Friday 20 January 2017

THE GLITTERING PRIZES

I would like to congratulate members of the Upper Sixth for achieving some excellent offers from university this year (and we are still very early in the “season” so there are many more offers to come). 10 members of the Upper Sixth were invited to interview at either Oxford or Cambridge before Christmas and, since then, five have received offers with one more still to receive news. So congratulations go to: Lorelei, for her offer to read Classics at St Anne’s College, Oxford, Thais for her offer to read Classics at St John’s College, Cambridge, Ben for his offer to read History at Robinson College, Cambridge, Davie for his offer to read Archeology at Selwyn College, Cambridge and Juliette for her offer to read Japanese Studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (where she will have to get used to the different

spelling of Emanuel, of course!) There are plenty of other exciting offers too. 113 applications have been sent to UCAS and most students were holding three to five offers even before we reached the January 15 deadline. Here are some examples of the offers students have received: Defne - International Relations with Study Abroad (Exeter), Roshaan - Mathematics (Warwick), Zein – Music (King’s College London), Charles – Product Design (Bournemouth), Natasha – English (Nottingham), Jared – Economics with Study Abroad (Durham), Tom – Geography (Leeds), Toby – Electronic Engineering (Manchester), Esme – Psychology with Placement (Bath), Celia – Astrophysics (Edinburgh), Sharif – International Relations and History (LSE), Miranda – Law (Newcastle) and Sonya

– Politics and Sociology (Bristol) There are also two students who have places at American universities: Darcy with 100 per cent Sports Scholarship to University of Minnesota and David Kemp with a Spotlight Scholarship to Emerson College. Josh has offers from the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music and from the Guildhall. Not all our students will go on to university, however: in the past few years Emanuel students have chosen to do other exciting things on leaving school, including training for a commercial pilot’s licence and becoming an Army Officer at Sandhurst. Nevertheless the vast majority of this year’s Upper Sixth are planning to go to university when they leave us: and their offers are certainly enticing. Well done! MHB

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CONFIRMATION 2017The chaplain will be offering preparation classes for any student thinking about confirmation (Church of England). The enquirers group will begin meeting before February half term and the confirmation service itself is likely to be in June 2017. The confirmation group classes are informative, informal and enjoyable and there is no obligation to proceed with confirmation at the end of the series of meetings. Anyone interested in confirmation should contact the chaplain as soon as possible, either directly or by email on forbes.walker@emanuel.org.uk. Parents should also feel free to contact the chaplain on behalf of their son or daughter or indeed with any questions about confirmation or the preparation process. RFW

YEAR 11 WORK EXPERIENCEA reminder to pupils that the deadline (Friday 10 March) is fast approaching. Please complete the pupil placement form (available from the parent portal) and return to Miss Malik ASAP. If you have any questions please see Ms Zaratiegui or Miss Malik immediately. HHM

DYSTOPIAN FUTURESUp-and-coming author Sarah Govett will visit the school on Monday to speak to Year 9 about her dystopian novel The Territory and its sequel The Territory: Escape. This top notch debut cleverly fuses futuristic global warming issues with a corrupt education system which heavily favours the rich in a dangerous dystopian near-future where Britain is ravaged by flooding. Both books have

been critical and commercial hits and a surprise for Sarah who read law at Trinity College, Oxford and is a qualified solicitor. Recently she has also been writing for children’s television. For those who want to meet Sarah but will not hear her talk, she will be in the library all lunchtime and is happy to chat and answer questions about writing and dystopian literature in general, of which she is a huge fan. The Pea Green Book Shop will be selling both her books, which are priced £7.99 and I highly recommend The Territory for anyone who enjoys an assessable futuristic page-turner. TRJ

CHORAL & ORCHESTRAL CONCERTTHURSDAY 9 FEBRUARY 7PM | HAMPDEN HALL

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear the Orchestra, Choir and Year 13

music scholars perform as soloists in:

JS. Bach’s Mass in B Minor - featuring -

Colette Boushell (Soprano)Hermione Leitch (Soprano)

Leigh Woolf (Mezzo Soprano)Robert Martin (Tenor)James Oldfield (Bass)

Grøndahl Trombone Concerto featuring Josh Blows (Trombone)

Directed by Tim Rhodes

Tickets: adults £13 (£14 on the door) concessions £7 (£8 on the door)

family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) £30 advance only

Book now: lucy.stevens@emanuel.org.uk

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THE PRODUCERSTickets are on sale for this year’s musical, The Producers. Based on Mel Brooks’ Academy Award-winning movie, this is a hilarious musical comedy that has taken Broadway and the West End by storm, winning a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards and 3 Olivier Awards. Impoverished by a string of flops, New York producer Max Bialystock recruits timid accountant Leo Bloom to help him pull off Broadway’s greatest scam. They aim to produce the worst show ever and run away with millions, but they soon learn that show-business can kick you in the teeth. Performances take place in the Hampden Hall 15-18 March at 7pm. Tickets available through the Drama Office. RJA

Wednesday saw the return of the Lower School Literary Quiz, which was a huge success last year, with 8SDO the eventual champions. Un-like most school competitions this quiz is Form based, instead of the usual House competition. Each round features fifty very quick-fire literary based questions asked over fifteen minutes during first break with buzzers, which every-one finds a lot of fun. Each Form in Years 6-8 plays in four quizzes over the next three weeks with the strongest five Forms competing in the finals which runs from Monday 6th February to Friday 10th February. In our opening match on Wednesday 7EJW and 7CLH, even at this early state, looked like very strong challengers and the attached photo features some of the chil-dren who competed. This was a keenly con-tested competition last year, which we hope will be repeated this time out The winners will be presented with the ‘Neale Trophy’ which is named after former DT teachers Mr John and Mrs Sue Neale. Mr Neale was also an OE and Mrs Neale was Head of the Lower School for a number of years. TRJ

On Saturday 13 May, 10 members of the Emanuel staff (the Eastonettes) will be doing the Walk the Walk London Moonwalk in memory of Charlie Easton, who passed away from breast cancer in September. We will be walking dressed in 1920s attire (surely this alone is worthy of your sponsorship?). Please help us raise funds for this worthwhile charity by giving what you can and spread the word by sharing the link below with your friends and family. Thank you in advance for your generosity. Link: https://heroix-gb.everydayhero.com/event/moonwalklondon2017/hero_page/eastonettes/donate

FUNDRAISINGARTICULATION COMPETITIONEvery January, the Art Department selects one student from the Upper Sixth to take part in the prestigious ARTiculation award, a national public speaking competition run by the Roche Court Educational Trust and the University of Cambridge. The competition gives students the opportunity to present an original talk about an artwork of their choice. This year, Kate won a place at the regional heat held at the Wallace Collection in London. On the day of the competition, supported by three members of the Sixth Form, Kate gave a confident talk about The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh, where she discussed the mythology surrounding the artist’s work. Dr Lucy Davis, Curator of Paintings at The Wallace Collection and judge for the competition, was impressed by Kate’s confident and sophisticated presentation. Kate missed out on being put through to the next heat but nonetheless she gave an inspiring talk and was commended by several members of the audience. The Art Department will be running the ARTiculation 2018 award from next September. RGC

RETURN OF THE LOWER SCHOOL LITERARY QUIZ

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Over the past term, Academic Scholars from Hill Form to Year 8 have taken part in the Trinity Schools Book Awards. They have read a short-list of six novels with the theme of senses, debated and voted for their favourite (The Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster) and have written book reviews as part of our Emanuel competition. The prize-winning review is taken forward to a competition between all of the 21 schools in the Trinity Group. Students also have to complete creative responses to their favourite novel from the short-list. The competition was fierce, and students are limited to 500 words for their reviews. I am pleased to announce that Year 7 student Freya will represent the school at the award ceremony in March and the full text of her winning review, based on The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, is below. BMD Out of all the books in the Trinity Book Awards, my favourite is the The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. My reasons for this included realistic characters, menacing villains, a plot with twists around every corner and an original storyline. As the first TBA book I read, it definitely set the bar very high for the rest of the novels. I preferred this book to the others because it is full of action, non-romantic and ended on a cliff hanger, which simply begged you to read the next book in the trilogy. My favourite character was Manchee, the talking dog, who belonged to the

main character Todd. Manchee was loyal, empathetic, humorous, endearing and slightly simple. I was dismayed when he died unknowingly, to enable Todd and Viola to escape. I also thought that Ben and Cilian were admirable characters, caring for Todd when his parents were killed. They even sacrificed themselves to allow Todd to survive. Viola was a crucial character, as she provided a strong female figure to balance out the large number of males in the story. Although the book is full of protagonists, it also has a few wicked antagonists. One of these is the infamous Mayor of Prentisstown. At the end of the first book, he claims to have taken over

the world and renamed it: “Welcome… to New Prentisstown.” He also murders Cilian, sends his son, Davy Prentiss, to assassinate Ben and orders that all boys must kill someone on their thirteenth birthday to prove themselves a man. This hideous human being was also responsible for the massacre of every female in Prentisstown. I consider the plot of this book to be highly engaging as there was a twist on every other page. At first everything seems normal, if you discount being able to hear everyone’s thoughts and the absence of women, until you realise that the world these characters live in is actually post-apocalyptic and dystopian. The plot is highly complex and intricate, therefore you might need to read the book twice to pick up the more subtle elements of the story. I particularly enjoyed how the story is narrated in a colloquial manner that almost comes across as slang : “cuz…ain’t…yer…twixt”. I thoroughly enjoyed The Knife of Never Letting Go and would recommend it. I found it exciting, packed with adventure and full of characters I could empathise with. What made it appealing was how the Noise was inserted in a different font to make it stand out. I will read the other instalments in the Chaos Walking trilogy. A combination of the characters and the way the story was written set this book apart and although the TSBA books are of a high standard this one, in my opinion, is unparalleled.

FREYA MILLS GOES TO THE TRINITY BOOK AWARDS

Prayer and reflection is an important part of life at Emanuel, not only for the pupils but for all members of the community.A group of parents has expressed interest in establishing an informal prayer group which will meet in the school chapel (8.30am - 8.50am) on a monthly basis (first Thursday of the month in term time) to offer prayers.They pray:• for the needs of the school that are known to them• in response to prayer requests coming from members of the school community and also• in response to prayers and requests that

the pupils, staff and parents have placed in the prayer box just outside the chapel.Whilst prayer is the focus of this group, it also allows space and an opportunity to develop supportive and friendly relationships across the school community. The prayer group welcomes all parents and is open to anyone at any time. If you would like to come along please just show up. Here are the details:The dates of the prayer meetings (school chapel 8.30am - 8.50am) will be: Thursday 2 February, Thursday 2 March, Thursday 4 May and Thursday 6 July. For more information please contact the chaplain on forbes.walker@emanuel.org.uk. RFW

PARENTS’ PRAYER GROUP

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SPORTU13A V IBSTOCK PLACEFINAL SCORE: 65-0 (WON)

This was our highest scoring game of the season and our best attacking performance. Our forwards dominated all the rucks, allowing quick play to the backs who made the most of good quality ball. The team ran great lines, breaking the defence every time they got the ball. Christopher Bielenberg and Anthony Duncan scored two each. Luke Johnston, Henry Jeynes, Will Freeland, Ollie Newman, Tom Winfield, Matt Hebblethwaite, Josh Eng, Nico Wu and Zach Sayers scored one try each. The defence was just as pleased as the attack, notching up our first clean sheet. It was an outstanding performance and a sign of good things to come. BY BEN ROGERS (RUGBY COACH)

U13A V GODOLPHIN AND LATYMER FINAL SCORE: 29-9 (LOST) | BY LOLA

We knew that it was going to be a tough match. We had just returned from the Christmas break and not having much training made the game harder. The first quarter was won by Godolphin. We narrowed the score but were not able to catch up. The team worked very hard but Godolphin were whizzing up the court,

We have been given an unpublished manuscript by a (secret) very well-known author who has written many, successful novels for children. The novel How to Kill Teenagers has gone through five major drafts and he is keen for a sample of children to read his book and provide honest feedback. The Junior Literacy Society will examine the book in four meetings between now and Easter. We are asking children who read the

manuscript to be as critical as possible in their comments, which will be fed back to the author at the end of the activity. This is an exciting opportunity for children who really love reading to get involved in the editorial process and participate in an open discussion on what we all thought of the book. We are distributing PDFs of the book in four bite-size chunks, with the first meeting on Monday 24 January (Part 1) and

the second on Wednesday 8 February (Part 2) with the final two parts after the holidays. If your child would like to read the book then email tony.jones@emanuel.org.uk to receive the first two PDFs. Although it sounds like the book has a controversial title, it is a very readable teen thriller, with a dystopian twist that most children should manage. The identity of the author will be revealed at a later date! TRJ

EXCITING BOOK EDITING OPPORTUNITY

RUGBY

U13A | SURREY TOURNAMENT | BY LOLA

It was a very cold day with the mercury dropping to -2 degrees! We won our first match 12-1 against Royal Russel getting us off to a good start. Our next game was against Wallington, which we again won 11-1. But this time we were confident and excited to play our next game. We beat Lingfield Notre Dame 11-2. Up next was Alleyns, which we knew were going to be hard to beat. By half time it was 3-1 to the oppositon. During the second half we heard people shouting on the side line, “two minutes”! By this time we were fighting for our lives and the goals started coming in. The final score was 5-3 to Emanuel. We now go through to the next round and we look forward to competing in the Surrey Finals in March.

NETBALL scoring lots of goals. We usually do that to the other teams! Godolphin stretched their lead during the second quarter but we still thought that we could catch up. Everyone worked very hard, from Neve at GK, all the way down to Libby at GS. It was the same in the third quarter - Godolphin were scoring lots of goals but we were only getting a couple in. By the last quarter we knew that we weren’t going to win but we wanted to say that we tried our best. Bella was Player of the Match.