Watt and Powell House Dinner

FEATURE Watt and Powell House Dinner

On Saturday 20th November at 6.30pm, Watt and Powell House met in the school dining room for an evening of chatting, laughter, and great food. After much deliberation (and a few false starts), the theme chosen was ‘decades’.

Menu:

Fizzy drink of choice Burger and Chips Arctic Roll

Best Outfits:

Yr 9 (80s) - Poppy Campion

Yr 10 (40s) - Tilly Chapman Yr 11 (60s) - Freya Deller Yr 12 (70s) - Francesco Bongiovanni Yr 13 (90s) - Tom Pedley Staff - Mr Mason

Special Thanks to:

Lucy Mannion

Alice Wood

Ollie Wigman Charlie Carpenter Elliot Wilson

Entertainment:

Who can choose all the right answers: Hands on your head if you think Charlie Carpenter (yr 12) got a 5 in English Language. Hands on your bum if you think he got a 6. Stand up comedy with Ollie Wigman (yr 12): ‘I’ve got three apples in one hand, and five in the other… What do I have? Big hands!’ Guess the artist and decade of songs from across the 20th Century.

LITERATURE What are the English Department reading?

They are always telling us we should be reading more, but what do the English Department themselves actually read? Kiri Marshall ventured up to the top floor of the Nugee building to find out...

Miss Daniels has just finished ‘Women of Troy’ by Pat Barker. It is the sequel to ‘The Silence of the Girls’, which takes a feminist approach to the Trojan War. The Illiad is an epic poem dominated by male warriors but Barker writes from the perspective of Briseis who is a silent but key character in the myth. The book follows the story after the Trojan War when the Greeks have been victorious, and explores Briseis’ resilience and journey to avenge her family. I would recommend the book if you are interested in Greek mythology and have read books like ‘The Song of Achilles’, ‘Circe’ and ‘A Thousand Ships’. Historical

Fiction, Mythology, Fantasy

Mr Marlow has just finished ‘A Legacy of Spies’ by John Le Carre. The novel moves between the Cold War and the present day. The novel is a final run out for Le Carre’s famous characters including George Smiley, senior officer at MI6. The author himself served in MI5 and MI6, and is a master of bringing the psychology of intelligence officers to life, and re-creating the fevered atmosphere of Stasirun East Berlin. If you enjoyed the recent James Bond film and ever wondered how MI6 officers tick, Le Carre is your man. You may also enjoy his earlier works ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ and ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. Thriller, Mystery, Espionage

Mrs Bathard-Smith has r ecently r ead ‘The High House’ by Jessie Greengrass. “The gentlest dystopia you will ever read. Climate change is real and it’s affecting you; this novel is about how it is likely to affect your children, and almost certainly your children’s children. It’s a sobering read, but tender, an alarming read, yet strangely comforting. And somehow it also manages to be one of the wisest contemplations of the maternal role you will ever fine. Read it: it will stay with you, in all the most important ways.” Dystopia, Speculative and

Climate Change fiction

Miss Garrett is r eading ‘The Choice’ by Edith Eger. Written almost as a memoir of the psychologist, Edith Eger, it tells the story of her early life in Hungary as she grew up as a ballerina. She was a teenager when she was taken to Aushwitz concentration camp. There, she survived with her sister. Years later, she married and became a psychologist, moving to America. The book itself is almost split into two parts: her time at Auschwitz and then her work as a psychologist trying to understand human nature. “I would recommend this as it is a true story of freedom, bravery and an analysis of humankind’s choices. I found it a sincere account of the Holocaust. But it was equally a story of how her life continued and was affected.” Non-fiction, Memoir, History

Miss Curren has just r ead ‘Shuggie Bain’ by Douglas Stuart. “The novel won the Booker Prize last year and rightly so, I think; it is a deeply moving, often disturbing and highly visceral account of poverty in 1980s Glasgow, exploring the impact of alcoholism, prejudice and the devastating consequences of Thatcher’s policies on the British working class.” Historical fiction,

Scotland, LGBTQ+