EACH Year, sixth form students from Lady Lumley’s School take part in Welburn Hall School’s Christmas Big Sing event, with this year being no exception. The event started in 2009 as a charity initiative to raise money for Christian Aid and has flourished into a festive celebration enjoyed by all the schools involved.

Alongside Lady Lumley’s sixth formers and Welburn Hall students this year were year 10 students from Malton School and Gillamoor School, and students from both Kirkbymoorside and Helmsley Primary Schools.

Each group performed either traditional Christmas carols or more modern Christmas songs before coming together to sing an array of festive tunes, and this year Lady Lumley’s students dazzled the audience with their renditions of ‘Fairytale Of New York’, ‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’ and ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’.

Following the singing, the all the students congregated around the elaborately decorated Christmas tree to enjoy mince pies and mulled wine (non-alcoholic of course!) which was provided by Welburn’s students.

The event’s organiser, Sarah Barker, has always been delighted by its success and said that “Christmas is a time for giving, and what better way to make money for a good cause than to get together for a good old fashioned sing song that brings together the Ryedale schools and community."

Lady Lumley’s also works collaborative with Welburn Hall on a number of other projects and both schools benefit hugely from this relationship. Each week a member of the sixth form, Amy Thwaits, goes to Welburn Hall to gain valuable work experience by assisting in a class and spending one to one time with the students. Lady Lumley’s also plays host to a year 10 student from Welburn Hall who attends GCSE ICT lessons to help improve his computer skills.

As usual, the sixth form students thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon spent at the Welburn Hall School and Lady Lumley’s looks forward to further shared experiences with Welburn and other schools in the Ryedale community.

 

Testing times

LAST week, Year 13 chemistry students went to York Science Outreach Centre, to take part in the Medicinal Chemistry Master Class, writes Emily Barr.

The centre, which is housed in York University’s chemistry department, opened this spring and offers a range of activities for primary school pupils all the way through to sixth formers, as well as the general public.

The objectives for the day were to produce aspirin using the same methods as used in industry and then to analyse their product using infrared spectrometry and thin layer chromatography.

The students were also given a tour of the new facilities and were delighted to be given the opportunity to use university standard equipment. Some students commented that although they felt privileged to be able to use the equipment, they were very nervous because some of it cost as much as £15,000.

Lecturers from the university along with post and undergraduate students aided the sixth formers in their experiments, and although the aspirin they produced may not be of a pharmaceutical quality, the group all felt they learned a lot from the day.

Reports by Emily Barr