On Wednesday 12th November, Oriel was represented at the annual Rotary Club public speaking competition by a group of brave year 9 students. The ceremony took place in the church at Deneside, Great Yarmouth and involved competitors from Lynn Grove, Flegg, Caister and Great Yarmouth High.

Casey Wymer, Callum Riches and Callum Cooke spoke with great authority on the subject of the recent American election, with specific reference to the success of Barack Obama. Casey was the chairperson of the group – he was required to present the topic focus area; introduce Callum’s main speech and handle the challenging ‘questions from the floor’.

Callum Riches gave the main speech which had to last 5 minutes and Callum Cooke rounded off the proceedings by offering an ‘expression of thanks’ to all concerned in the presence of the Mayor and Mayoress of Great Yarmouth.

Many local schools entered teams of year 11 students, so our group had a major challenge! Unfortunately, they did not win the overall competition, but they’ve had a personal invitation to come back and compete next year!

Congratulations Casey, Callum and Callum – Oriel is tremendously proud of your achievement!

Obscure Ants came into Oriel and ran a workshop with our students in year 10 and year 7. The images produced from the workshop will be used as part of the Yarmouth ‘Out There’ festival at half term. The images will also be projected onto larger buildings in Yarmouth. Year 10 students enjoyed learning new skills and discovering new talents during their first Flexi-Friday. They experimented with the Drama mediums of masks music mime to create a dance drama. They completed a focus workshop and became ‘killer zombies’

The images produced from the workshop will be used as part of the Yarmouth ‘Out There’ festival at half term. The images will also be projected onto larger buildings in Yarmouth.

Arcade Maniacs started when 5 students, 3 from Oriel Specialist Mathematics and Computing College and 2 from Great Yarmouth High School were chosen to spend 7 months building a Victorian arcade machine from scratch. The ‘Arcade Maniacs were hand picked as part of an initiative run between Enterprise GY and local engineering company Placepower Ltd.

Ally Ferry, Nathan Brown and Ray Lillie from Oriel along with Jay Nichols and Josh Clark from Great Yarmouth High School took part in this fantastic opportunity and were involved from start to finish.

The earthquake machine starts with the user sitting in an armchair watching a spoof news bulletin put together by the boys from Oriel and several media students. As the anticipation grows, breaking news about an impending earthquake is announced. Within seconds the picture on the TV breaks up and the lights start to flash, the armchair shakes and the table breaks in half whilst making the cats eyes pop out.

Using the work of local inventor Tim Hunkin as their inspiration, the five students came up with ‘The Earthquake Machine’ this machine was an amazing achievement for all the boys and when finished was showcased on Southwold Pier for a day with the local MP Tony Wright being the first to test it out. He said of the machine : "For somebody who has come from an engineering background, I am so pleased to be associated with this terrific project. It’s an excellent machine and I’m sure you’ll reap the benefits in the future."

The young inventors were presented with certificates by Tony Wright and the machine will now visit Enterprise GY headquarters at the Novus Centre in Yarmouth and local high schools before it appears at the National Science and Engineering Fair in London next March.