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Jimmy Petruzzi Visits the PE Department
In November former Australian athlete Jimmy Petruzzi recently visited the school’s PE department to talk to year 13 students about his experiences at the Australian Institute of Sport (http://www.ais.org.au/), the elite centre of excellence set up to achieve sporting success on a world stage. Jimmy was identified at school as a major sporting talent and was one of the first entrants to the Institute. His event was 800 metres and he made the team for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, however due to injury he sadly missed out and was subsequently forced to retire from competition. Jimmy spoke fondly about his time at the Institute, where no aspect of life is left uncatered for. He received the world’s best full time coaching and was able to use some of the sporting
world’s greatest facilities. His visit provided students with an excellent insight into the workings of the Australian Elite Sport Pathways. He is now a sports psychologist, (http://www.petruzziperformance.com/) working with professional football clubs including Blackburn Rovers. The talk was especially relevant for CRGS PE students because as part of their course they study Australian sporting culture and the contrasts with the UK. From Jimmy they learned how Australia, following a very disappointing medal total at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, focuses on identifying talent in school and how they can create winners. Declan Fitzhenry, Year 13 PE student
Indonesia Expedition 2007
Miss Holdsworth describes the recent expedition to Indonesia. After 18 months of fund raising events, such as parties, cake stalls and supermarket bag packing, and training to get camp fit in events such as the Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge, the group of 28 sixth formers and three staff finally departed on the C.R.G.S. Indonesia Expedition in July this year. The expedition aim was to participate in Operation Wallacea’s Sulawesi Biodiversity and Conservation Research projects in two sites. Week one was spent in the Lambusango rainforest on Buton Island, and week two was spent diving the coral reefs of the Wakatobi Marine Reserve. During week one the students surveyed the forest, collecting data for scientists investigating the effects of illegal logging and rattan harvesting on species diversity. Students also joined scientists on smaller projects, tracking jungle mammals such as civet cats, tarsiers and macaques, and monitoring herpetefauna, such as tree frogs and snakes.
Students stayed in the homes of the local villagers, gaining a valuable insight of life in a small rural Indonesian community. A night was spent in (self erected!) hammocks in the forest during a jungle trekking and training exercise in which students learnt survival skills such as setting traps, cooking on an open fire, and accessing water from the flora such as rattan. Students were also trained and participated in accessing the rainforest canopy with ropes at dawn or dust. Week two was spent on Hoga Island, learning to scuba dive, and attending lectures on marine ecology. Students were encouraged to identify the coral, sponge and fish life whilst diving and snorkelling, and learnt about research projects looking at the effects of overfishing and climate change on the reef. Amongst the wealth of animal life seen by students were sea snakes, turtles, puffer fish, giant clams and jelly fish, living amongst the most diverse coral in the world. The four day journey home did emphasise just how remote and special these sites were, and an amazing time was had by students and staff alike. Operation Wallacea staff were extremely impressed with the attitude, fitness and enthusiasm of C.R.G.S. students. Miss Holdsworth would like to thank the students, Mr Carson and Miss Burke for making the trip so successful and memorable, and thank the Head and Governors for supporting such great opportunities for students. It is hoped that the ongoing relationship C.R.G.S. have with Operation Wallacea will continue, and that future expeditions at conservation sites around the world will take place. The pictures below show the party with some of their hosts and about to go underwater.
Politics Department Visit to New York City and Washington DC
Year 13 politics student James Delaney recently visited to New York and Washington DC. Here is his account of the trip.
The annual politics and trip to the USA in 2007 took forty year 13 students to the most powerful country in the world to see some of its political and cultural sights. The schedule of unbelievable opportunities, such as visiting the White House and activities planned for the trip such as Ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza and Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square were almost innumerable and none thought there would be room for the additional activities that came as a surprise. The first sight of New York, New York was almost unbelievable to most of us who had not seen its famous skyline before. The schedule was packed with interesting and unbelievable monuments to see and buildings to ascend, including going to the top of the tallest building in NYC, The Empire State Building. However all of us where happy that the organisers of the trip still found some time to let us shop on 5th Avenue. The visit to Washington D.C. was a fantastic experience for students, giving us a chance to see the places we are studying in our course and really get a feel as what it would be like to live in the political capital of America. Visiting all three branches of the federal political system we received a talk about the judiciary in the chamber of the US Supreme Court and then were able to sit in a on a session of the House of Representatives, debating the possibility of overturning George W Bush’s veto on a child healthcare bill. Not only did the trip provide insight into the political system, we got to see all the memorials in DC, including the World War II memorial, a very sombre moment for us all which was only paralleled by the sight of Ground Zero in New York City, earlier in the trip. While in Washington we made a trip to Mount Vernon on the Potomac River, the home and resting place of George Washington, the first President of America. The multimedia pyrotechnics of the Mount Vernon cinema – it snowed inside! – left us all in no doubt about how much the Americans value the contribution of George Washington to their nation’s history. Overall the trip was an experience that I will never forget, the excitement of the students and the effort put in to the trip by the teachers made the visit unique, and it’s a trip that we should all make, at least once in our life. The pictures below show the group on Liberty Island, outside City Hall in New York and inside the Pentagon.

Geography Fieldwork
At the end of the summer term the geography department embarked on their annual field trip to Briancon in the Alps, on the French / Italian border. While there, year 12 students carried out fieldwork to investigate urban issues, tourism and glaciations. Closer to home, a study of Manchester’s central business district was given an international feel when the area under scrutiny was China Town. Many of the students joined their geography teachers for a Chinese buffet lunch. Maybe the restaurant did not quite anticipate that so many of the students would regard ‘all you can eat’ as a challenge! Mr Gadd, Head of Geography
Russian Lessons
Since becoming a language college, students have been given the chance to study a range of new languages, including Mandarin and Arabic. Year 12 student John Furnborough updates us on what he and his classmates have been learning in Russian. A year ago, last November, we were given the choice between Mandarin and Russian lessons. I chose Russian then, without really knowing much about either. Every Wednesday lunchtime we had our small Russian group. The lessons carried on for that year when I was at Main School in Y11, and now this year we’ve merged with the class that had been going on simultaneously at Sixth Form to form the second year class of around six people. I could never have imagined then how quickly things would be moving. Now, we’re even planning an exchange to St Petersburg. In our lessons we take a completely different approach to other language classes I’d been in before, for example, at GCSE.
As for what we cover, all the same things you’d cover in other language lessons (family, travel, hobbies, a manageable dose of grammar, etc.), and we spend most of the time speaking, which I think makes a great change from language classes with a full class of 30 where that’s just not possible. Although that’s not to say we don’t do enough reading and writing. Because we aren’t aiming towards an exam or restricted by any particular set syllabus, we can take the lessons in a more relaxed way, whilst still learning just as well. We’re only there because we want to be, because we enjoy the course, and most of all I feel the small class size relative to our AS classes makes it more social as well. In other words, whilst our Russian lessons are lessons, they don’t feel quite that way.
Meanwhile in Shanghai
During their gap year before attending university, CRGS students Olivia Grimshaw and Jak Spedding have been working at our partner school in China, Xiwai International School in Sonjiang, just outside Shanghai. They have been working as language assistants with children from kindergarten age upwards. Despite the hard work and long hours they have immersed themselves in Chinese culture and taken the opportunity to visit Shanghai many times. In the new year they hope to visit Beijing and other exciting destinations. When CRGS students visit Xiwai at Easter for the second annual exchange they will be in a great position to provide some real local knowledge. Thanks to Edward Bell, Mr Carson, James Delaney, Declan Fitzhenry, Olivia Grimshaw, John Furnborough, Mr Gadd, Miss Holdsworth, Mrs Mitchell, Jak Spedding and Sam Townend for their contributions to this newsletter. This edition of the International Newsletter, along with previous editions is available as a downloadable Word document in the ‘International Newsletter Archive’ located on the dropdown menu on the right hand side of this web page.