Academy Eye

On the 13th of December 2007, 46 students from Northampton Academy travelled to the German Christmas market in Birmingham.

This market is the biggest German Christmas market outside of Germany itself, and the stallholders all come from Germany. This provided plenty of chances for the students to practise their German and complete a quiz about the various things on offer at the market . . . and yes of course, to taste the delicious German food!  Some of the more daring pupils also had a go on the giant slide and the merry-go- around.  Everyone had a grand time, and we are certainly planning on doing the same again next year!

Rosie Rushton, author of the new novel Secret Schemes, Daring Dreams recently paid a visit to Northampton Academy’s library. During the day she ran small writing workshops with some Academy Students, and was kind enough to take time out of her busy day to speak to us and answer some questions. 

Rosie Rushton used to write for a newspaper, but her interest in writing continued to grow until she finally published her own book. She has been writing books for 16 years now, and to date has had 39 of her novels published; her favourites being Last Seen Wearing Trainers and Summer of Secrets. She says that it takes her about 3 months to write each of her novels, as it is time consuming to fully develop each of her characters.   If you would like to know more about Rosie Rushton, please visit her website. 

http://www.rosierushton.com/

The Academy Eye Team recently interviewed Mr Lister about his eye-catching window display:

Whats it all about/why did you start it? What gave you the idea? 

It’s a way of getting people interested in history. When I was a kid I thought history was all about old dead kings and queens!!Boring and completely irrelevant to me! History is all around us, you’d be surprised once you start looking, the types of things that have historical value; Music, fashions, magazines, tv programmes. Everyday things we’d never realise!Hip-hop, like all music is oral history. It’s a great source for finding out about the attitudes, beliefs and values of certain groups of the population. If you wanted to find out about youth culture and attitudes in the Victorian period then you’d study newspapers, school/factory records, diaries and personal accounts, look at the lyrics to songs etc. If in a hundred years times people wanted to examine youth culture at the turn of the millennium then hip-hop music would be a fantastic source in terms of what many young people enjoy, believe in and value. 

Is it an interesting subject to learn about? 

Man it’s fascinating! It’s so diverse and varied. Not only is it massive all over the world but there’s so many different types of hip-hop; party stuff, romantic stuff, straight up fun and jokey stuff and loads of political stuff. I actually read the lyrics of a hip-hop song to a class of mine the other day, we were studying the war on terror and the song is all about September 11th, what has happened to the world since the twin towers fell and who is responsible. It’s called Bin Laden and is by Immortal Technique. Unfortunately hip-hop does contains a lot of negative aspects (violence, sexism, bad language etc.) but there is soooooooo much positive hip-hop out there. People worth checking out are KRS 1, Mos Def, Talib Quely, Immortal Technique, these guys are revolutionary, really intelligent and innovative. These are all Americans but in terms of Brits people like Doc Brown, Low Key and Yung Gun (who’s actually a solicitor by day!!) etc. 

How long have you been listening to hip hop? 

Since day one! That’s all I listen to. My friends and family are always telling me I should expand my music horizons but I just love it.I’m not really interested in any other types of music! It’s very narrow minded I know! 

Who is your favourite Hip Hop artist? 

I like UK hip-hop, US hip-hop, I even listen to Chinese hip-hop. Actually I have a friend in Beijing who is blowing up right now, he’s on the verge of making it big. He’s about to be the first real hip-hop artist to hit the main stream in China!! His name is Young Kin! You laugh but if Eminem can do it . . . 

Mr Lister’s “Hip Hop is History” display

Back in the Autumn Term, The AE team were very fortunate to land an interview with Mark Robson, author of ‘Imperial Spy’, when he visited the Northampton Academy library.  Here is what he had to say. 

What was your proudest moment?

My proudest moment was holding my daughter for the first time. 

Do you aspire to be like anyone?  

Yes-JK Rowling. Just for sheer fact of how nice she is to her fans, how long she spends at book signings actually talking to her fans and not thinking she is better than them . . . actually respecting them and just being a genuine person. 

When you were writing your first story, Due to a Throwaway Line, did you think it would be that successful? 

No, I had no idea that they would be this successful or that I was even going to publish them. It was just because I was bored and also I asked my boss what he could do to kill some time, and he said to write a book. I love a challenge, so I took it and it just carried on from there. I took it to my boss and he said that it was very good and I should think about publishing it . . . so I did. 

Does being a writer help you financially?  Yes, but it is a very unreliable job because you can have one story that is great and sells really well, but then your next story could be a total burn out and you have no money and lots of bills to pay. 

Do you write your stories on influence of JK Rowling and Harry Potter?   No, actually I didn’t. I did it from imagination because I know I could never be as successful as her, and I’m not trying to be as successful as her, even though she is a great author. 

Click here for more on Mark Robson. 

A small group of children and young adults from New Zealand visited Northampton Academy in the Autumn term. This was a big visit for both the visitors and the Academy as it shows that we are slowly becoming internationally renowned. The children came as part of a sports group to look at our sports facilities; they also visited the Northampton Saints grounds to witness the team training.  After speaking to two students from the group I found that they thought that Northampton academy was “Way better than Auckland” and that they would much rather come to school here than in their own town.  The group spent a further five days in England and were then off to explore Europe.  Thanks to Caleb Lee and Jay Khosla for spending the time to speak to me about their trip. 

Gareth Nichol