Foreword Writing the foreword for another summer edition of the CTC College Magazine is also a reminder of how quickly we seem to reach the end point of an academic year. Or perhaps this is yet another sign of getting older! It certainly seems as though we have all moved from Student Induction in September to Summer A level and GCSE examinations in June remarkably quickly. As "bookends" of a year go, these two events are extremely apt in emphasising that the CTC journey - academic, social, personal and cultural - is a deliberately structured one but it is also one which allows for each individual student to develop their own strengths and qualities in a challenging yet supportive environment. In fact, I have observed this process again this year in so many different settings - lessons, student meetings, extracurricular activities, informal concerts and award ceremonies to name but a few. Through the efforts and dedication of both staff and students another year is ending with a sense of satisfaction that we have all worked hard to fulfil the goals and ambitions set out last autumn. With this in mind, I wish all CTC students a very successful examination period and look forward to celebrating your achievements with you later this summer. As for this latest edition of the College Magazine, I would like to congratulate everybody involved in it and to thank them for emphasising that for all our focus on studying and sitting examinations we also enjoy being part of a close-knit, friendly and international community. I hope you will enjoy reading this edition of the Magazine as much as I have and that you will show it to friends and family. Well done to the Magazine team and best wishes to all for the summer! Mr. Mario Di Clemente Principal
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BARCELONA!
By: Samson Piong & Cristian Urigiuc
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Attention students of CTC, to all of you who aren’t participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award, you are definitely missing out on something big! For those who haven’t got a clue as to what this is all about, the D of E award is given to an individual who completes a series of activities under 4 different sections, namely volunteering, skills, physical and expedition. The award can be done by anyone aged between 14 and 25. There are three different levels of the Award – Bronze, Silver and Gold. Here at CTC, the Bronze and Silver are offered, as the Gold Award requires a significantly longer period of time to complete. The Bronze Award requires 6 months, with an additional six months for Silver and a further twelve months for Gold. For the Bronze, you need to spend a minimum of 3 months on each aspect of the award, with a further 3 months on the volunteering, skills or physical section. As for the Silver, you need to do at least 6 months of volunteering and a minimum of 6 months on either physical or other skills and 3 further months in addition. So why is it so important you might ask? Candidates who excel in both academic and extra-curricular activities are the applicants who have the highest chance of obtaining a university offer. Having the award shows that you are a well-rounded individual and that you have the resilience and capability to handle tough situations. Hence, the D of E award is a great addition to any personal statement and will give you an added advantage over others who have the same grades but fall short on their extracurricular involvement. Volunteering is about getting involved with activities that benefit society and other people’s lives. One example would be the recent football tournament organised by the D of E students here at CTC, which was a huge success - the proceeds of £200 went to the charity, Save the Children. Cake sales are also another form of fundraising and the college organises at least 2 such sales per academic year. Participants are also required to take up a skill for 6 months. This might range from photography to cooking; it can also be an extra-curricular activity that is offered in college such as the debating or art club. The skills that you take up might be completely new or it might be working on a skill that you already know such as playing the guitar or the piano. Most importantly, you need to show a continued interest and progression throughout the period of time. The physical aspect of the award involves playing a sport for 6 months. For those who are participating in a college held activity such as badminton, tennis or football, that’s one aspect of the award covered already! Whether you are a beginner or a professional, the supervisor simply needs to see that you have made sustained progress. Expeditions are a nice getaway from the academic side of college life where you spend a weekend away in the wilds. Usually 3 expeditions are held each academic year and involve a variety of activities such as rock climbing, canoeing and team building exercises. Participants will camp outdoors, learn how to set up tents, prepare warm meals in the wild along with learning first-aid procedures such as treating minor burns and fractures; not forgetting to mention navigating in the wild with nothing more than a compass and a map. Teamwork is crucial for any expedition to be successful and it really helps to bring participants together. As you can see, the Duke of Edinburgh is indeed challenging; but this only makes accomplishing it all the more rewarding.
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Last November, the Geography AS class with Mrs. Gillett, spent a week in Suffolk at Flatford Mill Field Studies Centre, developing environmental field investigation skills, as required by Edexcel, Unit 2. The Mill was made famous by John Constable’s painting ‘The Haywain’ which hangs in the National Gallery. The whole area has been rebranded ‘Constable Country’, attracting lots of international tourists and much of it is owned by the National Trust. The girls stayed in Valley Farm, one of the oldest buildings in Britain and also painted by Constable in the 1820’s. Since 1946, the Mill has been one of the original Field Studies Centres in the U.K., attracting generations of students studying geography, biology and ecology. The Mill itself was built on top of the River Stour and we could hear the river running under the building. Our required syllabus topics were ‘Crowded Coasts’ and ‘Rebranding’. We got into a rhythm of early morning classroom teaching on the topic, gathering our equipment and driving to the field site for the day. We then returned to the classroom to conclude the investigation. We spent a windswept day creating beach profiles and studying sea defences against coastal erosion at Walton-on-the-Naze. At Harwich, we looked at the potential impact of a new container port. Ipswich Docks provided a location for urban waterfront rebranding. Rural rebranding in Suffolk was studied through local towns and villages. We became aware of the importance of local sustainability and the Transition town movement. To some students recently arrived in the U.K., this was an atmospheric introduction to the British landscape in early winter. The crumbling cliffs, and mists and fogs over the Essex Marshes explain why the area still attracts artists through the differing seasons. Flatford Mill remains popular with adult painting and photography groups as well as students studying the environment.
By Alison Gillett 7
By Sue Gin I woke up and could not remember what had happened to me as my head spun with dizziness. It was pitch-dark. I glanced around and got hold of anything within my reach. I pushed myself up from the cold, hard floor. A sudden shot of searing pain I felt in my stomach made me breathless. It must be the gastric pain again, I thought, no wonder I fell unconscious just now. Feeling as if someone had just jabbed me with a sword, I rubbed my tummy in an attempt to soothe the pain. I recalled my initial plan here in this mansion. My stomach growled repeatedly aloud, constantly reminding me to hurry up and get on with my plan. For God’s sake, another wrong room! There’s nothing valuable here, I thought. I took one last look at the room to make sure I had left no traces. I crept stealthily out of the room and ascended the grand staircase before my eyes. There was a pin-drop silence, everyone deep in slumber. I slipped into a seemingly larger room, once again, hoping that it would be the right one. I scanned the room to ensure no one was present. I held a torch light in my mouth and started searching for money or jewellery, anything at all that would help me survive. A beggar by day, a thief by night, I had survived so far, never once had I been caught. However, I was about to be proved wrong. I was holding onto a delicate flute when all of a sudden, the door crashed open. My eyes squinted at the sudden brightness and my head twisted towards the door. A tall silhouette came into view. I was struck with terror. My mouth involuntarily dropped the torch as the entire room lit up. A middle-aged man with long side-burns, dishevelled hair and dressed in pyjamas, was gawking at me wide-eyed from the door. He recovered from his shock before I did from mine and immediately took a step towards me. My head hung downwards, guilt washed over me. My ears turned beetroot as I prepared for the consequences. “Ah, you must be my master, Mr Case’s, nephew.” He informed me,” You’ll be returning from California. Welcome back. It must have been a tiring journey, I suppose. I am Bentley, Ben for short, one of the housekeepers of this property. Oh, and the flute you have there, belongs to me but if you like it, go ahead and take it. I don’t mind,” Bentley spoke softly, smiling. I was taken aback. Unsure as to how to react to such an unexpected situation, I muttered a word of appreciation and rushed out with his silver flute clutched securely in my hands. I ran towards where the exit seemed to be but stopped short when I saw a picture on the wall. It was Bentley in the picture, standing magnificently on stage with his flute. It was exactly the same flute I had with me. Bentley was no housekeeper. Not only did I realise he was a renowned flautist; he was also the owner of this mansion. I shuddered at the thought of there being no such person as Mr Case and hurried away. I returned home. My home was not warm and welcoming, but instead a cardboard bed under a bridge. I placed the flute carefully on my lap as I recalled the incident. A plethora of
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questions befuddled my mind as I wondered why Bentley had behaved in that way - letting me go after catching me red handed. Nevertheless I was grateful that Bentley had shown me a mercy and grace I had never encountered before. Tears welled up in my eyes as I tried to blink them back. For a long period of time, I had never wept, for there was nothing worthy of my tears. I remembered the never- ending discrimination I faced as a beggar. Ever since I had been orphaned, I had lived every day as if it were the last day of my life. The only meal I might have a day was scraps of food, and that only if I was lucky. More often than not, I was not given any leftovers at all. In turn, all I received was ignorance or a cold, hard stare. How cruel can the world be? How has it ever been fair to me? So, I pondered and realized my actions were embarrassingly reprehensible. What monster had I become? I was furious with myself. I decided to make myself useful, instead of taking advantage of other people, for that was the only reason why I had been given the gift of life. I took on many odd jobs like washing filthy toilets, cleaning rubbish dumps and sewers, laying tar on roads under the scorching heat, scrubbing rancid fuel tanks and so on. As long as these blue collar jobs paid, I did them all. I worked day and night. I knew very well I was not very dextrous and the prejudice I faced was considerable. Much to my relief, every cloud has a silver lining. I gradually was able to earn myself a living. My immediate goal was to get off the streets. So, I shifted to a low-cost apartment. I had refused to pawn the flute from the very day Bentley had given it to me, for it was priceless. One night, I leisurely played the flute until my eyelids were drooping with weariness. I fell face-first onto my bed and I was about to drift off when suddenly I was awoken by a rummaging noise from the room beside mine. My heart thudded against my chest violently. Thousands of unwanted images swirled in my mind. What if the person was a murderer? What should I do if he pointed a gun at me? Was my life going to end then? I could barely breathe as I broke into a cold sweat. Grabbing a broom stick along the way and clutching tightly onto a cordless phone, I mustered my courage and tip-toed towards the room. I realised that my precious flute was in it! I braced myself and sucked in a deep breath of air before I swung the door open and switched the lights on. I was about to strike the burglar but my broom stick stopped in mid-air when I saw a young boy with ragged clothes and dirt on his face standing across a table. His filthy hands were on my flute. My first instinct was to mercilessly march him to the police station but a flicker in his eyes made me look deeper. I saw pain and sorrow besides guilt and panic. It seemed familiar. I saw my old self in his eyes. It could be fate, I thought. Memories of Bentley flooded back. I cleared my throat and started speaking, “Hey there lil’ boy, you must be looking for Mr Kent. He lives on the sixth floor. Mr Kent is a wonderful flautist. I can see that you’re interested in flutes. Do you want to be a flautist too one day?” “Ye…ye…yes, ma…maybe,” the boy muttered, dumbfounded, unsure of what I was up to. I handed the flute over to him and off he ran, out of my apartment. I watched as he glanced backwards and counted. “Five floors. Only five floors.” He burst into tears, touched.
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Interviewing Mr.Morgan By: Zoe Kuok
Q: How many years have you been teaching in CTC? A: 8 years. Q: Have you been teaching in other colleges before CTC? A: Yes, a number of colleges. Q: Does the style of artwork in CTC vary from the colleges you’ve taught before? A: Interesting question. Hm… yes, because obviously students here are generally from different cultural backgrounds so they are bringing their ideas from what they’ve seen and any other influences and that gives a slightly different flavour to their art work. This is the same as your food which is different from English food. What you’ve seen also has a big impact on what you produce. Q: Since when did you find that you were interested in arts? A: Um… I remember when I was seven, I drew a rhinoceros and I also remember a time when my teacher gave me lots of praise and was amazed at what I produced. Ever since then, I thought I would be good at art. But like anything, it doesn’t matter what you are interested in, if you want to succeed, you just have to do a lot of work. Q: I was told that the poster in front of the stairs in Block D was drawn by you. Where did your inspiration come from? A: Well, it was one of a series about ‘escape’. As you get closer to your exams, you might want to run away, so it’s all about that feeling we all have occasionally, maybe escaping from our everyday world. So, that one was one of a series of people escaping to the countryside. But also, when you first look at it, it’s a figure climbing over a gate or a fence, but when you look on his left or his right there is in fact no fence! He’s taken the hardest path when he could actually have just walked around. Sometimes we choose a harder path than we really need to. Q: How do you spend your weekends? Do you go to art galleries? A: Well, my children take up a lot of my weekend, taking them to swimming or ballet but apart from that, yes, I go to an art gallery every weekend. Q: Are there any art galleries you can recommend to the students? A: Go and see the Light Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, near Waterloo. Q: If you had a chance to meet a famous artist such as Picasso or Leonardo da Vinci, who would you like to meet? A: If I could meet any artist, the one I would like to meet would be Rembrandt. A lot of famous artists have huge egos but everything went wrong for him in his later life: his wife died, his son died, nobody wanted to buy his paintings anymore: in fact a lot of his paintings were torn up. I’d like to meet him towards the end of his life, just to see what he had to say. I think he is a very good artist; I’m sure he knew it, but people at the time didn’t recognize his talent.
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Incredible India…..This is a slogan used by the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India. But what I witnessed was a great deal of ‘ordinary India’ and very grateful I am for having done so. I travelled exclusively in the Northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which occupies the flat eastern Ganges basin. Bihar is generally considered the poorest state in all India with low levels of development, literacy and infrastructure. My trip started in Varanasi which is the holy city on the river Ganges, famous for its long flights of stone steps at the Ghats along the waterfront (100 in all), where it is particularly auspicious to be cremated at one of Varanasi’s two burning ghats. I went there on a Tuesday morning and saw many people old and young, male and female, families and others bathing in the waters with more gathered round in festivity. I stopped by a chai wallah who turned out to be a holy man, a Sadhu, who poured me milky tea from a kettle made with freshly chopped ginger. Delightful! I offered him a McVitie’s biscuit but he declined (it was not a pure food so prohibited). In Varanasi I also visited Sarnath the site of Buddha’s first teaching after he gained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya some 250k to the east. As with many of Buddhist sites I visited on my travels what remains of this ancient religion are now ruins 2,600 years after Buddha lived on this earth. In Varanasi I had the delight to visit two charities one founded by an English lady, Linda Cooper, called Varanasi Welfare Foundation. Women from slums and other poor areas are helped to learn skills such as sewing, knitting and other handicrafts which can help them to support their family. The women and girls also learn basic literacy, numeracy and English. The centre also has computer facilities; so again equipping the
girls with access to modern technology to help increase their employment prospects. The other charity I visited was Varanasi Aashray for the Sick and Helpless Animals This was started up by Abha Singh and being financed from her own resources. With her staff she is caring for sick and injured dogs and also I met one monkey and a little pony on my visit. On my last day in India on my daily morning walk I came across a dog with what looked like a swollen front leg. Luckily I had a flyer with Abha’s mobile number on it and within 20 minutes the van had come to pick him up. He is now all plastered up and doing well I am glad to report. I met many Buddhist Pilgrimage Groups from Burma, China, Vietnam and Thailand with the most memorable encounter being lunch with 93 Thai Buddhist monks in Rajgir. I visited many sites and witnessed many sights and yes from a personal point of view the trip was worthwhile. The people I saw in the two rural states that I visited do seem to have tough, hard working lives. The farmers have back-breaking work as so much is done manually harvesting the crops, farmers minding their herd of buffalo in the searing heat of the Indian plains and the tuk tuk and taxi drivers constantly touting for the next fare. Yes, I saw begging, often in the elderly and among the physically disabled. The people though seemed resilient and just got on with things-what else to do? I didn’t go to the glamour tourist areas so I feel I saw the ‘real, normal India’. This part of India is poor but I hope it will develop over time and improve the lives of its inhabitants.
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I want to be a doctor – Help!
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At this stage, you will either receive a conditional offer or a rejection. Although you are rejected from one school, you still have a chance of getting an offer from an even better school so there’s nothing to be distressed about. If you have got a conditional offer, it’s now up to you to make your dreams come true and strive for the best as this is the chance thousands of people are aiming for every year, but many have failed to achieve. Due to great competition for getting into medical schools, several students decide to do a biomedical or a science degree first then try to apply for graduate medicine. Some have also decided to get into medical related careers which are as rewarding as medicine itself. There is a vast range of career options to choose, ranging from paramedics to clinical engineers. One of the A2 students, Kimberly, said, “At first, I was indecisive about my career choice as it will be an important decision for my future. I switched from Engineering to Law to Pharmacy. I have considered a lot of choices. However, during the summer holidays, I went for work experience and I felt that it helped me to make my decision. Not only would I be able to help patients, but I would have to undergo less stress and pressure.” Another student from A2 who has already received an offer for Biomedical Science from King’s College, London said, “Although my dream is to be a doctor one day, I felt my AS scores were not good enough to do Medicine so I have decided to do a bachelor degree in Biomedical Science. I will try to get into a graduate Medicine course after I have finished my BSc.
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Interviewers: Zhi Xiong Hu (Lenard) and Xinzhu Xiao (Shaw) Photos: Truong Duc Nguyen With help from: Mr. Cutting An interview with the Leader of Croydon Council, Councillor M. Fisher. We visited his offices in the Town Hall, to ask about the future of Croydon and to discuss the role of international students here.
How will the Croydon Regeneration Plan directly benefit international students that will study here in the future? Let’s talk about regeneration for a moment; you’ve touched upon the whole regeneration of East Croydon - you’ve got the site next to East Croydon, which we call the ‘Gateway site’. That’s got planning permission to build some residential, some office and some mixed retail. Firstly, it is important to note that the most important investment in this plan is the £1 billion investment by Westfield and Hammerson in terms of retail in the town centre. So what benefits has that got for international students; indeed, what benefits has that got for everybody in Croydon? Well, first of all, there will be a huge increase in the number of major retailers in Croydon once the plan is completed. Also, in terms of your leisure time, there will be cinemas, new food courts and restaurants opening. More importantly, this plan will kick start the local economy and we’ll see other companies moving in. We’re seeing huge interest in Croydon as a place to move to and to invest in. And that in itself brings opportunities for international students to move on from doing their A-levels into work, and into further and higher education, and in terms of work and being able to get work experience and being able to use their new contacts with those new firms that are moving in. This will provide greater opportunities not only for international students but also for the general population. I think we are on the brink of a really exciting time. Our inward investment team actually looks into how we can encourage international students to come to Croydon and study. This is all part of our plan to bring investment into the country and into Croydon in particular, and we are targeting various countries around the world to say: ‘we are a good place for education, for industry, for commerce, come to Croydon’. And there’re huge benefits to having international students coming into the UK, and then staying here and using their skills in the economy. 14
2..How will the Croydon Council counter the misconception by international students that Croydon is not a very 'safe' area in terms of personal safety? Before I start, I would like to explain the causes of these common misconceptions. Most people think about the town centre and come to the view that Croydon is 'unsafe'. But if you look at Croydon as a whole borough, the crime levels are low – in the lowest third in London. But, if you look at the town centre and the area just north of the town centre that we call the Inner North, there is a higher preponderance of crime in those areas; particularly street crime and muggings. So that skews the whole figures. However, I would like to give additional reassurance that the council has stepped up measures to further enhance Croydon’s safety. An additional 117 police officers have been promised to the borough by the Metropolitan Police, so we’ll be getting those in the next year or two. It’s also trying to give reassurance to people to say, actually, Croydon isn’t this crime-ridden place that you read about. The riots of 2011 did an enormous amount of damage to the image of the town, which made people believe that it is an unsafe place. It isn’t an unsafe place. We have good community relations, we have good policing and people should feel safe here. So we’re investing a lot of time and money in policing, we’re investing a lot of time and money in reassuring people.
3..Most of us will spend two years here so we are quite interested in the future of Croydon. Is there a plan to build or rebuild the shopping centre? Absolutely. Westfield and Hammerson, which are both world-wide global brands, will come together to spend a billion pounds redeveloping shopping on offer in Croydon. They will join Whitgift Centre and the Centrale, and redevelop the whole thing. We will consider all things together in order to develop the whole town centre. In fact, Croydon was the biggest retail destination outside of Oxford Street if we go back 30 years. By getting the Westfield and Hammerson development we will move back up the ranking table again, which is very important to us, because on the back of that, we can draw in other investments and attract other companies who want to come and be part of that new experience.
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Dark Matter: Real or Not? By Zhen-Yi Chan and Zi Koon Pong
Computer-generated image of dark matter's potential distribution
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So the search for dark matter lies deep in a subterranean chamber beneath the majestic Gran Sasso, an Italian mountain range where one of the biggest scientific marvels of the 21st century is embedded right in the heart of the mountain. 1,400 meters of rock overhead makes this the ideal place to detect one of the most elusive particles that scientists have been looking for. The surface of the Earth is continually bombarded by background radiation from cosmic rays which could interfere with the experiment especially when making sensitive measurements of sub-atomic particles. Despite their best efforts to keep these external sources of radiation at bay, some of them are generated from the surrounding rocks as well when uranium and thorium decay to form radon gas. Hence, the detectors are immersed in a huge tank of pure water which acts as a protective jacket from any external radioactive sources. As Professor Frank Calaprice put it, ‘we are putting one device inside another like a set of Russian dolls’. This is all done with the hope that we will have the greatest possible chance of encountering dark matter. Despite existing experiments yielding unpromising results, researchers feel that that dark matter does indeed exist, and they are now building even larger, more sensitive detectors. Lately, the sensitivity of detectors has doubled every two years and hence boosted confidence in the scientific community. One such example is the LUX detector, built in an abandoned gold mine in South Dakota, USA which is expected to come online this year. Future projects include PandaX and Lux-Zeplin which are equally ambitious. The PandaX is an unprecedented engineering marvel in itself - being the deepest dark matter seeking laboratory in the world. Now joining ongoing experiments in the United States, Japan and Italy is China. Beginning this year, scientists will begin collecting data from a tank containing 25 kg of xenon which would eventually scale up to a staggering 1 tonne by 2016. So why is there so much fuss about dark matter? According to Chamkaur Gaur, of University College London, it is quite simple: “There would (be) no Earth or humans if there had not been dark matter. Without these particles’ considerable mass, galaxies would not have been able to form in the early universe. As giant gas clouds formed after the big bang and started to rotate, they would have simply flown apart, like a conker when its string breaks, without the mass provided by dark matter. So galaxies would not have formed, nor stars, nor planets-nor life, had it not been for dark matter. We are here because dark matter holds our galaxy together. That is why we want to study it.”
Special thanks to Mr. G. Smith for his invaluable guidance and input into this article.
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By: Chan Zhen-Yi
During the 2012 summer holidays, Bryan Thor took up the challenge of being
an intern at one of Malaysia’s largest banks that has a legacy of almost 20 years. More specifically, he worked in the Corporate Finance Department which mainly suggests potential investment to customers promoting the growth of their company.
We all have a misconception that an intern’s job is to just to laze around
without doing much but just mainly observing. Well, we are wrong! According to Bryan, the company actually gives you work to do. The staff members were really helpful and willing to give advice when confronted. The thing is the
students had to be proactive in asking for jobs that they were capable of doing and would approach the bank members if in doubt. Because of Bryan’s positive
attitude, he was involved in the company’s project with F&N (one of Malaysia’s largest Food and Beverage Companies) and was able to contribute to the company. Although there were minor slips here and there, his immediate boss would cross-check his work before re-producing it. So, he learnt from his
mistakes and tried not to repeat them in the future, making him more “experienced”. When asked about what he gained from this, he responded that it helped him to have a deeper understanding of how the whole banking system actually
works. The work ethics of the bank involve high standards and require sacrifices from employees. What he meant by that was the long working hours from 9am to 5pm. Furthermore, if the work is not done on time, some might
need to burn the midnight oil. So, this experience tells us whether this job suits us or not and to know what to expect when we work for them permanently. It
also has helped him to choose the course that he wants in university. One important message to take away from this internship was that every single staff plays a role in the success of the company, no matter how small the position is. So, all in all, it wasn’t as intimidating as we may think it is. Choosing what we
want to do at university as well as our careers are not easy decisions as we do not want to regret it 10 years down the road. Internship helps us to understand the job that we are about to commit to for the rest of our lives better as well as to know if that is what we really want to do. On top of that, it
looks good on our personal statement as well as our CV. So what are you waiting for? Start searching for an internship now!
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By, Piong Chee Lin
Studying is just a part of our college life. From the academic to the extra-curricular, we students have to develop not only our knowledge but also our personalities and characters. We do so by joining various clubs and activities. Yet what do we really get from spending our precious time on such clubs? There are various clubs around the college: some with physical stimulation and others with mental stimulation. All of which is crucial to our development in life. But how does it affect us if we join the clubs around school? And what if I am an introvert? Well, only time can tell. If we do not try, we will never know. If we do not pursue, we will never achieve. And if we do not give ourselves a chance, we will forever be unsure of ourselves. Therefore, it would not hurt to try to open up and socialize. Do it at your own pace. All you have is time, right? Joining clubs not only helps us with our development but it also teaches us many useful skills, for instance, singing. Singing not only teaches us to master our voice, it also teaches us to listen and observe how the music flows. The rhythm of the music is what the Glee Club is for. Well, that is just the direct effect of it. What’s more vital is the indirect effect: we become more confident of ourselves and we learn to improve from our mistakes and accept what others see in us. However, that comes gradually as it does not affect us directly, compared to an activity like debating. Debating is just like arguing with your friend’s opinion or with a teacher about a question that you think you should have got correct, though debating takes it to a whole new level. There will be two parties: the proposition and the opposition. They are given a topic and are to battle it out by giving their view with facts and statistics to strengthen their appeal. The audiences decide which party they think is right and votes for it. In this scenario, the participants not only have to develop their self-confidence but also express what they feel is right. This helps us to speak with confidence, which in turn, enhances our public speech. Moreover, the fact that the participants have to give their view in front of an audience provides an incentive to put in extra effort. The result is more general knowledge gained by the participants as they spend time searching for evidence. Other than the above, the Chess Club also proves to be very beneficial. How? You may ask. A game of chess is not as simple as it seems. For those who have played it competitively, they will understand how baffling the game really is. In fact, it stimulates you to think further. Not just the immediate move, but all the possibilities of your opponent’s next move, devoting very careful thought to each move, calculating and predicting the probabilities of every counter-move and picking the best option. This helps us by enabling us to make quick decisions whenever we encounter an obstacle. In life, we will be faced with too many decisions; some of them have to be made instantaneously. Think that chess is a boring and pointless game? Well, think again. Now, what about sports? As we all know, sports can be quite fun and enjoyable, whether it is for general health, for developing your physique or a hobby. Sports are always good for you. However as the saying goes, “too much of a good thing is also a bad thing”. It is good to keep healthy and be active in sport, but if you over-exert yourself, it will lead to lifelong consequences. Keeping healthy is vital in our college life as we need to ensure that our body is well enough to carry out our daily activities. Sports can also help improve concentration in class as we have a healthy blood circulation. Sports such as badminton and tennis can also have an impact on us. It only takes us a couple of hours a week to keep healthy. If you want to just have fun and keep good general health, just join the badminton and tennis club. Have a few rounds with friends on the court and then go home.. Badminton and tennis build up our teamwork and coordination as well as discipline. We learn to work with our team members by developing each other’s roles in the game. There are just too many things to be said and done. There are many more clubs that the college has to offer. The best way to find out about each and every club is for you to explore and experience them for yourself. Why? Because we HAVE the opportunity to do so. Not only that, but our school also gives us that chance by offering so much with so little space, stretching the college’s resources to its limits. The friendships that are formed along the way are rewards in themselves.. That is why simply joining clubs can go a long way.
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If you decide to visit Estonia and its beautiful capital, Tallinn, you may decide to take a look at the Estonian language. Well, it is not an easy language to master being related to Finnish and Hungarian. It is an ancient land which was only converted to Christianity in 1208 when Pope Innocent 111 decided to send in crusaders to deal with the ‘pagans’. Until then the Estonians had worshipped the spirits of Nature and even today the Midsummer solstice remains the most important celebratory day in the country. It’s a real fun day so if you’re planning a visit, go in midsummer! Perhaps because of the country’s important strategic position – the Baltic to the west and Russia to the East – Estonia has often been occupied by other countries, including Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and the Soviet Union. After a chequered and often tragic history, Estonia finally regained its independence in 1991. Despite its small size, Estonia offers the visitor a varied landscape. It’s hard to believe there are over 1,500 lakes and more than half the country consists of forests. It boasts the highest point in the Baltics – Suur Munamagi or ‘Great Egg Hill’. If you enjoy singing, then Estonia is the place for you! Every five years the great singing festival, Laulupidu, gathers a choir of over 30,000 singers. They have a huge repertoire as the country boasts one of the biggest collections of folk songs in the world. The food of the country is closely related to Estonians’ love of gardens and the cultivation of trees and herbs. Make sure you sample the traditional black bread and the many conserves. If you over-indulge, you can always leap into a lake from one of the many saunas but be prepared for the contrast between the heat and the freezing water! The Arts are an important part of Estonian life and the composer Arvo Part is probably the most famous living Estonian. Like their capital, Estonians are a mixture of the old and the new. One thing that has not changed is the hospitality of the people. Why not try it out? By Amii Leppik
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Napoleon Bonaparte By Cristian Urigiuc
Napoleon Bonaparte was a man of great character, and of great intellect with an impressive ability on the battlefield. However, his personality proved a double -edged sword. He became arrogant after a row of victories, neglecting factors of tactical and strategic importance, as shown by his 1812 Russian campaign. This, together with his reluctance to innovate and an obsession with subduing all potential rivals, brought about his downfall. Most importantly, he merely streamlined the system, rather than developing it further. His favoured tactic was’ Manoeuvre in the Rear ‘, which was employed on 30 occasions in 15 years , culminating in his victory in late 1805 at Austerlitz. His best known reform was the shifting of focus in the army towards mobility and heavy cavalry. These would be used in outflanking the enemy and pushing them to an indefensible position, before sending heavy cavalry to finish off the opposing troops. Also , on more than one instance, French troops had been driven across vast distances , such as driving the main army corps from Bologna ( in Northern Italy ) to the Rhine and then to the Danube , near Wagram ( in Austria ) in a mere four days. Napoleon also benefited from the existing Republican army corps and their efficiency. These troops had volunteered rather than been conscripted, plus they were formed mostly of revolutionaries and commoners from the 1789 Revolution, rather than aristocrats. This meant that the generals were more responsive to Napoleon’s commands as well. Hence, the efficacy of French troops made him almost a legend in the eyes of the Army, which allowed him to win his troops’ loyalty to such an extent that they came to his aid in time of need. In 1797, when Napoleon was almost surrounded by Austrian troops, General Desaix came to his rescue and thus saved the soon to be Emperor, at the cost of the General’s life. In the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon got a confidence boost in 1798, yet managed to make enough enemies for the campaign to fail by 1801. Also, he chose to return to France in 1799 in order to seize political power. This allowed him to crown himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and soon King of Italy in 1805. Napoleon’s peak year was 1806. After that, the Imperial Guard became increasingly aristocratic and by 1807 almost one third of all troops were foreign. Another key year is 1809, when Napoleon’s first major defeat occurred, at Aspern-Essling as a result of his arrogance and lack of attention to the state of his troops. The attempt to create the Continental Blockade and the 1812 campaign particularly, put a drain on France’s resources to the point that soldiers fought half-heartedly. As the army’s morale plummeted and Napoleon made one of the worst strategic mistakes possible, that of underestimating the harshness of the Russian winter, so the years 1812 to 1813 brought about many defeats for the Empire. Moreover, Napoleon had been quite the adversary of innovation, as shown by his refusal to improve the light artillery, as well as by disregarding the potential rudimentary steamships and balloons carrying soldiers. Eventually, decreasing efficiency, tactical and strategic mistakes as well as the shortcomings of his personality, all led to his final defeat at Waterloo in 1814.
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By: NGUYEN Truong Duc Modern society has progressed to a level where it has become dangerous for one to venture out alone knowing that danger could potentially be lurking just around the corner. This article will provide you with personal safety tips that you may need. Firstly, lets consider street safety. Being out on the streets makes us highly vulnerable to all forms of crime, so be alert of your surroundings. First of all, you need to limit the amount of time you spend walking alone at night. Walking or jogging late at night is more dangerous, because fewer people are around. It is absolutely essential to plan your route in advance so you stick to main roads and well-lit pathways. If a suspicious looking stranger approaches you, cross the street and if someone touches or pushes you, try to move away quickly. In addition, don't carry a weapon – not only is it against the law, it can be used against you. Also, whenever possible, don't walk alone at night, bring someone to go with you and keep your head up and scan your surroundings as you walk alone. Refrain from using iPods and MP3 players while you are in public places, listening to music while you are walking distracts you from your surroundings and prevents you from hearing someone approaching you.
When it comes to home safety, there are two aspects to consider: when at home and when arriving home late. When you’re at home, the first thing you must do is to lock all doors. Use deadbolt locks and chains if possible. Never open the door to strangers unless you know them. When you need a repairman to go to your house to fix something, always ask him to show identification before letting them into your home. If you have a peephole look through it to see who is at the door before opening the door. And if you live in an apartment, don't be polite and hold the lobby door open for a stranger who has been waiting. If a stranger wants to use your phone for any kind of call from business to emergency, keep him out and make the call for them. Most importantly, if any situation escalates out of control - call the police. If you end up coming home late, the most important thing is enter your home through the front door, not the back door. If you arrive home and find your door open, don't go inside. Call the police from a pay phone or neighbor's house and ask them to meet you. In short, you always need to be alert and careful with everything around you. Stick to your gut feeling and always notify the authorities to any suspicious activity. Don’t provide the opportunity for crime to happen.
1) Do bunch your groups together. When groups are physically close, it radiates warmth and visually shows what groups should be like…close 2) Do coordinate clothing Before you meet with your group you should guide them in a wardrobe choice. Ultimately it is up to them and their group style to choose what they wear but simply reminding them to possibly overlap in a color scheme, avoid extreme colors, prints and logos on their clothing can make a big difference. 3) Shooting and shooting is OK for one or two people, but in a larger group it can be hit and miss and you may miss that one photo where everyone has their eyes open. With experience you learn to quickly scan across everyone’s eyes in an instant. 4) Try and be funny to get some genuine smiles A few cheesy jokes work surprisingly well to break the tension. A typical photographer joke might be saying “Ok, I need everyone to get in focus.” Or asking everyone to strike their best glamor pose. Other ways to get a smile is to get them doing something they don’t normally do. Have them try jumping, running, human pyramids or whatever comes to mind. 5) Do try and blur the background Choose the largest aperture setting you can, while still keeping everyone sharp. 6) Don’t forget to check ALL your basic camera settings before clicking away ISO (go as low as possible), Image Size (RAW, fine), Exposure Compensation, Metering etc. Of course in-door and outdoor settings will differ as will naturally lit an artificially lit. 7) Subjects tend to think they will fit into the picture better if they tilt and lower their heads. Don’t let your subjects tilt their heads into each other.
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CIFE President Baroness Perry presented CIFE prizes for outstanding achievement to four of our top students from 2012: Yulun Wang won an Andrew Osmond Maths award for excellence in Mathematics. She achieved four A* grades at A level and in Pure Mathematics and Further Mathematics she gained scores of 597/600 and 596/600 respectively. In her other subjects, Economics and Physics, she was awarded 374/400 and 562/600 respectively. Her academic achievements did not stop there. She won the Gold Award in each of the Senior Maths Challenge and Physics Olympiad, and in the Maths Olympiad she was awarded a Distinction. One of CTC’s best mathematicians in recent years, she accepted an offer from Imperial College, London, to read Mathematics.
Nat Phon-Or, from Thailand, is awarded a prize for excellence in Science. At CTC, he achieved A* grades in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, along with an A* grade in Mathematics. In Biology, he gained 536/600, in Chemistry 569/600 and in Physics 551/600. All four A levels were taken over 18 months. He achieved Gold in the Senior Maths Olympiad and was awarded a place at Sheffield University to study Plant Sciences.
Artjoms Iskovs won a prize for excellence in Science and Technology. He achieved A* grades in five subjects: Computing, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics and Russian and was the best performing A level student at CTC in 2011-2012. In Physics he achieved four perfect unit scores out of six and a Gold Award in the Olympiad. In Mathematics he was awarded a Distinction in the Olympiad and in Computing he was a finalist in the British Informatics Olympiad. Artjoms also made an excellent contribution to college life in his two years at CTC and was a driving force in the production of the very successful and popular Student Magazine. He is now reading Computer Science at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Nichola Kar Yee Wong received a CIFE College Prize for all-round contribution to college life. Nichola joined CTC in September 2010 on a two-year A level programme. Her level of effort, commitment, and performance were of an exceptionally high standard throughout her time at the College and she fully deserved the A*A A B grades in Mathematics, French, Italian and Law respectively that she achieved in the summer of 2012. She was, moreover, a dedicated student outside the classroom and made a splendid contribution to extra-curricular events. She is now studying Modern and Medieval Languages at Hughes Hall College, Cambridge, a fitting reward for this keen lover of languages and most conscientious of students.
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Clue: She grew up to become the principal’s right hand woman!
Clue: Although he teaches IELTS you may also find him at a history society presentation.
Clue: He went on to discover economics and the rest is history‌
Clue: After hanging up the saddle she is now one of the secretaries! By Pokua Addei
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C) Mr Torres D) Mrs Connick Answer: A) Mrs Beckett B) Mr Cutting
Ask us column By Radhika Patel
Q) Where is the nearest (but reasonably cheap) place to swim? A)New Addington Leisure Centre Purley Leisure Centre South Norwood Leisure Centre Thornton Heath Leisure Centre Waddon Leisure Centre You may go on the website www.fusion-lifestyle.com click on ‘directory’ then click on ‘browse by location’ scroll down and then click on Croydon and choose other activities as well as Swimming! Q) Is it true that CTC was initially intended for Cambridge Tutors College? (Hence the college’s name) If so, why was it intended to be that way? A) I suggest you refer to the book ‘Cambridge Tutors College. The first Fifty Years.’ that Mr Di Clemente had written or you could ask him this question yourself as he would have the perfect answer! Q) How do we find the best books for wider reading around our school subjects? A) If you need help finding books on the subjects you are currently learning, I suggest going to the library and talking to the librarian, she will help you find the books you are looking for. Q) Where can I eat chicken? Cheap and good! A) Nandos in Croydon is a bit more expensive but has good chicken, but if you’re looking for take away and cheap/reasonably priced chicken I suggest Morleys Fried Chicken, KCF or Peri Peri Original chicken! Q) Where is the best place to eat Korean or Japanese food? A) I suggest that you should go try out Cosmo! They make Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Thai, and Mongolian, Singaporean, Vietnamese and Indian types of food! Also there is a Japanese restaurant in Croydon called ‘Osushi’. Cosmo: Unit 6C, Hesterman Way Beddington Farm Rd Valley Leisure Park Croydon, CR0 4YATelephone: 020 86 800 800
Osushi: 47 South End Croydon CR0 1BF Telephone: 020 8681 1166
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