A big thank you to Pippa Marriott and Rachel Urben. SWPS Magazine is published once a year. Articles are written by students and staff. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Sir William Perkins’s School.
Design and desktop publishing by Ian Russell. Printing by G.H. Smith. School Information: Telephone: 01932 574900 www.swps.org.uk
CO-CURRICULAR
This is my first article for the magazine as Head and I would like to say what a pleasure and privilege it is.
Although I have been Head for only a year, this is my sixth year with the school, so although I am new to the job, I am not new to the school. It is undoubtedly a huge advantage because I already know the school well. SWPS is a superbly energetic, innovative and caring institution where the staff and
students all share the same drive of purpose and commitment: to work hard, to aim high, to get involved and to be a kind and caring individual.
Over my last year as Head, I have been trying to raise three crucial messages: aim for excellence, but not for perfection, acquire confidence but not arrogance, and underpin both those qualities with a strong sense of integrity.
The messages are not easy to implement but the overwhelming sense of community, with each member of the community supporting one another, helps enormously and it is part of what makes this school unique.
As you might expect of SWPS, the school, as ever, has been extraordinarily busy throughout the year and amazingly successful in so many areas: I shall long remember the wonderful Shakespeare week, which culminated in the magical performances of The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing, as well as the extraordinary Spring Concert of Vivaldi’s Gloria,
demonstrating the wide and deep musical talent we possess.
The lessons of such events are often richer than they first appear or can be imagined. The effort to master lines from a play, or to play an instrument, or indeed anything that requires stamina and dedication is something of which the girls can be justly proud. The learning curve here is in the taking part, forming relationships and working with others, whilst recognising that your own determination to succeed is an essential ingredient for success in others.
Such experiences not only form part of the school life, but point to the secrets of happiness. In displaying how life can be not only embraced but even enjoyed through engagement and dedication, it is those who get involved who are able to see what they may have missed in the past.
As a new Head I am often asked about the next steps for the school. In short I see the future of SWPS residing in building on its powerful and cherished traditions of the past.
So, the school will continue to maintain its academic excellence as well as its demonstrable success in sport, music, art and drama. But it will also focus on those areas of life that are sometimes misconstrued as frills, almost marginal to the essentials that must be taught – namely building confidence and establishing integrity.
It is what people have, of late, labelled as character.
Chris Muller
ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS
GANG OF FOUR
Girls? Here’s what they had to say about each other
How much did you know about our Head
Ellie is an ambitious, out-going, energetic person who never fails to bring a smile to your face. She’s made a great contribution to the school as part of the Head Girls’ Team. Her comments in our meetings with the senior team are invaluable and her termly grilling of Mr Budd in Sixth Form committee meetings draws large crowds of admiring onlookers. Ellie will leave SWPS with a brilliant legacy.
Alice Brown by Ellie Markham
Alice is known for her amiable nature and her generosity, not least from bringing in homemade cakes to share. So Alice gets on well with everyone, a key quality of effective leadership! She has been a much valued member of the choral scene, and her ability to unite assemblies during the hymn is unrivalled. Alice is always willing to help and to try something new; qualities that will take her far in life.
w 8 8
Sarah is the most organised member of the Head Girls’ Team, always staying one step ahead. She invests 100% effort in everything she puts her mind to, including wholeheartedly singing the wrong tune to a hymn in assembly! Her dedication to rowing over the past six years also shows this determination. She hopes to study classics at university next year, where I know she will be a huge success.
Hattie has been consistently positive towards her duties as a Head Girl, with the exception of reading notices in assembly! She’s a great person to be with, because of her funny nature and kindness to everyone. She’s a loved member of the Sixth Form, especially with her world famous brownies! Hattie hopes to study geography next year and I know she will excel because of her passion for the subject.
Ellie Markham by Alice Brown
Hattie McLeod by Sarah Aitchison
Sarah Aitchison by Hatti McLeod
modern languages
INCREASING RATES OF EXCHANGE
Report by Tess Lambert (Year
10)
The SWPS German exchange programme is widely acknowledged to be the highlight of Year 9 and it remains the highlight of my time at school thus far. Thanks to the especially close friendship I have with my exchange partner, and the willingness of the teachers both here and at St.Georg’s, I had the opportunity to return to Bocholt and spend some more time there, meeting up with my German friends and seeing how the German learning environment differs from our own, as well as improving my language skills of course.
Student life at St.Georg’s felt surprisingly different to my experience in England. It’s quite hard to pinpoint what it is that makes it so different, which brings me to the conclusion that practically every aspect of the school is different, but only very slightly!
The first difference had to be the journey to school. Almost every student seemed to cycle; in what felt to me like the early hours
of the morning, the streets were teeming with energetic students, already wide awake thanks to the brisk morning breeze.
Once lessons began it became apparent that the subjects German pupils study are very similar to those we study here. The exception, though, was the baffling German system in which students could choose GEP (history, geography and politics) or MPI (maths, physics and IT) as their major subjects.
It is not what the German students learn, but how it is taught that results in such a contrasting environment. The style of teaching there was completely different to anything I have experienced in my school career, and SWPS is my seventh school! It was common for a pupil to be asked to stand in front of their peers to present and explain a topic to their fellow students, with only occasional prompting from their teachers. I also noticed that questions and exercises were discussed as a class, and teachers encouraged class participation to such a degree that almost every student had to fail to answer a question correctly before the true answer was revealed. Although this method could, I suppose, become tiresome, it does give everyone a chance to answer. It was evident to me that students were never nervous about raising their hands; nor did they feel disheartened if they didn’t succeed.
In addition to this, the studentteacher relationship was a very casual one, compared to the British version that’s based on more traditional values like respecting one’s elders. Tutors
engaged in witty conversations with their students and even joined in their discussions about movies and popular shows like Germany’s Next Top Model and Galileo. Although the school day was short compared to SWPS, the lessons were long, and the British convention of a morning break and lunch was replaced by frequent short breaks, during which students snacked and chatted with friends. This close succession of breaks, the relaxed methods of teaching, and the fact that students remained in one classroom for several subjects instead of racing from class to class, promoted a distinctly calm and tranquil atmosphere. It was fascinating to see what daily life is like for the students in Germany. I couldn’t honestly say which schooling system I preferred; however, I will say that I appreciated not having to wear uniform!
I had an amazing time on the trip; every time I come back from Germany I quickly become impatient to return.
What two words should spring to mind when you hear the terms style, functionality, simplicity and flair? Italian design. Those terms have been the essence and purpose of Italian designers since the early 20th Century. Italian designers have absorbed ways of seeing and thinking and skilfully translated them into everyday modern objects. All over the world today, Italian designs influence our homes, cars and fashions. Modern and Italian design have become almost synonymous terms.
Think of some of the most
stylish, iconic cars ever made and you’re bound to come up with Italian gems such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Bugatti, to name but a few! Italian cars are renowned worldwide not only for their exquisite design, but for the way they look and feel while driving. Designers put their heart and soul into creating the sleek curves and sharp corners which represent the already stylish logos. The result, some of the greatest status symbols money can buy! Italian fashion is amongst the most important worldwide, with Milan as the true fashion capital of the world. Fashion plays a large part in the country’s culture and economy. The list of famous fashion houses is lengthy – Gucci, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Prada, Benetton… You may not have their labels in your wardrobe, but chances are you’ll have heard their name! Just in case you feel inclined or rich enough to indulge: Armani is known for its minimalism and sophistication, Versace for its extravagant and ultra-luxurious lines, Gucci for its symbolic chicness and style and Prada for its glitz and glamour.
Italy’s love of interior design has a long and elaborate history, initially a hobby of Italian nobility from the Roman times. Perhaps it’s this history which enables them to set the pace with a myriad of uniquely sophisticated designs to suit any culture or generation. They have produced some of the greatest furniture designers
Words by Anya Shah (Lower 6th)
ITALIAN
DESIGN
in the world. In addition to furniture design, The Italians are trendsetters for industrial design. Everyday objects are transformed into stylish products, combining mass production and creativity. Italian designers like Albert Alessi, Gio Ponti and Alessandro Mendini have designed stylish products for our high streets. Look around your home and chances are you will find something which has received the magic Italian toucheverything from lights to juicers, bathroom fittings to washing machines.
If you are left with any doubt about Italy’s continuing influence in world design, Milan this summer is hosting both the Universal EXPO 2015 and ICED 2015 (International Conference on Engineering Design). ICED, which takes place every two years, provides the most important meeting in design for researchers, designers and engineers, scientists and practitioners. The conference theme is Design for Life - a healthy, sustainable, contented life - for mankind. The theme is planned to work in synergy with EXPO 2015, which explores the theme “feeding the planet, energy for life”. Let’s hope these conferences result in yet more wonderful Italian ideas and creations!
What were your first impressions of SWPS?
J’ai trouvé que c’était incroyablement grand, très propre, j’ai eu un peu peur de me perdre au début mais surtout j’ai trouvé que les locaux étaient fantastiquement bien équipés (ordinateurs dans chaque salle etc…)
Ich war sehr beeindruckt
und fasziniert, ein wenig eingeschüchtert von so vielen Mädchen und ich war unglaublich aufgeregt, aber auch stolz — vor allem, als ich nach dem ersten Tag nach Hause gegangen bin. Ich war stolz, dass ich auf so einer guten Schule bin.
What’s the main thing you miss about home?
La nourriture – le fromage principalement, le pain aussi un petit-peu. Mais surtout le fromage, et notamment le fromage de chèvre, mon préféré ; rien à voir avec le cheddar !
Familie, Freunde, eine anständige Fleischerei und vielleicht ein wenig die deutsche Bierkultur.
Which personality trait do you most admire in others?
L’humilité. Je déteste les gens arrogants donc oui, j’admire énormément les gens qui savent rester humble, je trouve que c’est une très belle qualité.
Optimismus und Zielstrebigkeit.
What is your most treasured possession?
Probablement la montre que l’on m’a offerte pour mes 18 ans, c’est une très belle montre à laquelle je tiens beaucoup ! Mais comme je suis une fille qui adore les habits et accessoires il y a environ 1 milliard de choses dont je ne voudrais jamais me séparer !
Meine Vinylsammmlung.
TALKING IT OVER modern languages
Before their time at SWPS came to an end, Charlotte Carrara and Paul Biesold, our French and German Assistants, met up with Rosie Glover (Lower 6th) for a bit of conversation
talking it over
If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you want with you?
Ça c’est difficile, j’ai réfléchi hier soir…je ne sais pas…un cuisinier particulier parce que j’adore manger mais faire la cuisine ce n’est pas trop mon truc… sinon une bonne crème solaire !
Meine Gitarre und meine Freunde, weil ich meine Freunde liebe.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Pouvoir lire dans les pensées des gens, ou bien pouvoir arrêter le temps !
Essen für alle, weil zu viele
Menschen kein Essen haben.
What do you do to relax?
J’adore la nourriture, au risque de me répéter, mais j’aime aussi regarder des séries comme House of Cards par exemple, ou un bon film, ça permet toujours de se changer les idées !
Ich höre Musik, ich mache Musik.
Where in the world would you most like to live?
Je ne sais pas encore parce que je n’ai pas tout vu !
J’adore Londres, presque plus que Paris maintenant, mais j’aimerais un paysage plus ensoleillé, peut être en Floride
on verra…
Entweder in meinem Heimatdorf in Betten in Deutschland, weil Heimat am schönsten ist. Oder im Ambóro Regenwald in Bolivien, weil ich noch nie einen ruhigeren Ort gesehen habe.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Riche! Avec deux chats et un chien, une Ferrari…je ne sais pas…Non sérieusement j’espère que j’aurais un travail intéressant et que je serais heureuse. Je ne sais pas encore si je veux vivre à l’étranger mais peut-être, et si oui, dans un pays anglophone de préférence. Et j’espère aussi ne jamais être vieille mais bon on ne peut pas tout avoir hein !
Hoffentlich in einer guten schule mit netten Kollegen und vor allem netten Schüler und etwas motivierten Schülern.
Tell us a joke!
C’est difficile – j’adore les blagues…mais je suis désolée, là tout de suite, je ne sais pas !
Das ist nicht mein Witz, der ist von Pulp Fiction, ich muss ihn sogar vorlesen:
So, three tomatoes are walking down the street: Papa tomato, mama tomato and baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind, so Papa tomato gets angry, goes over to baby tomato, squishes him and says “Ketchup!”
modern languages
LET’S TALK MUSIC
Henrietta Dunsmuir (Lower 6th) reveals her love of Spanish music and explores the role music can play in learning a language. Painting by Maria Huxstep (Lower 6th)
Learning a new language can be a challenge. Anyone who is currently trying to learn a new language will probably tell you that whilst it is a worthwhile thing to do, the amount of vocabulary to learn can take time. There are lots of aids which can help you: websites like Memrise, regular testing and flashcards are all good examples. However, another way to learn some of this vocabulary, which is perhaps more fun, is to listen to music in the language. I am currently studying Spanish and have been listening to a wide array of Spanish and Latin American songs. Whilst definitely not an expert on this type of music, I have enjoyed listening to these songs and this review of music is a very limited list of such a wide genre.
The 1987 song Piratas by Loquillo y Los Trogloditas, rerecorded and released in 2015 by Loquillo y Nu Niles is number five on my favourites list. Energetic, happy and slightly unusual, the song is unlike anything I would normally listen to. Listening to music in a different language helps to remove genre and age barriers. It allows you to explore songs, genres and time periods which you might not otherwise discover.
Los Rodriguez’s 1995 album title song Palabras más, palabras menos is number four on my list. It is upbeat, uplifting and catchy. Whilst it may not be the greatest song to learn vocabulary from, as the lyrics consist mainly of the repetitive phrase ‘palabras más, palabras menos’, it is one which I do like and listen to frequently.
Malú’s power ballad Si Estoy Loca takes the number three spot. A true song to belt out, it comes complete with a music video containing a lot of dancing and singing in the rain. The slow beat makes it much easier to listen to than the lyrics of a quick paced song such as Melendi’s Caminando por la vida. Songs like Si Estoy Loca or Pastora Soler’s Con él are perfect as a place to start when beginning to listen to Spanish and Latin American songs as their enunciation of words is much clearer than other artists. Once you have managed to pick up the vocabulary from them (and even learn the lyrics by heart so you can belt out “dime dime dime” along with Malú!) you can move on to songs where the pace is quicker and lyrics are spoken at a much more rapid pace.
In second place is Pablo Alborán’s number one Spanish hit Por Fin. Similar to Malú, the lyrics are slow and therefore easy to recognise and learn. This intense love song is beautiful and the exquisite nature of Alborán’s lyrics can really be appreciated. Any one of his songs is worth listening to in order to hear the beauty in his words and Solamente Tú is a good example of this.
Manda Una Señal by Maná
is my number one Spanish song. It’s catchy, easy to understand and great to sing along to. An added benefit of listening to music in a foreign language is that it aids hearing the pronunciation of words which is useful when speaking the language yourself.
Whilst this list is only a small glimpse into the world of Spanish and Latin American music, it is a start. Listening to music in other languages is not only useful for picking up vocabulary but it is also interesting to be able to explore unique artists from other countries and discover new genres of music. My favourites list of Spanish songs expands each day and with this my vocabulary increases too. Learning a language undoubtedly takes effort, but with a simple (and fun) task such as listening to music, it makes the process even more enjoyable.
Feminism noun the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. “ ”
Although the notion of women’s rights has its roots in the French and American revolutions, the suffragette movement, fighting for the female vote at the turn of the 20th century, is widely regarded as the first organised emergence of feminism. This initial struggle for parity at the polls broadened its aims in the 1960s during the period known as ‘second-wave feminism’, in which feminists, led by seminal figures such as Germaine Greer and Betty Friedan, fought for equality in the workplace and in their own homes. Following such victories as the Equal Pay Act, the Abortion Act and the Sex Discrimination Act, gender equality seemed to be becoming a reality and the popularity of the movement, arguably, began to ebb.
However, in the past few years, feminism has undergone a reinvention, and has garnered more attention than ever in popular culture. Droves of celebrities, from Taylor Swift to Patrick Stewart, have proudly declared that they are feminists. Television shows such as HBO’s Girls and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black (both incredibly popular) portray strong female characters outside of their relationships with men. In 2014,
the Chanel catwalk at Paris Fashion Week ended with models strutting the catwalk, holding placards reading ‘History is Her Story’ and ‘We Can Match the Machos’. It seems that our world is waking up to the reality of feminism as a movement for equality – an aim that is hard to dismiss.
The idea that gender equality should exist has always seemed completely natural to me. I cannot think of a time in my life when I did not believe that men and women should be on an equal footing. In this respect, I have been a feminist for a long time, but it is only recently that I’ve actively celebrated my allegiance to the feminist movement. And a major part of my feminist awakening has been the establishment of SWPS’ very own Feminist Society.
After several months of preparation and discussion, SWPS FemSoc was launched on the 6th of October 2014. It began with an assembly featuring the speech that Emma Watson, Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, gave at the UN to introduce the HeForShe campaign, a solidarity movement to better integrate men into feminism. With the tagline of “If not me, who? If not now, when?” the speech aimed to illustrate to ‘inadvertent’ feminists
that they should not be afraid to proclaim their true beliefs. This perfectly aligned with my goal to encourage other SWPS girls to proudly engage with their innate feminism and to come together and discuss the issues that face women today.
At the end of the SWPS FemSoc’s inaugural year, we’ve made remarkable strides. On topics from YouTube stars to pick-up artists, from body image to post-feminism, the ideas and opinions expressed in our weekly meetings have been thoughtprovoking and inspiring. We’ve also taken part in our first campaign, contributing to The Homeless Period, raising awareness of the lack of sanitary products provided for those who cannot afford to buy them.
The reception of SWPS FemSoc has taken me aback, and to spend my Monday lunchtimes in the presence of so many selfassured feminists, some much younger than myself, has been inspirational.
It cannot be denied that feminism still has a long way left to go. In the world of work, for example, we face a pay gap that isn’t shrinking and fewer large companies run by women than by men named John! But if there’s one thing that chairing the Feminist Society has taught me, it’s that there are plenty of women who are ready to take a stand against gender inequality and keep fighting until men and women are treated as equals.
Ellie Markham (Senior 6th) considers the re-emergence of feminism in society in general and within SWPS
FEMINIST
art & spanish BARCELONA
Talay Namintraporn (Year 10) reports on this year’s Art and Spanish trip. Pictures by Catherine Trelawny (Year 10)
It’s a rare thing, for most of us, to be awake and at school at 4:30am, but one Monday last October we were all assembled, meeting Mr Russell, Mrs Woods and Miss Ferris, loading our suitcases onto the coach, excited and full of high expectations for our trip to Barcelona.
It got off to a brilliant start as we arrived to find that the weather was even sunnier and warmer than we’d anticipated: a balmy 24 degrees. En route to our hotel, our guide gave us some useful Spanish phrases and advice, particularly helpful to those of us who weren’t studying Spanish.
We deposited our bags and
headed into town to see La Sagrada Familia. It is an incredibly grand and ornate cathedral, which is quite breathtaking in its sheer scale and detail; an amazing piece of architecture designed by Antonio Gaudi. The interior was surprisingly modern, and the stained glass was vibrant in the brilliant sunshine.
Our first evening meal was a never-ending selection of delicious tapas dishes in a local restaurant, some of which we learnt how to prepare ourselves on our Cook and Taste workshop the following morning.
Our tour, after the workshop, along and around Las Ramblas, the longest street in Barcelona, was extremely interesting as our local guide told us a lot about the city’s history, including a memorial to school children who lost their lives in a bombing during the Spanish civil war. We visited La Boqueria, a famous food market and were able to do a bit of shopping in Barcelona’s interesting and unique shops.
Day three began with a trip to the Museu d’Art Contemporani, or MACBA, where we were given a talk to help us understand some of the very modern, and sometimes confusing, artworks on display. We managed to do some sketching before leaving for Parc Guell, another of Gaudi’s incredible creations and a real highlight of the trip. It was fun to wander around and discover sculptures, benches and buildings which were covered in amazingly intricate and colourful mosaics, providing some brilliant photo opportunities, including posing on the steps next
to the famous giant mosaic lizard and underneath the catacombs that appeared to rise organically from the ground. A perfect day was finished off with another delicious meal at a restaurant of our choice, where we tried to order our meal in Spanish, much to the waiter’s amusement!
The next day was an early start, and a coach trip to Museu Dali in Figueres; a suitably surreal building housing a major collection of Salvador Dali’s work. Each painting and sculpture demanded closer examination, including the Mae West room, a sculptural installation of several pieces of furniture, which when looked at through a lens transformed to become the film actress’s face. There was also an impressive collection of Dali’s detailed ink drawings. We had time to do some sketching before having lunch and heading off to Gerona.
The Medieval Town of Gerona is overlooked by a beautiful
Pictures also by Ian Russell
cathedral, which we reached by climbing numerous stone steps. We did some shopping in the many tourist gift shops amongst the narrow, winding, cobbled streets.
Our last day was spent visiting Fundacio Joan Miro, a small museum housing the colourful, playful work of this Catalan artist. We took a cable-car ride down Montjuic, an alarming journey for anyone who (like Mr Russell for example) didn’t like heights but a great opportunity to see the beautiful views across the city. We lunched at the seafront at Maremagnum before heading off to the Picasso Museum, our last stop on the trip. We were able to contrast Picasso’s different styles from his early work, through the blue period, to his later cubist and abstract work.
I was sad to leave Barcelona, after such an amazing introduction to this extraordinary, cultural city.
DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENTS
Former SWPS students Kelly Moore, Rachel Hudspith and Phoebe Hopwood talk to Amy Saunders (Lower 6th) about their involvement in drama since leaving school
Where did you study after you left SWPS?
Kelly Moore: I stayed pretty local and went to Royal Holloway. They offer a joint degree course in English and Drama, which really appealed to me. Throughout the three-year course I did some really interesting modules like Playwriting, Devising Theatre and Contemporary Theatre Making. Like on all degrees, I imagine, I had some not-so-good modules as well: things like Boundaries of Performance and Staging Histories, which involved a lot of research and presentations rather
than any practical work. Modules like that are invariably compulsory on drama degrees so sometimes you just have to grin and bear it.
What inspired you to study drama?
KM: I loved performing from a really young age and was always involved in productions, in and out of school. Hard to believe now, but I was really shy when I was younger; drama is what gave me confidence. Initially, I didn’t put drama down as a GCSE option and studied German for a week, but I quickly realised that wasn’t
for me. Fortunately, encouraged by one of my friends, I managed to swap to drama. That was probably the best decision I’ve ever made, and it’s led me to where I am now – completing a drama PGCE.
How are you using the skills you’ve learnt in drama?
Rachel Hudspith: Drama has taught me how to be more confident and work with people. We are constantly working in groups with other performers, designers, technicians, musicians, and directors, and this has definitely helped me learn how to communicate effectively with new people. It has also been an excellent way of improving my presentation skills, potentially useful in lots of careers. Working as a team and learning to compromise are other skills that can be applied to everyday life as well as in a drama studio.
Phoebe Hopwood: I play a lot of music and quite often my conductor will say something like “Imagine you’re a drunk dancer in a tavern in Czechoslovakia!”
Everybody laughs, of course, but I will make a note of it in my music and, when it comes to that section of the piece, I will adopt that character and play accordingly!
Which is your favourite play?
RH: My favourite play has always
dramatic developments
been The Crucible; it fascinates me how quickly a society can turn against itself and fall apart.
PH: One of my favourite’s is The Play That Goes Wrong – I haven’t laughed so hard in my entire life; I was crying!
Do you think drama is an important part of the school curriculum?
PH: Drama is crucial; I think doing something practical is always a good escape from the, sometimes, routine classroom. It generates imagination, helps you understand your skills and potential and push yourself, gives people responsibility and purpose; it teaches you how to work in groups and negotiate from a young age, and ultimately how to have fun! The drama environment is always slightly more chilled and quirky than other places in school, which allows students to feel relaxed; it has quite often been the place where people can mend themselves or finally find/talk about the truth. It depends how far you take it.
RH: Drama doesn’t necessarily mean acting or performing, which is what I think some people fear – it has so many different aspects like backstage, costume or set design. It’s a great way to get to know people, which I think is
important at school.
Would you recommend taking drama as an A-level or degree?
RH: Yes! I would certainly recommend A-level drama as I had an amazing experience studying it.
PH: Definitely. In younger years, drama can look like the subject where you just get to play games and act. But as you take it further, you realise there is a wealth of knowledge supporting it. Most people get so immersed, it’s an incredible experience and I
couldn’t be happier; it has created loads of opportunities for me. I have been on stage for a variety of reasons throughout my life. I couldn’t imagine myself stuck in lecture rooms all day; it was no surprise to anyone that I chose to carry drama on to uni!
What are your plans for the future?
PH: My future plan at the moment is just to see where university takes me. I would ultimately like a career in the Arts, though not necessarily acting.
KM: It’s hard to say where I’ll be in the distant future, but in the near future I hope I’ll be teaching and seeing my students achieve their goals, because it’s a really rewarding feeling. I can’t wait to put on my first school production!
RH: I am looking at going into theatre producing. Or I might try setting up a theatre company.
What would be your dream roles?
KM: I’d love to play Elphaba in Wicked!
RH: My dream role would probably be Abigail in The Crucible.
SOMETHING OF A STORM
Scenes from this year’s phenomenal SWPS Shakespeare Festival
OBJECT LESSON
Heather O’Connor (Head of Upper School) talks to Tracey Mwaniki and Anya Shah (Lower 6th) about some of the significant things in her life
The Message Bible
The Message is an American street slang version of the Bible targeted at young people to try and get them more interested and engaged with scripture. When I went to university to do my degree in Theology and Religion, I had to study different scholarly views and interpretations of the Bible
and thoroughly analyse parts of it. I think it’s an amazingly profound and interesting book, but it can often cause a great deal of frustration and irritation, as well as being mysterious at times. Now, as an RS teacher, the Bible comes into nearly everything I do in lessons. The aim of The Message is to modernise the Bible, and reading it has made me see things in new ways and I’m given fresh insights into some of the most familiar passages that I’ve read time and time again.
Gates to Auschwitz
For the last few years, I’ve been leading regular SWPS trips to Auschwitz Birkenau in Krakow. This has particular importance
to me because one of the main reasons I became an RS teacher was my passionate feelings about discrimination.
“ ” discrimination isn’t just an issue of the past
Trips such as this prove to be an important warning of the dangers
that discrimination causes. The Holocaust is included in the school curriculum to help girls understand that discrimination isn’t just an issue of the past, but is in fact a very relevant part of contemporary society. Every time I go on the trip I learn something new. To this day, walking through the gates inscribed “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work will set you free) touches me incredibly. It’s a profound experience and I feel the girls who come on the trip gain a huge amount from it, just as I do.
Knitted squares
This year, I helped Senior Christian Union’s charity campaign to knit squares that will be sewn up into blankets for AIDS orphans and street children in South Africa. This is an ingenious idea, as by sending squares rather than a full blanket, you ensure that they aren’t stolen or sold on by corrupt officials, for whom blankets are a useful commodity. It’s been highly rewarding and great fun because after years of my mother trying and failing to get me to take it up, I’ve actually learnt to knit.
India
Four years ago I went on a fantastic holiday with my family to India, specifically the southern state of Kerala and later to Mumbai. I didn’t have many expectations but I was completely blown away by the fantastically rich culture, colour and vibrancy
of the place, and now that I’ve actually seen and experienced India I’ve fallen incredibly in love with it. My love of teaching Hinduism at GCSE meant that I dragged my children to loads of Hindu temples, an experience I particularly enjoyed as they are such special and serene places.
My Garden
When I’m not teaching, I spend
all of my time out in my garden weeding, sowing seeds or just staring at my plants. I feel that as someone who isn’t particularly artistic or good at craft, my garden is my main attempt at a creative outlet. I know this sounds incredibly sad to most young people, but I just love my plants and I love nature, especially how incredibly relaxing and tranquil it feels.
A new short story by Violet Suvini (Year 11)
Picture by Alanis Shaylor
In New York circles they called him Prospero. I pondered allusions to sorcerers, islands and magic, but concluded that Prospero merely hinted at the man’s great prosperity. He was reputedly indifferent to the wave of guests who poured into his house night after night. From the vantage point of my balcony, I would watch them arrive: hundreds of stockbrokers and salesmen, with or without their wives, and young businessmen, all gathering like insects to light at Prospero’s stately mansion. A ceaseless stream of white Rolls-Royces would glide through the tall, iron gates, their passengers already intoxicated, but still in secret pursuit of that ultimate hedonism, a feeling more thrilling, more enduring than the last. The men, smart and snappy in their pin-striped suits, would dash up the steps already lighting their cigarettes in anticipation of the whiskey, the banter, the brawls. Women in sequined headbands and smooth silk gloves flaunted their casual elegance and small, tear-shaped stones swung rhythmically on their dresses as they leapt from their cars. I would watch them disappear over the threshold, and then all was still except for the constant hum of voices and the tinkling of glasses.
The stillness would persist until the sun, coy and blushing, quietly slipped behind the New York skyline, as if wanting to escape, unseen, from the imminent wantonness of the night. Then, suddenly, the doors would be flung open, the air torn apart by an explosion of jazz trumpets, and that seething cauldron of life which had been slowly brewing within Prospero’s walls was exposed in all its splendiferous colour. Pink, feathered headwear towered and swayed
a leap in the dark
above sinuous, dancing figures, and small, glimmering dots of light bounced off every sequin and jewel. I saw film stars and Broadway directors guffaw and slap each other’s backs in a showy display of camaraderie, conversing loudly in an attempt to be heard above the band who, in their dazzling white jackets, chose ever more rousing numbers, perfectly in tune with the spiralling heights of abandon.
Everything spoke of wealth, power and prestige. Yet there lingered one question which hovered on lips and haunted the mind; one fascinating but infuriating uncertainty which marred the near perfection of these Elysian nights: who and where was Prospero?
He was a man shrouded in mystery; rumoured to be an embezzler, an alchemist, a madman and a murderer. No one knew for sure why he allowed so many visitors to invade his house on these nights, or how he afforded it. Some said he did it all for the love of a girl, hoping beyond hope that maybe, just maybe, she too would come and so he jostled anonymously with the crowds, searching distractedly for her eyes, her smile, her laugh.
the perfumes and the infernal smoke stung my eyes
So many times, I had longed to mingle with the crowds, to seize a cocktail from a tray, and stride forward with careless aplomb as if to say, “I know where I’m going. I’ve been here before. Look! My friends are just there!” I yearned to float in and float out, unnoticed, convinced that I would be richer for the fleeting visit and sated with the sights, sounds and smells of Prospero’s famous abode. Tonight, I was tired of yearning, tired of feeling like a coward, tired of the stark solitude of my empty balcony. Grabbing my shawl, I swept out of the door and darted, lightfootedly, down the spiralling staircase. “Good evening, Miss Helen”, the night-watchman called after me, but I was already gone.
I headed through the gates and into the cool air of the garden, the gravel crunching with each step I took. The full moon propelled me along, driving me into that vortex of movement and sound.
As I entered, a tempest of noise assailed me from all directions, buffeting and flinging me to and fro like a stray kite in the wind. Paroxysms of mirth rang like harsh bells in my ears; the perfumes and the infernal smoke stung my eyes; and the fatuous conversations niggled and unhinged me. The room started to spin and the floor and its hundreds of feet swayed like the waves of the ocean. I fled to the stairs to escape, scuttling up three, four flights like a frightened child. With my heart thudding uncontrollably in my ears, I turned into a corridor and leaned against a wall. Gradually, as I stared ahead, I registered the room. Its door was ajar and it seemed to reach out to me with its gentle silence. A large, mahogany desk stood by a window-niche and on it the shadows of maple leaves flickered in the light of a burning, agate lamp. It was an inner sanctum, a haven, a harbour. I knew this room. It was like my balcony.
How I came to have it in my hands, I don’t know. I did not need to look at the words, carved in gold lettering on the soft, leather cover. I recited them faintly to the moon who was still there, observing me closely from behind a cloud in her silent, empty space:
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand...
I heard a breath and turned. A face, etched with fatigue, was staring at me with a spellbinding intensity. I stood before him, paralysed. In the silence a clock ticked with relentless precision.
Slowly but deliberately, he moved forward, proffering a tentative smile. Then his eyes fell to where I held the diary and in them I saw a quick flicker of anger. Or did I? For the tone of his voice was enchanting when I heard him exclaim, “You came!”
Grace Bradshaw (Year 9)
Emmie Kirkhope (Year 7)
Ruby Edwards (Year 7)
Jessica O’Dell (Year 9)
Zoe Lewis (Year 8)
Emma Graham (Year 8)
Emma Falkentoft-Hansen (Year 8)
Lia Anderson (Year 9)
Below: Megan Graham (Year 9)
Mythili Chawan (Year 7)
TAKINGNOTES
Columba Dromgoole-Cavazzi (Lower 6th) talks to three teachers about what music means to them
Malcolm Porter
Music has been a major factor in my life; I can’t imagine being without it. I have eclectic tastes: I always listen to Radio 3 when I’m working, but at other times only
Planet Rock at full volume will do!
When I was eleven years old, after a number of failed attempts at making my own guitars, my father eventually gave me an acoustic guitar for my birthday.
We recorded a single that was played on BBC Radio 1
Suddenly I had the instrument I had always wanted. I practised
and practised until the ends of my fingers were raw!
Blues is my music and I have played the guitar in blues bands for much of my life. Some of these bands were more successful than others but it has always been fun making music with like-minded people. In one case we recorded a single that was played on BBC Radio 1. That single plus some other tracks were recently re-issued on a CD.
In addition to playing blues I love to listen to early choral music. My favourite composer is Giovanni Gabrieli.
Cathy Hudspith
As a teenager I sang with the West London Youth Choir under a wonderful conductor called John Railton, and was given some fantastic opportunities through my school choir at Notting Hill & Ealing High School. We were part of the Ripieno Choir and performed the Saint Matthew Passion at the Festival Hall with David Willcocks on a couple of occasions.
At Durham University I sang in the choral society, which performed major choral works in the cathedral. I also sang in the Hatfield Chapel Choir, which enabled me to sing works for chamber choir.
There was a hiatus in my singing activities for a while but recently I have joined a choir again. Last year I started singing with the Windsor & Eton Choral Society, one of the oldest in the country; their patron is the Queen! I am also learning the clarinet at last, with Mr Rickards. I hope to take my Grade 2 in the summer.
I love my lessons and am also enjoying Training Orchestra with Mrs Clark.
We were part of the choir for the St Matthew Passion at the Festival Hall
I have always wanted to play in an orchestra and, as I approach retirement, I have finally realised my ambition!
Rachel Urben
I play violin and piano and started learning both when I was around seven or eight years old. Neither of my parents are musical but they supported and encouraged me by ferrying me around to lessons, music groups and orchestras throughout my childhood. My father also regularly took me to classical concerts, which really inspired me to keep playing and to join my local youth orchestra, which I was involved in for many years.
I play in the School Orchestra and this has rekindled my love of the violin. As a result I started having lessons again with the wonderful Miss Barker and recently took my Grade 8 exam, ten years after doing my Grade 7. There is nothing like the feeling of
performing and playing together as a group and I always look forward to Wednesday afternoons! I would like to think that there is still an enthusiasm for classical music in the UK; when I attended a couple of Proms concerts last summer, the Albert Hall was packed with people of all ages. Events like these really fuel people’s interest and prove that classical music fans are still very much alive in this day and age.
My trips to Ghana in the last couple of years have opened my eyes to African music; the Ghanaians’ natural sense of timing and rhythm is inspiring. Much of the music and dance is improvised; it is more laidback and informal than many of our traditions. I know students who went on the trip really enjoyed the drumming and dance workshops; some even brought back their own drums.
A MEMORABLE
EVENING
This year’s major school concert in March was an extraordinary event. Theresa Scrutton (Director of Music) reports
At SWPS we have a large number of musically talented students. For several months they worked extremely hard in preparation for the concert, and more than rose to the occasion on the night.
Because we had so many performers, the concert took place in the Sports Hall. The School Orchestra opened the programme, playing three ambitious pieces: the Overture to the Barber of Seville by Rossini, the first movement of the New World Symphony by Dvorák, and Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Two of our Music Scholars then performed virtuoso solos, Columba DromgooleCavazzi playing Czardas on her violin with the Chamber Orchestra, and Charlotte Mackie playing two unaccompanied flute pieces by Debussy and Paganini.
The Advanced Strings completed the first half with an impressive performance of one of Telemann’s Concertos.
After the interval, the audience settled down to listen to the Chamber Choir, augmented by guest singers that included current staff, ex-staff, parents, friends, and members of the Laudamus Choir and Egham Choral Society, singing Vivaldi’s Gloria. This performance was particularly special because all the solo movements were performed by our own Sixth Form students – Katie Beauchamp, Freddie Bishop, Alice Brown, Fiona Cartwright and Annabel Williams – and our Chamber Orchestra provided the accompaniment for all the solo and choral movements. At the end of the performance many of the audience showed their appreciation by giving the whole ensemble of soloists, choir and orchestra a standing ovation.
The fear of rising tuition fees is something which worries parents across the country. The question that remains is whether the removal of subsidies is having a negative impact on course uptake at university or whether it actually increases the quality of teaching. Despite protests from students opposed to these rising fees, the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government won a vote in the House of Commons, resulting in Universities in England being able to start charging fees of up to £9000 per year, on the technicality that they ensured access to poorer students.
University education is often described as a “public good” and without some government funding, it would be undersupplied. When the government decided to cut subsidies, tuition fees rose to compensate. Some are concerned that this change only caters for the wealthiest, who can afford further education, raising questions of fairness. Where does this leave the many gifted and talented students competing for a place they simply can’t afford? Very few students will leave university with debts of less than £40,000 – one of the most personally expensive systems of
university funding in the world. Many would argue that subsidies should not be removed for tuition fees because, according to statistics, graduates have higher earning potentials of up to £160,000 over a working lifetime, compared to those without. Providing more people with the opportunity to attend university will lead to firms and the economy as a whole becoming more globally competitive as they will gain more skilled graduates, leading to generally higher productivity. So surely there’s a mutual gain to be made here?
one of the most personally expensive systems of university funding in the world
On the other hand, the removal of government subsidies means that universities are able to compete to attract students, leading to improved resources and quality of teaching. This ensures our higher education system as
a whole is more efficient. Some universities have even argued for a system like that in the United States, where institutions are able to charge fees at whatever rate the market will allow.
The challenge now for universities is to use some of their income to provide bursaries for poorer students. Students whose families earn less than £23,000 a year are exempt from fees, showing that the removal of subsidies would not prevent poorer students from benefiting from a higher education.
It has been shown that large numbers of students (significantly more than predicted), have still opted to go down the traditional route of a three-year university degree course despite fees potentially trebling. 16 year old Vera Brown says: “It’s a lot of money. But it’s just something you have to go through if you go on to higher education. Hopefully, you get a better job at the end of it.”
Additionally, there is evidence that students are becoming savvier when it comes to deciding what and where they want to study, due to the rise in tuition fees. This means that fewer people will unnecessarily be choosing courses which are unlikely to lead to employment.
Whilst the cut in government subsidies has inflicted a financial burden on students hoping to pursue university studies, numbers have been relatively unaffected by the increase in tuition fees. So despite widespread discontent over the recent rise in fees, we have realised there are some gains to be made, such as greater efficiency in teaching and also improved resources.
Does studying for a degree make good economic sense? Helena Mackie and Carla Pinto (Lower 6th) take a closer look
SWPS DELEGATION
Report by Tracey Mwaniki (Lower 6th)
Model United Nations is an enjoyable and educational activity that involves representing a country in debates that mirror the structure and style of the real UN.
Each school is given delegations of countries to represent, with groups of four to seven people acting as delegates within these delegations. Each delegate represents their country and its viewpoints in a committee. These committees debate topics ranging from Economic & Social (including subjects such as how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and how to empower women in developing countries) and Health (for example, abortion and medical testing). The conferences aim to mirror the real UN in their structure and procedures as much as possible. The more experienced delegates tend to go to the allimportant Security Council, which debates highly topical crises that are often being discussed by the real Security Council around the same time. In February 2015, after weeks of research and preparation, 16 SWPS girls from Years 10 to 13 went to a local, weekendlong conference at Lady Eleanor Holles School, delightfully dubbed LEHMUN.
On the first day of the conference, we were welcomed by the girls of LEH and we visited our committee rooms to meet the people we would be debating with for the next few days. There was some time spent collecting signatures from other delegates in
support of our resolutions before submitting them for consideration. The resolutions that the Chairs selected tended to offer the best or most controversial solutions to the problems at hand.
The opening ceremony involved one representative from each country going up to briefly outline their views and aims for the conference. This was particularly useful for learning more about the smaller and less widely known countries. Although LEHMUN was a relatively small conference, speaking in front of around 200 people, representing fifty countries, was a nerve wracking experience. LEHMUN usually invites a significant political figure for a talk and Q & A session, and this year did not disappoint as former British diplomat Sir Harold Walker was in attendance and able to answer questions on his experience living and working in conflict zones, such as his time spent in Iraq.
On Day Two debating took place all day within our committees, with resolutions debated on the three to four topics. Delegates could make short speeches for and against each resolution as it was presented,
and were also able to make Points of Information, questioning the speaker on aspects of the resolution. Representing the views of the country you’re allocated can be difficult, particularly when they involve strongly advocating a view that differs from your own.
The last day of the conference was spent with everyone in the General Assembly Hall. Predetermined topics, as well as crisis ones, were up for discussion, with the latter affording delegates the opportunity to think on the spot and come up with solutions to fictional crises, such as a hurricane in the Pacific region. The day ended with the giving out of awards, such as Outstanding Delegate, to those who had particularly impressed the Chairs.
Not every Model United Nations conference is exactly the same. They vary in seriousness, length and even debating procedures. Despite this, you’re guaranteed to have fun no matter which one you attend, and it’s a highly rewarding activity that helps you develop public speaking skills as well as knowledge of current affairs and international issues.
WORLD WAR I REVISITED
On a chilly Saturday morning in the middle of December, a plucky group of Year 9 students set off to visit the WWI battlefields at Ypres. The girls were studying war poetry in their English lessons and have gone on to examine the causes of the Great War in history. The tour of the Ypres salient began at the Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Station where the girls learned about Canadian poet John McCrae and his seminal poem In Flanders Fields. They then explored the German cemetery in Langemarck before stopping at Vancouver Corner. Next they visited Tyne Cot Cemetery, after which they had the opportunity to investigate what remains of the British trench system at Sanctuary Wood. To end the trip, the girls read poems by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and laid wreaths at the Menin Gate in Ypres town centre.
Despite the low temperatures and early start, the trip provided a rich and poignant learning experience for all those involved.
Known Unto God
By Charlotte Lambert
A foreign land, An unmarked grave, A soldier’s spirit, The restless slave.
He told his mother, “I’ll be fine.”
Before sent to die, On the front line.
He was found, a mess, Beyond recognition. Blown to pieces, By their ammunition.
Not able to name him, Not able to know, Boy or Man? Friend or Foe?
They lay him down, No name on his stone. His family never visited, His resting place unknown. His mother despairs, She sits down and cries. When she thinks of her boy, Tears form in her eyes.
The uncertainty kills her, It hurts not to know. Was it over quickly? Or painful and slow?
So she visits the graves, The ones without names, And she hopes, she prays, It’s not she her son blames.
For she told him to go, Proudly to the strife. She didn’t know, It would end his short life.
December Mourning
By India Dillon
Rufescent leaves land gently, On a crisp December dawn, As we remember all the men and women, Whose families now mourn.
The elegant poppies blowing in the breeze, There to remind us of all the men who fought, And died for the country we are today, Let them all be in our thoughts.
My eyes fill with sorrow, When I see the unnamed grave, No family members to sit and remember, How they were all so brave.
Praying softly and quietly, On a weary, subfuscous day, As we stand above their beds, Where they peacefully lay.
The war to end all wars, As people foolishly believed, Why can’t it stop, Can this goal ever be achieved?
Is this now just an endless cycle? Of death after death after death, So praise all the soldiers who died for their countries, And gladly took their last breath.
CLEAR CONSCIENCE?
Report by Helena Mackie (Lower 6th). Picture by Francesca Brady
Every year, many of us revel in the excitement of receiving an updated version of the latest smartphone, computer or laptop, whilst discarding functional electronics. As a generation obsessed with maintaining an image and keeping up with current trends, it seems almost essential to have the latest technology. But have you ever thought about what happens to your old phone or computer once it has been thrown away?
During a recent trip to Ghana I worked in a human rights office, where I learnt about some of the prominent human rights issues in the country. One of the problems which disturbed me the most in the city of Accra was dumping of developed nations’ electrical goods in the slums. Before now, I
and, I am sure, many others have been ignorant about this issue. It shocked me to learn about the extensive problems it’s causing and the many human rights it’s breaching.
Agbogbloshie is a suburb of Accra which has recently become the world’s largest e-waste site and it is often referred to as the “digital dumping ground” by western nations. Millions of tons of e-waste are processed here each year, arriving from countries all around the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan.
In the 1990s functional second-hand computers began arriving from the West to help “bridge the digital divide” and this was welcomed by Ghanaians. However, the once benevolent act of donating used computers has become progressively corrupt. Unusable electronics have since been exported in mass to Ghana because it is cheaper for western nations to ship their e-waste to developing countries, rather than recycling the goods responsibly. This is accepted on the technicality that these goods are “donations”. Roughly 40,000 Ghanaians inhabit the area, living in squalor and
extreme poverty. Homes lack any water or sanitation and disease runs rampant. Children and adults alike, spend the day burning cables to extract the copper from them, which is then sold on the market. This may earn them up to £2 a day, but at what cost?
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Exposure to these toxins is especially hazardous to children
The burning of the plastic and metals in electrical goods release poisons such as lead, mercury and arsenic into the air and water. It is estimated that 80% of the children have dangerous levels of lead in their blood and as a result they often suffer from chronic headaches, nausea and respiratory problems. Exposure is especially hazardous to children, as these toxins are known to inhibit the development of the reproductive system, the nervous system, and the brain. All of the effects of burning our unwanted electronics significantly reduce their life-expectancy; 25 years on average.
Have you had an unnecessary upgrade this year?
Is your conscience still clear?
PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVEL
The standard of entries for our travel photography competition this year was again incredibly high. 1st Prize went to Rhiannon Beddoe (Year 11) for her beautiful and creative pictures of Malta. The other students’ photographs featured on these pages were all Highly Commended.
This page: Croatia by Katerina Matheson (Year 11)
Opposite page: South Africa by Lauren Oates (Year 11)
travel photography
travel photography
This page: Malta by Rhiannon Beddoe (Year 11)
travel photography
The deadline for submitting entries for our next travel photography competition is: Wednesday 30 September 2015. For more details talk to Mr Russell, Head of Art & Design.
Top row: Majorca, Spain; New York, USA by Ellie Priddis (Year 8).
Centre left & bottom left: the Isle of Wight by Charlotte Herbert-Brown (Year 9).
Centre right & bottom right: the Isle of Skye, Scotland by Rachel Simpson (Lower 6th).
2014 saw the resurgence of the Ebola Virus Disease with the largest outbreak since 1976. Something approaching mass hysteria soon followed, caused by both the news media and genuine fears that our increasingly interconnected world contained the serious threat of the disease rapidly spreading. It became such a significant part of the societal consciousness that the “Ebola Nurses” became Time Magazine’s 2014 Most Significant Persons
of The Year. The level of fear amongst the general public even lead to incidents such as one US Elementary school forcing a teacher to go on temporary leave after she’d spent the weekend at a hotel nine-and-a-half miles away from the hospital where two nurses were being treated for Ebola. This is, of course, somewhat understandable when observing the consequences of the disease: a slow, painful death by diarrhoea, severe bleeding from multiple orifices – enough to strike fear into the hearts of policy makers and citizens worldwide. Now that the paranoia about it spreading to Western countries has died down and the disease has been relatively contained, were we really in any danger in the first place?
Ebola outbreaks tend to occur mainly in poorer African nations, with the first cases of Ebola occurring in Sudan and The Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976. At the time, both of these countries had less than a tenth of the wealth of more economically developed countries such as the UK, when averaged out for population size. Consequently, a significant majority of the 8,800 people who have died because of Ebola were infected while in Africa.
The virus first appeared in these African nations because
they are the natural habitat of a fruit bat species that carries it. Local cultures who eat these fruit bats and handle its raw meat while cooking (particularly those with limited access to water and, therefore, infrequent hand washing) were therefore left susceptible, as Ebola spreads mainly via the bodily fluids of the infected. This becomes an even bigger issue among the very poorest of these less economically developed African nations, where poor sanitation and close living conditions means it only takes one infected person to put the whole community at risk. Cultural factors such as the prevalence of open casket funerals wherein family members handle the body of the deceased also mean that the disease spreads at a much faster rate in these areas. All of this may explain the disease’s failure to spread significantly in Western countries such as the UK and US, particularly when combined with our more effective quarantining systems.
In countries such as Liberia, there have also been issues with local communities failing to acknowledge the disease’s existence or the risk involved due to superstitious beliefs and misinformation. One surprisingly prevalent conspiracy theory – that
Tracey Mwaniki (Lower 6th) looks back at the recent Ebola crisis and considers its implications for all of us.
Painting by Lily Glover (Year 11)
A BREAKABLE CYCLE?
Ebola was created by Western doctors – manifested itself in incidents such as an armed attack on an isolation centre resulting in the escape of 17 Ebola patients.
All of this may account for the faster spread of Ebola in African countries, compared with Western nations, once the disease manifests itself in an area. So far, nobody has actually caught the disease outside of Africa – further evidence of the low levels of danger it poses to those in the UK.
there still remains a great deal to be done in the aftermath of the crisis
The question does, however, still remain as to whether there would still be such high death rates if Western countries faced the same infection levels, or if the disease had originated, say, in parts of the US. There is no definite cure for Ebola – the only care that can be provided to decrease the chances of death includes hospitals keeping patients hydrated while their own bodies fights the disease, and experimental drugs such as ZMapp.
In the case of the former, Ebola isolation treatment centres mean that once people in less developed African nations reach healthcare providers they may be able to receive care to increase
their chances of survival, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) has so far been unable to offer as many doctors or facilities as it wishes. As of December 2014, of the roughly 24 cases of Ebola which were treated outside of West Africa in the same year, only five died. This equals a case fatality rate of approximately 20%, which contrasts greatly with the death rates of around 70% for those in West Africa. Although the non-West African group is a small sample size, this figure does reflect the chilling fact that a significant factor in how dangerous Ebola has been is the poor healthcare provisions in the countries that suffer from it. Supplies of experimental drugs like ZMapp, for example, were bought up by the Western countries who could afford them and used on Westerners (mainly volunteer medical practitioners working with Ebola-stricken patients).
Isolation centres, screening processes, public information campaigns, good sanitation and highly accessible healthcare all mean that even if it arrived undetected on British soil, Ebola is unlikely to ever spread in the UK to anywhere near the same levels as it has in West Africa. Mass hysteria was ultimately proved unnecessary, and the disease has subsided greatly in countries like Liberia, which was declared free of Ebola in May 2015. Despite this, there still remains a great deal to be done in the aftermath of the crisis, which magnified the extent of the failures in the Liberian healthcare system on a global stage. Additionally, the Liberian economy remains crippled after suffering from a loss of an estimated $180 million in revenue in the form of both tourism (with most major airlines refusing to fly to Liberia during the crisis) and general
productivity (including many commercial and self-sustaining farmers who didn’t plant or harvest crops due to fears of hiring any labourers who were infected). With poverty, famine and poor access to healthcare being three factors that are instrumental in the spread of both Ebola and other dangerous diseases, the country still remains at risk of further outbreaks. Now is, therefore, the perfect time for the global community to help West African countries put measures in place, such that they can handle any future pandemics of this scale. However, the lack of any perceived or immediate threat to Western countries means little pressure is put upon our governments to act. Ultimately, the aftermath of the Ebola Crisis will likely prove to illustrate the short term thinking which characterises our response to disease. Relatively little attention will likely be paid to many of these countries, and organisations like the Red Cross will continue to struggle to find the funds to enact prevention strategies until another pandemic or disaster strikes, the media’s mass hysteria begins, and the cycle continues.
physical education SPORTS DAY
Pictures by Artemis Contopoulos (Lower
6th) and
Sammie Thompson (Senior
6th)
Swps Sports Day 2015 was a superb event. The weather was nearperfect, the supporters were enthusiastic, and the students competed brilliantly. Three of our athletes broke school records: Issie Leikis (Year 7) in the 1500m with a time of 5:45, Eva West (Year 7) in the 70 metre hurdles with 12.36 seconds, and Helena Thompson (Year 10) in the discus with a throw of 28.7 metres.
The final results were extremely close, with just four points between the top three places. The overall winner of the day, breaking Quant’s three-year reign, was Lonsdale.
physical education
LET’S FENCE
Report by Mirren Black
Istarted fencing when I was six, on plastic swords at Mini Musketeers. I didn’t do a sport at the time and my dad searched for sports that were good for left-handers like me. Fencing, tennis and boxing were options but as I had just watched Narnia I went straight for fencing! Left-handers fence differently, and are also in the minority, and this gives us a slight advantage. One normally right-handed Olympic champion even fenced left-handed to get the benefit of this.
After winning a plastic swords competition, I wanted to compete more so, when I was nine, I joined Kingston Fencing Club, in early 2011. After a month of fighting with metal swords, I signed up for the U10 British Championships and came third. Soon after that I changed clubs again, to get more competitive coaching.
I improved a lot at Cobham Fencing Club and in 2013 I found
(Year 8)
I was a favourite to win the U12 British Youth Championships (BYC). I was very nervous leading up to the competition, but in the end I won the final, 7-6, and became British Champion!
Unfortunately, I injured my knee a few months later during a fitness session and had to cut back on my training: three hours low intensity a week instead of seven hours high intensity.
“ ”
fast reactions are just as important as strength and stamina
However, I was still selected for the Paris Marathon event in January 2014 with the U15 England squad. This is the biggest U15 event in the world and, over the two days of the competition, there were 270 in my age group. Despite the 5.30am start, and almost being disqualified for coming late to the piste (area of play), I really enjoyed it and finished 88th.
In the BYC 2014, competing against an older age group, I came fifth. In the English Youth Championships I was one of the
favourites and was really looking forward to the event. However, I pulled my hamstring three days before, so had to pull out after the first round. I definitely found out the hard way why warming up thoroughly is important!
This year, I was selected for the Poznan International U17 event for team GB. This competition in Poland was tough but I finished tenth out of the 15 selected British fencers. Being the youngest on the trip (the only Year 8 amongst a bunch of Sixth Formers), I was pleased with my results. I also won the Public Schools’ Championships at Crystal Palace, representing SWPS.
At the moment my coach Marc Bengry and I are preparing for this year’s BYCs. Marc and I get on well and he is a good role model: he has won four Commonwealth medals and competed at both European and World Championships. After BYC, I am hoping to be selected for the Cadet U17 Commonwealth Fencing Championships in South Africa, for Team Scotland. That should be an amazing experience, and I’m looking forward to seeing some wildlife if I can!
I really enjoy fencing: fast reactions and effective decisionmaking are just as important as strength and stamina. The situation is constantly changing; you need, for example, to be prepared to suddenly move from an attack to a defending position, while always analysing the style and tactics of your opponent. The hardest part of it for me is keeping the right frame of mind; without that you can slow down and miss your opponent on easy hits.
I hope to continue fencing and one day reach the Olympics.
Lily Glover (Year 11)
Rhiannon Beddoe (Year 11)
Katerina Matheson (Year 11)
Grace King (Year 11)
Rebecca Player (Year 11)
Molly Workman (Year 11)
Elena Ioakimides (Year 11)
Safiyya Beere (Year 11)
Maria Marshall (Year 11)
THE POWER OF WORDS
It is 800 years since the sealing of Magna Carta in Runnymede. Vera Brown and Beth Lindsay (Lower 6th) examine its significance
You may have heard of Magna Carta in passing, particularly in recent months, but what actually is it? Well, Magna Carta (which is Latin for The Great Charter) undoubtedly has more influence on your life than you realise.
The need for Magna Carta emerged under the ruling of King John. Many found him to be an unsatisfactory leader as he was selfish, cruel and disorganised. John was the perpetrator of several unlawful deeds, including the murder of his own 16 year old nephew, Arthur, purely out of his own rage and temper; torturing an innocent priest who criticised his regimes and many other rumours about his oppressing methods as king.
This in turn lead to an English Civil War known as the First Barons’ War against King John, as the general population became frustrated with his poor leadership and double standards. The war was led by Robert Fitzwalter as well as barons who charged into London and held King John captive until he agreed to sign Magna Carta. Ultimately, Magna Carta was created in 1215 as a Peace Treaty - the document being 4000 words long, and divided into 63 clauses. Perhaps the most amazing part of this document is the location of its signing: the final signing of Magna
Carta was Runnymede, Surreypractically on our doorstep.
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No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned... except by the lawful judgment of his peers
King John promised through Magna Carta that England would be run under the regimes of Feudal Law. This was the law introduced by William I which prevented the King from having too much power and dominance over his people.
the power of words
Magna Carta was impactful in many different aspects of citizens lives; however its most significant enforcements were its laws stating that everyone would have the right to a fair trial, regardless of costs, if they felt an issue was great enough to take to court. It also states that no freeman would be imprisoned or punished without first going through the proper legal system.
Although Magna Carta was a peace treaty made in order to prevent a civil war, by a King who felt his position was threatened, in many ways it still affects us in the 21st century. Our legal system, for example, is still heavily based on clause 39, saying “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned... except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” Clause 1, which states that the monarchs were to have no more influence regarding the church, is also still enforced, as the church is still independent from the government today.
Furthermore, despite some of Magna Carta’s very obvious links with modern society, it is evident that the peace treaty has become more of a symbol for human rights rather than a guideline for modern laws. It has been said that “whenever denials of Magna Carta’s first principles have taken place, it has led to dehumanisation, genocide and an uncomfortable retrograde step against evolution itself.” This is demonstrated by the inhumane treatment of the Jews and other minority groups during the Holocaust, as their rights to a trial before imprisonment were taken away. The UN responded to this with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which was the first global settlement which agreed rights that everyone was entitled to. It has been argued that treaties such as these are all related to Magna Carta, as it was the first official document to lay down laws that dictated how people deserved to be treated.
So, in summary, Magna Carta was a document created for immediate purposes in order to control and put a cap on the current king John’s exploitative regime. However, what the rebellious barons were unaware of in the making of Magna Carta in 1215 were the subsequent effects it would have on generations to come. Now, 800
years on, the basic principles of Magna Carta are undeniably an invaluable aspect of our lives and our right to justice.
One of the most persistent worries of the Maths student is that the subject they are dedicating hour after hour to will turn out to be, quite frankly, useless. What function do quadratic equations serve? And will you ever find a way to relate vector geometry to real life? Of course, Maths teachers are adamant that one day, integration will save your life – but who would have thought that their predictions may actually come true? Last November, the Maths Department and the Lower Sixth Maths students trooped into London for the Maths in Action day at the Institute of Education for a whirlwind course in several different real life application of Maths, ranging from weather forecasting to manipulating public opinion using statistics. The speaker who really caught my attention, however, was a biomedical researcher who delivered an absolutely fascinating talk on the use of mathematical models to help research new drugs.
With diseases such as Ebola ever present on the news, the development of drugs and vaccines is undoubtedly crucial to our society and models provide a fast, cheap way to test drugs before they even start producing any. When we were taught about differentiation in class, the questions we were confronted by dealt with manufacturers and strangely shaped boxes rather than anything vaguely practical. The talk began with a similar sort of extremely simplified
and disappointingly theoretical example of a model for how a town’s population varies during the day. The factors taken into account included adults commuting to work, tourists (who were presumably rather lost) visiting said unremarkable village in the middle of Essex and even the odd birth or death of one of the permanent inhabitants.
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bacteria, white blood cells and an arsenal of antibiotics engage in battle on a daily basis
Looking around the lecture hall, I could distinguish symptoms of an epidemic that was sweeping across the students – a glazing of the eyes, a head drooping slightly before being jerked back up... even a faint rumbling could be heard from some unfortunate soul at the back. After how interesting and engaging the previous lectures had been, this one seemed like it would be the first one to break the trend. Little did I know that the speaker would soon move
from the mundane world of the population of her town to a fantasy land where bacteria, white blood cells and an arsenal of antibiotics engage in battle on a daily basis.
After a very brief outline of the complex behaviour of bacteria, we were then introduced to the extremely complicated Maths behind a deceptively simple model. It turns out that our bodies and the bacteria inside us are very similar to the previously mentioned town and its inhabitants, so a relatively uncomplicated model can be used to predict how much introducing a new variable (in this case, a drug) will change the other variables (most importantly the number of bacteria). However, the Maths that is actually used to calculate these values manifests as a horrifying set of simultaneous equations, each term a monster in its own right. The graphs that can be drawn from the equations were far more comprehensible to me and, I imagine, the other Year 12 students and demonstrated how using mathematical models can often very accurately predict whether a new drug had a decent chance of succeeding or not, saving both time and money. As a hopeful future medic, this talk really kindled an interest in how versatile a subject Maths can be and the evident joy that the speaker displayed when explaining her research was inspiring to watch.
With the multitude of different pathogens ravaging the world today and humanity’s never-ending struggle to produce new, better antibiotics, you never know – one day, differentiation might just save your life.
Janelle Xiao (Lower 6th) considers the role of mathematics in biomedical research
MATHS
IN
MEDICINE
LIFE INSIDE
A report by Amy Saunders and Izzy Scott-Evans (Lower 6th).
Picture by Maria Marshall (Year 11)
How often do you pass a convicted murderer in the street? Or shake hands with a thief? Or do business with a conman? We recently met all three, and came away questioning whether prisons work at all.
You don’t need to be a Psychology student to find the Life Behind Bars presentation fascinating. Listening to these convicted criminals tell us stories about their time in prison was both eye-opening and even slightly scary. Not because of the horror stories about the toilet facilities (or lack of) or the extreme lengths that inmates will go to smuggle goods in, or even accounts of the fights. It was the opinion of the former inmates that prison does not work that was the most shocking.
Jim started shoplifting when he was seven. He gradually progressed, until he was stealing antiques from wealthy homes, whilst in and out of prison. He told us that he learnt the tricks of the trade while in prison; how to pick locks or disable house alarms. He also spent much of his free time lifting weights and building up his fitness, so when he was released, rather than being rehabilitated he emerged a stronger, more able criminal.
This is a very common occurrence. Criminals who commit minor crimes, and receive short sentences of less than 12 months, have a reoffending rate of 60%. For these individuals, the only benefit of imprisonment is ensuring they’re off the streets for the duration of their sentence.
Considering this, many believe that sending so many offenders to prison is not a viable punishment, especially since each inmate costs the taxpayer on average £37,000 a year. This money could be put to better use developing alternatives that achieve the three aims of punishment: retribution, reformation and rehabilitation.
The prison system is trying to address the issue of reformation through courses offered to inmates, such as anger management or drug programmes. Similarly, they can take academic qualifications such as GCSEs, A-levels and degrees, or they can learn skills such as woodwork, gardening or engineering, in order to encourage rehabilitation. However, these qualifications often have no benefit in enabling criminals to return easily to the community. With a criminal record, past offenders generally struggle to find work due to the social stigma of prison, which may force them to reoffend to obtain an
income.
With the prison population in this country having reached record levels of 86,000 - a 90% increase since 1993 - urgent measures have to be taken to improve the justice system, to reduce the number of re-offenders and to find effective alternatives to imprisonment.
What do you think? Take our quiz, over the page, to find out what your ideal prison system would be.
psychology
PRISON QUIZ
Would your inmates wear a prison uniform?
a) Yes, black and white striped uniform with pink underwear.
b) Yes, grey jumpsuits.
c) No, the inmates are free to wear their own clothes with some restrictions.
d) No, the inmates can wear whatever they choose.
What would the accommodation be like?
a) The inmates are housed in tents which can reach temperatures of 60°C
b) There are no toilets or washing facilities.
c) There are individual big luxury rooms with a bed, tv, their own kitchen and ensuite.
d) They live on an island in their own small cottage
What would the inmates spend their time doing?
a) The inmates are sent out to work in the desert in chain gangs.
b) Prisoners spend 22 hours a day in a cell. In their free hour they are locked in an outdoor cage.
c) They have the option of table tennis, a basketball court a gym and an outdoor recreation area.
d) They work on the prison farm, but spend their free time sunbathing, playing tennis and horse-riding.
What would the level of security be?
a) There is maximum security including two sky watch towers, stun fences, facial recognition computer software for inmate identification and dog units.
b) The prison is on an island
surrounded by water for top security; parcels and visitors are only allowed twice a year.
c) There is minimal security at the prison.
d) There is very minimal security with only 5 guards for the whole prison.
RESULTS
Mostly
a:
Your ideal prison is Tent City in Phoenix in America. It was set up in 1993 to solve the problem of a lack of space for prisoners in the state.
Mostly
b:
Your ideal prison is Petak Island Prison in Russia. This prison has been named as one of the most horrific prisons in the world.
Mostly c:
Your ideal prison is Leoben Justice Center in Austria. In this prison, inmates are able to move freely though their cells and shared spaces.
Mostly d:
Your ideal prison is Bastoy prison in Norway. It is isolated on an island which has been argued as the most luxurious prison in the world. However, it has the least reoffenders in the world.
After weeks of canvassing, copious amounts of posters, and a much-discussed incident that became known as Biscuitgate, the students and staff of Sir William Perkins’s School joined the rest of the nation on 7th May in casting their votes in an election, although for us it was our own SWPS mock election.
In the days leading up to the election, each of our student candidates, representing the five major political parties, had an allocated time at our own Speakers’ Corner, where they could try to persuade potential voters to back them. Candidates spoke about their policies and answered tough questions from a very animated audience. We also had a hustings, enabling the candidates to address an eager audience who also had plenty of questions of their own. One of the candidates, Ellie Markham, wore an impossible-to-ignore “Vote UKIP” sign, which brought an
element of humour to the serious campaigning taking place.
On Election Day, the school had a 73% voter turnout which, when compared with the UK’s overall turnout of 66.1%, suggests that our staff and students had a greater interest in politics than the nation as a whole. Our voter turnout percentage was the same as in the two constituencies of Witney and Stratford-on-Avon and, just like in those seats, there was a convincing victory at SWPS for the Conservative’s candidate, which in our case was Ellie Lane.
When the votes were all in the final count was:
Conservative: 291
Green: 63
UKIP: 47
Liberal Democrats: 42
Labour: 38
481 people cast their votes, leaving 178 people who did not. It is worth noting that while that amount of votes might have saved Labour’s Chris Williamson in Derby North, who lost to
Report by Phoebe Dua
(Lower 6th)
Conservative candidate Amanda Solloway by just 41 votes, the complete support of all of the non-voters for any one of our candidates at SWPS would not have changed the end result.
As the Labour candidate in this election, the result was a disappointing one for me, but not unexpected. Ellie Lane was an impressive candidate who spoke passionately and eloquently about the Conservative Party and fully deserved to win. The other candidates – Maya Sukhram for the Greens, Lauren Johncock for the Liberal Democrats, and Ellie Markham for the UK Independence Party – were also great campaigners who worked hard to gather support for their respective parties.
I think the whole experience was rewarding for everyone involved. It enabled us to participate in an event that the rest of the country was rightly focussed on; it also helped a lot of students learn more about UK politics, in a practical way rather than in the form of a lesson or lecture.
MOCK ELECTION
home economics
The finalists were from St George’s College, Magna Carta School, and the hosts, SWPS. Each school entered two contestants from Years 7, 8 or 9. SWPS was represented by Zoe Lewis (Year 8) and Grace James (Year 7).
The contestants had been selected in heats that took place at each school earlier that month. They were given thirty minutes of preparation time and an hourand-a-half to cook a healthy twocourse meal, for two people, with a budget of six pounds.
The competition was judged by three members of Chertsey Rotary Club, who allocated marks for planning, costing, cooking skills, neatness and hygiene, as well as taste and presentation for each individual dish. After all the dishes had been tasted, other members of the Rotary Club and parents of the competitors were able to taste them.
After a closely fought contest, Zoe won first place for SWPS for her Lemon and Basil Chicken with Risotto, followed by Mini Dark Chocolate Pavlovas with Greek Yoghurt & Raspberries. Second place went to Tessa Shahbo from St George’s who prepared Dijon Crusted Salmon with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Buttered Spinach followed by a dessert of Raspberry Rhubarb Crisp.
The judges were very impressed with the high standard and complemented each competitor. Gary Webber, president of Chertsey Rotary Club, presented the prizes.
This year’s final of the Rotary Club Young Chef Competition took place at SWPS on a warm Thursday evening in June. Susan Hay describes what happened. Pictures by Ian Russell
YOUNG CHEF 2015
young chef 2015
LEMON & BASIL CHICKEN
Serves 2
2 chicken breasts with skin
Lemon juice
30g Parmesan cheese
600ml chicken stock
200g cherry tomatoes
200g Arborio rice
1 large handful basil leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste
Grate the cheese and finely chop the basil. Heat the oven to 180 °C /Gas 4.
Heat a frying pan on the hob on a medium heat and add the cherry tomatoes. Fry gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then empty onto a chopping board. When cool enough to handle, halve the tomatoes.
Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a pan suitable for hob & oven; heat over medium-to-high heat. Lightly season chicken breasts with salt and add them to the pan, skin side down. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes, until they start to brown.
Turn the chicken over and place in oven, still in the pan, for 25 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
Put the stock in a pan on the hob to simmer.
Put 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add
rice and gently stir for a minute or so. Add a third of the stock; it should sizzle and you should keep heating it so it bubbles away gently. Add the cherry tomatoes, half the basil and some salt, stirring occasionally.
When liquid is nearly gone, add more stock; keep the risotto simmering gently, stirring occasionally, for about 20 to 25 minutes in total. Test the rice and, when cooked, stir in the Parmesan and the rest of the basil.
Remove chicken from oven. Spoon the risotto onto two plates; top with chicken breasts and a squeeze of lemon juice. Enjoy!
Tip: You may not need all the stock so don’t worry if there’s some leftover.
design & technology
Photo frame by Isobel Davies (Year 10)
Storage unit by Frances Dawson (Lower 6th)
Floating shelves by (on left) Emily Dixon and (on right) Ella Sumner (Year 10)
Music and flute stand by Antonia Bowyer (Year 11)
Coffee table with terrarium by Amy Ly (Lower 6th)
Above & below: table lamp by Molly Sharps (Lower 6th)
Bird feeder by Rebecca Lambert (Year 11)
Work station by Natasha Yuen (Lower 6th)
METAMORPHOSIS
Words by Daisy Slater and Liberty Donovan (Year 7)
Metamorphosis is the process that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. This year we did some research on butterflies because their ability to metamorphose has always interested us. Our project won the SWPS Science Fair 2015. The aim of the project was to understand more about how caterpillars turn into butterflies.
Our first task was to write a set of fact files about the top ten British butterflies. In each file we put their habitat, wingspan, distribution and other notes. We included as much information as possible on each individual butterfly. The fact files were a huge and essential part of our project; we felt it was important to demonstrate our research in our presentation.
Next, we got our caterpillars. We watched them grow and made a diary of their progress. They
were inactive for the first few days. They started to grow very rapidly after that however: they were in chrysalis – the cocoon in which a butterfly performs the amazing transformation – within twenty days. The average caterpillar normally takes one to two weeks to come out of the chrysalis but our butterflies took over three weeks. When they finally came out of
chrysalis they were very active and excitable butterflies.
Finally, we presented all our hard work at the Science Fair, where we were tested on our butterfly knowledge.
Altogether it was an amazing experience and we had loads of fun. We recommend that you try doing your own scientific research for the next Science Fair.
Painting by Lily Glover (Yr 11)
INTERESTING ADVANCES
Shambhavi Sharma (Lower 6th) reports on some of the latest scientific breakthroughs
Youthful blood may revive the old
It is already known through research that injecting the old with young blood can reduce cognitive decline. However, in 2014 scientists have discovered some evidence to suggest why. The research suggested that the transfusion of blood in mice stimulated growth of new blood vessels and improved the function of the olfactory region of the brain, allowing them to have a stronger sense of smell. The protein GDF 11 (Growth Differentiation Factor 11) works by regulating and restoring stem cell activity. Furthermore, this protein is found in humans at a higher concentration when younger, thus aiding restoration and a lack of cognitive decline when older.
A new method of producing high quality graphene
Initially, graphene was produced by mixing graphite and various
solvents, and introducing ultrasonic energy to break up the graphite and stop it from reforming. This led to a solution containing many grapheme flakes. This process takes approximately three days. However, the new method is capable of producing graphene within approximately three-and-a-half hours, which significantly reduces the production time. The new method does not use ultrasonic energy, but a propeller that spins very fast in the liquid instead.
“ ”a microscope so strong it is able to locate an atom
A molecule that mimics an anti-body from our immune system
For many years scientists have been trying to prevent and treat various diseases and have been successful for many, but unsuccessful in combating others such as HIV. HIV is a condition
in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system takes place, thus making us susceptible to many diseases. However, a new molecule that has been created has been proved successful in monkeys for curing HIV. The monkeys had been injected with this molecule, and a few weeks later with a high dosage of the virus. None of the monkeys with the injected molecule developed HIV, whereas the ones which hadn’t been injected with the molecule did go on to develop the illness.
A new electron microscope
Scientists in the UK have unveiled a microscope that is so strong and precise it is able to locate the exact position of an atom.
Antibiotics and diabetes
Recent research has suggested that those who have taken certain antibiotics for more than two courses are at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who haven’t. The antibiotics used within the research were penicillins, cephalosporins, quinolones and macrolides. The study co-author Dr Yu-Xiao Yang, an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, has said he thinks that the changing levels and diversity of gut bacteria could be one of the reasons for this, as previously an imbalance in gut bacteria has been linked to obesity and insulin resistance.
SOLAR ECLIPSE
Words by Sarah Walmsley (Lower 6th)
On 20th March
2015, the UK was one of the places affected by a solar eclipse. We were prepared for the event with health warnings and pinhole cameras, to keep our vision safe. Unfortunately, at SWPS our view of it was covered by clouds, so this spectacular event was not as clearly observed as we had hoped.
There are five stages to a full eclipse of the Sun: Firstly, a partial eclipse begins: the Moon’s shadow starts becoming visible over the Sun’s disc.
Secondly, the full eclipse begins: almost the entire disc of the Sun is covered by the Moon. Observers in the path of the Moon’s umbra may be able to see Baily’s beads and the diamond ring effect Baily’s beads are phenomena that occur at this stage in the sequence. They are spots that appear around the edge of the Moon, where light passes through its valleys, and can therefore still reach earth. The diamond ring effect is a famous point in the eclipse where a “diamond ring” can be seen at the edge of the Moon, where one spot of light is left, and the Sun’s chromosphere and corona are still visible. This creates an optical effect that looks rather like a diamond ring.
The Sun’s atmosphere has three layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere and the corona. The chromosphere, which gives out a reddish glow, can only be seen for a few seconds right after the diamond ring disappears during a total eclipse.
Thirdly, maximum eclipse or totality: the Moon completely covers the disc of the Sun. Only the Sun’s corona is visible. Like the chromosphere, the Sun’s corona is only visible during a total solar eclipse. It can be seen as a faint ring of rays surrounding the dark Moon during totality. At this time, the sky goes dark, temperatures fall drastically and birds and animals often go quiet. Then the full eclipse ends: the Moon’s shadow starts moving away and the Sun reappears. Every time there is an eclipse, there are areas on Earth where the Sun appears partially covered, and areas where the Sun is totally covered. The Moon’s umbra, or full shadow, is very small, and only covers a specific area of land or sea. This is why there is such a small area where the eclipse is in totality. The penumbra, or partial shadow, is seen from a larger area of the Earth, like in the UK where the recent eclipse was up to 80% totality. At any one place, one can expect to see a total solar eclipse once every 360 years. The duration
of a total eclipse can range from a few seconds to seven minutes.
The Moon’s orbital path around the Earth is inclined at an angle of five degrees in relation to the Earth’s ecliptic (orbital plane) around the Sun. The points where the two orbital planes meet are called lunar nodes. Solar eclipses occur only when a new Moon (the first phase of the Moon, when it is usually invisible from Earth) takes place near a lunar node.
Another important thing to know is that the Moon is at a perigee position when it is closest to the earth.
Solar eclipses are special because there needs to be four elements in place for them to occur. The Moon needs to be: a new Moon, at perigee, near a lunar node, and aligned between the Earth and Sun.
OUT IN THE COLD
Experiencing extreme cold is just as dangerous and fatal as being affected by extreme heat and being exposed to incredibly cold weather is known to kill faster than drowning. In the case of experiencing extreme cold, the main effects on your body arise from frostbite and hypothermia.
Frostbite is a condition which will affect your body’s extremities such as your hands, feet, ears and nose. When your body is exposed to extreme cold weather, these parts of the body can start to experience a sense of numbness and turn blue as they become frostbitten. Medical attention is needed when this occurs; as in some severe cases of frostbite amputation will be required.
Hypothermia when exposed to the cold means that your body
is losing heat faster than it is able to produce it. The severity of hypothermia can be mild when the body temperature drops below 37C and severe when it drops below 33C.
In extreme conditions when severe hypothermia is reached, your body will be affected in a number of ways. Initially, your body will accelerate your breathing and heart rate and you will start to shiver as your body attempts to keep you warm. At this point, your skin will become cold and pale and your speech will become slurred. As your body’s temperature continues to fall you will no longer start to feel any chills and this is because the muscles in your body are becoming rigid making the skin turn pale. At this point it is often reported that you will experience eyesight problems especially blurred vision.
TAKING THE HEAT
As soon as your body starts to experience severe heat this will be immediately sensed and it will start setting up different methods to try and cool the body down.
The first thing that will happen is that your heart will start to beat faster. This is because your body is trying to increase the flow of blood and keep your internal organs from overheating. If the body continues to experience extreme heat you will start perspiring as your body tries to cool you down.
The biggest problem with perspiring is that you will slowly become dehydrated as a result of
producing sweat. Since your body can lose up to 2 litres of water per hour when exposed to heat and can only ingest up to 1.5 litres of water an hour, dehydration becomes a major concern.
Once you are unable to sweat due to dehydration, your body temperature will start to rise again. This is when hyperthermia in extreme heat occurs. Hyperthermia in this instance is a condition where the body is unable to sweat anymore and therefore the core temperature will continue to rise. This will cause you (and your mind) to act in a number of ways. Initially you will come confused and have a headache. Many people who have seen someone with hyperthermia say that they look and act drunk.
At this point it is likely that your blood pressure will start to fall due to the dehydration and you will feel dizzy and may faint. The heart will start to beat more as it tries to ensure your whole body receives enough oxygen.
Another physical effect is that your skin will start to become red and this is because the blood vessels are dilating as they try to increase heat dissipation. The drop in blood pressure will also result in your complexion becoming pale.
The effect of extreme heat on the body is very serious; without intervention such heat will slowly target and shut down vital organs.
The human body is an extraordinary thing, brilliant at coping with all kinds of problems and extremes. However, it is clearly not indestructible!
The human body is an amazing machine with the ability to fight disease and heal itself. Ana Maria Oprisan (Lower 6th) examines how it handles the effects of extreme temperature.
Painting by Juliette Wright (Lower 6th)
EXTREME LIVING
GOVERNOR’S Q & A
SWPS Governor, Sara Jamison, talks to Henrietta Dunsmuir and Anya Shah (Lower 6th)
How did you become a SWPS Governor?
I have a bit of history with the school because I came here as a pupil from 1976 to 1983, and I was part of the Head Girls’ Team. After I left I lived away from the area for about 25 years. I came back to SWPS by making contact with Geoff Want, our Chair of Governors. He told me I had some useful skills to apply to the role of Governor, and it was a pleasure to come back.
What kind of things does your role as Governor include?
I go to the termly Governors’ meetings, I chair the Marketing Committee, and I come into lessons once a term. Of course, I also come to as many events throughout the school year that I can.
What do you like most about being a Governor?
What I love is learning more about education and being at the school at such an exciting time, with things like the new performance space and Sixth Form Centre being built, and the boathouse; being part of a body that can help develop the girls at this school is really a fantastic opportunity.
What work do you do when you’re not being a Governor for us?
Currently, I jointly own a brand licensing business; we licence a
brand called Prontaprint out to about 50 independent printers across the UK and internationally. Before that I worked in marketing; I moved to be a Chief Executive, and then decided it would be really good to operate my own business.
What’s been the most memorable moment in your career so far?
Probably the day I was made Marketing Director of a quoted company. It was a large company with 760 stores and 22,000 employees and I was the first female Director on the trading board.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your career so far?
Inevitably I’ve had lots of challenges. Carving out a career in the late 80s and 90s was a real challenge as it was long before equality was a well-used word. I had to work very hard to prove myself against all the men who were competing in that field.
Some of my most challenging moments have come while being a Chief Executive. In one particular company, I was working with the three founder Directors, who believed very passionately in their business, but didn’t really believe in the view the Executive Team and I had for developing the company. I spent a lot of time trying to understand their vision and then building a strategy that encompassed everybody’s views.
Another business I ran had high levels of debt and sales were going backwards. Bit by bit we had to unpick the challenges and rebuild the business to make it successful again in a different format.
Which living person do you most admire?
The Queen. Whether you’re a royalist or not, for the Queen to have kept the monarchy intact during the last 60 years, a time full of fundamental change, is an
incredible achievement. I think she’s diplomatic, tactful and resilient. Sadly, I think we won’t fully appreciate her greatness until she’s gone.
I do now understand the value of it. “ ”
being able to compromise; it’s not something that comes naturally to me... but
I think he’d be good fun and a great conversationalist. He’d probably be quite controversial but I think that would be good. I’d also invite a classical guitarist called Miloš Karadaglić because he’s very talented and he’s now a worldwide star.
And I’d invite Judi Dench because I think she’s an incredible actress with a lot of experience and stories to tell.
If you were stranded on a desert island which three luxuries would you take with you?
My lip-gloss? No, don’t print that! My iPad, a solar charging pack, and a machete. I could sit there reading on my iPad, and warn off anyone scary who appeared.
If you could go back or forwards in time when and where would you go?
Back, I’d go to Victorian England because I think that would be a very interesting era to look in on. Things were happening like: the first weekly newspapers, Dickens’ books were just coming out, the start of the Suffragette movement… If I went forward I’d go to 2050 – I’d want to look at a world with driverless cars and see the impact that all the technological advances that are coming through now are ultimately going to have on our lives.
Who would you invite as guests to your dream dinner party?
The first person I would invite is José Mourinho because as a West Ham fan I think it would be very interesting to talk to him about his tactics on managing and motivating his team!
I’d invite Jo Malone, because she built a really successful business and then sold it, and she’s now going through the growing pains of building another brand.
I’d invite Boris Johnson because
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt in life?
There’s a skill that I’ve learned both personally and professionally which I believe has proved invaluable, and that is being able to compromise. It’s not something that comes naturally to me and some may say I’m still not great at it! But I do now understand the value of it.
I also believe that we’re constantly learning and dear to my heart is what Chris Muller often talks about – the intellectual curiosity that’s running through the school.
MODERN GODS?
The ancient Greeks worshipped many gods and placed them at the heart of their society. Eileen Zoratti (Year 9) wonders if we have given our modern celebrities a worryingly similar role. Picture by Stephanie Carr (Senior 6th)
The ancient Greeks imagined their gods to be human in appearance.
In any of their cities their worship of the gods was reflected in highly visual monuments, such as prominent statues and temples; the Athenian Parthenon is a striking example. The same might be said of celebrities of whom an apparent worship is displayed in most modern cities on billboards, advertisements and magazine covers. Their appearance is idealised (made near-perfect) by designers using Photoshop, as the Greek gods were by talented sculptors.
The Greeks did not regard all the gods as equal however, and there was a clear hierarchy with Zeus at the top of an “A-list” of the Olympian gods that included Hera, Poseidon, Athene, Aphrodite and Artemis, and then a long trail of “B” and “C-listers” living elsewhere. A-list Olympian status seems to correlate with power as these are certainly the most awesomely powerful of all the Greek gods. However even a C-lister such as the beautiful goddess Calypso, who lived alone on a paradise island, was still powerful enough to keep Odysseus there for seven years, then offer him Immortality to stay, when
commanded by Zeus to let him go. The world of celebrities is stratified in the same way, with an international A-list defined by powers such as: sporting prowess (David Beckham), musical talent (Taylor Swift), film fame (Johnny Depp) or legendary beauty (Heidi Klum).
The B and C lists of celebrities are as long and varied as their equivalents among the Greek gods.
there was a clear hierarchy with Zeus at the top of the A-list
The Greeks believed that their gods took an interest in human affairs and even mingled with humans, (although normally in disguise).
The same is apparently true of modern celebrities,
although they are pursued more determinedly than the Greek gods by paparazzi with long lenses to record for us all when we are “blessed” in this way, and when the celebrity’s disguise of hat and sunglasses has been penetrated. The Greeks celebrated these great interactions in beautiful and majestic Epic poems, such as the Iliad and Odyssey. We have Hello Magazine.
The Greeks also believed that, for a mortal, an encounter with a god could be very dangerous. Poor Actaeon for example, was out hunting innocently when he accidentally disturbed Artemis bathing and in a state of undress. His punishment for this was to be turned into a deer and torn apart by his own hounds. The many mortals who have unintentionally stumbled across revealing pictures of Kim Kardashian may not have been punished so severely but may, none the less, feel damaged by the experience.
Occasionally a mortal could be uplifted to the status of a god himself by an encounter with the gods. Hercules, after he performed 12 labours and many other awesome feats, was eventually deified. Former mortals such as Leona Lewis and Olly Murs have been similarly upgraded after meeting celebrities on X-Factor
and completing their own series of trials.
The Greeks prayed to their gods at great festivals centred on their major temples, and also before any great undertaking, such as war. We worship our celebrities at festivals too, such as the Oscars or Cannes, and also on the red carpet at film premieres and sporting events. The Greek gods expected offerings and gifts on these occasions. The objective of these offerings was to please the gods, and thus be rewarded with a good harvest or successful campaign. In the same way celebrities are also given gifts from fashion and beauty brands, in the hope that their endorsement will lead to a richer harvest of sales.
The Greek gods did not set a good moral example and were rather prone to abusing their position with rampant infidelity and random acts of violence, while escaping the justice that mortals would almost certainly face for such misdemeanours. Zeus, the king of the gods, was prolific in both types of offence. In the same way, celebrities seem to get away with multiple marriages, affairs, and even violence such as Jeremy Clarkson’s recent attack on his producer, which avoided any criminal proceedings.
One possible difference between the cultures of Greek gods and modern celebrities is, thankfully, the freedom we have not to worship celebrities, and the ability we have to criticise. In Ancient Greece, you had to worship the Gods or risk deadly punishment. We are much freer to criticise celebrities than, say, Pentheus, king of Thebes, who as a punishment for criticising Dionysus was humiliated, then torn apart by his own mum and aunties! And you thought your
modern gods?
relatives were annoying!
Another difference may be that the Gods have left a legacy that still remains after 2500 years; we still remember and study them. The beautiful monuments and art the Greeks made for them still survive. The gods appear in the names of buildings, films, paintings, products and companies. How many of our contemporary
celebrities will be able to leave such a mark on history?
I have been able to find a worrying number of similarities between how the ancient Greeks worshipped their gods and the way our contemporary society “worships” celebrities. So, I have no choice but to conclude that celebrities are indeed the Greek gods of today.
Natasha Yuen (Lower 6th)
Molly Sharps (Lower 6th)
Rachel Simpson (Lower 6th)
Scarlett Higham (Lower 6th)
Lauren Ahm (Lower 6th)
Left: Robyn Harrison-Church (Senior 6th)
Yasmin Yelle (Senior 6th)
Megan Black (Senior 6th)
Georgina Derby (Senior 6th)
Above: Lauren Cowl (Senior 6th)
R OWING physical education
How did you first get into rowing?
It happened in 2008 through a project called Sporting Giants, a talent identification scheme that’s run across the UK. Steve Redgrave was on the TV to advertise it. It wasn’t just for rowing but also for basketball and handball. They asked for any tall people who have a strong background in sport to just try it out. I filled in the application form and then I got a letter asking me to come and try out in Newcastle.
What do you love most about the sport?
I would say it’s the team environment. When you’re training, you’re with a group of very different people and they all become your friends. Then, when you’re all in a boat and you win a race, you’ve done that together. I wouldn’t have met these people if I didn’t row.
How often do you train?
I train every day apart from Sundays, and I do two to three sessions a day.
What does your training programme consist of at the moment?
I will definitely have a session on the water in the morning – even if it’s winter and very cold – and that will be between 12 and 20 km. It might be in singles, it might be in crew boats, depending on whether we’ve got a race coming up, and then we’ll be in the boat that we’re racing in. Next we’ll come in for a second breakfast, which is great; then we’ll either do weights or ergos (rowing machines).
What are your plans and hopes for the future?
My current plans are to make it into the GB Women’s Quad. Come April, it’s Final Trails and hopefully from there, if I finish in a strong enough position, I’ll get pulled into the system to see if I’m good enough. So that’s my main aim at the moment, but my dream
would be to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
What’s your favourite type of boat?
I think it would be a pair, because when it goes right it’s just incredible. You feel like you’re rowing the boat by yourself even though there’s somebody behind or in front of you. When it goes well you can’t feel that person, you just know that you’re both putting the power in together.
Do you prefer sculling (two oars) or rowing (one oar)?
I think I’m better at rowing so I’d say I prefer that! But I also quite like to go out on my own for a session in my single scull, when the sun’s shining and it’s nice water.
How do you deal with a bad session or disappointing result?
I think you’ve got to take the positives and negatives, and think about the different ways you can build on both elements. Be realistic, learn from that experience, and then try to make sure it doesn’t happen again; but if it does happen again, know that you tried your best.
What’s the main advice you would give to a SWPS rower?
Enjoy it; have fun! You’re with your friends, you’re all rowing together, so I think you should really enjoy the time that you’ve got for this right now.
Karen Bennett has been rowing for seven years and a rowing coach at SWPS for the last two. Rosie Glover and Artemis Contopoulos (Lower 6th) quiz her about her love of the sport and her hopes for the future
Moments from some of this year’s exciting and hotly contested rowing events. Pictures by Paul Daniels
physical education
MATCH POINTS
Rachel Simpson (Lower 6th) tells us about her sporting passion
Istarted playing tennis when I was five as an afterschool activity – my parents signed me up hoping it would tire me out – and I loved it immediately. As a five-year-old, I mainly enjoyed how active tennis was and would often practise at the courts in our local park. Over the years my love of tennis has developed into a deeper enjoyment and I have been a member of Ashford Lawn Tennis Club since the age of seven. I have moved up through the various Saturday morning coaching groups; I also played in the Club’s Junior Tennis Squad for a couple of years while I was still at Junior School. During that time, because I was playing so much, I was really able to improve my game.
I have been playing for 12 years and have competed in several club tournaments and
competitions.
I won my first Club Championship (Mini Orange) at the age of seven. This was a great experience for me as it was my first proper competition and gave me a flavour of what I could achieve. Amongst other cups and awards, I have since won a further three Club Championships and was runner up in another two. Playing in these championships is really enjoyable, and inspiring, as each year the competition is very close; you learn how far you can push yourself, how much you can read your opponent and improve on your game. Recently, I have also joined Knowle Hill Tennis Club in Virginia Water and am looking forward to their Summer Club Championships.
“ ”
On court you have to remain calm and focused
Since joining SWPS in 2009 I’ve loved playing tennis in the afterschool club and as part of the School Squad.
As well as the satisfaction that comes from being able to represent a club or school, tennis is rewarding in other ways. I feel it teaches you self-discipline: on court you have to remain calm and focused even if you’re losing the match; you have to be able to
refrain from just whacking the ball as hard as you can and opt for trying to outsmart your opponent instead.
One of my toughest matches was just last weekend. I was competing in my Club’s annual Junior Tournament and was playing a semi-final match against a boy from my group. The match was really close and I needed a lot of determination to complete the set. It was quite a bizarre game as often the server wins and holds their service game. However, in this match I immediately broke his serve and then he broke mine! We continued like this until the score was 4-4, and this in itself took about half-an-hour. It was really difficult to maintain a positive outlook when the score was so equal and every point counted. In the end I lost the match 6-4. Normally I would’ve been a bit disheartened at such a close loss.
This time, though, I felt the most important thing was how much fun the match had been. We were so equally matched that it became almost funny as we edged our way through the points, and it was a really enjoyable competition. This is what I like most about tennis. You can play a very close match and even if you lose you can still have a great experience!
If you’ve ever considered taking up tennis, I would really encourage you to do so. There are loads of different levels you can play at, and most clubs offer competitive and social tennis, so you can just play for fun! It also keeps you fit and healthy!
Picture by Amy Greentree (Lower 6th)
PRODUCTION IN A WEEKEND
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Report by Madi Apthorpe (Lower
For me, being a part of the 2015 Production-in-a-Weekend’s take on Little Shop of Horrors was a brilliant experience; in fact, I think practically everyone involved loved every minute of it.
As a member of the Directors’ Team, I experienced first-hand just how much hard work it takes to put on a school production, especially one that’s created in the space of a few days!
The build-up to the weekend was pretty demanding as timetabling had to be worked out, auditions held, and castings decided on. During this time, the idea of producing and directing a play in one weekend seemed totally absurd; little did we know, not only was it possible, ours would even be called “one of the best ever!”
The weekend itself was thoroughly enjoyable, even though it included some stressful and manic moments when we thought we wouldn’t be able to pull the show together. Everyone, though, managed to get through those times due, I think, to the enormous amount of work each and every girl put in.
6th)
I want to say a massive thank you to Elly Bolton, Beth Norman-Walker, Lottie Levy and Phoebe Dua for being such great fellow Directors. I also want to thank the Musical Directors Katie Beauchamp and Annabel Williams, and the Choreographers Alex Purnell and Lauren Ahm. But I think the biggest thank you of all should go to all the girls who participated; without you we couldn’t have created such an excellent show or had such a wonderful, never-to-be-forgotten experience.
religious studies
POLAND REFLECTED
Pippa Marriott (Senior Teacher) shares extracts from the diary she kept during this year’s trip to Poland
The coach radio is firmly in the 80s –Eurythmics, Polish techno, Phil Collins waiting impatiently for love. Trees are barer than at home, but the colours are the same, and the road works, and signs for Maccy D’s (although burgers, like everything else, are cheaper here).
Billboard posters of airbrushed politicians with white smiling teeth; land cultivated into narrow strips, something tough and unforgiving about the scrubby fields. There are warning signs for snow, and coal-fire smoke pouring from dun coloured homes. Everywhere a haze of low cloud, or industrialisation, or both.
Each cemetery we pass is bright with yellow and orange chrysanthemums – preparing for the national holiday of All Saints: time to remember the dead.
Palpably proud, our guide Anya tells us Poland was constituted in 966 as a country in its own right. The glory years of the 14 hundreds were filled with kings and commerce, amber trade and ancient learning: Krakow University was founded in 1364. We stand in the unchanged university buildings where Copernicus studied and taught, looking up at the vaulted library where he dared to rewrite the voyage of the sun as the heretical journey of an orbiting earth.
Invaded and divided, Krakow was Austrian until 11th November 1918.
A crisply cold morning with the ever-present haze that puts Krakow into nostalgic soft-focus, so that walking the medieval streets to Kazimierz we imagine we are walking through time: the workers hunched by the roadside and the woman huddled beside them with a basket could be from the
wartime ghetto – whispers being passed, bread traded.
The Jewish Museum houses extraordinary photographs of ordinary scenes: scarred paintwork beside a doorframe, micro traces of a long-gone mezuzah and the Jewish prayer casing. 90% of the Jewish community was killed. Their language was banned, their labour forced and movement entirely restricted. To help a Jew was punishable by death, and not just your own death, but your children’s, your family’s; your entire community’s.
A photograph of two stones at the threshold of a farmhouse; the farmer said to the photographer “I want to show you something”, and upturned one of the stones of the doorstep to reveal it as a Jewish tombstone – a house, like many in the area, built of the dead, of the ruins of lost people.
Our young guide tells us “No village was too small for its own holocaust – death didn’t belong to the camps.” A photograph of a dull copse of trees in a flat landscape; 54 shot dead in one day. 7,000 dead, including 700 orphans. Then she shows us a photograph of the bar where, on
Christmas Eve, a brave Jew shot dead seven SS officers. Photographs of trees and a field that were Belzec, a place I’d never heard of, where 500,000 Jews were killed in 9 months: a place she says “only for death”. Ten survived, alive under other bodies, and one wrote down what happened there. So much has been forgotten, these little scraps of memory are like burnt paper that will turn to dust if we touch it, and yet we must try to take hold and understand, to remember with great and gentle care: Belzec, pronounced Beljis, half a million people gone, fragile as ash.
If you remove someone’s dignity, what happens to your own?
We go through to an area with chairs and a friendly older lady is shown in – dyed black hair swept up into a bun and strong red lipstick, a tee shirt with sequins under her white puffer jacket. She’s the sort of elderly woman who might irritate you in the queue in the supermarket, taking too long to get out her change and being overly polite to the cashier. She is Monika Goldwasser, whose Krakovian parents married in 1940 in spite of the war, then moved to the country in the hope that they would be safer there. They weren’t. Unseen, they handed baby Monika to a non-Jewish farmer just before they were marched off with half the village
to dig the pit that would hold every last Jew, then stood alongside it, facing in, and waited for the shots. Tucked into the baby’s blanket was a small note with the names of her parents, with her own name, and declaring her Jewish heritage. Her adoptive parents hid the note away and raised her as their own, for her safety and theirs. Monika was 22 before she found out that she had been born to different, Jewish, parents. She “lived in that secret” for many more years, not telling anyone, not even her husband. Then one night, watching the news, she heard an American woman talk about her Polish parents, victims of the holocaust, and how she was the eldest of four sisters and that she was sure that the youngest one had survived. Living in Israel now, this woman was visiting Krakow in the hope of finding her sister. Her name was Goldwasser. Monika knew immediately she had found her, that they had found each other. Chance as fragile as a worn scrap of paper.
We spend the afternoon 1,000 feet underground in the carved and polished salt mines where we
are told that we mustn’t lick the sculptures, but can lick the walls.
Quiet because it’s early and we are in thoughtful mood, we head, along with other coach-loads of tourists, to Auschwitz. One coach is filled with Israeli soldiers, men and women, unfurling an Israeli flag against the fence and standing proudly either side of the Star of David.
Our guide speaks to us through headphones as we walk amongst the famously familiar huts and cabinets. Her voice is incessant and unemotional as we explore the pitiful geometry of mass extermination in all its banal exactitude. Shaken, we quietly get on to the coach to travel the short distance to Birkenau and discover there is somewhere even worse than Auschwitz. No pretence of order here, just industrial extermination at the end of the railway line.
Back home I am overwhelmed by the privilege of a shower, of hot water, cleanliness, sweet smelling soap, by the luxury of privacy. In the mirror I look for traces on me. I remember.
poland reflected
How to Destroy a Person’s Dignity
Ask that the person or persons place the best of their belongings into a labelled suitcase: these personal treasures should include their family photographs, prayer blankets, and their prettiest sandals.
After first requesting that they purchase their train tickets (under 14 – half price, under 4 – free) pack them into cattle trucks for a minimum of 24 hours.
On arrival, divide the families: over 40s and women with young children, send to the left; the men and the teenagers who look capable of work - send them to the right. Take from all of them the carefully labelled suitcases containing the personal treasures. These are now yours.
With the promise of a shower, require the first group to remove their clothing and leave it carefully folded, then funnel the women and young children, followed by the men over 40, into the stone room where they will look up when the hatch opens and, briefly, They will see the light.
As the Zyklon B reaches the appropriate temperature to annihilate breathing, their dignity, along with their life, is now done.
From these dead and from those still living, remove the hair –dark braids, flaxen plaits, grey pony-tails.
The gold teeth of the dead also need to be harvested: put some of the healthier living to work at these tasks, and at the disposal of the bodies.
Dress those still alive in identical clothing, except for their identifying triangles.
Beat them: for talking without permission for having a photograph of their mother (75 lashes) for collapsing at their work for stealing a potato.
Make a pretence of a court, and find them guilty. Strip them of their clothing.
Take them outside and require them to stand facing the designated wall. Avoid, at all costs, looking in to their eyes as you shoot them, for in some cases a splinter of dignity will have survived and such splinters can enter your body, get under your skin and even vodka will not ease the splinter out without infection being caused.
Make a list.
Observe symmetry. Keep order. Follow orders.
Order classical music played (many of these Juda are fine musicians.)
Inhale Beethoven.
Preserve your dignity. Root out the infection. Don’t look into their eyes. Drink vodka.
If you can – pray.
Rest assured: A person’s dignity will have been destroyed.
Pippa Marriott, Auschwitz/Birkenau, October 2014
CHRISTIAN UNION
Report by Nicola Raj (Year
10)
This year the Christian Union has been very busy helping a number of charities, from making up shoeboxes (Operation Christmas Child) and writing Christmas cards to prisoners of conscience (Amnesty International), to knitting squares for AIDS orphans in Africa and helping out the less fortunate closer to home (Chertsey Food Bank). One of the things that inspired us to help these charities was this verse from the Bible:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.
(James 1:27)
The Shoe Box Appeal was a great opportunity for everyone in the school to participate; we were able to help children from all around the world who can’t even afford to have one Christmas present. Students were able to help by filling a shoebox with small gifts, or just contributing a few items that could go into making a full shoebox. Junior CU helped us put the boxes together and wrap them up. We were able to give over 100 shoeboxes to Samaritan’s Purse and we raised money, to help pay for transporting the shoeboxes, by selling hot chocolate. This proved to be a great success – we ran out of hot chocolate!
Amnesty International, another charity we helped in the autumn term, supports people all round the world who have been unjustly persecuted due to gender, beliefs or ethnicity. One of the people we
wrote to was Liu Ping in China who is one of many activists that have been harassed or detained for their links with the New Citizen’s Movement, a peaceful network of activists that aims to promote government transparency, help the weak and expose corruption. Liu Ping has been sentenced to six and a half years in jail. By writing a Christmas card to Liu Ping we were able to show her that she is not alone.
we were
overwhelmed by how many people joined in to help
Knit a Square was the charity we supported in the spring term and we were overwhelmed by how many students, teachers, parents and grandparents joined in to help AIDS orphans in South Africa stay warm this winter. These young people live not only without the love of their
parents, but with a potentially life-threatening disease; because AIDS is an autoimmune disease, keeping warm helps their ability to stay well.
Together we knitted over 300 colourful squares (as well as some hats and scarves), which will be sewn together to make blankets once they reach South Africa. Many students and teachers learned how to knit for the first time and some Sixth Formers were known to continue with their knitting in form time! We raised the money for the postage by holding a pancake sale and cooking fresh pancakes ourselves in the HE Room at lunchtime.
At the time of writing we are just about to embark on our final project, helping Chertsey Food Bank with food boxes for families that can’t afford to feed their children during the summer holidays. We have had a very busy year in Senior CU and it has been good to put our faith into practice.
L IFE B EYOND SWPS
CONSTANZE BLACK
I left SWPS in 2010 and am now in my fifth and final year studying veterinary medicine at the Royal Veterinary College in London. SWPS gave me plenty of fond memories including choosing kitchen utensils as a theme for the Christmas dress up, and then running down the halls waving a wand dressed as Fairy Liquid!
Vet school has been a whole range of experiences: watching heart surgery, overnight shifts in the animal hospital, putting my hand up multiple cows’ bottoms, the tenseness of my first surgery; the list is endless! Diagnosing my first ultrasound pregnancy has to be my most fulfilling moment as a student vet – watching the little hearts flutter on the screen took my breath away!
My course has involved a lot of travelling around the country to get to the
placements I wanted. In the first two years, I learnt animal husbandry by spending time on dairy, pig and sheep farms, as well as at kennels and equestrian centres, and in the last three years I have spent time at various vets’ practices.
Trying to organise these placements reminded me a lot of trying to get work experience at school – a lot of phone calls and email follow ups to places and often no replies – but you’ve got to keep on persevering! Nothing should stop you achieving what you want, whether that’s about getting the right placement, something in school, or pursuing a sport you love. Where there is a will, there is a way!
I have a few months left before I graduate, and I can’t wait to start helping owners and their pets; pets are, so often now, an integral part of a family.
I hope to work in a small animal practice for a while, and then travel the world volunteering and working - vets are needed everywhere! I have a keen interest in ophthalmology, so I may one day become a vet eye specialist. I believe that if there’s something that makes you happy and you’re determined, there are no limits to how far you can reach!
life beyond swps
ENJOLI LISTON
“Girls! Giiiiiirls!!” When I think of my seven years at Perkins that sound overrides all others. Sometimes the teacher’s call would have a cheerful tone, but more often than not it was a precursor to a pained “You’re late” or “You mean you’ve forgotten your lab coats again?”
It became less frequent as I entered Sixth Form. At the time, I liked to think it was a sign that we were maturing; we were no longer girls, we were young women engaged in the mind-boggling task of planning our futures.
When I left SWPS in 2004, I chose to spend my next three years studying for a degree in English at Southampton University. I was fascinated by books, better at English than most other subjects, and I had a vague desire to write for a living someday. Naively, I had never set foot in Southampton before my mum dropped me, and my few earthly possessions, off at my hall of residence on the
Sunday before Freshers’ Week. I only had a few moments to panic before someone burst into my room, picked up my Spongebob Squarepants sheets and invited me to a toga party. What was that I was saying about maturing?
University, for me, was fantastic. My course allowed me the freedom to focus on post-modernist literature (my favourite), pick up an extra module in film, take a short course in Italian, and devote plenty of time to writing, mostly for my university newspaper. The best part was meeting new people and attempting new things almost everyday.
When I approached the end of university, I surprised myself with a coherent plan for the next two years of my life. With our savings, my friend Sally and I booked a round-theworld trip. For three months, we volunteered in Siem Reap in Cambodia as English tutors,
teaching kids who had been victims of trafficking. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it remains one of the most worthwhile things I have done.
“ ”
I surprised myself with a coherent plan for the next two years of my life!
We then spent the next five months travelling through Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore,
Right: Enjoli with the children at their Krusar Thmey (New Family) foster home in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2008
life beyond swps
Bali, Australia and New Zealand, all of which was better than I could have ever imagined.
Arriving back in Surrey was surreal, but it didn’t take too long to settle back in with my parents, who let me stay while I worked to restored my shattered finances for phase two of my plan – moving to London to start a Masters in journalism at Goldsmiths College.
The demands of the course were full on: 14-hour days, six days a week, and I had part-time work too. The combination was frazzling, but it helped me to plunge straight into working life.
I learnt the most from my 18 classmates, who helped me get the best from interviews, approach subjects that were out of my comfort zone, and much more. Controversially, we completed unpaid work experience placements to help us secure jobs. For a year after finishing at Goldsmiths, I freelanced for any magazine, website or newspaper that would pay me, and worked for free when I felt the opportunity was right. This approach landed me a fantastic (paid) job as editor of a magazine, website and YouTube channel supported by Barclays, aimed at helping university students to manage their
money better.
However, it had become my dream to work at a national newspaper, and six months later, when an opportunity came up on the world news desk at The Independent, I took it. Two weeks after I joined, the Arab Spring –one of the most important world events of our generation – kicked off. I’ve been hooked on world news ever since.
I worked hard, but I was also lucky. Within four years, I had been appointed Deputy Editor of the World News section at the age of 26, a level I had hoped to get to by 30.
In April 2014, it was time for a new challenge, and I moved to The Guardian to become Deputy Editor for World Networks, an exciting new section dedicated to in-depth coverage of underreported regions.
One of my favourite books remains one I picked up when I was at Southampton – Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. In it, there is a line that says, “There is eternity to blush in”. To me, it means you can spend your life being shy, but what’s the point? If I could speak to the 16 year-old me, I would tell her to believe in herself and don’t be so afraid of making mistakes. Oh, and go to more toga parties.
Behind the barricades during the anti-government protests in Kiev in 2014
Enjoli’s front page story on Ukraine with Christopher Miller in Kiev
life beyond swps
BETHANY BARRETT
I left Sir William Perkins’s in 2003 to further my educational journey into the wonderful world of medicine. I’d love to be able to say this journey is nearing its completion, but I still have some time (and some exams!) to go before this will be the case.
“ ”
I cannot remember a time when I did not want to be a doctor
My happiest times at SWPS were spent playing sport, although being on the short side did preclude me from reaching my full netballing potential! My favourite lessons were biology, English
and geography and our A-level trips to Malham Tarn and Willy Lotts Cottage in Flatford Mill were a particular highlight. Also, I cannot hear Bodyshakin (by 90s boy band 911) without cringing at the dance I performed with two friends in the school talent show in Year 7; luckily this event predated mobile phone cameras and YouTube!
I cannot remember a time when I did not want to be a doctor, and I feel lucky to have found my vocation so early in life. This ambition was supported by my teachers, and I was practically dragged to my B grade in A-level chemistry by Mr Staples and Dr Mason in order to gain my place at university. I studied medicine at King’s College London, graduating with Distinction; I spent an additional year studying for an Intercalated BSc in Anatomy, in which I gained a First.
During my time at university, I had the opportunity to travel. I went overlanding through East Africa, and I split my Medical Elective between the Himalayas and the Tamil Nadu regions of India. This love of travelling has stayed with me and I recently fulfilled my lifelong ambition to climb Mount
Kilimanjaro while on “holiday” from work.
Leaving university and becoming a responsible working adult was initially a terrifying prospect, but one that I felt prepared for, in part thanks to my time at SWPS. Being a doctor is a privilege and I feel I owe it to my patients to work my hardest for them. I am currently six years post-qualification, and approaching the end of my second year as a Specialist Registrar in Emergency Medicine. I have a further two years of training before I am a Consultant, but plan on extending this with sub-specialty training in Paediatric Emergency Medicine. I genuinely love my job – although don’t ask me to repeat that at 3.00am with a full Resus Room (resuscitation area) and a three-hour wait in the rest of the A&E Department! – and would thoroughly recommend this exciting, fast-paced and rewarding career to anyone.
life beyond swps
MAIA FJORD
Looking back at my time at SWPS, it doesn’t feel like very long ago, but it’s been five years already, and I’m 23 now. At school that seemed pretty old!
I’ve always been passionate about art and drawing – perhaps I was inspired by my grandmother, who was an illustrator – but when I started my AS-levels I wasn’t quite sure whether I wanted to work in a creative field or be a zoologist. AS-level biology convinced me that zoology wasn’t for me. So, I threw even more of my attention into art, and after I finished my A-levels I decided to do an Art Foundation course, as I wasn’t entirely sure which aspect of art I wanted to pursue as a career. Even though a Foundation Course probably isn’t
a necessity if you want to study an art/design subject at university, it’s still something I would recommend to anyone who isn’t sure what they want to do yet, as it lets you try out multiple artistic pathways before specialising in one. After I’d had a go at 3D design, animation, fine art, and fashion (that one was definitely not for me), I decided that illustration was what I really wanted to do.
One of the best things about the illustration course I ended up studying at AUB (Arts University Bournemouth) was the freedom it gave me to explore creatively; in fact, the entire first year of the degree was devoted to experimentation. The tutors encouraged everyone to leave their comfort zones and try new things. I think it’s because of that freedom that we had such a diverse range of styles in our degree show, including animation, 3D paper sculptures, print-making and the like.
very rewarding. It involves a lot of networking, self-promotion and trying to “put yourself out there”. The pay isn’t necessarily great in the beginning; I worked part-time selling stationary at Paperchase when I started freelancing. At the same time, I completed a three-month internship with the Association of Illustrators, and after that I volunteered at House of Illustration, a gallery in
I got to try a lot of different techniques and media during my degree, but it was only during my final year that I fell back in love with that old faithful: the simple, understated, but massively versatile pencil. My style moved away from realism and towards what it is now. I suppose it’s particularly suited to children’s illustration, although I don’t want to limit myself to just one thing. I colour most of my pencil drawings digitally using Adobe software.
When I left university, just over a year ago, I started working as a freelance illustrator. Although it’s not an easy road to go down, career-wise, I believe it’s ultimately
London, for one day a week. It kept me extremely busy; to make freelancing work with so many other commitments you have to be very self-motivated and hard working. I’ve worked on some things I’m pretty proud of, including a couple of projects for the children’s magazine Anorak.
I’m still illustrating freelance, but I’ve also recently started a new full-time job as Design Assistant in Bloomsbury’s children’s book design team. Bloomsbury is the publisher responsible for putting books such as Harry Potter, and authors such as Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, on the shelves. I only started at Bloomsbury on 1st June, but I’m massively enjoying my time there so far.
I’ve always loved books, and the experience of being able to work on a children’s book – seeing it through from an initial concept
to a finished product you can hold in your hands – is wonderful. I’m not sure what the future has in store for me, but I hope to continue being involved with children’s book design, and keep illustrating in my own time. It’s tough as it’s basically like having another job on top of a full-time one, but I’m too passionate about both things to give up either of them. One day, I’d love to illustrate a children’s book of my own and have someone publish it for me!
senior sixth 2015
Rachel Witney
Sammie
Thompson
Shivani
Alexandra
Caitlin Deasy
Robyn Harrison-Church
Sarah
Farago
Roberts
senior sixth 2015
Megan Black
Chloe Johnson
Ramneek
Chana
Shreeya Sivakumar
Georgina Derby
Alice Brown
Anna Koutas
Nicole Stevenson
Alana
John
Ellie Markham
Hattie McLeod
Dani
Sen
Alex Byard
Natasha Atkinson
Ellie Lane
DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S
What comes into your mind when you think of D of E?
Shambhavi Sharma and Rebecca Ackroyd (Lower 6th) do some exploring
AWARD
When I joined Bronze D of E, I thought it would be exciting, and it was. It tested my determination, commitment, team-work, and other key lifeskills while letting me participate in something I really enjoyed.
Here are some of the memories my friends and I have built from our expeditions:
ELLIE WARREN
I can still remember my friend’s experience: she wasn’t the fastest walker and hated mud. There was a moment when we were approximately an hour away from the campsite and we encountered a rather muddy stretch. The rest of us managed to get past it, but she stepped into the muddiest part. We heard an exasperated sigh from behind us; when we turned round we saw that one of her legs was knee deep in the mud and the other was sinking fast. She tried getting her foot out and in the process she lost her shoe and then fell over, head first, right into the mud.
She laughs about this story now.
IZZY SCOTT-EVANS
The second day of our expedition started perfectly: we were on time and navigating well, and none of us were being affected by our hay fever allergies. It felt good, but that didn’t last long.
We had to walk through a field of cows, which is extremely common in D of E, and now one of my friends couldn’t see properly because her hay fever had started and she was having a really
bad attack. As we were walking through the field we noticed a bull, and I think it perceived us as a threat because it started to chase us! It was the most traumatic experience of my life so far. With the heavy bags and muddy fields; running was definitely not easy, especially for my friend with hay fever. For those few moments I actually thought I was going to die, and thus had an adrenaline rush which helped me run very quickly across the field and over the gate.
ROSIE GLOVER
We heard from our assessors about the other group that had been chased by a bull. Although it was worrying, and funny, we shrugged off the thought of a bull chasing us. However, a few hours later we entered a field, and in the distance I saw a brown lump. I was extremely frightened; I was sure it was a bull that would chase me as I have ginger hair, which I was certain would act as a “red rag”. My friends and I walked very cautiously towards the lump in the distance while I hid behind them, only to eventually realise that it was a stack of hay!
ANYA SHAH
I did my Bronze a few years ago and though it was challenging at the time, I have the best memories from the two days I spent walking. On one of the days we got lost for five hours and were nearly reported as missing children! It was frightening and funny at the time! Okay, our group wasn’t the best at navigating, it definitely put our skills to the test, but getting lost for that long was really not our fault! Honestly!
The path we had to take was
blocked with boulders, so we assumed it wasn’t an option and spent ages just circling the area in the hope that our assessors would find us. Eventually, after hours of walking and laughing hysterically we decided to jump over the boulder and continue down that path.
If you ever see a path which could be the one, don’t wait five hours to take it!
SHAMBHAVI SHARMA
We reached our campsite five hours late and it was already very dark. Putting up our tent by torchlight was definitely a challenging task as it was only our second attempt at assembling a tent. Cooking dinner was also pretty tricky.
