Endeavour The CTC Magazine
News and Reviews Poetry Art Photos
Winter 2014
Contents Greetings from the Principal Message from the Student Committee ‘Get-to-know-you’ Dinner Halloween Party Awards Ceremony Prize Winners McCarthy Award Winners Remembrance Day National Poetry Day Poetry Competition Winners History Society October Informal Concert A Visit to Europe House Charity Book sale Sports Clubs Gavin Barwell MP Borough Market Student Art Gallery Poet’s Corner
Contributors Magazine Committee
3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 16 16 17 18 19
Yulia Promskaya
Guanting Lu
Andrei Gherasim
On the cover: Students
Student artwork by Haocheng Wu (front) Elena Grazia (back)
Haocheng Wu Idan Seyed Akhavan Fatimah Iman Mullah Alina Aliyeva Darius Tarbiat Eaint Phyu Sin Elena Grazia
Endeavour; The CTC Magazine, Cambridge Tutors College Water Tower Hill Croydon CR0 5SX www.ctc.ac.uk
Staff Mr Cutting Mr Houssen Mrs Bose Mr Eagers Mr Gibbs
Join the Magazine Team We are always looking for more contributors to write articles, take photos and help put together the magazine. If you are interested please see Mr Houssen in the Learning Resource Centre for more information.
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Introductions Greetings from the Principal
A message from the Magazine Committee Hello, dear readers. Welcome to the pages of Endeavour, the CTC Student Magazine. Working day and night, our small but hard-working team has finally produced this magazine that provides you with information about what's going on at our college and what people are interested in. Here you can find a range of articles for all tastes such as those about the Halloween Party 2014 organized by our wonderful outgoing Student Committee, the Europe House Conference on the UK and EU Parliaments that some of our politics students had the opportunity to attend, the Awards Ceremony for our graduated colleagues and many others. In addition, as a member of the new Student Committee, we promise that your time at CTC will be the time of your life with tonnes of enjoyment and will leave you with a lasting impression. Enjoy reading! Yulia Promskaya
As I write this there is, sadly, no snow lying deep and crisp and even outside to welcome Christmas, the end of term and the end of 2014. However to keep your spirits warm, may I commend this edition of the College’s magazine?! We still have over two weeks to go but I know our students and staff are looking forward to the Christmas break as the start of the term, and summer warmth, seems a long way away. The College is in good health. Our numbers this term were good and we are now closed for January entries. A real sense of purpose exudes CTC and many A2 students are eagerly awaiting news from their universities, not least from Oxbridge to see if they have been called for interview. We have a strong cohort this year and I know you will join me in wishing them every success. May I also take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and very best wishes for 2015. Mark Eagers Principal
This term, members of the CTC community have enjoyed spotting our liveried taxi driving around town! 3
We Like to Party! The ‘GET-TO-KNOW-YOU’ DINNER This year CTC's student committee has found another solution which helps new students to adapt more quickly to life at our college and start to experience the benefits of being a student more fully. We organized a "Get-To-Know-You" dinner in one of Croydon's Indian restaurants to push more than 20 new shy colleagues into a relaxed and friendly atmosphere of student life (with pretty much the same number of returning students). I interviewed some of them to see what they had found the best. “[The] Get to know [you] dinner was a fantastic chance to escape from exhaustive school days and to be plunged into [a] friendly atmosphere that was reigning in an Indian restaurant. The food and service were splendid and I greatly appreciated an opportunity to meet and talk to new students.” (Valeriya Pankova, returning A2 student) “On Friday, 19th of September, I went to the college's "get to know [you] dinner". It was fantastic! Besides the fact that there were a lot of new students who were very interesting to talk to, there also were many students from the second year with whom I had never chatted before. The food was not bad too. I think it was a very nice way to spend Friday evening.” (Pavel Novitskiy, returning AS student) “[The] 'Get to know [you]' dinner brought students from various countries, who have different cultures and beliefs, together. You would probably sit opposite someone you had never met before, and then just started from dialogues like ' How was your summer holiday?', 'What do you think about the college so far?'. When the dinner was finished, you went down the hill with your new friends, [and] the conversation kind of became ' You know once I kicked my little cousin's ass because she grabbed my chicken wing...' “ (Yeung Pok Nga Lau, new AS student) Report and photos by Yulia Promskaya
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We Like to Party! HALLOWEEN PARTY Monsters, zombies, witches around...That is not a horror movie, that is the CTC Halloween party! We brought all the strange creatures of our college together in the atmosphere of terror and fear, and... Fun! We caught a serial killer, stopped zombies from escaping from the grave and become vampires ourselves! In addition to all the competitions and games with prizes, a variety of pizzas, snacks and drinks was provided. And, of course, we had music and disco helping us to 'break the ice' for some of our shy monsters. That was a great way to spend Friday night before the halfterm holidays! By Yulia Promskaya Photos by Guanting Lu and Yulia Promskaya
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Celebrating Success CTC AWARDS CEREMONY 22nd November 2014 We welcome back to CTC our college alumni. This year the Cambridge Tutors’ Awards Ceremony took place for the first time ‘in-house’. Can you imagine our very own Test Hall, converted into a welcoming venue for the afternoon? What many students no doubt remember as a place of apprehension – a place to ponder countless hours of difficult exams and tests – was transformed by mood lighting and celebratory balloons. There were tables laid with tablecloths and serviettes, all decorated in tasteful white. I’m sure that returning students would have hardly recognised the place. The buffet was a vast spread of oriental-themed food, prepared with care and attention to detail. There were spring rolls and tasty sauces, duck pancakes and Thai green curry, among a range of other food, including sweets and desserts; all lovingly prepared by our resident chefs de la maison, Joe and his team. Our staff and the alumni were keen to try all the different types of food on offer. The chair of the Trust Council, Mr. Robin Worthington, started our proceedings with a speech outlining some of the differences that the students might find between a small CTC class, and the anonymous setting of a large university lecture theatre. He heartily congratulated our students on their achievements. Our principal, Mr. Mark Eagers, at his very first Awards ceremony, brings ‘fresh eyes…and a determination to make CTC a better place’, in his own words. CTC students will be ‘ambassadors to improve international relations’ as they move out into the world. Then came the main event: the awards and prize-giving stages of the afternoon. Our A-level students were awarded their certificates, and they wasted no time in coming up to collect them from our principal. The head of EFL, Dr. John Rodgers, then told a story about a shark in a swimming pool, which brought howls of delighted laughter from the audience. Perhaps in a previous life Dr. Rodgers was a stand-up comedian He certainly should get employment as a storyteller. By Mr. Cutting
Staff and alumni enjoying the ceremony. Photos by Mr. Gibbs 6
Celebrating Success Subject Prize Winners The individual subject prizes go to the following hard-working and extremely deserving students: Accounting: Khak Tuan NGUYEN Art: Le Gia Linh TRAN Biology: Yau Hui LIM Chemistry: Qing Yu KWOK Economics: Thuy Dung NGUYEN EFL: Xinzhu XIAO English Literature: Pokua ADDEI French: Cristian URIGIUC Further Maths: Zi Koon PONG and Le Gia Linh TRAN Government & Politics: Torgyn SUZHANOVA History: Amii LEPPIK ICT: Edward GOMBERG Mathematics: Vanessa CHONG Physics: Zi Kon PONG Pure Maths: He JIANG Statistics: Yau Hui LIM
Extra-Curricular Awards And the awards for extra-curricular activities went to the following students:
Outstanding Contribution to College Life: Chee Lin Piong (‘Samson’), who took the award for his service on the Student Committee for two terms, and for the formation of the College Summer Ball committee, which helped to make this year’s event such a resounding success.
Sports Prize Winners Football: Player of the Year - William Chong Kar Jue Basketball: Player of the year - Yuxiang LIU
College Magazine: Cristian URIGIUC, for all-round contribution
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Celebrating Success McCarthy Award Winners The McCarthy Awards, given to students achieving at least two A* grades at A-level, were awarded to (16 students were in fact eligible for the award, which made the choice of winners difficult):
1.
Le Gia Linh Tran
2.
Zi Koon Pong
3.
Ying Xi Tan
4.
Tze Ho Elden Tse
5.
Thanh Thanh An Do
6.
Vanessa Chong
7.
Arisa Roongjirarat
8.
Linh Trang Nguyen
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Zhen Yi Chan
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Yau Hui Lim
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Khak Tuan Nguyen
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Lip Yee Kuok
13.
Yu Pei
14.
Chengjiu Liu
15.
Chen Xu
16.
He Jiang
Two of our 2014 alumni, Yu Pei (Jess) and Zi Koon, made short speeches about their time at CTC, and thanked the tutors for their great support and for never giving up on them. Zi Koon told the story of his arrival to Croydon in January 2013, deciding to make the ill-advised decision to walk from East Croydon station to Sanderstead to his host family, trudging through the snow with a huge amount of luggage. What a welcome to this country! He reminded us also how close-knit the CTC community is, and how international and welcoming. In his closing address, Mr. Eagers spoke of all the ‘wellmotivated, aspirational and courteous students’ in our 2014 year. Looking to the future, he mentioned his hopes for the further development of the college, and said that he hopes that when the students return to CTC at any time in the future, there will be many exciting changes that they will see.
Congratulations to all our alumni of 2014!
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College Life Remembrance Day It is astonishing to think that this year, 2014, marks the centenary of one the bloodiest conflicts in human history which changed the shape of the world forever. It was the first truly global conflict, the first Total War and its ending merely set the stage for round two. Some say this started in 1936 with the Spanish Civil War; those in China would say it began in 1937 when Japan invaded them; for western Europe, and Empire nations, it was 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland; for Russia it was June 1941; and for the USA, war began in December of that year.
the war, supposedly Over By Christmas, lasted for over four long and very bloody years. There are many extraordinary features of the war. However one that never ceases to amaze me is the bravery of the soldiers at the Front executing the impoverishment of ideas of their leaders: heavy bombardment and then Over The Top running in No Man’s Land over churned up land onto and over barbed wire in the teeth of machine gun fire. Casualties were simply appalling and unimaginable. Consider the Emirates stadium, home to Arsenal FC, filled with 60,000 fans to watch a game: it was this number who were killed/wounded on 1st July 1916 on the British side alone. The slaughter was terrible. The figures become almost meaningless; but we do not forget.
This year a key memory for me to mark the start of the Great War was the magnificent, moving, display of poppies at the Tower of London. Over 860,000 ceramic poppies were planted in memory of all the Commonwealth lives lost in the war; millions came to see it and pay their respects. It was a wonderful idea, beautifully executed. And rightly so.
It is right that we stop to think, to be quiet, to remember on 11th November. At a precise moment in history, at 11a.m., on this day in 1918, the guns fell silent. Sadly the peace settlement was such that another conflict was made more likely. As Foch said about the peace: this is not peace: it is an armistice for twenty years. How right he was.
The war was triggered by the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalist, Gavril Princip. The Austrians blamed the Serbs and having secured the unconditional backing from Germany (the infamous “blank cheque”), issued an ultimatum to Serbia which was unacceptable. Through the complex system of alliances that existed, Russia back Serbia, France backed Russia… and Germany had a Plan to deal with it all. Britain remained aloof until Germany invaded neutral Belgium, and
By Mr. Eagers Photo (showing the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London ) by Guanting Lu
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College Life
National Poetry Day 2014 This year’s National Poetry Day was held on Thursday 2nd October. We marked the event at Cambridge Tutors with some wall displays in the library, and with a lunchtime event, where students and tutors read out favourite poems, or poems that they had written themselves. The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day was ‘Memory’. It could be argued that all poetry is in some way connected to the idea of memory. Poets often attempt to capture and to recreate precious moments from their own past, or from an imagined one. Wordsworth, one of our greatest poets in the English language, wrote that he defined poetry as ‘emotion recollected in tranquility’. And one of Philip Larkin’s poems has the title ‘I Remember’. Poets are strongly preoccupied by the theme of memory, therefore. By putting their own recollections into verse, therefore, could we say that poets are trying to preserve a memory of a person, or a place, or an emotion? But in examining our own memories, we know that they are far from perfect, and may be distorted by time, or idealised. Here are two poems with the theme of memory that I like. In this poem, written in 1862, Christina Rossetti looks forward to a time when someone else will remember her: Remember Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you planned: Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray. Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad. Taken from: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ poem/174266 [Last Accessed: Nov 2014]
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College Life National Poetry Day 2014 Here is another poem by from 1918 where the theme of memory is prominent and affecting:
second half of the century, poetry learning became deeply unfashionable within education – the baby thrown out with the rote-learning bathwater. And yet, many people do still know a poem or two, for all sorts of reasons. So that’s what we’d like to know: what are the poems that live in people’s memories, at this moment, in October 2014? What poem or poems beat most strongly at the heart of the nation?” (Pullinger, 2014: www.poetryandmemory.com)
Piano Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
Among our tutors and staff, popular choices of memorised poems were ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by the First World War poet Wilfred Owen, and parts of Tennyson’s great elegy for his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, ‘In Memoriam’.
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
The library event was attended by our principal, Mr. Eagers, as well as by some of our tutors: Dr. Oliphant, Ms. Sandhu, Ms. Krey, Dr. Farrelly, and by Ms. Bose. Students from Mrs. Das Gupta’s GCSE and A-level English Literature classes had written poems on the theme, and we were able to hear these poems read out. Mr. Eagers spent time looking at all of the poems that were entered into our very own poetry competition. Although it was a difficult decision, he finally chose two winning entries: poems by A-level student Fatima Mullah, and by GCSE student Idan Akhavan. Each received a fabulous Amazon book token to spend as they wished!
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Thank to you all concerned, who helped the event come to life; especially to the students who submitted their work, and to those who read aloud at our Poetry Day event.
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. DH Lawrence
You can read more about the Cambridge university project and hear people talking about their most memorable poems at:
Taken from: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/ piano.html [Last Accessed Nov 2014]
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/project-seeks-nationsmost-memorised-poems-to-investigate-power-of-poetry-byheart[Last accessed: Nov 2014]
In the weeks before National Poetry Day, one of our librarians, Ms. Bose asked tutors at the college which poems they most remembered, or indeed had memorised. There were a number of responses. Depending on when they were at school, tutors may have had to memorise poetry as part of their literature classes. When I was at school, however, we weren’t required to learn any poetry by heart. I think that this is a shame. Cambridge University recently conducted research, as part of National Poetry Day, to find out which were the most memorable poems for the nation. The lead researcher of the project, Dr. D. Pullinger had this to say: “Had we been doing this research a hundred or even fifty years ago, the results would have been more predictable. Up until 1944, children memorised ‘staple poems’. But in the
By Mr. Cutting
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College Life National Poetry Day 2014—Our Winners! Winner—GCSE Category
Winner—A Level Category
Idan Seyed Akhavan
Fatimah Iman Mullah
Remember when we hung out
I remember a child who once existed; An unfortunate victim of Aphrodite; Equally loved and physically devoured her other half as if no other existed; Naïve and gullible—almost willing to be deceived by his lies; Innocence and youth trickled from the depths of her eyes; And he loved her for all she had to offer.
In the parks to play Where we would chat about Repeating it every day
As we bonded more closely We would treat each other Like siblings only From one day to another
Remember when we looked Towards the future Finding ourselves hooked With feelings of laughter
Now you have gone Moving on with your life To clearly be done With stress in your life
But then life happened; and things changed. He became a stranger to her – distant and unkind; cold and unfeeling. I remember her utter confusion so well: almost as if it belonged to me. ‘Where had things gone wrong?’ she wondered. Each and every night she would cry herself to sleep; Days turned into weeks and weeks into months; And before she knew it—her childhood was overGone with the night breezes. And finally Truth revealed herself; A child who depended wholeheartedly on you, Who trusted and clung to your every word—was now broken. I remember that child; that child no longer exists. For experience snatched the little existing innocence and sanity she had left. And in the place of the pre-existing youth and innocence she once possessed, tears now trickled. I wept for her, as what she called life became a memory. Every touch, every word, every kiss. And all she could bring herself to whisper were the words ‘I remember— I remember’.
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College Life Clubs and Societies History Society- Kaiser Wilhelm II’s trial
History Society-Stalin’s trial
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It is the 24th of November and the History Society club has prepared yet another interesting event for us. The trial of Joseph Stalin or as we all like to call him, Uncle Joe. We had the pleasure of inviting our principal, Mr. Mark Eagers, once again to play the role of the villain and he eagerly accepted.
On the 30 of September, the History Society club at CTC prepared an interesting event. The trial of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Naturally the Club prepared prosecuting and defending lawyers and a court to pass the judgment upon our friend the Kaiser, which was impersonated by none other than our principal Mr. Mark Eagers! Kaiser Wilhelm was accused of genocide and treason against his country in the First World War alongside the violation of international laws during the war.
This time, I was chosen to take on the role of the prosecuting lawyer at the risk of losing my own life for going against our comrade Stalin. It was easy to see that the prosecution had an easier job then the defence as Stalin committed quite a lot of atrocities. Therefore I accused comrade Stalin of genocide, destruction of the Russian economy and sabotage of the armed forces during the 2nd World War. However, even if there was plenty of reasons to accuse Stalin, there were even less to defend him and in my opinion I had an easier job as prosecutor as I would have had as a defendant.
Alex was elected as the prosecuting lawyer. He was tasked with convicting Kaiser Wilhelm II and to convince the jury that our friend the Kaiser is not innocent. On the other hand, Phuong was chosen as the defending lawyer and had a hard time in defending the Kaiser. Both the defence and the prosecuting bodies did a wonderful job, but in the end it all came to the decision of the jury, which was under the direction of our History Teacher: Mr. John Oliphant.
Bea was chosen as the defending lawyer. She defended Mr. Stalin extremely well with some minor help from the accused himself. Their argument was that Stalin did everything he had done in the interests of Russia and that executing the so called ‘’Enemies of the People’’ was necessary.
The decision of the jury was that Kaiser Wilhelm II was found guilty of genocide and the violation of international laws, but it was seen that he did what he could in the interests of Germany. In conclusion, we had a great lunchtime where we looked back in history and confronted an interesting topic with our fellow students and teachers.
However, as you all know it all comes down to the decision of the jury. Not very surprising, comrade Stalin was found guilty of all of the above and he was sent to the firing squad. Ouch!
By Andrei Gherasim
This time the room of the club was filled up even more then last time and lots of people found the trial interesting and entertaining. As a member of the club myself I invite you to take part in our events every Monday lunchtime and we promise you, that you will have fun. By Andrei Gherasim
End of term Badminton Tournament
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College Life On 22nd October the Staff and Student Choir gathered to perform an informal concert.
Thu Binh Pham
Minh Thu Vu
Above left: Amirah Chairil (flute); Khuong Duy Nguyen and Mr. Cook (violin)
Above right: Lingyun Qian
The staff and student choir in full voice, led by Mr. Wilkins
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College Life A Visit to Europe House
We heard lots of information about the EU; its structure and governance, the EU Council and EU Commission The speakers were energetic and passionate about their subjects, and there were a number of intelligent questions from the students participating.
In the current UK and Europe-wide political debate, the following questions are arguably on many people’s lips: What does the EU do? Should the UK stay within the European Union? How democratic is the UK parliament? How democratic is the European parliament? How many countries are there in the EU? How many countries want to join the EU? …and these were some of the questions that we were interested in discussing as well. Mr. O’Dwyer (Government and Politics tutor), and Mr. Cutting (EFL and Study Skills tutor), took a number of AS and A2 Politics students to the European Parliament UK Office in Smith Square this November, for a conference arranged as part of Parliament Week, and arranged by TEAM (The European Atlantic Movement), bringing together sixth-formers from all over London and further afield, to discuss the topic:
After lunch, students discussed in their groups, and then presented on some aspect of UK democracy. Not surprisingly, considering the age of the participants, there were presentations on whether the UK voting age should be lowered to 16, as well as whether UK democracy would be best served by an EU exit. It was inspiring to hear so many young people with an informed interest in the politics of this country. Our students had an invaluable opportunity to meet colleagues and to discuss ideas in groups. I think they found the experience very rewarding, and we all came away with a greater passion and knowledge of the EU and the UK’s role within it.
‘How well is democracy served by the UK and European parliaments?’ The conference was led by TEAM Chairman, Lawrence Smy, and participants came from a wide range of backgrounds. We even met a group of students all the way from Singapore, in London for a cultural experience. We hope they got one!
By Mr. Cutting
We arrived in time for the morning session, which consisted of a series of short presentations by experts such as Dr. Marion Ferrat, a Committee Specialist at the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee in the House of Commons, and Chris Terry, Research Officer for the Electoral Reform society (ERS). We learned about the role of select committees in parliament, and whether an alternative voting system would be more democratic for the UK. CTC students were mixed in with other groups, and so had the opportunity to discuss questions with peers from other schools and sixth-form colleges. There were differences of opinion, and plenty of opportunities to debate the topics.
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College Life The Learning Resource Centre Book Sale
Gavin Barwell MP for Croydon
Mr Barwell took time out of his busy schedule to give a lively and informative talk to a group of students on the UK Parliamentary System and in particular the role of a Whip.
In late September the newly reorganised and renamed Learning Resource Centre hosted a book sale to support Readathon and Book Aid International. Students and staff had the opportunity to purchase used books that had been withdrawn from the library collection, as well as other books that had been donated by staff and departing students. The total raised this time was ÂŁ52.50. After adding the amount raised at the previous book sale that took place towards the end of the summer term the community at CTC raised a grand total of ÂŁ169.50. The Librarians would like to thank all students and staff for raising such a great amount of money for good causes, and hope to see you at the next LRC charity event.
He fielded questions on a range of issues including the impact of UKIP, policies of the Conservative Party, the issue of the European Union, the possible result of the 2015 Election and finally local issues concerning Croydon such as transport zoning and road safety.
For more information on Readathon and Book Aid International, and to see how your donations are being put to use, visit the following websites: http://www.readathon.org/ http://www.bookaid.org/
College Sports Clubs A variety of sporting clubs and societies are on offer at CTC, including Badminton, Football, Volleyball Streetdance , Basketball, Tennis, Golf, Fitness Club and Table Tennis. Here are the Volleyball Club and the Badminton Club in action.
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Photography Feature Borough Market A2 student Guanting Lu visited Borough Market in London this term. Here are some of his favourite images.
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Student Art Gallery
Brighton (inspired by Turner) by Alina Aliyeva
Self Portrait by Darius Tarbiat
Inside Outside by Haocheng Wu 18
A commentary on my poem, To the unavoidable day: That night was calm and the world outside my window was glowing faintly. There I was, all alone in my room, gathering the strategies and the weapons of knowledge to be prepared to fight the big battle – IGCSE exams. A moment later, I became emotional when I thought about my future after the exam. At that time, I knew I could not study anymore so I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen to write down about how I felt inside. The background of this poem is the beautiful bay in the late evening during the summertime. In this poem, I imagined myself as a girl wondering about her future when she spends her private moments at her favourite place – the bay. She loves the idea of being together all the time with people she loves. In fact, it hurts her to realize that not much time is left to be with her cherished parents. In her heart, she always knows that someday, she would have to leave the ones she adores in order to achieve her special dream. Nevertheless, she knows it is impossible to have everything she wants. So, she tries to keep herself motivated and not to be sorrowful because she knows that she would have to face it any way though she is unwilling to do so. by Eaint Phyu Sin
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