Millfield Voice June 2020

THE LOCKDOWN ISSUE Veganism? Is it time to go green?

Keeping creative during quarantine Ways to look after your mental health

Virtual Insanity Helping charities Celebrating diversity

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Millfield Voice

Editor's Note From creative pursuits to lockdown initatives, this issue looks at how the Millfield community have been managing to stay together, despite being physically apart.

It’s a strange old time that we are living in currently isn’t it?

When the school gates closed indefinitely on March 20, we didn’t realise just how long we might be off campus and trying to get to grips with our new lives in a virtual classroom. Teachers, students and coaches have all found different and ingenious ways in order to celebrate and mark the various events that should have formed the Summer term.

It’s been such an honour as teacher in charge of Media and as editor of this magazine, to see the way that we have all managed to flourish and cope with what has been thrown at us.

We have all demonstrated resilience, brilliance and we have all learnt to be just a bit kinder and understanding of each other.

There hasn’t been an edition of the Millfield Voice for a while by virtue of me having a nasty car accident at the end of last year that meant that I wasn’t able to be by a screen for so long.

I am so pleased that I was able to recover from that and that I have been able to put this edition of the magazine together with the help of some our brilliant writing talent.

So whether you are coming back to us in the Autumn or whether you are one of our 2020 school-leavers, I hope you enjoy these memories and that you have a good summer, whatever it may hold in store.

AIMEE COELHO Editor and Teacher in charge of Media

I BELIEVE THIS SHARED EXPERIENCE WILL BRING US CLOSER AS A COMMUNITY An article focusing on feelings during lockdown

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GRACE OLDING YEAR 9 :

Lockdown has been strange. Not being able to go to school. Not being able to go shopping. But it has also been a time where I have been able to spend quality time with my family and dogs, a time where I have had a lot of rest and I also have noticed much more energy for school (online). Parts of lockdown have been challenging, for example not seeing my friends, but I have found the remote learning unbelievable. At first I wasn’t sure how it was going to work but the school have been amazing and I still follow my timetable and attend all my lessons, the only difference is it being online. I love that I am still able to see and hear all my classmates even those the other side of the world ! I have also found that my ICT skills have improved as I am on my iPad everyday for school. I have still kept up my fitness through running and online Strength and Conditioning sessions but being a swimmer I have missed the pool and I can’t wait to get back in !

Having so much spare time I have done so much more music practice which normally I would struggle to fit in, as a week at Millfield is very busy, the on line concerts have also been a really fun way to continue performing.Lockdown has also given me the opportunity to help deliver prescriptions to local people who are isolating. I have also helped my elderly neighbour by getting his shopping as he is also isolating. I have enjoyed these new opportunities ,as they are things that I have never done before, and I have met new people along the way.I also feel that this time has taughtus all, students, teachers, parents and many more about our resilience and adaptability, which will help us recognise what we can achieve and make us less afraid of sudden change. I believe that this shared experience will bring us closer together as a community.Lockdown for me has overall been enjoyable, tough at times, different and a time that I will never forget.

My Life in Lockdown by Grace Olding " I FEEL THAT THIS TIME HAS TAUGHT US ALL RESILIENCE AND ADAPTABILITY "

HEALTHY OR HARMFUL? THE VEGAN PROPOSAL Heads of school Freya Tatham and Max French have both written these articles about turning vegan.

Since we all have had a little bit more time with current coronavirus restrictions, a much bigger focus is being made to to our diets.

There is an increasing awareness of food ethics and the impact on our diet .. is it time for us all to go green?

Words and pictures : Max French and Freya Tatham

You are born in a shed with barely After only 2 years you are taken enough room to move. You are away and electrocuted, and then torn away from your mother, but your throat is slit by spinning you avoid the fate of the males blades. This is the life of a free who are shot in the head. You are range chicken. More than 70 confined to a tiny hutch for billion land animals are killed for months until you become fertile, food each year, along with over a when you are then artificially trillion fish. These are sentient inseminated. A hand is inserted beings, capable of suffering as into your anus and semen is much as, and sometimes even injected into your cervix. Nine months later you give birth and more than humans. So why is it within a day your child is forcibly okay to imprison them, to enslave dragged away from you. For more them, to mutilate them, to torture than six months of the year you them, to rape them, to murder are locked inside, being forced to them? We would never dream of treating a single human like we produce ten times more milk than is natural. You are artificially treat billions upon billions of inseminated every year and spend animals. What human trait does a most of your days with no space non-human animal lack that to move, and no access to makes this behaviour sunlight. As soon as your milk permissible? If a human were to production slows you are sent to lack the same trait would that be slaughtered, often whilst make it okay to treat them so conscious, at just 6 years of age. inhumanely? Why would that trait This is the life of a dairy cow. You give a life value?I would suggest are born on a conveyor belt. Males that there is no such trait. And it is around you are thrown into a for this reason that I am a grinder alive, whilst you are taken proponent of animals rights, and to have you face mutilated by a consequently, veganism. guillotine. You are housed in a Advocating for animal equality barn of sixteen thousand, nine of does not meant that you have to you per square metre. You are expected to lay an egg more than grant the same rights to animals 300 times per year, an experience as humans, in the same way that comparable to a human’s period. gender equality does not meant that men must have the right to Your bones are susceptible to crumbling from lack of calcium, have an abortion. Animal equality and you rarely see the light of day. simply means that where humans and other animals are the same, they must be afforded the same rights,

Above Eggs and chicks are processed in a factory .

More than 70 billlion land animals are killed for food each year along with one trillion fish. .

FAQ: Veganism by Max French ET MORE OUT OF YOUR SEAFOOD

* What difference will me going vegan make?

No rights movements in history would have been successful without the actions of individuals. * Plants are alive too - what about them?

Plants are alive but there is no credible scientific research to say that they suffer. * Vegans kill animals too?

It would be naive to think that a vegan diet is free from suffering. Many animals are killed in the production of crops. A vegan aims ro reduce suffering not eliminate it completely. * Is it okay to eat animals that are treated humanely ?

How do you humanely kill an animal that does not want to die?

A JOURNEY TO VEGANISM

BY FREYA TATHAM

I didn’t become vegan overnight… In year eight we had a lesson about factory farming and my whole class

In Year 9 , my mum decided to become a vegan, and

decided to become vegetarian. A week later, most

I thought I’d give it a go for lent just to see what it

people had given up, but for some reason I stuck at it. I

was like. I found myself quite dizzy at training,

was finding that I wasn’t even missing meat that much, my breakfast didn’t change (still a bowel of cereal) and instead of a packed lunch of ham sandwiches, it was swapped to cheese and tomato… no big deal. In the evenings I would have food in the

lacking focus and sometimes having to sit out to drink a lot of water. However, looking back at my first attempt (at which I was very diligent, the only slip was some butter icing at a birthday) my diet was terrible. I love eating/snacking and so I would scoff a lot of bread and cereal bars to satisfy my cravings - I

car on the way to training which was often

was massively missing out on a balanced diet and it

pizza/pasta. My friend’s family took me and they were

was completely my fault. It wasn’t until January this

(handily) all vegetarian. I was only 13 yet I found the

year that I decided to go vegan again. Loading my

transition far easier than I thought it would be.

plate up with a multitude of colourful foods for the month felt so good - it made me realise that a vegan diet is totally possible. However despite this, after January I slipped back to eating dairy products and eggs. Following a really great month of feeling good about what I was eating, I had a renewed sense of conscience each time I picked up some yoghurt or cheese or chocolate. I just felt an immense amount of guilt. I couldn’t ignore what I knew. Thoughts of animals suffering for a flavour that was to me a luxury, but not a necessity, became increasingly obvious as a choice. One which was becoming harder and harder.

It wasn’t until January this year that I decided to go vegan again.

Loading my plate up with a multitude of colourful foods for the month felt so good - it made me realise that a vegan diet is totally possible. However despite this, after January I slipped back to eating dairy products and eggs. Following a really great month of feeling good about what I was eating, I had a renewed sense of conscience each time I picked up some yoghurt or cheese or chocolate. I just felt an immense amount of guilt. I couldn’t ignore what I knew. Thoughts of animals suffering for a flavour that was to me a luxury, but not a necessity, became increasingly obvious as a choice. One which was becoming harder and harder.

I

Hence, since the beginning of lockdown, I’ve tried to keep up a plant based diet permanently. I’m actively planning my meals and learning lots of new recipes. I hope that this will become a part of my lifestyle and that I’ll carry it on at uni. It also means I will be less likely to give my flatmates food poisoning with my cooking, which is another big positive!

Going vegan is not just the ethical choice, it is also the right choice for the environment: oThe animal agriculture industry is the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It is responsible for 65% of nitrous oxides, 40% of methane and more carbon dioxide than the entire travel sector .o You could save more water by not eating one pound of meat than you could by not having a shower for six months -that’s crazy! o Raising animals for food uses 30% of the earth’s ice-free land mass, this is around the same size as Asia.o Animal agriculture is a leading cause of species extinction and responsible for up to 91% of the destruction of the amazon. o Half of the entire great pacific garbage patch is fishing nets.

But being vegan doesn’t mean you are automatically exempt from all these problems.

It’s important to be aware of ingredients such as palm oil and to take into consideration food miles when making purchases.

Above Text about the article photo would fit perfectly here.

Not convinced or want to know more?

Dominion is a haunting documentary that exposes the systemic mistreatment of animals.

“Why It’s Time To Go Vegan” and “Every Argument Against Veganism” are two fantastic talks that put together far more comprehensive arguments for veganism than we have. .

Finally, the book "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer is well worth a read. .

Lessons from Mumbai

BY CHIARA CLARK

D

One of the highlights of my time living in Mumbai has been learning about the city and it’s people. Whilst it is widely known that poverty has struck it’s cruel hand onto millions of people in Mumbai, I didn’t understand the true extent of it’s effects until the moment I was sitting in the back of the car, watching the city pass me, on my way from the airport for the first time.

Now, living in Mumbai between 2014 and 2017 meant that I was only 10 to 13 years old.

At that time, I’ve never fully understood the hardship of what many people, especially children, had to go through at such a young age.

Regularly, I would see children wearing old clothes held together by a few strands of thread, running along the streets in sandals on my way to school.

My naivety didn’t let me see the bigger picture at at stake here. I didn’t understand the hunger, thirst, neglect that these children understood.

The difficulties and adversities that I’ve experienced in my life couldn’t come near to the pain of what the SUPPORT children had to endure in their youth.

My mother was a regular volunteer at

A few months ago on a Saturday

SUPPORT and so occasionally, I joined

evening, I watched a movie called

her to visit the children. The first time I

Lion, of a young boy separated by his

stepped into the main room, I noticed

family as he fell asleep on a stationary

the small barred windows, the lack of

train. The same story came back to me

furniture, a hanging fan slowly in

as I read about a boy named Ajay Raj

motion despite the humidity but most

who fell asleep on a train whilst

importantly, drawings that the girls

playing hide and seek with his friends

did themselves. They were hung up,

in a small village. He woke up to a

the colours brightly contrasting the

moving train, hundreds of kilometres

DIFFERENT WERE THE

greying wall and although I’ve never

from his home. At the age of 6 years

been to this centre before, the

old, he lived alone on the streets of

MATTERS THAT WE HAD NO

drawings felt oddly familiar to me. It

Mumbai begging and living off scraps

occurred to me that the girls of

before members of Support found

SUPPORT and I were more alike than I

him. After rehabilitation, Ajay was able

realised, the only things different were

to go to school under the care of

matters we had no control of.Over the

Support. He went from a boy living on

little time that I had with the boys and

the street, begging for small change to

girls, I learnt about what SUPPORT

a man who has achieved a degree in

does and the impact it has made on

electronic engineering in one of the

so many lives. This NGO takes in

best universities in India.As an NGO,

children who have become addicted

SUPPORT relies on donations and

to abusive substances or have been

volunteers to continue their work in

abused, whether sexually, physically or

bringing street children in,

mentally, and takes care of them in

rehabilitating them and giving them

their centres. Over 150 kids are under

the opportunity of an education. The

the protection of SUPPORT and after

cost of meals, medical care, staff,

rehabilitation, they begin to live

housing, recreation and education all

normal lives that every child has the

comes down to how we can

right to.

contribute to this charity.

"IT OCCURED TO ME THAT THE GIRLS OF SUPPORT AND I WERE MORE ALIKE THAN I REALISED. THE ONLY THINGS

CONTROL OVER "

IS LOCKDOWN A FICTION?

CI Gifford- Groves writes her opinion...

The UK became aware of the Covid-19 virus in late January, after the first case was confirmed in York on the 29th of January, when two Chinese nationals fell ill. The virus started in Wuhan, China and has since spread worldwide with over 370,000 deaths, this seems like a lot but in reality the flu globally kills more people yearly with between 290,000 and 650,000 deaths. Hospitals in the UK have started ruling every single death as corona, which subsequently increased the death toll, however this is not an accurate representation of the actual amount of people dying from the Covid - 19 virus.

There are also a number of nightingale centres which have been under utilised in major cities, such as Birmingham and Manchester and instead care homes have been given an extra ÂŁ500 a week to take in sick people from hospitals to free up ventilators, this puts additional strain on care homes as they are becoming more overcrowded, as we know care homes are for the elderly who are vulnerable to any sort of virus or disease, in allowing hospital patients into care homes it exacerbated the mortality rate even more, with reports of 40% of care homes in England have been hit.

Jo PAGE 01

MARCH 2020, VOL. 5

"The UK acted too late and with the wrong plan of

action from day 1,

and it is now going to suffer the

consequences of a long lasting recession"

T

.Johnson made a statement about protecting the elderly and vulnerable being the main reason for lockdown but the elderly are being directly exposed to the virus in a place that is meant to be safe like a care home. This showing that the lockdown has proved to be a fiction. Furthermore the NHS and government have refused to use drugs that actually have an affect. Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin and zinc sulphate which is a anti malaria and a antibiotic which is used for bacterial infections of the lungs and a mineral are used by a French doctor in Marseille and have cured over 80% of his patients, however according to the UK government it hasn’t been through enough clinical trials to be used in the NHS. Even though the French doctor Professor Didier Raoult has published all his results. Trump has called it “ one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” but the UK government is still refusing to use it.

The three drugs that he has been using on his patients are well known for curing other problems and have proven to work in curing Coronavirus. Many other countries have used different types of medication which have proven to be effective, for example the Dutch government has given all their front line workers a BCG injected which has kept the number of front line deaths to a minimum, the UK government has only recently started using Remdesivir on their later stage patients which is another drug that has proven to have an effect. So why doesn’t the UK adapt and start using efficient drugs instead of overworking NHS staff and killing the elderly. This country has turned into a cult with its weekly clapping for the NHS rather than focusing on the issues at hand and challenging the government into doing the right thing. The UK acted too late and with the wrong plan of action from day 1, and it is now going to suffer the consequences of a long lasting recession, lower GDP growth, paranoia that is going to infect generations of the UK’s population and possibly a even worse disease than corona that is going to further increase the mortality rate.

Poem TO

SOOTHE

wORDS AND PICTURES

BY MELISSA McCusker

THE

SOUL

She stares into the darkness, with nothing but silence, cultivating her weary mind.

No one can hurt her, no more, no one can hurt me.

The silent sound of pain begins to wither away, with nothing but shame.

As she can no longer feel the pain, one has felt again. Suddenly falling into tame, her eyes fall to plain, claiming the tears she has strained.

But in her dismay, she could no longer seek for help, but to fight for herself. You see, she could no more allow The shadows in the darkness to fade, but to help her to feel strong again.

Fighting inside is all she’s ever known, always wearing her Armour , to be ready for those who would poke at her emotions, all she can do now is stride, in strength and pride, because if she allowed this, she would not survive. She has what she needs to live a good life, it’s what she chooses to destroy her life.

I am strong to carry on, I’ve been sad And even mad, But no one will change the way I am!

27

JEANNIE JACKSON IS IN YEAR 11. HER PICTURE IS OUR LOCKDOWN EDITION'S FRONT COVER. JEANNIE WAS ASKED TO PRODUCE A PIECE OF ART FROM 2 WORDS. HER WORDS WERE AUTOMATIC AND LILAC. SHE WAS INSPIRED THAT PEOPLE AUTOMATICALLY WANT A HUG OR A HANDSHAKE AND THEY CAN'T ANYMORE BECAUSE OF LOCKDOWN

HELLO QUARANTINE ART MELISSA MCCUSKER WAS ALSO INSPURED TO PAINT THIS PICTURE DURING HER TIME AWAY FROM SCHOOL. IT'S A VERY REFLECTIVE AND MOVING PIECEWELL DONE MELISSA !

== 7 0

VIRTUAL MEDIA AWARDS

Despite the obvious circumstances meaning the media department couldn't hold the annual media awards in person, the media department were determined to still hold their annual celebration. The virtual media oscars took place on June 18th as part of a Youtube premiere. It was true celebration of all the hard work of the Upper Sixth leavers. The ceremony was hosted by Charlie Powell ( Great) and Charlie Kilner ( Mill) and included all of the elements that media students have been known to love, including farewell messages from media teaching staff.

Winners included best individual effort to Lewis Laycock , best group effort to Evie Catt and Sophie Blackwell. Outstanding digital design skills were commemorated with Kim Hughes winning best portfolio and Charlie Kilner best website. Will Drew was given the accolade of best digipak design. Jen Sykesand Joe Chadwick were awarded with the best music video award.

MUSINGS

n

DANCE SHOW MARCH 2020 - JUST BEFORE LOCKDOWN

CITY LIGHTS

MILLFIELD SCHOOL LEAVERS

2020 k c u l d o o G odbye o g and