Close Up February 2018

CLOSE UP February 2018 closeupuk.com

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KISS TELL

AN INTERVIEW WITH:

MARGOT ROBBIE

PUCKER UP WITH THE PERFECT POUT

THE L VE ISSUE!

So-sweet Valentine Gifts & Lingerie THE SUPPLEMENT THE FINEST SCHOOLS IN YOUR LOCAL AREA

Suit’s You!

NEW SEASON STYLE RESOLUTIONS

WHEN

Harry Meghan MET

9037 HB Ad Close Up Full Page Editorial v2 150118.qxp_9037 Lifegroup Editorial 15/01/2018 17:11 Page 1

Nurturing Excellence The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School is an independent day school offering an enthusiastic, positive and challenging learning environment for creative and inquisitive pupils. The school encourages learning beyond the academic framework as it fully prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life. Boys take with them the knowledge that this privilege brings with it a duty of ethical leadership and social responsibility.

Habs has a strong and supportive multicultural community at its core. Students make friends across the most extra-ordinary range of backgrounds and cultures, valuing and celebrating many faiths and traditions represented in the school.

The school’s spacious setting, reached by a drive through woods has superb purpose-built facilities and is flanked by sports pitches on several sides which represents our strong sporting traditions. “It looks and feels like a boarding school,” said Peter Hamilton, Headmaster, “but it’s a straightforward north London day school”. For a full tour of the School grounds visit the website to view our virtual drone footage.

Teaching rooms at the school are light and bright, and communal spaces expansive. “A school is only as good as its library,” believes Hamilton, and the Habs’ library, opened within the last year, is spacious and modern, bathed in natural light and scattered with comfy high-backed chairs.

Academic achievement is only part of the experience at Habs. The Independent Schools Inspectorate reported that ‘The curriculum is supported and complemented by an exceptional range of rich and vibrant co-curricular activities, including highly intellectual clubs and It looks and feels like a boarding societies to stretch and school, but it’s a straightforward challenge all pupils’.

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Academic, athlete, quirky or quiet, Haberdashers knows how to bring the best out of its boys.

They admit the brightest boys north London day school with a curriculum designed to Habs next development Headmaster, Peter Hamilton phase is taking place this keep them involved, stimulated and eager to learn at every stage year at the Preparatory of their development. “We specialise in teaching boys, School. “We are creating a Prep School for the next and we’re exceptionally good at it”, says Headmaster generation” said Matthew Judd, Executive Headmaster.

Peter Hamilton. This is evidenced by a haul of top exam Completion is due in Autumn 2018 and the Prep School grades in summer 2017 which have boosted the will undergo a comprehensive renovation. This will school’s Parent Power league table ranking and, include a new two-storey extension as well as a revamp scooped the Sunday Times Independent School of the of all existing classrooms, reception and administration Year award for 2017. areas. A new reception and security access system will be installed throughout the building. The Library will be 2017 celebrated another outstanding set of GCSE moved into a light vibrant open plan space above the results. With one fifth of the year’s cohort achieving 10 new Art and DT studios which will be equipped as an A*s or more. A-A* were achieved by 91.4% of the urban studio space. students. STEM subjects continued to demonstrate the highest levels of excellence with the A* successes. 91% The school is serviced by a unique coach service with of boys taking Physics achieved the coveted A*, in over 110 stops, spanning a 30-mile radius, offering an Chemistry 89% A* and in Biology 85%. In Mathematics, unrivalled access to the school, and provision for pupils an amazing 99.4% of boys achieved A-A*. staying for after-school activities.

The breadth and success of the academic curriculum is clearly evident. Boys achieving A-A* across: Computing & ICT (93%), Design Engineering (98%), English Literature (90%), French (91%), Geography (94%), Music (96%) and Sports Science (100%).

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Open Day Saturday 6 October 2018 1pm-4pm The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School Butterfly Lane, Elstree, Hertfordshire WD6 3AF t: 020 8266 1700 e:admissions@habsboys.org.uk www.habsboys.org.uk

The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School Nurturing Excellence

Join Habs Independent School of the Year

2017

Booked tours available throughout the academic year.

020 8266 1700 admissions@habsboys.org.uk registered charity no: 313996

An outstanding independent day school for boys 5 – 18 Butterfly Lane, Elstree, Hertfordshire WD6 3AF www.habsboys.org.uk

An exceptional education for girls age 3 to 16 years

Ranked 2nd in The Sunday Times League Table for small independent schools (2017) 75% of GCSE/IGCSEs graded A*/A in 2017

OPEN MORNING DATES Nursery Open Mornings - every Wednesday at 9.30am Senior School Open Morning - Thursday 8th March 2018 - 9.30am - 11am Prep School Open Morning - Wednesday 25th April 2018 - 9.30am - 11am Please call or email to book a place prior to visiting

Palmers Green High School, 104 Hoppers Road, London N21 3LJ PGHS Nursery, 85 Wellington Road, Enfield, EN1 2PL Tel: 020 8886 1135 www.pghs.co.uk Email:office@pghs.co.uk

IAPS

For Boys and Girls aged 2½ to 13 years Quainton Hall School has excellent academic results alongside extensive extra-curricular and sporting opportunities.

Quainton Hall Nursery We are now taking applications for the places available in our nursery.

Quainton Hall School, Harrow, HA1 1RX For nursery applications or an appointment to visit our school call 020 8861 8861 admin@quaintonhall.org.uk www.quaintonhall.org.uk Registered charity number: 312638

With an emphasis on high academic expectations and standards combined with a broad and balanced curriculum, Quainton Hall School offers first rate facilities set within a secure, nurturing and family-centred environment.

Established in Central Harrow at the end of the nineteenth century, Quainton Hall is a thriving IAPS co-educational Preparatory School dedicated to the education of children between the ages of two and a half and thirteen years.

We offer a broad and inclusive education firmly centred on the core values of respect, integrity, determination and humility and believe in setting high expectations, leading by example and creating a secure, positive and inspiring learning environment where staff and pupils can feel challenged and supported to achieve individual success in all aspects of school life.

We are a school that is proud of its academic tradition, that possesses a genuine sense of community and that very much has at its heart the interests of the girls and boys. As educators and in the increasingly competitive environment in which children find themselves today, we believe it is our duty to foster creative thinking, to develop independent learning and to support every child in gaining the confidence to believe and know that they ‘can’.

FILM INTERVIEW

DENZEL WASHINGTON

The veteran star talks fighting for justice in his Oscar-tipped new film.

W

ith over forty years in acting, there are few careers as consistent as two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington. Now in his early sixties, he once again flirts with awards season with drama Roman J. Israel, Esq. Washington plays the title role of Roman, an aging but idealistic lawyer whose principles are tested when he is hired by a large law firm following the death of his mentor.

Washington’s performance has already earned him a nomination for Best Actor at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, and may be the performance that seals his third Oscar.

Speaking at a Q&A for the film, Washington revealed the instant connection he had to the film. “Well, it starts on the page and it leads you somewhere, hopefully” he says when asked about his preparation for the role. “Dan (Gilroy, director) wrote a brilliant script. You know, if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage – it’s as simple as that! We talked about it a lot, and then we met in New York and an hour after meeting I stuck my hand out and agreed to do the movie!”

I LOOK AT THIS FILM AND SAY ‘MAN, I LIKE THAT GUY’. I DON’T SAY THAT MUCH, NOT LIKE THIS. After playing a lot of heroes early in his career, Washington has spent a lot of the last two decades playing shady or abusive characters in films like Training Day, Flight and Fences. For the veteran star, the opportunity to play a nice guy again was something that meant a lot to him. “What makes this film different is that I like Roman!” he says, laughing. “I can actually say that. I look at this film and say ‘man, I like that guy’. I don’t say that much, not like this. There’s something about him. I don’t want to ‘step out of it’ too much, but every time I look at (the film) I like him. It was weird tonight, because I’ve never looked at it with an audience, and it was hard to watch because I was hoping that they’d like him too!”

Finally, the role required the normally suave Washington to drastically transform his look, which included gaining a lot of weight. Given most actors do their utmost to look their best, was it difficult moving in a different direction?

“Oh no, that direction’s easy!” he jokes. “It’s difficult now going in the other direction (of losing the weight)!”

Roman J. Israel, Esq is released 2nd February

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