocket flew the highest. Obviously it was Matthew shynns lol.
William Norman
Today was planet x day and when I walked into school I saw a massive tree outside the main office, then I looked at my watch and had to go to form then I got a cause for applause, witch I did not know what is was.
First lesion was time capsule with Mr Broomhead witch Jake found a invisible dog, will found a carrot and I found a pen, we had to dig to get the bags
Daniel
Today when I got to school there were new displays everywhere, most of it was artwork on all the walls and there were banners outside F Block, and my monkey that I painted in art was on one although I think it looked a bit rubbish. When the bell went for first lesson I went to the sandpit. I put my bag down and we all got a chair from V9. I sat next to Natalie and Jamielee. Natalie was getting annoying so I drew a line of pen down her face but she did the same to me. Then I got a funny looking spade thingy and found some mars planets in a plastic bag and its not fair because I don’t even like them!! Mr. Broomhead was our teacher and Natalie ripped up my sheet so I lied and said it blew away but she was only joking an she is a really really nice person!!!!! She made hers into a very bad paper aeroplane.
Vikki Sarah Brown
Today I walked into school and I was amazed by all of the decorations, from trees to port holes and from banners to slide shows. I then spotted that some of the teachers were dressed up and they looked really good. My first activity was ‘Time capsule’. In this activity we were asked to be an archaeologist and discover items in the sandpit from Earth, then we had to draw them and say weather they would be useful or non useful on Planet X. We all found lots of different things. The artefacts included a bottle opener, a toothbrush, comics, newspapers, fruit and veg, sweets, glasses, a music tape, water and cuddly toys. I think Planet X day was a good idea.
By Lily Sansom
I arrived at school, when I walked in the gates it seamed like a normal day, and when I walked into A-block and things were different there were signs hanging up then when I got out side I say that the school was changed. In C-block there were vuing
Rooms in the rooms there were aliens and in the RBLC there were space ships. The teachers were dressed up. Firs period we did time capsules which is were we dig looking for artefacts from 2007. I found a water bottle, other people found sweats, seeds, cuddly toys, news paper, onions ect.
Rebeka Barnes
Today is planet x day and it will hopefully be fun. Firstly we looked at time capsules and dug some up: jake found an invisible dog, matt found a pair of glasses, will found a carrot and i9 found a teddy bear it was so much fun lol. We eventually went of to do rocket science and we made rockets and fired them into the air. We also saw aliens and robots and Mr Miller as a superhero and we also saw many children in non-uniform this is a disgrace, if they can wear what they want we can wear what we want this is a free country or planet lol
By Alex Clayton-payne
Today is Planet X day at Billericay school!
This means all students will participate in varies funky advents. First of all I participated in the Time Capsule with Mr Broomhead as the teacher, brilliant!
First of all we had to listen to a boring little briefing which was rather boring so I decided to make a paper hat out of my report card! We where then able to dig in the sand pit hoping to find buried treasures! I dug and dug and dug and dug and finally I found a broken lid! But to my despair I wasn’t allowed to keep it so I thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought
And I came up with the idea to think of an imaginary dog and YES I was allowed to keep it! Yeah what an awesome first lesson / adventure.
Jake Callaghan
Today I was walking to school and I saw a big statue outside of F block, I was amazed by how big it was, all of the decorations were fantastic. I also saw that some of the teachers were dressed up they looked good but freaky at the same time. My first lesson was in the sandpit we did a thing called time capsules. We had to dig in the sandpit to look for artefacts in the sand the artefacts were things that we have on earth that we need to use in the future. We also had to say weather the artefacts were useful or not. The artefacts included a toothbrush, a bottle opener, crisps, sweets, fruit & veg, newspapers, glasses, pen, pencil, ruler, water, onion, music tape, CD and cuddly toys.
By Lauren Kitchener
Today was Planet X day, when I made my way to the sandpit I thought we were making a time capsule but actually we were finding time capsules in the Sandpit. There were objects in plastic bags and we had to dig them up. I found a model bike. Other people found other things and we recorded what we found. We tried to build a gazebo but we didn’t have time and we had to go. At the end we put the objects back and set covered them back up with sand.
By James Hayter
Star date:
July 16th
2007
1022
My recon team will shortly be going out on excursion. They are charged with a difficult task; making sense of the madness around us.
I myself have been out there. It is an amazing place, buzzing with activity and excitement. I have seen technology I could have never dreamed possible; translation machines of impossible complexity, space doors of incomparable efficiency and light shows to dazzle even those most cynical among us. This is truly something unimaginable. However, still no signs of intelligent life.
Commander Gamwell
The first year 7 group through the blogging room had experienced an hour of rocket science where they made their own rockets and launched them on the field
Commander Evans-Vince
Today I got in to school late. Outside F Block there was a plastic tree thing and a dummy in the back of a jeep. Sir told me off for having white laces then I went to form and got a cause for applause. Then I went to f .5 to do rocket science. We made a rocket and then we put it on the launcher and launched it into the sky. Mine did not go very far. Then I came to blogging.
By Anthony.w
When I first walked into school I saw sculpture made out of polystyrene and as I walked further I saw weird, doors, launching pad and many more.
In period 1 we made a rocket that had to fly to plant x, during the lesson we saw different types of rockets but some of the rockets the teachers shown us didn’t work. Later on in the lesson we went outside and tested out our rockets and fortunately my rocket was successful.
When first went to my first lesson it was in f-block they made a sculpture made out of polystyrene and they wouldn’t let us walk through the door so I think it was a waste of time . When I went in my first lesson I found out that we were making a rocket. My rocket was successful because it airborne for four seconds. Plus we went out side to test it and it all went good .
When I Came Into School Today The First Thing I Saw Was The Grey Tree. At First I Thought Maby It Had Always Been There And It Died A Few Days Ago. But Then I Saw It Wasn’t Real. I Walked Around The School Looking At The Planet ‘X’ Stuff. I Went To The Bit Were You Can Look In The little Window. At First I Thought Something Would Jump Up At me So I Maf My Friends Go First.
Ellena Baker
I came into school today it was very strange all the teachers were dressed up. I went into C block and it was all done up then so was A block I was surprised at all the hard work that had been put in I thought it was going to be a waste of time. First lesson, I was making rockets out of card and tape. Then we all went out to the field. Our teacher used a foot pump and pumped it up to 90 and we put our rockets at the end then our teacher switched the leaver and it went flying. There were about 15 people in my group and about 5 people’s rockets didn’t go any where! We measured the flight in seconds mine went the highest in our group mine went 6.75 seconds. To be honest I didn’t think it would go that far because its wings were very small. Also at the front of our school a man had came in and made a sculpture out of polystyrene and in the DT Department they made this amazing door that opened light its automatic!
Melissa Saunders
When I reached school this morning I saw lots of pictures of ‘What I Would Take to Planet X’ and port holes with alien in the middle. 1st period we went to F5 and watched sir fail to make these 2 rockets fly (1 out of 3 isn’t bad). Once we got the idea we had to make our own model rocket with these: card, plastercine and cello-tape. When we had finished we took our rockets out side and made them go up and up and up in the air. Mine ended up coming back towards us.
By Daniel Clarke.
When I came into school this morning I saw lots of banners and different stuff to do with planet x there were lots of banners hanging up in c block and some plate things in f block and then I looked over by f block and there was a silver tree thing and behind them there was two gazebos and then in period 1 we did rocket science and we made a rocket out of paper and then we went onto the field and got a frame kind of thing and locked it then we pumped it up to 90 pressure and then we unlocked it then it flew up in the air
By Emma Turner
I got off my bus today and walked up from the hill. I walked into school and everything in front of the school was the same but when I walked through the school I met up with Emma stansfield we walked outside and we saw a silver tree kind of thing in front of the main office there were and there was these girls sitting under this gazebo kind of thing but then we walked off and we met up with the others and had a little talk and then first period bell went and then we went to F5 we done rocket science we watched Mr.simpson doing some demos with rockets and then we created our own then we went outside to test them , we watched everyone the highest rocket flown was Melissa’s hers went 6.75 then I done mine which went 1.68 which was not very good but then again rocket science isn’t my thing. J
By Lois
Planet x
We walked into school and there was a lots of space looking accessories of what people think that they might see on the journey to planet x. There was places for people to be briefed before they embark on there journey to planet x and a space looking tree and also posters about what people would take with them and what they would leave behind. In period 1 we made rockets with hard paper tubes we then fitted a nose cone with plastacine in and fins. We then went out to the field to launch them by building up air pressure with a closed valve we then opened the valve and the pressure pushed the rocket off the tube my rocket was not successful and did not take off.
Alex Burness
I think my rocket was good. It was in the air for over 5 seconds and my second rocket went into space and landed on planet x. The school looked quite stupid and the teachers looked very childish
Spencer
When I came to school this morning I saw a plastic man in a truck and there was this big grey sculpture. There was loads of pictures of planet x and in f block bottom floor there was a special door. But we weren’t allowed to go through the door so we had to go round the back. Once we got to lesson sir us some demonstrations of rockets. After he showed us and gave a paper tube then we cut a circle out of paper and folded it into a tube and stuck it on the end of my tube. We stuck fins on the other end of the tube and then went onto the field and we shot the rockets into the sky. My rocket didn’t leave the ground because it had a leak.
By Matthew Bayliss
When we walked into school a lot had changed for example there was a massive
Tree statue was out side the main office and also a car with a plastic man standing on it. Period 1 we made rockets out of paper then we went out side to test them out. Some people’s rockets were better then others, mine was airborne for 5.53 seconds. We launched the rockets from a metal tube that we added air procure to.
Chris wing
When I got off of the bus and walked through the school gates, everything looked different. There were big fake silver trees, and teachers in fancy dress out fits. When I walked into C-block, there were masks, banners and all sorts of work the children had been doing. Me and my friends walked through all of the blocks, and looked at all of the work. We were amazed that it had all been done over the weekend. After form, we went to our first lesson. We were doing rocket science in F5. We made paper rockets, and took them onto the field to launch. Miss pumped the foot pump up to 90, and pulled the leaver, most of them went up for about 4 seconds, but the lowest was about 1.95 and the highest was 6.75.
By Emma Stansfield
When I came in to school today I saw that there were many pictures in on the windows, pictures of weird aliens also there were feathers on the stairs as well as that in f block there were grey drapes over the windows and it had big lights. There were people dressed in really weird stuff. My first lesson was to learn how to me a rocket the shows u 3 ways of launching it, we had to make it out of paper but it was good we also got to go on the field and launch them they went really high but that’s all I have seen so far !
By kiah wyatt . . .
Today when I came into school there was weird sculptures everywhere. In my first lesson we made rockets and then we had to fire them on the field. It was very hard to build some of them didn’t work there was leaks in some of them and some of them exploded. My rocket went really far nearly the furthest. There are also pictures around the school I saw my one on the f block wall. There was a black flashing door in f block that no one could get through because it wasn’t working. I saw a big sculpture out side of the front gate to the school.
By callum