Salvete
The Reptonian 2014/2015
Interviews conducted by the Editorial Team
DJA
KM
Covering CAMC’s maternity leave in Biology, and also taking on some Class. Civ., we have been fortunate to secure the services of David Armitage. A graduate in Biology from St Hugh’s, Oxford, he also has Theology qualifications and taught at Beauchamp College, Leicester before embarking on his (recently completed) PhD from Nottingham. He is married to Suzi and they have three young children, Abigail, Dorothea and Nathan.
Kelly McCusker started as the new Head of Strings in August, having been a peripatetic music teacher at Repton for the previous 4 years. She studied at the Purcell School of Music, before gaining a BA in Music from Kingston University and a Master’s degree from the Birmingham Conservatoire. As well as continuing to play with various groups, she enjoys swimming, reading and cooking (but can’t bake!) and lives with her husband, Terry, and cat, Minnie.
What was your dream job as a child? Scientist Which three famous people (living or dead) would you most like to invite to a dinner party? Paul the Apostle, G.K. Chesterton and Fridtjof Nansen – but they might need to come to separate parties! What subject other than your own would you most like to teach? Ancient History
What was your dream job as a child? To be Madonna. I was obsessed with her Which three famous people (living or dead) would you most like to invite to a dinner party? Without a doubt, J.S. Bach, Sam Smith and Gandhi What subject other than your own would you most like to teach? Probably History What is your guilty pleasure? I love a spa day
What is your guilty pleasure? Fine tea
LP
MP
Leah Pinto joined (as Leah Webster!) from Framlingham College as Head of Netball and Girls’ Games, having studied Applied Social Science in Sport at Durham University. She recently married Joe, who is a mechanic for race team Arden Motorsport in GP2, travelling all over the world alongside Formula 1 stars including Lewis Hamilton! They live at home with their two pet hamsters, Patch and Bobby. Outside of her Repton commitments, Leah plays National League Netball for Loughborough Falcons, training twice a week with them, and for a regional side called Hinckley Hurricanes.
Marie Perrière is this year’s French assistante, taking a year out to improve her English and gain teaching experience, having graduated from Bordeaux Montaigne University with a degree in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Civilisation and written a thesis on Pirate Radio Stations in 1960s Britain! She tries to be involved in school life as much as possible and has already made an impact by holding French ‘mini-debates’ with the MFL Society. She is a British film buff and avid traveller, so loves being in England, but has lost count of how often she’s been asked for ID over here (she’s 23!). Her ambition is to be a lecturer in France or a French teacher in England.
What was your dream job as a child? Olympic sprinter
What subject other than your own would you most like to teach? DT What is your guilty pleasure? Judge Judy
Which three famous people (living or dead) would you most like to invite to a dinner party? Alfred Hitchcock, Ronan O’Rahilly and Arthur Conan Doyle What subject other than your own would you most like to teach? Geopolitics or History What is your guilty pleasure? My father is a wine dealer and living in the best wine region of France, I would say a glass of vintage claret!
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HANNAH EWINS (U6G) If you were asked to name as many social media sites as possible, you might struggle to keep the list confined to eight fingers and two thumbs. With Facebook having celebrated its 10th anniversary last February, and Twitter reaching this milestone birthday in just two years’ time, the question can be asked: how has social media impacted on our lives and, more importantly, has it changed the way we view ourselves and our gender? Over the past ten years, social media has played a fundamental role in raising awareness and establishing marketing strategies for many brands and businesses. Over 93% of marketers claim to use Twitter for business, with a reported 78% of companies now having a dedicated social media team, suggesting that Twitter isn’t just for discussing what you had for lunch. Nevertheless, although this is shown to have a very positive effect on business success and in raising awareness of global issues, there is a darker side to social media. According to a new study, the gender stereotype which suggests that ‘men are from Mars and women are from Venus’ is infiltrating into the online world, and so maybe now our concern should not be the response times of franchises or what we ate for lunch, but how this is going to continue to affect younger generations. How will continued use of social media alter their social perceptions of gender and appropriate behaviour within society? Studies suggest that women use social networking sites to make comparisons between themselves and others, whereas men use them to look at profiles and search for more friends. Additionally, women tend to post face photos, while men post full body-shots, according to a survey published in the journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking (December 2011). So why is it that if a girl posts too many ‘selfies’ – a word added to the Oxford English Dictionary in May 2014 – she becomes shameful or desperate, but when a boy does it, he is perfectly acceptable?
Since when is it okay to judge a person based on their tweets, the number of followers they have or the number of likes they have on their Instagram or Facebook posts? Though, as a girl, I am of course inclined to suggest that women have it harder than males on social media, this is not just because of my gender, but because I genuinely believe it (and, also, because I know I’m guilty of judging someone based on their social media profile rather than on their actual personality). And so this idea of the ‘snap’ judgment – as discussed in The Deciding Factor – needs to stop in both society and on social media. We need to stop rapidly judging others based on their social media profiles and, likewise, on the Internet in general, where it is quick to type or leave a ‘harmless’ throwaway comment without realising the real consequence of our actions. 2014 saw the release of Always’ campaign ‘#LikeaGirl’, discussing the issues of self-confidence and, for many, the lack of it during puberty. Its aim is to align the expression ‘like a girl’ with strength, confidence and empowerment rather than being seen as an insult projecting girls as the weaker sex. Here, social media can be used to raise awareness and demonstrate the importance of encouraging and inspiring pubescent girls to achieve the best they can and act comfortably within their own skin; that running ‘like a girl’ means winning the race. Social media plays neither the hero nor the villain of the story, but it does need to be held to account as the vehicle for portraying the views and perceptions of the person sat behind the screen. As is demonstrated here, it can be both a weapon in the destruction of selfconfidence, or a force for good. Thanks to campaigns such as Always’ #LikeaGirl, we need to ensure – if not for our sake, then at least for the next generation – that social media is used to destroy stereotypes and encourage equality, both in the online world and in the physical.
Artwork by Alicia Anderson (U6F)
Which three famous people (living or dead) would you most like to invite to a dinner party? John Travolta, Jesse Owens and Quentin Tarantino
What was your dream job as a child? Archaeologist – I was passionate about Ancient Egypt
THE DARK SIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
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