Pupil Editorial

Lara Higgins Anderson (LI L6), Jessica Hughes (SU L6), Jessica Macdonald (IH L6), Anouschka Verdon (LI L6)

Locks, Lockdown, and Isolation: everyone was instructed to treat the title however they liked! Indeed, 67 pupils and staff each interpreted the title as they thought best – or rather as they wished. That’s what makes this collection so intriguing. It includes direct and seemingly prosaic (if often actually quite poetic) responses, for instance on locksmiths, passwords, and quarantines, but otherwise heads in every direction, capturing linguistics, psychology, art, music, history, geography, adventure, mythology, disease and the metaphysical. Forced and selfimposed exile is also explored; and nine contributors independently extended the theme to loneliness. Make of that what you will!

The gathering of this collection during various states of lockdown was certainly a deliberate response to events – but not one of our own making! Therefore, we thank Mr Moule for setting up and directing this project – and for putting up with our often-late email replies.

We have many other people to thank too: Mrs Jordan and the Communications Team for helping to prepare this publication, Mr Twohig for his great series of paintings, and Sophie Smith (DA U6), Nadia Johnson (PR U6), Isabelle Guthrie (DA Sh) and Helvetica Haydn Taylor (NC Hu) for their wonderful images. Staff who contributed articles include Mr Bush, Miss Brown, Miss Herrenschmidt, Mrs Jerstice, Mr Kiggell, Mr Lloyd, Mr Moule, Mr Novis, Mr Oxburgh, Mr Scraggs, and Mr Wills, and we thank the Master for her Foreword and Sir John Bell (a member of Council) for his Afterword. We would also like to thank all the fantastic pupils who came forward to write most of the articles that fill the publication. Everyone has given so much of their time, and we are very grateful for the opportunity to have learnt so much through the process. From reading about isolation in the deep sea, to property during COVID-19, to the design of the lock and key, to linguistic developments, we have certainly never met a dull moment in the editing stages (except, we admit, for some of the mechanical admin tasks).

So: a big thank you to everyone involved in the process – it certainly felt like an ambitious and grand undertaking! We are proud to present Locks, Lockdown, and Isolation.