Barometer week 30

From the Headmaster Dear Parents, Standby, Marylebone; here we go again!

As I write this, the Prep School is awash with talk of dresses, hairstyles and how Mr Thorne might interpret ‘black tie’. There has been talk of this, not just today, not just this week but ever since the Headmaster’s Ball was announced. Excitement has been gathering apace for this terrific event, with so many parents and 40 staff and partners attending. We have held major events in the past of course but this ‘Sold Out’ function will set a ***NEW WETHERBY RECORD*** for attendance and I fully expect the amount raised for charity, in what is always our main, bi-annual fundraising event, to be as stunning as the occasion itself. Thanks in person tonight of course but, Lisa Giles, Tracey Bower, Elena Tsoka, Lilian Luk, Sofia Kupsin and all our other brilliant mums involved in the planning of this evening - I salute you. Wetherby parents have always been a bit special but you ladies typify what our school is all about - professional, good-humoured, efficient, well organised and always brilliantly aspirational in terms of what can be achieved…and then some!

A brief note from me then, as I have to leave now to squeeze into my inherited and trusty tuxedo. As a student at UCL, I often worked for Edmunson Electrical, a component distributor, and regularly delivered parts one summer to the huge development project which was the renovation of the old British Railways Board Headquarters into what was to become our venue tonight, the Landmark Hotel. It was a hugely ambitious project and many of the tradesmen on site were questioning whether it would ever be finished, particularly the atrium as, every day I delivered various items, another problem had arisen.

But they did finish it and, although

nothing directly to do with me of course, I am proud to have played a very, very small part in contributing to what is now such an impressive London ‘landmark’.

Looking forward to seeing Prep School parents later on then, as much as I am my Senior School friends at our equally impressive event at the Italian Embassy after half-term. These occasions are such special opportunities to celebrate the fellowship that binds us and extend a kindly, collective hand towards helping others far away, something you do every bit as well as fully enjoying a great night out!

See you on the dance floor...

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DIARY Monday 22nd Tuesday 23rd E Safety Talk by Karl Hopwood

Wednesday 24th Cricket U13 WSS A/B vs WCCS (H)

14:30

Thursday 25th Field Day - Year 10: PE trip to St Mary’s University Field Day - Year 10: Science trip to HMS Belfast and the Imperial War Museum Field Day - Year 10: History trip to Leeds Castle Field Day - Year 9: Geography trip to Brighton Field Day - Year 8: Languages trip to King’s College London, Modern Languages Centre Field Day - Year 7: Art Trip to David Hockney at the Tate Britain

Friday 26th HM Assembly at Hinde St Methodist Church

15:00

Half Term: Monday 29th May - Sunday 4th June

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NOTICEBOARD Year 10 trip to Leeds Castle Thursday 25th May Please take note of the following information relating to the History trip to Leeds Castle on Thursday: 

Boys should arrive in school for 0830 and congregate in the Year 10 Common Room.

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Boys should wear smart casual clothes with sensible footwear for walking.

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Boys will need to bring their own packed lunches. This may not include any form of energy drink. The weather may be hot, so be sure to include a bottle of water.

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We will aim to be back at school by 1600, but this is dependent upon the traffic on the day.

The boys will be dismissed from school as soon as we return.

Pool Competition Notice The following people will face elimination if they do not complete their games by the end of Wednesday 24th May: SINGLES: Shwan V Ed G Faisal (7) V Younis Fabien V Luca O S Morris V Sacha R Jock V D Lawrence Louis V Matteus Oscar C V Luca L Nacho V Armand DOUBLES: Nick & Phillip V Hamoud & Seb Tobias & Nour V Jude & Matteus Olly & Mischa V Abdul & Antonio Ed & Rahul V Matthew & Tom Ali & Lucas V Rafael & Gabriel Evangelos & Tyler V Billy & Jacques Pip & Sean V Jock & Michael

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Clubs & Food Clubs & Activities this week: Monday Film Review Club Music Tech Philosophy YAD Fitness Basketball Barre Fitness Book Club Cricket Food Chemistry Football GCSE Art & Design GCSE Drama GCSE Graphic Design Quiz Club

Tuesday Art and Design Bridge Club Climbing Club Fencing Football Parkour Quiz Club YAD Fitness

Wednesday Actor Training & Physical Theatre Choir MFL Cinema Club Biology in the News Duke of Edinburgh Award Community Service

Thursday Fun Run Classics Club Junior Geographical Society Rock School Table Tennis

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Votes for Schools Mr Hartley writes‌ This week’s topic has been: Do

young people understand what foods and nutrients our bodies need?

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Curriculum News From the Drama Department Miss Twomey writes...

Throughout our Drama lessons we explore a range of different ways to create dramatic work; sometimes we stage scripts, sometimes we are inspired by images or poems and this term we are exploring how to stage a novel. Some of the boys weren't too keen on the idea that this would involve extra reading, that is, until I told them the novel we were going to be staging was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In these images we can see Year 7 staging the famous scene in which Hagrid announces 'Yer a wizard, Harry' whilst Uncle Vernon threatens to shoot him, Aunt Petunia is appalled to be related to a strange 'wizard-type' and Dudley is given a pig’s tail for annoying Hagrid throughout it all.

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Curriculum News From the Art & Graphic Design Department Mr Meyer writes...

Massi M.: Two Layer Screen Print onto Perspex

Massi M: Single Layer Screen Print onto distressed aluminium

Year 10 concluded their experimental phase (A02) of the unit, ‘Cityscapes’ by creating a series of both single and layered prints onto a variety of surfaces from Perspex to distressed aluminium.

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Jack H-G: Single Layer Screen Print onto distressed aluminium

Manuel C.: 2 Layer Screen Print onto MDF

Manuel C.: Two Layer Screen Print onto Perspex

Nelson T.: Two Layer Screen Print onto MDF

Curriculum News

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Curriculum News From the Chemistry Department Mrs Bennet writes...

In Chemistry, Year 8 have been studying acids and alkalis. They carefully measured hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide and then added universal indicator to achieve a rainbow of colours! The winning teams were Haotong and Robert, and Billy and Dylan.

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Curriculum News From the Physics Department Mr Hasthorpe writes...

Year 8 are studying material properties on physics at the moment. Pictured is a very noisy but enjoyable lesson in which the boys tested Spaghetti with weights to find out how much force was required to break differing numbers of strands .

An excellent excuse to catch some very surprised boys watching their structures suddenly collapse!

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Chemistry Festival Miss Hoskins writes...

On Thursday four Year 8 boys and Miss Hoskins travelled to the Southbank University for the Salter’s Chemistry Festival. In the morning the boys took part in a forensic investigation searching for ‘the killer’.

Within this challenge they tested the pH of various unknown substances, did some chromatography of unknown ink samples and completed some written puzzles. After a welldeserved lunch break the boys entered the university labs for the second time to complete a challenge to make a 2 minute timer from solutions of hydrochloric acid and sodium thiosulphate. The two compounds reacted to form a white precipitate.

They measured the time for this precipitate to appear and then altered the concentration of the solutions to make their perfect timer. The day was rounded off with a Chemistry ‘magic’ show including demonstrations with liquid nitrogen, ‘rainbow water’, exploding bins and most impressively, a reaction which only happened when music was played.

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Chemistry Festival

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Theatre Trip Review of Alice’s Adventures Underground The day that we had been waiting for had finally arrived- it was the day of the Drama Department’s backstage tour and theatre trip to Alice’s Adventures Underground by theatre company ‘Les Enfants Terribles’.

After travelling on the tube, we arrived and met director of the play Joe Hufton. Boys who had been in the cast of Curiosities were thrilled to see Joe from ‘L.E.T’ again as he took us onto the set for a sneak preview. We had to walk through very quietly as the actors were setting up for that evening’s show, but managed to see the dressing rooms, the green room and the

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costume store. It was interesting to hear that all of the actors’ costumes are washed after every night and this takes two members of the backstage team a full seven hours a day! Joe also explained that with so many puppets and elaborate costumes, actors need to be able to get urgent repairs in between scenes. Therefore, they have two members of staff whose whole job is to repair and maintain the costumes.

Continuing our tour, we then were able to step on to two of the biggest sets. The first was the tea party; Joe explained how the cavernous space presented great problems for the actors’ voices and costumes and we looked up close at the tea cups and giant clocks scattered around the room. We then moved on to the Queen of Hearts’ courtroom, where we were able to sit in the jury’s boxes.

It was here that we were able to meet the actor who played the White Rabbit, called Max. Max talked to us about the challenges of his role and two boys, Adin and Max, were allowed to try on and operate his rabbit head, moving the ears around to bring the puppet to life. With promenade theatre, Joe explained, the logistics of the show are extremely difficult. During a production, a whole team sit in a room of computers upstairs and organise when the audience can be moved on to the next part of the route. Each night, audiences of 550 people are toured around this production, with new batches of 50 people entering every 15 minutes.

Theatre Trip magically swung open and our journey began.

After ‘falling down the rabbit hole’ we were faced with a choice ‘Eat Me’ or ‘Drink Me’. The choices we made decided our fate, and we took entirely different routes around the show. Furthermore, we met with the Queen of Hearts’ guards who gave us each a card, our suit being either Clubs,

It was so interesting getting to hear all the behind the scenes secrets and stories, especially when Max was telling us about things that have gone wrong in the past. For example, this play has so much going on at the same time that there is not one White Rabbit, there are five! It’s a constant game to ensure their routes never cross and once, audience members saw two white rabbits bumping into each other and were very confused.

After finishing our behind the scenes experience, we all enjoyed some free time for our dinner break and then lined up excitedly to begin the show. It started in a strange and interesting room, with hundreds of artefacts to explore, but no actors! The boys took their time investigating until the mirrors in the room began to show more than just our own reflections, there were characters in there too. With some intriguing dialogue and our curiosity awakened, a door

Spades, Hearts or Diamonds - this further divided our group, with the Hearts taking on roles as supporters of the queen and Clubs becoming the rebels. Each of our routes were very different, we only converged back together for the finale (just like in Curiosities) and along the way we met the chefs, ate the tarts, saw it rain inside, got lost in a room full of doors, grew taller and smaller thanks to clever set design, peeled potatoes, gained badges, heard many riddles and wondered at the complexity of it all! Most excitingly, we all saw a variety of different things, so many of the boys have already mentioned going back, but next time selecting a different path.

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Theatre Trip Alice’s Adventures Underground was truly a magical trip with so many stories to be shared amongst the boys afterwards. It was an absolute pleasure to watch the genuine wonder on their faces and to hear all of the different things their route had encountered.

This has been my favourite Drama trip this year and is going to be a very difficult one to follow…

Evangelos M.: I thoroughly enjoyed the Drama trip, my favourite part was when every audience member got to choose their route through the play by selecting ‘eat me’ or ‘drink me’.

Tobias T. (who clearly enjoyed the Queen of Hearts character): I loved how involved we all were, it was like we were part of the cast. I HEART-ed that play.

Max Hashem: I loved seeing Wonderland in front of my eyes and being immersed in the story.

Frejvid Gislev: The play was amazing. It was very funny and the set and costumes were AMAZING. Being able to sit at the table of the Mad Hatter’s tea party was my favourite bit, it was hilarious!

Devan Shah: The trip to The Vaults was amazing, the actors were all very engaging and funny!’

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Tobi A.: My favourite bit was when all the different groups of audience members magically arrived together at the same time to congregate in court for the Queen of Hearts’ judgement on who stole the tarts!

Sporting News From the Games Department Mr Sullivan writes...

learning the movement.

5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD USE TOTAL BODY WORKOUTS

2. Total body workouts are more time efficient.

The world is constantly in search of a new fix, a new, improved, and usually “faster” way to get into shape. Unfortunately there is no single best way to get into shape otherwise there wouldn’t be so many different theories and techniques, there would just be “the way”.

The majority of us are busy and we plan on being in and out of the gym in an hour, which includes warm-up. Total body sessions allow you to hit all of the biggest “bang for your buck exercises” in a short space of time.

There are however more favourable ways to train based on certain demographics and goals. I like to use total body workouts and here are the reasons why.

1. It will allow you to hit all the major movement patterns multiple times per week: Those being squat, hinge, push, pull, rotate, carry and some form of single leg work. The general population need as much exposure to these exercises in order to hit the save button when it comes to

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Sporting News 3. You recover more quickly. When you don’t hit specific muscle groups or movements as hard in a session then you are ready to go for your next session in less time. As mentioned above, people are busy which sometimes means training on consecutive days . If you’re sore from the previous workout it will take away from that day’s session.

4. They make you less likely to develop overuse injuries or develop muscle imbalances that can lead to poor posture.

The latter is more likely in males who stereotypically over develop the pecs, lats and biceps.

5. Total body sessions are naturally more metabolic than splitting the body up.

What this loosely translates to is that you will essentially burn more calories when completing total body sessions.

Give these two sessions a go!

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Sporting News Year 10 Cricket WSS A vs. St. Benedict’s School Mr Underwood writes...

On a glorious Tuesday afternoon, the U15A team travelled to St. Benedict’s School for a 20/20 clash.

the innings with St. Benedict’s setting a target of 78 runs to win.

Chasing the target, Oli L. and Pip E. started strongly, picking up simple singles and gaining momentum. This momentum was shattered as Oli L. was bowled, quickly followed by Jack HG and Matthew M. Edouard G entered the crease and stabilised the innings with quick-fire boundaries. When Nelson T. joined Sean M. at the wicket, we needed 50 runs to win. After superb play from both boys, they established an unbreakable partnership to bring home the win after a fine batting performance. Winning by 5 wickets, we worked hard and followed the captain's instructions to taste victory!

A Man of the Match award goes to Sean M. for a fine display with the bat and ball, leading by example and ensuring that communication at the crease was in constant supply; a fantastic performance from him.

Opting to field first, Matthew M. opened the bowling and claimed a wicket with the second ball. He bowled in tandem with Pip E. who ran out his opponent with ease after superb fielding.

With nerves in the ranks of St. Benedict’s, Sean M. picked up two further wickets with one coming as the result of a spectacular onehanded catch from Josh G. The wind in our sails, Luke K. got in on the act to claim the middle stump of his opponent before Pip E. bowled a majestic legspinner to add to his collection.

Intense and accurate fielding, especially from Giacomo D. and Zach Z., ensured that we finished off

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Sporting News WSS B vs. St. Benedict’s School Mr Sullivan writes…

from the first over with Luca L. and William B. taking 2 quick wickets. After some impressive fielding, particularly from Seb B. and Jack C.,

On Wednesday, the U15B team played against St. Benedict’s School away. It was a lovely

there was a competitive target for the WSS boys to chase.

Our batting was equally impressive as the fielding with some excellent cover and front drives from the openers. Tom B and Jack C held strong at the crease with lots of singles.

afternoon with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky.

Having lost the toss, Captain Rahul T. and the boys were looking to use their experience in last week’s fixture today. Our bowling was impressive

It was a great afternoon for both sides showing the exact attitude cricket should be played in. A win for St Benedict’s this time but I know the boys can't wait to play again. Well done to all the boys in the fixture.

Man of Match: Seb B.

Sports Quote of the Week:

“If you can’t outplay them, out work them” Follow us for results and updates on Twitter via @WetherbySSports #teamwetherby 20

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Clubs & Activities Food Chemistry Club This week in Food Chemistry the boys made sherbet from icing sugar, bicarbonate of soda and citric acid. They dipped lollies into it to taste it. A few brave boys took on the citric acid challenge which is shown in the photos.

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Clubs & Activities Senior Quiz Club Mr Hasthorpe writes‌ Senior quiz this week was another hotly-fought battle between the nines and tens. A last minute boost meant Year 9 came tantalisingly close to winning the prize but Year Ten were ultimately triumphant. Pictured are (L to R) Tom, Niclas, Tom, and Tom!

Physical Theatre Club Miss Twomey writes...

This week in Physical Theatre Club, boys have had their first chance to apply techniques to a scene.

We began by creating movement sequences with the technique titled 'write you name' using letter shapes to begin our movements and then learnt the 'Jet Pack Lift'. Boys then combined these techniques to create three scenes; convicts plotting their escape from prison, children playing and pretending to fly and scientists inventing a flying machine. It was really interesting to see how the same structure could create three very contrasting Physical Theatre sequences.

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Clubs & Activities

Classics Club Miss Nash writes...

This week in Classics Club, the boys looked at a variety of Roman mosaics. Inspired by these pictures, they then went onto create their very own mosaics. Some boys chose to decorate pre-prepared designs, whilst others took on the challenge of making their mosaics from scratch!

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Clubs & Activities Fun Run

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On the Hot Seat Hello and welcome to Week 23 of “On the Hot Seat”.

Readers, what is wrong with the weather? Last week we were sipping rosé in the sunshine, today we feel like we are in a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie. The clouds are grey and low, there’s no air and everyone just looks weary, a little bit vacant and somewhat lacking in Vitamin D! Oh well, only one week left until Half Term, when Frau Eaves will be sunning herself in Lisbon and Señor McFaul will be eating all the baklava in Istanbul #dreamy.

the Oxford University Conservation Group. This involved all sorts of different activities, including working with animals.

On one occasion, she cut her head open whilst trying to wrestle a sheep to the ground to trim its hooves! She had to go to A&E covered in sheep poo to have her head glued and get a tetanus vaccination!

It was whilst we were watering our spider plants, (Geoffrey, Pedro and Fernando) that we thought it was about time we

Summer

So, on that bombshell let us begin…

1) Winter or summer?

2) Tennis or squash?

Mmmmmm squash!

3) Dog or cat?

Cat 4) Fruit vegetables?

or

Vegetables 5) Spicy or mild?

Mild 6) Early bird or night owl?

Early bird paid Biology a visit and so this week, dear readers, it is with pleasure that we have Mrs Skinner on our Hot Seat.

Readers, we are starting to get a complex – why is it that everyone at WSS seems to be so excellent at sport whilst we, well, we are not. Mrs Skinner is no exception. She loves sport, especially netball, tennis and squash – she even met her husband whilst playing tennis, (readers, Señor McFaul is dusting off our racquets as I type… #thelonelyheartsclub).

She has run two marathons, (we struggle walking to Waitrose) and she played squash for Oxford University Ladies’ 2nd team.

Having grown up in Dorset, Mrs Skinner has always been a lover of the outdoors and in particular gardening. At university she had an allotment and looked after chickens, #thegoodlife and now she is in London, she tries to bring the countryside into the city as much as she can. Her green fingered tutor group are pretty much pros at re-potting spider plants! She also loves growing her own vegetables and if you ask her nicely, she might let you sample a pea shoot. In fact, if you are planning on attending the PTA Gala Dinner, you should ensure that you bid highly on her “Italian themed vegetable boxes” – bellissimo!

It was whilst she was at Oxford that she volunteered with

7) Lemon or lime?

Lemon 8) Ron Hermione?

or

Hermione of course 9) Human Biology or Plant Biology?

Plant 10) Dancing or singing?

Singing 11) If you were a superhero what would your powers be?

I’d be able to hold my breath for ages and swim underwater.

I’d also like to be able to camouflage myself so I can spy on people!

12) Who would be you three ideal dinner party guests?

David Attenborough – a given.

David Beckham – he’s lush!

My husband – so that he can share the dinner party experience with me.

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From the Editor On this week’s front cover: Year 8 crack on at the Chemistry Festival On the back: WSS boys prior to this week’s theatre trip For all comments and feedback please email: henry.warner@wetherbysenior.co.uk

http://www.wetherbysenior.co.uk/