The Barometer Week 2 Summer

BAROMETER THE

WETHERBY SENIOR SCHOOL WEEKLY APRIL 20th 2018 | WEEK 2

FROM THE HEADMASTER

Dear Parents, I hope that you all enjoyed a restful Easter break. I know that for the boys in Year 11 it was a time to focus on revision and preparation for the examinations but I hope that they still found time to relax and for some family time.

The term has started briskly with the Year 7-9 assessments.

I spoke to the boys last week to encourage them to see these as an opportunity to highlight areas of strength and, more importantly, areas for improvement. All our boys are capable of achieving in a variety of areas and it is important that they recognise that, through effort and by acting on advice, they will be able to improve and develop.

A mark lower than they hoped for is not a sign that they are not good at a particular subject but rather that they are not good at it yet. The most successful pupils I have taught have not always been the most able but rather those that have seen their learning as a process with a goal at the end. Learning is not a series of hurdles to be jumped and forgotten but the process of building on knowledge throughout their time at School.

In contrast to the positive start that has been made to the term, a number of the boys have been receiving threatening text messages from a young man unknown to the School. If you son receives any such messages over social media, please screen shot them and send them to Mr Lawrence who will pass them on to the police. At the moment the focus seems to be boys in Year 9 & 10. The School has been in contact with the police since it was reported to us last Thursday and the whole School was spoken to at the end of last week’s assembly. In brief the advice they were given was:

Concert; the Lower School residentials; one more Agora talk (the first of the term was last night by Miss Hoskins on the changes to a compound that can make it either a medicine, drug or a poison), Sports Day (further details are included in this edition) and, on the final afternoon, Speech Day in St Mary’s Church. As well as celebrating the achievements of the School and looking ahead to the coming year, we will be joined by our speaker, Mr Mark Hanley-Browne, the CEO of APG who will share some of his thoughts on education after thirteen years as Headmaster of Emanuel School.

* Tell either their parents or school if they receive these messages.

Best wishes,

* Do not engage with the person sending the messages and block him. * If they feel unsafe or threatened when outside School they should go into the nearest shop or place where they can find an adult, seek help and call the police.

There is much to look forward to this term: the Lower School play and Trib drama; the Summer

WEEKLY DIARY MONDAY

30.04.18

ACTIVITIES BEGIN Year 11 GCSE: Drama Performance Exams: official performance examination LAMDA Exams (Years 7, 8 & 9) LAMDA Recital (Years 10 & 11) Games Years 7, 10 & 11 18:00 Games Years 7, 10 & 11 Cricket U12 A/B WSS vs Hill House (H) 14:30

TUESDAY

01.05.18 Duke of Edinburgh Award 15:30-16:30 Games Years 8 & 9 14:00-16:00 Football U13 A WSS vs Bilingo (H) TBC Cricket U14 A WSS vs Hall School, Wimbledon (H)

WEDNESDAY

02.05.18

Games Years 7, 10 & 11 14:00-16:00 Tennis Year 10 A WSS vs St. James’s (H) 2.30pm - postponed Cricket Year 10 A WSS vs St. James’s (H) 2.30pm

THURSDAY

03.05.18

FRIDAY

04.05.18

SATURDAY

05.05.17

SUNDAY

06.05.17

LAMDA Exams (Years 10 & 11) Years 7, 8 & 9 Games Years 8 & 9 14:00-16:00 Cricket U13 A/B WSS vs Hill House (H) 2:30pm

FIELD DAY Year 11 Study Leave begins GCSE Drama Devising Submission Deadline

IMPORTANT NOTICES

The PTA is holding a second hand uniform sale on Tuesday 22nd May. If you have any donations, please bring them to reception, clearly labelled as second hand uniform.

Open Day, Saturday 12th May All boys in Year 10 are required to attend school on this day, wearing school uniform, to act as tour guides. They will need to arrive by 10.30am and they should be finished by 1.30pm.

Any boy in Year 9 who wishes to help out is most welcome to volunteer.

Please email registrar@wetherbysenior.co.uk should you have any questions.

A date for your diaries: Speech Day Thursday 5th July, 2:00pm St Mary’s Church, W1H 1PQ

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Soup: Tomato

Soup: Mushroom

Main: Whole Roasted British Chicken

Main: Chilli Beef Tacos

MENU WEDNESDAY Soup: Summer Vegetable and Barley

Meat Free: Pasta Bake To Go With: Yorkshire Pudding Herbed Diced Potatoes Broccoli Gravy

To Go With: Steamed Rice Cheesy Nachos Salsa, Sour cream, Guacamole Sweetcorn

Dessert: Berries and Cream

Dessert: Ice Cream

Meat Free: Pasta with Tomato Rose, Pesto or Alfredo Sauce To Go With: Sweet Potato Mash, Carrot Rounds, Green Beans

THURSDAY

Soup: Minestrone Main: Smoked Haddock Fish Cakes or Steamed Pollock Fillet

To Go With: Garden Peas Mushy Peas Steamed Basmati Rice Tartar Sauce

Meat Free: Pasta Bows with Mushroom Sauce

Dessert: Summer Fruit Pancakes

Dessert: Rocky Road

Freshly Made Bread

Main: Breaded Chicken Goujons

To Go With: Oven Roasted Chips Garlic Mash Baked Vegetables Grilled Peppers

Meat Free: Creamy Mushroom Risotto

Dessert: Strawberry Panacotta

Homemade Salads Vegetable Crudités With Hummus Sandwich & Wrap Selection Meat & Cheese Platters Fresh Fruit Yogurt Pots

EVERY DAY

FRIDAY Soup: Chicken Noodle

Main: Chicken Drumsticks

Meat Free: Mexican Bean Burritos

PUNCH. On Monday I saw Julius Caesar. On Wednesday I survived Mama Mia. On Friday I experienced Punch.

In a week of three shows, I confess I did not expect Wetherby’s Senior Play to be my highlight, but it was the front runner by a mile. After sitting through two perfectly entertaining shows (both of which I had seen before) Punch was a revelation.

It was original, engaging, full of drama and suspense and, crucially, beautifully performed by the boys. For those of you who missed the production, I will now endeavour to give a flavour of the action.

As the lights dimmed, smoke drifted onto the stage, and four boys emerged from the corners whilst chanting a rather intense commentary on boxing: ‘crunch of bone’ and ‘just one punch’. This certainly piqued my interest as the scene transitioned into a hive of activity: a boxing gym with Sacha R. calling the shots as a trainer. ‘Stop talking start sweating!’ he shouted as the boys moved into some rather impressive choreographed manoeuvres to illustrate their training regime.

Into this boxing hub strode Jock S, all suited up, playing the tiger dad to Monty C’s young protégé. We discerned, from his pep talk, that Monty was training hard with his sparring partners, Evangelos M. and Anthony

A. for a fight against a tough egg by the name of Joe Grayson (Max K).

The action then cut to Monty and Max squaring up to one another with some classic trash talk, before being

being swamped by a gaggle of reporters led by Alex G. Then, the fighters were gloving up, Monty in red, whilst Max donning the black mits of the eponymous boxing villain. In the ensuing (excellently choreographed)

fight, Max started with the upper hand, but Monty managed to fell him in the second round, followed by much jubilation from the journalists.

The action switched to a bar, all loud noise and T-shirts

accompanied by much back slapping as Evangelos set the group up with some rather suspect ‘non-alcoholic daiquiris’. Raving ensued.

Suddenly Hasan H. stumbled into the party, insiting Monty spar with him. This ended

abruptly with poor Hasan lying out cold on the floor and Monty fleeing the scene.

Back to the swaying and chanting from the start, ‘just one punch….’ Now we see Jock and Sacha arguing,

Monty is dazed by his actions, ‘I just tapped him!’.

We learned that Hasan was hospitalised by Monty’s jab, it looks like poor Monty could be in for a spot of chokey. As Hasan’s fate hangs in the balance, the boys’ moved into a fantastic piece of physical theatre that encapsulated their frustration and tension through motion.

Hasan was in a coma! His prone form took centre stage as music played, Evangelos and Anthony celebrated Hasan’s survival, Monty paced. Now the music stepped up, journalists no longer flocked to Monty, rather they swarmed him, fingers wagging. Monty was arrested, and the audience was released for an interval.

The second half opened with two severe suits, Tobias T. and Tobi A, acting as the forlorn Monty’s lawyers.

Once again we saw the emotion transmitted to us through more physical movement as they paced and even scaled the stage’s walls to emphasise the emotional trauma of awaiting trial.

Things moved fast, we met the two Harrys (H. and G.) as Hasan’s father and lawyer, now Evangelos and Anthony visited Monty, then we were in court (with Miss Twomey’s voice as the judge) as witnesses came and went, accompanied by a snappy dialogue that added to the urgency of the whole thing.

The highlight of the court scene was seeing the fight reenacted under a red light to reflect the differing accounts

of witnesses, poor Hasan took a lot of punches in this scene!

All was not right! Tobi was desperate for a lead and Alex was playing the suspicious hack. This led him to track down Hasan’s medical records and… Tobi was incredibly excited, Hasan has AVM! Not good for Hasan, but this news will get Monty off the hook.

Hasan woke up, wonderful news! He is even thankful that Monty has made him more aware of his condition.

In the happy light of this news, Monty was uncertain about his future. Jock and Sacha managed to persuade him to go back up against Max… Once more, the stage

was immersed in the boy’s superb physical theatre as Sacha talked and Monty trained under moody lighting. Next the stage was brightly lit by LEDs, the boys stamping, the audience transported to the ring, the combatants gloved up and engaged. The fight is on, but all is not right, Monty is distracted, he sees a vision of Hasan, Max hits him and the lights go out.

Rapturous applause.

This was brilliant stuff. To quote Miss Kirk, ‘insanely good’. Once again we have been spoilt by the Drama department to something new, interesting and creative for which Miss Twomey is doubly responsible as both cowriter and the director.

The boys were excellent.

Lines were delivered with meaning and clarity, their expressions and movements all worked to engage the audience and this was on top

of some pretty demanding choreography, conjured up

by Miss Webb. For me, it was the way in which all the elements of movement, spoken lines, lighting and sound worked together so seamlessly so as to transport the audience to ringside seats and reel us in. It was a wonderful show, quite possibly the best school production I have ever seen.

Bravo to all who had a part in pulling it off.

CRICKET OVERVIEW Welcome back after the Easter holidays! We hope you are looking forward to the summer and let’s hope we get some sunshine!

It's a Physical Game - It's an elite sport where elite athletes of all body shapes and sizes are pushed to the limit.

Summer term has arrived and so has Cricket! Bring it on!

It's a Skilful Game - A batsman in international cricket has 600 milliseconds to hit a ball. They have around 200 milliseconds of that to actually make up their mind.

What is so great about cricket?

It’s a Mental Game The mental game is as challenging as the physical one.

It's a Team Game - No matter how much of a partnership sort of game or an individual game cricket is, it all comes down to being a team game. Your team provides the emotional energy to keep you going.

It's a Testing Game - You can play cricket in so many different conditions.

It’s an Individual Game Although you play as a team, so are very much alone when you're actually in the action.

Batsmen act alone, as do bowlers. Your team mates can't help you; it's all up to you.

It's a Partnership Game When batting, you have to be ready to hand your life over to the guy at the other end. You have to trust each other so that you follow each other's instructions.

It's a Team Game - No matter how much of a partnership sort of game or an individual game cricket is, it all comes down to being a team game. Your team provides the emotional energy to keep you going.

SPORTS DAY On Tuesday 3rd July, all boys will take part in the annual Sports Day; an event where students compete for their House through a variety of athletic events.

Events Your son has the option to select events that he would like to participate in (on the link below). Boys need to complete the form (link below) to submit their choices for Sports Day. https://www.smartsurvey. co.uk/s/DQNA7/

Logistics Boys will arrive at school as normal on Tuesday 3rd July in the appropriate attire (white polo shirt, black shorts and white socks).

We will transport boys to the track location at 11.00.

Transport will be available to return students to school after the event has finished.

Boys will be required to bring a packed lunch to school on this day.

Spectating

Venue Perivale Park Athletics Track Stockdove Way Perivale Greenford UB6 8TJ

We encourage all parents to attend the event. Our facility has a 300 seater stadia for parents to view the action. This is located alongside the finish line.

For safety reasons, we are not able to allow parents inside the track. This area will be for the exclusive use of students to rest between events. Therefore, we ask that parents remain in the stadia or outside the perimeter fence to watch events taking place over the other side of the track. All information on track/field competition will be within the event programme that will be available to parents on the day.

Refreshments will be available on the day from the PTA.

AGORA REVIEW - WHO’S MISSING FROM HOLLYWOOD? Mr Atkinson writes...

On Thursday the 8th March, Agora met for the fourth time to hear a teacher give a talk on a subject that they have particular interest in. This time Miss Webb delivered an aptly timed lecture entitled ‘Who’s Missing from Hollywood?’

The talk began with Miss Webb making the point that the whole point of a film is that it moves you regardless of whether you are (or share deep similarities with) the main character(s) of the film. This led on to a discussion of who exactly is missing from

a Hollywood or, put another way, who is currently underrepresented in terms of screen time and demographics of film watchers in the United States. An interesting analysis and one that provided a very clear platform for the rest of the talk.

Miss Webb moved on to explore how often times those underrepresented groups are then presented in the form of stereotypes when they are given screen time and that there are, in certain instances, even if equal representation is found (think nominations for

Best Actor versus nominations for Best Actress) a clear difference between the types of people in each group. I.e. Half of the female acting nominees at the 2016 Oscars were under 30 yet none of the men were.

So, as with many debates and discussions, there are nuances within the debate and interesting statistics and facts to be explored.

To move away then from complicated statistics(!), Miss Webb provided a simple, but potentially very telling, example of where there seems to be a gulf of difference in terms of representation. This

being the famous ‘Bechdel Test’. In order to pass the test, a film must contain the following: • Two named female characters.

• A conversation must take place between those named female characters.

• This conversation must be about something other than a man.

Just over half of films pass this test and whilst there may be explanations for this in terms

of film portrayals of situations that do not contain women, the number of films that do not pass, does seem to be higher than you might first expect.

Perhaps it would be a good thing to look out for when you next go to the cinema!

So to the denouement, Miss Webb summarised some of the solutions that have been offered by certain individuals, however, it was clear that these came not with the suggestion that they should take place but rather that they could offer some element of change.

Perhaps a balancing of

representation could come through the recently used suggestion of ‘Inclusion Riders’, an equalising of pay for actors or just a greater attention given to the original writing of characters at the developmental stage of a film script.

An informative, engaging and highly relevant talk for all and one that should certainly leave each of us with plenty to reflect about.

And the Oscar most certainly goes to Miss Webb.

SPORTS NEWS

Cricket WSS First XI vs Hall School Wimbledon 4-153 Lost by 29 runs Man of the Match: Sean M. for hitting a half century

T E K R A M E K P O P- U P B I at st mary’s bryanston square school on thursday 3 rd may 2018 8am-9.30am Drop off your bikes to sell 3pm-5pm Come and buy a bike

SELL YOUR OLD BIKES

Bring your unwanted bikes – whether they’re kids, teens or adults sizes – with you in the morning for our mechanic to check over. We’ll contact you with a suggested selling price, and once the bike sells, we’ll notify you and pay you.

BUY SECOND-HAND BIKES

The market is a great opportunity to find a first bike, upgrade to the next size or just buy something new to get you back into cycling. If you’re looking for an adult bike you need to pre-order using the form ‘MARKET ORDER FORM’ on our website.

THIS EVENT IS RUN IN CONJUNCTION WITH CITY OF WESTMINSTER COUNCIL

VISIT PEDDLEMYWHEELS.COM FOR MORE INFO Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @peddlemywheels

http://www.wetherbysenior.co.uk