Cheng (Y11, Ward) played their cello and violin among the professionals and performed the challenging accompaniment at short notice. The musicians handled the demanding work as a team, and their performance under pressure in an unfamiliar environment was clear for all to see (and hear).
“Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.”
Harrolympics
by Nia Milenova (Year 13, Ward)
On Wednesday 9th March, Harrow Hong Kong’s Prefect team hosted the first ever Harrolympics, in which students from Years 8-13 participated in a variety of sports ranging from Tug of War, Dodgeball, Capture the Flag and a three-legged race. Behind the scenes, frantic Prefects were organizing the assortment of activities, working to coordinate all of the students in their teams efficiently. Nevertheless, as the games commenced, the chatter and chants of students demonstrated the vivacious spirit of the event, both on the field and from supporters on the sidelines. With the aim of integrating and introducing Year 8 students into the Senior School, the oldest Prep School students were allocated a Senior House to represent. Indeed, Year 8 students were quick to take ownership of their role in their allocated Senior Houses to become valuable and dedicated team members. Whilst enthusiasm and participation levels were high amongst all the Houses, Smith and Cale came through as the 2016 Harrolympics victors. Judging by the success of the event, students like myself are keen for the continuation of such entertaining schoolwide competitions.
The World Scholar’s Cup by Madeleine Duperouzel (Year 13, Ward)
On the 5th and 6th of March, twelve students from Harrow Hong Kong participated in the World Scholar’s Cup at Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School. This thrilling and challenging event is designed to test students’ knowledge in six different areas – Science, History, Social Studies, Arts and Literature, Music, and a “Special Area” which this year was themed around “Crime and Justice”. This all relates back to one key theme that encompasses the others – “An Imperfect World”. Students were expected to debate, write, and be quizzed about these different areas. The focus was on teamwork, collaboration, and understanding better the links
between different topics, and how we can find solutions to fix our “imperfect” world. Overall each team from Harrow Hong Kong scored extremely well, all qualifying for the ‘global rounds’ held this year in Bangkok and Prague. Due to unfortunate timing, the teams will most likely be unable to attend. However, the knowledge that we had qualified was highly rewarding and made us appreciate our own talents and skills. There were some particular highlights in the Scholar’s bowl (a team quiz) where one of the teams scored over 20,000 points. We also scored particularly well in the writing and debates, with a team from the School placed third overall in both categories. Our ability to work together cohesively and bounce ideas off of one another was a key reflection of the School’s leadership attributes, and I fully believe these helped ensure our successes on the day. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the final debate, which showcased the best debaters, posing the question: “Is Hong Kong becoming more imperfect?” Being on the affirmative side for this question was difficult, as Hong Kong is one of the world’s most advanced and successful cities. However, I soon found that working with people I had never met on this topic wasn’t as hard as I had thought, and we were able to bring together different aspects of our knowledge to create a thorough and coherent argument that expressed how and why Hong Kong is becoming more imperfect, and even some of the things we can do to fix this. Overall, it was a fantastic, fun, and very challenging two days, where we learnt a lot about not only the world around us but ourselves as well. A huge thank you to Agnes Fung (Y13, Smith) who organised the teams and spent hours training and preparing the rest of us for our topics. Her enthusiasm and zeal for the event did not go unappreciated. Well done to everyone for such wholehearted participation!
Keep Calm
by Serena Kwan (Year 10, Tutt)
One of the most important issues affecting our education today is stress. Students have to deal with more incoming information than ever before, especially with the ubiquitous smartphones and computers, now considered a necessity in our lives. With many students facing examinations this term, it is important that we learn how to manage stress levels well. We now see different ways of life globally and we have countless amount of resources available at our fingertips and at the push of a button. Arguably, our complex modern society has greatly increased the amount of stress students are