Aquila | 2018-2019

AQUILA

AQUILA 18/19 1

AQUILA

E Eisenberg, G Pratt, I Hunter, O Touzel, A Slade, K Thompson, E Cook, L O’Leary, P Ranger, A Wright, S Stepney

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Editors’ Letter

ednesday Lunchtime. 1330 hours. EN2. Magazine Committee.

Amongst the chatter and laughter, we try to decide the title of the annual edition of Aquila. “How can we be different?

How can we revive and refresh our readers? How can we push the boundaries? (pun intended).”

This year we were determined to present something that Pipers has not yet seen before and to push the boundaries of Aquila. We have worked hard to piece together gripping articles and to create a creative and current design, choosing the linear neon theme, not only for the contemporary aesthetic, but also to visually reflect physical boundaries. To create a magazine that felt cohesive throughout we decided to choose recurring patterns for the layout; pops of colour adorn the occasional black and white feature to emphasise the impact of our chosen neon theme.

It was important for us to seamlessly integrate our theme into the magazine and to capture our readers’ attention through the design, so we have carefully thought about the layout of each page and included both photography and hand-drawn illustrations. The theme ‘Boundaries’ has provoked such a wide range of responses from students, with articles this year ranging from the challenges of being Dyslexic, to the achievements of Simone Biles.

Thank you for all those who have written articles for our 2019 edition of Aquila, it has been great to see that so many girls have been able to get involved with this fantastic opportunity. We are also so appreciative of all of the committed members of the Magazine team and of course to Mrs Hamilton and Mr Ranford, for all their guidance, support and hard work in double checking all of the articles. Our Magazine Team meetings this year have certainly been entertaining and we can honestly say that the dedication and effort from the team has made our roles so enjoyable.

Happy Reading.

A Slade (Editor in Chief), P Ranger (Assistant Editor), I Hunter (KS3 Editor), E Cook (KS4/5 Editor)

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Dark Dreams vs Light Nightmares 6 Head Girl’s Article - She Is Limitless 8 An Invisible Circle 9 Literature: Lost in Translation?

10 The Personal is Political 12 50:50 13 Appreciation or Appropriation?

14 Dig for Victory 16 Smashing Glass Ceilings 17 What Makes a Man? 18 A Romantic Revolution 20 Yellow Jackets/Les gilets jaunes 22 Dyslexia 24 Social Stigma of Tattooing 25 No One is Free 27 Climate Change: A Conversation 28 4

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The Problems of Palm Oil 29 Boundaries 30 Pushing the Boundaries of Reason 32 Evil Knows No Limits: The Reality of Auschwitz 34 Remember Me 35 A Shocking Experiment 36 Top of the Pops?

38 Peace of Death 39 Sometimes the Quiet is Violent 40 The Korean Division 42 Internal Boundaries 43 Pink and Blue 44 Zimbardo’s Experiment 45 Pushing the Limits of Sport: Simone Biles 46 Valete 48 Bound | aries 50 5

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Dark H

ave you ever stopped and asked the question what is the difference between a bad dream and a nightmare? The answer is probably not. Not because it’s not interesting. Not because you’ve never thought about it.

But because when you see what little difference there is, you’ll see how delicate the boundary is between dreams and nightmares, and how easily it is to discard the darkness of fear when really the shadows hide in the light.

According to Michael J. Breus, the simple difference between a dream and a nightmare, is the intensity. A nightmare categorically should result in one waking up, feeling intense

“HOWEVER, IS IT ACCURATE TO SUGGEST DREAMS ARE BETTER THAN NIGHTMARES?” 6

emotions such as fear, anxiety, guilt, confusion and so on. A simple state of mind. That is all that differs between the adventures of dreams and the supposed shadows of nightmares.

However, is it accurate to suggest dreams are better than nightmares?

During a nightmare, the brain is in the third stage of your sleep, when REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is at its strongest. This means that your brain is wide awake, with high activity, rapid eye movement and inhibited motor activity. Therefore, because you are feeling emotions such as fear and guilt, your brain is much more likely to remember them. While this may seem undesirable, it is actually a good thing because

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“DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES ARE ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING AREAS OF SCIENCE�

The brain takes your abstract fears about the world from the unconscious parts of the brain and turns them into a memory, like a mathematical function.

For us, it is much easier to deal with memories than it is vague anxieties, mostly because we think of memories in the past; therefore, something we need not be afraid of. Some researchers even suggest that nightmares and bad dreams are a necessity in order to cope with the world we live in, so we can appreciate that reality is better than fantasy.

Furthermore, compared to dreams, nightmares have significant health benefits; due to nightmares occurring during REM, blood flow decreases to the brain in order to redirect the blood to other muscles and respiratory areas to be restored and recovered. Similarly, it has been proven that growth and stress hormones, the immune system, heart and blood pressure are all positively affected. It seems like fear is the best workout you need, Dreams and nightmares are one of the most fascinating areas of Science, yet also one of the areas with the least scientific understanding. The reason behind them is unknown despite the many theories - the boundaries between them blurred.

Yet it is clear to me, that fear presents a choice: reach your limit or wake up.

K Pepper, Lower Sixth

Light

it means the brain stores that narrative away, and while you may not recognise it now, later it can provide a blueprint to avoid stressful and anxious situations in the future.

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HEAD GIRL’S ARTICLE

Limitless SHE IS

I

think we can often view Boundaries as something fairly negative, something we need to stay within. However, in my year as Head Girl, and when I consider my whole time at Pipers, I think what really makes us unique, what makes us stand out as a school, is our inclination to push the boundaries.

Girls here are taught to not just stick to the specification, to not just turn up at 0830 hours and leave at 1600 hours, to not just sit back and watch, but instead to push to achieve.

When I was first writing this article, I found it difficult to identify the meaning of ‘boundaries’ because it is such a multifaceted word, boundaries are subjective and personal. So I began to look within my own daily experiences of school to identify some examples of girls pushing their limits within the Pipers environment.

During the last year, I have seen so many girls pushing the boundaries in ways both big and small.

There are the girls that wiped the floor with the competition and brought in the biggest haul of awards at the Young Enterprise Finals, the girl who cut her hair for the Princess Trust, the girl in the middle school who re-did her homework to improve her grade after a disappointing result and the girl who went home and did some wider reading in addition to her required homework. There are all the Year 12 students who work weekly with younger girls across the school, the girl that trains for that

5K, 10K or even half-marathon to raise money for a charity important to her, the girls that make the effort to always be kind. There is the girl in Prep who wins ‘Value of the Month’, the girl that goes and sits with someone alone at lunch and the girl who gets knocked down but keeps going regardless. The girl who leads #GeogSquad or the Inclusion and Diversity Committee, the girl that runs a charity initiative alongside her A Level studies and the girl that stands up in debating and speaks her mind without fear. There are all the girls involved in ‘Mum I Love You, I Promise I Won’t Die’, the girls that receive an Effort, Progress or Academic Award and the Prefect Team running brand-new initiatives.

“ALL OF THESE GIRLS HAVE PUSHED THE BOUNDARIES. ” I think it is critical that, to achieve, boundaries have to be pushed in the right way; simply pushing harder within old, existing boundaries will not do. At Pipers, the opportunities for girls to identify new challenges to push themselves are endless. This year, the Prefect Team worked on an initiative entitled: ‘She Is Limitless’.

The campaign was all about driving girls at Pipers to believe that they can achieve whatever they want to; they should never feel limited.

Girls, it is important to recognise that our generation is often categorised by society as the ‘snowflake

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generation’, a generation that is less resilient. This is just not true in my experience of this school community.

We need to smash and crumble the ‘snowflakes’ that we are being defined by, because that is not what I see in Pipers girls. We have girls in Year 7 that stand up and lead school assemblies, we have girls in Year 2 identifying that women like Michelle Obama and Jessica Ennis-Hill inspire them these are not examples of the ‘snowflake generation’. Another factor that, for me, explodes this stereotype is our response to failure. Just like everyone else in the world, everyone at Pipers has seen failure and failure is good, but their response is key. It is those that push the boundaries repeatedly after failing that will achieve.

I encourage every girl at Pipers to push their boundaries. Simply sitting within the comfort zone and avoiding areas of weakness will not do. Boundaries are only temporary, they can be moved, they can be broken. We are not being placed in the suffocating boundary that is the ‘snowflake generation’, that cannot and will not be permanent. It is us, it is the girls at Pipers, our attitude, our determination, our resilience that I have seen in my role as Head Girl, that will totally abandon this idea. We can only break down these boundaries by pushing and when we push: we achieve.

C Ball, Head Girl

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l b e i s i v nI an

breaking up the lawn, ripping out the tree.

A boundary can be defined as a line, a limit: we have boundaries around our properties that keep the people and animals safe inside, and keep intruders out. We have the physical boundary around our body - our skin - that keeps us physically safe from infection.

So how do we maintain these strong boundaries? What might this mean in practice?

Firstly, it means being sure that we have a voice, that we are involved in our own care. It can be difficult for young people in particular, who are used to having their lives dictated to to a degree by adults, to feel that they are masters of their own ship, that they can be an assertive voice in their own lives. We all have the right to be asked and to be heard.

So boundaries keep us safe. In the Playground Study, a group of pre-school children were observed in two different situations: in the first, they played in a park with no fences around it, in the second, they played in a park that was fenced all around. Their behaviour was very interesting. In the situation where there were no physical boundaries, the children huddled near to their teacher – they were afraid to leave her and unsure about exploring. In the park with fences, however, they were confident enough to leave their teacher and explore the whole space. Physical boundaries appeared to give the children more assurance and confidence.

It means respecting ourselves enough to be able to respond and act honestly. Listening to our gut instinct and acting on what it communicates to us is a habit that can be strengthened. No-one else knows us as well as we know ourselves. Let’s have the courage and strength to hear our own inner voice and take action accordingly.

Just as we need physical boundaries to keep us safe, we need emotional boundaries too. These boundaries are invisible, but they are vital in preserving our sense of emotional safety and well-being. We might picture ourselves as surrounded by an invisible circle: the line of this circle separates who we are from who we are not, where we start and where we end, what is ours and what isn’t, what we’re responsible for and what we’re not.

When people talk about the ‘boundaries being blurred’, this expresses a sense that the line of the circle is not clear. It is our own responsibility to recognise and maintain the clarity of this circle.

It could mean asking for support from others, because we matter and we are worth it. This doesn’t mean pushing our problems onto others – we are responsible for our gardens, remember! But it’s good to have someone weeding the garden alongside us, or helping us dispose of our grass cuttings.

Sharing problems and seeking help is a sign of strength, as long as the boundaries of responsibility are clear on both sides.

It might mean simply recognising what is actually our issue, and what is someone else’s. We don’t have to be dragged down by other people’s problems, we can choose how involved we are, and the priority is keeping ourselves safe and well. Picture the image of a pit – if a friend is at the bottom of the pit, do we help them by climbing down into the pit with them? Wouldn’t we then get stuck in the pit too? Wouldn’t we in fact be safer staying at the top and lowering a ladder for them to climb up, or calling down encouragement?

Let’s change the metaphor from a circle to a garden. Each of our lives is like a garden: we each have a lawn, flower beds, a tree perhaps, and a fence around it. We are each responsible for what goes on in our garden. I need to mow my lawn, weed my flower beds, collect the fruit from my tree, and maintain my fences. But I am not responsible for anyone else’s garden. I don’t have to mow their lawn, or weed their beds, or fix their fences.

So to return to the Playground Study. We can notice that the boundaries gave the children more freedom to explore, more confidence. When we have a stronger sense of ourselves and clear emotional boundaries around us, we too can live more freely and lead more confident, adventurous lives.

C Nicholas, School Counsellor

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c r i C

le

There are many behaviours by others that violate our boundaries and our strong, secure sense of self. Bullying and relational aggression violate our boundaries; abuse violates our boundaries; being belittled or attacked by others violates our boundaries.

All of these can be compared to an intruder barging into our garden, stamping all over the flower-beds,

AQUILA

Lost in translation?

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together in tunnels that twist lots of ways.” On an immediate level, Jack’s narration poses a problem for grammatically gendered languages that categorise the noun labyrinth as masculine, for example French (le Labyrinthe). In French, it would be impossible to maintain Donoghue’s prose, as the masculine noun ‘labyrinth’ would have to take the masculine pronoun ‘he’ (il) as opposed to the pronoun ‘she’ used in Jack’s original narration. However, on a deeper level, the normality of gendering objects in languages such as French, Spanish and German, takes away some of the strangeness of Jack’s development that Donoghue aims to convey. Whereas a reader of the English text would see that Jack’s lack of exposure to the outside world has caused him to develop a more than usual connection to the objects around him, personifying them due to a lack of his human contact, this element of the book is missing for readers in languages that naturally personify and gender objects on a daily basis. Some of the intrinsic meaning of the source material has been lost in the 0.3% margin of error.

ll 15cm rulers are manufactured with a tolerance of error for 0.5 millimetres, meaning that when you measure the side of a triangle with your ruler, there will always be that 0.5mm (0.3%) difference between the scale of your ruler and the scale on the ruler belonging to the person sitting next to you. But what is 0.3% in the grand scheme of things? Does it really matter? Surely, such a small difference will not be significant enough to throw off your whole trigonometry calculation. This is what we call tolerance of error. An error so small that we can tolerate the inaccuracy without devastating impact on the final outcome. But are there times when this tiny discrepancy does make a huge difference, when that 0.3% margin of error drastically changes the end result? I would argue that when it comes to the translation of Literature, this margin of error can a have deep and profound impact on the meaning of the original source material.

Some discrepancies of error in translation are harmless enough and merely serve to define something slightly more or less accurately than originally intended. For example, in Vietnamese, there is no way to distinguish between the colours of blue and green, both are known collectively as 青: ‘blue.’ Meanwhile, the Turkish language distinguishes between paternal aunts (hala) and maternal aunts (teyze), whereas no such specifying option exists in English. These differences fall inside the 0.3% tolerance of error, they may mean that reading a book in Vietnamese or in Turkish is slightly different from reading the same text in English, but this difference is so small that it can be tolerated: it doesn’t change the key values and intrinsic message of the text, just as tiny differences between the scale on your ruler and somebody else’s won’t change your final calculations.

Another example of the problems caused by grammatical genderization comes in that most famous of American novels: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Harper Lee deliberately chooses an androgynous name for her protagonist,‘Scout’, and works hard to confuse her reader as to Scout’s gender:“I swear Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl, it’s mortifyin.’”

Scout’s gender does not begin to be truly defined until the visit of her Aunt Alexandra, who takes on the mission of transforming her into a ‘girl’, encouraging her to wear dresses and to drink tea with other women. Scout’s discovery of her gender and transition into 1960s womanhood is one of the defining themes of Lee’s novel, and yet it is missing from some translations of the text. In the English version of the text, the reader completes the same journey as Scout herself, not knowing her gender in the early pages of the narrative, where it is left unspecified in Lee’s use of pronouns and prose, and then discovering it through the feminising dialogue of Aunt Alexandra. However, in a language such as Russian, concealing the gender of a person is grammatically impossible. This is because verbs, such as ‘bought’, change depending on the gender of the person who completed the action: ‘купил’ meaning bought when in reference to a male, and ‘купила’ when in reference to a female. Even if Lee tries

Yet there are cases where the translation of a text poses more significant problems in terms of maintaining the original meaning of the source material. One key example is the novel ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue. This text is narrated

by Jack, a boy who has grown up in a single room after his mother was abducted and imprisoned. For Jack, the objects in his room are the defining characters of his life and he personifies them as such. For example: “we’ve been making labyrinth since I was two, she’s all toilet rolls insides taped

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to hide the gender of her protagonist with a non-genderspecific name, like ‘Scout’, in the Russian version of the text, one would not be able to write the sentence “Scout bought a book” without specifying her gender in the conjugation of the verb ‘bought’. Therefore, Russian readers are denied the chance to discover scouts female gender as she works it out for herself. Is it really the same book? Or, has that 0.3% of difference changed the source material too much to be considered tolerable?

‘Rewrite a well-known children’s story’ – keep the same plot, the same characters and the same vocabulary. Both versions of the story would turn out to be different. Now, imagine if you’d told the writers the same thing, except this time, they had to rewrite a well-known children’s story for an adult audience. The results would be even more different, because each writer has a different idea of what an adult audience would enjoy - maybe one version would be humorous and one version would be dark. Now, imagine that the writers were told to rewrite the children’s story for an adult audience, except, this time, one writer was from a city in a cold climate that had recently suffered a bombing and one writer was from an island with a hot climate with diverse wildlife and plants. The two stories would likely look very different because the writers have very different influences and contexts. For example, imagine if the writers were rewriting ‘The Little Mermaid’ and they came across the word, ‘shell.’ For the writer from the bomb-blasted city, they’d be more used to thinking of a ‘shell’ as a projectile, so it’s likely that the story would become more violent, whereas the beach-based writer would be more used to thinking of a ‘shell’ as a seashell or even a coconut shell, which would make for a far more gentle plot.

The question of whether Literature sometimes becomes ‘lost’ in it’s translation, is even more complex when we apply translation to older texts, such as Shakespeare. To enlighten us further on the translation of Shakespeare in particular, I turned to Dr Marianne Hewitt who has a PHD in Argentine Shakespearean Performances 1976-present from Queen’s University in Belfast.

WHAT LED YOU TO STUDY THE TRANSLATION OF SHAKESPEARE/ WHAT IS IT THAT INTERESTS YOU IN THIS FIELD? Dr Hewitt: Since I studied King Lear for my AS Levels, I’ve thought of Shakespeare as another language. My teacher had to explain whole sections and it took a lot of time for the class to work out what the words meant in the context. Usually, we would all come up with different understandings of ‘what Shakespeare meant.’ We often relied on the notes added by the editor to understand some of the words, I felt like I needed a Shakespeare – English dictionary. So, I was very interested in this question: if Shakespeare is difficult for English speakers to read, how do non-native English speakers manage? Do they read it in English, and have the same problems that I have, but multiplied, or do they read it in their own language? And if so, how can someone translate ‘Sirrah’ or ‘junket’ into another language when it’s not really clear what the words mean to begin with?!

Now, applying this to Shakespeare makes translation even more complicated, firstly because Shakespeare’s plays are ambiguous, which means that everyone who sees Shakespeare will have a different understanding of ‘what Shakespeare meant.’ Secondly, plays are particularly difficult to translate because the translator has to consider how the words will sound on-stage, as well as whether they can be understood when written. Thirdly, the translator has to think about whether they want the end result to sound like it was written in the 1400/1500s – some countries didn’t exist then, so is that even possible? Finally, an added challenge with Shakespeare is Shakespeare’s cultural weight. A translator has to consider what Shakespeare means to the audience.

For example, should Shakespeare be written in a way that is respectful, shows that Shakespeare is British, should it show that Shakespeare is from the Early Modern era?

Another obstacle in understanding Shakespeare is that, over time, the meanings of words have changed. ‘Brave’ for Shakespeare means ‘handsome.’ When Shakespeare said ‘honest,’ we would say ‘pure.’ ‘Young,’ to Shakespeare, is ‘recent’ for us. On top of the time-difference, there are also Shakespeare’s many metaphors and grammar games (such as turning verbs into nouns and nouns into verbs), all of which adds to the amount of deciphering required in order to understand the meaning. When you see the plays on stage, there are lots of visual and verbal cues to help you to contextualise, for example, in Henry IV I and II, when Falstaff talks about ‘sack,’ he is often drinking wine, and in King Lear, when the Fool says ‘nonny,’ he’s using a singsong, silly voice so it’s more apparent that ‘nonny’ doesn’t really mean anything, it’s just a filler word in his song.

ARE THERE ANY PLAYS, OR MOMENTS IN PLAYS THAT YOU ACTUALLY PREFER IN TRANSLATION? MAYBE THEY BENEFIT FROM SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT SHADES OF MEANING THAT DON’T EXIST IN ENGLISH? Yes! Omkara, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, is the story of Othello, set in India, with some fantastic music and songs.

Haider, by the same director, is also a brilliant, crime/ action movie version of Hamlet. Seeing Shakespeare in translation makes you realise that ‘Shakespeare’ is just a name we give to some really good stories. I think the hardest question is; ‘what makes it Shakespeare?’ Films are a great way to think about Shakespeare differently and to understand that there is no single or right way to understand Shakespeare. Lots have people have seen Shakespeare films without realising. For example, She’s the Man, 10 Things I Hate About You and The Lion King are all Shakespeare in translation. I’d recommend thinking of a country and typing the name of the country and ‘Shakespeare’ into Youtube – there’s an endless amount!

ARE THERE DIFFERENT METHODS FOR TRANSLATING SHAKESPEARE, OR DO MOST TRANSLATORS FOLLOW A SIMILAR PROCESS? Dr Hewitt: The method of translation depends on the translator’s background, politics, audience, aims, and more. No two translations of a play would ever be the same as each other.

You could give two writers the exact same instructions:

N Hamilton, Second in English

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The

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is Political

or centuries, theatre has been used as an outlet to explore a multitude of social issues, ranging from the problems surrounding the 20th Century class system, explored in J.B Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’, to themes of suicide discussed in Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’.

Shakespeare is an example of a highly influential playwright who has stretched and broken many social ideals, such as the restriction of gender roles.

This can be seen in ‘Macbeth’, as Lady Macbeth is portrayed as highly dominating and authoritative towards her husband, at a time when women would have been expected to act submissively and with complacency in 17th Century society. In our studies of Drama GCSE we study Bertolt Brecht, a 20th Century practitioner who was highly significant in emphasising the unity between politics and theatre. He debated political issues through ‘Epic Theatre’, such as the topic of morality during wartime in his play, ‘Mother Courage’.

For the Year 10 devising portion of our GCSE, our given stimulus is the book ‘Everyday Sexism’ written by feminist Laura Bates.

This has given us a platform to push the boundaries surrounding the controversial topic of feminism, much like these practitioners and playwrights have done for centuries.

Everyday Sexism by ‘Laura Bates’ is a feminist book that catalogues instances of sexism experienced on a day-to-day basis by women globally. These accounts of oppression range from women being ‘catcalled’, to brutal stories of Female Genital Mutilation. The book consists of twelve chapters, each focused on a different aspect of sexism, such as ‘Women in Politics’ and ‘Young Women in Learning’.

As a class, we have used our Drama lessons to explore these varying themes and how they can be portrayed using different

storyline, and reveals it pieceby-piece in a more disjointed order; much like a puzzle piece for the audience. The muddling of a storyline works to make the audience question exactly why certain events have happened, rather than to simply create an emotional attachment to characters. This is useful in exploring boundaries as it prevents any political themes and ideas being distorted or obscured by an overly emotional narrative. In contrast, an emotive performance can be created through characterisation.

“THE ‘PERSONAL IS POLITICAL’ AS THE SAYING GOES, AND OUR STUDIES OF THEATRE AND DRAMA HAVE ALLOWED US TO REALLY UNPICK THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN CHARACTER AND POLITICAL MESSAGE.” theatrical skills, such as our use of the Brechtian technique - Spass. From German, ‘Spass’ literally translates to ‘fun’.

Brecht wanted to make his audience laugh as he realised that while we are laughing, we are also thinking. This is why, for the topic of sexism, Spass is a highly effective technique in making the audience consider the deeper underlying messages behind a performance. The use of comedy can be used to highlight how ridiculous the standard of female ‘perfection’, that is perpetuated by the media on a daily basis, really is.

This is one example of how we use theatre, specifically through Brechtian techniques, to relieve tension and explore societal boundaries.

Theatre is ideal for stretching boundaries as it allows us to take an alternative approach in expressing political and humanitarian crises.

It has the ability to make the audience reflect, both emotionally and mentally, on the message being conveyed.

An example of a mentally provoking technique is that of a non-linear plot. This technique breaks apart a

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Characterisation can be utilised to develop emotional attachments and responses from the audience through the use of consistent voice, body language and facial expression.

However, some forms of characterisation, such as multirole performances, can be used to detach the audience from the character and force them to consider events from a broader perspective. Instead of thinking solely about a character’s very specific situation, the audience are able to recognise the issue as a whole. These differing uses of characterisation are both useful in exploring boundaries as they offer the audience a wider insight into the topic being discussed.

The ‘personal is political’ as the saying goes, and our studies of Theatre and Drama have allowed us to really unpick the boundary between character and political message. Audiences always leave a theatre with a message or moral idea of some kind, and ultimately it is the writers, directors and actors that have the power to decide what this message will be.

L Barker & C Hutchings, Year 10

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here are 32 million women in the United Kingdom and yet female representation in politics stood at merely 32% as of the 2017 General Election. It seemed unlikely to me that, out of those 32 million, only a handful were willing to stand, to represent their constituents’ views, to inspire change and to make a positive difference. Psychologically speaking, it takes women four more times than men to be told that they should consider standing in an election before they will consider it - maybe we aren’t trying hard enough to ask and ask again.

Currently, men outnumber women 2:1 in the corridors of power, only 8% of the House of Commons are from an ethnic minority background and the average age of an MP is fifty. The House of Commons represents the constituents’ views and discusses national issues on behalf of the diverse society in which we live and yet the make-up of parliament still doesn’t reflect this level of diversity. To build a future, that better represents the needs of the nation, it should be essential to collect a range of perspectives and experiences in government where decisions are being made. It is also interesting to consider that being a member of Parliament often requires a long commute, a commitment to working unsociable hours and a limited support system for those on parental leave. In essence, it could be argued that

CURRENTLY, MEN OUTNUMBER WOMEN 2:1 IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER...

the job itself has been tailored to the type of employee parliament is used to and, in doing so, the system narrows the talent, diversity and circumstance of the people who are able to stand for election. Meaning that even 100 years after women won the right to vote, the struggle for equal representation in politics continues.

Britain is currently sitting at 40th in the world for female representation in Parliament and is only five places ahead of Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be born a woman. Countries that currently rank in the top 10 in parliamentary gender equality include Senegal and

Rwanda, which have now become some of the most stable countries in Africa, although it is difficult to say if the two factors are linked. In Rwanda for instance, since the achievement of 50:50 parliament, laws have been passed that protect children from violence as well as laws that allow women to inherit land. Furthermore, in Senegal, the increase in female members of parliament has meant that a greater share of the country’s GDP is allocated to schooling, so that more girls are able to receive an education. In the UK the benefits of a gender balanced parliament could be instead used to help combat domestic violence (which affects one in every four women) stop women

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“WE NEED THE BEST OF BOTH, MEN AND WOMEN TOGETHER AT WESTMINSTER.” - FRANCES SCOTT

bearing the brunt of austerity measures and to figure out why, curiously, there is a tax on tampons but not on razors.

Joni Lovenduski, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck, has explained that: “Evidence from more balanced legislatures than ours shows that, as membership of women increases, so does the sensitivity of male MPs to the range of women’s concerns. So men can act for women, but they may be more likely to do so when there are more women around”.

50:50 Parliament, the campaign founded by Frances Scott in 2013, focuses on achieving gender equality in government through encouraging more women to stand for election.

This campaign strives to break down barriers to succeed in creating a truly inclusive and representative institution in order to ensure better informed decision making.

Supporters of the campaign are impatient for a change in Parliament and fear the 50 years it is claimed to take before true gender equality in government. All political parties and over 50,000 signatories to the 50:50 petition agree that a gender balanced Parliament would be more representative and better informed.

“We need the best of both, men and women together at Westminster.”

- Frances Scott.

P Ranger, Assistant Editor

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OR APPROPRIATION?

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ashion designers have always drawn influence and inspiration from the world around them, and it seems that borrowing from other cultures is an essential element of the creative process. However, the fashion industry is constantly under scrutiny to ensure political correctness: a boundary which must continually be reconsidered and redefined. Cultural appropriation has emerged as one of the key issues in the industry, with almost every big fashion house, and several celebrities, being accused of it, but it is important that appreciation is not mistaken for appropriation, in order to ensure that fashion continues to be a space where different cultures can be celebrated.

Cultural appropriation is defined as the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices or ideas of a group of people or society by members of another group of people or society. It often becomes controversial when members of a more dominant culture appropriate from disadvantaged or minority cultures. Experimentation and borrowing from other cultures is not a problem and it’s clear that fashion thrives when influenced by a wide range of styles, but appropriation differs from appreciation under the following circumstances: there are power inequalities between the cultures; the source is not accredited and historical context and cultural sensitivities are ignored. Often, items hold significant religious or cultural meaning to their traditional owners, or have been subjugated and exploited in the past, therefore when they are turned into a fashion accessory and are profitted off by big European and American brands, it often causes offense. A prime example of the complete disregard for the contextual

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significance of an item is when Gucci sent white, non-Sikh models down the Autumn/Winter 2018 runway wearing turbans and faced considerable backlash from the Sikh community.

‘THE SIKH TURBAN IS A SACRED ARTICLE OF FAITH, @GUCCI, NOT A MERE FASHION ACCESSORY. #APPROPRIATION’ @SIKH_COALITION When Chanel revealed it’s $2,000 wood and resin boomerang, adorned with their logo, as part of it’s Spring/Summer 2017 pre-collection, many people immediately spotted the distasteful appropriation of Indigenous Australian culture. This was enhanced when Nathan Sentance, an Indigenous project officer at the Australian Museum, highlighted that the boomerang cost almost 10% of the average annual income of Indigenous Australians, underlining the exploitative nature of this item. The frustrating part is that Chanel has not been affected by this backlash, and still sold these boomerangs to real customers, including Jeffree Star who posted an Instagram of him playing with his new ‘toy’. It is likely that a team at Chanel spent months designing the item and it is hard to believe that they were totally unaware of the connotations and implications of their actions. To some, it seems that their ruthless intention is always to make money and gain publicity, regardless of the consequences and exploitation of others. Chanel’s response to their slip up was simply a press release which seemed to lack true remorse: “We’re extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and regret that some may have felt offended.”

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‘FOR SO LONG INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA WAS A CULTURE DENIED, A CULTURE INTERRUPTED AND THEREFORE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED,’ PETER DENHAM, DIRECTOR OF CURATORIAL AND EXHIBITIONS AT THE MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES The controversy surrounding dreadlocks and cornrows is another high profile case associated with appropriation, as the hairstyles are valued by many black communities as a symbol of the oppression they have overcome and a representation of their identity. However, dreadlocks are actually a part of several different cultures and cannot be considered exclusive to one racial culture. The hairstyle first appeared in the West Indies around 1844 from the ‘coolie’ trade, when workers from China and India were sent there to replace the now-illegal slaves and one of the early origins of dreadlocks was from Hindu holy men, who replicated the hair of the god Shiva. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians were also reported to wear dreadlocks and it was said that Celts had ‘hair like snakes’ in older texts, which has since been translated as meaning dreadlocks. Therefore, to say that dreadlocks belong to particular cultures seems to disregard the rich and complex religious and cultural significance which the hairstyle has all around the world.

In terms of high fashion, in Marc Jacobs’ Spring/Summer 2017 show, all the models wore candy-coloured dreadlocks, inspired by cyber goths.

However, critics were quick to point out that the majority of the models were white, and in 52 of the looks in the show, less than ten were models of colour. Jacobs’ controversial response provoked further outrage when he responded on Instagram:

“All who cry ‘cultural appropriation’ or whatever nonsense about any race of skin colour wearing their hair in a particular style or manner - funny how you don’t criticize women of colour for straightening their hair”, which demonstrates a lack of understanding for the issue, but it also raises thoughts about whether political correctness restricts creativity and breeds over-sensitivity.

Some of the most well known cases of appropriation attract negative attention when white celebrities are praised for pioneering ‘new’ styles and making a bold statement with dreadlocks or cornrows, without crediting the origins of the hairstyle.

Such celebrities who have worn these hairstyles include Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber, although they received significant backlash, we must question whether their behaviour is racist. Amandla Stenberg illustrated this point well when she said “I wish America loved black people as much as it loves black culture, which highlights the deep rooted prejudices and racism which many have faced due to the impact of Eurocentric ideals which we are conditioned to believe are ‘beautiful’”.

‘JENNER’S USING HER FAME TO CALL ATTENTION TO HER HAIR, WHICH MIMICS BLACK CULTURE, BUT NOT TO THE RACIST VIOLENCE TAKING BLACK LIVES.’ AMANDLA STENBERG The appreciation of other cultures can aid understanding and promote creativity, and part of what makes design so interesting is the combination of a diverse range of styles, cultures and ideas.

Problems arise when designers don’t undertake proper research to reference and appreciate a culture

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and the fashion industry needs to become more aware and diverse in general. The fast pace of the fashion industry certainly does not help, as sometimes designers do not have time to consider the fine boundary between cultural appropriation and appreciation. It seems that to prevent cultural appropriation designers should try to incorporate people from the culture they are inspired by, whether this be in producing, modelling or designing the clothes and we must also consider who benefits or profits from the product.

The key is to consult, collaborate and consider the cultural context.

A Slade, Editor in Chief

Dig

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light from the train at Weybridge station and jump into a cab.

As you head along Golf Club Road the houses become mansions and the environment changes. When you reach your destination at the top of St George’s Hill you enter one of the most exclusive private estates in England. This area has many names.

The British Beverly Hills and ‘Celebville’.

Residents over the years have included footballers, actresses, oil tycoons and even former Beatles. ‘The Hill’ (as those lucky enough to live there like to call it!) epitomises the aphorism that an Englishman’s home is his castle.

Houses guarded by electronic gates, fences monitored by CCTV, roads patrolled by private security. The message is clear.

Private. Keep Out!

for

Victory “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them. For from time-to-time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

As you can imagine the landowners at the time were far from impressed with this ragged band of Christian idealists. They took to the courts to evict the Diggers. When that process began to drag, the pacifist Diggers were subjected to a campaign of violent intimidation and arson.

But this was not always the case. St George’s Hill is The Diggers’ occupation of St George’s Hill failed. The group disbursed but the most ironic of sites for their vision lingers on. It resurfaced in the anarchist movements of the 19th an area now dominated Century who claimed that all property is theft. We saw it again recently in the by exclusive multi-million Occupy Movement, who camped outside Wall Street and St Paul’s Cathedral pound properties. For in the campaigning for a fairer economic system.

Mid-17th Century a unique The Diggers believed in a new world order. Their idealism still appeals and social experiment took place their story echoes down the ages. The Diggers remind us that boundaries in its environs. In April 1649, are not just physical but mental and spiritual. They call on all of us to common land on the hill was work for a fairer and better future, one where, to quote lyrics from occupied by a radical Christian a song chosen by Tony Benn when he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s movement known as the Diggers, Desert Island Discs, who began to farm there. The Diggers were proto-Marxists who This earth divided believed that all land should be free for We will make whole everyone to use. Their belief in economic So it will be equality is based upon a specific passage A common treasury for all in the Acts of the Apostles: N McKain, Head of RS

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GLASS CEILINGS WHY ARE THERE FEWER WOMEN GOING INTO STEM BASED CAREERS? In the last decade, there has been a sharp incline in the number of women working in previously male-dominated fields, including: Veterinary Science, Marketing, Medicine, University Lecturing and in the Civil Service. In fact, over 70% of women aged 16–64 are now employed; a percentage which has increased from slightly over half (53%) in 1971. Women now represent just under half (46.5% in 2017) of the total labour force in the UK; however, this increase cannot be seen in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) based professions.

Women make up only 14.4% of STEM jobs in the UK, which has not increased for a number of years. So why is this?

Numerous reasons have been suggested to explain why the number of women in STEM jobs has remained stagnant. One of these is socialisation and gender stereotypes.

From a young age, children are unconsciously and consciously introduced to the concept of gender and gender based expectations.

Children may be shown this via advertising, television or even via parents. This often results in children having preconception of what they can and can’t do, based on how they identify their gender. One study found that by the age of six, girls are already 52% more likely to associate the value of being ‘really smart’ with boys rather than girls. Not only this, but children may also begin to think of certain jobs as more or less suitable depending on gender. This becomes evident later down the

line, if we look at University course enrolment for example. Traditionally, more women enrol on Humanities based subjects such as; Secretarial courses, History or English, compared to the high numbers of enrolment in Maths, Science and DT displayed by their male counterparts.

These stereotypes may be stopping girls from pursuing STEM based professions at a very young age.

Leading on from on this, another explanation for the lack of women in STEM, is confidence. Quite recently, Dr. Emily Grossman, a figurehead in STEM, visited Pipers Corner and her story is one exemplifying some of the problems. She writes: ‘I was surrounded by predominantly male students and teachers. All the guys seemed so sure of themselves and I was convinced that they understood the material far better than me. Sometimes they laughed when I put my hand up in class or got stuff wrong, and I really lost my confidence.’ The ridicule, and lack of encouragement, became such a problem that Dr. Grossman eventually switched from studying to be a Physicist to studying to become a Biologist.

Lastly, one prominent reason behind the lack of growth in this field seems to be disadvantages concerning childcare and maternity. Childcare is a deterrent for women who might have considered pursuing a career in STEM. Many countries aren’t accommodating towards women who require maternity leave and see them as less committed to their jobs due to this. This, combined with the general feeling that such a male-dominated industry will not be understanding about maternity requirements, makes many female

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scientists consider other jobs that would accommodate their families better and perhaps have a larger majority of females who would understand the needs of maternity and the time childcare would take out of work hours.

However, it’s not all bad. In 2014, almost as many women with children (74.1%) participated in the labour force as women with no children (75%), suggesting that women do feel that they have options now, when it comes to working after having children. Gender stereotypes are being reprimanded and advertising is becoming, gradually, more gender neutral. Furthermore, there are more female role models in STEM. For example, Professor Dame Carol Robinson, is the first female Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and mother of two. The Head of Flight Physics and Capability at Airbus is Victoria Cole. These are just two of the many female role models within STEM careers, and these numbers are growing. Another major role model, is the 2018 Nobel Prize winner, Donna Strickland, who won the prize for the invention of Chirped Pulse Amplification in lasers and optics. The late Dr. Nancy Roma, who was considered the ‘Mother’ of the Hubble Telescope, is also a great example of women working in STEM. To conclude, although there are many hurdles still to overcome, there is still hope for a future, one where men and women are in equal amounts in the STEM workforce and, due to organisations such as Coram and Stemettes, that encourage young girls to consider STEM as a possible career path, this future might just be achievable.

E Farley, Lower Sixth

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WHAT MAKES A 18

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“WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHERE BOYS ARE BOYS AND GIRLS ARE GIRLS.” “MASCULINITY IS MORE OF A FRONT, I THINK.” “ARE MEN PREPARED TO ADMIT THEY HAVE FEMININE QUALITIES?” “GUYS NEED TO LEARN THAT THERE IS A STRENGTH IN BEING VULNERABLE.” and providing whatever he can for his son, so that he has the freedom to explore and learn.

osie Matheson, a portrait photographer from Brighton, has spent the last four years photographing boys around the world with the aim of ‘capturing the softer side of the male experience’ and documenting how masculinity is perceived in the modern world. She studied photography at A Level, and has now progressed to freelance photography, with high-profile clients such as Nike, Kodak, and Getty Images. Her most recent project is ‘Boys – The Film’, in collaboration with London-based producer Kaj Jefferies.

“I’ll slave away, so that he can relax.”

Another man is sat in the front seat of a car, doors open.

He describes the civil war in his home country, comparing it to the UK. He feels that now he’s not surrounded by violence, this is how life should be like.

“I grew up in a really rough environment in northern Uganda.”

He recalls a time where he went to a friend’s brother’s funeral. He was so upset, he started crying in front of the other men. He was the only man crying, and his friends were telling him to stop crying and ‘be a man’.

THE BREAKDOWN OF STEREOTYPICAL MALE BEHAVIOUR A shirtless man is standing over the camera, smirking. The composition suggesting power and dominance.

Matheson and Jeffries’ film asks the question: What makes a man?

“You don’t have real big men any more.”

The footage juxtaposes stereotypical masculine behaviour with softer aspects of masculinity, and often features physical strength contrasting emotion and vulnerability.

He feels that today’s society is demasculinising for some, particularly for those who have been brought up in a certain way by someone who might be perceived as an ‘ultra-masculine figure’. He believes it’s okay to aspire to be a breadwinner, despite how society’s views are changing.

MEN WHO DON’T FEEL ACCEPTED BY OTHER MEN “Being a man means whatever you want it to be.”

“I don’t think you have to go around and think you’re this big ‘I am’.”

One man recounts a story in which he begged his mother for a pair of pink, sparkly high heels at the age of 11.

Builders working on their house at the time quizzed her, and disagreed with her son wearing feminine shoes.

A sphynx cat is perched on a man’s shoulder. He explains that most men think he’s gay because of his musical taste and apparent lack of machismo.

His brother came around to visit and refused to play with his cat because “blokes don’t play with cats.” His brother thinks he can only be seen playing with a large, stereotypically ‘macho’ dog like a pitbull.

“I don’t need to be stereotyped by you.”

Another man expresses his struggle growing up identifying as a gay, black man from South London. He’s dancing in a park, physically expressing his emotions.

He felt as if being ‘gay’ meant he had to conform to a stereotype, putting him in a box. Vulgar slang directed at him by his peers made him not want to identify with the word ‘gay’.

“You are a product of your environment.”

A man and his dog are sat on a bench. The man describes how he sees his dog as his best friend, and that he doesn’t feel he owns him, rather knows him. He says that men who grew up with just their mothers express more feminine qualities, and aren’t afraid to show emotion.

“I don’t like being in an environment where I don’t have the freedom to be who I really am.”

“It’s a fear of being seen as less masculine.”

VIOLENCE AND MASCULINITY

Two brothers are sat in a skate park. They describe stereotypical masculinity as having to put on an angry front, and being conscious of your appearance. Neither of the pair have ever felt a need to hide behind this front as they’re happy with themselves how they are.

A man and his young son are sat together on a wall.

They’re discussing how they would describe themselves as a person, joking about the freckles on their faces. The father describes a time when he was stabbed outside a club and was left in a coma. This was a wake-up call for him. He defines masculinity as looking after your family,

A Wright, Lower Sixth

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Romantic revolution THE BREAKING OF BOUNDARIES IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND: LITERATURE, HISTORY AND RELIGION.

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hen Literature students learn of the Romantic period, it is often marked with images of Wordsworth and Blake alongside descriptions of a rapidly developing society brimful of revolutions, factories and social discontent. Such negative connotations of the early 19th Century adds an ironic element to the title of the ‘Romantic Era’ in which figureheads such as Constable, Shelley, Keats and Byron pushed the budding boundaries of suffering and exploitation placed upon the lower classes. Literature was not the only medium being used to push, and create. The historical nature of Victorian Society also laid the foundations for questioning traditional beliefs and standards. Yet the still very austere society continued to shun and often ridicule many female figures and scientists for their attempts at progression. Let me take you on a whistle-stop tour of the defining

THE ‘ROMANTIC ERA’ IN WHICH FIGUREHEADS SUCH AS CONSTABLE, MARY SHELLEY, KEATS AND BYRON PUSHED THE BUDDING BOUNDARIES OF SUFFERING AND EXPLOITATION

moments of the 19th Century, those that both imposed boundaries and those that began to break them.

HISTORY The turn of the 19th Century marked the consequences of the groundbreaking American Revolution of 1775. For the first time, the looming presence of the oppressive British Empire was being threatened by revolutionaries dreaming of a better tomorrow, fighting red coats with international assistance from France; a country which would later overthrow its’ own revolution against its monarchy.

With the cultivation of revolutions that altered the social and political scene internationally, the same was expected of England and the current monarchy was preparing for a rebellion from the public against the State. A revolution did occur; however, it was not in the form of riots or rampages but with the growth of factories, machines and steam engines.

The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries was one to create boundaries not to dismantle them.

With the developments of urban labour there were advancements in transport, communications and production, the cost for such developments were, however, too high as the revolution encouraged the exploitation of the lower classes through extensive hours in dangerous

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conditions with meagre wages that barely covered basic costs. Children were being taken out of school and forced under machines, where they often risked their lives so as to not be thrown out onto the streets.

RELIGION The advancements of machinery and science also encouraged the questioning of the boundaries placed on society by the overriding authority and suffocating presence of the Church. Alternative approaches to the answering of existential questions on the nature of our universe and purpose began to undermine faith alone in an omnipotent and fearful presence. Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’, published in 1859, challenged the presumption that all things within our world were created

by God alone, instead offering a scientific style of thinking in reaching an answer to the nature of the world around us. The controversy sparked through Darwin’s work is still reflected within our modern day world, with the book being banned in several American States until the late 1900’s. Darwin certainly did not stand in isolation with his opposing scientific view as Biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word ‘Agnosticism’, advocating for the questioning of the Church’s authority and promoting the integration of science on the social agenda.

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LITERATURE Poet William Blake summarizes the tone of the 19th Century almost perfectly: ‘In every cry and every man/In every infant’s cry of fear’.

In his own way, Blake pushes the boundaries of the Romantic Movement, choosing to project the reality of suffering and discontent within his poetry and art instead of disillusioning himself with the metaphors of daffodils and nightingales that his contemporaries were creating. When studying the literary movement of the 19th Century we look to a group of writers now known as ‘The Romantic Poets’ who valued emotion and the appreciation of nature to reach an understanding of the world around us, pushing the boundaries that were being imposed by the growing scientific and industrial revolution which stifled the authentic and rural way of living.

One of the most famous of these poets, Lord Byron, epitomises the movement in his refusal to conform to rules. Indeed, Byron famously brought a bear as a companion with him to Cambridge upon being told that there was a ‘No Dog’ regulation in the dormitories (there was however, no rules against bears). Despite such initial progressive connotations that surround the group of Romantics, they imposed boundaries of their own by dismissing, the now widely respected John Keats as a ‘common cockney’. Keats’ poetry remained ignored for his whole life, a mere 25 years, simply because he was not of the same social status as his contemporaries, living a draining

life within the East-End London slums.

It is in the years after his death that Keats pushed the boundaries and labels imposed upon him as he is now considered to be the greatest of the English poets and, had he only lived longer, a rival of William Shakespeare.

The Romantic literary movement also contains prominent female writers who pushed the boundaries enforced upon them by society, religion and politics. Writing in the time where proto-feminists, such as Mary Wollstonecraft were ridiculing the limited nature of female education, Jane Austen also reflects her feminist beliefs within elements of her six novels regarding the social progression of women through equal access to education. Austen also looks far ahead of her time and tackles the question of social status within ‘Pride and Prejudice’, focusing on the judgemental and critical approach of the upper classes towards others through her famous descriptions of ballroom

dances. The invention of ‘ScienceFiction’ is credited to Mary Shelley, her novel ‘Frankenstein’ was an instant hit and also a social comment on the dangers of Scientific progression.

Not only was Shelley pushing the boundaries of the social assumptions of ‘weakness’ and ‘delicacy’ towards the female sex, but also comments upon the prominent social questions posed by the 19th Century, debating whether such progression breaks barriers or creates them.

The revolutions, the scientific advancements, the rejection of ultimate Church authority and the viewing of authoritative female figures in the public arena all point to a century that breaks the multitude of boundaries that was previously imposed upon the lives of many.

However, the viewing the 19th Century as an ‘era of progression’ remains a difficult task. The monstrous growth of the Industrial Revolution destroyed the rural country of England as well as the lives of the lower and working classes. The scientific advancements, developed alongside fundamentalist criticisms, created a division between faith and reason that still remains relevant today. Despite the rise of female figures that began to defy the social boundaries placed upon them, women would not get the vote until some hundred years later in 1918 or receive pay equal to their male counterparts; an issue still not yet resolved in 2019. Yet the 19th Century remains fascinating for this very reason: never since has there been an era so defined by such extreme growth but also by such extreme rigidity.

G Pratt, Lower Sixth

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t is evident that there is a huge societal divide within Paris. The issues with ‘les gilets jaunes’ at the moment highlight the problems the French Government are failing to address, for example, the impact of the police violence towards protestors. This has previously been highlighted by films such as ‘La Haine’, produced by Mathieu Kassovitz, which focuses on the split between those who live in the suburbs and those who live in the centre of Paris.

‘La Haine’ clearly display the boundary that exists between the people of Paris. The young people without work or a good education are seen as, and feel like, outsiders and many of them, being from North Africa, are even further marginalised.

Jackets

The structure of the roads and buildings seem to amplify the issue of integration of immigrants in Paris. The ‘Périphérique’ runs around the outside Paris and it is clear that, once you have crossed this boundary, the socio-economic situation is very different between the centre and suburbs. A journalist for the Guardian supports this through saying “Paris’ boundaries are defined by its fortifications”. The ‘Périphérique’ underlines the divide between the poor and marginalised outer suburbs and the overwhelmingly white, privileged, centre; adding a

“SOCIO-ECONOMIC BOUNDARIES HAVE EXISTED WITHIN PARIS FOR MANY YEARS HOWEVER, THEY HAVE BEEN EXEMPLIFIED BY THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND TERRITORIAL ISSUES THAT HAVE AFFECTED THE SOCIETY.”

physical dimension to municipal borders and separating ‘les banlieusards’ from the rest of Paris. Many would argue the ‘Périphérique’ serves not only as a transit corridor but that it also serves as a physical border.

It, arguably, increases the division between those who live in the centre of the French capital and those who live on the periphery, in the suburbs.

Contrary to the idea of the ‘Périphérique’ being the main social boundary, some would argue “the main divide between Parisiens and banlieusards, remains a psychological one. While redesigning and reinventing the ‘Périphérique’ is certainly part of the solution, it is Parisians’ perceptions that must change if the ghosts of Paris’ historic fortifications are to be eradicated for good.”

Socio-economic boundaries have existed within Paris for many years however, they have been exemplified by the geographical and territorial issues that have affected the society. The imbalance of power between the disadvantaged and the elite in France is becoming more and more prominent. It has been said that the border between Paris and the suburbs is an invisible wall, showing the difficulty of tackling the ever-growing issues of social exclusion and marginalisation of those living outside the centre of Paris.

The many arrondissements existing in the French capital also exaggerate the borders and boundaries. Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in 2016 that she wanted to shift the boundaries of Paris’s arrondissements however, it is clear that there is still much social exclusion that impacts the French people.

The suburbs of not only France, but also Belgium,

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have been infamous for nurturing terrorists that were responsible for the Brussels bombings, the Charlie Hebdo shooting and the Paris attacks of November 2015.

The boundaries of social inclusion have caused many social issues. The alienation of ‘les banlieusards’ has led to social closure within the suburbs; young people are becoming more and more rebellious against the upper class and the government, leading to even more friction and stronger marginalisation of the disadvantaged.

The political and social boundaries within Paris are clear and growing. The many weeks of protests of ‘les gilets jaunes’ have highlighted these issues. The boundaries between the privileged and the disadvantaged that are so obvious in Paris have been reflected in the protests of the les gilets jaunes and this has spread across the country. And whilst the causes for this dissatisfaction may be different, the sentiments are the same: a sense of anger, frustration and disenfranchisement. The gap between the political class and those who feel powerless was spelled out in stark relief when Macron attempted to reach out to the demonstrators through a speech that was broadcasted on national television, sat behind a gold-leaf desk, the most valuable piece of furniture in the Élysée Palace.

Unless the French elite understand how they are perceived by the marginalised, and recognise the psychological gap between them, and, more importantly, take steps to alter that perception, the social boundaries will be as permanent as the physical ones such as the ‘Périphérique’.

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La plupart des rues et des bâtiments semblent amplifier les problèmes de l’intégration des immigrés à Paris. Le Périphérique suit son cours à l’extérieur de la capitale et il est clair que, après avoir traversé celle-ci, la situation socioéconomique est très différente entre le centre parisien et les banlieues. Un journaliste du Guardian soutient cela, en disant : “Les frontières Parisiennes sont définies par ses “fortifications”.” Le Périphérique souligne l’écart entre les banlieues souvent pauvres et marginalisées et le centre privilégié et majoritairement “blanc”, ce qui ajoute une dimension physique aux frontières municipales et sépare les banlieusards du reste de Paris. À l’inverse de l’idée que ce Périphérique est la frontière sociale principale, quelques personnes soutiendraient que “l’écart entre les Parisiens et les banlieusards serait

psychologique. Même si redessiner et réinventer le Périphérique fait certainement parti de la solution, ce sont les perceptions/idées préconçues des parisiens qu’il faut changer si nous voulons que les spectres parisiens des fortifications soient supprimer à jamais,”.

LES DIFFERENCES SOCIO-ECONOMIQUE EXISTENT DEPUIS LONGTEMPS. TOUTEFOIS ELLES SONT L’EXEMPLE DES PROBLEMES GEOGRAPHIQUES ET TERRITORIAUX QUI AFFICTENT LA SOCIETE.

Les différences socioéconomiques existent depuis longtemps. Toutefois, elles sont l’exemple des problèmes géographiques et territoriaux qui affectent la société. En France, le déséquilibre du pouvoir entre les désavantagés et l’élite devient de plus en plus visible. On dit que la frontière entre Paris et ses banlieues et “un mur” invisible ; ce qui montre la difficulté de confronter/d’abord les problèmes d’exclusion et de marginalisation qui ne cessent d’augmenter.

menant à plus de conflits et une plus haute marginalisation des défavorisés.

Aussi, les nombreux arrondissements qui existent dans la capitale française amplifient les notions de frontière. La Maire de Paris, Anne Hidalgo, a dit en 2016 qu’elle voulait décaler les frontières des arrondissements parisiens ; cependant il est clair qu’il y a encore beaucoup d’exclusions sociales qui, à leur tour, ont un effet sur les français.

Les banlieues françaises ainsi que les belges sont connues pour avoir formé les terroristes qui sont responsables des attentats de Bruxelles, de la fusillade à Charli Hebdo et les attaques de Paris en novembre 2015.

Les frontières de l’exclusion sociale ont causé beaucoup de problèmes sociaux. La mise à l’écart des banlieusards a mené à un enfermement social au sein des banlieues contre “la bourgeoisie” et le gouvernement. Les jeunes deviennent de plus en plus insoumis envers les personnes très aisées et le gouvernement,

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Les frontières politicosociales parisiennes sont claires et s’agrandissent.

Les nombreuses semaines de manifestations des gilets jaunes ont fait ressortir ces problèmes. Les limites entre les privilégiés et les défavorisés, qui sont tellement évidentes à Paris, ont été montrées dans les manifestations des gilets jaunes et cela s’est répandu à travers le pays.

Bien que les causes pour ce mécontentement puissent être différentes, les sentiments sont les mêmes : des sentiments de colère, de frustration et d’incapacité. L’écart entre la classe politique et de ceux qui se sentent impuissants s’exprimait très bien quand M. Macron a tenté d’aller à l’encontre des manifestants à travers un discours retransmis à la télévision nationale, assis derrière un bureau recouvert de feuilles d’or : le meuble le plus précieux du Palais de l’Élysée. À moins que les élites françaises comprennent la manière dont ils sont perçus par les marginalisés et qu’ils reconnaissent l’écart psychologique qui les sépare, et plus important encore, qu’ils prennent des mesures pour modifier cette perception, les frontières sociales seront aussi permanentes que les frontières physiques telles que le Périphérique.

S Stepney, Upper Sixth

Les gilets

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l est évident qu’il y a une énorme fracture sociale à Paris. Les problèmes actuels avec les ‘gilets jaunes’ soulignent les problèmes dont le Gouvernement français a du mal à remédier. Nous pouvons le voir avec l’impact de la violence policière envers les manifestants. Auparavant cela avait été fortement souligné par le film de Mathieu Kassovitz: ‘La Haine’ qui se concentre sur la séparation entre ceux qui habitent en banlieue et ceux qui résident dans le centre parisien. Les films comme celui-ci montrent clairement la frontière imaginaire qui existe entre les parisiens. Les jeunes sans emploi ou sans réel diplôme scolaire sont vus et se sentent comme étrangers.

Il est important de souligner que beaucoup d’entre eux sont souvent issues de la seconde vague d’immigration Africaine et sont souvent marginalisés par la société.

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JAMIE OLIVER, ORLANDO BLOOM, HOLLY WILLOUGHBY, WALT DISNEY, STEVEN SPIELBERG. WHAT DO YOU THINK ALL THESE CELEBRITIES HAVE IN COMMON? WELL, LET ME TELL YOU …

DYSLEXIA (NOUN.) A GENERAL TERM FOR DISORDERS THAT INVOLVE DIFFICULTY IN LEARNING TO READ OR INTERPRET WORDS, LETTERS, AND OTHER SYMBOLS, BUT THAT DO NOT AFFECT GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. One in ten people are dyslexic, that’s 10% of the population, roughly 750,000,000 people on Earth.

Dyslexia is a recognised disability under The Equality Act of 2010 and, compared to some other disabilities, dyslexia is fairly common, so why is it that there are still so many misconceptions about how it really affects people and the barriers that it presents?

In my opinion, there are two different types of boundaries that people with dyslexia face. The first is the actual learning difficulty, and the challenges that come alongside this, either at school, work or home.

The second boundary is the many misconceptions and the lack of understanding that those with dyslexia will have to face at times.

Both of these boundaries will affect almost everyone who has dyslexia, and whilst they seem aggravating, I try to look on the positive side of things. I believe that the main lesson that people with dyslexia will learn throughout their lifetime, is resilience

- an attribute which is essential to twenty first century living.

The first boundary that I am tackling here is the learning side of things.

Most will assume that people with dyslexia are ‘just a bit slow’ maybe even ‘stupid’, but this is NOT the case. Dyslexia is a language based disability which means that dyslexics have trouble with letters, words and sounding things out, but this definition is a very ‘umbrella-like’ like one. Each person with the disability will experience something slightly different, which is why it can be hard to generalise the problems that people with dyslexia have. The most common issues start at an early age, and are usually spotted in primary school.

These can be; problems recognising words and spelling patterns, problems reading, or problems with processing information that gets given to you.

This being said, there are still cases where people with dyslexia aren’t diagnosed until they are much older, whether that is in Secondary School, or sometimes even in adulthood.

I cannot speak for everyone, but to make things a bit clearer, I can try to explain how my own dyslexia affected me throughout the three years of studying for my GCSEs. In lessons, when information was given out, I either needed it written down, or for the teacher to repeat it a number of times. This is not because I am a forgetful person, but because one of the characteristics of my dyslexia is that I have a very slow processing speed; I have to listen to, or read things, multiple times before they change from random

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words in my mind to meaningful ones with purpose. In subjects such as English or Drama, when reading text aloud, I usually like to follow along with my ruler. This is so I do not lose my place when reading. I hear lots of comments from people assuming that dyslexics see words floating all over the page, which sometimes makes me laugh (we aren’t crazy!) but personally I do have to concentrate very hard on what I am reading, or the other words surrounding the ones I am focusing on will be added into the equation and I will say words from three lines down the page because my brain has seen them and is jumping ahead.

The final example I will use is that I cannot work very well with big chunks of information. So when looking in textbooks, it took me a lot longer to find the information I needed and to understand it. Instead, when writing notes in class, or when revising, I would use a lot of colour and a lot of space to make things clearer. Now, in my A Levels, I have purchased my own textbooks so that I can underline and highlight key terms and phrases to make it easier for me to see the important bits. These are only a few, very select, personal examples of what people with dyslexia experience. Other troubles can be found with spelling, reading aloud or very slow reading and writing.

With all of this, and the large proportion of people who suffer with dyslexia in mind, there has been a lot of work and research into ways that dyslexics can be helped, because at this present time, there is no cure.

AQUILA

One very popular way of dealing with dyslexia is trying out and using different fonts. There are even different types of special ‘dyslexia fonts’. The one I have had experience with is the ‘dyslexie font’. This was designed by a dyslexic man named Christian Boer when he was at university in Holland. After designing his own typeface, Boer, aged 36 said: “Traditionally in typeface design, there are ‘rules’ that say it is best to make the letters as uniform as possible, if you make the arch of an “h” the same as an “n”, it produces a typeface that is clean and quiet for ordinary readers. For me, these letters become three-dimensional so you can turn them around and they begin to look alike. What I wanted to do was slap these 3D letters flat”.

The font includes letters with different shaped bumps and sticks, so dyslexics do not muddle them up. Another strategy that has been found to help many people with dyslexia is the use of coloured paper, glasses or overlays.

I am not someone who uses these things; however, I have encountered people who do. Professor John Stein from the University of Oxford found that using blue or yellow colours can help the two thirds of dyslexics who experience blurring and moving words on a page. This is due to the colours allowing people to have better visual motion sensitivity and eye-control, meaning that they can focus on the important things that they are reading without being distracted by other things.

The second type of boundary that I mentioned dyslexics have to overcome is the one which people aren’t really warned about when they get diagnosed. It comes with almost everything that makes an individual stand out or differ from the crowd, and that is ‘judgement’. I am aware that I could be generalising when I say that “no-one understands dyslexia”, and I am positive that there will be numerous people reading this who either have dyslexia or are, in fact, very aware of how it affects people.

But this part of my article is mainly aimed at those people who do not understand dyslexia.

When I started off by doing some basic research on dyslexia and people’s opinions about it. I came across one question on ‘The Student Room’ which was asking people whether they thought dyslexics should be allowed extra time in exams. Whilst I am not usually someone to get angry over small things, especially when they come from people I do not know, some of the responses to that question made me want to throw my laptop across the room. I know that ‘extra time’ is often a big factor in people’s negative opinions about dyslexia, and I can see why those who are not educated about dyslexia might consider it to be unfair, but in reality it is fair, and there is research behind it.

Extra time isn’t just given out to everyone, students have to have evidence of their diagnoses and also evidence that we need and have used extra time throughout our schooling.

There are also instances where extra time gets taken away if it isn’t needed.

Although I have attempted to explain myself here, ironically, I don’t see why people with dyslexia have to explain themselves to everyone who thinks that the assistance they get is not needed. These are the type of boundaries that can limit dyslexic people. There is nothing worse than trying to work before an exam to prepare and having people saying to you, ‘but you’ll be ok - you have extra time’. Those extra ten to fifteen minutes do not invalidate the need to revise or to work hard. We have to work just as hard, if not harder, than everyone else.

When I said that dyslexia teaches resilience, this is what I mean. People with dyslexia have to be tough, and have to be able to face judgements.

I also know that as much as I want to, there is no need to get angry about people who do not understand dyslexia, this is for two reasons.

Firstly, we have to understand that not everyone is educated about such issues, and what they know may just be what others have told them and so they have developed an opinion based on hearsay and we cannot fault them for that, merely strive to educate them. Secondly, there is

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no need to get angry, because we cannot change the fact that we have dyslexia. We cannot remove dyslexia so there is no use in getting upset about it and giving up on school.

We have to keep pushing forwards when we may be a bit behind, and find our own ways of getting through it, which may seem hard, but in the long run I have found that it aids selfconfidence and the belief in myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to. For me, I almost see myself as having a responsibility, we have to help people who may not understand what things are like for us, by informing them of what it is like, and how our lives are different to theirs.

BOUNDARIES WHICH ARE NOT ALWAYS LISTED ON OUR EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST REPORTS, BUT ONES WHICH WE ARE INTRODUCED TO AS WE GROW UP WITH THE LABEL OF DYSLEXIA. Hopefully these examples have given you a bit more of an insight into what boundaries dyslexics face, boundaries which are not always listed on our educational psychologist reports, but ones which we are introduced to as we grow up with the label of dyslexia.

Dyslexia itself is not a boundary, it is a door which opens up a new way of looking at and approaching tasks, a door which gives us endless opportunities and a door which makes us different...in the best way possible! So, in conclusion, dyslexia does not have to be a boundary, it does present us with our fair share of them, but I see dyslexia as a good thing. We can learn lessons from our struggles which we can keep for life, such as resilience and, in the words of this year’s Prefect Initiative, knowing that you are limitless and that you can do anything you want to, even if there are obstacles in the way, it is your drive which will get you there.

A Byrne, Lower Sixth

AQUILA

THE SOCIAL STIGMA OF TATTOOING: FROM GANGS TO COSMOPOLITAN CULTURE

The stigma of having a tattoo is still prominent within society today… surprising given that four billion people within the world now have a tattoo, which equates to 57% of the global population. Not only this, but the practice of tattooing is an ancient art and part of special cultural significance for many indigenous peoples. It fascinates me how divided the world still is about the simple tattoo.

The most prominent forms of tattoo disapproval lie within Asian communities, especially within South Korea where tattooing is illegal. Their controversial history with tattooing has led to the belief that tattoos are considered to be for antisocial individuals who go against social norms, like criminals, gang members and juvenile delinquents. Yet such illegalities have not stopped tattoo artists within South Korea from having small businesses, or individuals who remained determined to ink-up despite the strong social stigma and illegal prospects, utterly rejecting the South Korean social standards of conformity. The contentions that face those who are “inked” not only mean that they are socially placed as criminals or vandals, but also mean that they run the risk of being jailed for their works of art.

Jay Park is one such individual sending shockwaves through the Korean and American music scenes, but also creating animosity due to his heavily inked skin. Not only is he heavily accomplished, but he has

also taken the tattooing ground by storm due to his unconventional ideas on the correlation between music and tattoos. With music videos that regularly feature his collection of body art. Park regularly comes under the stigmatised crossfire of South Korea’s social aesthetic norms. This has, according to Park himself, changed the way his fan base perceive him: “My family really dislikes it [tattooing], but my older fan base would bash me because, way before, it was linked to being in the mafia. But with Korean TV, they just blur it out anyway…”

Within South Korea, national television streaming has banned the use of tattoo on screens and so Park’s tattoos are always blurred in his videos, performances and interviews.

Although many western societies are returning towards an idealistic version of traditional tattooing practices, there is a new branch of tattooing emerging rapidly through social media. Celebrity tattooists are now receiving fame and recognition,

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filling their diaries with appointments made by those who want the be worked on by the same artist as their idols. Ed Hardy, for example, has made himself a cool $250 Million whilst Keith “Bang Bang” McCurdy has left his tattooed mark on the likes of Rihanna and Lenny Kravitz. Their following has grown throughout the past decade, it highlights the growing movement and blend of tattooing and social media.

Yet even the elite culture of tattooists that has grown on social media is not enough to eradicate all negative attitudes towards body art. Even within the UK today, tattooed individuals still face prejudice within the workplace. A 2014 study found that hiring managers are still concerned about visible tattoos when selecting employees for interview and a subsequent 2015 study found that customers still display signs of ‘aversion’ to front-ofhouse staff members with visible ink.

For me, tattooing will always be a piece of art, an act of self -expression, not of self-sabotage.

As society delves further into the world of tattooing in the future, one must question the significance tattooing has within our culture and how we can improve acceptance and understanding. Not only can it add interest and artistic flair onto our bodies, but also reference heritage, culture and history within us.

I Hunter, Assistant Editor

AQUILA

NO ONE IS

FREE Yes I may seem confident, calm or content yet, there is this, this thing this uncanny tear powering through my soul an embedded fear of being myself, being different.

An imprint of shackles on my soul, stitches interlooped within the cracks of my silenced lips My mind involuntarily chained to authority, passion tearing through my chest, the cracking and fracturing of ribs, my mangled muscles thrash against my delicate skin.

Yet, Halted.

Frozen in action by covenants.

There is a tempest brewing inside me, a hurricane of repressed emotions barricaded within me.

Yes I may seem passionate, brave and gracious but internally I am withering, petrified by confrontation, fearful of power hungry bodies eating away at my feeble ego, fragmenting my mind, unhealed wounds raw with anguish, oozing torments, infected blood singeing my pale white skin.

I am the prey but with no obvious predator in sight.

A shadowed figure lurks behind, iced merciless breath piercing the pores of my scalp.

The shadows dip into my body, we do not move, lithe and fearful, evaporating confidence like moisture leaving my lungs as both my lungs and soul crisp, wearied with pain.

No one is free, a constant reminder of power and authority implanted into human nature as if a seed planted in a deserted lifeless vegetable patch.

A Joy, Lower Sixth

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AQUILA

Climate Change: A CONVERSATION

A mention must be given to the policemen and women standing strong, with black bulletproof vests and leather lace up shoes, who lined our route and made sure everyone was kept in line.

These were not steelcapped oppressors but instead gave us liberation to speak up.

Maddie: Italics Lottie: Bold

O

n the 15 March 2019, Lottie and I headed into London bearing on a piece of recycled cardboard with only one goal in mind: to make a change. The reverse side of the sign and the future for us - if we so choose it - says ‘If we don’t change, our climate will’.

As we marched through the streets, the overwhelming sense of empowerment took me aback. Being surrounded by passionate young people with the messages of ‘I’m sure the dinosaurs thought they had time too’ and ‘Missing School to teach you a lesson’‘, I wanted nothing more than to make a change. The frustration I felt towards the government has changed the way I live my everyday life; after walking for hours until your voice is hoarse and your arms are numb, there is no going back to settling for our ominous futures that the previous generations have laid out for us.

Climate change is something I have previously found a distant topic, but this opinion has morphed into a greater appreciation. That’s why we just want to have a chat with you: without a conversation change doesn’t happen. Even if it is only a microcosm of the wider political debate the words you say ...or the questions you ask… will still have an impact.

The sea levels creep up with the stolen sands of time, as habitats and homes - not just in a foreign land we never see, but close to home also - are destroyed, ravaged, sold for cold hard cash.

Writing the email asking permission to miss a day of my education to strike made it clear to me - there is a boundary between education and protest, but it’s becoming increasingly ambiguous as our time to make change runs out, and I believe we need to blur that boundary. Let’s protest to educate the world around us. Our exceptional education has enabled us to be able to protest in a clear and convincing way... to make real change.

So don’t waste this opportunity: get out there.

There was a prominent feeling that we needed to take action and so we submerged ourselves in the eye of the storm. Armed with protest sign in hand, we took our first step into controversy. We arrived in the midst of noise and youthful passion, in Parliament Square. The mass of people that had turned out for such a noble cause was electrifying.

The anger towards our current ignorance towards plastic, fracking and deforestation - caused by the unsustainable population of Earth - was enough to make anyone feel energised, motivated, and ready to be a part of such a pertinent movement. The sound of the drum circle quietened, the march was about to begin. The three hour long route took us past and through Buckingham Palace and Parliament Square. It was both physically and emotionally draining, but the excitement of the crowd spurred us on despite our aching shoulders, and the blisters forming on our feet. We faced members of the public who disputed our cause, but with the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 watching, sending images to future generations, we knew we had to inspire.

The greatest thing I will take from this day is the need for each and every person to take charge of their own future, and always be proactively looking to help.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. Let us create a world that is sustainable and beautiful for generations to come. One small change in your own day-to-day life can make a big impact in the long-term.

Which side of our sign do you want to be?

C Coates and M Ingleton, Year 11

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AQUILA

THE PROBLEMS WITH

D

id you know in the last 16 years 100,000 Bornean Orangutans have been lost due to the damage caused by palm oil production? The palm oil business is a profit-based industry and manufacturers continue to burn down forests so that oil palms can be grown, and more money can be made. An area the size of a football pitch is lost every 25 seconds due to deforestation and it has caused tens of thousands of animals to lose their homes, and their lives, in the process.

This planet is ours to protect; why are we destroying what was given to us? We need to come together and make a change before it is too late.

We may not be able to see it, but palm oil has become increasingly available in our everyday lives. It is found in almost half the products in UK supermarkets including: chocolate, shampoo, lipstick, soap, margarine and so much more. It predominantly comes from the fruits of the West African oil palms and is used to give products a longer shelf-life. In order to feed the growing demand for palm oil, more plantations have been replacing tropical rainforests and peatland. Indonesia now has more threatened and endangered species than any other country on Earth – largely because their habitats have been destroyed. Bornean orangutan numbers have more than halved between 1999 and 2015.

In my opinion, it is wrong to use palm oil and damage our natural world. The natural world does not belong to us and it never has. Valuable land is being wasted and precious lives are lost just to get one product as a result.

Palm Oil

I sent an email to Cadbury’s to tell them about my views on the products they use.

Dear Cadbury’s,

I am Arabella Davis and I am 12 years old. Recently I have taken an interest in world around us and how we are damaging it. I am writing to you to tell you about one of the ingredients you are using in your products. You use a product called palm oil which is very dangerous and life threatening to the wildlife and nature.

To keep up with the high demand for the cheaply produced oil, acres of rainforest are being cut down leading to a loss of animal habitat for endangered species. In the past 16 years, the production for palm oil has led to the death of an estimated 100,000 orangutans. Elephants, rhinos and other endangered animals are also in danger.

Palm oil production is linked to major issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuse in the countries where it is produced, as the land and forests must be cleared for the development of the oil palm plantations.

Raising awareness about how palm oil production is harming the planet, animals, and people alike is so important.

Major corporations must start to change the ingredients they use and set the standard to the rest of the world, you should be setting an example that others follow. Finding an alternative ingredient is something people must start to do.

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I believe that we should treasure the world around us and not destroy it. Next time you pour palm oil into production; think about the journey and the mass destruction it has created.

Yours sincerely, Miss Arabella Davis In response they wrote: Dear Arabella

Thank you for getting in touch with us.

Mondelez International is committed to eradicating deforestation in the palm oil supply and we are actively working with our suppliers to ensure palm oil is fully traceable. We have actionable steps in place to make certain that the palm oil we buy is produced on legally held land, does not lead to deforestation or loss of peat land, respects human rights, and does not use forced or child labour.

Here is a link to more information, which we hope you’ll find helpful https://palmoil. mondelezinternational.com/ Thank you again for contacting us.

Kind regards, Amanda R Consumer Relations Team So what can we do to help stop deforestation as a result of palm oil production? I think it is important to keep pressure on the corporations who use palm oil. They need to ensure their palm oil is sustainable or find an alternative ingredient. We need to start making a difference and change this destructive process.

A Davis, Year 7

AQUILA

You said ‘Look, it’s in this one.’ Sticky page, dusty album. ‘That’s Flaherty’s, the sweet shop, is that you?’ Mophaired, short trousers, long socks, silent Sunday shoes. ‘The funeral directors was next to that’. You said, ‘No, the butchers is there. On the other side’. I said ‘I know I know, of

course I know.’ Next to the butchers, a square on the Monopoly board of childhood nobody ever bought: the village Funeral Directors. Children walking past to the bakers for yeast, warm in the hand to bake bread, the bottom half of the window frosted for eternity and the top half too high for ten year olds to see through.

Inscribed in gold gothic, Death’s company name. Death. Stuffed under the cushions of parables. Colder than gravestones’ inscriptions in the church at the end of the lane. Death, a photograph of an ivy leaf propped on an empty silver flower holder.

Death. Is for little boys in school caps who do not believe. They get left behind. Death is a threat. Godalmings and Sons never made any effort to decorate the window. On rainy days it reflected the flashes of the crossing beacons. 3 seconds left. Made it. See?

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And now, a lifetime later, after holding the shell in hospital sheets, leaving the ward one last time, walking across that same road, to make an appointment for Dad. 1130: Meet Your Funeral Director. You had not wanted to go, though you said you would, if I wanted. I said no, don’t: the Easter parade is important for her. You said ‘What about Peter?

Would he go?’ Peter Peter Simon Peter bread and two fishes on the colour plate. Bible for Children. I’m alright. Meet the other brothers.

Each get out of separate cars, each holding Costa cups of separate silence. Beacons flash seconds. Pause outside. Check watches - 15 minutes early. The reflections of the beacons in the window. Together push the door. Jangle. The door we had never thought we would open.

AQUILA

I wipe childhood on the brushed mat and smell … a small exhalation of life. There’s three chairs, a desk, a vacuum cleaner propped as a dead spectator. Are we grieving correctly? A brochure “The funeral you’ve always wanted”. Woman at the desk, doesn’t look up. Purple hair, curling her fingers around the rotary phone cord. She converses in a stage whisper: she would go but it’s so expensive, Sophs, and a year away anyway. OK. Yeah. Later. She pulls at the crust and fingers a crumb back into the Pizza Hut box. Wipe the mozzarella. Chew swallow. Three chairs. Politeness moves up the walls.

A photograph of a black carriage, large wheels, Victorian curlicues, white horses and a fuzzy detail of a white wreath pinned … in the shape of … ah, sideways! Dad. She opens a ledger.

There’s doves she says. From a basket. Released. It’s £49 per bird or £500 all in. For peace. They stand for peace. It’s a nice cheap touch. People like it. Or as a package with the Express. Did we want the Express?

A biro tip points out the tariff. Oak or willow? Her fingers play with the crust. Flick. Sorry. How many people will be coming? Large hall, or small?

Music? Did he have a Spotify playlist?

A bagpiper? Did he like the bagpipes?

No he wanted the State Basic. Silence.

A sucking and a picking of pepperoni from teeth. Fine.

Weeks of hospital Pay and Display tickets still on the passenger seat.

Who went the most? Held the plastic spoon to dry lips? Had the barber cut his hair? No, I’m not Peter Peter was yesterday. Yes, may come today.

That’s right. The Primark pullover is still hanging new and gray in the provided cupboard. No we can’t walk in the garden. Too cold yes. Not Peter, no. Egg stains and a little orange juice carton. Smudged white board: My name is. Frederick. My doctor is. Dr Muhassed. I am. Christian. I like. The Bible. I like to be called ... this part is blurred out. Quite the wit isn’t he, your Dad? We all like him. I don’t think he can understand. Is it the accent?

Pay and Display pings a message.

Time about to expire.

And I had said I would write the Order of Service. Do you have any photos?

Are his family still alive? Climb the stairs to the empty flat. An address book in a drawer. Old tea bags and worn slippers. Stains on the toilet U-bend. Still by the armchair, the Bible with big print. Gold initials emboss the black. The cover sticks to the table and Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians fall.

Post-It notes, his handwriting, mark passages. Remember. Gas bills and water supply. Estimated date of expiry.

In the attic an RAF pay book. Letter of Discharge 1948. Goodbye card. Two family photographs in acid free paper.

The Order of Service arrives from the printer in colour. Tea on we turn the pages in silence. You say is that the beach? Don’t tell me that’s you in the striped trunks? Is that the wood? Remember, every summer, the midnight walk to the lighthouse?

Oh, you made a page 2 as well.

Who’s this? What? Lancaster bombers? He did?

And on the day of committal, rhododendrons, blue sky and the family embrace without touching.

Meet in the yellow sun of daffodils.

Where did you park? Toilet? Yes, go now. Carrying the coffin is heavier than I thought. Now we’ll hear from the eldest son. Forgot my glasses.

These are my father’s. Goodbye. We’ll miss you.

Quiet.

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In the blue of the sky, embrace for the first time in the salty grit of squash in children’s cups in the warm dunes and sand dams made frantic against the tide, and now our own children turning to Magic on cold car rides to school texting to the world on dad’s taxi rides, far from social services appointments and doing the support forms. Power of Attorney. After the committal the blue and the daffodils, Easter sun and the path soft with lifted laughter and lightness. Our children grouped under the trees laughing happy in a free future and ready to run down the dunes and onto the empty sand.

Come on, Dad! Cross the beach streams barefoot. Cold! Cartwheels in front of the receding tide. Walk on.

A wave’s ripple and foam of realising those gone are just as with us as ever. With the moment of a smile.

Suddenly it is not an ending. No-one dies until we die. Sitting on the fallen trunk, Dad, let’s make it our Thinking Spot and puff dandelion clocks to the wind.

Driving out from the crematorium gardens. The brothers tap on the window: Are you listening? What?

Wind the window down, you clown.

Yes, I know. It was. Well done, mate.

You spoke well. Not easy. Pub? The one we always passed? Yeah yeah I know the way. See you there. We’ll meet there. Together.

And along the August evening path, a father and boys, ten pm. Midnight! clutching phosphorescence of twisted paper bags of rhubarb and custard chews five for a penny, flying saucers and sherbert fountains of glowworms in the dark deep winding lane and primroses in the hedges and the warm steam of cows asleep in the folds of valley grass, evanescence and the once a year trip to the lighthouse down lanes where no cars were and the light refracting through the years across the Bristol Channel and out to sea from which there can be no return we walk together in the presence of.

S Gifford, Head of English

Pushing

SO THE BOUNDARIES OF REASON

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AQUILA

E

verything in the world can be rationally explained, right? Evolution, The Big Bang, Chemistry, physicalism: it all provides a logical explanation for the way the universe is. But is this rational approach the limit of the universe’s potential? Perhaps there are aspects of the world, or indeed of humans themselves, that cannot be explained by reason; these are not irrational, but simply beyond reason.

Twentieth Century scientist, historian, theologian and public intellectual Alister McGrath argues against the new atheistic argument, claiming that although reason is a good basis for understanding, reason is not all there is. McGrath pushes the boundaries of reason and claims that, where reason is limited in constructing a vision of reality, faith takes over to illuminate the truths of the universe. He, therefore, argues that faith in God is not irrational - it goes beyond the boundaries - or ‘prison framework’ - of reason.

Criticising Richard Dawkins’s use of science as a weapon to disprove God and destroy faith, McGrath contends that the way of the universe is more complex than Dawkins suggests and, therefore, using science and reason alone to attempt to explain all aspects of the universe pushes them beyond their limits. Atheist Richard Dawkins would disagree with McGrath and argue that we are limited to what humans can prove to be true, therefore all that can be known to exist is that which human rationality can conclude, discounting the possibility of the existence of God and thus challenging McGrath’s claim.

Some philosophers might also question McGrath’s jump to God as the extension of reason

and suggest that McGrath is presenting a presumptive and unnecessary entity. They might argue that there is no more evidence for the Christian God as the extension of reason than there is for the Hindu, Muslim or Sikh Gods; that McGrath jumps to a presumptuous conclusion that cannot be proved right or wrong. McGrath, however would respond by suggesting that he is not presenting an ‘extra item’ or superfluous entity to the reality of the universe in order to explain what reason cannot, he is merely drawing light on the natural instinct and underlying truth that is beneath all of us, which our reason and intuition leads us towards. McGrath, therefore, claims that God is evident not only by the limitations of reason and science, but also by the natural way of our intuition and fundamental understanding of the universe and more than just the physical.

Moreover, McGrath looks to 19th Century British writer and lay theologian C.S.Lewis and his distinction of the rationality of faith. For Lewis, faith allows us to see things as they really are - it illuminates the whole picture, of which reason allows access to only part. Lewis famously explains his belief in God as follows: ‘I believe in Christianity like I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else’, thus adding to McGrath’s claim that the ‘Christian lense’ brings things into focus, allowing us to see further and clearer the scientific and rationally explored world. Lewis justifies the Christian way of thinking with the assertion that worldly experiences fit in with the Christian way of thinking; Christianity, according to Lewis, fulfills the experience of our fundamental, most precedent 33

desire and subconscious belief: that this world is not our true home and that we are primarily more valuable and remarkable than other organisms in the world. Extending his claim, Lewis is convinced that reason points beyond itself and into faith; it is not about running away from reason, it’s about grasping a deeper order of things which is more easily accessed by the imaginative mind. Most scientists and philosophers would agree with this idea that reason does not provide the whole picture of the reality of the universe; that it is limited and does not provide all the answers., therefore there is a way in which faith could follow the boundaries of reason and ‘fill the gaps’.

Ultimately, although various scientific and philosophical arguments question the existence of God and reality of faith in an apparently purely rational and physical world, McGrath, drawing on the writings of C.S.Lewis, tries and tests the boundaries of reason to conclude that, although reason is useful as a tool of evidence and argument, faith in God is the only way by which one can observe the whole picture of the way the universe is. As French mathematician, physicist and Catholic theologian Baire Pascal alluded to, ‘the heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of… we know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.’

C Hall, Upper Sixth

“FAITH ALLOWS US TO SEE THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE - IT ILLUMINATES THE WHOLE PICTURE”

AQUILA

EVIL KNOWS

NO LIMITS: THE REALITY OF AUSCHWITZ

D

ear Reader,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and that from this letter you can learn not to repeat the mistakes made more than 70 years ago.

It’s Saturday, the Council knocks on your door, they tell you to bring all your things and that you need to move somewhere else for a short amount of time. They tell you to hurry and to bring only your essentials, so you grab your house keys (because you will need them when you get back home), things for cooking and something of value to you, perhaps a picture. You are then taken to High Wycombe train station. You ride a train for nine days, without stopping, and arrive confused in the dark with dogs barking and people shouting. This was the fate of many people during the Holocaust, except they would never return to their European homes in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Greece, Norway, Poland… they would be gassed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. What remains of one individual is only their house keys, they were expecting to go home, as you and I would at the end of the day.

They didn’t expect to die in room full of people, under a seemingly normal looking train station, their body lost forever after being cremated and the ashes lost. There are no graves for the 1.1 million, predominantly Jewish, people killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

There are no limits to evil. That is one thing that I have learnt from my trip to Auschwitz. Nothing can prepare you

for entering those camps. The sense of dread I experienced throughout the day was something that I can’t compare to a feeling I’ve had before.

When people say you must experience Auschwitz to understand it, please believe me when I say that there are no words to describe that place, but for you, dear reader, I shall try.

On the site of Auschwitz I, the first and original camp, there is a house with a swimming pool. The said house once belonged to the longest standing commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss. He, his wife and his five children lived there. His wife once called the place ‘paradise’.

At first this sounds incomprehensible, but if you put it into context, it can seem alarmingly ‘normal’. One of your parents gets a job somewhere far away, it’s only natural that the rest of the family would relocate too. As a father, Höss cared for his family and wanted to do more for them, only his work kept him busy. Indeed, when asked how she remembered her father, one of Höss’ daughters (Brigitte) details him reading fairy stories to them in the garden and remarked: “ He was very good to us”. This presents a problem. Although Rudolph Höss’ job was something unimaginably evil, as a father, he was somewhat ‘normal’ - which presented me with a complex problem. If the Nazis weren’t psychopathic killers, and were capable of being somewhat ‘human’, how did this happen? As I was crying into my friend’s arms the next day, that is what I muttered, over and over, ‘How could

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this happen?’ How?’ How could a human commit such atrocities to other humans?

And I still do not have an answer.

There is no answer. Surely, they knew it was wrong? That’s what I fear the most: that they had a conscience, and still did it. That is the problem.

If this happened then, it could easily happen again.

Even more incomprehensible was the machine-like manner in which the mass extermination occurred, dehumanising the Jewish prisoners in such a way, that they became treated in a way that was almost sub-human. Jewish people became so dehumanised, they became faceless. This is what the visit to Auschwitz helps to ease, the facelessness, the prisoners become people, not just prisoners.

In Auschwitz, there are pictures of children, in particular a 14 year old girl called, ‘Czeslawa Kwoka’ whose picture is in Block No. 6. The picture is something I wish to burn from my mind. Her lip is bruised and bloody, and there are tears in her eyes. She was murdered within 4 months of that picture being taken. The photographer, Wilhelm Brasse, recounts this, ‘She was so young and so terrified. The girl didn’t understand why she was there and she couldn’t understand what was being said to her. So this woman Kapo (a prisoner overseer) took a stick and beat her about the face. This German woman was just taking out her anger on the girl.

Such a beautiful young girl, so innocent.

She cried but she could do nothing.

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REMEMBER ME

In what twisted world could this ever be okay? That is Auschwitz, a world turned upside down.

The history books tell us that: In Auschwitz-Birkenau, people were gassed. But there is so much more terror to that than anyone can imagine.

Thousands of people, were herded off the cattle carriages, and selected.

Women, the elderly and children under 14 were sent immediately to the gas chambers. They were at the end of the line, literally and metaphorically.

They were told to strip and told to remember where they had hung their clothes as they would need to come back and find them. They were then pushed into the chamber and an SS officer would pour a pesticide through a hole in the roof, he would wait 20 minutes, just to check they were all dead. The bodies would then be moved, by other prisoners, and burned in the Crematorium, or in a pile in the forest. Before this, all useable parts were taken off them, such as teeth and hair. Hair was used to make clothes and insulator for submarines.

This wasn’t just extermination! This was industrial and profitable mass murder. This was the Holocaust. These wonderful people with ambition, potential and families, were reduced to nothing but numbers and bodies.

Everything was burned in the end.

And so, dear reader, I do not tell you this just to scare and sicken you, but to warn you. The people who suffered were real people, not just faceless individuals, or number and figures.

But what is worse still is that so were the perpetrators. They too were real people, not psychopathic killing machines. That is why I warn you, dear reader. Be just a little kinder, a little more tolerant, a little more aware. I beg you, from the depths of my heart, to visit this horrific place, to tell these difficult stories, so that these atrocities never happen again.

Remember me, Since you won’t remember what I was like when I was free.

You won’t remember my childhood fun, You’ll remember the first time I held a gun.

You won’t remember my love for Keats, You’ll remember the melody of the forever fading beats.

You won’t remember that ‘Heard melodies are sweet, but unheard ones are sweeter’, You’ll remember how they stabbed us back metre by metre, You won’t remember my students laughing in May 1913, You’ll remember the vast valley of ashes that was seen, You won’t remember my sunny smile, You’ll remember my military style, You won’t remember the cherry blossom I stood beneath when I was first kissed, You’ll remember who was caught and who was missed, You won’t remember they used to be my friends, You’ll remember how it all had to end.

You’ll remember I fought for what I thought was right, You’ll remember we put up a bloody fight, You’ll remember our pride and honour that shone in our eyes, But will you remember what lay beneath the disguise?

Will you remember the boy that didn’t come home?

Will you remember his mother waiting to brush her boys hair with the brittle comb?

Will you remember that I made it?

Will you remember my terror which was dismissed as a passing fit?

Will you remember the stagnant smell of crisp gunpowder trickle into our nose?

Will you remember all we wished for was to delay the arrival of the blood rose?

Will you remember that although I came back, my heart belongs to the Battle of the Somme?

Will you remember where I came from?

Will you remember me or simply my name chiseled on a slab of forgotten rock?

Will you remember my love bid me farewell in her delicate white frock?

Will you remember how she didn’t care about peace?

Will you remember she only wanted me back in one piece?

Will you remember she cursed every damn soldier, politician and leader?

Will you remember her idea of peace was us with sweet Emily beneath our Cedar?

You’ll remember my name.

You’ll remember my honour like a forever glowing flame.

You’ll remember the deafening glory of the trombones.

But you won’t remember those who weren’t called to the phone.

And you won’t remember the sacrifice I made for you to be free.

I didn’t sacrifice pride, honour or blood, I sacrificed the memory of me.

K Pepper, Lower Sixth

So, I leave you with this, dear reader, as written on the memorial in Auschwitz - Birkenau.

‘For ever let this place be a cry of despair, and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million, men, women, and children, manly Jews, from various countries of Europe.’

Yours Sincerely, Emily

E Farley, Lower Sixth

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A SHOCKING

EXPERIMENT 1963

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magine you’re standing outside a shop window in 1963, you see a newspaper article looking for participants for a memory study, do you sign up for the research?

Despite Milgram’s experiment being highly unethical, one can’t deny that Milgram’s research into obedience has had a significant influence on how Psychologists in the 21st Century explain obedience. Without Milgram’s research, society wouldn’t have access to this information on obedience and wouldn’t be able to try and explain real life situations; such as the theories into why people obeyed Hitler, leading to one of the most inhumane actions in history: the Holocaust. It makes one ponder as if Milgram was subject to the strict Code of Ethics made by Psychologists now, there is a significant chance that his obedience studies would have never been carried out.

This, of course is how Stanley Milgram recruited participants for arguably one of the most controversial psychological studies of all time. Participants, like you and me, read his newspaper article and signed up for Milgram’s experiment. The psychologist then chose only 40 male participants from the field of applicants. Little did they know the mental and physical peril that many of them would be subjected to.

Milgram’s original obedience study:

You may be reading this pondering as to how a memory study could be so controversial? You would be right to question this, as this wasn’t a memory study at all, it was actually a study on obedience.

Milgram deceived his participants as to what the aim of the study was, breaking one of the many stipulations in the Code of Ethics as set out by the British Psychology Society.

The Code of Ethics initially was set up in 1954 by the British Psychology Society, but has been updated numerous times since, with the latest amendments being in 2018. Therefore, with an even stricter Code of Ethics in Psychology and other sciences nowadays, it would be extremely unlikely that you would even be able to participate in a study like Milgram’s.

Milgram’s study consisted of two confederates: an experimenter, played by an actor, and another man who played the role of the learner (an actor called Mr Wallace). Mr Wallace and the real participant, the member of the public, drew cards to see who would act as the ‘teacher’ and who the ‘learner’. This was rigged so that the real participant was always the teacher and the ‘fake’ participant, Mr Wallace, was always the learner. The teacher was required to test the learner on his ability to remember word pairs. Every time he got one wrong, the teacher had to administer increasingly strong electric shocks, starting at 15 volts, and then continuing up to the maximum of 450 volts. The learner sat in another room and the majority of time gave the wrong answer purposefully, in order to receive the fake electric shocks. Once the fake shocks reached 300V the learner pretended to be in severe pain by pounding on the wall and giving no further response to any other questions.

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When the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, he gave a sequence of ‘prods’ consisting of “please continue” or “please go on”. No participant stopped below 300 volts. Five (12.5%) stopped at 300 volts, 65% continued to 450 volts. Prior to the study Milgram asked 14 psychology students to predict the naïve participants behaviour. They estimated no more than 3% of them would continue to 450 volts. So it was more than just Milgram’s lack of ethics that was shocking.

research because future research and future discoveries may become prohibited or limited due to stringent ethical boundaries, disadvantaging the whole of society in terms of its scientific progression.

Further to this, the benefits outweigh the risks, as from Milgram’s experiment we are able to suggest that obedience is due to situational factors including: proximity, location and uniform. Furthermore, in Milgram’s study, 84% reported they felt glad to have participated and 74% felt they had learned something of personal importance, therefore benefitting the participants too.

Milgram interviewed his participants a year later and found that no participant showed any sign of long-term psychological harm, meaning that the ethical issue of ‘protection from harm’ was not broken in the long term.

After Milgram’s experiment, many would argue that, yes, ethical boundaries should limit psychological research in the 21st Century, because otherwise this gives psychologists and researchers too much power, especially as people don’t question their authority due to the perceived legitimacy of it (as found out by Milgram’s research). Indeed, one could argue that Milgram abused his authority as a psychologist. Furthermore, Milgram’s research ended with psychologically harmful side effects, with some participants displaying signs of extreme tension, sweating, trembling, biting their lip - 3 of the participants even had full-blown seizures. This breaks the ‘protection from harm’ principle set out in the Code of Ethics, and stricter implementation of this in the modern era has helped protect others from being subjected to harm by anyone who would wish to repeat the experiment.

Arguably, other ethical issues can be overcome, as although Milgram deceived his participants, he debriefed everyone straight after the experiment had ended, reassuring everyone that their behaviour was normal and telling them the true aim of his study. In other research, the ethical issue of causing a participant psychological harm, can be overcome by offering therapy or counselling to those experiencing it. Despite Milgram’s “prods” making it harder for participants to withdraw, he never refused any one their right to withdraw, in which 35% of participants did choose to withdraw, he simply made it slightly harder - after all his aim of his study was determining why somebody obeyed. This illustrates that sometimes deceit is needed, as otherwise this decreases the validity and usefulness of the experiment, as participants wouldn’t display their real life behaviour if they knew the aim of the study (demand characteristics).

Further to this, Baumrind (1964) argued that highly unethical research like Milgram’s damages the reputation of psychologists’ research and additionally makes people less likely to volunteer for future psychological experiments. Milgram broke additional Code of Ethics stipulations, including ‘deceit’, as he lied to his participants about the aim of his experiment and he lied to the participants about their roles being ‘randomly allocated’ (the participant was always the ‘teacher’), and he lied to the participants about the electric shocks being real. This deception therefore means that Milgram couldn’t have received full informed consent for his research, breaking yet another aspect of the Code of Ethics (consent) and leading to a lack of respect for his participants. Arguably, ethical boundaries should limit psychological research because the Code of Ethics enables full respect to the participants involved in any form of research.

There is no easy answer to this ethical dilemma, however the British Psychological Society suggests that at all costs the researcher should maximise the benefit and minimise the harm.

The British Psychological Society suggests, “Researchers will need to consider the costs to the individual participant versus potential societal benefits. This is a difficult balance to strike and should be arrived at by careful and explicit analysis and where appropriate, wider consultation with experienced colleagues”.

However, one may rebut this argument and argue that after Milgram’s experiment, ethical boundaries shouldn’t limit psychological

E Cook, Assistant Editor

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Top Pops OF THE

Is the rise of foreign pop culture breaking down the language barrier?

In September 2018, South Korean boy band BTS spoke at the United Nations International Assembly about their anti-violence campaign. Watchers across the world were shocked that a boy band would be given this opportunity, but a brief look back at the development of international popculture puts this initial surprise to rest.

“Despacito,” a Latin pop song by renowned Spanish artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, was the first Spanish song to chart internationally since the Macarena in 1993. Some of the most popular and well-awarded films in the USA over the past few years haven’t been in English; the infamous romance “Call Me By Your Name” is in a combination of French, Italian, German and English (all without any subtitles provided) and “Spirited Away,” the first animated film to win an Oscar and IMDB’s highest rated animated film, is entirely in Japanese.

Western popular culture no longer revolves around the English language in the way that it used to, and teenagers and young adults across the world are scrambling to learn the

AQUILA

languages they’ve experienced through their favourite actors, singers or internet personalities.

2018 was a revolutionary year in terms of the breaking down of language barriers.

In the past, the boundaries caused by language affected global culture in hugely significant ways - from music and television to international students, tourism and immigration - language barriers made life difficult for those who wanted more than what their home country had to offer.

Fast forward to 2019, however, and it’s an entirely different story. Record numbers of students are choosing to study in foreign countries and films, books and television shows are being translated into hundreds of languages.

A report by the Modern Language Association shows that Korean uptake in US universities rose by almost 14% between 2013 and 2016, while overall language enrolment was in decline.

Duolingo’s Korean programme has attracted over 200,000 pupils since its launch in 2017 - and the vast majority of these people have been attracted to the language because it’s what their favourite artists sing, rap and speak in.

Korean is just one example, picked from many, that demonstrates the enthusiasm of young people to learn

languages. Due to the rise of media content in a multitude of languages, millions of young people across the world are becoming accustomed to not being able to understand what their favourite celebrities are saying without translation. To the bafflement of older generations, it’s rapidly becoming the norm to no longer let a language barrier stop someone from liking a TV show, film, artist or book.

Teenagers are going to concerts in order to hear artists sing in languages that they don’t understand a word of, or are painstakingly watching hours of television shows with subtitles so that they understand what’s going on. Why would they do this? Thanks to social media, we have access to cultures that we would never have heard of or been able to learn about otherwise, and many enjoy experiencing these cultures through media content and the people who exist within it. Generation Z, the name given to those born from 1996 onwards, has an advantage over any other generation to date due to growing up accustomed to the use of the internet; the fast-paced nature of digital development and how that affects socialisation is boring to us. We can talk to people in every country of the world in seconds, so why wouldn’t we?

As for what this all means, it’s being interpreted in various different ways. While some see this as a bad thing - after all, shipping albums and downloading TV shows from a different hemisphere is costly and time-consuming, and may seem pointless if you don’t even speak the language - others see this as the beginning of something much bigger.

In a time of international conflict, with world wars in our past and potentially hovering in the future, it could not be more important for young people to reach out to other countries for comfort through entertainment and even for friends. This phenomenon is one that is only getting bigger.

E Eisenberg, Lower Sixth

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of DEATH. His futile search for life never ends.

No help by his side; death has claimed them as his own.

A bird’s soft hum echoes through the air, He listens and finds comfort in the bird’s calling.

Songs of a canary sent to its death.

A slow massacre, a strangling pain.

The soldier joins in the gentle mellow whistling, He hears the tormented screams of a life draining away.

Down to the ground. The cry trembles in its wake.

The canary’s song now whistled by the soldier.

Through the eerily quiet land he now roams.

His death awaits.

This he has always known.

Burning wood and flesh overwhelms him, As he struggles to grab hold of reality.

He stops and sings For the canary, the enemies and himself.

The sweet composition takes over his thoughts.

The mud thickens with each wavering step.

Drowns his calves, shins and knees.

He struggles Then stops.

He sings for his loved ones and those lost to the war. The music dances until it cannot anymore, soft notes turn to silence As the ground surrenders his frail slender body.

Still he sings inside for the peace of death, welcomes his eternal rest.

A new dawn rises, chilling the body of death, sealing nature in it’s tomb.

A Hassard, Year 10

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t n e l o Vi

SOMETIMES THE QUIET IS

“I CAN’T SEEM TO FIND SOMEONE’S SHOULDER, WHO WILL I RELY ON WHEN IT’S OVER?” ALONE PART 3 BY XXXTENTACION.

Alternative Hip Hop. Emo Pop. Indie Grunge.

SoundCloud Rap. These genres of music have been the culmination and explosion of the new wave of artists that have overtaken the youth music scene in the last five years. There has always been a collective of artists who have challenged the boundaries of music - iconic rulebreakers include: The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Nirvana, AC/DC and Oasis - but now the alternative band has been remoulded into artists who strive to find an understanding and acceptance of changing mental health within society. They form lyrics that let the individual explore their understanding of themselves through their own interpretation of the words. Each artist is an individual facing their own demons, but those same demons are also being faced and conquered by millions of other people around the world, thus explaining their extremely large fan base.

“When we all fall asleep, where do we go?”

BURY A FRIEND BY BILLIE EILISH. Their lyrics are passionate, raw and emotional, yet ring true as an exploration of oneself to thousands of people. These shared emotions, between musician and listener, are what bring such power to each song. Fans gain help from their own inner turmoil with

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the realisation that even those heralded in the media and society face the same struggles as they do. One could even argue that these artists are changing the face of mental health branding. Billie Eilish, Twenty Øne Piløts, XXXTentacion, Post Malone and Grimes have all gained a following for their music, yet their lyrics present an insight into their darkest battles with mental health, that resonate with many teenagers, and touch on delicate issues such as depression and anxiety. It is not about making a “hit” anymore, to these artists they are baring themselves open to the world in order to release even a fraction of the pain they have felt. Each artist harnesses the power of truth and life in these moments. As perceptions surrounding mental health are changing, teenagers and young adults are being swept up in these deep, emotional and raw songs of the new wave of artists.

“Sometimes the quiet is violent” CAR RADIO BY TWENTY ØNE PILØTS. Fans of this new generation of artists are faced with love and support by all. An example for this is the Twenty Øne Piløts fanclub, “The Skeleton Clique”. Members regularly discuss their battles with anxiety and depression openly on fan forums, but with the full love and support of their fellow fans and even their motto: “Stay strong, Live on, Stay alive.” Not only are there hundreds of comments on these forums, with song lyrics, encouraging words and pictures, but strangers bearing their hearts wide open in online posts. The raw emotions portrayed in a forum post lead to the feel of a community and a family, resonating with complete

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strangers across the globe. The comments never argue that the person has given out ‘too much information’, or that the writer should take their thoughts elsewhere, it is responded to with encouraging assistance. One could argue that this has been happening with fan bases for decades, however with the rise of social media I think that the rise in love and support in strangers has become greater with these new artists.

“A paranoid man makes paranoid plans, I’ll do what I can but it’s out of my hands, Struggling just to find my peace.”

PARANOID BY POST MALONE Whilst many feel that, for the most part, it is wonderful to be able to have a community where people can be encouraged and supported by their fellow fans and musical idols, many argue that this is leading to a “depressed youth” who thrive off the darkest points of their emotions. Some even feel that the music industry is ‘Glamorising’ suicide and mental health issues, which could lead to copycat behaviour, due to an artist’s strong influence over their fans.

The influence of an artist’s actions is gigantic, not only when it comes to the type of music being produced, but also the actions and behaviours referenced within the lyrics. Artists must tread a careful line between addressing mental health concerns and promoting dangerous behaviours.

An example of this is in Post Malone’s “Paranoid” where the rapper speaks about sleeping with “a .44 every night,” referencing the use of guns and firearms as a method to ease his anxiety of never knowing when “someone might come and try to take [his] life”. Malone’s glamorised use of illegal substance abuse and firearms complicates his coverage of anxiety and paranoia. Although the use of substance abuse and anxiety has gone handin-hand when it comes to music for decades (a prime example being Sister Morphine - The Rolling Stones), it is becoming more prominent in current lyrics. The issue of where artists draw the line becomes ever more complex. However, I believe that it is important that artists continue to address the growing issues surrounding mental health. We can see that, for young men especially, mental health is a growing issue, and again it is within the music industry that we see this clearly evidenced.

“They say every life precious but nobody care about mine,” 1-800-273-8255 BY LOGIC In 1994, at 27, Kurt Cobain (lead singer of Nirvana).

In 2017 at the age of 41, Chester Bennington (lead singer of Linkin Park). In 2017, Tim Bergling (Avicii) aged 28. In 2018 Malcolm ‘Mac’ Miller, at the age of 26. In 2019, aged 49, Keith Flint (lead singer of The Prodigy). Each of these men was an incredible artists: talented, approachable, accomplished. But each artist faced their own battles and hellhounds, and sadly all of these musicians took their own lives. Yet it is not only in the music industry that we see the tragic consequences of mental health problems in men, it is also where we start to see glimmers of a solution. Professor Green (Stephen Manderson), has opened the stigma of Men’s mental health when rapping, normalising the idea that men can be emotional and speak about their feelings. In his documentary for the BBC “Suicide and Me”, Manderson states: “Too many men are facing depression and anxiety alone, I don’t think that we are as emotionally developed as we should be, we have stress through everything and we haven’t learnt to cope with it.”

“I’m tired of being what you want me to be, Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface.”

NUMB BY LINKIN PARK As mental health starts to become a common topic of conversation rather than a stigmatised issue, we will see the music industry start to move around it as well. It is important for the artist to be open about their challenges and as listeners to hear their story and understand that they are not alone.

“To make me feel my life is heading somewhere, All I want is the comfort and care,” Mother Love

by Queen This article is in memory of all those who have battled mental health, whether they were won or not, we bestow our support and love onto you and admire your bravery and strength in such difficult times.

I Hunter, Assistant Editor

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THE

Korean

DIVISION

AT THE END OF WORLD WAR TWO, THERE WAS MASS DESTRUCTION, POVERTY AND DISARRAY IN EUROPE AND BEYOND, EVENTUALLY THE DUST SETTLED AND DISPLAYED AN UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE OF THE FIGHTING - THE KOREAN DIVISION.

I

Brothers, sisters, cousins, and parents were once stranded on either side of the peninsula, but now the families in Korea do have a chance to meet each other. However, they cannot cross the border freely. In the South, individuals are chosen by an online lottery to have the chance to cross the border and reconnect. Once they are chosen, if they pull out, they are never entered again so they’ve lost their chance. In the North, individuals are thought to be chosen because of loyalty to the regime, but the real system of selection is still unknown. Four of the original 93 families from the South that were selected. Many ended up cancelling, as family members were too ill to make the journey to the North. But, as many of the people wanting to meet relatives are very old, a few even die before they even get the chance. Last year alone, 3,800 South Koreans died without ever seeing their relatives. Families split up because of artificial boundary drawn up by men thousands of miles away.

n 1945, Korea was under Japanese occupation but, at the end of the war, Japan surrendered. A consequence of this was that it had to give up its empire, which included Korea. Korea would be split into two across the 38th parallel. The USSR (Russia) imposed a dictatorship in the North, while the USA installed a democratically elected government in the South.

This agreement was to remain in effect until the country could come to terms and agree upon some kind of unified form of government that would occupy the entire country. This was the agreement made by the United States and Soviet Union,. However, in 1947, the Cold War that had emerged between the U.S. and the Soviet Union which led to a breakdown of these agreements. By 1949 all US and Soviet forces had withdrawn from Korea.

THE KOREAN WAR Then, on 25 June 1950, with the backing of the USSR, North Korea made an attempt to take over the border by force. The United States, with the United Nations’ assistance, led a counter-attack and came to the aid of the South. The Soviet Union backed North Korea by offering weapons and communist China also aided the North by providing them with thousands of troops to fight alongside the North Korean military forces.

The South Korean participants, who have been selected and are well enough to travel are driven by bus to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas. The participants are allowed to meet six times for a total of 11 hours during their three-day stay. This is probably the last time they will ever meet.

Many people who have not seen each other in years have met thanks to this system. Han Shin-ja, 99, was reunited with two of her daughters, 72 and 71 for the first time in around 65 years and it will also be the last.

In July 1953 the Korean War came to an end. The consequences were huge, with thousands dead and businesses and homes destroyed. Yet there had been no change in the division of the country; the war only got the nation back to the same place it had been in before the war erupted. It was just a waste of lives. In 1954, during the Geneva Conference, it was decided that Korea would remain split. But one important and lasting consequence of the war was that the people of the former unified Korea were no longer allowed to see each other.

86 year old Cho Hye-do and her brother Cho Do-jae, 75, were reunited with their older sister Cho Sun-do, who is 89 and lives in North Korea. “I remember how beautiful you were,” Cho Hyedo told her big sister. “I finally get to meet you after living for so long,” replied the older woman.

THE PEOPLE

Two elderly North Korean women knelt and bowed to their 98-year-old South Korean father, who brought with him red, flower-patterned shoes he had promised his daughters 65 years ago.

The division of Korea into North and South was forced upon the people by external forces, government, and powers that the Korean people had no say in. Although the former Korea is still divided and both North and South have a number of political issues and differences, the people of Korea believe that one day North and South Korea will have to reunite.

These reunions that cross the boundaries are an agonising reminder that there is a boundary and that this will be the only time that these families will see their loved one ever again.

Imagine meeting up with your sister, brother, aunt, uncle, mother or father just to be torn apart again the next day. It is like dangling what they had in front of their noses, just out of reach but not out of sight. The artificial boundary that forces them apart is just a line slashed on a map, it only exists because humans made it exist. As a species we are very advanced, but a boundary like this is the very thing that is holding us back.

The closest they have ever come to this was the Summit meeting of 2000. The leaders of North and South Korea sat down in an “effort to discuss what agreements could be reached, and what would be in the best interest of all the citizens, military, and the nation as a whole in Korea”. Small steps were agreed upon to allow relatives separated by the border to see each other once again, albeit for the briefest of moments.

M McCann, Year 9

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Boundaries INTERNAL

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your comfort zone and doing something that frightens you, than you do about walking into a wall. A wall is a hard barrier - something you can see; you can look at it in front of you and, most of the time, you can avoid walking into it. If you do collide with an external boundary, then you would immediately know it.

The problem with internal boundaries is that they have a tendency to creep up on you and before you know it, you’re on the other side of the boundary, doing something that you would rather not be doing, but are unable to get out of.

verywhere you look you can see boundaries; our houses have boundaries keeping them separated from other houses, our school has boundaries keeping us in the correct class for our year group and indeed all of the countries over the world are separated by walls, rivers and oceans.

What some people may forget, however, is that there are also boundaries that cannot be seen. You might see a person walking along the pavement, and you would just see the person walking down the pavement. You wouldn’t see their internal boundaries – the things that keep them from putting their hand up in class, from initiating conversations with people they don’t know, from giving their personal opinion to a group of people. The things that keep them inside their comfort zone.

Often, the thing that seems so daunting is really not so bad after all. Whilst it might seem like the biggest and scariest thing in the world, often we regret not stepping out of our comfort zone and breaking down that internal boundary.

Usually, after we’ve done it, we feel much better than if we had stayed doing what we were comfortable with.

And that’s the thing about a comfort zone, isn’t it? It matters so much to the person who is inside it, but the people on the outside don’t see this boundary that you have built up – it’s entirely in your mind, something which has been fabricated by your brain, a fear of what might happen. Although nobody else can see this boundary, it can be very difficult to break down – even harder than many actual barriers.

You can change your internal boundaries, you can shape them and mould them depending on how often you test them and try new things. The hard, external boundaries that you can see, can’t move.

There will always be boundaries keeping schools, buildings and houses separated, and that won’t change, but you have control over your internal boundaries, over how you change them and how they change you.

But internal boundaries are just as valid as external boundaries, and they take up a lot more brain power. You probably worry far more about stepping out of

You can break the boundaries.

M Marshall, Year 11

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survey conducted also found that 1,018 people believed that the issue affected boys as well as girls, with six in ten agreeing that it was more acceptable for a girl to be a “tomboy” than for a boy to be “feminine.” Indeed, 70% of participants who identified as ‘young men’ said that stereotypes had a ‘damaging effect on what it meant to be a man or a woman.’

ender stereotyping can often feel restrictive, like being trapped in a gender-based cage and bound by certain expectations. In today’s society, there seem to be so many labels which we must fit into but many are still faced with the realisation that they don’t belong. Soon, these labels that society gives us, become us, and we are seen as nothing else. So how can we begin to solve the problem of gender stereotyping?

The Fawcett Inquiry is not the only important work being done in this area. In 2011, arguably the most famous toy store in London, Hamleys, took the decision to reorganise their stock by category rather than gender.

This meant that, for the first time, Action Man and Barbie could be found side-by-side in the ‘dolls’ section of the store as opposed to separated in aisles for ‘boys’ and ‘girls.’ However, it is important to note that gender stereotypes do still play an important role in the marketing of these two toys when it comes to the professions, styling and even colour choices used for each character. A few years after this, John Lewis went even a step further, by removing gender from the labels on their children’s clothing. So as you can see, some large companies are beginning to make steps towards addressing this issue, yet it can’t be solved unless we approach it with wide-scale change.

‘What would you like to be when you grow up?’: a question which everyone is asked at some point, yet even this is defined by our gender. Boys are often expected to answer with ‘soldier’ or ‘politician’ and it seems demasculinising to say ‘make-up artist’ or ‘model’, as it does not fit with the allocated stereotype. In reality, everyone is deserving of every job, as long as they have the right skills and work ethic needed.

Yet I can’t help but feel that in some professions, the balance is still not quite correct. After all, although only 51.9% of the world’s population is male, men make up 70% of the seats in Parliament, as of 2018.

The 195 women that reflect 30% of our government does not statistically represent the reality of a world that is as female as it is male. Furthermore, gender stereotypes continue to be imposed upon children from early childhood, even toys are divided by gender, with blacks, blues and greens in the boys section contrasted with the blend of pink, whites and purples in the girls section. We are immediately faced with boundaries and restrictions from such a young age.

We also have to accept some of the responsibility for the casual, everyday sexism which can be the most damaging part of gendered stereotypes. Passing comments and stereotypical jokes have become a part of everyday life in our society, but these can allow gender stereotypes to manifest, therefore strengthening them.

We need to work together to reduce this casually sexist behaviour which impedes progress in the movement towards complete equality. Together, we can all make the change that the world so desperately needs.

This year saw the launch of ‘The Fawcett Society’, which is a campaign group that aims to investigate the use of gender stereotyping in advertising to young children. It outlines its aim as: ‘encouraging manufacturers to drop the lazy stereotypes and use their power responsibly.’ The campaign found that six out of every ten parents agreed that products marketed for their children used gender stereotypes in their advertisement strategies. The online

‘Every individual can make a difference every day by making conscious choices’ - Jane Goodall S King, Year 9

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ZIMBARDO’S EXPERIMENT Ethical boundaries are highly controversial aspects within experiments carried out by Psychologists; they have been debated and queries for decades. Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment is a fascinating topic for Psychologists that are interested in these boundaries of ethics, purley because it pushed the limits of so many of the agreed guidelines.

75 volunteers that replied to a newspaper advert for the experiment, 22 participants were selected. Participants were interviewed and those perceived to be most mentally and physically stable were accepted. The participants were randomly assigned the roles of a guard or prisoner. The guards wore a uniform and carried a baton. Prisoners wore smocks, they were referred to by a number in place of names and were kept in one of three cells. Zimbardo observed the participants throughout the experiment and later interviewed them. The findings of the study show that the situation had a huge and almost instantaneous effect on the behaviour of all the participants and upon the social interactions between these groups.

Prisoners became increasingly passive as the guards’ interactions with them become more verbally hostile and the study was terminated early after just six days, when the morality of what was happening was questioned

by Christina Maslach. From the results, Zimbardo concluded that the behaviour of the participants was behavioural not dispositional, meaning they acted this was because of the situation and not as a result of their natural tendencies.

To begin with, it is important to know that there are five main ethical guidelines that psychologists must abide. > ‘Informed consent’ involves making participants aware of the aims, the procedures, their rights and also what their data will be used for in the experiment.

Participants who have not received adequate information when they agreed to take part cannot be said to have given consent. > ‘Deception’ means deliberately misleading or withholding information from participants at any stage of the investigation. It is vital that this term cannot apply to any aspect of the undertakings. > ‘Protection from harm’ outlines that participants should not be placed at any more risk than they would be in their daily lives, and should be protected from physical and psychological harm. This includes being made to feel embarrassed, inadequate or being placed under undue stress or pressure.

Zimbardo’s study broke several of the critical ethical guidelines. The first was a lack of informed consent. This was because the behaviour of the guards towards the prisoners could not be foreseen, and therefore the consent given was not to what actually ensued.

Moreover, the participants who were prisoners had not consented to being arrested at their homes, which also slightly infringed on their capacity to withdraw from the experiment.

Zimbardo also did not protect the participants from harm. While the extreme results might not have been predictable, when reading the detailed reports made afterwards, it is clear that prisoners who began to exhibit signs of psychological distress were not released as soon as they displayed these symptoms.

Shockingly, after only a day, stress symptoms started to show. Within the first four days, four prisoners had to be released with signs of extreme emotional disturbance. From the participant’s point of view - the right to withdraw from a study is important. If a participant begins to feel uncomfortable or distressed they should be able to withdraw.

> ‘ Privacy and confidentiality’ allows participants to have the right to control information about themselves.

Confidentiality refers to our right, enshrined in law under the Data Protection Act, to have any personal data protected. > ‘ The right to withdraw’ outlines that, if a participant begins to feel uncomfortable or distressed in any way, they should be able to withdraw. This is especially important if a participant has been deceived about the aims or procedures. However, even if a participant has been fully informed, the actual experience of taking part may turn out to be rather different, so they should be able to withdraw.

Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment was carried out in the basement of Stanford University. He investigated how readily people would conform to the role of a guard and a prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life. Out of

K Thompson and L O’Leary, Lower Sixth

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PUSHING THE LIMITS OF SPORT:

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Simone Biles

imone Biles may have only emerged on the world stage in 2013 as an aspiring 15 year old.

Nevertheless, when she did, she wholeheartedly erupted onto it, and as such it is no surprise that she has fast become a household name in the six years since. Not too long ago, if you had asked a passerby to name a gymnast, it would have been highly likely that they would have struggled to recall any, or, if they were to have managed, that they would have cited the likes of Olga Korbut or Nadia Comaneci. It cannot be denied that these are great gymnasts. However, gymnastics has changed a lot since then, and they could be compared to relics of the gymnastics world, wellloved but sitting on a dusty shelf of champions gone by. As the sport is stepping ever more into the spotlight, current day

gymnasts (including Biles herself) are becoming gradually more well known. Biles is without doubt one of the catalysts of this change.

Biles has broken a myriad of records at both a national and international level, and in doing so has surpassed gymnastic legends who have come before her time and time again. For example, in August last year Simone competed in the U.S championships.

For any non-gymnastics fans (which I am assuming is the majority of people reading this) the USA has, in the last decade, become the most dominant nation in women’s gymnastics. Of course this means that in the USA, the boss of the women’s gymnastics world, there is a very strong field of athletes.

Therefore you would obviously expect it to be an arduous task to win even one medal at the national championships.

Biles won

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five medals. And they were all gold, making her the first female US gymnast to become the champion on every event since Dominique Dawes did so in 1994. What makes this feat even more phenomenal is that in the all around competition (where scores on all four apparatus are added together) Biles had a 6.55 edge on the second place gymnast, Morgan Hurd. In a sport where the difference between gold or silver can be a mere bent leg or slight stumble (often meaning there can be just one tenth of a point between first and second place) a lead of 6.55 is monumental! Other records Biles has broken include the record for the most world championship gold medals for any female gymnast ever, with an extraordinary 14 world titles to her name. She really is pushing the boundaries of the sport.

It goes without saying that Biles must have an extraordinary body.

Despite being only 4’8” (1.42m) she is packed with power, and is pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible for the human body. This is demonstrated nowhere better than in the new vault skill she created which is, since the 2018 world championships last November, named after Biles. In vault, the gymnast runs down a 25m runway, jumps off of a springboard onto the vault, before then completing a series of twists

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and rotations to land on the floor. ‘The Biles’ consists of doing half of a turn between hitting the springboard and hitting the vault, and then performing one full somersault as well as two full twists off of the vault. This is pretty incredible and clearly requires a lot of power. How is it possible for so much power to be packed into a pint-sized frame such as Biles’? Let’s consider the physics of this feat: two things will affect how successful the vault is - the amount of time for which the gymnast is in the air and the rotational velocity (this is just the term used to describe how much of a rotation the gymnast does in a certain amount of time.) The more air time the gymnast has, the more time they have to complete all their somersaults and twists. Essentially, they must work against gravity - which is pulling them constantly towards the ground - in order go as high as possible. To do this they must exert an upwards force.

When the gymnast jumps onto the springboard, they exert a downwards force on the board, causing the spring to compress and then, of course, propel them upwards as it goes back to its original shape. But this alone is not enough. To increase their upwards momentum, the gymnast has to ensure: that their run up is as fast as possible (with speeds averaging at least 5.5 m/s and acceleration of 3.3m/s) which requires a lot of stamina and power in the legs; that they hit the board with their body at the correct angle, which requires a lot of precision; as well as that they push downwards on the table with their arms. This last requirement requires the gymnast to have very strong arms and shoulders, as they need to be able to push hard off the table without their arms bending or buckling (as this could kill some of the momentum they have built up.) How does Biles have such powerful legs and iron arms? The honest answer hours and hours of training. Part of an elite gymnast’s backbreaking weekly training schedule (which can be up to 30 or so hours a week) consists of doing conditioning exercises such as lifting weights and doing bodyweight

really strong BILES HAS BROKEN A MYRIAD athing to do.

OF RECORDS AT BOTH A NATIONAL This is evident in several AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, recent interviews she has done, AND IN DOING SO HAS in which she SURPASSED GYMNASTIC discusses the effect that her experience of LEGENDS being sexually abused by

exercises.

When the gymnast does these, their muscles are doing work (for example, when an athlete lifts a weight, the muscles in their arms are doing work against gravity to lift the weight) and this allows them to increase the power output of the muscles in situations such as the vault.

Having said all that I have about Biles’ achievements and how she pushes the boundaries of both the sport and the human body, I personally believe that the most important boundaries she is pushing are not those that can be pushed on the competition floor. As a person, Biles possesses many qualities that are admirable. For example, resilience, which she demonstrated when competing at the 2018 world championships. The night prior to the competition, she was in the hospital with a kidney stone, which - although I fortunately have no personal experience of what it is like to have one - I am told are incredibly painful!

All the same, you would never have been able to tell, as the next day she was out on the floor, performing her incredible routines and charming the audience with her characteristic charismatic smile. She even managed to find some kind of humour in the situation, calling the kidney stone the “Doha Pearl” and acting as if it were her mascot. I think we often forget to look for humour when things get tough. Maybe if we remembered to find humour in even the darkest of situations, it could help us be more positive in our lives.

Another admirable trait that Biles has is her strength. Of course this is shown through her physical strength and her determination, but she is also not afraid to show her vulnerabilities, and this in itself is a kind of strength.

She shows us that admitting you feel weak and powerless is actually

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former US team doctor Larry Nassar (who is now serving a prison sentence of 175 years for abusing over a hundred gymnasts) has had on her. She talks about how tough it has been processing that she is a victim, admitting that at one point she “slept all the time because it’s the closest thing to death.” It must have been hard for her to speak out because, as the gymnast that she is, she has always put out such a strong and tough persona to the world. If Simone can open up about her feelings, maybe this will help encourage others, for example many of the young girls that follow her, to talk about how they are feeling.

Furthermore, Simone says that going to therapy has really helped her, stating “therapy is everything.”

Today, seeking therapy for mental health issues is still something almost slightly taboo, and something that people feel ashamed of. We can all follow her lead and break the stigma surrounding going to therapy so that it is no longer something that people find embarrassing. This, in turn, may encourage more people to seek help.

Although clearly it is very unlikely that any of us will ever be world class gymnasts like Simone Biles, I think we can all learn a lot from her character, not specifically as a gymnast but just as a person. I hope that, even if you disagree with this, my article has at least inspired you to go away and watch some videos of Simone in action - she really is incredible to watch!

H Nixey, Lower Sixth

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ANNA ORR – HEAD OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY

their fear of financial calculations or develop their writing skills.

Anna joined Pipers in 2014 as Head of Food Technology and in her time at the School took the Department to new levels of success with consistently outstanding results at both GCSE and A Level. She was a highly committed, kind and focused Head of Department who was both meticulous and creative (especially noted for her amazing displays!) in her approach and undoubtedly the Queen of the kitchen gadget. To be invited to sample and comment on the results of a GCSE practical exam was certainly the highlight of a teacher’s day. She was also proactive at encouraging the pupils to compete in a range of competitions outside of the School, again with great success. Anna also led Hampden House with distinction during her time at Pipers - and who can forget the acquisition of the unicorn consume when it made its debut on Sports Day! All the Student Leaders of Hampden House certainly benefited from her wise counsel as they developed their role.

Laura is passionate about her subject and about developing the student’s interest outside the classroom. She introduced enterprise projects into the Year 9 curriculum and it was fantastic to see the students’ entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated through the businesses they set up and products they produced for the Christmas Fair.

Laura has also been instrumental in leading highly successful Sixth Form Young Enterprise teams. In 2018 the Pipers Corner team reached the Regional Finals of the Competition with their wood based products and this year two teams from Pipers reached the Regional Finals with one team ‘Bathe’ winning this round, then winning the National Finals in London leading to a place in the European Final alongside the top 40 schools in Europe.

It is clear that her guidance, support and inspiration have been key in the students’ gaining such success.

LAURA CROSSE – HEAD OF BUSINESS Laura Crosse joined Pipers as Head of Business in September 2017 and in her time at Pipers the popularity of the subject has greatly increased with much larger numbers opting to study the subject across all age groups. Laura’s students’ love her lessons and she is always willing to give additional time to ensure they maximise their potential. She can often be found at lunchtime with Business students’ helping them conquer

post-18 choices. Denise has successfully organised two extremely prestigious Careers Fairs with more than 100 companies and Universities showcasing their opportunities not only for our students, but also for other local students in the wider community.

Her dedication and commitment to the students was second to none and this was particularly evident when she stepped up to help the Food Technology Department with A Level teaching. Denise will always go the extra mile to help her colleagues and is one of those typical teachers who always put the girls first. Her cheerful disposition will be hugely missed by all her colleagues and we wish her all the best for the future.

ANNIE BOWER – (ACTING) HEAD OF DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

DENISE BEVAN - HEAD OF CAREERS AND FOOD TECHNOLOGY TEACHER

Annie Bower joined Pipers Corner in 2015 initially as a part time teacher of Design Technology; however, by 2016 she was made Acting Head of the Department. Since then she has worked with great creativity and imagination, introducing a sense of innovative design into her workshop. All students who walk into her classroom can see the enthusiasm Annie has injected into the department with the various projects on display.

Denise Bevan leaves Pipers Corner School after joining us three years ago. As Head of Careers she has directed and advised many hundreds of students across all key stages, but having a particular passion for helping the Sixth Form students decide their

Last year, in 2018, Annie played a significant role in making our school Remembrance Day service so memorable. Every girl and staff member was asked to research the name of someone in his or her family who has served, or been affected by conflict, or alternatively find out about someone in the local community. The names of these people were then written on the

Laura leaves Pipers to relocate with her husband and young family to Bristol where she will be continuing her teaching at Badminton School. Here she will also take responsibility for co-ordinating the EPQ programme. We wish her every success in her new home and thank her for all the work she has done at Pipers.

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leaves of our poppies. Annie helped this vision become a reality by first training staff how to assemble the poppies so they could then deliver the instructions to their students. The poppies were then planted outside in the school quad; resulting in a beautiful emotive sight.

practice. The TED mission to “believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world” resonated with her and she felt compelled to set up an enrichment club to enable students to ask big questions and broaden their perspectives.

In 2019, Annie entered a team of Year 8 girls entered the “Girls Who Change the World” challenge created by IBM, Disney and STEM Learning, to inspire girls aged 11-14 to be a force for change.

She helped the girls devise a project that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to change our world for the better and we were absolutely delighted to hear that under her guidance, they have made it through to the finals. We would like to wish Annie all the success in her new role and all the best for the future.

As a scientist, Mrs Byerley’s first passion was Chemistry but her desire to make the world a better place often motivated her to bring environmental and social issues into the school.

She was a caring member of the community, keen to support those around her, passionate about kindness.

DEBORAH CARTER TEACHER OF SOCIOLOGY (MATERNITY COVER) Although Deborah Carter has only been with us for one year covering a maternity leave, she will leave a lasting impression on all the girls she has taught. The commitment she has given to her subject and the dedication and care she has shown her students will always be remembered. I know the Sixth Form students who study Sociology with her have greatly appreciated her attention to detail, along with the time she devoted to helping them prepare for their forthcoming AS and A Level examinations. Deborah has been a great friend and colleague to staff and together we all wish her well for the future.

AUDRA BYERLY – TEACHER OF SCIENCE Audra started teaching at Pipers in 2006, initially joining the school as a member of the Science department.

After the birth of her son, she returned to work in both the Mathematics and Science departments, mainly working in the senior section of the school but enjoying immensely the opportunities she had to work with students in the Prep department.

In recent years she was inspired by TED talks and would frequently share links with colleagues of presentations that had inspired her or informed her own

Audra is an active person with an insatiable attitude to challenge herself.

In the past she has been involved in competitive gymnastics, coached swimming and has even successfully taken on the London marathon. She continues to participate in the 5k ParkRun phenomenon and is leaving Pipers excited by the challenges and opportunities ahead which include, among other things, following one of her sons into rowing.

STEVEN MATTHEWS HEAD OF PHYSICS Steven Matthews joined the School in September 2017 as Head of Physics. His enthusiasm for his subject, particularly Astronomy, was obvious from the outset and he founded the Astronomy Club in his first year, persuading PPTA to fund a suitably powerful telescope. He leaves behind a staff and student body that is now more knowledgeable when it comes to Astrophysics.

A keen communicator, Steven has been quick to show his students how Physics is relevant to their everyday existence, whether it has been Year 7 learning about light and how we see different colours or Year 13 studying Nuclear Physics. Steven has been particularly determined that his A Level students have a rigorous understanding of Physics experiments and that they can confidently deal with concepts such as uncertainty, an increasingly important aspect of A Level papers.

Steven has also played a wider role in the school community as a Form Tutor as well as taking part in whole Science Department events such as Titanic Day for Prep students and organising a

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lecture trip to Royal Holloway College.

He leaves us for Stowe school where his enthusiasm for his subject will no doubt quickly encourage his students to think about the Physics that underpins their daily lives.

HANNAH VARKER PERFORMING ARTS ASSISTANT & LAMDA TEACHER Hannah joined the Drama Department as a Drama Assistant in 2016 and her energy, enthusiasm and organisational skills made her an instantly valuable member of the Performing Arts team. Hannah’s role over the past three years has evolved in to assisting all the Performing Arts Departments and she has been an absolutely integral part in the running of the Senior and Junior Dance Shows. Her Google docs and lists are a thing of beauty! Hannah has the most amazing rapport with so many students, who have come to rely on her for pastoral as well as academic support.

Her dedication and attention to detail in her ESB and LAMDA teaching has been invaluable and she has coached girls to outstanding results in their examinations.

Hannah has been a member of the Community Choir and performed as part of the church service on Speech Day. Everyone will remember her saving the day at the very last minute as one of the three kings in the Pre-Prep Nativity assembly in front of the whole school, she looked very fetching in her camel costume; and stepping into the fray for the GCSE performance of Jane Eyre.

Hannah has run the Year 3 and 4 Drama Club and was a vital member of the team that took a large group of Drama girls on a trip to New York last year.

She has inspired many students and has a wonderful rapport with all age groups.

Her contributions to the Senior School productions, Senior Theatre Company, Year 6 productions and other Drama performances have been incredible and she will leave a legacy that will be hard to rival. She has been a friendly face and a port in a storm on many occasions for both staff and girls, and will be sorely missed by everyone she has worked with over the years. Wishing her all the luck in the world with her new venture; what an inspiration to the girls to follow their dreams!

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ROSEANNA BAILEY SCHOOL NURSE Rosie joined Pipers in 2018 from Birmingham Womens and Childrens NHS Trust, Birmingham as one of two school nurses. During her time at Pipers, Rosie has been an invaluable member of the team.

Her cheerful personality and the warmth and care she shows to all make her a very easy person to work with. Pupils, staff and parents have all appreciated her excellent communication and clinical skills. Rosie leaves us to return to studying as she undertakes a Psychology course and we wish her all the best for the future.

NICOLA MCHUGH SCHOOL NURSE Nikki joined Pipers in 2018 from RGS as one of two school nurses.

She has been a highly valued colleague and her calm and pragmatic response to whatever is thrown her way have made her a valuable asset to the team. Nikki is approachable and warm, staff, students and parents have benefitted from her skills and kindness in the last year. Nikki leaves us to take up a post at another school which will fit better with her busy life as a mother of four children, and they are very lucky to have her.

ALTHEA SUMMERS In addition to her teaching, Mrs Summers has been a respected and caring Form Tutor and has been at the heart of the pastoral care within the Prep Department for the last 21 years. Many pupils will miss Mrs Summers most for her kindness and compassion during their residential trips. Whether it has been dishing out medical supplies or just lending a compassionate ear when feeling home sick, Mrs Summer had time for everyone. Mrs Summers has also been involved in many clubs over the years – most recently Props Club and Gardening Club – and she also brings her skills and kindness to the Pre-Prep Department each week for Crêche.

An enthusiastic charity campaigner, Mrs Summers has been an excellent role model to her students, raising money and

giving her time to support a school in Malawi. Last year she gave up her summer holidays to visit the school and take much needed supplies. A remarkably modest lady with a heart of gold, Mrs Summers will be missed by everyone in the Prep Department. We wish her all the best for a happy and healthy retirement.

FRANCISCA DE GEA GARCIA – SPANISH TEACHER Miss Garcia joined our school in September 2015 as a Spanish Assistant and immediately made an impact both as a consummate professional and as a cheerful, helpful and friendly colleague. She was an instant hit with the girls and created a positive learning environment with her kind and professional approach.

After an extremely successful year, the Language Department were eager to capitalise on Miss Garcia’s strengths and employed her as a class teacher as well as her Sixth Form one-to-one lessons.

Since then, she has developed into a very effective and versatile teacher from Year 7 through to A Level. We are sad to see her go but wish her well in the next stage of her life as she prepares for her wedding this August and her new life with her husband back in her native Spain in the region of Murcia on the Mediterranean coast.

JO POORE – HEAD OF PE Miss Poore joined the school in 2008 as Head of PE, and from day one demonstrated her passion for enabling as many students as possible to participate in physical activity and sport. Jo introduced new sports into the curriculum to allow students new experiences: outdoor and adventurous activities, tag rugby, cricket and football, as well as broadening their horizons by playing seated volleyball and water polo. She was proactive in introducing Hockey when we replaced our old courts with the Astro Turf, and also developed football and cricket into successful competitive clubs. Jo always gave up her holiday time to lead trips. She led ski trips, sports tours, stepped in for Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, and her favourite, when all the hard planning was done, were the trips she led to Tanzania and Uganda with the Sixth Form on World

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Challenge. She was always level-headed in a crisis, exceptionally organised and with her slight obsession with health and safety and risk assessments - and thoroughly prepared. She helped create some amazing memories for the students at the school. Jo lived some distance from work and the lure of the sea and sand finally was too much. She left us to take a Head of PE position very close to home, finally leaving her some free time to grow her vegetables and, hopefully, make the final mechanic touches to her camper van.

REBECCA ODLIN – ACTING HEAD OF PE Rebecca joined us at the start of the academic year in the role of Acting Head of PE to step into the shoes of Jo Poore.

She brought with her a wealth of experience and a passion for Hockey. She quickly motivated the students to develop their skills further, and made good use of the full size pitch at RGS to enable more time to be spent on game play and tactics. Her tactic of including some mixed training sessions may also have had some appeal.

Rebecca is driven to improve students of all standards and has spent extra time ensuring all those who want to play sport can, as well as ensuring that our students who are pushing the boundaries of excellence have good advice regarding sleep, training and school/sport balance.

Rebecca finishes the year leading a Prep multi sports tour to Devon where she has promised the students early morning runs, and yoga for relaxation in the evening! We wish Rebecca every success as she leaves us to return to full time education to study for a Masters Degree.

SARAH GAZELEY – SCHOOL OFFICE MANAGER Sarah has for the last three years been the face of Pipers Corner in the School Reception.

Always armed with a smile, Sarah is never short of a warm welcome for all parents, pupils, visiting families or suppliers. Hard working, friendly and always prepared to chip in, Sarah will be missed, but the lure of spending time with her two grown up daughters, and her first grandson, Charlie was too much. We will miss her, but know in Sue (Mrs North)

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Bound aries This world categorises Everyone, Puts up boundaries, Made of hate and fear.

They class you as Black, White, Mixed race.

The boundaries of colour.

They blame you for being Muslim, Hindu, Christian.

The boundaries of belief.

They hate you if you Have an opinion, Stand up for your beliefs.

The boundaries of difference.

They don’t understand if you’re Mentally ill, Or needing care.

The boundaries of your body.

They say you can only be One type, One person, or else you’re weird.

The boundaries of personality.

This world categorises Everyone.

We put up boundaries Of hate and fear.

You are limitless, With wings to soar.

M Ford, Year 7

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Pipers Lane, Great Kingshill, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP15 6LP theschool@piperscorner.co.uk 01494 718255 www.piperscorner.co.uk www.facebook.com/PipersCornerSchool @PipersCornerSch