School Magazine 2019-2020

Izzy Verity

Lead Writer

Minna Griffin Feature Editor

Isabella Bacon-Wilson Editor

Teeya Patel Editor

Florence Yost Design Editor

Marine Roca Design Editor

Jessica Berry Feature Editor

Milly Buckroyd Lead Writer

Kate Pygram Lead Writer

Rose Slocock Lead Writer

Maddie Deverell Lead Writer

Fiona Coutts Lead Writer

Miss Longmore Content Coordinator

Mr Futter Design Coordinator

WELCOME

It is a pleasure to welcome you to this school magazine. In a year where school buildings were forced to close, the NHEHS spirit has shone through undaunted, and this magazine reflects this fact, with our special ‘Lockdown Life’ feature showing how events were able to continue despite a more virtual existence. I hope you will relish all of the other elements of school life featured in the magazine, not least the ‘Let’s Debate’ section, which highlights our widening opportunities for girls to express themselves with confidenceonthepublicstage.

I am most grateful to the committee, including its redoubtable editors, for their enthusiasm and organisational prowess. They have shown how to make things happen in a time of disruption, and have producedawonderfulpublication. Ihopeyouwillenjoyreadingaboutallofthepastyear’sendeavors.

MatthewShoults-Headmaster

STAFF NEWS

In January, we were delighted to welcome Ms Copin as Deputy Head Academic and are grateful to Mrs Woolner, Mrs Swift and Miss SilvesterfortakingonashiftintheirrolesintheAutumntermpriortoherarrival.

We also welcomed Miss Hughes as Head of Lower School, Miss McHenry as Head of Psychology, Dr Snook as Head of Classics, Miss Farmer as Head of History of Art, Mrs Sheard as Director of Music and Miss Motyer as Head of Charities and Volunteering and teaching in the Physics department. Miss O’Connor joined the Mathematics department as Second in Mathematics, as did Dr Meinrath to teach in the Classics department. Mrs Massey joined as a DT teacher, Mr Rodgers-Endersby joined the English department and we welcomed Mr Brownett to the drama department and subsequently as Head of House. Mrs Baritsch, Ms Tang and Mrs Garcia joined the MFL team of language assistants; Mrs Martinez had her language assistant role expanded to now join the Spanishdepartment.MissNewmanwaswelcomedasasportscoachtothePEdepartment.WewerepleasedtowelcomeMrsHasnip as Director of Marketing and Communication, Mrs Foley as Admissions assistant, Mrs Truman as Alumnae Relations officer, Mrs RehalasDatamanager,MrsCoganasAttendanceofficerandMrsMoranasFinancemanager.MrSSeleimanandMrBSeleimanalso joinedtheITteam.

We were delighted to send our congratulations to a number of staff on the birth of their children; Mrs Robertson on having her son and Ms Holmes on the birth of her son. Ms Goodsell, Mrs Castano, Ms Sheikh and Mr Coxhill have welcomed the birth of their daughters. Wewishthemgreathappinesswiththeirnewarrivals.

We are grateful to staff who helped with maternity cover and illness: Miss Heales in the Geography department, Mr Yee in Physics; MissBerliozintheFrenchdepartmentandMissFulcherintheDramadepartment.

We also said goodbye to a few members of staff. Mr Roberts spent a year in the Economics department. Mrs Arthur, who taught in the Maths department. Miss Stannard, taught in the Geography department and contributed much within the department. Ms Gething worked for two years as the Director of Marketing and Admissions. Miss Adams was with us for four years as a teacher of sport, with a specialism dance. She was also a Head of Year, supporting Year 11 through their GCSE year. Mrs Burns-Spence worked for four years as our Alumnae Relations officer. Miss Bushell arrived nine years ago as a Physics teacher and then as Head of Sixth form.Sheworkedwiththegirlsonbothanacademicandpastorallevel,guidingthemandinspiringthemthroughouttheirtimeinthe SixthForm,andbeyond.ShehastakenontheDeputyHeadpastoralroleatanothercentralLondonschool.MsLuohasworkedinthe Mandarin department for twelve years, supporting students develop their language skills and confidence in expression in both the Senior and Junior school. Mrs Scales was with us for twelve years and worked in the History department, Head of Lower School and as Deputy Head of Sixth. Mrs Hobbs was also here for twelve years as a Biology teacher, and for a long period of time as Deputy Head of Sixth Form. Mr Pepper, who left after thirteen years, was Head of Year, and Head of History and Politics. His love of subject and subtle humour, with his involvement as a Duke of Edinburgh helper and trip organiser, is greatly appreciated. Mrs O’Leary worked in the Modern Foreign Languages department for eighteen years; she has supported and encouraged students to find their confidence and develop their vocabulary and fluency in German. Mrs Ryan was with us for twenty-five years in our front office team, working meticulously through student attendance and caring for students, staff and parents in the engine of the school. We are extremelygratefulforhertimehereassheheadsintoretirement.

Wewishallourleavingstaffwellandsendthemthebestofluckfortheirfutureendeavors.

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

LGBT Club

On6thSeptember2019,Year7wenttoHOAC(Hillingdon OutdoorActivitiesCentre)togettoknowothergirlsinour yearthroughteam-buildingexercises.

We started our day by getting split into groups of about 9, mixing people from different forms together. Then 6 groups went on an adventure course whilst the other 6 went on to build and test some rafts. We worked together to build rafts and when we were finished, we had a race in the river to see which team would go the fastest. Everyone had an oar each and paddled fiercely tryingtomaketheirteamwin.Somepeoplefellinanda coupleofraftsnearlysank!Afterasubstantiallunchand everyone drying their clothes, the groups swapped activities. The adventure course included a rope tying lesson, making a water generator, seeing how many times you could fold the mat with everyone still on it, a Tetris puzzle and much, much more. Both of these activities used team building as we all had to work together, whether it was by running back and forth memorising answers or whether it was carrying large bucketsofwaterovertoyourteammates.

In the end, we all had a great time and would definitely go again if we were given the chance. It was a great experience.

This year I have been able to run LGBT Club. We have talked about many different topics and I know that we have all learnt things from it. The club is all about teaching and informing, not only on how to be supportive but also about the different orientations and topicsthatareoftenconsideredconfusing.

Some of the students enjoyed the club so much that when the country went into lockdown, they chose to continue attending the sessions online. It was a difficult transition but we kept happy and continued to do fun activities that we had planned for pride month. While it wasn’t quite the same, I know I appreciated being able to stillseeeveryone.

This year, we’ve explored the more technical side of the LGBT community such as different terminology, how trans people undergo gender confirmation surgery and the LGBT rights movement. Though it involved a lot of long words and dates, many of us have benefited from learning more about topics that we probably would have otherwise known nothing about. Moreover, we also discussed topics that were more open such as homophobia and trans people attending schools. We all felt comfortable enough to share our own opinions and even though there was some debate about what was the ‘right thing to do’, everyone accepted and respected everyoneelse’sopinions.

The club is a friendly and safe environment where there is no pressure to announce how you identify, and I’ve been really happy to see an increasing number of straight allies attend the club too. I’m excited to continue the club next year, hopefully in person, and I know some people are already planning the events and fundraising thatwouldhavetakenplacethisPrideMonth.

MaanviKapila-Year7

Amnesty International

The 'Raising Awareness about Road Safety' Obstacle Course

Declaration of Human Rights all across the world that are not covered the media. Amnesty’s vision is a world where every person can live without fear of persecution who campaign has led to the death penalty abolished in law or in two-thirds of the world's countries. Every small is part of a movement towards freedom and justice for those who have been rights.

Amnesty International is a humanitarian organisation dedicated to stopping injustice all around the world. Every day, there are hundreds of violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all across the world that are not covered by the media. Amnesty’s vision is a world where every person can live without fear of persecution and injustice. Everyone is entitled to their rights, no matter who they are, or what they have done. Amnesty’s decadeslong campaign has led to the death penalty being abolished in law or practice in two-thirds of the world's countries. Every small change is part of a movement towards freedom and justice for those who have been denied their rights.

The eco-team took on the challenge of setting up an obstacle course to highlight the importance of road safety.

NHEHS Amnesty is a youth group who work with the and support its So far, we have tackled cases of human abuse against women, activists and the LGBTQ+ community. We have sent emails and messages to embassies from all over the world, petitioning them to release of conscience and jailed activists. We also set up a Christmas card making workshop, where the cards that we made were sent through to denial of rights to show that we are with them and that we support them every step of the way. We are to

NHEHS Amnesty is a youth group who work with the organisation and support its campaigns. So far, we have tackled cases of human rights abuse against women, activists and the LGBTQ+ community. We have sent emails and messages to embassies from all over the world, petitioning them to release prisoners of conscience and jailed activists. We also set up a Christmas card making workshop, where the cards that we made were sent through Amnesty, to those suffering from denial of human rights to show that we are with them and that we support them every step of the way. We are aiming to spread awareness throughout the school through fundraising and showing people that every tiny action can help to bring about important change.

We, as a youth group, believe that with enough people and effort we can make a difference and ensure that all humans are treated justly and equally. Help us make our vision come true by supporting Amnesty International.

Abha Bhole - Year 10

We started by working with the sports department to arrange a space and resources for the course. We ended up with two long benches, beanbags and cones and we managed to book the main hall which was key. We used the penalty and bonus score sheets from the TFL website and started to market our events and get teams together by doing announcements and making posters. We also had prizes that included sweets and, for the overall winner, a hamper from Lush, an eco-friendly and crueltyfree brand.

As part of our idea for the obstacle course, we also had to decide a text message and we came up with: ‘Sara are you coming to school today?’ We noticed that when the students were texting on their phones whilst on the course, their time doubled almost every go and the message was rarely correct. We used this to teach the students how important it is to keep their eyes on the road and not to get distracted and how detrimental it can be if they do. This was a great way to share the message of safer travel.

Overall, the obstacle course was a great success and was one of our most popular events this year. We had students from every year taking part and we managed to generate a lot of awareness. We really enjoyed running this event and the positive feedback we got from students afterwards.

The Tenner Challenge

Over the course of the spring term we participated in the Tenner Challenge, which is similar to the Young Enterprise challenge.

Our project began with a range of challenges designed to expand our understanding of the economy and the way business works. We started by identifying a concept or a service gap in the consumer market, so that we could sell a new product that would generate a profit. Across the groups, there were a host of different products, including bath bombs, tie-dye clothing and jewellery. We studied our target audience and decided that the best route to gain the most profit was to make handmade charms using shrinking plasticandsharpies,aswellashomemadefidgetcubes.

Thefirstchallengewehadtoparticipateinwasthe‘designa logo’ competition. We had to make our logo eye-catching and memorable so that we could use it on posters, stalls, and even on our product. This challenge was very intriguing as it stretched our creativity skills and made us think about what components make a great logo. For our next challenge, we had to create a sales pitch video. In this video we had to talk about why our products were unique and why people should buy them: we mentioned details about our products being handmade and relatively inexpensive, as we thought these would be good selling points. In the Tenner Challenge Fair we were given a stall and had to sell our product to as many people as possible to generate maximum profit. We also took advantage of several connectionswehadtogetadditionalsales.

We raised over £400 from our original £20 and plan to give it to a local charity, Homestart, as soon as the lockdown regulationsarerelaxed.

Bridge Club

When I heard about Bridge Club at our first NHEHS extracurricular fair, I, like you, thought I would be building actualbridges.LittledidIknowthatmyfriendGeorgiaandI were the first of many to sign ourselves up for playing, and sometimesrunning,thetrick-takingcardgame.

Ifyouhaveneverheardofthegame,itinvolves4playersin pairsof2.Yousitoppositeyourpartneraroundatableand deal a pack of cards evenly across all players. Without showing anyone your cards, and using Mr Cheney’s and Mr Quarmby’s handy pamphlet, you then count the number of points you have (Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1). You then bid: bidding means deciding how many tricks (rounds) you think you will win using your strongest suit. If you and your partner win the bid, and you were the first in your pair to bid the suit, you play the hand. Your partner is thenthedummy(Ipromisethat’satechnicalterm)andhas to lay their cards flat on the table for everyone to see. You then play each hand, trying to put down the highest or strongestcardtowinthetrick.Thesuitthatwasbidactsas the trump, so if everyone puts down a spade but you have none, you can place a trump down and win the round.  At the end, you count the number of tricks your pair has won, and if you get the same number of tricks as you had bid or more, you receive points. The most important thing to remember is that there is NO talking (well, no communicating about the game with your partner in case you try to drop a subtle hint or two - not like I’ve done that before...).

I’ve really enjoyed playing bridge and have learnt many skills from Mr Cheney and Mr Quarmby. If, at the extracurricularfairyouwalkpastthebridgestand,thensign up!Beforewe knowit,bridgewillbethesportofNHEHS.

LeelaLuthra,GenPearceandShivaniParthipun-Year9

CHARITIES AND VOLUNTEERING

What is Love? For me love is not only caring for those close to you, but also for people who need more support and attention. Being in the lower school, I was empowered by the capability that the girls in all years and the teachers have to help those in need. For many years now, our school has been supporting the Ealing Food Bank, giving love to those who are neglected, hope to those who are desperate and food to those who are lacking it. This year NHEHS contributed over 20 overflowing hampers of food.

It was not only the amount of food that was contributed, but what was truly inspiring was that it seemed the hearts of the whole school were beating in unison. Parents found time to support the charity, the girls lovingly chose what to contribute and how to present it, and the teachers led activities which made the whole process more fun. This year NHEHS created an art exhibition out of the beautifully decorated hampers filled with food. This reminded us that love does not have limits and can take any form from what we think, to what we feel, to how we share our love for others.

The Ealing Food Bank has been tackling the “gaping wound” of increasing poverty in the UK for around seven years, “helping people feed themselves and their dependence adequately healthily and without anxiety”, and our school really appreciates the opportunity to be a part of it. It was delightful to see the whole school united in this compassionate journey.

Daria Gal - Year 8

Charities during lockdown

As this year's team of Year 12 Charity Reps, we hoped that we would be able to provide some new, innovative fundraising events at school, however lockdown unfortunately prohibited that. The three of us have had to think of ways to support and fundraise for charities we are passionate about, but from within the restrictions of quarantine.

We realised that this lockdown period is actually the perfect time to start fundraising, as there are many charities under serious strain because of COVID-19. We collectively had the idea to fundraise for Hestia Housing & Support, as they work in our local area and support victims of domestic violence. We all agreed that the issues surrounding domestic abuse were being overlooked on a national level, so we decided to produce our ‘Charities Newsletter’ in order to publicise the work of Hestia. We created an edition every fortnight, each one including details about our campaign, but also ways which staff and students could volunteer during quarantine. Some of these ideas included tutoring children online, ‘adopting a grandparent’ and knitting hearts for the NHS.

We loved seeing the collective efforts of both students and staff, and how eager people were to participate! In total, we have managed to raise enough money to pay for a training course at a local college for one of the users of the Hestia service!

Although it has been a shame not to carry out our events in school, we were very grateful we were able to adapt to the circumstances and continue our roles as charity reps!

Georgia Wells, Mariam Zulqarnain, Rhylie-Jayne Clack - Year 12 Charity Reps

The Ealing Food Bank

The Mango Tree Project

At the end of Year 11, ten of us were selected to fundraise for ‘The Mango Tree’, a charity that provides young people with education and support in Africa. Our ultimate aim was going out to volunteer in Kenya at a girls’ boarding school in August 2020.

The Mango Tree works in rural areas that have been badly affected by HIV and AIDS, and where there are high numbers of orphaned children who leave school without basic skills. It is for this reason that we wanted to help as much as possible and raise money before we visited them over the course of year. We fundraised in many different ways, with our key events including running two stalls at the Christmas Bazaar, doing a 9 hour Danceathon and hosting a ‘Kahoot’ night. The Danceathon was possibly the most exhausting thing I have ever done, but the support from everyone who donated that night made my blisters the next day worth

About the Mango Tree

Since it was founded in Kenya in 2006, The Mango Tree has supported over 4,000 orphans living in Homabay County to access some form of education or training.

In December 2018 I was fortunate enough to be able to go out and visit their new school which is currently under construction. In building a girls' boarding school

The Mango Tree will be able to provide a high standard of education in a nurturing environment for 320 girls a year. Our aim was to send out a team of volunteers to run a holiday programme with the girls for three weeks in August.

Unfortunately our plans for the visit were disrupted. However, the £5000 the girls raised over the year is being used towards a minibus for the school.

Miss Watkins - Head of Economics

Of course, the impact of the Coronavirus meant that we unfortunately had to alter many of our plans, and we were unable to go out to Kenya in the summer. However, we have managed to raise nearly £5000 for the incredible charity. Since we did not physically go to Kenya, we plan to travel the distance equivalent to that from England to Kenya over the course of our summer holidays, in an attempt to raise even more money to help such an amazing cause. It has been a wonderful experience, and despite it ending less than ideally, we have all immensely enjoyed working together as a team and have hopefully helped to raise awareness of the importance of the work that The Mango Tree does.

- Year 12

Milly Buckroyd

LOCKDOWN LIFE

Virtual Summer Music Concert

The concert was an amazing experience as it helped me learn many skills and taught me that you can still create beautifulmusiceventhoughweareallonline!

I played in the Year 7 Rock Band and the Year 7 Piano Trio. It was extremely challenging and took many attempts to record it as I had to focus on playing in time to the click trackandtherecording.

The concert was a huge success. Thank you for all the time andefforttheteachersputintomakingtheconcerthappen virtually.

Lockdown Sport

Even in lockdown at NHEHS, there were still lots of sports opportunities and clubs to get involved with. Everybody’s favourite pastime for staying active was the NHEHS daily sports challenges. This was a series of challenges set every week on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All of the challenges were unique and covered a wide range of sports, from swimming to cricket; there really was something for everyone. Two of the challenges set that were popular across all year groups were the ‘Mini Golf Course Making Challenge’ and ‘The Bank Holiday Special Challenge’ where you had to make your own game. The sport challenges also incorporated the London Youth Games challenges to encouragemorepeopletotakeparttohelpTeamEaling.

Year 9 Lockdown Diary

Lockdown has been a strange and new experience for all of us but it has also given me a lot of time to learn new skills and practice old ones.

Duringlockdown,Ihavebeenlearningtocross-stitch.Ihave foundit funand very relaxing. It has given me a way to pass the time and to also create beautiful artwork. I have also been taking part in many of the adapted clubs during quarantine. One of my favourites has been coup club. Coup is a card game but there is an online version that we have been playing. It is fun and nice to play a game with people other than my family. It is also a good chance to socialise with people, as we do the club over google meets, and it allows me to be in contact with students from other year groupswhichisreallynice.

Overalleventhoughquarantinehasbeenlong,Ihavefound manynewexcitingthingstodotoenjoyit.

A second club I found fascinating and exciting was the ‘Elite Athlete Q&As’. This was a session every week where a successful athlete came and talked about their story and then we were allowed to ask questions. A plethora of athletes from different sports came to talk to us. One of the Q&As I found the most interesting was the one with World Champion sprinter Sophie Hahn. It was extremely engaging to find out how she rose to be a very successful athlete and it definitely inspired me. As well as Sophie, there were other athletessuchasEsmeBurge,whoisaGBhockeyplayer,and Kira Rothwell who is an England netball player. It was amazing to be able to see and speak to such influential

ZoeDown-Year7

TRADITIONS

Festive Fascinators Workshop

TheweekbeforewebrokeupfortheChristmasholidays, the Year 8s had a chance to take part in a festive fascinator workshop. We were each given a headband and lots of craft materials such as pompoms, pipe cleaners, ribbon and of course STICKERS! It was a fierce but festive contest to see who could make the best Christmassycreation.

The range of headbands included Ellie’s Christmas pudding, a pom-pom polar bear creation by Tilda and Millie’s fluffy pink present. Not to forget Miss Adam’s remarkable “Five gold rings” headband which strangely resembled a Tellytubby! At the end of the workshop we alllinedupforthejudgingandthetopfourwentthrough to the next round to be judged. The winning fascinator had the honour of being worn by Mrs Irwin at the end of termChristmasassembly.

The winner was Anna Hogben with her amazing presentthemed fascinator and the runners up were Zoe and Ella with their Santa hat headbands. It was a very jolly occasionandeveryonehadlotsoffun-fascinatingstuff!

EllaMilnerandTildaHardman-Year8

Christmas Bazaar

Being a Year 7, the Christmas bazaar of 2019 is the first one I have been to at NHEHS. It was full of fun, snacks, andcraftsandIfoundmyselfhavingfunfromtheminute Igotthere.Fromstandssellingnecklacesandearringsto stands selling burgers and hot dogs, there was something for everyone. I saw many of my friends there andmanynewfacestoo!

I arrived towards the beginning and the event was already in full swing; the stands inside, outside and upstairs were crowded and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were beauty lucky dips, Korean face masks, charms and necklaces, beanies and scarvesandlotsandlotsofsweets!

I found it very exciting to share the joy of Christmas and winterholidayswiththeschoolcommunity.  Iamalready buzzingwithexcitementfornextyear’sbazaarandIhope itcanbeevenhalfasfunasitwasthisyear.Itwassetup beautifully with snowflake decorations and tinsel strewn across the hall and the atrium, setting the Christmas mood.ItwasawholeexperienceIwouldnotwantmyself oranyoneelsetomissouton.ThetimeIspenttherewas magicalandfilledwithlaughter.Bytheend,Ididn’twant to  leave but felt I’d made the most of my day by attending.

Overall, I had an amazing time at Christmas bazaar and I hopeanyonethatdidn’tgothisyearwillgonextyearand experiencethefunandthejoyIhadthere.

GabrielaDeAndrade-Year7

Year 11's 5 Gold Rings

Let’s rewind back to December, more specifically the annual Christmas assembly. At Notting Hill, our Christmas assembly is always one to remember as it is filled with chants, songs and the famous Christmas elf!

For those in Year 11 this is one of the more memorable assemblies as we have a special part to play when singing The Twelve Days of Christmas.

This year my classmates and I got to experience singing the line "five gold rings", whilst we throwing party poppers and chocolate coins to all the students and (maybe even a few Brussels sprouts too).

Another one of the highlights when getting to sing five gold rings is that we all get to dress up in fun and crazy outfits, from gold morph suits to bananas with bucket hats. This was a really memorable moment for me as we had just finished our mocks, and this was a great way to celebrate with all my friends.

The Boar’s Head Ceremony

The Boar’s Head procession has been a tradition at Notting Hill for over 100 years. It involves the whole of Year 13 performing the Boar’s Head Carol in a procession led by the Head Girl who carries the paper-mache boar’s head.

The Head Girl Team were really excited for our solos but since only 2 of the members were singers, we were really nervous about performing in front of the entire school. To prepare ourselves, we had a few meetings with Ms Goodsell and Miss LeBrun who helped us get over our nerves and made sure we were in tune. A few days before the procession we had one final rehearsal with the whole of Year 13, where we had to perfect walking in sync with each other and get in some final practice.

Although it was a relief that our singing was successful, the procession was over before we knew it and it’s definitely something we wish we could do all over again. The Boar’s Head really is one of the biggest highlights of your school career, symbolising the end of your time here. It felt amazing singing with the whole year in unity and luckily no one dropped their candle.

Dhruti Vijay - Year 13

Looking back at this event now, I'm so glad I got to experience it with my whole year before coronavirus hit, which will make me treasure that Christmas at Notting Hill even more!

Bonnor-Moris - Year 11

Amber

Spelling Bee Competition

On the 28th November and 4th December, the house captain team ran the first ever spelling bee competition forbothlowerandupperschool.

There were 3 girls from each house representing their year trying to spell difficult words like chiaroscurist, supererogatory, conscientious and a host of other words which definitely stretched our knowledge of the English language. This was clear when we mispronounced several words and watched in surprise as students still managedtospellthemcorrectly!

Overall the events were a great success, with Nightingale defying expectations and finally winning an event for the upper school, and Eliot taking the win for the lower school. We really enjoyed the events and hope that this canbecomeanannualeventforyearstocome!

House University Challenge

This year NHEHS took part in the annual House UniversityChallenge.

Thequiztookplaceontwoseparatedays,oneforYears 7 to 9 and the other for Years 10 to 13. There were a large variety of rounds, spanning from Maths and Science,toArt,ArchitectureandPopCulture.

The Maths round saw Chloe Bragança sweeping the floor by getting every single question right! The Pop Culture round was full of TikTok and Vine references, all ofwhichwereaforeignlanguagetoMrShoults!

Thequizlikealwayswassomuchfunforeveryone,with Eliot winning the Lower school challenge and NightingalewinningtheUpperSchoolchallenge.

It was so much fun to organise and make up some difficult questions to challenge everyone. Our hardest questions, however, didn’t stop anyone and were all answered by the girls! I am so glad that I got the opportunity to judge this year and can’t wait to watch it againnextyear!!

Aditi Dhawan - Year 12

AditiDhawan-Year12

A-level Venice Trip

Our art trip was a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Venice. Not oftendoyougettostareatartalldaywithyourfriendsand eatcopiousamountsofcarbswithoutfeelingimmeasurable guilt.Wecountourselvesextremelyluckythatwewereable to see Venice before it was submerged by six-foot-high waterlevels,justamonthafterwevisited.

The visit to the Biennale took two full days and even after thatwedidn’tgettoseeitinitsentirety.Oneofthecoolest exhibitionswasaroomwhereyouputonaVRheadsetand explored a moving psychedelic world. My personal favourite,however,wasacompilationofvideosthatplayed on repeat but were filmed in such a way that you didn’t noticetheywerereplaying.Therewerealsodeeplypoignant pieces, like the story of the Tham Luang cave, rescue and a statue of a plane wreck survivor made from tattered clothes,byYinXiuzhen.

We had a bit of time to go wandering around before dinner so Kitty, Essma and I sat on the edge of the canal. It was all fine until, in a fit of laughter, Kitty droppedherbagintothewater.Iwastoobusylaughing tohelp,butwemanagedtosavethebagandherphone that was in the front pocket. Karma had its kiss for me later when I nearly slipped head-first straight into the canal.

The return to London felt odd, especially seeing cars again and having to constantly breathe in petrol fumes. Wewoulddefinitelygoagain!

ZoeMillionis-Year12

Some of the most special exhibitions were the ones we stumbled onto by accident while we were lost in the alleyways, and it felt like the Biennale had taken over the whole city. We also looked at some Renaissance art in the Academia,aswellaswalkingroundtheDoge’spalace.

A true Notting Hiller can’t write an article about Venice and not talk about the food. I have to admit that most of us stuck to pizza and pasta for four days since we were

Year 7 Kew Gardens Trip

InOctober,Year7wentonanarttriptoKewGardens.The day was packed with sightseeing and sketching. We were splitinto6groupsandeachtookdifferentroutes.

The first half of the day we saw the Chihuly sculptures (blown glass mixed with bright colours to make unique shapes). We also learned about the different shapes and styles of the diverse collection of plants. With a tour guide we participated in many activities such as blindfolded drawing of leaves and acorns. We also went into the temperate house, where we drew with oil pastels on a pieceofblackcard.

During the second half of the day we went along the treetop walkway. It was a spectacular view, you can see so much greenery. I mostly enjoyed the new plants from different places around the world because they were vibrantly coloured and uniquely shaped, they inspired me todrawmorenature.

Overall, this Kew Gardens trip was an amazing experience andIhopetogobacksoon.

OliviaBar-Nahum,Year7

The Big Draw

IwenttoTheBigDrawwithagroupofmyfriendsandwas immediatelyimpressedbythehugedisplays.

Across many tables was a massive sheet of paper with some lines on. We were told to dip our thumbs in ink and tracethelines.Itwasnotclearwhatitwouldturnouttobe so after spending about 10 minutes doing that we moved on to the next activity. Several bags were scattered across another table and we had to reach inside and draw what we could feel, focusing on rough and smooth surfaces as wellassimpleshapes.

When I finished, I discovered that what looked like the top ofapineapplewasactuallysupposedtobeapineconeand what was supposed to be a twig ended up looking like a pen.

Drawing has been proven to have calming effects and is often used to treat anxiety and depression as it calms the body and releases dopamine and endorphins causing happiness and the sense of joy and fun. This is probablywhyIhadsomuchfun.

OliviaFanthorpeCollings-Year7

Year 8 Tate Modern and Tate Britain Trip

During the Autumn term, the whole of Year 8 went to TateModernandTateBritainforourArtTrip.

We saw many paintings such as 'The Snail' by Henri Matisse and 'Orthogonal/Diagonal Composition' by AnthonyHill. Whenwalkingthroughthegallerieswesaw manyabstractandminimalistartpieces.

My favourite art piece was 'Composition B with Red' by Piet Mondrian because it has a minimalist style with simple patterns and has a flavour of red which makes the piece unique and different from the generic black andwhitepattern.

The Tate Modern has modern and contemporary art pieces from around the world, whilst the Tate Britain is the home of British art pieces from 1500. Both galleries areamazing,howevermyfavouritewasTateModernasI gottoseemanydifferentstylesofartfrommanyvarious artists.

This was an amazing trip and a great opportunity to learn about the different styles of art and learn new techniques.

NanthanaLathan-Year8

NHEHS Sixth Form Sustainability Fashion Show

A team of sixth formers promoted the importance of sustainability through their Fashion Show, `Into the Blue’, whilst also raising money for the charity `Surfers AgainstSewage’.

Through a catwalk of their designs, which have been made from materials or using techniques sensitive to the environment, the girls aimed to emphasise the role that everyone can play in helping our planet by being less wasteful and recognising the negative impact nonnaturalmaterialshave.

As Grace Murphy, one of the team leaders, put it: “The fashion industry is obviously such a huge contributor to pollution,sowehaveencouragedthegirlstorepurpose old fabrics and hopefully make more beneficial and sustainable decisions when it comes to their catwalk designs but also clothes more generally. I think that in this country especially, people tend to adopt a very out of sight, out of mind attitude to the effects of our consumerist society, so we need to stay aware of the wasteweareproducingwhenweshopfastfashion."

Isabella Bacon-Wilson, another team lead, added: “Our school is already so involved in sustainability with recycling initiatives and a whole eco team of Year 10 girls carrying out campaigns such as anti-idling, so our Fashion Show is also a great opportunity to encourage ouryoungeryearstoexpressthiscreatively.

Sustainability is such a relevant topic, so it's important for people to get involved in events surrounding this instead of just focusing on limitations should put in place.”

As well as repurposing clothes, the girls were also encouraged to use natural dyes like turmeric as part of the designs on the catwalk. An additional element to theirFashionShowwasfundraising,soturmeric-tie-dyed bagsweresoldonthenight.

Proceeds from the sale of these bags, as well as ticket sales,weregiventothecharity`SurfersAgainstSewage’, who tackle environmental plastic waste through beach cleansaroundtheUK.

The Fashion Show was judged by Antonia Kraskowski, fashioneditor,TamaraHill-Norton,founderandCreative Director of Sweaty Betty and Meg Cope, founder of Zaccys London. After considerable deliberation, they announced the following: two special mentions to Anika (Year 7) for her `Incredible Octopus’ and to Roma (Year 7) for her design called `The Shark’. In third place, Matilda (Year 8) who designed a wave-themed multilayeredskirt,insecondplace,GeorgiaandJaspreet(Year 7) whose plastic woven bodice as part of a coral-reefinspireddresswasidentifiedbythejudgesasastandout design for the sheer hard work it involved. In first place, Georgia (Year 10), whose top-to-bottom outfit made fromIKEAbagsemphasisedtherole`fastfashion’hasin polluting our oceans and impressed the judges with its ingenuityandcreativity.

MsArestis-MarketingDepartment

Aliyyah Tahir

Anoushka Hall

Hannah Safi

Inanna Sahib

Josie Lloyd

Juliet Kose

Lottie Peel

Raima Goradia

Sabah Suterwalla

Alex Warren

Dulcie Johnson

Imogen Laurence

Isabel Hepburne-Scott

Isabella Morgan

Isobel Smallman

Livia Harris

Mitra Karim

Ria Datar-Jones

Talia Khan

Lucia Hodgkinson

Kiani Shah

Sally Dolphin

Zoe Mills

Barnum

Interviews with cast and crew

A conversation with Jess Low - Year 12

What was your reaction when you found out you got the role of Barnum?

I was really shocked as I didn’t expect to get the role given that so many talented people auditioned! I was verygratefulandreadytofacethechallengeofbeingthe lead.

What was the greatest challenge you faced during rehearsals?

ProbablytryingtofindmycharacterofBarnum,asitwas an unfamiliar role for me and therefore incredibly daunting!

How did you overcome the challenge?

Ibouncedofftheenergyandcharactersoftherestofthe cast and found that this helped me to develop my character. I found their support extremely helpful and definitelycouldn’thavedoneitwithoutthem!

What was your favourite part of the show?

My favourite part was the week leading up to the show as that was when the cast and crew became a lot closer and everyone started enjoying themselves a lot more. My favourite aspect of the part of Barnum itself would either bemyscenewithMaddieDeverellwhenwehadtoad-liba lotofitbecauseofIzzy’squickchange,or‘JointheCircus’.I also enjoyed my first number ‘Sucker’...The list could go on.

Any funny memories?

Well a very funny memory would have to be mine and Maddie’s ad-libs, especially on the first night when Izzy’s micgotstuckonherdressandsoshewasdelayedgetting onstage!Aftermakingacommentaboutfireenginestofill the gap I realised much to my embarrassment that fire engines didn’t even exist back then, but hopefully there werenohistoriansintheaudiencethatnight!

A conversation with Zoe Marsland - Year 10

How did you balance homework and the play?

Obviously doing the play took up a lot of time and ate into my weekends, but with a bit of forward planning I managedtodoallmyhomework.

What is your favourite number in Barnum?

It’s hard to narrow down what my favourite number is. I really enjoyed watching "Thank God I'm Old" (Joice Heth) because Flo was so engaging and made the scene so funny. However, my favourite would probably be "One Brick at a Time" (Charity, Barnum and Bricklayers) becauseitissoupbeat.

Has working on Barnum been different to any of the other productions you’ve done before? If so, why?

Yes,itwasdifferent,primarilybecauseIhaveonlydoneit once before and that was as a member of the set team. Thistimemyrolewasmuchmoreorganisational.

Did you enjoy being assistant stage manager and would you do it again?

Beingpartofthestagemanagementteamthisyearwas really fun because, despite this sounding cheesy, all the olderyearswerereallyfriendlyandwelcoming.

Photos by Izzy Smallman and Ellie Ritchie

MaddieDeverell-Year12

FILM FESTIVAL

Film Festival 2020

The NHEHS Film Festival 2020 provided great inspiration and insight into the world of film. For only the second year running, NHEHS and its student-led team hosted a number of great events and workshops to expand students’knowledgeaboutthemanycareersavailablein film.

We opened up a film-making competition on the theme of ‘Time’ for all GDST schools, and received over 50 entries,whichwereallofareallyhighstandard!Wewere lucky enough to screen the finalists’ films at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, as students from acrossthecountrycametogethertocelebratewomenin film and showcase the talent within our schools. It was truly incredible to see the videos produced, filmed and edited by GDST girls on the big screen.The Women in Film Panel was another event of great anticipation. With leading figures in the industry eager to share their experiences,thenightwasamajorsuccess.Ouramazing guests, Lucy Bevan, Coky Giedroyc, Jenny Borgars, Freya Allan and Savyna Darby provided unique, first-hand knowledge and advice about this competitive field. Mel Giedroyc, our wonderful host, really brought this event togetherbyleadingthediscussionbetweenthepanellists and adding to the lively atmosphere. For us, this event was extremely helpful, both to organise and to attend as welearntagreatdealaboutthiseliteindustry.

There were also a number of exciting workshops that were extremely popular. From applying scarily realistic wound make-up to Mr Quarmby to completely redecorating our ground floor atrium into a magical film theme, students learnt all about special effects makeup, propsandsetdesignandhowtomaketheirowntrailers andshortfilms.

The whole of the film team had a lot of funand gaineda great deal of experience throughout the festival, both organising and participating in the events. It is certainly fair to say that the film industry needs more female representation and hopefully you enjoyed it as much as wedid!

SCIENCES

Engineering Education Scheme (EES)

We began our project in September with the prospect of researching and writing a 75-page report, which seemed quite overwhelming but, as a team, we were able to complete the project with great success. We began with an Induction Day, introducing us to our project’s clients and mentors and the brief of the project we were to complete over the next 6 months. Through a lot of research, case studies, and debates, we formulated our ideas going forward. By the end of the project, our conclusive proposal for the most efficient crossing across the Thames was the construction of an immersed tube tunnel. We focused on the function of the tunnel, as well as an additional factor that we could incorporate to create a unique proposal.

In order to overcome the negative view of tunnels among the general population, we planned on utilising either LCD screens or projectors in order to create a vivid, sensory experience on the walls of the tunnel that can be enjoyed by all ages.

thus exemplifying to the public the ways in which renewable energy can be used effectively. We all thoroughly enjoyed researching these different aspects of design and construction, especially when looking into the ways in which we could make our tunnel sustainable as well as designing the interior to make it appealing to the general public.

Our final completed project included a scale model and the finished 75 page report, detailing reasons for our decisions, research, and sketches of our designs. When faced with problems of access for various types of road users (pedestrians, cyclists, people with disabilities, etc), we had to keep priorities at the forefront and fulfil the needs of the project, and came up with a solution of a raised platform, giving ease of accessibility for all users.

The use of projections, as opposed to a permanent display, would allow for endless possibilities, such as virtual displays and advertising. As well as this, to encourage people to engage with STEM subjects, this could also allow for a computer programming scheme, where the best coded animation could be projected on the walls of the tunnel. We also liked the idea of having a clear emphasis on nature when considering the displays, such as  projecting scenes relating to plastic in the ocean, in order to spread awareness and to create a contrast with the surrounding urban area. In light of this, we developed a detailed plan focusing on sustainability, efficiency and creativity, three of our main aims.

To increase sustainability, we planned on incorporating the Pavegen system, which generates energy when pressure is applied to tiles lining the floor. This could even be used to help operate the multimedia displays,

The tunnel model we made was a large tube accompanied by laser-cut infrastructure. We included further detail in the entrance, Oyster card scanners, and inputted a working lift system (with thanks to the Physics Department for letting us borrow a motor). In addition, we used the design software Fusion 360 to create a digital model to convey design of the tunnel in its full effect.

Of course, no project comes without its challenges, and we learnt just as much from things that went wrong as we did from our triumphs. Given that our project was based in London, we were able to go on a site visit to Canary Wharf.

article continues overleaf

This was a very beneficial starting point for us as it allowed us to quickly rule out a few of our crossing options which were clearly not feasible. Whilst we were there, we decided tocarryoutaquestionnairetothegeneralpublic,togather information from our stakeholders. A particular issue we encounteredwiththiswasthatwereceivedaloweramount ofresponsesthananticipated,duetothefactweconducted it using QR codes. This seemed like a good idea at the time asitwaseco-friendly,however,itdidn’tworkoutintheway we had hoped, but we were able to learn from this and adaptourideas.

We learnt a host of new skills from this experience, including an improvement in our leadership and teamwork skills. We developed leadership skills through chairing weekly meetings, discussing our ideas with our mentors and presenting research to our group. We also vastly improved our ability to make decisions, which was a result ofourteamworkandcooperationskills.Duringtheprocess, there were several decisions which we did not instantly agree on, but by being open to suggestions from the group and compromising, we were always able to work around problemsweencounteredandfindabettersolution.

Overall, our project was a huge success due to everyone’s hard work and determination to succeed, giving us the opportunitytoachieveaGoldCRESTAward!Wehavelearnt a lot about engineering through this project, from the report itself and our mentors, and are hugely grateful for theexperience!

Ravichandran, Diana Razlog, Emily Smith, Sydney Wright - Year 12, EES Team

Space Day

On Friday 10th January 2020, the Physics Representatives had the opportunity to teach the Year 5s about space. Organised by Dr Raguz, we carried out three activities which the girls got stuck into. The first activity was looking at planets and how they compare in size by recreating the solar system with fruit. The girls made sure Pluto was not forgotten and used a pea to represent the planet, and a watermelon as the largest planet - Jupiter. They arranged the fruits in order of planets closest to the Sun to represent and put into perspectivethedistancesbetweentheplanets,depicting justhowvasttheuniversereallyis.

The second activity the girls were involved in was the ‘EggstronautEggsperiment’.Forthis,theYear5swereto makeparachutesinordertogettheireggssafelybackto Earth from a great height. The Year 5s learnt about the best materials to use to increase air resistance, in order to decelerate the egg and provide the softest landing. Someeggsdidmanagetosurvivethedropfromthetop of the Junior School. The final activity we held was the ‘Stomp Rocket Challenge’, whereby the students made rocketsandlaunchedthem.

This activity enabled the students to learn about air resistance, trajectory, and force. Applying a great force at an angle of 45 degrees would allow the rocket to fly the furthest. The furthest rockets achieved incredible distances - flying three quarters of the length of the astroturf.

WethoroughlyenjoyedteachingtheYear5saboutspace and giving them an insight into the world of Physics, whichtheydelvedintoveryenthusiastically.

ThushikaRavichandran-Year12

Aditi Dhawan, Issy Lawson-Smith, Thushika

Sheldon

What’s your favourite thing about NHEHS?

Obviously I enjoy teaching Chemistry: there is a sense of doing magic in some of the experiments and practical demonstrations. I enjoy coming up with new ideas, such as ‘the steam death trap’ demonstration to Year 7s (it’s not as dangerous as the name suggests). The Duke of Edinburgh Award is also great fun for the staff: Mr Quarmby looks afteruswell,eventhoughthejourneyinaminibuswithhim issomethingofaninquisition.

What was your previous career before teaching at NHEHS?

After my degree in Biochemistry, I did a PhD isolating an enzyme from plants involved in making fats. I then worked for 6 years on a protein from jackbeans (a plant cultivated in the tropics) which was made in quite a novel way. Then I worked for 3 years on a project in which I never got the promised starting materials so I was able to do whatever I wanted provided that it could be linked tenuously to the grant proposal. I worked on enzymes that catalysed the

Who (alive or dead) would be at your dream dinnerparty?

Anyone who could help me overcome the frequent obstacles I come across when writing Javascript for webpages.

IzzyVerity-Year12

Home Science Experiments

During quarantine, the Science department made an effort to make lessons like they were in the lab. For example, in Physics, we have been doing home experiments where we used household items to carry out experiments.

The first experiment we did was about how particles in gases react when they are exposed to heat and how they expand and collide into each other with more force. We did this by putting a balloon over a glass bottle that was filled with an inch of water. We put the bottle in a water bath inside a saucepan and heated it over a hob. The balloon expanded as the air particles inside moved quicker so when they collided with other particles and the sides, there was more force generated which made the balloon expand.

The second experiment investigated whether the time it takes for a pendulum to swing once was affected by its length. We did this by timing the amount of time it took to do 10 swings, at different lengths, and then we divided that by 10 to find the average time of 1 swing.

As a small child I was interested in Biology, going to ponds inadisusedbrickworksandcominghomewithjarsofpond creatures. I enjoyed baking which is a form of Chemistry, though I probably didn’t realise it. I had a great Chemistry teacher in Year 7. I struggled with A level Chemistry but for me Chemistry was essential to understand anything meaningfulaboutCellBiology.

Science in quarantine has been fun and I have really enjoyed doing it.

MorvenPearce-Year7

What’s the first thing you remember about Chemistry/ when did it enter your life?

A conversation with Dr

STEM

The trip to the GDSTEM conference at the Imperial College was an amazing experience. We got to experience talks from many departments of Science, Technology and Engineering, and find out what incredible jobs we could do thatare STEM careers.

First, we had a talk from the first British astronaut Helen Sharman who told us all about how she used to work for Mars confectionary. She said that when leaving the Earth's atmosphere, you feel three times heavier than normal, but after 530 seconds, you are weightless and 4 km away from Earth.

We visited three other different departments to talk to one of the scientists. The first one was Bioengineering. We learnt that Bioengineering is art, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, prosthetic design, occupational health, hand therapy, orthopaedic surgery, and plastic surgery. One of the cool facts that she told us was that there are 29 bones, over 40 muscles, and 120 ligamentsfromyourforearmtoyourhand.

LidiaLonergan-ReaderinGeotectonics ofImperialCollegeLondon

Finally, we visited the Material Science Department and learnt that Material Science is about discovering what things are made of and what happens when you mix substances together. I was interested to learn that there wassuchathingasself-healingmaterials.

This was a really exciting day and it was fascinating to hearfromsomanyscientists.

After this, we then visited the Earth Science Department and had a talk from Lidia Lonergan who told us that Earth Scientistsworkedwithglobalproblemslikeclimatechange, and that all our current knowledge of climate change has all come from them. Lidia told us how they find oil and gas in the rocks and underground and that 70-80% of world energy sources come from oil, natural gas, and coal. We learnt that oil and gas can be found underwater and undergroundonland,insedimentaryrocks.

MaiaRoman-Year8

GDSTEM conference

AstronautHelenSharman

Science Journal Club: Have I Got Science News

For You

Every Tuesday afternoon since the start of lockdown, Science Journal Club met on Google Meet to discuss everythingnewintheworldofscience,ledbyDrPearce.

Each week, we went away and read some sort of article or scientificpaper,watchaTEDtalk,orlistentoapodcast,and returnwithouropinions.Wecoveredeverythingfrom‘What is Science?’ to ‘Can children be scientists?’ (SPOILER ALERT –yes!), along with issues surrounding scientific research, and thedangersof‘bad’science.Asaresult,Ihavelearnthowto bemorecriticalofthethingsIread,andhowtospotflawed research. Now that we have mastered some of the basics, we are going to try and look at some proper scientific papers.

Thank you to Dr Pearce for providing us with such an interesting and enriching opportunity! If you are interested in finding out more, why not read 'Blackawton Bees,’ a paper written by 8-10-year olds? Otherwise, take a look at some of the hundreds of fascinating articles on the New Scientistwebsite.

AliceJenkins-Year10

Year 8's making potato starch plastic during Science Week

Launching Science Week 2020

As part of Science Week, the science representatives were tasked with putting together a whole-school assemblyaboutplastics,thethemeofscienceweek.

TheBiologyrepresentativesbeganbyasking‘Areplastic dinosaurs made from real dinosaurs?’. The logic behind this was that the plastic used to make the dinosaurs came from crude oil. Whilst crude oil is derived from compressedformsofoceanlife(soonlyafewdinosaurs who were swept into the ocean are in plastic), some of the dinosaurs that went into the ocean became part of thewatercycleandwastakenupthroughthewaterinto plants and animals, meaning that we all have a bit of dinosaurinus.

The Chemistry representatives followed this with a discussion on how forensic science can be used to detect microplastic pollution. By using forensic sample analysis techniques, the presence of microplastics in water samples can be accurately measured, contaminants can be monitored, and sources of contaminantscanbeidentified.

Next, the Physics representatives talked about plastic pollution in the ocean. As microplastics in the ocean degradeintomicroplastics,theyaredispersedbyocean currents and form garbage patches due to convection currents. Plastic is also an atmospheric pollutant; plasticscanbeseenintheairwithaUVlight.

Finally, the psychology representatives talked about brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, a crucial feature of our anatomy. This term describes the brain’s ability to structurally adapt and remould itself over time, which occurs naturally in most humans and animals to allow them to progress psychologically. Without it, brains wouldnotbeabletodevelopfrominfancytoadulthood orrecoverfrominjury.

ChloeBragança-Year12

CLASSICS

AtriptoGreece

On a cold morning in the October half-term, Classics students gathered at Heathrow Airport, ready for a whistle-stoptourofGreece.

The first place we went to was the Temple of Poseidon. On the next day, we stopped by the Temple of Olympian Zeus on our way to the world-renowned Acropolis and witnessed some astonishing views. After a speedy lunch, we got into the coach for our first inter-city drive, this time to Delphi. Most used the long ride to catch up on sleepbutsomeofususedthetimetoreadStephenFry’s Mithos which became the book of the trip due to its popularity and relevance. Here, we visited the mythical Oracle at Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassus and after that we went to the Museum at Delphi, where the Greek GCSE students were particularly pleased to discover the statues of two figures from their Herodotus text,CleobisandBiton.

Another coach trip later, we arrived at Olympia. After a latenightspentexploringthemainstreetofthetown,we spent the following day exploring the home of the ancient Olympic Games and held an exclusive staff versus student’s race, with Miss Nicholas just scraping the win. In the afternoon we spent an hour enjoying the beach in Tolo, which included a small group of us performingtheMacarenainthesea.

On our final day, we made three quick visits; first to the Theatre of Dionysus in Epidaurus, where we tested out the surprisingly good acoustics of ancient Greek theatre, thentoTiryns,wherewecouldn’tfindanysignssomade our own, then finally to Mycenae, the home of Agamemnon. After a memorable meal including someone’s food being taken by a stray dog, we headed back to the airport and bid goodbye to the beautiful wonders(andmanybelovedstraycats)ofGreece.

As a final twist to the trip, we ended with an awards ceremony at baggage reclaim, with awards from designatedphotographerofthetriptothebesthaircut.

ManythankstoDrSnook,MissNicholasandMrsMcGinn foraccompanyingusonthetrip.

ChloeBragança-Year12

Classics Masterclass

This year Classics Masterclass saw fascinating presentations on Ancient Archaeology, religious cults andSpartanchildcare.Inthelastfewweeksofterm,the Year 11s presented their research into elements of Greece and Rome. Li An Tan and Amber Deane-Johns both created live action trailers for the tale of Medea (seethestillsbelow),whichcanbefoundontheClassics MasterclasspageonGoogleClassroom.

A conversation with Dr Meinrath

What made you want to teach Classics?

I really like the process of making connections, whether in languages and literature or with students.  Teaching Classicsallowsmetodoallofthatatonce,whichiswhyI loveit.

What’s your favourite thing about Classics?

Here is another interesting example of the research carried out by Sofia Stidham about the Catiline conspiracy:

The Catiline Conspiracy

In June, during the period of online learning, I did a presentation on the Catiline Conspiracy for the remote Classics Masterclass. I decided to do this topic because I found it a significant and fascinating part of Roman History.

In short, the Catiline Conspiracy was when Cicero, who was a Roman consul at the time, believed that a man called Catiline was planning an uprising against the senate.However,Ciceroinitiallyhaddifficultyconvincing the senate that they were in danger, so he decided to make a few speeches against Catiline to them. These speeches were called ‘In Catilinam’ and they ultimately drove Catiline out of Rome. During our Latin A-level introductory course, we translated a little bit of ‘In Catilinam’ and I found the way that Cicero wrote really engaging.

Despite the fact that Catiline was outside of Rome, he still had some co-conspirators inside Rome which meant that they could continue their plan of overthrowing the Roman Republic. However, the co-conspirators were forced to confess their plans in front of the senate and wereexecutedwithoutaformaltrialsoonafter....

The Cyclops from Homer’s Odyssey is my celebrity crush.  Ialwaysthoughthegottheshortendofthestick, being tricked and blinded by Odysseus.  If the Cyclops invited me to live in his cave with his pet ram and an endless supply of cheese, I’d be there.  As for the cannibalismissue,we’dworkthroughit.

What did your career look like before coming to NHEHS?

Thisismytenthyearofteaching,butmyfirstbackhome in the UK.  Pre-NHEHS, I taught Classics at a girls’ secondary school in New York City.  Before that, I taught Latin, Greek mythology, and academic writing to undergraduates at a university in New Jersey, where I wascompletingmyownpostgraduatework.

Do you have any cool party tricks/hidden talents?

I’mnotsurethiscountsasatalent,butI’vewrittenovera hundred online biographies for homeless cats, to help themfindtheirfur-everhomes.  EventhoughIneverget to meet them in person, I’m always happy to learn that one of the cats I’ve written for has been adopted.  Unrelated, I also sew little mice wearing party hats.  Sometimes you can spot one riding around in my pocketatschool.

COMPUTER SCIENCE & AI

OnWednesday29thJanuary,sixA-levelstudentssetout tothePricewaterhouseCoopersofficesinLondonBridge to take part in a GDST Technology Day organised by the GDSTandPwC.

When we arrived, we were immediately amazed by the grand offices and the lovely views of London the office had to offer. The day then swiftly began as we were introduced to Computer Science students from across the GDST. We took part in a series of technology based activities led by PwC through which we learned about the essential eight technologies that matter most for business today, some of which included: artificial intelligence,virtualreality,3Dprintingandmore.

WethenparticipatedinaDragon’sDenstylecompetition where we were put into teams and were given a task which involved designing a product that incorporated oneoftheeightessentialtechnologiesandthatfitunder the theme of ‘wellbeing’ or ‘fitness.’ We then had to present our products to a panel of judges. An example of a product presented was a wellbeing app which uses artificial intelligence through voice recognition, to create aforumforstudentstoexpresshowtheyarefeelingand get responses back on how to improve their mood. This task was particularly enjoyable as it allowed us to be creative and think about all the things that need to be consideredwhendesigningaproduct.

In the afternoon, we collaborated with girls from other GDST schools by discussing our A-level projects and the ideas we had for our individual projects. It was interestingtoseeotherpeople’sideasfortheirprojects

and how they plan on making them work. Finally, we ended the day by hearing about the opportunities in technologythatPwChavetoofferandthedifferentareas intechnologywithinPwC.

Overall, it was an enjoyable and useful day as it provided us insight into the opportunities available to us in the technology industry as well as what it would be like to workintheindustry.

TeeyaPatel-Year12

Techathon

Earlier this year, five Year 10 girls attended the GDST Techathon,atTheCrystalinCentralLondon.Thethemeof thedaywas‘smartcities,’meaningthateachgrouphadto come up with one idea which they would like to see implemented to make a city ‘smart.’ We were paired with Sheffield School, and our idea was a ‘smart pavements’ initiative.

The hope was that people with mobility issues would find it easier to navigate busy streets. Footpaths would be expanded and split up into lanes, so that people could travel at their own pace. The size and direction of these lanes would be adjusted based on the number of people on the streets. To avoid congestion as a result of people reading maps while walking, we would also have an augmentedrealitysystemthatplannedthequickestroute for people to take and would display these on special glasses.

Later in the day, we pitched the idea to the judges. Although we didn't win, it was a rewarding experience. Lara Glenn, who attended, said that she “enjoyed collaborating with other GDST schools, and improved [her] pitching skills.” Rhea Johri, on the other hand, said that her favourite part of the day was “frying everyone’s brainswith‘funny’techjokes.”Herpersonalfavouritewas “Whyarepeopleafraidofcomputers?Becausetheybyte!” We also had several inspiring talks from GDST alumnae and we ended the day with a panel discussion on smart cities.

It was a great experience: I learnt so much about the manywayswecanusetechnologytoimproveourlives.A bigthankyoutoMrKhanfortakingus.

On 7th and 8th of March, I organised the Girls in AI Hackathon at the school with a team of five other students. Overall, 40 teens between the ages of 12 and 18 from 21 different schools attended the Hackathon. The aim of the event was to bring like-minded teenagers together to develop an artificial intelligence project over two days, which they would then pitch to a panel of judges from the tech industry.  The attendees were also offered a range of workshops, including a ‘Design Thinking’ workshop and pitch workshop. As well as this, throughout the day, we were given talks from professionalsinthetechindustrywhichalsoincludedan ‘AI Mythbuster’ talk which clarified what AI is and what it is not. Later, we were given an inspiring talk by female software engineer Zhichao Lin, who talked about her careerandtheimportanceoflearning.

Longitude Explorer Prize

Atthestartoftheyear,asmallgroupofusdiscovereda competition called the Nesta Longitude Explorer prize. The task was to pick one of four categories and design a product around that category that incorporated AI. Our group chose the category ‘living longer’ and designed ideas for a watch, which specifically catered to the needs oftheelderly,withouthundredsofconfusingfeatures.We made it through to the semi-finals and were invited to spend a day in Stratford, to meet other teams and do many activities. We had a session based around making an app, particularly one tailored for a specific person and their needs. However, the session was designed to teach us about simply trying to come up with as many different ideas as we could, as fast as possible because eventually, onewouldbegood.

Finally, after all the activities we made our way back into the main event area to be given instructions on our applications into the finals. We were instructed to make a presentation explaining our product in further detail and create a video about our reasons for entering the longitude explorer prize. From there, 30 of the 60 semifinalists will reach the finals, and they will be given the funds,mentoringandresourcestocreatetheirproduct.

GraceSergeant-Year12

After this talk, everyone was offered two different tech workshops, one explaining how to build an AI chatbot, offered by IBM and the foundations of coding in an AI workshop, offered by Alfredo Kalaitzis. On the second day, we were given a pitch workshop by Anthony Catt to not only help us prepare for our pitches that afternoon butalsoimproveourpublicspeakingskills.

After lunch, myself and another organiser gave a talk on the ethics of AI which included talking about F.A.T, the model for machine learning that prioritises fairness, accountability and transparency in terms of designing and creating artificial intelligence.  At the end of the day, eachteampitchedtheirideastoapanelof5judgesfrom companies such as Barclays, Element AI and Avanade. Theideaswereamazingconsideringthattheyonlyhad2 daystoworkonthemandrangedfromusingAItomake the vaccination process easier and maintain hrd immunity to using AI to predict wildfires (inspired by the recent Australian wildfires).  The judges found it very difficult to choose the winner but, in the end, decided thatteam‘DiscrimiTalk’hadthebestidea.

LaraGlenn-Year10

AliceJenkins-Year10

PPE Provisions for the NHS: Face Shields

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us all aware of the significant shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)providedtoNHSfrontlinestaff.

Manufacturers and school DT departments around the country have sought to mitigate impact of the shortage by using their facilities to manufacture PPE to keep our NHSstaffsafe. Mostschoolsoptedtocreatemasksusing 3D printers however, each mask would take in excess of 6 hours to make. At NHEHS, we have a high spec laser cutter which was able to produce one mask in 20 minutes.

MrFutterexperimentedwithacrylicframes,whichwould hold a PVC visor sheet and elastic headband.  Figure 1 shows the 4 prototype models made before the final mask was created. Once a working prototype was created, production was scaled so that multiple frames could be cut out from a large piece of acrylic (figure 2). The visors were then assembled with the PVC sheet, foam for forehead padding and a hairband to attach on totheNHSworker(figure3).

Ms Arestis from marketing delivered the face shields to frontline NHS staff, who were grateful for our donations (figure4).

Snorkel Attachment

The father of one of our Year 11 students works as an NHS Anaesthetist. He explained how the use of a 3D printed adapter would enable him to use a snorkel mask connected to a COVID19 filter. This would protect the full face and the eyes, which are particularly susceptible to virustransmission.

Using our 3D printers, we made some of the adapters, which are currently being trialled at the hospital where thefatherworked.

DT Club

Despite being in lockdown, DT Club still ran with many enthusiastic and determined students participating. For this term, we have set a sustainability project based on theBBC‘HowtoMake’series,presentedbyZoeLaughlin.

In the series, Zoe aims to understand and recreate some of the most commonly used home products. We set our girls the goal of collecting spare/waste materials from home and transforming them into a pair of wearable trainers.

Our DT Reps have been imparting their DT knowledge to guide the DT Club through the process of upcycling and prototyping. Once the shoes are made, our DT Reps will judge the best shoes on their creativity, innovative use of materials and functionality. Winners will be announced in duecourse!

Fig 1. Prototype models

Fig 2. Models ready to cut on our CAD software Fig3.FinishedfaceshieldsFig4.FrontlineNHSstaffusingourvisors

DT A-LEVEL

Thisyear,wehadavarietyofintriguingprojectsfromour

A Level DT students. Sophie Buhler owns two tortoises andidentifiedarangeofproblemsthatshecouldsolveby creating her own product for her major project. Her final productcombinesatortoiseenclosurewithacoffeetable, giving the user multi-functional product which makes the tortoises the focal point of the living room. The final product comes as a flat-pack, making it easy for the user to assessable and disassemble, whilst also reducing transportcosts.

Caitlin Grosvenor set out to assist those with Type 1 diabetes. She identified an issue with teenagers and children being self-conscious about carrying and using their equipment in public spaces. There was also a concern that the equipment (which contains glass and needles) would easily become broken or lost in students’ bags, creating a potential health and safety hazard.  Caitlin’s final product resembled a thermos drinkscontainerthatstudentscouldcarryaroundwithout feelingself-conscious.Herfinalproductalsohadasecure screw cap and provided ample protection from bumps andknockswhilstbeingtakentoschool.Herproductalso provided insulation to keep the medication at an appropriate temperature. Her product was so successful that Ealing Hospital are looking at the prototype with a viewtodevelopingitforuseintheNHS.

Our Year 12 students have completed a range of mini projects to develop their skills in preparation for their majorcourseworkinYear13.

Whilst redesigning an item in the kitchen, Cristina Cope came up with a novel ice cream scoop which included a handle which can be filled with hot water which then conducts heat into the scoop, making it easier to scoop the ice cream. She also integrated a sharper scoop to ensurenoicecreamgetsleftbehindinthetub.

Thushika Ravichandran designed her own guitar stand from acrylic and mild steel. Her design was elegant and eyecatching,andbroughttogetherherdesignflairalong withheraccurateandmeticulousmakingskills.

DT GCSE

Sophie Claxton Solar orbital plant pot

Charlotte Derrick

Bamboo water filter

Inaya Gharatya Travel workstation

Alejandra Branley Backpack sunshield

Anouska Hall Portable Dog washer

Evie Bryant DofE Backpack seat

Meghna Reddy

Darcy Chmiel Insulated milk bottle holder

Natasha Jones Modular plant pots

Edith Elwes Electrical Generator in water pipes

Amelia Emerson Rain water collector

Olivia Frew Garden Bench with composter

Grace Kenyon Modular bee hive

Yasmin Hussain

Insulated lunchbox

Amber Bonnor-Moris Car travel companion

Annika Malhotra Exercise electricity generator

Jasmin Palmer

themed planter

Alice Rowlands Eco shower timer

Ellie Ritchie Thermal hand mitten

Bhanavi Belludi Motion sensor lamp

Sophie Levison Travel storage

ECONOMICS

Economics Conference 2019

On Thursday the 28th of October, three lecturers from the Institute of Economic Affairs (Kate Andrews, Julian Jessop and Dr Steve Davies) came in to give presentations on topics as diverse as the potential privatisation of the NHS, the future of jobs and the importance of infrastructure. Personally, I thought these issues were relevant in the current political landscape and provided insight into areas not covered by the A Level course - as well as reassuring us that we wouldn’t all lose our jobs to robots! Dr Davies also provided useful careers advice for people interested in not only economics but in the business world. Guests from both Bradfield College and Radnor House were very involved during the conference and seemed to enjoy themselves, which was helped by the healthy number of flapjacks on offer!

The day offered an excellent insight into current affairs and helped us to consider new ways of approaching economics. The conference has also inspired us, as economics reps, to try and host our own Economics and Business Q and A conference in the spring term for anyone interested in the subjects!

Stephanie Owen - Year 12

A trip to New York

Over the February half term, A Level Economics students went to New York. The trip was very fun although it went by so quickly! We did manage to see most of the New York attractions and cover subject matter despite only being there for four days. The trip wouldn’t have run so smoothly without Miss Watkins and Miss Longmore who planned and took us on the trip.

The second day of the trip was the best! We visited the High Line, which was lovely as the weather was warmer than we had predicted and the long walk through the park was beautiful and bright. We also went to Brooklyn Bridge and walked half-way across, then we got some Pinterest worthy photos before heading over to Battery Park to grab a lunch of bagels and meet out tour guide.

He gave us a full historical background of New York’s attractions including the Bull on Wall Street, the statue of the young girl opposite the New York Stock Exchange, and Federal Hall. He also explained how the New York streets work; they have streets running numerically from East to West and Avenues running from North to South. We then had a Ferry Ride across the Hudson River to Staten Island to see the lower Manhattan Skyline including the Statue of Liberty! After returning to Manhattan, we went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum where we paid our respects by the Memorial pools. This was overall the most amazing day of the trip, filled with economics, history and a moving recount one of the most influential turning points in history this century. The rest of the trip included a visit to the Top of the Rock in the Rockefeller Centre, Grand Central Station, Central Park, the United Nations Headquarters and a Broadway rendition of Mean Girls which was amazing to say the least.

Jess Berry - Year 12

A Level Language Conference

NHEHS welcomed students from The Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School, The Harrodian School, Uxbridge High School, Godolphin and Latymer School and William Perkin Church of England High School to the very first NHEHS A Level Language Conference this year.

The first talk was given by Prof. Charlotte Brewer (Oxford University) and focused on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and some of the dated attitudes towards gender, sexuality, race and class which are still included in the OED today. Although the OED is renewed four times a year, she drew upon the fact that around half of the original material is yet to be revised and still is highly influenced by Victorian society, which clearly is very different from the language of our society today. A statistic she told us which was very surprising, was that out of the Top 1000 sources on the OED, only 28 are women – and the top female source is George Eliot, who is placed 90th out of 1000. We were all shocked by this and hope that it can change soon with all her work and research!

Up next was Dr Sophie Holmes-Elliott from Southampton University and she talked to us about how adolescents are key to linguistic innovation within the English Language. Linguistic innovation is the process of new elements of language being created and used by young speakers. She gave examples which we were very familiar with, like the use of slang terms such as ‘peng’ and the debate of the use of ‘dived/dove’. She described the English Language as an ‘open system’, which we all thought was an interesting way of looking at language, as it is open so that new elements can be added, however it is a system so the new elements have to follow a set of rules.

The final talk was about child language acquisition and our speaker, Dr Rebecca Wood (University of Newcastle), drew upon ideas and theories from neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics.  This was a very interesting talk for psychology students especially, as it combined ideas like 'the theory of mind’ and 'cognitive learning' with our

studies in English Language. She summarised the way in which young children learn language by saying their ‘comprehension precedes production’, as they find it easier to understand their parents and read English, rather than putting their knowledge into practice.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the three women speak passionately about the elements of English Language which they have studied. The conference as a whole definitely gave us an idea of the vast number of different areas of study within English Language, like sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics, some of which we don’t normally get the chance to learn about at school.

Georgia Wells - Year 12

A conversation with Ms Eastwood

What made you decide to teach English?

I’vehearditsaidthatifyouwanttoknowwhattodoinlife, think about what made you happy when you were a child.  When I was a child, I played schools every day. I wroteregisters,readstoriestomydollsandmarkedbooks. Ican’tbelieveIgettodoitforrealnowI’magrownup!

What has been the highlight of your teaching career so far?

When I taught in a very challenging school, the students in myclassdidsowellintheirGCSEsthattheheadofLondon Challengewrotetocongratulateme!Istillhearfromlotsof students from that time who get in touch to tell me how usefulitwastohaveagoodstartinEnglish.

What book/author would you say has inspired you the most?

Margaret Atwood was the first writer who made me realise I wanted to study literature. Time stops when I read her work.

Which book do you wish you could have written?

I read ‘Fleishmann is in Trouble’ over the summer (thanks for the recommendation Ms Hanbury!) and I kept thinking ‘thisissocleverlyconstructed!’

What would your autobiography be called?

WithaLittleBitofLuck(myYear12EnglishLanguagegroup willgetthisoneIthink…)

If there was a movie of your life, who would you pick to play you?

MerylStreep!Agreatactressandkindofsimilarlooking…

What is a Tv/Netflix show that you would recommend?

I loved Fleabag when it came out. It was a department favourite… apart from Ms Silvester who hated it. And recently, I have been watching The Sopranos; it’s a drama based around the lives of the New Jersey mafia, their friends and their therapists! The writers were clearly influenced by Shakespeare and so many of the ideas come straightoutofHamlet,KingLearandMacbeth.

What song do you have on repeat?

AnythingbyStormzy(orSwoonzyasIcallhim)

Do you have any advice that you would give your younger self?

Iknowyou’reinDiv4now,butyou’llbeinthestaffroom oneday!

A trip to see The Duchess of Malfi

Part of the curriculum for A-level English Literature involves analysing the renowned Thomas Webster play TheDuchessofMalfi.Inafurtherexplorationofthe story,studentsfrombothYear12andYear13tookatrip totheAlmeidaTheatre(thestagebeforeusoncegraced byAndrewScott’slegendaryHamletianperformance).As is natural preceding any play at the Almeida, the room was abuzz with excitement. But before we knew it, the lightswentdown,andtheplaybegan…

Thecastwaslinedwithfamiliarfaces,makingthesinister atmosphere all the more unsettling - and the cold, hopeless stares out to the audience all the more haunting. Lydia Wilson (whom several us recognised from Richard Curtis’  About Time) gave an incredibly memorable performance, her shrill scream still rippling through our minds long after the last bows had been taken. Webster’s writing was captivating - and his hyperbolic depiction of the Gothic themes tirelessly studied at A-level almost made a mockery of the Gothic genre. The depiction of a character suffering from lycanthropy particularly stood out, as depicted through themelodramaticallywolfishphysicality.

Following much emotional upheaval and a standing ovation, the play was finished, and we led out the Almeida in a bubble of excited chatter and awe. Overall, the trip was a great success, and as Year 12s we now can’twaittoread TheDuchessofMalfi nextyear!

Meet ‘Doodles’

Doodles is our brand new English Language journal! Brush and pen, pictures and words. Both creative writing and art are important outlets for many. It is for this reason we were so enthused by the idea of Doodles – a creative writing journal that fuses the mediums of art and writing. This was an idea put forwardbythepreviousEnglishreps,andwefeltthatit wasfartooimportanttobeignored.Welovedtheidea of allowing students to express themselves through their writing and art, and finally gaining some much deservedrecognition.

With so many political and social issues centered around the rise in technology, it is no wonder that a number of the pieces decided to focus on this, highlighting many relevant topics of the present day. We were blown away by the number of entries that flooded our inboxes, and while the job was rewarding, selecting and extracting parts of people’s work was a near-impossible task. It is with great pleasure that we invite you to dive into dystopias with the prompt, ‘New rules for a future world’, be transported to the orange orchards of Italy, and become a fly on the wall of privateconversations.

Ealing Teen Read

Ealing Teen Read 2020 was a very relaxing and fun activity. Alistofsixbookswassentouttoseveralschools in Ealing; a team of students would read the books and then vote for their overall winner. I initially joined Ealing Teen Read to try reading some new genres of books. I also wanted to try to venture out of my normal style of books. I liked that all the books were distinct and unique, as it made them much more enjoyable to read. Once the sixbookswereannouncedweallgotreading.

We hope that you enjoy this collection as much as we enjoyed making it. With thanks to: Ms Myatt and the previous English representatives, Sapna Joshi, Deedan Baker, Sophie Buhler, Anika Nuni, and Josephine Flade, forgettingthisofftheground.  ZoeMilionisandMillyBuckroyd-Year12

At our first meeting everyone had strong opinions on eachofthebooksandalreadyhadtheirfavouritebookin mind. It was interesting to hear different perspectives on the books and made me see certain books in a new light. Wekeptdeliberatingoverthebookwewantedtovotefor as we all had contrasting views. After many biscuits and heateddebates,wesentinourwinner.

Some of the highlights of the event were the inspiring talks we had from Sophia Thakur and Muhammad Khan. It was fascinating to see their process of writing and how they got to where they are today. We want to say a huge thankyoutoMsBarnard,MrsBroekmannandtheEnglish departmentfororganisingsuchagreatevent.

Sarah-JaneDavidson-Year9

BOOK WEEK

Decorate a door competition’

During Book Week, forms in the lower school were tasked with decorating their classroom doors with things related to the theme of the week – ‘How to beaheroine:womeninliterature’.

Mrs Irwin, Ms Silvester, and the English reps then had the pleasure of judging the incredible ideas that the forms had brought to life, which proved to much harder than we originally thought. Doors ranged from immortalising the March sisters from Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’ in beautiful sketches and character studies, to having a completely unique murder mystery that the judges were asked to solve from the ‘A Murder Most Unladylike’seriesbyRobinStevens.

All of the doors were thoughtfully decorated and looked absolutely incredible – with one even playingtheHarryPotterthemetune!Ultimately,the decision was made that the overall winner would be 8S with their ‘Little Women’ themed door, but it was not an easy choice to make. It was amazing to seethecreativityoftheloweryears,andthelevelof enthusiasm and commitment shown during the competition promises great things for the future of Englishatthisschool! MillyBuckroyd -Year12

‘

GEOGRAPHY

A trip to Switzerland

During the October half term, 45 students and four teachers were lucky enough to go to Switzerland on a Geographytrip. WewereaccompaniedbyDrPearce,Ms Duns,MsMunroe-HallandMrLivings.

Arriving at Heathrow airport at 04:30 is never a good thing, even under the best of circumstances. There is a special kind of exhaustion experienced after waking at 03:00(which apparentlyonlyaffectsteenagerssincethe teachers seemed very lively) so when we boarded the plane many of us succumbed to sleep. We all felt a lot more energised at Geneva Airport despite the freezing rain and then set off for a quick lunch in Montreux, followed by a relaxing session at Lavey Les Bains.  This was the best part of the trip! The thermal baths and jacuzzies with stunning views were a huge hit with everybody,butthemostpopularparteveryonereferred to simply as ‘The Whirlpool.’ It was a circular pool with watermovinginadoughnutshape,withcurrentsstrong enoughtocarryyoualong.Itwasawesome!

The rest of the trip included the Berneuse Mountain in cable cars where we learnt about one of our key pieces of Geography: zonation, crossing the border to ChamonixinFrance,toseethe‘MerdeGlace’glacier,the Bex Salt Mines, the ‘Maison de Gruyere,’ a huge cheese factory and the UN in Geneva. We saw the assembly chamber and learnt about the UN’s beginnings. It was amazing to be in a place that emanated such importance.

Thank you so much to Mrs Duns, Miss Munro-Hall, Dr Pearce and of course Mr Livings for such an amazing trip!

AliceJenkins-Year10

Being Eco Friendly at NHEHS

This year we launched the new school’s eco magazine! Thefirsteditionincludedmanysolutionsforboredomin quarantineandtheongoingenvironmentalcrisis.Oneof the highlights of the magazine was an article done by Selena Ali about reforming your own garden! There was also a fun DIY activity showing how to make at home reusable face masks with fun designs and patterns, to avoid the single-use masks. Eliza Beresford, Year 10, wrote about the website ‘Ecosia’, which is a special environment search engine and is definitely worth checking out! Other tips included how to reduce food waste and recycle more. We also followed the positive effects of the recent pandemic on climate change as pollutionlevelshavedecreased.

This year, our NHEHS Eco Team has been working hard to eliminate plastic in school and encourage clean travel in order to try and contribute to decreasing climate change and the damage done to the environment. This follows on from our success last year, when the Eco Team managed to secure the bronze award for clean travel in schools and environmental awareness. We also had a very successful anti-idling campaign, which included writing to Rupa Huq and asking for a nonparking zone at the front of the school to decrease pollution, particularly for the Junior school students. The EcoTeamalsorecentlysentoutanassemblytostudents outlining the effects of the pandemic and keeping spirits up! The eco team will continue to work online and with the students to continue to fight for the environment andspreadawarenessabouttheissuespresentandalso some fun activities of how to help the environment in quarantine.

ZahraMahmood-Year11

Conservation Club 2020

Inthespringtermof2020,ConservationClubwasfullof keen geographers all sharing ideas on how we should maketheschoolmoresustainable.

In order to get a better understanding of the environmentalissueswearefacinginthemodernworld, we started looking at the impacts of agriculture and natural disasters on the environment. By doing this, members of Conservation Club were able to debate possible solutions to these critical issues. The problemsolving skills we learned during this period of research allowedustocomeupwithsomeexcitingideastomake NHEHS a more environmentally friendly school. One of the solutions we came up with, was to design and build bird boxes which we would then distribute around the school grounds. Conservation Club feels that this would be a positive step towards reducing the negative environmentalimpactsoftheschool.Unfortunately,due to the pandemic we have had to postpone the creation of these bird boxes however we hope to begin the designandbuildprocessthisacademicyear.

Anyone who is interested in helping us on this exciting processismorethanwelcometojoinconservationclub.

FelictyRylattandUrsulaCornelius-Year12

Quaker Meeting House and Abbey

In November, both of the Year 11 PRE groups spent the afternoon visiting two local places of Christian Worship. This allowed us to further the knowledge of opinions of different denominations of Christianity to help us when preparingforourGCSEinthesummer.

PRE Taster Day at Girton College, Cambridge

On the 6th November Juliet, Amelia and I went to Cambridge University’s Girton College for a Theology, Religion and Philosophy taster day. We attended various sessions throughout the day, such as: ‘Are you who you think you are?’, ‘Understanding Buddhist Mindfulness’, ‘Should we read religious texts just like any other book?’, and ‘Has Science Killed God?’ along with many others. Each talk, given by a mix of researchers, students at Cambridge and professors, gave an insight into how PRE canrelatetoadiverserangeofinteresting,topicalissues.

Neartheendofthedaytherewasasessiononwhatyou can do with a philosophy degree, a tour around Girton, and time to get to know and ask any other questions we had with some of the philosophy students studying in thatcollege.

Firstly,wewalkedtotheQuakerMeetingHousenearEaling Broadway. We met one of the members of the group and we talked to her about her religious beliefs and views on modern day issues such as Extinction Rebellion. She also talked about how she converted to become a Quaker from beingaRomanCatholic.

Afterwards, we looked around the meeting house which included some important books from their on-site library.  We then walked to Ealing Abbey which is the main Roman Catholic Church in our area. There we met one of thepriestswhoshowedusaroundthechurch,pointingout important features and explaining the order of the mass. We had the opportunity to ask questions about certain Roman Catholic beliefs that have caused a bit of controversybutwereinterestingtohearabout.

Overall,itwasaninterestingtripandcertainlyhelpedusto broadenourunderstandingofdifferentbeliefs.

EleanorRitchie-Year11

Our experience at Girton was great. It gave us some insight into student life at Cambridge, as well as allowing us to explore the different aspects of a PRE degree and wherethedegreecouldtakeusinthefuture.

LiviaHarris,JulietKoseandAmeliaSamtani-Year11

HISTORY

A trip to Berlin

OvertheOctoberhalfterm,GCSEHistorystudentstravelled to Berlin to learn about Germany’s capital and its involvement in the Nazi and Soviet regimes. Our days were jam-packed with exciting trips and interesting tours. We visited lots of historical attractions including the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a former Stasi Prison. These importantvisitsprovethesignificanceoflearningaboutthe darkeraspectsofhistory.Erasingordismissingthepastcan havelongtermdamageforacountryanditsinfluence.

Germany has spent the 20th century coming to terms with theimpactandscaleoftheNaziRegimeandtheHolocaust. Our trip to Berlin made this clear through our visits to the memorials to the Murdered Jews, Sinti and Roma, and homosexuals. Visiting these places, gave us more of an insight into the lives and experiences of the people living at thetime,assometimesthenaturalthingtocometomindis thestatisticnotthepeople’sindividuallivesbehindit.

The trip gave us a rich background for the events we study inourHistorycourse.

FreyaMcNeil-Year11

Year 9 History Trip to the National Army Museum

In the Autumn term we ventured across London to spend an exciting day at the National Army Museum. Firstly we attended a workshop on recruitment and propaganda in both World Wars. We looked at posters and analysed the persuasion techniques used and why they were effective. Each group then gave a small presentation on a poster, explaining when they thought it had been published and how, for example, it made conscription appealing to young men.Thiswasfunbutchallengingasthesourcesweresometimeshardtodate.

Following on from this, we then did a workshop looking at different weapons and clothing that were actually used in the First and Second World War. We also examined many artefacts, categorising them into different groups depending on their function. This was really interesting as we got to explore artefacts used by real soldiers historic and try on historic clothing.Myfavouritewasahugegunwhichwasextremelyheavyandwouldhavebeenhardtowield.

Finally, we had some free time to look around the museum. There were loads of artefacts and a tank that you could climb inside. We looked at medals and photographs and even a model of a human head and torso that were used to train surgeons to deal with drastic injuries. Overall, it was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves and learnt a lot aboutthetwoWorldWarsinmoredetail.

A conversation with Miss Hughes

When and why did you decide to become a history teacher?

Aftermyhistorydegree,Iworkedatthelearningsupport department of my local school to earn money for a medical degree. I loved my job and also applied for teacher training. I was offered both places, and chose teaching.

If you were stuck in a lift with three figures from history, who would they be?

Lenin has to be one because the implementation of Communismhadahugeimpactonmodernhistory.Also, Elizabeth I as she was such a strong woman and I’d love to be friends with her. Finally someone interesting but nottoodomineeringlikeGandhi,ashecouldteachmeto beabetterhumanbeing.

Do you have any party tricks?

I excel at the game of picking up a cereal box with your teethandrippingasmanylayersofftheboxaspossible.

Who would play you in the biopic of your life?

KateWinslet,aswehaveabitofaconnectionfrombeing bornjustoutsideReading.She’salsoagreatactress.  KatePygram-Year12

NHEHS History Convention, 2019

On 17th September 2019, the first NHEHS History Conventiontookplace.Priortothisafternoonofexciting academic debate, the Year 13 History Representatives hadbeenresearching,organisingandcontactingrelevant academicsfortheevent.

TheConventionwascentredonthequestion“Whatwere thesocial,politicalandeconomicimplicationsofBritain’s shift from the imperial in the 20th century?”. Five key academics from various London-based universities, who are currently researching topics related to the theme of the British Empire, each came to deliver 10 minute lecturesabouttheirtakeonthetopicfollowedbystudent

This was not only a great opportunity for those studying A-Level History at NHEHS to learn more about such a central theme within the British History aspect of the course,butalsothosefromotherlocalschoolswhowere invitedtocomeandparticipateinthediscussion.

The Convention proved to be a great success as it was incredibly interesting to hear from speakers such as Dr Wagner, Dr Stocker, Dr Johnston-White, Dr Windscheffel and Dr Maguire. Furthermore, it was truly useful and fascinating to have a chance to engage with academic debateandquestionthoseatthetopoftheirfield.

Thank you to Mr Pepper for supporting the History Representativesintheorganisationofthisevent!

CharlotteGrimwade-Year13

POLITICS

NHEHS Mock Election Week 2019

Before the General Election we had our own mock election at NHEHS, which was preceded by all of the candidates:SamirAlsoodani(BrexitParty),SonulBadiani (Liberal Democrat), Kate Crossland (Green Party), Julian Gallant (Conservative Party), and Rupa Huq (Labour Party), individually coming to NHEHS and being thoroughly questioned about their party’s policies and otherissuesoverlunch.

First came Julian Gallant (Conservative candidate) who was questioned in detail about issues such as islamophobia in the Conservative party, Boris Johnson’s homophobiccomments,theNHSandJenniferAcuri.The next day, Rupa Huq (Labour) was rigorously challenged about anti-semitism in the Labour party, education and thecouncil.

The following week, Samir Alsoodani (Brexit Party) came in,andunderthewatchfuleyeofthebiggestaudienceof all the candidates, was asked about islamophobia and xenophobia in the Brexit Party, especially as seen in the words of Nigel Farage, and he was also quizzed on why hewantedtoleavetheEU.Therewasalsoaninteresting discussion about the EU and what happens to the UK’s VAT.

The next candidate was Sonul Badiani (Liberal Democrats)whoansweredquestionsonissuesincluding climate change, the revoke policy and tuition fees. Her answers seemed to go down well with the audience whichwasstronglyreflectedinourresults!

The final candidate to come under scrutiny was Kate Crossland (Green Party) who offered a faster, perhaps more idealistic vision of tackling the climate emergency. She was asked about Jonathan Bartley (the co-leader of the Green party) wanting to ban halal meat. Interestingly, Crossland faced much less opposition duringquestioning.

In our mock election there were 30 seats to be won, representing the 30 form groups, meaning that 16 were needed to win an overall majority. After an exit poll that looked promising for the Liberal Democrats, the results were:

● BrexitParty:noseats

● ConservativeParty:1seat

● LabourParty:2seats

● GreenParty:4seats

● LiberalDemocratParty:23seats.

These results indicate a Liberal Democrat landslide at NHEHS!

Although these results were not mirrored by the Ealing Central and Acton ward, they could indicate huge changes to the borough, and possibly the rest of the country if these results were reflected in the future. Perhaps, once our generation are all able to vote in GeneralElections,wewillhavetheopportunitytovoteto re-join the EU, as the President of the European Commission,Jean-ClaudeJunckerhassaidhehopesthat Britainwillre-jointheEUafterBrexit.

SakeenaSanders-Year10

KateCrossland

LET'S DEBATE!

The London Oratory School Model United Nations

This year’s LOSMUN was an immensely gratifying experience as we learnt not only the essential skill of public speaking, but the intricacies and structure of an MUN assembly. It was a brilliant opportunity to appreciate the importance of expressing one’s viewpoint with conviction. With topics of debate such as the Yemen Civilwarandtheincreasingthreatofsmallarmsandlittle weapons, LOSMUN allowed us to expand our knowledge on important, global issues. These issues were debated withgreatferocityandpeople’sabilitytotalkwithpassion in defence of the country they represented was greatly admired. Additionally, the General Assembly (GA) saw intense discussion, with the crisis being the current emergencyinHongKong.Protestors, callingforuniversal suffrage and the right to democratic reforms, are faced with increasing opposition from the police and Chinese government: our GA sought to find ways to address the situation.

This was a hugely beneficial experience, showing us all the importance of international cooperation in times of political emergency. It has also made us all much more aware of the problems that endanger the democratic progressionofourworldandtheneedtosolvethem.

RoseSlocock-Year12

ESU Public Speaking Competition

On 8th February, NHEHS participated in the English Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition hosted by Francis Holland School. The team consisted of the Speaker, Zahra Mahmood, Chairperson, Freya McNeill and Alice Rowlands as Questioner. The speech we presented was: ‘Is it possible to trust a government?’ discussing topical issues such as the coronavirus and the Australian bush fires. Our team hosted the speaker whose topic was ‘The vilification of Margaret Thatcher is not justified’ which explored areas of interest such as the breaking of the Trade Unions and her influence in modernBritain.

Wehadaveryenjoyabledaymeetingotherdebatersand practicingourpublicspeakingskillsteam.Thehighlightof thedaywasAlicebeingawardedBestQuestioner.

Introducing the BLM focus group

With the media storm of information about social movements invading our phones, it can very easily start to feel overwhelming. When beginning to read about Black History and Britain’s dark past, there is a tendency to want immediate change and instant justice. But this is a movement, not a moment and so our activism must be steadyandcontinuous.

That is why we have concentrated our energy on the new BLM focus group which is comprised of students, staff, and alumni in order to create effective change from within the school. We know how important it is to listen to a multitude of voices and so we are committed to fostering an informative and healthy environment, where people are given the opportunity to learn more about this sensitive but crucialtopic.

NHEHS Highly Commended for Oracy

“Oracyeducationdevelopsstudents’skillandconfidence in communication, particularly with regards to speaking and listening." That definition is from the EnglishSpeakingUnionwhohaveawardedNHEHSwitha“High Commendation” for the myriad of opportunities and initiatives providedtopromoteoracywithintheschool.

This is such an exciting award as building confidence in publicspeakingisfundamentalineverythingwedo.From runningHouseShouts,SoapBoxSpeeches,DebatingClubs and Societies exploring far-reaching topics (“Pineapple on pizza should be banned!”), Pupil-Teacher debates (“This House Believes Harry Potter should be banned”) to conferences such as a UN-inspired public speaking conferenceinvolvingotherschools; theopportunitiesare wideandfar-reaching.

ZoeMilionis-Year12

GDST Chyrstall Prize Final

NOTMUN during Lockdown

Well done to Inaya for representing the school at the GDSTChrystallPrizefinalwithherintriguingdiscussion of“Ismemorythemostimportantpartofidentity?".

Debating tends to be something you’d think is only possiblewithcontact.Well,onSaturdaythe13thofJune, adebatingsquadrepresentedtheschoolinanonline parliamentary debate hosted by Putney High School. RepresentingourschoolthisyearwasDunyaAkcaliand Ishita Nadipalli on one of the Year 7 teams, Elizabeth O’BrienandSalemYosiefontheYear8/9team,andthen AlexandraDownandmyselfontheotherYear7team.

The first motion was ‘We Should Ban Private Tuition’, whichIwasontheopposingteamfor.Myteammateand Iwereputintheclosingopposition,andalsoworkingon the opening opposing team where two girls from Norwich High School. We only got a few minutes to prepareforbecausewespentabout15minutestryingto find things, like the motion itself (not used to using Microsoftteams).

Theparliamentarydebatestyle,theonetheyuseinthe governmenttoday,issimplerthanitlooks.Eachperson has7minutesfortheirspeech,andthefirstminuteis protected time. Although my team started off as the ClosingOppositionteam,therewerethreedebates,each timeswitchingplaces.

I found it hardest opening the motion ‘This House Believes We Should Encourage Virtual Living’. The hardest motion was ‘This House Believes We Should RandomlySelectMPs’.Ifoundithard,asIhadtoargue forthismotionwhenIdidn’treallyhaveaviewonit. Either way, all teams did well and everyone had fun. Giventheopportunity,Iwoulddoitagain.Ididnotknow abouttheParliamentarystyleuntilnowwhichIfound really interesting to learn. Additionally, I learnt a lot about the variety of topics, and it helped us explore certainideasmore.

NiamhStafford-Year7

Duetothecoronaviruspandemic,theNOTMUNwasheld online this year for the first time in history! The Debating Reps worked together to allocate countries and teams to take part in the conference. The conference consisted of around33studentsandelevendifferentcountries.There were three committee questions chosen to debate. The PoliticalCommitteediscussedthediscriminationofethnic minorities globally, the Human Rights Committee discussed the question of granting all humans unfiltered access to the internet and the economics committee discussedthegenderpaygapinofficesglobally.Students started the conference by preparing some controversial resolutions for their countries as well as outlining their policies and views as a country. In the Political Committee,westartedlobbyingimmediatelybygrouping countriesthatwereallies.

We launched straight into debating the chosen resolutions. This sparked conflict amongst the countries and some very passionate arguments! As chair of the Political Committee, I was very surprised that for the first resolution we had a split vote and we continued to debate until we came to a conclusion that satisfied the vote.  We then mixed everyone together for the General Assembly (GA) and announced the problem for the countries to solve. The issue was: 'Putin’s senior adviser Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov has been assassinated by an Americanregisteredgun'.Theproblempresentedcaused great excitement and controversy among the countries andthestudentssplitintotwogroups,withRussiaversus America.Theresolutionspresentedwerewell-craftedand very creative. For the rest of the day, we gathered together to debate the resolutions given until we passed Russia’sresolution!

Overall, the very first remote NOTMUN was great fun for allthestudentsinvolved. Thedaywasagreatsuccess!

ZahraMahmood-Year11

OnlineParliamentaryDebate

HISTORY OF ART

This year in Art History

Often studying Art History at A-Level can feel like the attachedartworkbyartistJeremyDeller

''The History of the World' (1997-2004, Tate Collection) makes links and connections between ideas and historicalperiodsthatmightonthesurfaceseemdistinct but actually aren't, with a bit of a detective work. It is discoveriessuchatthesewhichmakeArtHistorysuchan interestingsubject!

Whileitisveryhardtosumupayear'sworthofteaching, I will single out two extra curricular events we attended: the'WaysofSeeing'conferenceattheNationalGalleryin October, and the Martin Kemp lecture on Leonardo da Vinci at Ibstock Place School. The conference drew together academics from different universities but of particular interest was the lecture on the Baroque garden. We might think of nature as something natural but often what we experience in parks has been designedandmanipulatedbyman.

The Palace of Versailles

Should we be letting nature re-wild itself given our current environmental concerns? Martin Kemp's lecture was equally insightful and topical on the theme of nature. For Leonardo da Vinci, man is integrally connected to nature: the veins of a wrist were understoodtohimasoneandthesamearivernetwork.

Meme by Lola Troy for the NHEHS 'Turn an artwork into a meme' competition ran over lockdown

Stills from Florence Yost's (Year 12) Shortlisted documentary for the SPoKE competition on Henry Moore's 'Recumbent Figure'

MATHS

A conversation with Ms Copin

What is it like to be Deputy Academic head at NHEHS?

Jolly! I get to spend lots of time with Heads of Department, whoareallinspiringandcommittedpeople,andwhowork theirsocksoff.It’sagreatjoyinlifetoworkwithpeopleyou admire. I also get to find out about all the brilliant things thestudentsgetupto!

What inspired you to become a maths teacher?

I studied Maths at University because I found it really hard andsowantedsomeoneelsetoexplainittome.Oneday,I ended up in a talk by a Physics teacher on making staircases out of wooden blocks. That’s when it clicked I couldmakealivingtalkingaboutthingsIfoundinteresting. Ispoketothemafterthetalkandgotajobattheirschool.

Are there any embarrassing moments you’ve had as teacher?

Nope! It has all been completely flawless. There has been no falling over, spilling coffee everywhere, handing out mark schemes instead of test papers, or getting all the mathstotallywrong.Thosethingsneverhappened.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Recently I have enjoyed cycling around Europe with my family. It’s fun adventuring together in river valleys, and

The Maths Trip

OnacoldNovemberday,withthemorningstarrisinginthe east, mathematicians from all corners of London gathered foraconventionofmathematicalwondersattheEmmanuel centre.

First to speak was Simon Singh, an author, visionary and Simpson’s character, who captured the audience with his description of the solution to Fermat’s Last Theorem, emphasising that maths can be full of emotion as well as logic. Next was Michael Blastland, who revealed the myriad ofmathematicalmistakesmadebythemediaandtaughtus how to find the truth within often contradictory information. Then came the biggest surprise of all, as Dr Frost himself took the stage. However, our amazement turned to shock and crippling disappointment when he sullied the good name of CAST diagrams. Lucky for him, his websiteisveryhelpful,soweforgivehim(mostly).

ThemathsmagicianMattPritchard,wasnext.Somehow,he conjured forth from his hand, a card of our own choosing which predicted that his bag was filled with polo mints (which it was!). David Acheson and Jackie Bell were the last speakers. David Acheson gave us a history lesson in calculus, before a soulful and lengthy performance on the electric guitar. Lastly, Jackie Bell shared with us her experience at the BBC going through an astronaut training programme. She explained how she used the logic that she learnt through her maths degree to deal with some of the problems, such as finding a way to search a cave with a MarsRoverin20minutes.

I would recommend this trip for anyone inclined towards maths (even with a very small gradient). It was immensely fun, and thoroughly interesting, and a great way to find out aboutmathsbeyondschool.

ZareenHyatt-Year12

Itwasthe16thofMarch,andwhiletherestoftheworldhad celebrated Pi Day over the weekend, the festivities at NHEHSwereonlyjustbeginning.

By lunchtime the whole school was buzzing with anticipation as they watched the Maths Reps set up. Who would win the illustrious title of pi recital champion? Would the previous record of 211 digits, set two years ago, be broken?Allwastobeansweredinthenext45minutes.

At 1:45, with such tension that the air could have been cut withaknife,therecitalbegan.Ourcompetitorseachtookto thestage.FirstwasRahelHabtemichel(Year7),whorecited 108 digits, then Agnes Hall (Year 8) who recited 121 digits, and finally Cleopatra Deitsch (Year 12) who recited 199 digits,ameretwelvedigitsfromthepreviousrecord!

By this point, a rather large crowd had gathered in awe. It was time to begin approximating. Having found a way to draw a circle inside a square on the floor of the bottom atrium,themathsrepsbegan.Aneagergroupofvolunteers ascended the stairs and proceeded to drop counters over the edge, so that the ground below quickly became an explosionofcolour.

Once all the counters had been counted, the mathematiciansemployedsomeingeniousmathstofindan approximation for pi (for further explanation see the board inthepicture,oraskoneoftheMathsReps),endingupwith animpressivevalueof3.39.

Of course, Pi day would not have been the same without thePi-perchain.Wehadtencolourstorepresenteachof the digits of thedecimal system, and with the help of everyone in the atrium we strung them together in the orderofpi.

ZareenHyatt-Year12

Pi-etry Competition

This year for the first time ever, the maths reps also launchedanewcompetition-thePi-etrycompetition.The challengewastowriteapoemin‘Pilish’-wheretheletter frequencyofeachwordcorrespondedtothedigitsofpi.

Wehadtwowinners:

ImmiandThushikawonthelongestPi-em:"Wow.madea tasty delicious pi. Apples, pears and plums combined perfectly.Tonight,blueberry."

Mr Quarmby had the best Pi Pun: "Not a tart a Greek homophonepi."

Thankyoutoeveryonewhogotinvolvedwithallofthepi relatedfunthisyearandwearelookingforwardtodoing itallagainnextyear!

ZareenHyatt-Year12

Maths Feast

Earlierthisyear,eightYear10swenttoLangleyGrammar School, to participate in a ‘Maths Feast.’ After diligent training every Wednesday for a few weeks leading up to theevent,wewerealllookingforwardtoamorningfullof Mathspuzzles.

Mr Quarmby kindly drove us in the minibus, meaning we were one of the first teams to arrive. This left us time to splitupintotwoteamsoffourandgetwarmedupwitha tricky maths crossword. After the rules and layout of the day were explained, we started the first round: the ‘starter’ofourmathsfeast.Everybodyintheteamoffour had one Maths paper, with 5 minutes to answer as many questions as they could. The paper was then passed to the left, and you then had 4 minutes to answer as many answers as possible. This continued until everybody had seen all four papers, when we had 1 minute to discuss ouranswers.ThisroundwasdefinitelynotNHEHS’best!

We did, however, have much more success with the next round, which took place after a brief break and feast of biscuits. This was our ‘main course,’ aka the comprehensionround.

In my team at least, this involved lots of shouting at the otherteamtoHURRYUP!!!Despitelosingafewfriendsin this round, we emerged reasonably content with our marks. The focus of the day was not on competition but rather on having fun doing maths, meaning the final resultswerenotannounced.

Overall, it was tremendous fun! Thank you so much to Isabel, for coming and helping on the day; Mr Quarmby for driving us, and, of course, Mrs Critcher for giving up her Wednesday evenings to help us prepare and accompanyingustoLangley.

AliceJenkins-Year10

We had a double-sided sheet explaining the basics of linear programming. From there, we had to answer a series of questions based on what we had learnt. One team came joint 1st with full marks, while the other team was not far off. To round off the day, we finished withadeliciousdesertofrelayquestions.

LANGUAGES

First MFL Trophy for NHEHS!

Keen linguists from Years 7 to 10 and Year 12 travelled to Sutton High School for this year’s GDST Languages FestivalonFebruary28th.

Following a welcome from Mrs Dawson, the Headmistress at Sutton High, we heard from the keynote speaker, Ian Bauckham CBE, CEO of the Tenax Schools Trust on the importance of languages about how Spanish, German, French and Mandarin were the most sought after languages and about the significant demand for translators, particularly those who also haveexpertiseinSTEMsubjectstoo.Afterthis,wewere split into year groups, with the Year 7 taking on a SpellingBeechallenge,theYear8aCultureQuiz,Year9 Group Sketches, while Year 10 and 12 prepared for a debate using iPads on motions such as whether team or individual sport are better or whether we have become too reliant on modern technology. After a shortbreak,wewitnesseda collaboration extraordinaire across all the schools as Year 7 took part in a singing workshop and learned how to perform ‘Let it Go’ from the movie Frozen in French, German and Spanish! The Year 8s participated in a fascinating workshop on how to invent a language, led by David Adger, Professor of LinguisticsatQueenMaryUniversityofLondon.Aftera delicious lunch, all schools and age groups gathered togetherinLeesHalltohear Year7sing‘LetItGo’,hear feedback from their ‘create your own language workshop’andwatchthewinningYear9sketches.

Finally, we listened to the presentation of prizes, which included the following mentions for NHEHS girls: Julia gained a special commendation for her heroic effort (doing a double round of spellings) in the Year 7 SpellingBee.

Ishita was runner up in the ‘sum up the event’ competition,sayingshewasinspiredbythedaytobea polyglot. Salem was chosen to share with the whole hall the principles of a language that she created herselfintheLinguisticsWorkshop.

Year9GermanstudentsLydia,Evangelina,Isabellaand Saima were runners up in their play category. Year 9 Spanish students Heather, Sarah Jane, Sofia, were runners up in their play category. And Year 9 French students Chloe, Naya, Sephera and Anna WON their play category with their play entitled ‘La Liaison et Le Lait.’

All girls stepped up to the mark and exemplified great team work, confidence and thinking on their feet: they were a credit to the school. I am delighted to say that we now have our first MFL trophy to add to the cabinet!

MrPiesse-HeadofModernLanguages

Picture of the winning French students

French Exchange at NHEHS

On the 20th of January 2020, five Year 12 and 13 French A level students got the chance to host students from the‘Jean-BaptiseSay’highschoolinParis.

On the Monday evening, we all headed off to St Pancras to pick up our French exchange students, and after a very delayed train, I finally met Lauren, which was really exciting after months of chatting via WhatsApp. As soon as Lauren and I left the station, the London experience began as once we got back to my house, we quickly left again to meet some friends on the way to a concert! I was so excited to take Lauren to her first ever concert, even if it was on a Monday night in Shoreditch! We were definitely tired when we got home but it was an exciting start to the week. Throughout the week the exchange students did lots of sightseeing and workshops in Londonalonewiththeirschool.

Later on, we walked around Southbank in search for somegreatfood.Unfortunately,thetripcoincidedwith the French exchange student’s Baccalauréat exams revision. This meant that on Sunday, we were unable to explore London further as Lauren had to revise. We compromised this by celebrating her last day with a traditional pub lunch! After such a fun week, we were all looking forward to our trip to Paris during Easter which was sadly cancelled due to COVID-19. Overall, I really enjoyed showing Lauren British culture and Londonlife!

AnnaWhittock-Year12

Half-way through their trip, we got the chance to take them along with us and show them a day in the life at NHEHS. This included an English Language conference, takingpartinlessonsandafull-onZumbaclass!

On Friday night, Lauren and I went to a dinner party with friends where we played a mix of British and French music (and some Disney tunes as requested by Lauren) whilsteatingavarietyoftraditionalEnglishfoods.

On Saturday, Bella, Nina (two other French A-level students) and I took our exchange students, Faustine, Hortense and Lauren, to China Town. It was quite convenient as it allowed us to celebrate the Chinese New Year despite COVID-19 which was prominent in China at thattime(resultingincelebrationsbeingcancelled).

The Chinese Speaking Competition was one that proved a rewarding experience. Many other groups were performing, and due to friendly competition, we were motivated to perform as well as we truly could. Uponarrivingatthecompetition,weinstantlybeganto prepareforourperformance.

WehaddecidedonthethemeofthehandoverofHong Kongandwehadwrittenadetailedplayaboutagroup of soldiers who were impacted by the handover. The other groups had prepared plays about a variety of different settings and used creative methods to approach the competition. Many groups incorporated dance and singing to further teach others about Chineseculture.

The entire competition proved to be successful in both uniting groups of students who were passionate about learning and speaking Mandarin and teaching us how besttoconveyourideasthroughperformance.Overall, we all greatly enjoyed the competition and agreed that itwasagreatlearningexperience.

EvangelineRudakevich-Year9

French studies

During French this year we have been introduced to FrenchcultureandstudiedtheFrenchlanguage.Thisyear has been enriching and inspiring and I feel I have learned comprehensive French speaking skills for the future. As well as this, I have delved into the culture of music and politics giving great breadth to our studies and I am sure this knowledge will be useful for the future. Although we did not get to take our French exams, we were also allowedtoparticipateinaFrenchspeakingshowcase.This allowed us to show off our French skills and provided me withagreatsenseofachievement.Itwasawonderfulway toconcludeourGCSEstudiesandthisyearasawhole.

During our last French lesson of Year 11, the French department created an inspiring activity to help people deal with the boredom of coronavirus and teach us more about French culture. This involved making crêpes. We hadaGoogleMeetopenwhereourteachersguideduson what ingredients to use and tips and tricks to help us make the most delicious crepes possible. The activity was a great way to end my French studies and my whole familywasabletoenjoythecrepesImade.Aswellasthis, it was nice to have some social interaction and see everyone baking together! Throughout quarantine, I will definitelybemakingtheseagain!

ZahraMahmood-Year11

German Society

German society is a chance for students to get together and discuss fun aspects of German history, language and culture. Every session consists of fascinating conversations and insights into Germany’s past, always accompanied with some sort of delicious German cake or dessert. So far this year, we have explored Germany during the Cold War and have made presentations on what life was like in East Germany. We watched the film ‘Good-Bye Lenin’ which showcased the fall of the Berlin wall and the events that followed. We also explored modernGermanmusicthroughwatchingmanyintriguing music videos. Every session brings something new and lets us see deeper and deeper into the vibrant country thatisGermany.

AbhaBhole-Year10

Chinese speaking competition

MUSIC

Chamber Choir at St Martin in the Fields

On Monday 4th November, Chamber Choir set off in the early afternoon to St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square. Excited but daunted, we arrived at our venue in complete awe and with some apprehension as we realised that the church’s capacity was a lot larger than anyone expected. Letting this fuel our excitement rather than nerves, we decided to explore the church and practise our pieces, discovering the amazing acoustics thechurchhad.

Our performance at St Martin in the Fields was the Evensong Service, which is an Evening Service with many musical pieces such as the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. After warming up, we practised our performance with the organist, which brought the music

Symphony Orchestra

SymphonyOrchestraismadeupofstudentsfromYear7 to 13 of Grade 5 and above standard in their chosen instrument. We started off the year by playing the ‘Karelia Suite’ by Sibelius, performing it at the Autumn Concert. It was a challenge, especially with a ‘new’ orchestra and with many new players joining us but we pulleditoffsuccessfullywithmuchmusicalsolidity.

church to prepare for the procession at the beginning of theservice.Itwasatthispointwhennervesranhighand adrenaline kicked in, as the bells in the clock tower rang signalling it was time for the service to begin. With Mr Shoults and many parents supporting us in the congregation, we sang our way through the service with little error throughout. The glee and relief as we walked down the church isle at the end of the service was astounding, many of us glad that we did the service justice.

It was a truly unforgettable experience, and without the support of the Music Department we would have never been ready to perform a whole church service in front of thegeneralpublic,sothankyou!

ManyofthestudentsalsohadaworkshopwiththeRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra. They introduced different ways of using our instruments to create a certain mood to a pieceaswellasexpandingonourcompositionskills.

As we embarked on a new term, we started to prepare some concertos to accompany some of our Year 13 musicians. Some of the composers we looked at are Fauré, Binge, Bach and Mozart. We also be played some pieces from Prokofiev’s iconic ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which welookedforwardtoperformingintheSpringConcert.

GracePang-Year13

MUSIC

Senior Choir workshop with Bob Chilcott

In senior choir, we looked at Bob Chilcott’s ‘The Midnight of Your Birth’, and we were incredibly lucky to have him come inandgiveusaworkshoponhispiece.

We started with a brief warm-up which gave him a feel for how we sing and what kind of pitches we are most comfortable with, along with getting us used to working with him. After that, we started working on the piece. First, like with the warm-up, he observed our progress by listening to us sing the piece from start to finish before giving us tips and pointers. After this first run, Mr Chilcott identified a few areas where we weren’t as confident with either the notes, the rhythm or both. He helped us through these sections, sometimes demonstrating the changes he suggested; his points were clear and encouraging and we wereallgratefulforhisexperthelp.

At the end of the session, we sang the piece through and every one of us could see the difference from the start. We couldallagreethathavingBobChilcott’shelpwasabrilliant opportunityandthatwasreflectedintheconfidencewefelt whensingingthepieceaftertheworkshop!

ZoeMarsland-Year10

Generation XX

Generation XX is NHEHS’ first rock band, launched in 2018! Itismadeupofsixtalentedmembersincludingadrummer, guitarist, base player, pianist and two singers. We play in many school concerts and even opened a local festival calledPartyInTheParklastyear.

We are called a rock band but we sing other genres as well, including songs such as ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac and ‘Summer of 69' by Bryan Adams. The band started off with only three people but no drummer or singers. Then at the beginning of 2019 a drummer was added and about half way through my friend and I joined as singers. We practise everyMondaylunchtimewiththehelpofMrEdgeandtryto performasmuchaspossible.

IrisCumming-Year8

Harmony choir

HarmonychoirisaYear7and8onlychoirrunbyMiss Goodsell and with Miss Dunne as pianist. In this club the Year 7s and Year 8s join together to sing lots of songssuchas‘SomewhereOnlyWeKnow’byLilyAllen and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen. All of the songs we sing are so fun to learn and perform. Harmony choir is a great place for both beginners and more advancedsingerstohavefunandenjoymusic.

At the beginning of each session we get to have biscuits and enjoy a fun awakening warm-up. We practice every Thursday morning and enjoy the opportunitytoperforminmostschoolconcerts.

IrisCumming-Year8

Getting to know: Musician of the Year Shreya Grover

How did it feel to win musician of the year?

At first, I felt quite surprised as there were many other extremely talented musicians performing as well. But whenithadfinallysunkin,Iwasoverjoyed!

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

The most challenging part of the competition was probably controlling my nerves. This is because I get extremelynervouswhenIplayinfrontofanaudiencemy hands get very hot and sweaty, and then I make more mistakes. I feel much more relaxed practising by myselfandalwaysfeelthatIplaymybestthen.

What is your favourite song to perform?

My favourite piece of music to perform is actually the one that I played in the competition - Remembrances from Schindler's List, by John Williams. I love this piece so much as it is so emotional, and it also conveys such animportantmessageabouttheHolocaust.

Which famous musician do you admire?

I really admire the violinist Nicola Benedetti. I’ve been lucky enough to see her perform several times, my favourite being her performance of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto with the National Youth Orchestra of Great BritainattheProms.I’vealsobeenextremelyfortunate to have met her in some workshops that she ran for young string players. It was a massive privilege to be part of it, and to have advice from her. She is such an inspirational and incredible violinist, as well as a lovely person.

What is your favourite aspect of music at NHEHS?

I love the massive variety of musical opportunities that we have and being supported by the brilliant music teachers.Iespeciallyenjoyplayingchambermusicwith myfriendsinourtrioandinchamberorchestra.

Summer concerts

'Tone down for what’ is the NHEHS Acapella choir, made up of a group of talented girls, ranging from Years 7 to 13. It is run (and was started) by three sixth formers: India BonnorMoris, Izzy Haynes and Olivia Dickins, and was created in September of 2019, consistently running throughout the year, as the group met every Wednesday lunch time. The club is extremely enjoyable, as we have rehearsed and performed pieces together such as 'Royals' by Lorde, and Cohen's 'Hallelujah', using arrangements inspired by more well-known acapella groups such as Pentatonix, but constantly altering them (the leaders of the choir arranged thisforus),inordertoallowittosuitourneedsbest.

Before we transitioned into online school, we began rehearsingthesongHallelujah,butsincewewerenolonger physically in school, adjustments to the ways in which we would perform this song had to be made. After a few more weeks of familiarising ourselves with our parts, we filmed ourselves singing them, then sent them in. It was then put together, to fit the perfect arrangement and soon featured intheSummerConcert.

This was easily among my most enjoyable singing experiencesatNottingHill,notonlybecauseofthewaythat it helped me to develop my skills by listening and singing with others, but also because it taught me more about how we can see each other’s talents, and help each other build themup,fortheworldtosee.

LewhatYosief-Year9

Year 7 Netball

To start off our journey at NHEHS, most of us attended thepre-seasonnetballclinicwithEnglandnetballplayers. OurfirstmatchwasagainstLEH,withall our teams, from A to F, playing. I have to say it was a tough first match as wehadn’thadmuchtrainingtogetherasateam.

Overall, this year has been very eventful and successful. With many wins and a few losses, which have only made usworkharder,andcomeclosertogether,wehavemade memories to last forever! Year 7 netball has been both excitingandlively!Fromtheverystartoftheseasonright to the end, we have been jam packed with matches and tournaments. Whether it was coming second in the Ibstock tournament and second at the GDST Rally in Croydon,towinningalmost everymatchthisseason,this yearhasbeensomuchfun!Iwouldaddthatalthoughwe have collected some silverware this season, the highlight was being able to play netball, because playing netball at NHEHSisaprivilege.

U14 Netball

Our U14 Netball teams have been training twice a week this season, pushing ourselves every session to improve as much as possible. We have accomplished a lot as a team,bondingduringtournamentsandmatches.Agreat time for team bonding was when we took our trip to Condover Hall to partake in the GSA netball tournament. We learnt to trust and rely on each other, with activities like pairs yoga, abseiling and (unexpectedly) rescuing a baby bird. Some of the highlights involved the A team getting through to the Middlesex round of the National Schools tournament, an amazing win from the B team with a whopping score of 28 - 1 against St Benedict’s, another great win from the C team with a score of 16 - 6 against Latymer Upper, and a great match played by the D team with a winning score of 17 - 10 against South Hampstead, showcasing outstanding performances from all.WemanagedtopickupsomesilverwareinNovember by coming third at the Harrodian Netball tournament. After an amazing season this year we hope to hit the groundrunningnextseason.

SepheraForrester-Year9

For the Year 10 and above netball squad, the 2019/20 netball season had been challenging, even before it became clear that Covid-19 was going to interrupt things further. In particular the U16 and U18 teams played fewer matches than expected due to the weather and other factors which limited their ability to develop match skills. Turning to the match results, the U15 teams (A,B & C) played the most matches, winning 12 out of 19 matches, the U16 teams (A & B) won 6 out of 9 matches and the U18 teams (A & B) won 5 out 12 matches. All the teams throughout the age groups this season also competed in the Sisters in Sport National Netball Cup with the U15 A team making it through to the Plate section. The U15 A team placed second at the Ibstock tournament in November. The highlight of the season wastheMiddlesexCountyRoundoftheNationalSchools tournament in November 2019. On17 November, both theU16andU18Ateamsparticipatedinadayofintense competition in the county round of the national schools tournament hosted by Lady Eleanor Holles. The U16 teammadethesemi-finalsbutsadlyjustmissedoutona place in the regional round. Undeterred, the U16 A team had continued to prepare for the Middlesex schools finalsattheendofMarch2020.

The early end to this season means that the squad could no longer continue training and will now be focussing its efforts on regrouping in the Autumn and seeking to make up for lost time. As ever, our thanks go to Miss Nicholas and Miss Dunkley for all of their support and encouragement and the time they put into training sessions and out of school hours at tournaments and matches.Itisallmuchappreciated!

SophieClaxton-Year11

Year 10 and Above Netball

PearlMidgley-Year7

Senior Cross Country

The senior cross-country team has had yet another outstanding year with many victories, bringing us all together and showing our strengths as a team.

In October we had the Ealing Schools cross-country; the race was not only to represent the school but acted as a trial for the London Youth Games selection in November. This competition included many schools from Ealing such as Twyford, Grey Court, St Benedict's and St Augustine's. All senior girls ran together making the competition extremely competitive in order to keep up our winning streak from the past few years. We had some great performances with myself taking 1st place, Fiona Coutts in 3rd place and Lauren Beale in 5th place, all qualifying for the London Youth Games.

Our next competition was at Harrow for the Middlesex Schools Championships, which again doubled as a trial to be selected to race for Middlesex in Liverpool in March at the English Schools Cross Country. Fiona Coutts and I went on to represent Middlesex in that competition.

Finally, the last race was the Ealing Schools Relays which, again, was extremely important, as we wanted to keep our winning streak of 4 years! With three teams, each containing one from each ye ar group from Year 7 to Year 12, we came in strong. Our A team with EvaMarie and myself managed to take 1st place followed by the B team, Amy Taylor and Lauren Beale and C team, Fiona Coutts receiving 4th and 5th place. Some of us were awarded an extra medal for having the fastest split in our age groups, namely Natasha Bennett, Nicola Hewitt and myself. It is safe to say we have had great fun this sea son and can’t wait to see what is to come next year.

Jasmine Palmer - Year 11

Cross Country Year 7 & 8

Notting Hill and Ealing High School’s Year 7 and 8 athletes have never failed to win. Out of more than half of the cross country’s attended, coming home with the news of being victors always shines a bright smile on everyone’s faces. Even though sometimes the going gets tough, the teachers and students always make sure to wish us good luck before going onto the bus.

From the beg inning of the season, we took part in the Ealing Schools Cross Countries, an individual crosscountry race, trying to qualify for the London Youth Games.

Everyone did amazingly, Eadi taking gold, Nicola with silver and Natasha with bronze, meaning that they qualified for the LYG. All runners did really well in The Middlesex Cross Country Championships and Ealing Relays in March which we won for the 4th time running! All year groups have done brilliantly, showing how much they have improved and trying their best in every way possible.

The training, which runs on Thursday mornings at 7:45am under the guidance of Mrs Thomas, assists our progress. This is not only is good for our running, but makes all of us feel confident and want to run for enjoyment. We had a great season and cannot wait for what lies a head of us next season.

Rosie Hewitt - Year 8

Cricket: U12

Over the cricket season, our U12 A Team has been improving and evolving rapidly acquiring skills and competence, which have resulted in a team consisting of eight ambitious and confident cricket players. In our training sessions we practise fielding, bowling and battingtechniqueswithhelpfromtheEalingCricketClub coaches. We have worked on aiming skills when bowling and how to keep a tight fielding routine. We have also workedonourbattingtechniquesandhowtohittheball low with a focus on scoring as many runs as possible. As awhole,wehavemadeanoutstandingachievementasa team by winning gold at the U12 MCC Indoor TournamentatLords.

In the final against Godolphin and Latymer's A team, we won with a score of 60 runs while Godolphin and Latymer School had 42 runs. Some of the Year 7 cricket teamplayerswerealsoinvitedtorepresenttheschoolin the U13 MCC Indoor Tournament at Lords. Sofia Younis, Dana Niama, Morven Pearce and I were given the amazing opportunity to play for Year 8. We worked extremely hard, showed some strong cricket skills and helped the team achieve a silver medal. We only lost the final by 3 runs to Godolphin and Latymer School, which makes the second place bittersweet. However, at the same time it taught us a lesson on how to change our tacticsandgameplayforfuturematches.

Onbehalfof our cricket team, I wouldlike to say that we loved every moment of this cricket season and we are lookingforwardtothenextone! JaspreetGill-Year7

Cricket: U14 and U15

The U14 and U15 both train weekly after school on a Friday.  In training we have worked on many new skills that we have then implemented into matches, such as battingbetweenthefieldersorintoaspacetoensurewe gain as many runs as possible. We have also reinforced skills learnt previously like sliding our bats in and rememberingtofollowthroughwhenbowling.

I think one of the highlights of this season was when we went to Lords Cricket grounds to play at the Lady TavernersU15tournament.Here,theU15Ateamplayed very well against their toughest opponent, Godolphin & Latymer’s B team and lost by only 7 runs - the score was 72/65. Onto the next match and with some very strong bowling and great wickets taken, they took the win against Queen’s College, winning 80/63. The B team also played amazingly, especially in our final match against St Pauls B team, where we smashed 8 runs in the penultimate over, which made the game increasingly intenseandthrilling,butwelostbyonlyoneruntogivea score of 63/62. One of our favourite moments as a team was cheering on the B team in that final match at Lords. Although we did not make the top 3, it was a very fun experience and next season it would be amazing if we wereabletocomehomewithamedal.

Overall, our coaches have all made Cricket a very supportive and encouraging environment for us and we would like to say thank you to James and Claudia from Ealing Cricket Club, Ms Dunkley, Ms Nicholas and Ms Newman,andaveryspecialthankyoutoJuan,alsofrom Ealing Cricket Club, who has made Cricket something we alllookedforwardtoattheendoftheweek!

NurMohiuddin-Year9

1st XI Football

The 1st XI football team have come a long way since the beginning of the year. We began training in September with only 6 or 7 committed members from Sixth Form, being coached by Mr Futter and Brentford FC every Tuesday at Trailfinders, but we have grown into a fully formed team with roughly 20 players from years 11 to 13.

Many of the players we recruited were new to the sport, so in training we mainly worked on ball control basics, such as passing and dribbling, and match practice to make sure everyone was aware of the various positions and game tactics. We played several local schools in matches during the season, beginning the season with a match against American School, playing group matches in the ISFA league and then ending the season with a match against Godolphin & Latymer. I'm extremely

Year 7-10 football

I am a big fan of football so I was exceptionally happy to joinNHEHSandfindoutthatIcouldplayfootballtwicea week. I really enjoy our lunchtime sessions where we just have a fun kick around and then play a match, alongside having a Brentford Football Club coach assisting us with our tactics and skills. Anyone is welcome to come to this session and it is great fun. The sessions really help us to connect as a team and master allourtechniques.

Our matches against other schools are great fun as they help us realise what we need to keep practising on during training and what we are already great at doing. OurbiggestrivalisGodolphin&Latymer,wherewehave had several competitive and narrow losses to them during the season. In the future I hope we may go on to playinsometournamentsandmorematches.

SylvieTodaro-Year7

Gymnastics

The Gymnastics club trains every Wednesday lunchtime in the sports hall. We practice in several disciplines within gymnastics, such as Acro, Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics.

players across several year groups, who support each other no matter how badly we are losing and celebrate individual and team successes as their own – whether it be an amazing save by Amrita, a fierce tackle by Jojo, Sophie or Steph, a brilliant header by Libby or a fantastic cross by Aditi or Cristina. I know all the year 13 players, includingmyself,willgreatlymissthisteamandaresorry that the season ended so abruptly, but what a season to end on! It has been a huge amount of fun and I wish all theyear11and12sgoodluckfornextyear.

Hopefully you haven't seen the last of us though and we will be back for our Year 13 vs Teachers match. I'd finally like to say a massive thank you to Mr Futter for the continuedsupportandguidanceyouhavegivenus.

In the spring term, the younger years competed in a friendly meet against Godolphin and Latymer which we won. Six of us were also preparing routines for the GDST Trust Rally which was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid-19.

Next year we would like to get more people involved in the club and compete successfully at lots of friendly meets. ThankyouverymuchtoMsScottformakingeach week fun and exciting. For me, the two highlights of gymnastics club  have been getting to know all the new members and seeing them develop their skills and confidence,aswellasOpenEveningbecausewehadlots of time to bond together, land grow closer and it was when the younger and newer students started to become more confident working with the more experiencedmembers.

CarmelWebb-Year11

Year 8 Water Polo

The NHEHS’ U13 Water polo team have always supported each other, against tough and challenging opposition, yet we always try and bring 100% to each match.

We train with a professional water polo coach, Claudio from London Penguins Water polo club, who gives us detailed explanations about the sport. During the week we have had fixtures against other schools, such as Highgate, including many victories, as well as some unfortunate losses. Unfortunately our main competition that we had been working towards all season, the ESSA U13 Qualifiers, was cancelled due to Covid-19. We are grateful to Mr Bent for continuously supporting the waterpoloteams.

NicolaHewitt-Year8

Year 9+ Water Polo

This year we have managed to encourage many of our playerstojoinclubsoutsideofschool,suchasEalingand Penguins,andcontinuetoplaybeyondtheschoolteam.

AlthoughbothourU15andU18teamsdidnotqualifyfor the ESSA finals, we were only a goal away in both tournaments and have taken this as an opportunity to distinguishourweaknessessothatwecanworkonthem and fight for our place in the final even harder next season! As always we must thank Mr Bent for constantly supporting us and putting in hours of his time into coachingourteamstoachievethebesttheycan.

MiaMutadich-Year11

Year 7 Swimming

The Year 7-8 swimming team has been highly successful throughout the whole of this academic year. Our team trained twice a week and the hard work evidently paid offbecauseweweretriumphantinallofourgalas.

At the start of the year Evie Smethurst, Nicola Hewitt, Stanzi Lace, Zoe Davison and myself competed in the ESSA Relay Championships and although we didn’t qualify for the finals, there were personal best times for nearly everyone!One memorable moment that resonates with all of the team is the victory we had in a triangularfixturewithGodolphin&LatymerandStPaul’s Girls School. We all went into the competition not expecting a win but after multiple hard races and lots of excitement, it was announced that we had won and it reallyhelpedtheteambondinawaywehadneverbeen abletobefore!

AlexDown-Year7

Year 9 - 13 Swimming

Training this year has commenced weekly, with students participating during lunchtimes to improve their times andskills.

All teams from the U14 - U16s did not lose any galas throughouttheseason,despitecompetingagainstteams such as St Paul's and Lady Eleanor Holles. We participatedinaGDSTRallyinCroydon,coming6thplace outof18teams-animpressiveachievementwithasmall but talented group of swimmers. These victories gave our teams confidence to push through each gala with determination to set new personal bests in addition to helpingusbondasateam.

Next season brings new challenges that we shall have to rise to overcome as a team. However, with the support of our coaches, we shall see improvements and hopefullyenjoyanadditionalseasonofvictories.

GenPearce-Year9

U18, U16, U15 Hockey

This year I have had the privilege to captain the 1st XI team, which included players from Years 10 to 13. As a team we hadonetrainingsessionaweekonaFridaymorningat7.45, but the dedication of the team means that this early start at theendofalongweekdidn’tphaseanyone.

This year our U16 team performed extremely well in the Middlesex County tournament and in turn qualified for regionals.Afteraverysuccessfulrunintheirpooltheycame 2nd, progressing to the final stage. After an unlucky early goal against them, they couldn’t manage to claw one back meaning they hit the end of the road. However, we are extremely proud of how far they made it. We have really bonded as a team through various activities, such as our Christmas Hockey session where we dressed up, played ChristmasgamesanddidateamSecretSanta.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this season with the team and it was disappointing that we didn’t get to have our last tournament. However, in my time playing hockey from Year 7 to the last session in Year 13, I have competed in many matchesandtournamentswithvariousteams.Iamgladthat I got to play beside some great players, whether they were beginners or county level.  I am confident the 1st XI hockey teamwillcontinuetomakestridesnextseasonandcontinue toestablishthemselvesasateamtobeat.

The things we have achieved this year wouldn’t be possible without two very special people, Miss Nicholas and Miss Newman. They brought energy and a smile to every early morning session. Every time we pitched an idea to them, they ensured it ran smoothly and made us get the most out ofeverysessionwhilekeepingitenjoyable.

They have helped individually improve an element in everyone’s game and this year wouldn’t have been complete withoutthem.

Amrita Arneja - Year 13

U14 Hockey

TheU14Hockeysquadhavebeentrainingtwiceaweek thisseason.Thehighlightsofourseasonhavebeenour Regional Tournament where we placed 5th and at the Middlesex tournament where we came 4th, we hope thatnextyearwewillbeabletoqualifyagainandplace in the top 3. We have also had a couple girls get into theirCountyMiddlesexteams!

The most memorable moment that we have had as a team would be when we all had to wake up really early for the Middlesex County tournament in Brighton and we were very excited for it, but after an hours drive we found out that it was cancelled due to waterlogged pitches, and since we had left so early, by the time we gotbacktoschool,lessonshadn'tevenstartedyet!

Overall, we have had an enjoyable season and we wouldallliketothankMissMunro-Hallforagreatyear.

ChloeBrennan-Year9

U12 Hockey

We have really grown as a team - from losing a lot of matches, to winning many. Not only this, but we have mademanynewfriendsthroughthisamazingsport.Ican’t waittoseewhatambitionswecanachievenextyear!

We started off the season by competing in the Latymer Upper seven-a-side tournament where we first bonded withinourteams.AhighlightoftheseasonwastheAteam win 1-0 against Godolphin & Latymer in January after losing to them at the beginning of the season. At the beginningofMarchourNHEHSU12AandBteamswentto the Middlesex Hockey Tournament where it was typical hockey weather (absolutely tipping it down with rain)! We were placed third for a reason - we didn’t let the weather gettous.

We would have never achieved any of this without our brilliant coaches - Miss Greenslade and Miss Newman. On behalfoftheU12hockeyteamswewouldliketothankyou foreverything.

Year7-9Dance

The U12 dance team had a very fun first year. The team included myself, Careena, Clara, Klara, Jaan, Juliet, Kiki, Klara,Sadie,SayakaandJemima.

Our first competition was The Great Big Dance Off in Stevenage at The Gordon Craig theatre. To qualify we sent a video of our routine to the competition organiser and were one of six squads to do so. In training we practised our routines, determined to perfect our dance before the competition! On the big day we started runningthroughourdanceinthedancestudioandthen we left for the competition. Five teams went, ours being the youngest, the U16s being the oldest. We quickly changed into our costumes, which were black leotards with rainbow scarves and neckties, and waited in the wings, going over the parts we weren't as confident at. Soonenoughwewalkedontothestageanddidourbest.

We came twelfth out of fourteen other teams for our groupAlthoughweweretheyoungestwecame12thout of 14 team and none of our other teams placed apart from the U14s! We therefore drove home feeling victorious and with many great memories and longlastingfriendships.

Year10+Dance

This year of dance, although cut short, has been an amazing experience and has brought many exciting opportunities. In March, Years 9 and 10 competed at the London Youth Games at the Copper Box, within the Olympic Park in Stratford. We received high praise and generous comments from all three of the professional judges. It was a great opportunity for us as well as good practice, considering the fact that the week after all 6 teams across Years 7 to 12 would be competing at The GreatBigDanceOff.

We went to The Great Big Dance Off even stronger than beforeaftertakingthejudge’sfeedbackbyincorporating some more exciting lifts and concepts. Although competitions may seem nerve-racking, the encouragement and support from the audience and fellowdancersmakesthedaysospecial.Afterall5teams had performed to the best of their ability and clearly impressedthejudges,wesatintheauditoriumnervously waiting for the results. The Year 10s gained great admiration for their meaningful routine about body image.

FlorenceCyriax-Year9

Sports Awards 2020

BronwynOliver-Year7