On Monday 20 February, Tiger Primary School introduced a new behaviour system to reward the extraordinary behaviour most of the Tiger Primary students show. Each week every class gets to vote on an activity they will do on the Friday afternoon to reward and promote the good behaviour shown.

Children can earn Tiger Time by following the school’s 3 rules: ready, respectful and safe. This Maidstone state school educates 439 students with a positive attitude to all school-work. Children get to choose their Tiger Time and participate in it from 2:40-3:10pm.

The deputy headteacher Mr Purser remarked that: ‘It is a wonderful idea and a great opportunity for the pupils that take pride in their work to really be noticed.’

Tiger Time is a reincarnation of Golden Time which was 30 minutes of relaxing music and calm games. It has been re-introduced to help with behaviour as children are more likely to work harder if there is a prize at the end. In this case, Tiger Time is the prize at the end that every child is working towards. All ages are able to do our range of exciting activities which contain educational purposes.

Every week there is an opportunity for your activity to be chosen. Lily from Year 2 commented: ‘I can’t wait to make a cake this week.’

Sydney from Year 3 expressed: 'I feel like I have behaved amazing consistently and I am excited to make stress balls.’

Although everyone has been enjoying it, some unfortunate child was misbehaving, so he lost 10 minutes of Tiger Time. He stated: ‘It was really sad when I missed Tiger Time because I thought it was going to be boring but, when I got to my classroom I realised how much fun it actually was.’

Since this is such a successful system Tiger Primary will keep doing Tiger Time and by the end of the year the deputy headteacher hopes to see an improvement in students’ behaviour.

Last academic year, the Headmaster and the City Council made an agreement that girls will be able to join Kings Heath Boys School.

The school, which was built in 1960, was rated ‘Good’ by OFSTED. The school recently had a £7 million extension and it is a non-selective school. The age range there is 11-16 years old.

If Kings Heath school became co-educational, parents would have a choice to send their daughters to a mixed secondary school. Last year, 100 girls had to travel out of Kings Heath to find a secondary school.

The head teacher, Mr Chris Etheridge, said: “We want to give families the choice of a co-educational school in the Kings Heath area as there is not currently a mixed school option.”

Some children like the proposal but other students do not agree with the proposal.

“I would prefer to attend a boys only school but we might get taught different lessons if girls come which will be interesting,” remarked a Kings Heath pupil.

A boy in year 8 said: “It might be a weird start but it’s my education that’s important.”

At this time, the idea is still a proposal. The decision will be made in July 2023. If they do allow girls, we can see the changes happening next September. The consultation is still happening in the area.

Year 6 children at Salisbury Road Primary School have the opportunity to become a playleader from January onwards to stop the playground from being too chaotic.

These new rules were implemented due to the fact fights and arguments were occurring more often. Also due to the fact of more children being left out of games. These rules were made by Mrs Benton and rules include games such as skipping, snakes and ladders, throwing games, football, picnic areas and a crochet table.

Mrs Benton, the headteacher of the school, stated: “Mr Taylor had organised training for children in year 6 to become playleaders, to help with the new scheme at lunchtime, which included: drawing, skipping, times and rules for football, wooden blocks and games (held by the playleaders).”

A mealtime assistant who is out in the playground at lunchtimes stated: “The play leaders are very helpful.”

Many children (including play leaders) have made friends and had lots of fun. In an interview, Zara, who is a play leader, said: “I love it. I have made so many friends!”

Later in the year, Mr Taylor, who trains the play leaders, is hoping to train year 5s ready for next year.

On 7 February, Internet Safety Day, Taughmonagh Primary School took part in activities to learn how to keep safe online.

Angel, a primary 7 pupil, quoted: "Everyone should learn about Internet Safety Day, because you never know what could happen. You could get a message from someone you don’t know and you will not know what to do."

Internet Safety Day is about learning about wellbeing and staying safe online. People need to realise how dangerous the internet can be.

Mrs Scott the primary 5 teacher stated: "There are darker sides to the internet so you never know what can happen to you, or who can chat you and send DMs to you."

As the internet changes it is vital that pupils have the skills and the knowledge to stay safe online.

Teachers in Northern Ireland went on strike on Tuesday 21 February. The teachers were protesting because they wanted better pay and working conditions. The teachers felt they had no choice but to take strike action because they are concerned that cuts to teachers’ pay, and lack of funding for schools are causing a crisis in education.

The teachers were on strike because they wanted their salary to keep up with inflation. Their pay hasn’t increased in the past two years. The unfavourable working conditions in many schools is another factor.

The bad working conditions include: growing class sizes, teaching assistants disappearing from the system, higher levels of poverty, inadequate school budgets.

The vice principal of the same school, Mrs Kathy Browes, also said: "I felt it was important to support the strike. It’s about more than just pay."

The teachers union has stated that they will continue to strike until their pay is fair.

A new comet was discovered Wednesday 1 February 2023.

Astronomers have named it C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It took about 50 000 years for the journey towards Earth. It was first seen in California through a telescope on 2 March 2022. It is green because of something called an Oort Cloud, a collection of icy bodies at the edge of the solar system. It’s currently 41 million km (26 million miles) away from Earth.

Dr Greg Brown quoted: "The comet is at its brightest about now and will quickly drop in brightness as it starts to move away from Earth."

It appears that the amazing beautiful long tails are extremely unique to the comets because it is the ice heating up, boiling and steaming that creates them. They first thought that it was an asteroid but then they noticed that it was a comet and named it C/2022 E3 (ZTF). Amateur photographer Jack Downer told us: "The comet doesn't really have a tail in the photo because the tail is so faint in the image and you would need proper professional equipment to pick it up."

According to astronomers: "The green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was last seen in the ice age with sabre tooth tigers. When diatomic carbon is excited by ultra violet rays it gives off light resulting in the green comet."

Just yesterday a bright light of the full moon called a snow moon may have obscured some people’s views of the famous “Green Comet”. An expert told us. "It will disappear in the direction of the Oort Cloud in the outer Solar System back to where it was made."

It will continue to be visible throughout the week from anywhere in the northern hemisphere - weather permitting. Astronomers are unsure if comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will ever return to Earth again and even if it comes we will not be around to see it.