March 2012 Newsletter - Oasis Academy John Williams

Mr Welsh
I have lots of
favourite
places so I am
going to tell you about two
of them! The furthest one
away I can think of is a city
called Varanasi in India. It
used to be called Benares
and some say it is the oldest
city in the world. It is a very
holy city for Hindus and sits
on the river Ganges.
It is one of my favourite
places because when I
stayed there I would sit on
the steps to the river
drinking tea every morning
and watch the world go by.
As the sun rose I would see
priests doing their morning
exercises, dhobi wallahs
washing clothes in the river,
beggars preparing
themselves for a
hard day’s
pleading and
endless boats
passing by with
brightly coloured
foods and fabrics. I would
think that the scene I saw
had not really changed for
thousands of years!
A closer favourite place I can
be found is if you leave the
Academy and take a right
onto the Wells Road. Turn
right a few miles after
Whitchurch following a sign
for Stanton Drew.
Eventually there is a field of
standing stones.
Archaeologists think these
were placed here up to 3000
years ago! They were
thought to be used for
important ceremonies and
are also aligned to show
particular events in the sun
and moon’s calendars. I like
it here because it’s a great
place for a walk with my
little boy on a sunny day and
you can try and work out
why the stones were put
where they are!
Miss Wolyn—Last summer I had the
opportunity to visit Tunisia and stayed in
Port El Kantaoui. It was a beautiful place
where all of the hotels and shopping
areas were situated around a
cosmopolitan port. During my stay I tried
to do as much sightseeing as possible. The most exciting
part of my stay was visiting the markets, which were
very fast paced with lots of people bartering for the very
best deal. There were people with hawks, monkeys and
camels, which you could pet or be photographed with.
Another exciting experience was my trip on a pirate
ship, during which I overcame one of my fears and
jumped into the ocean whilst we were far out at sea. I
also visited a place called El Djem where one of the
worlds largest amphitheatres or Coliseums can be
found. I heard about the history of Tunisia under Roman
rule and the wars that had been fought, resulting in
some of the coliseum being destroyed. However, it is
Mrs Wilkins
I started
working
here four
years ago when Oasis
Academy opened. Before
that I was a head of
Humanities in a big school
in Somerset. I come from
Belgium originally and
speak French fluently, but
my passion is History
which is why I teach it.
My favourite city in the
world is Jerusalem in
Israel. I went there a few
years ago and I loved
every minute I spent
there. I was surrounded
by history – old biblical
history, Crusades, British
Mandate and the more
recent troubles. I
remember sitting on a
wall just outside the Al –
Aqsa mosque one Sunday
at 7.30am just as the city
was coming to life. I
could hear church
bells in the distance
and was aware of
heavily armed IDF
soldiers guarding the
still more
complete than the
Coliseum in Rome.
entrance
to the site. It was as if
time stood still for a
moment and I felt quite
overwhelmed by the
sense of history of the
place.
I actually live in my next
favourite city which is
Bath. I love walking
through Victoria Park
early in the morning on
my way into the town
centre. I also love
watching the balloons
take off from there in the
spring. I also like going to
the dentist, just for the
pleasure of walking into
one of the beautiful
houses in the Circus
where he has his practice.
I was fascinated
by my interactions with the Tunisian people. By the time
students reach secondary school they have studied four
languages and many of the people I met could speak six
or seven languages fluently. We visited when a election
was looming and for many it was a worrying time, but
for others it was a time of growth and even revolution.
The hotel I stayed in made me realise how difficult some
countries are finding the global economic issues, as the
hotel had 700 rooms and yet on some occasions there
were only 2 of us at the pool or in the dining room. The
conflict in Libya had also added to the economic
problems as many people had become fearful that there
would also be conflict in Tunisia. I will definitely be
visiting Tunisia again as it is a beautiful place with
interesting and inspiring people.