THE QUAINTON HERALD Issue 113 – 25th February 2022
HEADMASTER'S MESSAGE Dear Parents, I start by congratulating all the Year 6 on their senior school exams results. These are without doubt the most impressive set of results the School has ever achieved. In addition to offers from North London Collegiate School, St Paul’s, City of London School, Merchant Taylor’s, Godolphin and Latymer, Notting Hill and Ealing, Aldenham and Mill Hill, the children have achieved an incredible 26 scholarships from schools including Haberdasher’s, St Helen’s, South Hampstead High School, St Margaret’s, Royal Masonic School, Northwood College and John Lyon School. There are, quite simply, no superlatives strong enough to adequately express the high level of praise the children deserve for their efforts and achievements and I look forward to publishing a full list of results and awards in due course. I would like to thank the whole staff for their hard work and dedicated support of the children, but in particular, my thanks must go to both Mrs Khan, who has overseen the children’s Maths preparation and to Mrs Ford, who has overseen their English preparation and interview practice these past two years. This year has also seen the children achieve several Art scholarships and awards and I would like to extend my thanks to Mrs Durg and the terrific way in which she takes the Art in the School from strength to strength. On Monday, the children in Year 5 and 6 spent the latter half of the morning and the afternoon at John Lyon to complete their STEAM projects. It is such a wonderful opportunity to enrich their learning with the state-of-the-art equipment and facilities available to us. I again thank Dr Weinberg for arranging the day and for making the experience so enjoyable for the children. Plans are already in place to extend the same opportunity to Year 4 next term. It was a privilege to attend the ‘John Lyon Junior Musician of the Year’ competition at Boyd Campbell Theatre on Wednesday evening. This was a truly impressive event. On Thursday, our own musicians presented a concert in The Old Chapel, which was of an equally high standard. We were treated to outstanding performances on a range of instruments and it is quite evident that Mr Haswell has ignited a new passion for taking up a musical instrument in the School. I have to thank him, Mr Jones and their team for preparing the children to such a high standard. Well done to all involved on a truly memorable evening. Page 1
HEADMASTER'S MESSAGE CONTINUED On Friday, some of the children in Years 3 to 6, who take part in LAMDA as a club at school, performed their prepared exam pieces in assembly. All the performances were impressive and provided a beautiful blend of humour and reflection, which made the assembly even more special. Well done to all the children who now eagerly await their LAMDA exam result. Please be aware that the School will be sending out invitations to our Parents’ Evenings over the coming days. Please do also check the calendar for all upcoming events, as we will be inviting parents into school to attend some assemblies and performances, now that COVID restrictions have been lifted. Despite this, however, the School will continue to maintain a cautious approach to help limit and manage the occurrence of future outbreaks. It is pleasing that, over the last few days, we have had no reported cases in school. I believe this must be the first time in two years this has been the case and long may this continue.
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT News from the English Department: WORLD BOOK DAY – THURSDAY 3RD MARCH We are all looking forward to celebrating World Book Day 2022 next week and have lots of fun and educational activities arranged for the children to celebrate books and literature. As previously mentioned, the theme we have chosen for this year’s celebrations is, ‘Stories from Around the World’. As always, the children and staff are invited to come into school, on Thursday 3rd March, dressed as a character from a book, or a book title related to our chosen theme. Within the theme, children may like to consider stories and characters from other countries and cultures and we look forward to celebrating a rich diversity of literature from around the world. There will be a special presentation assembly in the morning, where the children will have a chance to show off their costumes, share pieces of work they have written in connection with the texts they have studied in class, as well as enjoying a whole school reading of our QHS Story Chain for 2022. Every class in the school has contributed to a section of the story, written in response to a single picture stimulus, with each class continuing the story from the previous class as the text moves like a ‘chain’ throughout the School. The children are only permitted to read the section of the story that has been written just prior to their entry and so, as yet, no one knows exactly how the story has unfolded, nor how it will end!! We look forward to sharing our ‘Story Chain’ in full in next week’s edition of The Herald. After the success of our whole school ‘Story Chain’ written for World Book Day 2020, we are all very excited to see what the children come up with this year! Following the extended assembly, there will be presentations from Mr Marcus Dilly, interactive storyteller and performer, from The National Literacy Trust. In line with the theme of their class texts, ‘Once’, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and ‘Friend or Foe’, during the morning, Years 5 and 6 will experience an immersive performance based on World War II. After lunch, Reception to Year 6, will then enjoy an interactive performance of Mr Dilly’s adaptation of ‘The Story of Robin Hood’.
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
On Wednesday morning, Perform will be joining us to deliver an interactive drama and music workshop, devised to complement the class texts the Year 3 and 4 children have studied. Year 3, will travel on a trip around the world, including to the Polar Regions, as per the setting of their class text ‘Land of Snow’. Year 4 will be furthering their understanding of one of the world’s great continents with their workshop ‘Amazing Africa’, to support the work on their class text ‘Journey to Jo’burg’. We are delighted to have been able to secure these workshops for all the children in Years 3 to 6 to further enhance their educational experience. The cost of the workshops (no more than £10 per pupil) will be included in the summer term’s fees.
During the week, the children in Years 3 to 6 will be taking part in a House Creative Writing Competition during their English lessons. Ms Catherine Palk, Head of English at John Lyon School, will be judging the children’s entries, with the results and prizes announced and awarded later this term. Mrs Durg will also be holding a series of Art competitions, based on the class texts the children have studied, and these too will take place during Art lessons next week.
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CONTINUED We are pleased to be able to share with you the ‘Character Playlists’ some of the children in Year 6 have created, using multimedia, as part of their work on analysing character. The children have embedded text, images and sound into ‘Google Slide’ presentations to create ‘song playlists’ for the different characters in their class text, ‘Wonder’. The children had to select five songs for each of the characters and provide a detailed explanation of how each song reflects the thoughts feelings, conflicts and challenges faced by the characters throughout the text.
Thashini's Character Playlist
Amelia's Character Playlist
William and Ishaan's Character Playlist
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
Bhakti's Character Playlist
Srushti and Veera's Character Playlist
Nidhi and Sanskruti's Character Playlist
Clara's Character Playlist
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CONTINUED Year 5 have extended their knowledge of World War II, the setting of their class text ‘Friend or Foe’, as well as their ICT skills, by creating PowerPoint presentations this week. The children selected a topic from the Second World War and researched it in detail, before then creating their ‘Fact Files’. A special mention must be made of Siddharth’s factfile on the ‘Hurricane’ aircraft, which he presented complete with plane sound effects, explosions and interactive images. We have shared a snapshot of Siddharths’s presentation and a handful of the other fabulous fact files below, which cover a range of topics including rationing, Oskar Schindler, The Enigma Machine, Land Army, propaganda posters, The Blitz, evacuation and WWII aircraft.
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Aida's Spitfire Fact File
Dharsha's Enigma Machine Fact File
Ethan's Blitz Fact File
Rian P's Oskar Schindler Fact File
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
Siddharths's Spitfire Fact File
Zynah's Rationing Fact File
Krish's propagana posters Fact File
Arushi's Land Army Fact File
Finally, it is with great pleasure that we share some more of the instructional leaflets, produced by Year 3, detailing how to look after a pet. The children applied the features of an instructional text to create these colourful, informative and engaging leaflets.
Aahna's leaflet
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
Anabelle's leaflet
Sebastian's leaflet
Zahra's leaflet
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MATHS DEPARTMENT Y4 have been working in pairs, using pizza fraction slices to explore fractions with various denominators to make a whole, and to look at fractions of different numbers. This activity has been used as a visual representation for cementing the concept of halves, quarters, thirds, parts of a whole and the results when you take away a fraction. Pupils became more familiar with other fractions as they worked to design their perfect pizza and and shared their knowledge by questioning each other “Would you prefer to have 1/8 of a slice or 1/12 of a slice of pizza?”
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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Sustainability450 Sustainable science is focused on the interactions between human, environment, and engineered systems. It aims at understanding and contributing to solutions for the challenges for the future of humanity. More concretely, it aims at finding solutions to maintain the integrity of the life support systems on a global scale.
Such sustainable development addresses a wide range of subjects such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, as well as land and water degradation for example. Indeed, sustainability requires direct action to conserve, protect and enhance natural resources. Sustainability is a challenge of the future in many fields. Here are some chosen examples of topics we focused on in our Sustainability450 project. The pupils were given an introduction to the project and a summary of different inventions or ways to make our planet sustainable. They had the opportunity to discuss the available options to tackle this problem, which in the end they used to make, build and facilitate their own prototype. Our project was mainly based on the below areas:Year 3: Greener City Why greener cities? Green cities “lessen their environmental impacts by reducing waste, expanding recycling, lowering emissions, increasing housing density while expanding open space, and encouraging the development of sustainable local businesses."
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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CONTINUED Year 4 : Packaging Simply put, packaging reduces its environmental footprint. This can happen in a number of ways: Ingredients: Using raw 100% recycled or raw materials Production process: By minimising the production process, supply chain and carbon footprint Reusability: Creating a circular economy around the packaging, extending its life cycle and usability. It’s simple to say that eco-packaging is entirely about the environment. It also should take into consideration economic and social factors. For example, plant-based packaging may seem like a viable option.
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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CONTINUED Year 5 : Building better Sustainable construction means using renewable and recyclable materials when building new structures, as well as reducing energy consumption and waste. These can include proper insulation to prevent heat loss, solar panels to reduce energy consumption, and building materials with a long lifespan.
Year 6: Eat better and green Structures Many of us are becoming more conscious about climate change and looking after the environment and want to bring our families up in a more sustainable way. The way we shop and eat play a huge role in terms of environmental impact and our choices can have a profound effect on food sustainability. The way we choose to shop and eat has put much stress on our planet and the environment. Our current food system has contributed to climate change, deforestation, soil loss and soil pollution, alongside a huge demand on water supply, pollution and exploitation of certain species such as fish, to name a few. Understanding food sustainability and environmental sustainability and what we need to do, will help to ensure food security for us and our future generations.
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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
So, get inspired to make the world a better, healthier place with one of the best environment quotes about saving our planet. "The earth is what we all have in common.” —Wendell Berry
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ART AND DT DEPARTMENT Year 3 Art Year 3 studied Pop art and have looked at how this art movement inspired and changed the art scene. They studied Andy Warhol and other famous Pop artists to understand more about the use of colour and patterns. They have designed a landscape keeping in mind the foreground, middle ground and background. They have filled all shapes with interesting patterns and bright colours.
Annabelle’s Pop art inspired patterned landscape
Jena’s colourful Pop Art inspired landscape
Year 3 DT Year 3 are designing their Sea life Diorama using a shoebox and many different materials. They have used clay, pipe cleaners, shells etc to create their Diorama.
Rayan’s sea weed is almost ready. He has used clay to form the base and pipe cleaners to represent the different types of sea weed. Page 16
Rehan and Kirtan’s colourful sea weed.
ART AND DT DEPARTMENT CONTINUED Year 4 DT Year 4 are using recycled materials to design musical instruments. They have spent time researching and understanding the different types of musical instruments and have designed their own.
Tia’s guitar made using a shoe box, string, kitchen roll and cloth pegs.
Adam’s guitar. He used a shoe box, 2 large rubber bands, tissue paper, toilet rolls and popsicle sticks to make his guitar.
Ottilie’s creative drum. She used a plastic box, coloured paper, beads and popsicle sticks to create her drum. It produced a lovely sound too!
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Aiza’s colourful Xylophone. She used toilet rolls, tissue paper, bells and straws.
ART AND DT DEPARTMENT CONTINUED Year 6 DT Mrs Khan and I watched an amazing demonstration by Year 6 just before half term with their creative marble run games. What a treat from our amazing Year 6’s!
Kirtan, Ishaan and Ishaan’s amazing marble run. The marble travelled through twists, turns, and ups and downs before it dropped into a little cup. Bravo boys!
Lian and Isabelle’s Candy Land themed marble run. They have used lots of recycled materials to create this beautiful and well-structured marble run.
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Shreya and Rishika’s marble run. The marble travels through the tunnel and finally drops into a beautifully designed spiral.
Rishita and Elisa’s rainbow themed marble run. Sturdy structure and a nice tall design.
ART AND DT DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
Clara, Bhakti and Nidhi’s aquatic-themed marble run. They designed three separate marble run structures with lights and lots of twists and turns. Wow! It was a treat to watch.
Hobby Art
Ishaan's (Year 6) beautiful acrylic painting of a desert sunset on canvas.
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Tiffany’s drawing of her favourite character. That is amazing work Tiffany!
ART AND DT DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
Krish B in Year 5 has worked on this fantastic artwork during the half-term break. He started by creating a storyboard for the theme he had in mind and being inspired by James Rizzi, his characters, emotions etc, he has created this artwork.
Guru in Year 3 painted a rainy day themed artwork during his half term break. All he had to do was look outside his window for some inspiration!
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Yug’s water spray beads craft. I’m sure you can all guess the logo designs. Very neat work Yug.
ART AND DT DEPARTMENT CONTINUED
Hiya's sketch of a calm landscape. She used pencil to shade.
Aadam in Year 1 has created this beautiful Butterfly sewing craft. I think it’s time for Spring!
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Ottilie’s brilliant sketch of a badger using charcoal. Outstanding work Ottilie!
Aarav in Year 3 was inspired by abstract art and has created this beautiful artwork using shapes. Well done Aarav!
RECEPTION During the half-term holidays, the children in Reception were asked to make a Traditional Tales story box to support our new topic of Once Upon A Time. The children (and their grown ups!) worked really hard on their designs and they look amazing! We had lots of different stories including Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk and many more. They are all displayed in our Reception classroom and the children have loved sharing their story boxes with their friends. We have also been making story maps this week for the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children had to recall the story, draw pictures and use arrows to show what happened next. Here are some examples.
Anaya's storymap
Durjayesh's storymap
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RECEPTION CONTINUED
Arnold's storymap
Kaylan's storymap
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VIRTUAL REALITY
In the coming weeks, pupils will be taking a trip to John Lyon School to immerse themselves into the world of Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality is an emerging technology in classrooms to supplement the teaching of a subject or topic in order for the pupils to really ‘feel’ the content and engage and enhance their learning experience.
The VR experience will allow pupils to experience faraway places while staying in the classroom with educational virtual trips. With the use of VR, pupils can “travel” to hard-toreach destinations such as outer space and feel like they are there. The capabilities of this technology allow pupils to make connections between their virtual travel experiences and the curriculum, which further solidifies their knowledge.
They will have the opportunity to explore the flora and fauna of Africa in Geography; travel to Buddhist temples in Nepal and Thailand; and fly in hot air balloons over the mountains of Turkey! Mrs Khan
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LEGO CLUB AND COMPETITION! One of the really popular lunchtime clubs at Quainton Hall is ‘Lego Club’, run each Friday from 1:00 to 1:30. It is open weekly to any children from Year 3 to Year 6. Using Fr. Mike’s extensive collection of Lego elements, the children can build whatever they wish, usually over a period of one term. During the holiday, the models are photographed and then broken up to allow new models to be built. From next week until Easter, the club will run a little differently. Fr Mike has a small number of Lego prizes for the winners of the competition being run in the Club. Free to enter, this competition involves designing and building something interesting, or attractive, or useful, onto a small baseplate which each child will be given… The model can be anything at all, but it must not grow to a size any bigger than a cube of about 10 cm per side. The children can use ANY Lego elements which Fr Mike has available, but they must not include any minifigures on this occasion. As the competition starts, Fr Mike will show off a few ideas, but the competition really relies on imagination and creativity! The competition will run for the next few weeks, and each pupil may enter a single model by the last Friday of term. Staff will judge the models, and prizes will be awarded at the end of term. Here are just a few of the models built in the club before the recent half-term holiday…
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QUAINTON HALL HOUSES As the Quainton Hall School starts to think of the 125th anniversary of its foundation in 1897, the children are being introduced to some of the history of the school, in particular the derivation of the names we have within our system of Houses. In June 1938 the four original houses were decided, led by four male teachers at the time (only boys at QHS at that stage!) – Messrs. Comber, Ghaleb, Carnell and Hazlewood took on their leadership, with House colours of Blue, Red, Yellow and Green respectively. Here is a potted biography of each of the staff whose names are remembered in the current houses. Comber’s Cecil Walter Comber was Deputy Headmaster for many years. Colleagues knew him as Charles, but he was known as Wally by the boys. He joined QHS in September 1932 and taught French, Latin and Maths, all to a very high standard – for many years he was in charge of preparing Scholarship boys. A very good cricketer, he was naturally put in charge of the 1st XI for 30 years. He lived on Harrow View, and his garden backed onto the playground, so there was never any escape from footballs and tennis balls landing up in his garden. He retired in 1970 (after 38 years at the school), but came back in 1975 for a while to assist (and he taught Maths to Fr Mike at that time). Fraser’s John Fraser joined the staff in 1944. He was much loved as a flamboyant character, with a love for bright shirts and ties. He taught English, and old boys who recall his lessons remember his love for the language and his encouragement in them of a love of literature and poetry. He was apparently much loved by all whom he inspired with his teaching. As many of the staff did in those days, he was also involved in the competitive sport of the school, and he coached the 1ST XI Football team for many years. He died while still serving at the school after a short illness in November 1971. Some years later, Hazlewood’s house was renamed in his memory.
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QUAINTON HALL HOUSES CONTINUED Ghaleb’s Osman Eustace Ghaleb was Deputy Headmaster after Mr Comber’s retirement, and served in that capacity for many years. He joined the school in 1937, to teach French. Some of his family came from France and he spent much of his holiday time there. He was called up to serve in the Army in 1940, and served for the remainder of the War. He was de-mobilised in September 1946, when he returned to QHS. He continued to teach French to all classes until his retirement in 1983 (including to Fr Mike), and for many years wrote and directed plays and recitations in French He was famous for having a good aim when throwing a board rubber at a boy who wasn’t concentrating. Halliday’s Miss Florence May Halliday, joined the school at the very start, in 1897, when there were 20 pupils, each of whom paid a fee of 6d per week (equivalent to 2½ pence!) She started with Mrs Eyden as a 16-year-old pupil teacher, and was planning on only staying for a month! She mainly taught Year 2 age children – and she was renowned for ensuring that each child leaving her class used joined up handwriting, knew their tables up to 12 times, along with the correct use of full-stops! She was apparently seen as slightly scary by younger children, but as soon as you reached her class you realised she was a very caring teacher. She retired in 1958 (after 61 years at the school). Carnell’s house was renamed in her memory when we first accepted girls (back for the first time since 1930) into the school.
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CHARITY
Layla in the Reception class turns 5 next month, and she has decided that she will have her long curly hair cut off to donate it to The Princess Trust for them to make a wig for a sick child who has lost their own hair. Layla has also started a JustGiving page to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and The Azaylia Foundation – two very worthy causes. Having hoped to raise £500, she has already more than trebled that goal, but she would be so grateful if her friends around the school could contribute too! We are so proud of Layla’s kindness – we look forward to sharing photos, before and after, with you in due course… Here is the link to Layla’s JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/laylasbirthdaywish?utm_id=1&utm_term=7dm7R27n2
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QUIZ - WHO AM I? This week's Quiz Huge congratulations to all the pupils who successfully guessed James D Watson as the answer to last week’s quiz. Special congratulations to Arushi (Y5JS) who was the first to email me with the correct answer and a certificate will be awarded to her.
One of his famous quotes is “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon.” He was born in New Mexico on January 12th, 1964. He worked on Wall Street in the early 1990s. His IQ is around 150. He was interested in how things work and engineering even as a child. He started his first business when he was in high school.
Please send your answer by Monday via email to Mrs Alwaheidi at arwa.alwaheidi@edu.quaintonhall.org.uk
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UPCOMING EVENTS Vocal Coaching for Chamber Choir (Competition)
Monday 28th February
11:00-12:30
World Book Day Activities
Wednesday 2nd March
All Day
World Book Day Celebration Assembly
Thursday 3rd March
08:40-09:30
World Book Day Activities
Thursday 3rd March
All Day
Athletics Cross Country Meet at Aldenham
Thursday 3rd March
PM
Musical Theatre Assembly
Friday 4th March
08:40-09:15
Athletics Cross Country Meet at Lyndhurst House
Friday 4th March
PM
Form 3JC Parents' Evening
Monday 7th March
16:30-20:00
U9 Football v Norbury
Tuesday 8th March
PM
Royal Academy of Music Choral Masterclass
Tuesday 8th March
PM
Form 3ZS Parents' Evening
Tuesday 8th March
16:30
Year 5 Science Museum Trip
Wednesday 9th March
All Day
U11 Tag Rugby v Buckingham Prep (Harrow Town)
Thursday 10th March
PM
U11 Girls Netball Tournament (Reddiford)
Thursday 10th March
PM
Year 1 and Year 2 Parents' Evening
Thursday 10th March
16:00-19:00
Fun Choir Performance Assembly
Friday 11th March
08:40-09:00
Chamber Choir Recording Session (Competition)
Friday 11th March
11:00-12:30
School Council Meeting
Friday 11th March
12:30-13:00
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BIRTHDAYS
We wish the following children, who will be celebrating their birthday this coming week, a very Happy Birthday!
Rithu S Year 1 Nishi V Year 4 Siddharth S Year 5
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