THE HARROVIAN
Student Newspaper
Editor: Zeli Wang (Y13, Churchill)
Issue 13
Leadership for a better world
India House Building Trip by Mei Law (Y11, Gellhorn)
Typically, summertime evokes thoughts of beachside getaways, family fun and relaxation. My getaway, however, involved a physically challenging - albeit highly rewarding - expedition to India in order to build a house with thirteen other students. The adventure began with fundraising way back at the beginning of the last school year when summer seemed a long way off, yet before we knew it, we were checking items off the kit list and meeting Mr Lloyd at HKIA on the 1st July. I had my fair share of concerns about the trip (mainly contracting Malaria), but once aboard, they disappeared, replaced by anticipation and excitement of what lay ahead. Arriving at Philipkutty’s Farm, nestled in the Southern India Kerala backwaters, we were looked after by Anu and her family. We arrived late and exhausted, our first full day in India spent acclimatising, which served as a relaxing start while setting the mood for the trip ahead. Following our kilometre walk to the site the next day, I immediately felt out of place. As an unskilled building site worker, everything was new and I was forced to adopt the timeworn workman’s gesture: the head tilt. The bouts of heavy rain, which would typically be unwelcome, were a much needed relief to the deadly combination of unbearable heat and humidity when spending hours outside doing manual labour! Although the foundations of the house had already been laid, we weren’t short for jobs: mixing cement, bricklaying and even soldering metal work. The ‘highlight’ of our workday was undoubtedly the delivery truck dumping (no exaggeration) tonnes of bricks onto the road outside. We would then form a chain to transfer the bricks from the path into stacks around the site. When we began to lose steam, we could always count on the biscuit tray that was frequently ferried around. After a bruising day’s work, we would pile onto the back of the truck returning us to
October 2017
the farm. We received some strange looks, understandably - a group of filthy, tired tourists sitting on the back of a truck. During the trip, we took time off between building to visit two schools. I was struck by the similarities between the private ‘Choice School’ and Harrow Hong Kong, the most noticeable being the great facilities and school pride, which was evident from the school assembly we watched. The local school did not boast the same facilities as Choice School, but was full of enthusiastic and positive children, who were eager to learn all about us and where we lived. Half of us taught English while the other half played cricket with the students. Despite being shy initially, they quickly embraced the likes of ‘Hangman’, ‘Charades’ and ‘Pictionary’. Cricket was extremely popular, especially as the local boys dominated the score! The contrast between these two schools was marked and was not lost on us. However, both schools were clearly creating leading individuals for a better world. After nine days of work, we’d earned a well-deserved break at an Eco Lodge in the Spice Hills. A chance to indulge in massages, recollect and reflect. It was so relaxing that I hardly wanted to leave the comfort of my air-conditioned room although I managed to visit the local town and return with a few trinkets. Following the Spice Hills, we promptly returned to finish the build. Fortunately, they had saved the roofing as our
final task - having to mix and lay tons of cement on the roof in the oppressive heat resulted in a satisfying finale! Having bid farewell to the builders and Suresh (the architect) and commemorated our efforts with a photo, we left with the warming thought of how much a family would benefit from the effort we had put into the house. As well as building the house, we were fortunate to experience some of the culture that Kerala offered. Anu served traditional foods at the Farm and while it may have been difficult at first to adjust to curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner, writing this now, I can still savour the taste of the delicious food we sampled. We also visited a church and temple, watching devotees at one temple chanting and rolling in the sand, which I later learned was an attempt at balancing
spiritual and physical wellbeing. Despite finding it hard to understand the intricacies of these practices, I realised how important it is for us to appreciate other beliefs and not to judge in ignorance. The experience was hugely rewarding. Watching a house rise from the ground as a result of your hard work is a feeling impossible to replicate. Thanks to Mr Cliffe, Mrs Cliffe and Mr Lloyd, who organised the trip; your patience, good humour and encouragement was in perfect measure.
we took a two-hour bus ride to the game drive company’s buildings for a bacon-heavy breakfast. We were kept occupied by the landscape – I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many photos in one sitting, but every mountain, every horizon, vineyard, village, river, even every rock seemed so worthy of immortalising; the entire country is genuinely breathtaking. We saw zebras, wildebeest, hippopotamuses, rhinoceros, giraffes and a small pride of lions; most of the animals I have
World Scholar’s Cup, Cape Town by Eve Caplowe (Y13, Keller)
World Scholar’s Cup, Cape Town (affectionately nicknamed ‘Nerd Safari’) was a truly incredible experience. The academic competition itself was only one aspect; the people, excursions, activities and food were what really made this trip so worthwhile. Successes in the competition were widespread amongst our three teams, consisting firstly of Benjamin Wang (Y13, Churchill), Joshua Wu (Y13, Shaftesbury) and Angela Ng; secondly, Victor Hui (Y13, Peel), Karen Wong (Y13, Gellhorn) and Steven Liu (Y13, Peel); and thirdly, Elbert Wang (Y13, Churchill), Shirley Dong (Y13, Keller) and myself. While none of us left the contest with fewer than three medals (and some with many more), special mention must go to Karen Wong, whose individual writing earned an incredibly impressive fourth place out of over 500 delegates. For this, she took home a very shiny trophy. Other than academic awards, we also all brought home the competition’s mascot – a stuffed alpaca. Even Mr and Mrs Smith got a pair, thanks to Elbert and my smooth talking ways and shameless begging. The organisers of the World Scholar’s Cup did not just plan the competition but also set up many other activities for us, notably a talent show, debate showcase and a dance. Mandatory dances never fail to get like-minded people together: the outgoing dancers get to meet other dancers while the more awkward, snarky kids gravitate towards each other. For me, that’s how the strongest bonds were formed – walking away from the dance floor for hilarious conversation. I feel obliged to say that the Harrow team participated in the talent show, singing Uptown Girl together. Personally, I would rather not say much more about that except congratulations to the two clear stars, Josh and Steven. To my mind, a significantly more pleasant memory was the game drive. After waking up for a gruelling 6am start,
been obsessed with since I was six. These lions had been rescued from a hunting farm where they were bred to be shot by rich tourists, so had never learnt to hunt or feed themselves. They were strangely helpless for such enormous predators. The sight of them was both awe-inspiring and sobering. The scale and vitality of this range of creatures was really reinforced when on a tour through the city of Cape Town, we stopped in a natural history museum. We were particularly shocked by the size of the animals we had only seen from a distance, especially the elands. It happened to be National Science Week, so Ben and Mrs Smith had a ball talking about the universe and the possibility of silicon-based aliens with an armchair astronomer outside the museum, who had a telescope with which you could look at the sun. Elbert was given a pair of deceptively, simple-looking sun viewing glasses made of cardboard that meant you could see different coloured spots on the sun’s surface. I would like to take a moment here to thank the people of South Africa for their incredible food. Biltong, of course is world-famous and deservingly so, but there was so much more. The V&A, a shopping mall and collection of restaurants on the waterfront never failed to disappoint us come dinnertime. Mrs Smith also took it upon herself to organise an incredible tour of Cape Town with a local guide, Mari-Eloise. She took us to see sites like 200-year-old forts in the centre of Cape Town and the town hall where Nelson Mandela made his first speech as a free man since his imprisonment on Robben Island. We also had the chance to see more of the natural side of the area with a boat trip to see seals and the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve. The freezing cold and threat of baboon attacks were made infinitely more bearable by the scale of the scenery. From a lighthouse at the top of a hill, we could see not only rugged hills and cliffs, but miles of ocean, with a whale that I refused to accept was actually a whale for an inordinately long time. We also went to visit Robben Island and saw where Mandela and other political prisoners had
been held during the Apartheid, and were fortunate enough to hear a survivor of the prison talk about his experiences in a shockingly forgiving and powerful way. Personally, I’ve never been a great fan of school trips, but this was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on, school-based or not. If anyone else has the chance to participate in World Scholar’s’ Cup or visit Cape Town, I would strongly recommend it.
Building Semi-regular Shapes by Benjamin Wang (Y13, Churchill)
Societies Fair
by Benjamin Wang (Y13, Churchill)
Ten societies, budding and established, gathered along the Astro on the 20th September to kick off their year’s service to the community by offering membership to prospective students. The fair attracted crowds of students, both Prep and Senior, checked out the display boards and signed up on their way to and from lunch. In case you missed out on the societies fair, or you would like to join another society, a sure way to find out more is to contact the chairs. Five existing societies were present at the fair. This year, I will chair Maths and Computing, known for our enigma code-breaking activity and Python art workshop, while Tracy Chen (Y13, Keller) will lead Physics, Engineering and Technology, the longest-standing society, in their fourth year of operation, famed for their egg-drop challenge, science fair, and breadboarding for electronics geeks. The torch will be passed to Nathan Man (Y13, Churchill), leading the Medical Society, which will offer dissection practicals and guest lectures for their members, preparing them for pursuing the subject at university. Kari Lam and Suki Cheung (both Y13, Gellhorn) will continue to inspire members of Visual Arts with the possibility of an art magazine and a large mural project, having experimented with Coffee Art last year. Philosophy and History will be run by Paris Spivey and Morgan Jack (both Y12, Gellhorn) after a successful year under Joshua Wu (Y13, Shaftesbury) featuring pizza lunch meetings and a scavenger hunt. Five new societies represented at the fair include: Political and Global Affairs (Anna Tang (Y13, Gellhorn)), Geography (Hamza Apabhai (Y13, Peel)), Expansive Minds (Jeffery Kwan How, Nathan Man (both Y13, Churchill) and Greg Chu (Y13, Peel)), Economics (Michelle Zhang (Y13, Keller)), and Law (Edison Tsang (Y12, Peel)). Societies hold five meetings for members during the year, so if you’re on a mailing list, stayed tuned so you don’t miss a session! Good luck and may it be a fruitful year ahead for leaders and participants alike.
With the aim of exploring symmetries in shapes and structures, young mathematicians and builders joined hands in order to create intricate shapes on the 21st of September, the day following Societies Fair. The shapes they made are called semi-regular solids, which are solid shapes with regular polygons for faces, with the additional requirements that the arrangement of faces around each vertex needs to be the same. To start with, students came up with possible examples of vertices using paper polygons and blu-tack. Some of these students began to build truly colossal structures while some produced shapes that quickly closed up. The second half of the session featured our favourite modelling set. The set is no ordinary stick-and-ball model, but a mathematically created one with each connecting ‘ball’ having 60 symmetries. Each group had one kind of stick and focused on building one shape, with only the descriptions
of one vertex each as guidelines. The group on the icosidodecahedron found the start tricky, because the positions of the sticks in relation to each other are counter-intuitive. The team building the truncated icosahedron quickly realised that it represented the stitching on a football, or the molecular structure of C60. They even found time for some side projects, such as trying to build tall towers (the society may host that exact activity in the future). The builders of the truncated dodecahedron found the task especially difficult, because they were working with the longest sticks, and the internal angles of the decagon are hard to figure out initially. However, they sped up as they saw patterns developing with more faces completed, and completed the structure with only one stick to spare. All teams were able to complete their structures before the end of the session and were happy with their work. It is now a well-proven fact that students love the snacks at the end of sessions. The structures, with the smallest one nested inside the medium-sized one, which will in turn be nested inside the largest one, will be displayed in the library until the next session on the 9th of November.
Robotics + Arduino Introduction by Tracy Chen (Y13, Keller)
On the 28th September and the 2nd October, the Physics, Engineering and Technology (PET) Society introduced enthusiastic students to arduino and robotics. Here in PET, we provide opportunities for members to explore areas beyond the syllabus and to pursue interests through a variety of sessions. In the first session, students familiarised themselves with Arduino, an electronic prototyping platform, and learned about the role of robotics and programming in the modern world. The first project they completed was a “blinking LED”, which was an elementary project for learning Arduino and analogous to the “Hello World!” program in computer programming. Students wrote simple programs to control the voltage sent from the Arduino board to an LED circuit, turning the LED on and off in a defined pattern. Following the process, the students then replaced the LED circuit by a transistor-motor circuit. If the signal sent from the board to the transistor’s base pin was high, the transistor would close the circuit between its collector pin (connected to batteries) and emitter pin (connected to the motor), so that the motor would turn. Subsequently, the students were able to control
the motor by implementing the method above. During the second session, after gaining basic skills of programming using Arduino, students started to build the framework of robotic cars. They will combine their finished framework, knowledge of the transistor-motor circuit, and logical and programming skills in the next session on the 18th October to make their robots move in specified ways. The session will further provide students who want to enhance their robots with components such as servos, ultrasound distance sensors and infrared colour sensors. We are thrilled to work with different students and to develop their interests by showing them that engineering can be fun. We look forward to future chances to engage with members in fun and rewarding ways.
Maths Team Defends Title by Benjamin Wang (Year 13, Churchill)
“Sacrifice the box now — we need that for everything else!”
Overheard in the fast-paced Senior Team Maths Challenge (STMC) hosted by Harrow, this quote quintessentially proves how heat-of-the-moment decisions can sway the outcome of an entire round of exciting, creative maths. On the 21st September, 36 teams from twelve international schools in Hong Kong competed in three rounds of problem solving emphasising teamwork. I was in a team of four with Greg Chu (Y13, Peel), Antoinette Wong (Y12, Gellhorn), and Douglass Wang (Y12, Peel). My team shared the group round workload, but careless mistakes and breakdown of common sense under time pressure caused us to get two out of ten questions wrong. We nevertheless still held the lead, and proceeded to the cross-number round, which is essentially a crosswords puzzle with digits for letters. The catch is that one pair has only the across clues and the other pair has only the down clues. With this setup, you can imagine how common it is for our pair to ask the other pair to ‘give’ a box to us so that we can complete more entries, thereby unlocking much-needed clues for other spaces. Sometimes, ‘sacrificing’ a box can allow us to figure out the number involving the box, since we have narrowed it down to just a few possibilities. Hence, the quote at the beginning. With this strategy, we were able to complete the crossnumber in the tight time constraints but our lead has been chipped away to just one point. In the final round, the relay, each of our answers depended on a teammate’s answer. Usually, the question can
be simplified significantly, but there was always one difficult question in the chain of the relay, so we struggled at first. Adopting an extraordinary workaround, however, we eked out the overall win at the end, scoring 133 points over King George V’s 129. This win defends the STMC title won last year by the team I was in. Our second team, featuring Sabrina Shi (Y13, Keller), Ken Zhang (Y13, Churchill), Emily Tang and Glory Kuk (both Y12, Keller) made a commendable effort to achieve the highest score in the relay round and to come eleventh overall. Here is one of our relay questions, which you can try yourself: “T is the answer of your previous teammate’s question. If (T/6)3y+1 = 16y+1, find the value of 1/y.” In this case, T is 24. If you are interested in doing creative maths, then talk to your Maths teacher or sign up for a maths challenge ECA. It doesn’t hurt to have a go and it may change your misconceptions that maths is boring and formulaic. In any field of interest, though, if you have your mind set on something, go for it and have fun. Most importantly, don’t forget why you started doing it in the first place.
Assessment Centre by Kalina Milenova (Year 13, Wu)
On the 19th and 20th June 2017, Year 12 students participated in a Mock Assessment Centre organised by Ms Rotchford and Ms Morris. The aim of this experience was to engage students in a variety of activities, which would allow them to showcase a range of skills they had developed during the year, such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork and influence to name but a few. In advance, participants were asked to prepare a CV and Cover Letter for a job at a bogus organisation, called ‘Gestalt Consulting’, with accurate and detailed information about their suitability for the position of a Management Consultant Trainee. Over twenty five parents also volunteered a significant amount of time and played a key role in this process by conducting mock interviews with each student. This was
a critical component in the Assessment Centre process and allowed students to reflect on their performance in the interview alongside feedback from other individual and group activities. The variety of techniques included interviews, group exercises, psychometric testing, presentations and observation of social interactions to assess their competencies, aptitudes, personality and ultimate suitability for the role. In addition, students wore smart business attire to familiarise themselves with some of the expectations of a professional working environment. “Participating in the two day Mock Assessment Centre allowed me to become familiar with the world of careers. It provided an opportunity to experience tests used by graduate recruiters, giving us an advantage, as we now know what to expect. The most rewarding part of the Mock Assessment Centre experience is getting the feedback from our interviewers. Seeing the analysis of my performance and comparing it with an overview of what employers look for really allowed me to see what competencies I should look to strengthen.” Jenny Zhong (Y13, Keller) “I now realise that grades are only one part in helping me to be successful, there are other parts that I need to develop such as contributing regularly to group discussions by asking questions and presenting original ideas to the rest of the group.” Victor Yang (Y13 Shaftesbury) This term, students will be receiving an individual report with invaluable feedback about their performance in each of the activities. In their Skills and Competencies lessons, they will be able to assess their personal strengths and weaknesses and further develop their competencies. Speaking with Ms Rotchford, we gained some insight into her ideas behind the two-day program: Kalina: In your opinion, what are the most valuable lessons and skills Assessment Centres can teach participants? Ms Rotchford: I know it will be a number of years before students start applying for jobs but the Assessment Centre activity allows students to evidence these skills and then receive feedback on what areas they need to focus on moving forward. Much of this development in competencies requires time, as they represent changes in our behaviour and such changes take time. For example, some students, although highly capable, may contribute very little to group or class discussions and this requires a change that they need
to consciously work on over time, seeking out opportunities to continually practise. Kalina: Why is it important for students to have experiences, such as the Mock Assessment Centre, before they leave school? Ms Rotchford: Students will eventually be competing against many other students, who have the same qualifications as themselves and they will all be competing for many of the same jobs. What will really set them apart from their competitors is their ability to showcase these competencies as employers know these are what are needed to be an effective and efficient contributor in the workplace. Having worked in the Finance Industry for years, I have told many students no one is going to ask you ‘to solve for x’ at work, but what they will expect is you to use your initiative, make assumptions, think critically and creatively, collaborate and persuade in order to attain the best solution. In other words, it is about the process. As they move onto university, hopefully they will be far more conscious of the importance of these competencies and these will become more ingrained in their approach to whatever tasks or challenges are presented to them.
on 12th October after school, where the U20s played four fixtures. The U20s team this year was a mixture of old and new players, ranging from Years 9 to 13, who had just come together to play for the first time that day. The team consisted of Anna Birkett (Y10, Gellhorn), Polina Chelpenova (Y10, Keller), Skylee Chow (Y12, Keller), Melody Cheung (Y12, Keller), Alexa Fung (Y13, Keller), Brynn Gordon (Y9, Wu), Ava Grylewicz (Y9, Keller), Gisele Lajeunesse (Y10, Keller), Jodie Ng (Y12, Gellhorn), Sharon Tang (Y13, Keller). Despite never having trained together as a team, the girls began with a solid start in the first game against Island School, resulting in a win for Harrow 4 tries to 3, which was a big morale boost for the team. Following on, we faced strong opposition, playing against YMCA, West Island School and KGV, to whom we lost narrowly. Due to having far fewer subs than the other schools, we were all understandably knackered after each match, but all of the girls still showed persistent effort in the defence lines, pushing forwards together and supporting each other on attacking runs. There were some strong tackles and tries from Anna Birkett (Y10, Gellhorn) and Gisele Lajeunesse (Y10, Keller), who managed to sprint past the defensive lines. This match has been a strong starting point for the girls’ rugby team, who have been coached by Mr Kinloch and Ms Coady, and managed by Mrs Myles, who provided lots of moral support throughout the games. It was wonderful to be able to play a home game this season and to be cheered on by the students watching.
Sports News
Boys U20 Football by Oliver Otten (Y12, Sun)
Girls Rugby Sevens Home Games by Alexa Fung (Y13, Keller)
For the first time in two years, the Harrow girls’ rugby team was scheduled to play at Harrow. Many of the senior and prep school students were seen supporting the match
The U20 Boys football team started the year off with a great 6-0 win over SHDC, a local team in the HKSSF league, which acts as a good confidence boost as they continue with the next few matches. The standout player in the first match of the season was Ryan Lei, scoring a hat trick. The other three goals secured the win even further, as James Wright scored on his debut with a beautiful run along the win, finishing by cutting in inside the box. Another to score on his debut was Perry Lee, who evidently has settled into the team well. The last goal of the match came from Luke Marcon.
The next game was not quite as successful as the first, as the game against HPWSS ended in a 0-0 draw. Harrow was by far the better team, having the ball in the oppositions half for the vast majority of the game, just unable to finish the chances they created. The third group stage match was played on the 14th October. This was a very frustrating match for the Harrow team, which also ended in a 0-0 draw. Harrow created chances regularly; however, they were unable to put the ball in the back of the net. The opposition were dangerous in the sense that they often would lob the ball over the defence in an attempt to outpace them. The defence however didn’t budge. Although there were tricky moments, they successfully drove the ball away from the danger zone numerous times. Though the result was a draw, they have still qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament. Now, the players must prepare for the next phase of the tournament by keeping the morale high and trying to improve on their weaknesses.
the competition and hopefully emerge as this season’s victors. Come down to the astro on 11th October to witness Harrow’s most successful football team in action in their next home game against DBIS! Watch out boys!
Boys U20s Volleyball by Ricky Tsang (Y13, Churchill)
Girls U14 Football by Sophie Haik (Y12, Gellhorn)
The Girls U14 Football Team has had a flying start to the new season, dominating their opponents in the first few games of the school year. The team, comprised of representatives from Years 7 to 9, competed fiercely against HKA on the 11th September and AISHK the following Monday, winning their home matches 9-0 and 7-1 respectively. Due to the fast-paced nature of 6-a-side games, our coach, Mr Thompson, stressed the importance of using the limited space to our advantage and putting pressure on the ball carrier in counterattacking situations. A combination of tactical team play and individual skill resulted in two formidable wins on our home turf. The team continued their winning streak the following Tuesday in a heavily one-sided match against ICHK. The girls travelled to Tai Po along with Mr Thompson to battle it out for the first time this season. Our girls’ team had another fantastic game, displaying teamwork and sportsmanship on and off the pitch. The 10-0 result was another huge win for Harrow, with five players scoring one or more goals. With continued training and support, we hope our U14 girls’ team will pave their way to the knockout stages of
At first, it was purely out of interest. The team had been put together on the very first day of school with only one week to train for upcoming games on the following Thursday. Consisting of basketball, badminton and rugby players, we were a conglomerate of different skills and with few chances to practise (as official training sessions weren’t set up and ECAs hadn’t started yet), hopes for success were not high. A week passed quickly and before we knew it, we had two games to play. First, we were against AISHK - no one expected to win and anxiety filled the arena. However, miraculously, we won both sets - that was our first win in the League. After a short break, we played our next match against CAIS. It was an intense battle: a draw of one set each with the final set decided by 15 points. By the end of the day we pulled off two wins and the team was in high spirit for the upcoming matches. The following week, we had to play a total of four games on two consecutive days. On Wednesday, we travelled to Australian International School to play against both AIS and CAIS. We were at a huge disadvantage since there wasn’t much space surrounding the court, so we had to control our serves better. With that in mind, we were able to pull out a win against CAIS, but lost against AIS. The next day, we played home against CAIS and CISHK, both league matches. Again, it was a close call against CAIS, yet in the end, we manage to pull through the last set and won. Unfortunately, we lost against CISHK; this result was most disappointing for us, because, as Mr. Furniss said himself, they weren’t as strong a team as CAIS, but we failed to maintain high morale. Next time, we hope to persevere. The following week was the roughest: we suffered two losses against YCIS and AIS at Yew Cheung International School. All in all, we’re at two wins and three losses. We’ve been through so many ups and downs, helping the team grow in multiple ways, from igniting a spark of interest to everyone giving it their all. With that said, there is still work to be done, such as consistencies in serves and
receiving, and most importantly, communication. I believe that by overcoming these challenges, the team can achieve even more. If there was a MVP or ace in the team, it would be Jason Huang (Y12, Churchill), the most experienced player and a powerful scorer - every school we’ve played against so far was afraid of his spikes! Last but not least, it has to be said that volleyball is an extraordinarily fun team sport!
UCAS Roadshow by Joelle Chan (Y12, Gellhorn)
Deciding what you want to study at university is a daunting thought, as is the thought of deciding where you want to study. For some, university may not be an option, whereas for others, the decision of where you wish to continue your studies entails going abroad, may it be to the US, the UK, Australia, or other countries. Although we are guided through the application process with the help of our teachers, ultimately the decision of where we will go to university is down to us, as pupils. The UK offers over 30,000 courses for students to choose from, so how do you choose the one that’s right for you? The UCAS roadshow on the 18th September, invited over 20 universities to Harrow Hong Kong and allowed students to speak to representatives from each university, gaining more insight to life at the respective universities. The opportunity to speak to people who worked at the universities was an extremely beneficial one, as although university websites contain a lot of information, many questions regarding student life, or more specific questions pertaining to courses may not be answered online. As a result, students from Years 10 to 13 got the chance to walk around the stalls, and talk to different people. Unsurprisingly, students felt as though this roadshow was a useful tool to them, which helped them narrow down their options to the five universities on their UCAS application. Some also felt that this enabled them to gain a better understanding on what they might want to study in the future, as UK universities require you to enroll into their university to study a certain course. By allowing Year 10’s to participate in this, it helps set up a guideline for what subjects they should currently be studying if they wish to study a vocational course, such as Medicine or Law. Overall, the roadshow was a great opportunity for pupils to explore their potential future paths.
encouraged to complete prep and study independently outside of class. Entering Sixth Form, you will quickly realise that these precious hours should not be wasted; prep is assigned liberally, with the expectation that you spend more time completing it than can be afforded by evening prep time. The subjects themselves are also a huge step up from IGCSE: especially with the abundance of lessons, each subject becomes more challenging incredibly fast. The information you need to learn is far more detailed, as you are expected to already have a foundation of knowledge from before. You need to be able to apply knowledge, rather than simply recall facts – this is why an understanding of your topic material is crucial. With exams (usually) in the first year as well as the second, you simply do not have time to waste: if you start to fall behind, try and get on top of your work immediately, or the course will keep moving and you will enter exams with a weaker understanding of that topic. All this might sound intimidating, but there is an upside to choosing your own subjects: hopefully, you love them enough that doing prep is less of a chore than it might be otherwise - dare I even say, enjoyable. Attending class will not feel like an hour-long grim ordeal if you are genuinely interested in the subject material. This by no means makes Sixth Form a relaxing experience; remember, there are still exams on the horizon, but it means that you can work on your own terms, and take your time where necessary. Sometimes, independency makes all the difference.
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Humans of Harrow Hong Kong
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A photographic census of the Harrow community, one story at a time. Inspired by Humans of New York. by Louisa Cho (Y12, Gellhorn)
The Jump to A-levels by Nicole Pullinger (Y12, Gellhorn)
It’s all too common to make the following mistake: expecting that in comparison to Year 11, Year 12 will be a breeze. ‘This is fine,’ I remember thinking (as I counted the free periods on my timetable). ‘I took ten subjects last year; now, I only have four. This is going to be easy!’ I would soon change my mind, however. As opposed to Year 9 – or even the iGCSE years – all the subjects you take at A Levels will be ones that you have ‘Societies Fairs allows us to take on leadership chosen. There are no compulsory subjects; unlike previous roles and brings together students who share years, everything is in your own hands. It’s certainly a lot of the same interests. Exchanging ideas we are pressure, especially for new members of Year 12. Moreover, with the copious free periods you are passionate about is one of the best ways to learn.’ granted at Sixth Form, it is easy to become distracted and unmotivated. Sometimes referred to as study periods, Writers and photographers out there, step forward and contribute to get your work published! Email the editors at harrovian@ these periods serve as breaks from lessons, where you are harrowschool.hk!