School uniforms

Every British school has its different style of uniform; it can be green, blue, purple etc…. You could have too wear a tie striped blue or none striped pink! It really doesn’t matter because in any way you would still be wearing a uniform!! School uniforms can go from formal to informal; some schools that have applied uniforms have chosen what some people usually think of in connection to Catholic schools: nice pants and white shirts for boys, jumpers and white shirts for girls. Public schools are trying too make there uniforms a bit more casual for kids like jeans and knit skirts of varying colours.

We have school uniforms because:

- It prevents school bullying
- Stealing
- Helps with “clothing policy” (whether the skirt is too short or others)
- And helps with recognising how is in whose campus (for example : during outings)


I interviewed a few people that wear uniforms and this is what I got:

“I hate wearing uniforms! And sometimes it scratches me”
Mena Smith

“I actually don’t mind that much wearing a uniform at least you don’t get mocked at because of your clothes”
Nikita Levine

“I used to wear a uniform and I think that there was a good and a bad side of it! The good side was that everyone wore it so you didn’t feel stupid, but the worst side of it was that I found the uniform very ugly!!!!!!! “
Hermine Sam

Hermine

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH BREAKFAST

What exactly is an English breakfast?

The staples of an English breakfast are some meat, some egg, bread in the form of toast, possibly fruit juice, and lots of tea.

The meat is usually bacon, always fried and often served quite crispy, as this is thought to be the English preference. There will often be sausage as well, either pork or beef, also generally fried, and as with the bacon, quite well done. Other meat options include either black or white pudding, a fatty sausage usually consisting of blood or animal by-products.

The egg is served in a variety of ways. Many people have a preference for a fried egg, served ‘sunny side up’, but alternative ways of cooking include scrambled eggs, cooked with or without a little milk in the mix; poached eggs, where the egg is cracked into some already boiling water, and even simple boiled eggs

Most restaurants and cafes offer a choice of white or brown wholemeal bread. This is served as a ‘round’ of toast, which simply means several slices per diner. The bread is intended to mop up the egg and meat juices from the plate, and is also eaten after the meat and egg with lashings of butter and marmalade or jam (or also honey possibly) as a sweet course.
The liquid component of this culinary feast is usually fruit juice, either orange or grapefruit. The main drink will be English tea, generally served by the pot, and drunk by the English generally by the gallon.

The Reality of an English breakfast

The reality is that apart from the health aspect of eating so much meat and fried food every day, many people simply don’t have time to cook all this, as well as sitting down to eat it. Many of those who work in the building and construction Industry swear by a full cooked traditional English breakfast every day, hence the popularity of roadside cafes and even roadside vans selling it, and they have the physical constitution for so much protein consumption, doing hard physical labour every day.

But scientists do criticise this belief, and nutritionists are pointing to the need for health-minded moderation in the nations eating habits, and suggest that consuming such a hearty traditional cooked English breakfast should only be an occasional treat.Over recent years health concerns about the impact upon the body that daily consumption of so much meat and fried foods can have, have warned that regular or daily consumption of this meal is not good, and many other healthy alternative options have come on to the menu.

Porridge, traditionally eaten in Scotland, is one such example, and other wheat-based cereals are others. A lighter breakfast, which includes the egg and toast aspect of the traditional English breakfast, but missing out the meat, which is normally bacon, sausage and possibly black or white pudding, is another option.

Thomas

London

http://www.polyvore.com/ldn/set?id=7019703

Juliette

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is a centre specialising in caring for and re-homing abandoned or neglected animals. They provide shelter and veterinary care for them until they manage to find new owners.
Every year Battersea takes in 12,000 animals in need of attention and protection.
Volunteers can adopt or temporarily foster pets in need of homes.
Battersea Dogs and Cats Home has three branches, the largest being Battersea in South-West London.
http://www.battersea.org.uk/about_us/index.html

London Markets

Markets are popular in London, mainly because they offer a wide range of interesting, fresh and original products that you can’t find in supermarkets or mainstream shops. Here are two famous London markets…
Camden Market is situated by Regent’s Canal in north London.
Originally a craft market, Camden has now widened its range of products and sells books, second-hand clothing and jewellery. Trading day is Sunday for the stalls and most products sold at Camden market are handmade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_Market

Portobello Road is clothing, antiques and fresh produce market in west London (Notting Hill area). Portobello draws tourists in on Saturdays and is known for its vast selection of rare antiques. The market runs between Goldborne Road and Westbourne Grove.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portobello_Road

Morven Fraser

British Puddings and Desserts

A pudding is a dessert course of a meal.Be careful, not all our puddings are sweet - like Black Pudding (boudin) and Yorkshire Pudding. Puddings and Cakes You may not know this but there are hundreds and hundreds of puddings in Britain and so few of them are actually known... Nearly all puddings start with the same ingredients: milk, lots of sugar, eggs, flour and generous amounts of butter. Lots of them have fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries and of course cream and custard.

The most well-known british puddings are:

- trifle (one of my favorites, a layered pudding consisting of lots of strawberries or raspberries, jelly, sponge, custard and cream),

- apple or rhubarb crumble (consisting of apple or rhubarb and crubled pastry on top),

- Victoria sponge (consisting of two sponge cakes sandwiched together with strawberry jam and cream. Bad Victoria Sponge is cloggy, good Victoria Sponge is priceless),

- Bread and butter pudding (consisting of slices of bread in a cake tin coated with milk and egg yolks and a few raisins, then oven-baked for a rich, creamy inside and a crispy top)

- Spotted dick, also known as Spotted Dog (a steamed suet pudding containing currants, served with brown sugar and custard).

All five of these are divine. British puddings are mostly simple to make and quite filling, and there's nothing quite like eating trifle on a sunny Summer's day in the park, or a good, comforting crumble when the biting Winter freezes your toes.

Olivia

The London Eye

The London Eye ( also known as the Millennium Wheel) is 135 metres and is the biggest Ferris wheel in Europe, has become the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3 million people a year. It was built between 1998 and 1999, even though it now more of a tourist attraction, it was designed as an '' Observation Wheel''.


However, it is still described by its operators as "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel" (because the entire structure is supported by an A-frame on one side only). The wheel holds 32 passenger capsules (representing one of the London Boroughs ) each one carries roughly 30 people, who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though you are able to sit. It rotates at 26 cm per second (about 0.9 km/h) so that one whole lap takes about 30 minutes. Thanks to his slowness, The wheel does not usually stop to take on passengers.
It was formally opened by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on 31st December 1999, although it was not opened to the public until March 2000 because of technical problems. 8.5 million people had ridden the Eye, by mid-2002. It had planning permission only for five years, but then they decided to make the attraction permanent. Since 1 January 2005, the Eye has been the major point of London's New Year celebrations, with fireworks fired from the wheel itself. The London bid organisers announced the Olympic emblem would be attached to the Eye for the duration of the 2012 Summer Olympics. On the 5th of June 2008 it was announced that 30 million people had ridden the London Eye since its opening.

The Rate Of The Ride
Adults ( 15-60)
£15.50
Child ( 5-15)
£ 7.75
Under 5
-Free-
Seniors ( over 60)
£14.00

Juliette

Double-Decker Buses (2)

When I was a child we used to visit London frequently and one of the most exciting things for me about the holiday was the possibility of riding on the second floor of a double-decker bus.

Aah, what a thrill it was to travel around an unknown city with a bird's-eye view. Having never done it before, it made me feel rather big to be above all the people down below. I remember how the bus used to rock back and forth over potholes and how I was sure that we would hit the tree branches overhead. Hence, because of these thrilling and exciting experiences, I've decided to learn more about these phenomenal pieces of engineering and share my knowledge with you.

A symbolic image of the country, the red double-decker buses used in London are between 9.5 and 10.9m in length. They typically seat from 60 to 80 passengers which means that when fully used they provide a very "green" method of transportation, as well as a very reliable and easy one (unlike the tube).

A double-decker is a rigid single-decker bus but with an extra upper deck, with the decks joined by a staircase — usually at the front in modern vehicles, but in the rear for historical designs. Larger double-deckers can feature both a front and rear staircase. The greatest bus in London's history is the iconic Routemaster. It is a model of double-decker bus that was introduced in 1954 and produced until 1968. It did long service in London from 1956 until 2005 when it was replaced because it was not wheelchair accessible. These buses had their engines at the front with an open platform at the back which it made it very easy to jump on and off even between stops.
A conductor, as well as the driver, was on board which gave passengers greater security. You still see double-decker buses in use throughout London today, but, alas, I do not use them.

Luke

London’s biggest shopping streets

London’s biggest shopping streets:
There are four big shopping streets in London:
--- Oxford Street (Topshop, Body shop...)
--- Regent Street (Apple store, Body shop...)
--- High Street Kensington (The Food hall, Topshop, Zara...)
--- Old Brompton Road Knightsbridge (Harrods, H&M, Harvey Nichols...)

Oxford Street at night
A very beautiful place to be at night,
the shops will fill you with delight
the atmosphere is more peaceful when
not crowded with people.

Old Brompton Road’s Harrods
When Harrods illuminate the
nocturnal sky, it’s a scene that has
to be seen.

Regent Street

On this never-ending road there are

shops that have to be visited, like the
impressive Apple Store.

High Street Kensington
This road contains lots of shops and

restaurants that can be highly
entertaining for a week-end afternoon.

Eliott

The London Underground

The London Underground is a metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. It is both the world's oldest underground railway and the oldest rapid transit system.
It was also the first underground railway to operate electric trains.
It is usually referred to as the Underground or the Tube (deriving from the shape of the system's tube like tunnels) although more than half of the network is above ground.

Charles &Samy

Drunk on Tea

As a lot of you may know, when you say tea, you say England. In most countries, people might drink tea at breakfast, or at most twice a day, because in most countries tea is a very disappointing adventure: a teabag soaking in a large mug of hot water. But in England tea is not only a wonderful drink; it’s a national habit. We drink tea 24/7. It can also be a meal. With it, you can serve cakes, biscuits or sandwiches on posh little china plates. Why do the English drink so much tea? Well no one knows. Perhaps because of the cold weather, or maybe it was a fashion a long time ago, it could be anything !!! The first man who introduced tea to England was Earl Grey. He had discovered it while walking through India .Then a man named Thomas Twining set up as a tea merchant in the London Strand in 1706. Twining has traded since from the same address, an amazing and unique world record.

Victoria

Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street is a pedestrian shopping street in London, within the Soho district, near Oxford Street, just to the east of Regent Street. This small village used to be a power station but, during the 1960s, more and more shops settled on Carnaby Street. It soon became famous for it’s groovy, quirky and hippie stores. Bands such as The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones came to work, shop, and socialize in this area and so, from then on, Carnaby Street became one of London's coolest destinations.
It now includes twelve pedestrian streets and 168 fashion boutiques like:
American Apparel
David & Goliath
Office
Vans…

Maïa

Heathrow airport

Heathrow is the largest and most occupied airport in the United Kingdom. It is the world’s thirst busiest airport for passenger traffic. It is located at 22 kilometres of central London.
The site covers 12.14 square kilometres; it is composed of 5terminals (the fifth was opened in 2008). There capacity is of 90million passenger a year.

France

Baleine de la Tamise

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baleine_de_la_Tamise

Alexia

Books

English Language Books are widely renowned as some of the best books in the world.
Throughout the year there are many book contests, some being aired on TV programmes such as Richard and Judy, or Blue Peter: a widely watched children-teenagers programme. However a lot of famous children’s series are written in other languages such as German. Harry Potter, The Inheritance series ( Eragon, Eldest, Bresingr ), and The Twilight Series (though I may not like it) are among some of the world famous series.

Henri

Crime in London

Studies have revaled that knife crime has risen from 25,00 to 65,00 in just 2 years meaning that there were 175 knife robberies in England and Wales in just one day. It is said that 10% of boys aged 11 and 12 carrie wepons, 8 % of then attack, hurt and even kill other youths. 24% of sixteen year olds carrie wepons and 16% of then usedf their deadly wepons. Youths carrie guns and knifes to either protect themselves or just to be cool.Knife crime has doubled in two years.Gun crime has unfortunatly risen up to 90%. Gun crime in London is increasing so much that police are scared not to cope anymore.

The fire arm units (police) deal with 20 up to 30 incidents a day.Their are many gangs in London, especially East London(22), North London(13), South and South west London(12). Rival gangs kill eachother, for many reasons(territory...).The metropolitain police are doing their best to end all of this, but they need our help. The mair of London has asked celebrities to talk to children and try to convince them to stop, bins are also painted with a knife drawn of it and it says "save a life, bin that knife".

Sophia & Helena

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context a circus, from the Latin word meaning a circle, is a circular open space at a street junction.
It now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue as well as the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square), and Glasshouse Street. The Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the heart of the West End. Its status as a major traffic-intersection has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meetingplace and a tourist attraction in its own right.The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue of an archer popularly known as Eros (sometimes called The Angel of Christian Charity, but intended to be Anteros). It is surrounded by several noted buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre. Directly underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus London Underground station.

Morgane

Museums in London

In London there are three famous museums which attract many people:

The Natural History Museum

The museum was established in 1881.
This museum is located on Cromwell Road, just in front of the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle.
The museum shows many different topics ( life and earth science ). The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons. The museum has topics for all ages.

The Science Museum

The museum was established in 1857.
This museum is also near to the Lycee, on Exhibition Road.
Many tourists come to this museum. The Science Museum has many popular collections including: Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine… This attraction has many interactive machines and games for children as for adults.

Le Victoria and Albert Museum

( known as the V & A )
Named after Price Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852.
This museum is London largest museum of decorative arts and design.
It contains millions well-known objects ( costumes, silver… ) coming from
everywhere in the world.

Marine

Le carnaval de Londres

Pendant les années 50, les gens originaires des Caraïbes qui vivaient a nothing hill (quartier de Londres)ont du subir une série d'attaques raciales, des mauvais logements et des manques d'emplois.Du a ces condition de vie ils commencèrent à avoir une sous-estimation de soi À cause des tensions dans le quartier, les habitants se mirent à organiser des bals dans des salles du nord de Londres, là où les gens noirs pouvaient se retrouver librement. À la même époque, des gens originaires de Trinidad se mirent à jouer de la musique dans des steel band chaque samedi au Colherene Pub à Earls Court.

Christopher

WESTFIELD

Westfield is a new shopping centre that opened recently in west london . It is the biggest mall in Europe ,
very sophisticated ,this mall has even its very own tube station. when you will enter i'm sure there are going to be able all the shops you can possibly imagine.
I hope your correspondent takes you there, however, what ever you do make sure you don't get lost.
Good luck

Alexander

Graffiti In LDN

London is also known for it’s wide range of graffiti, all across the capital. From Old Street (East London) to Morden (South) or to Ladbroke Grove (West). There are many artists, like any graffiti artist trying to make a name for them selves. The two most infamous artists that have swept the nation are Banksy and Toxic.

Banksy (born 1974 in Bristol) is a well-known pseudo-anonymous, English Graffiti Artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but there is uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s. His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His art has appeared in cities around the world. Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or put on exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries. Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.

Toxic

Tox is the capital’s most infamous tagger. During his nocturnal adventures, he’s sprayed hundreds of walls, signal boxes and trains over much of London’s rail network. Despite arrest in 2004, the spraying spree continued throughout last few years.

^{If you would like more information on this subject, please visit Graffiti - Derelict London .}

^George

BANKSY

Banksy is a well-known unidentified English graffiti artist who spreads topics such as politics, culture, and moral messages by drawing his pieces around on street walls in England.

He is believed to be a native of Gloucestershire, northeast of the city of Bristol and to have been born in 1974, the son of a photocopier engineer, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. He trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980’s.

He uses, for his street art, a combination of graffiti writing with a distinctive stenciling technique. Banksy started as an unguided graffiti artist in 1992-1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ). He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger “Bristol underground scene”.

By 2000 he had turned to the art of stenciling after realizing how much less time it took to complete a "piece." He claims he changed to stenciling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage, when he noticed the stenciled serial number and employing this technique soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. His art has appeared in cities around the world.

Filippo

Oxford Street (2)

Are you ready for some serious shopping ? Oxford Street is calling !!

Go through hundreds of different clothing shops, and find your special article. (h&m, topshop, accessories, gap, primark, bershka, claire’s, and a lot more !!)

If you don’t find what your looking for here i’m not sure where you’ll find it.

www.oxfordstreet.co.uk

Tess

The London transport

The London Transport (www.tfl.gov.uk) consists of:

- the London Underground (the tube) consisting of:

- the Bakerloo Line

- the Northern Line

- the District Line

- the Piccadilly Line

- the Circle Line

- the Jubilee Line

- the Victoria Line

- the Hammersmith and City Line

- the Central Line

- the Waterloo and City Line

- the Metropolitan Line

- the London Rail responsible for:

- the National Rail

- the London Overground

- the Docklands Light Railway

- the London Tram

- the Surface Transport consisting of:

- the London Buses

- the London River Services

- London Dial-a-Ride

OXFORD STREET (1)

As British people we love to shop. There’s a paradise situated in Westminster city its called Oxford Street. There are more than 350 shops, such as: topshop, new look, urban outfitters, river island, Zara, Bershka … Oxford street is a London road that measures two and a half kilometres. 338 people would pass by a giving point every MINUTE on a normal Saturday afternoon. There are also well decorated restaurants, cafes and bars. Its been so succesfull that the concil made the road even longer they’ve called it, New Oxford Street. http://www.oxfordstreet.co.uk

Jasmine

The Eccentric English

Definition: In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behaviour on the part of an individual.

Isabella Blow saw no good reason not to go around with a lobster on her head. But she had to admit it was hard to find a designer for this very special hat, before she discovered Philip Treacy the hatmaker.

A few facts about Henry Paget, a very extravagant and astoundingly rich aristocrat:

• He wore dozens of rings on his long, dainty fingers and used powder to blanche his face.
• He was so rich and self-indulgent that he had his motor cars modified to spout exhaust gases perfumed with patchouli and 'l'eau d'Espagne.'
• His wardrobe included: Thirty of the finest silk pyjamas, 100 dressing gowns, suits of every colour and kind (most unworn), smoking jackets, florid waistcoats, 260 pairs of white kids gloves, 280 sets of socks and 100 overcoats.

But you don’t have to be old to be eccentric: just look at the Camden market punks

You don’t even have to go to Camden to see eccentrics, I once saw a jogger dragging several tyres behind him!

These are a few other hilarious London eccentrics: the inventor who made giant ships out of ice, a man who rides down the river in an Edwardian bath chair, and the guy with the world’s biggest collection of pillar boxes!

Marie-Lou

London

London. A world-wide city.

London. A financial capital.

London. A multi-media home.

London. A historical treasure.

Everyone knows London. If you don't you need to revise your geography.

But it's mostly known for it's present, for what it is today. Sometimes, we seem to forget that these very same streets, some even kept their original name, were walked, trampled and danced on more than 200 years ago by the people called londonners under the eye of the one, the only, the great Queen Victoria.

Obviously, since then, things have changed: some places were destroyed, others built. The city doesn't work the same way. People can leave their homes without the constant fear of diseases, rats as big as cats and crazy habitants today, whereas in the 19^th century, if you were sensible and held dearly to your life, you wouldn't open your door after the sun had set…

There are, however, some habits, some traditions, that remain.

Roxana

MARMITE

Marmite, you either love it or hate it.

Most foreigners hate Marmite because of its very unique and distinct taste, but most British people like it because children are given it from a young age due too the amount of vitamin B in it. Marmite is supposed to be very good for you.


Marmite was so good for you because of its vitamin B, that it was included in soldiers ration packs during

First World War. It also became a basic food in hospitals and schools.

During World War II, Marmite became a dietary supplement in prisoner-of-war camps.


They started using black glass jars in 1920. The shape of the jar and the distinct red and yellow label has remained pretty much the same since then.

Anne