Friday 23 March 2018

This year’s School Musical, Queen and Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You was performed to record breaking crowds in the Hampden Hall last week. The four packed performances were the culmination of seven months hard work for the company of 98 actors, technicians and musicians. Stand out moments include Emma’s roof lifting Somebody to Love, Felix’s crowd

pleasing We Are The Champions, Livi’s moving rendition of No One But You, Iona and Bluebell’s It’s a Kind of Magic, and Keaton’s hilarious Pop. The large ensemble numbers, tightly choreographed by Meg, were slick and polished. The band, under the musical direction of Tim Rhodes worked tirelessly, and featured excellent guitar solos by Louis. All of the show’s

complicated technical elements, designed by Amanda Kerstein and Orla, were operated by students on the night, expertly cued by Luke as deputy stage manager. I would like to congratulate and thank all of the staff and students involved in the show for all their hard work, commitment and professionalism. They should be very proud of all they have achieved. RJA

We Will Rock You success

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Last week (12-16 March) was British Science Week, with schools all around the country putting on activities related to the themes of exploration and discovery.At Emanuel, students from all year groups took part in daily challenges and activities. On Monday, all the teachers wore stickers with the symbols of elements, and students filled in a Periodic Table with teacher names as they spotted them. Impressively, many students managed more than 50! Later in the day, students from Years 6-8 came to the Chemistry Department to analyse some suspicious substances and solve the mystery of ‘Who killed the Headmaster?’. Rev Walker is still on the run, and the public are advised not to approach him as he may be armed and dangerous! On Tuesday, students presented their thoughts on ‘What if…had never been discovered?’, covering such diverse topics as semiconductors, glass and insulin. The research and creativity that went into these was impressive, and it was exciting to see this next generation of scientists communicating their ideas in such engaging, clear and imaginative ways.

Congratulations to Ollie and Sadiq who won the competition with their video clip on ‘What if space had never been discovered?’. Their winning entry can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/l332IxkvW7w The week continued with lunchtime activities in the Biology and Physics Departments, an after school talk about science journalism by Dr Nicky Dean (see below), chief editor of Nature Energy, and several students from the Lower Sixth visiting Eaton House Prep School to give their own Science Week talks. Thursday saw more than 100 Lower School students gathered in the science department at lunchtime to exhibit their displays on the topic of ‘The best discovery or invention ever’. The standard of these was incredibly high, with carefully researched posters, beautifully crafted models, famous inventions made from Lego, and even a light box to display X-ray pictures. Many students won prizes, but all those who participated are to be commended for their hard work and imagination. Thank you to all the students and teachers who took part or helped organise the events. RCB

JEANNEPhysics and science journalism with Nicky Dean: Last Thursday (15 March) Nicky Dean visited Emanuel to talk to students about his career in physics as both a researcher and chief editor of the online Science Journal, Nature: Energy. Dean studied at Oxford University and specialized in time-resolved techniques, from X-rays to the terahertz regime, to study ultrafast dynamics in correlated electron materials. He continued his research at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter. Dean discussed his travels around the world as a researcher, in particular he shared his experiences working at a Japanese laser facility and at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf centre in Germany, a former nuclear research lab with a free electron laser. In 2011 Dean decided to leave labs behind to become a science journalist, and joined Nature Research as an editor for Nature Communications, where he managed a range of manuscripts across applied and fundamental physics and photonics. In 2015 he launched the online journal Nature: Energy. Students were highly engaged by Dean’s compelling talk and were curious during the Q&A about not only Dean’s fascinating career but also about the future of energy, and recent breakthroughs in physics. Dean stressed that there are still

British Science Week

Super Curricular talk with Dr Nicky Dean

many interesting discoveries to be made, although these will be of a different nature to the grand theories and breakthroughs of relativity and quantum mechanics of the 20th century. Super conductivity is one area that will take centre stage, according to Dean. The launch of the online journal Nature: Machine Intelligence in January 2019 points towards the primacy of robotics, A.I and machine learning in physics research. Fittingly, the next Super Curricular talk at Emanuel will be looking closely at Artificial Intelligence and will be held on May 8 from 4-5pm in the library with Professor Rueckert, Head of Computing at Imperial College, London.

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Science ambassadors

Lower Sixth students Ima, Jeremy, Emma, Elliot, Elizabeth and Bella gave presentations to the boys at Eaton House Preparatory School as part of the Science Week. Ima and Bella showed the boys how to make ice cream and spoke about the properties of solids, liquids and gases, even getting the boys to model particle diagrams. Jeremy and Elliot gave an insightful talk called ‘Astronomical Shenanigans’, where they discussed scientific myths and even the resurgence of the flat earth

theory. Finally Emma and Elizabeth talked about their favourite elements; arsenic, carbon and mercury. They used models to show the boys the structure of diamond and graphite and described some of their properties. The presentations were very engaging. The students did Emanuel proud by showing a high level of professionalism and passion for science, which hopefully has inspired the boys at Eaton House to be curious about science. AJJ

Very well done to all of the Young Enterprise teams that competed in the London South Central Finals on Wednesday. The evening represented the culmination of six months’ hard work for all of the students involved. The venue was the amazing Havas Media building in the new King’s Cross development, and the competition was intense with 12 teams competing from across the south London area. Grace’s brilliant One2One tutoring team finished in the runner up position and will now proceed to the London regional finals in April to take on the best schools from the whole Greater London area. Other team members involved in the presentation were Mia, Kathleen and Lucy. Unfortunately for the other teams (Manny Merch and Dimensional) this is the end of the road but they have definitely had a flavour of what it is like to set up and run their own business - I hope they use the skills that they have learned in their future careers. Notable efforts have come from Jacob, Joe, Sinan and Nicole. Well done to everyone involved. RST

This week’s Emanuel cake winners This week’s cake winners are the Latin/Greek reading competition medal winners who won bronze in three different categories. Well done everyone.

EPA Parents' Seminar Monday 30 April 2018

Shirley Scott of The Thrive Programme will be giving a presentation entitled: Anxiety Free -

Recognising it, understanding it and overcoming it. Drinks 6.30pm. Seminar 7-8pm. Please look

out for the Eventbrite invite.

Young Enterprise update

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Last Wednesday (14 March) the Emanuel winners from the recent Trinity School Book Award (TSBA) were presented with their prizes in the Lower School Assembly. This year the TSBA awarded six pupil prizes in two categories, ‘Book Reviews’ and ‘Creative Responses’ and although more than 20 schools were involved, Emanuel won three of the six prizes. Hilla came third for her review of ‘Welcome to Nowhere’, Freya came second also for a review of ‘Welcome to Nowhere’ and Thomas came second in the ‘Creative Response’ category for his amazing model of the Syrian border landscape from ‘Welcome to Nowhere’. Well done to everyone who entered from Emanuel School as the standard was exceptionally high. Sadly, the prize-giving ceremony for the TSBA that was to be held at Emanuel school on Friday 2 March was cancelled due to the heavy snow. As it involved so many schools and four high-profile authors, time-tabling complexities meant that it could not be rescheduled. However, all our Academic Scholars’ hard work will not go to waste as we have two exciting events in place for the summer term, which all lower school pupils are encouraged to get involved in. After hundreds of votes were cast, in over 20 schools, Sarah Govett won the 2018 TSBA for the first novel in her critically acclaimed trilogy, ‘The Territory’. Sarah said: ‘I’m very honoured to have been chosen for the TSBA amongst such brilliant authors and thrilled that my writing resonates with my readers. I wanted to tell the story of The Territory to highlight the environmental and socio-economic challenges that our teens are likely to face in the future, so I’m delighted that the series is gaining recognition.’ ‘The Territory’ was also the first choice of the Emanuel School Scholars. Due to the cancellation of the prize-giving ceremony, we still have Sarah’s trophy stored in the library office. Rather than our posting it, Sarah will visit Emanuel on 10 May and will be presented with the award by our Headmaster. She will also hold a Q&A with scholars and students. This will focus specifically on ‘The Territory’ and any Emanuel pupil who has read the book is welcome to attend. We also have lots of

Exciting Internship Opportunities Throughout the spring term members of the upper sixth have been making applications for a range of internships made available specifically to Emanuel leavers. The process has included the submission of formal letters of application and CVs, as well as a formal interview process conducted within the careers department. Three successful students – Jake, Toby and Edoardo - will be taking up exciting opportunities during the summer in the fields of finance, marketing and hospitality, and also at a creative agency in the world of international property. We are confident that our students will not only derive huge personal benefit from these opportunities but also that they will represent Emanuel and our community in an impressive manner. Particular thanks are offered to current Emanuel parents, Matt Flynn, Julie Barlatier and Shirley Brooke who have so kindly offered these positions. We wish Jake, Toby and Edoardo every success in their venture into the world of work, and we look forward to continuing these relationship into the future. HJ

TSBA Emanuel winners

copies in the School Library so it can be read in advance. The TSBA Committee said of Sarah’s triumph: “We congratulate Sarah Govett on the achievement. Given the current political climate it is not surprising that The Territory, a dystopian thriller, clearly resonated with our students who chose it as their winner. Sarah’s vision of a future in which most of the country is under water is a powerful call to arms to tackle climate change. The brutal, unfair education system takes the intensity of exam pressure to terrifying new levels; this is a world where creativity is not valued, where failure of the dreaded TAA at age

15 results in almost certain death.’ In the summer, short-listed author of ‘Welcome to Nowhere’, Elizabeth Laird will visit for a Q&A on 7 June. Her exceptionally powerful book tells the story of a family fleeing from Syria because of the civil war. Our scholars loved this book and if other pupils want to hear Elizabeth speak it is strongly advised they read it first. Elizabeth has authored more than 80 books and is one of the most distinguished authors in the UK, so we are excited she has agreed to visit. Both talks will be after school and everyone is welcome to attend. TRJ

Emanuel Twitter feedYou can now follow Emanuel on Twitter. Please visit @Emanuel_School to follow us for regular updates, announcements, results and news.

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House Points Totals At 6 December

Junior Senior OverallClyde 148 Howe 170 318

Drake 163 Nelson 148 311

Lyons 180 Marlborough 150 330

Wellington 176 Rodney 151 327

Weekly House point totals

Pi Bakes for Pi DayLast week (14 of March) our Year 9 students celebrated International Pi Day. The number π is a mathematical constant and is defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It is approximately equal to 3.14159, but is actually an irrational number (which means that it is infinitely long and non-repeating). Currently, Suresh Kumar Sharma holds the world record for remembering pi to the longest number of digits – reciting 70,030 digits in over 17 hours. To celebrate the day, the student pupils had a baking session and created some Pi Bakes! There were lots of apple pies and several cakes featuring a pi-related design to commemorate this day. Rosalind made some miniature pie magnets out of plastic, and Jackson made cheese straws to spell out “International Pi Day”. ADP

On Thursday 8 March, 18 of Emanuel’s most gifted mathematicians travelled to the Camden Centre for the annual series of mathematics lectures designed to inspire the next generation. Simon Singh delivered a polished and fascinating talk, focusing on number theory. Matthew Scroggs helped us understand exactly how statistical headlines are often completely flawed which was particularly enlightening. My personal favourite, however, was the lecture given by Sara Jabbari. Not only did she captivate the audience with her engaging manner, but she also clearly explained how solutions to fight diseases could be found by mathematical modelling using differential equations. Below, Zac and Siddiq share their thoughts on what they heard. ABY

A Level Maths in Action Lectures

BY SIDDIQOne talk delivered by Miranda Mowbray was on the topic of Data Science. She began by likening trying to process the increasing growth of scientific data

Are we made of maths?BY ZAC

In this entertaining lecture, Dr Mark Lewney introduced the maths of guitars, telecoms, ocean waves and life itself, using all kinds of strange animations in order to "imagineer" the amazing concepts one might meet after A levels. Using riffs from AC/DC to Queen, he brought the maths and physics behind the universe to life with an energy-filled virtuosic performance. Lewney explained

new concepts such as the Sierpinksi Triangle fractal and Conway’s Game of Life using nothing more complex than basic trigonometry, all while keeping the talk incredibly fascinating. Perhaps the highlight for many was his physics-based parody of Bohemian Rhapsody for the finale of the show; with stunning showmanship, Lewney took Freddie Mercury’s ingenuity and added his own science-based twist on the lyrics.

Drinking from the fire hose

published to trying to drink from a firehose. With such a large pool of data, statistical illusions are commonplace as some people misrepresent the values. She then went on to talk about malware and how modern malicious software can mutate, making it harder to detect and purge them from companies' frameworks, but that new innovative techniques are being used to trick the viruses.

Edinburgh CabaretHot on the heels of last week’s musical comes news of next term’s Edinburgh Cabaret. This popular biannual event will take place in the Hampden Hall on Saturday 28 April at 7pm. It will feature performances of music, drama, comedy and variety from pupils from Year 10 to Upper Sixth as well as some of the notorious shrinking violets of the Emanuel Common Room. The event raises money to support our two productions at this summer’s Edinburgh Festival, Roald Dahl’s The Twits, and Noël Coward’s Still Life. The previous three cabarets have sold out, and with cabaret style seating numbers are limited. Tickets are priced at £10 and include soft drinks, wine and snacks. A cash bar will also be available.

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Senior House Chess Nail BiterLast week saw the completion of the Senior House Chess competition, an event which was so keenly contested that the final positions for first to third were not decided until the final moments of the match. This prestigious House event is organised as a mini-league where all three Houses play each other over three successive Tuesdays. Rodney went into the final round of games with a clear advantage, however, a shock 5-1 loss to Nelson meant they dropped down to third. Marlborough’s convincing win over Howe almost stole them first place, but ultimately they had to settle for a very close second. 24 pupils are required for four full teams, which all four Houses fielded three weeks in a row, many with players in reserve. It was a fantastic competition, and a fine example of pupils really getting behind their House. TRJ

Religious Studies Update: Bahai

BY ESME, EMILY & MADDIE

Last Thursday (15 March) student Marianne gave a talk about her faith, Bahai, in the RS lesson. She told us about one of God’s messengers, Bahaullah, who wrote to all the world leaders and how people did not like how he taught and preached. He was punished and sent to a city called Acre where he was treated terribly until the persecution lessened and he had a little more freedom to teach. The Bahai faith is based on one God, one religion, one people. In the Bahai calendar there are 19 months in a year. Marianne told us about the charitable events she has done and the reasons behind them. Bahais aim to eliminate the extremes of poverty and wealth, to improve the local community and bring people together. The activities that the Bahai communities do are for everyone. They try to promote equality of men and women and protect the rights of ethnic minority groups. Men and women are likened to the wings of a bird. Both wings need to be equally strong for the bird to fly successfully. They value everybody’s views. Thank you, Marianne.

Put a sock in it! Year 6 students each made an animal sock puppet for homework. The puppets were all inspired by a puppet theatre play they created in class.

Come and enjoy a fantastic night of quizzing in support of our part-nership schools in India, hosted by our very own charismatic quiz masters Mr Nilsson and Mr Dibden. Please bring your own food (including plates and cutlery) to share with your quiz team during the dinner break and there will be a bar for those who need to recover after those difficult ques-tions! Prizes will be awarded to the

Quizz night winning team at the end of the night. Tickets cost £90 per table (6 people per table) and all proceeds go directly to Emanuel’s partner schools in India, Sri Jayendra and Gita Krishnamurthy Vidyalaya (GKV). We hope to see you on the 5th May! Please note that there is limited space for this event and if you would like to book tickets for the event then follow the below link:https://www.emanuelalumni.org.uk/alumni-events/quiz-night-fundraiser/

Cont’d on p8

SPORT

U12 NATIONAL SCHOOLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS

Emanuel took three pairs to the U12 National Championships. This included one Hill Form pair and one hybrid Hill/Year 7 pair. Some of the courts at Eton were unplayable due to bad weather, and unfortunately this slowed down play throughout the day. Following on from their success at the U11 Championships, Felix and Mehdi were again at top pair. They again topped their group with a very tight 6-5 victory over Berkhamsted 5 followed by a 6-0 result against Ipswich 5. Demonstrating some great winners into the buttress, both boys were playing very well. They continued in Plate A after a loss against Belmont 2 and did very well to reach the semi-final, beating many players a year older than them. There are good things to come in the future from both boys if they continue to play at this level. At second pair was our pair of Joe Alexnder and Miles. Putting two left-

Fives

Emanuel School U13s turn up the heat to win five from five at the Rosslyn Park National School 7s to top Group R and finish in the top 10 schools on points difference.

On Monday (19 March) our Year 8 boys took part in the largest school rugby tournament in the world. It was a freezing cold day but the boys, coaches and parents were all in high spirits. Due to the pitches the first fixture was touch rugby. Thanks to a moment of individual brilliance from Louis the team beat off Welsh School Porthcawl Comprehensive School (5-0). The second fixture was a more open affair with Emanuel running in eight unanswered tries against Gravesend Grammar School (40-0), with Tom demonstrating some outstanding kicking skills and spatial awareness. With the weather improving and the surface now deemed safe for contact it was business as usual for the U13s. Next up Queen Ethelburga’s who were to be the only team to cross our try line all day. Martin rose to the top this game with some brilliant solo efforts, Emanuel winning (25-05) against a larger, physical outfit. Sadly City of London Freemen’s withdrew from the tournament so we were awarded a walk over and a long lay-off, the latter being a cause for concern for the coaches. Despite the lay-off and opportunity to switch off both mentally and physically the boys came out firing in the last game, seeing off Mount St Mary’s (25-05), with outstanding

finishes for Zeeshan and Isaac, his first of the season. The U13s finished the day undefeated, winning 5 from 5 and scoring 95 points along the way. MR GAYNOR (DIRECTOR OF RUGBY)

handers together was an unconventional choice and unfortunately led to too many mistakes on the right hand side of the court. However, if Joe’s right hand became slightly more consistent and Miles improved the accuracy of his cut, these boys could win some great games. They showed flashes of this potential throughout the day, including a great comeback from 5-0 down to finish 6-5, but unfortunately couldn’t keep it up. Finally, we had Freddie and Max playing together. The boys started slowly but, following some tips on how to improve their volleying on top step, became stronger throughout the day. Freddie’s cutting was very effective at preventing their opponents from scoring, and Max’s left hand defended the buttress very well, saving many rallies. Their day concluded with a solid 6-4 victory over Wrekin 2 where both boys demonstrated the strides they had made throughout the day. Team photo on p8 BY MR MCCAHON (FIVES COACH)

U11 NATIONAL SCHOOLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPSEmanuel travelled with four Hill Form pairs to the U11 National Championships. They enjoyed a very full day of fives with some pairs playing in their first matches. Felix and Mehdi played very well together, topping their group with a solid win over Ipswich 4 followed by a great 8-3 victory against Cranleigh 2. They followed this up with a second round win against a strong Berkhamsted pair. At this point the boys were playing very well with both Felix and Mehdi regularly killing rallies with lovely smashes into the buttress from the back of the court. The next round was against Cranleigh’s top pair and proved to be a tight battle. Unfortunately the boys lost 8-6, 8-5 but can be proud of their performance throughout the day. At second pair we had an untested pairing of Joe and Evie. Things started slowly in a challenging group and they struggled to convert many points. Their fortunes changed in Plate A with a run of victories bringing them to the semi-finals. The improved performance was largely

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down to Joe working the ball into the back left of the court and Evie finishing the rallies from the top step. Next up was Thomas and Rory. The boys entered Plate B after playing against the tournament favourites in their group stage. Thomas improved dramatically throughout the day, returning some great cuts and being generally solid all over the court. Rory also cut out most of his errors and won several rallies with powerful shots into the buttress. This led to several victories in the plate including a close 8-6 win against Belmont 3. Finally we had Tomas and Fraser playing together. The boys started very well and narrowly lost 8-6 to a strong Belmont 2 pair, and did very well to get as close as they did. They continued in the plate and slowly perked up to get a couple of tight wins against a Westway pair 8-7 followed by Belmont 5 8-5 to see out the day.In all it was a great day of fives and all the players should be proud of how they performed. BY MR MCCAHON (FIVES COACH)

Cont’d from p7

U14A: SURREY FINALS FINAL POSITION: FIFTHBY ROSIEOur first match was against Guildford High, which, despite giving it our best we lost. It wasn’t a great start to the tournament. Our final match was our best performance, against Croydon High with a win. We also lost against Streatham and Clapham High and St Catherine’s, who were both very tough opponents. Charlotte played well as centre. Willa made her debut.

Netball

Cross-CountryThis last fortnight has seen the cross-country season drawing to a close, with major events being held over the UK. We had two students involved at county level - Jake finished in the top 100 (91st) representing Middlesex at the U20 Men’s Inter-Counties Championships, Loughborough, a fine effort with a large field of runners. Georgie representing London at the English Schools Championships, Leeds, finished 89th in a field of over 350 runners. This was an excellent performance in a short fast race which saw her miss out on a top 50 finish by just 15 seconds. Well done to both students. PAK

U12 Nationals