Editors in Chief Jocelyn Kwan, Meghana Mortier
Editors Ian Chen Shivani Patel Ruby Griffiths
May 22, 2015 Issue 51
Caution: Fresh Building Ian Chen has gone into the void
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concrete box.” While not everyone thinks along those lines, the phrase is one example of how students have come to admire their new workplace. As most of you will note, the old quadrant sampling field has been replaced over the span of the last year with this “concrete box” --a nice one with lots of perks—and few people are without comment. “Paint on the walls” may not be the most important thing, though it ranks number one on student wish lists. Many have pointed out the stark contrast between our new rainbow of cafeteria water jugs and the appetite-encouraging slate walls. The building is positively con-
temporary, though some paint would complement instead of jeopardize this. Our inquiries have not confirmed the possibility of a wall-borne vista and students remain hopeful that it is one step behind what will be a worthy gold and blue foyer. The second hotspot: the arduous walk to our science courses. Most don’t seem to appreciate the school’s subtle pitch at encouraging outdoors fresh air and exercise, instead focusing on shin splints, blisters, and other hazards of Chemin de la Grangette. First-world issues always spark our imagination, and calls for tunnels and sky bridges, or even a slide to our southern building are not unheard of. And of course, one mustn’t forget the concerning probability of being “rescued” by the business end of a car, particularly during exams. On that note, a number of unexpected challenges also besiege our faculty, not least of which is the shameless disregard for the welfare of our grass. The vigilant Mr. Nieuwhuis has noted the savages, myself included, that have strayed from the pavement to shorten the walk, leaving patches of dead grass and barren dirt outside our temporary school entrance. So do watch out, we wouldn’t want to become huns. Anyhow, there are many positive points for our faculty to measure their success by with the new lockers being a highlight. Students have gleefully sized up their friends in relation to locker volumes, concluding the space appropriate for packing an entire classmate –heads, toes, and all the rest. Nonetheless, human nature dictates that we
must always ask for more, something our Christine Geiger respects when disappointed at the inability of a locker to take two students onboard. Even so, our fellows know how to criticize while appreciating; Ms. Geiger would go on to applaud the artistic assembly of fire extinguishers in an empty room and petitions the school to retain it. Notwithstanding, we children aren’t the only ones around. It has been a long journey with ample “behind the scenes work” alongside our own teachers, in the words of Ms. Hannell, and our faculty stands proud. There are however a few issues with the building yet incomplete, with rumors of ventilation hazards. Mr Hunter reassures us that they are minor things, with bolted and immobilized tables in our labs leading the charge, second only to the faculty bathroom crisis: it is so cramped that with the sink, one cannot actually stand in front of the toilet. We can hardly be expected to settle when the building itself has yet to do so on the fresh dirt, though it would be unfair to say students are ungrateful. Ms. Hannell correctly reminds us that designers will design, though it is up to the users to make it their own, an advice we’ll follow. And as always, don’t get hit by a car for any test; it might not be worth it after a few minutes, or a few weeks depending on your math.
Illustration by Ian Chen
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The High and Mighty Jocelyn Kwan
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o, apparently… I’ve just become the new editor and chief of The High. I’ve been a part of the Student News and Media club for 3 years now. I started in Year 10, and have watched three sets of editors come and go: Lizzie Ride, Lily Johnson, and the famous duo of Johanna and Christine. And now, somehow, it has became my turn…? I started at the newspaper in the hope of not having to contribute any of my insecure written pieces of work, and only contributing illustration pieces to The High. Then, somehow, from there, I managed to take over the back page
Meghana Mortier
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am not here of my own accord. I was dragged into the newspaper room almost two years ago. Two weeks prior to my first step into the old technology room I had been sitting into Mr Ribas’s physics class. For those of you who don’t know, Mr Ribas has the uncanny ability to sniff out new candidates for newspaper. He mentioned the fact that the group meets every Thursday and told me to think about coming. I smiled politely and promptly dismissed the idea. That Thursday I walked past the technology room, realized that a newspaper meeting was in session, and rushed off before Mr Ribas could notice me from his strategic all-seeing position in the room. I thought that was the end of it. Evidently, fate had other plans.
comic section for every issue, knowing that people most often turn to the comics rather than actually reading anything in the newspaper (even in real newspapers, in general…). So a shout out to you if you’re reading this article you should join the newspaper (Totally no advertising going on here…) We have some big shoes to fill… Johanna’s “No shame” policy, where I would receive 3am Snapchats from her demanding my article, Her terrifying directness in addressing people. Or Christine’s obsessive compulsiveness to graphic design and layout. Her eye for micrometer difference in line spacing, or image placement. I’m going to need it all.
I have been to every single print night since year 11, and have seen it all: Running and laughing loudly through the dark empty halls at 12am, Late pizza nights and early morning distribution. It is worth the laughs and dark sides which people reveal as we work endlessly into the night. Now the real thing begins, and I have no choice but to join in the monthly insanity of print nights, but now with attached responsibility! (Pressure!!) I look forward to taking a new role in the newspaper and I hope I can fulfill the standards that Christine and Johanna have left for us. I am excited to get to know the newspaper family and I look forward to meeting some new recruits!
The next Thursday I was loitering in the corridors after school when in the corner of my eye I noticed a short figure walking towards me. A middle schooler? No. Jocelyn? No. Mr Ribas? Yes. I continued to stare at the floor, pleading that he wouldn’t notice me. Of course, he did. Ambling up with his eternally goofy smile he inquired as to whether I was doing anything important at the moment. I wasn’t. And so I entered the newspaper room for the first time. Confronted with a riotous group of students and a, very literally, down to earth teacher who presided over all the chaos, I realized that I’d be staying here for a long time. What followed has been immense amounts of procrastinating, staying at school till the late hours of the night, and the occasional midnight pizza feast. Strange things happen within the confines of the news-
paper room, and the walls have heard many things which I never thought I’d be laughing at while still in school at 10 pm, surrounded by 3 other late-night writers and the ever-present figure of Mr Ribas. But now Christine Geiger and Johanna Ohlsson are leaving and somehow Jocelyn and I have been chosen to move up into their places. And so I step up humbly, into the now empty space where they stood proudly and confidently. Their pride is something that I can equal; the pride for my school and the small group of misfits that operate quietly in the evenings to reveal everything that goes in it. Things might change around here – we already have a spectacular new masthead made by Ian Chen and Christine Geiger – but they’ll be changing for the better.
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Cross about Crossing Shivani Patel walks the walk and The obstacles around the school don’t make the journey any easier. The buildtalks the talkw
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he walk to the new building. Teachers hate it. Students hate it. Whether you have two giant textbooks or nothing at all, you can’t help but groan when you know the dreaded walk is about to come... For teachers, it means minutes cut off lessons because students are late. It might not seem like much, but it all adds up. Yet it seems that the science, music and drama departments are the only ones suffering. Teachers in the old building forget about where we have to go and rarely let us out early, sometimes even letting us out late. This is all costing us our education. The minutes lost could add up to entire lessons and we are the ones that have to suffer, with our teachers getting mad because we are late. On top of all of this, we have to endure shorter breaks and lunches just to ensure that we make it to our lessons on time. As an IB student, no one can fully understand the importance of what these breaks mean to us. In the long run, these breaks even make us concentrate better, making for happier teachers.
ing work means a two minute journey turns into a five minute journey. Plus, the carpark, which is much quicker route - especially if we are coming from the cafeteria - has been made a restricted area for us. This may be for our safety, but there are far fewer cars that enter and exit there during the day. In addition, we are all capable of crossing the road without needing someone to help us: we do it on public streets every day. Pick up and drop off times may be more hazardous, but if we don’t even get the opportunity to cross the road here, how will we ever learn in the real world? Having someone to help cross the road would not even benefit the primary students as they are constantly supervised by a teacher. The school is stopping these students from making decisions for themselves which they need to learn if they want to survive in the real world. Right now, the new building just seems to be putting everyone at a disadvantage; however, when the expansion is fully complete, I hope that all the little problems can be overcome.
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The Future is Back Edward Fraser wants a hoverboard. Now.
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n 1985, Back to the Future was born, which led to its sequel, Back to the Future II in 1989. In Back to the Future II, Marty McFly travels to October 21st, 2015 (the future at the time). They also made some pretty laughable (at the time), yet surprisingly realistic expectations for the future. Here’s a brief list of some of the great things that they actually had predicted correctly in the movie.
Self-lacing Shoes
In the movie, these self-lacing shoes were a very futuristic, not-so-stylish, (lazy) invention -- because who likes to actually tie their shoes anymore? Nike, who were the brand lucky enough to be featured on these shoes in the movie, have been pressured into actually making this happen. They have plans for this year to release a special Marty McFly lineup of self-lacing, light up shoes in light of the film. They claim the shoes are primarily for the elderly who may have trouble lacing their shoes,
but the sad truth is that we’re all just really lazy. You can see a side-by-side comparison of the two pairs of shoes, one being the shoes from a scene in the movie, and one being what Nike’s new shoes will look like. Back to the Future II got away with some pretty ugly looking shoes (hey, in their defense, it was the 80s), but unfortunately, Nike didn’t feel it was necessary to actually make the shoes look good. So, if you don’t mind the unflattering nature of these shoes, go ahead and buy them, but then again, there’s always velcro.
Video Calling Video calling was also briefly featured in the movie. Although I do have to say that Back to the Future may have had their expectations a little too high for the future. Because in their video call, everything ran smoothly, which still seems impossible to achieve today. Again, the product placement was strong in this scene, among almost every other scene in the movie, featuring AT&T as the company who ran the video calling service.
An Abundance of Fax Machines Today, we have quite an abundance of fax machines. In the movie, they were used as a futuristic method of communication, whereas now we have an abundance of messaging platforms instead like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, Skype, and the other thousand different ones too.
Google Glass Back to the Future didn’t necessarily predict Google Glass, but then again the internet wasn’t even around then either. They didn’t expect for all of the other features embedded within Google Glass, but they did have ideas about a pair of glasses that have the ability to make phone calls. And looking so much more stylish than Google Glass, who wouldn’t want a pair of glasses like these?
Phone Glasses I do have to admit that a lot of these inventions were simply made because companies were pressured into making these products real things after spending money on product placement in the movie itself (which there was a lot of). For those who don’t necessarily want to sport some fairly unflattering shoes or large phone glasses that you probably wouldn’t be able to see out of, you can always be festive on October 21st by following the predicted trends of 2015; wear your pockets inside out and stock up on irridescent hats and you’ll be set. Back to the Future II was a great movie and was definitely iconic. The predictions they made for the future were surprisingly accurate, but there are still a few inventions I’d like to see become realities, like the food hydrator that allows you to turn a pocket-sized pizza into a fully grown one.
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Stuco: The New Generation Paul Baroudi
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s the class of 2015 graduates, a big portion of the Student Council Executive Team leaves with them one of these members, Saskia Budgett leaves her position on the team as the Sports Officer, vacant. The position was fought over during the last Wacky Week elections, by many passionate sportspeople, but it was Jai Sinh of year twelve who came out on top as the new Sports Officer of the 2015-2016 school year. When interviewed about his newly appointed title for the upcoming year, he was enthusiastic to share his views on the Executive post, and what he would do with his time in it. When asked what his reason was behind the bid for the Sports Officer, he responded, “I decided to run for sports officer because currently sports have the main impact on my life (outside of school)”. He also stated that it would be a Student Council position in which he would “feel comfortable about my ability” in. Finally, he described the greatest motivation for the job to be “the thrill of being the person to announce match results over the intercom, I mean, who DOESN’T want to use that thing?” Another factor of his interview was what Jai is going to do with the position itself. He described his goals as some that needed to be reached. The first one was to, in the sense of a greatly expanded school; focus the budget
given on giving the school a greater range and number of recess and sports equipment, which he feels is lacking. The second of his goals, involved something that has not been properly done in the past by previous student council Sports Officers. This was to realize the “need for team captains to get some more attention” for their accomplishments with their teams. To finalize, Jai Sinh believes that his confidence and motivation will make him a suitable student for Sports Officer. Another Student Council Executive position that has been vacated is arguably the most popular, the President. This year, it was Charles Wilson of year twelve who was voted for it. His motivation came from the school itself, as he wanted “to give back to the school” that has given him so much, such as friends, mentors, and a family who, no matter how many friends left the school and the country, always stayed with him throughout his long stay at ISL. He also appreciated how the ISL teachers did not come to school for the sole purpose of teaching, but also to connect with and enjoy their jobs, teaching the student of the community. Seeing that as a motivation, Charles decided to run for president. Along with a few secondary goals, such as a dance-off between Mr Foley and Mr Kaddour, and an all-night ISL rave, his first priority goal is to create a stronger bond and better communication between the Student Council, and the students themselves. In order
to do this, another one of his goals for the 2015-2016 school year is to make executive meetings on Mondays, open to all students, to directly hear pitched ideas and really try to give them what they want. In addition, Charles also provided information of himself as a person, seen below. What color best describes you? Purple. What has been your favorite memory in ISL history? Well, seeing Mr Fazan singing and dancing to lady gaga is certainly up there. In rock paper & scissors which do you choose first and why? Paper because it always wins. In a heads and tails coin flip which would you choose, heads or tails, and why? Tails, cause tails never fails. In a heads and tails coins flip, if you could not choose tails, what would choose and why? Tails, because tails never fails. How do you think you died in your past life? Assassinated in Ford’s Theatre. What is your favorite quote? “Tails, cause tails never fails’ - Charles Wilson. Which political leader best reflects you? Zaphod Beeblebrox. To conclude, the 2015-2016 Student Council Executive team seems to be a strong one to make the students’ lives at ISL just that much more awesome.
... and the Even Newer Ones
Makar Smirnov
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fter I surveyed middle school student council, I found some information, which was about what they like would to have in ISL next year. First, I’ve surveyed Rashid, middle school president. That’s what he wants to change: “Hello everyone! I hope you all are looking for the next school year! As the middle school president, I am going to try to make ISL a better place to study in. I would like to give two things: have more events and make more people involved. What I mean by more events, that I would like to make more things to happened. Etc. more discos, more festivals… What I meant by having more involment, I want more people to
come to the parties. Also, I meant that there will be more stuff to help with. Like cleaning, serving and cooking. I think that this thing will be really easy to make. I hope that everyone will like my ideas, because they will be better for everyone! I think that they all will work properly and make the school a better place to live in.” What I got from what Rashid said, is that he wants to add more events, and make more people to come to them. Well, good luck, Rashid! Second and last middle school student was Micol, middle school vents officer. That’s what she told me: “Good day, students, parents and teachers! I would like to tell you how would I change the events we have and
the new events. In the short time I’ve got, I would like to make all the events fine and interesting. I want students to remember their school, to remember their events. What do I mean by fun; it is that I would make all the events like everyone like. I will survey students, what does a good party means for them. What I mean by remember; If the party would be like students like, they will like it! If they like something, they will remember it! I am really nervous about how everyone would react to that. I really like my new job as the sports officer. It is really awesome! I might change the school!” What I get is that soon our events will become interesting and fun! I am looking forward for that!
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Fashion Police: Spring Forward Camilla Lozinska-Brown has got a brand new badge
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s the days lengthen and the temperature rises, it is still the time of the year when the mornings are chilly enough to require a jacket, and the middle of the day is hot enough to bare one’s legs. The question which is often asked is: what does one wear at this time of year? Light jackets are an essential and these can range from denim jackets to bombers. Kimonos are also another indispensable item to a summer wardrobe; this item can glam up a simple outfit to give off tropical vibes. Kimonos can be easily and quite classily paired with a pair of denim shorts and simple coloured top (e.g. tank top; crop top). At this time of year, the weather can be quite unpredictable, ranging from sunny spells to heavy downpours. With the warmer weather, one can be tempted to wear roomier clothes: shift dresses are a good option and come in many different shapes and forms. Denim shift dresses are a utilitarian ar-
ticle that can be worn all year round if paired with the right bits and pieces. Although denim coloured dresses are less bound by the different seasons, a white one is perfect for summer. It can always be worn with an earthy coloured cardigan for chillier days. A statement piece of jewellery is nice at all times to smarten the outfit out, for example a pendant or a chunky necklace that can be found at Zara. Another example of roomie clothing is the boyfriend jean which normally makes the cut but as most fashion designers like to twist traditional items, most of these jeans are found with rips. ISL has recently banned ripped jeans for being ‘too scruffy’, but paired with the right top they can be made to look quite classy. For instance a white shirt
with a nipped in waist can do the trick. However, the same can never be said of bum-exposing shorts which never look chic in an urban environment. Unfortunately, these prove to be quite popular within certain years at ISL. Not all ripped jeans are as badly torn as boyfriend jeans. Another popular model are known to just have a single slit on the knees, which automatically creates an edgier vibe to any outfit, yet remains classy and suitable for a school environment. The Spring/Summer ’15 catwalks sported a lot of the delicate lace fabrics, and could be seen in haute couture fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Chloé and Valentino. This fabric adds quite a feminine touch to shirts, dresses, and shorts.
Don’t Spam for a Cause Conrad Grindheim has a big heart
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ecently there have been some E-Mails surfacing your inboxes about a website/ programme called “Tab for a Cause”. The website claims that every time you open up a new tab, their sponsors provide money that they then give to your favorite cause. How this works is that whenever you create a new tab, an ad opens up. The company that provided the ad gives money to Tab for a Cause because they have gained a potential new client. With that money, Tab for a Cause donates part of that money to Nepal, and the other part they keep themselves to be able to keep the programme alive. Furthermore, as you raise more money, your level increases, which increases the difficulty ratio (this does absolutely nothing), and you gain hearts. Hearts are used to donate
money to a cause of your choice (clean water etc.). Additionally, to make this charity more successful, the Tab for a Cause team added a feature that lets you share this charity with other people by sending a link, and every time a person clicks on that link, you obtain hearts. In addition, the more people signed into Tab for a Cause, the more money the company will make, and thus, being able to provide Nepal with more resources. In conclusion, I believe that Tab for a Cause is a good cause (pun intended), that has gotten a bad reputation due to the spam E-Mails sent by several students. Raising awareness of programmes like this is a good start towards the reconstruction of Nepal, but please don’t advertise this by sending E-Mails to the whole school.
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A Feast for your Ears Ruby Griffiths is the hottest ticket in town
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he 8:00 PM sunlight marks the start of summer. That and the multitude of upcoming music festivals. If you were lucky enough to purchase a Paleo ticket, I salute you (the only day worth going was Saturday, anyway). For those of you who have not been so fortunate, here are a bunch of festival suggestions. The first one is Montreux Jazz. I suggest steering away from the pop artists that are usually the first to sell-out and cost three times more than the other events. However, there is a surprising amount of obscure talent performing at Montreux. Many older artists, neglected by the youth that swarm the festival, come to Montreux Jazz after their years of fame to try new styles and genres. Last year, Van Morrison shared his 60’s glory of folk and blues. Other must-see artists include Mary J. Blige (not exactly lesser known, but great to see either way), Jamie XX (solo performer, also in indie band ‘The XX’ –interesting mix of electro and British garage), Portishead (alternative rock with electronica mix), Toto (classic 80’s rock/progressive rock), Foals (indie rock/alternative), Alt-j (alternative, indie), AaRON (indie pop), and Hiatus Kaiyote (White neo-soul).
Latitude Festival, Suffolk UK, is a music and arts festival featuring fantastic indie, rock, art rock, DJ’s, choirs, orchestras and other bizarrely wonderful music. Comedians Jason Manford and Alan Davis will be performing alongside others over the three-day weekend. They will be followed by outside theatre, dance productions on the lake, live multi-media performances, film screenings (including ‘Montage of Heck’!), art installations, live slam poetry (including Dr. John Cooper Clarke –Northern Poet legend who inspired Alex Turner to write music, Deanna Rodgers, i.e. UK poetry grand slam champion of 2008 –brilliant in her witty observations), and even story telling. Yes, it seems too good to be true. The only thing to be aware of is the lax security at Latitude festival… Even if indie rock isn’t your thing, go for poetry readings, and art film screenings. Be cultured. Other festivals that I recommend checking out include the Brighton festival, ‘The Great Escape’ (Kate Tempest, rapper and poet, will be performing); Glastonbury Festival (Patti Smith, The Foo Fighters, FKA Twigs, and THE WHO); and the Edinburgh Festival, ‘Fringe’, which has a massive variety of acts and music genres from classical to contemporary.
Your Festival Playlist
Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison Circles, Kate Tempest Hold the Line, TOTO Girl, Jamie XX Wandering Star, Portishead Hummer, Foals Breezeblocks, Alt-j Jekyll, Hiatus Kaiyote Black Dog’, robert plant and the sensational space shifters Where have all the flowers gone, Joan Baez J’reste quand même, Sianna Horses, Patti Smith
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Going Locko Jocelyn Kwan
Wordsearch: Exam Time Ludmilla Von Oppenheim and Chloe Rodriguez ANXIETY CALCULATOR GRADES MODERATOR PENCIL PRESSURE REVISION SLEEPLESS
STRESS STRUGGLE STUDY TEARS TICKTOCK TRAUMA WORK