Winter 2014

News and Reviews

Poetry

Art

Photos

The CTC Magazine

Endeavour

2

Contents Contributors

Magazine Committee

Yulia Promskaya

Guanting Lu

Andrei Gherasim

Students

Haocheng Wu

Idan Seyed Akhavan

Fatimah Iman Mullah

Alina Aliyeva

Darius Tarbiat

Eaint Phyu Sin

Elena Grazia

Staff

Mr Cutting

Mr Houssen

Mrs Bose

Mr Eagers

Mr Gibbs

Join the Magazine Team We are always looking for more contributors to write articles,

take photos and help put together the magazine. If you are

interested please see Mr Houssen in the Learning Resource

Centre for more information.

Greetings from the Principal 3

Message from the Student Committee 3

‘Get-to-know-you’ Dinner 4

Halloween Party 5

Awards Ceremony 6

Prize Winners 7

McCarthy Award Winners 8

Remembrance Day 9

National Poetry Day 10

Poetry Competition Winners 12

History Society 13

October Informal Concert 14

A Visit to Europe House 15

Charity Book sale 16

Sports Clubs 16

Gavin Barwell MP 16

Borough Market 17

Student Art Gallery 18

Poet’s Corner 19

On the cover:

Student artwork by

Haocheng Wu (front)

Elena Grazia (back)

Endeavour; The CTC Magazine,

Cambridge Tutors College

Water Tower Hill

Croydon CR0 5SX

www.ctc.ac.uk

3

Greetings from the Principal

As I write this there is, sadly, no snow lying deep and crisp

and even outside to welcome Christmas, the end of term

and the end of 2014. However to keep your spirits warm,

may I commend this edition of the College’s magazine?! We

still have over two weeks to go but I know our students and

staff are looking forward to the Christmas break as the start

of the term, and summer warmth, seems a long way away.

The College is in good health. Our numbers this term were

good and we are now closed for January entries. A real

sense of purpose exudes CTC and many A2 students are

eagerly awaiting news from their universities, not least

from Oxbridge to see if they have been called for interview.

We have a strong cohort this year and I know you will join

me in wishing them every success.

May I also take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry

Christmas and very best wishes for 2015.

Mark Eagers

Principal

This term, members of the CTC community have

enjoyed spotting our liveried taxi driving around

town!

Introductions

A message from the Magazine

Committee

Hello, dear readers. Welcome to the pages of Endeavour, the CTC Student Magazine. Working day and night, our small but hard-working team has finally produced this magazine that provides you with information about what's going on at our college and what people are interested in.

Here you can find a range of articles for all tastes such as those about the Halloween Party 2014 organized by our won-derful outgoing Student Committee, the Europe House Con-ference on the UK and EU Parliaments that some of our poli-tics students had the opportunity to attend, the Awards Cere-mony for our graduated colleagues and many others.

In addition, as a member of the new Student Committee, we promise that your time at CTC will be the time of your life with tonnes of enjoyment and will leave you with a lasting impression. Enjoy reading! Yulia Promskaya

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We Like to Party!

The ‘GET-TO-KNOW-YOU’ DINNER

This year CTC's student committee has found another solu-

tion which helps new students to adapt more quickly to life

at our college and start to experience the benefits of being a

student more fully. We organized a "Get-To-Know-You" din-

ner in one of Croydon's Indian restaurants to push more

than 20 new shy colleagues into a relaxed and friendly at-

mosphere of student life (with pretty much the same num-

ber of returning students). I interviewed some of them to

see what they had found the best.

“[The] Get to know [you] dinner was a fantastic chance

to escape from exhaustive school days and to be

plunged into [a] friendly atmosphere that was reigning

in an Indian restaurant. The food and service were

splendid and I greatly appreciated an opportunity to

meet and talk to new students.” (Valeriya Pankova,

returning A2 student)

“On Friday, 19th of September, I went to the college's

"get to know [you] dinner". It was fantastic! Besides

the fact that there were a lot of new students who

were very interesting to talk to, there also were many

students from the second year with whom I had never

chatted before. The food was not bad too. I think it

was a very nice way to spend Friday evening.” (Pavel

Novitskiy, returning AS student)

“[The] 'Get to know [you]' dinner brought students

from various countries, who have different cultures

and beliefs, together. You would probably sit opposite

someone you had never met before, and then just

started from dialogues like ' How was your summer

holiday?', 'What do you think about the college so

far?'. When the dinner was finished, you went down

the hill with your new friends, [and] the conversation

kind of became ' You know once I kicked my little

cousin's ass because she grabbed my chicken wing...'

“ (Yeung Pok Nga Lau, new AS student)

Report and photos by Yulia Promskaya

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We Like to Party!

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Monsters, zombies, witches around...That is not a horror mov-

ie, that is the CTC Halloween party! We brought all the strange

creatures of our college together in the atmosphere of terror

and fear, and... Fun! We caught a serial killer, stopped zombies

from escaping from the grave and become vampires our-

selves!

In addition to all the competitions and games with prizes, a

variety of pizzas, snacks and drinks was provided. And, of

course, we had music and disco helping us to 'break the ice'

for some of our shy monsters.

That was a great way to spend Friday night before the half-

term holidays!

By Yulia Promskaya

Photos by Guanting Lu and Yulia Promskaya

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CTC AWARDS CEREMONY 22nd November 2014

We welcome back to CTC our college alumni.

This year the Cambridge Tutors’ Awards Ceremony took

place for the first time ‘in-house’. Can you imagine our very

own Test Hall, converted into a welcoming venue for the

afternoon? What many students no doubt remember as a

place of apprehension – a place to ponder countless hours of

difficult exams and tests – was transformed by mood lighting

and celebratory balloons. There were tables laid with table-

cloths and serviettes, all decorated in tasteful white. I’m sure

that returning students would have hardly recognised the

place.

The buffet was a vast spread of oriental-themed food, pre-

pared with care and attention to detail. There were spring

rolls and tasty sauces, duck pancakes and Thai green curry,

among a range of other food, including sweets and desserts;

all lovingly prepared by our resident chefs de la maison, Joe

and his team. Our staff and the alumni were keen to try all

the different types of food on offer.

The chair of the Trust Council, Mr. Robin Worthington, start-

ed our proceedings with a speech outlining some of the

differences that the students might find between a small CTC

class, and the anonymous setting of a large university lecture

theatre. He heartily congratulated our students on their

achievements.

Our principal, Mr. Mark Eagers, at his very first Awards cere-

mony, brings ‘fresh eyes…and a determination to make CTC a

better place’, in his own words. CTC students will be

‘ambassadors to improve international relations’ as they

move out into the world.

Then came the main event: the awards and prize-giving stag-

es of the afternoon. Our A-level students were awarded their

certificates, and they wasted no time in coming up to collect

them from our principal.

The head of EFL, Dr. John Rodgers, then told a story about a

shark in a swimming pool, which brought howls of delighted

laughter from the audience. Perhaps in a previous life Dr.

Rodgers was a stand-up comedian He certainly should get

employment as a storyteller.

By Mr. Cutting

Celebrating Success

Staff and alumni enjoying the ceremony.

Photos by Mr. Gibbs

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Celebrating Success

Subject Prize Winners

The individual subject prizes go to the following hard-working

and extremely deserving students:

Accounting: Khak Tuan NGUYEN

Art: Le Gia Linh TRAN

Biology: Yau Hui LIM

Chemistry: Qing Yu KWOK

Economics: Thuy Dung NGUYEN

EFL: Xinzhu XIAO

English Literature: Pokua ADDEI

French: Cristian URIGIUC

Further Maths: Zi Koon PONG and Le Gia Linh TRAN

Government & Politics: Torgyn SUZHANOVA

History: Amii LEPPIK

ICT: Edward GOMBERG

Mathematics: Vanessa CHONG

Physics: Zi Kon PONG

Pure Maths: He JIANG

Statistics: Yau Hui LIM

Extra-Curricular Awards

And the awards for extra-curricular activities went to the fol-

lowing students:

Outstanding Contribution to College Life:

Chee Lin Piong (‘Samson’), who took the award for his ser-

vice on the Student Committee for two terms, and for the

formation of the College Summer Ball committee, which

helped to make this year’s event such a resounding success.

Sports Prize Winners

Football: Player of the Year - William Chong Kar Jue

Basketball: Player of the year - Yuxiang LIU

College Magazine: Cristian URIGIUC, for all-round contribu-

tion

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The McCarthy Awards, given to students achieving at least

two A* grades at A-level, were awarded to (16 students were

in fact eligible for the award, which made the choice of win-

ners difficult):

1. Le Gia Linh Tran

2. Zi Koon Pong

3. Ying Xi Tan

4. Tze Ho Elden Tse

5. Thanh Thanh An Do

6. Vanessa Chong

7. Arisa Roongjirarat

8. Linh Trang Nguyen

9. Zhen Yi Chan

10. Yau Hui Lim

11. Khak Tuan Nguyen

12. Lip Yee Kuok

13. Yu Pei

14. Chengjiu Liu

15. Chen Xu

16. He Jiang

Two of our 2014 alumni, Yu Pei (Jess) and Zi Koon, made

short speeches about their time at CTC, and thanked the tu-

tors for their great support and for never giving up on them.

Zi Koon told the story of his arrival to Croydon in January

2013, deciding to make the ill-advised decision to walk from

East Croydon station to Sanderstead to his host family, trudg-

ing through the snow with a huge amount of luggage. What a

welcome to this country! He reminded us also how close-knit

the CTC community is, and how international and welcoming.

In his closing address, Mr. Eagers spoke of all the ‘well-

motivated, aspirational and courteous students’ in our 2014

year. Looking to the future, he mentioned his hopes for the

further development of the college, and said that he hopes

that when the students return to CTC at any time in the fu-

ture, there will be many exciting changes that they will see.

Congratulations to all our alumni of 2014!

McCarthy Award Winners

Celebrating Success

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College Life

Remembrance Day

It is astonishing to think that this year, 2014, marks the cen-

tenary of one the bloodiest conflicts in human history which

changed the shape of the world forever. It was the first truly

global conflict, the first Total War and its ending merely set

the stage for round two. Some say this started in 1936 with

the Spanish Civil War; those in China would say it began in

1937 when Japan invaded them; for western Europe, and

Empire nations, it was 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland;

for Russia it was June 1941; and for the USA, war began in

December of that year.

This year a key memory for me to mark the start of the Great

War was the magnificent, moving, display of poppies at the

Tower of London. Over 860,000 ceramic poppies were plant-

ed in memory of all the Commonwealth lives lost in the war;

millions came to see it and pay their respects. It was a won-

derful idea, beautifully executed. And rightly so.

The war was triggered by the assassination of the heir to the

Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian na-

tionalist, Gavril Princip. The Austrians blamed the Serbs and

having secured the unconditional backing from Germany (the

infamous “blank cheque”), issued an ultimatum to Serbia

which was unacceptable. Through the complex system of

alliances that existed, Russia back Serbia, France backed Rus-

sia… and Germany had a Plan to deal with it all. Britain re-

mained aloof until Germany invaded neutral Belgium, and

the war, supposedly Over By Christmas, lasted for over four

long and very bloody years.

There are many extraordinary features of the war. However

one that never ceases to amaze me is the bravery of the sol-

diers at the Front executing the impoverishment of ideas of

their leaders: heavy bombardment and then Over The Top

running in No Man’s Land over churned up land onto and

over barbed wire in the teeth of machine gun fire. Casualties

were simply appalling and unimaginable. Consider the Emir-

ates stadium, home to Arsenal FC, filled with 60,000 fans to

watch a game: it was this number who were killed/wounded

on 1st July 1916 on the British side alone. The slaughter was

terrible. The figures become almost meaningless; but we do

not forget.

It is right that we stop to think, to be quiet, to remember on

11th November. At a precise moment in history, at 11a.m.,

on this day in 1918, the guns fell silent. Sadly the peace

settlement was such that another conflict was made more

likely. As Foch said about the peace: this is not peace: it is an

armistice for twenty years. How right he was.

By Mr. Eagers

Photo (showing the ceramic poppies at the Tower of

London ) by Guanting Lu

10

College Life

National Poetry Day 2014

This year’s National Poetry Day was held on Thursday 2nd

October. We marked the event at Cambridge Tutors with

some wall displays in the library, and with a lunchtime event,

where students and tutors read out favourite poems, or po-

ems that they had written themselves. The theme of this

year’s National Poetry Day was ‘Memory’. It could be argued

that all poetry is in some way connected to the idea of

memory. Poets often attempt to capture and to recreate pre-

cious moments from their own past, or from an imagined

one. Wordsworth, one of our greatest poets in the English

language, wrote that he defined poetry as ‘emotion recollect-

ed in tranquility’. And one of Philip Larkin’s poems has the

title ‘I Remember’. Poets are strongly preoccupied by the

theme of memory, therefore. By putting their own recollec-

tions into verse, therefore, could we say that poets are trying

to preserve a memory of a person, or a place, or an emotion?

But in examining our own memories, we know that they are

far from perfect, and may be distorted by time, or idealised.

Here are two poems with the theme of memory that I like. In

this poem, written in 1862, Christina Rossetti looks forward

to a time when someone else will remember her:

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

Taken from: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

poem/174266 [Last Accessed: Nov 2014]

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National Poetry Day 2014

Here is another poem by from 1918 where the theme of

memory is prominent and affecting:

Piano

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling

strings

And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as

she

sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the

past.

DH Lawrence

Taken from: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/

piano.html [Last Accessed Nov 2014]

In the weeks before National Poetry Day, one of our librari-

ans, Ms. Bose asked tutors at the college which poems they

most remembered, or indeed had memorised. There were a

number of responses. Depending on when they were at

school, tutors may have had to memorise poetry as part of

their literature classes. When I was at school, however, we

weren’t required to learn any poetry by heart. I think that

this is a shame. Cambridge University recently conducted

research, as part of National Poetry Day, to find out which

were the most memorable poems for the nation. The lead

researcher of the project, Dr. D. Pullinger had this to say:

“Had we been doing this research a hundred or even fifty

years ago, the results would have been more predictable. Up

until 1944, children memorised ‘staple poems’. But in the

second half of the century, poetry learning became deeply

unfashionable within education – the baby thrown out with

the rote-learning bathwater. And yet, many people do still

know a poem or two, for all sorts of reasons. So that’s what

we’d like to know: what are the poems that live in people’s

memories, at this moment, in October 2014? What poem or

poems beat most strongly at the heart of the na-

tion?” (Pullinger, 2014: www.poetryandmemory.com)

Among our tutors and staff, popular choices of memorised

poems were ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by the First World War

poet Wilfred Owen, and parts of Tennyson’s great elegy for

his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, ‘In Memoriam’.

The library event was attended by our principal, Mr. Eagers,

as well as by some of our tutors: Dr. Oliphant, Ms. Sandhu,

Ms. Krey, Dr. Farrelly, and by Ms. Bose. Students from Mrs.

Das Gupta’s GCSE and A-level English Literature classes had

written poems on the theme, and we were able to hear these

poems read out. Mr. Eagers spent time looking at all of the

poems that were entered into our very own poetry competi-

tion. Although it was a difficult decision, he finally chose two

winning entries: poems by A-level student Fatima Mullah,

and by GCSE student Idan Akhavan. Each received a fabulous

Amazon book token to spend as they wished!

Thank to you all concerned, who helped the event come to

life; especially to the students who submitted their work, and

to those who read aloud at our Poetry Day event.

You can read more about the Cambridge university project

and hear people talking about their most memorable poems

at:

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/project-seeks-nations-

most-memorised-poems-to-investigate-power-of-poetry-by-

heart[Last accessed: Nov 2014]

By Mr. Cutting

College Life

12

National Poetry Day 2014—Our Winners!

Winner—GCSE Category

Idan Seyed Akhavan

Remember when we hung out

In the parks to play

Where we would chat about

Repeating it every day

As we bonded more closely

We would treat each other

Like siblings only

From one day to another

Remember when we looked

Towards the future

Finding ourselves hooked

With feelings of laughter

Now you have gone

Moving on with your life

To clearly be done

With stress in your life

Winner—A Level Category

Fatimah Iman Mullah

I remember a child who once existed;

An unfortunate victim of Aphrodite;

Equally loved and physically devoured her other half as if no other existed;

Naïve and gullible—almost willing to be deceived by his lies;

Innocence and youth trickled from the depths of her eyes;

And he loved her for all she had to offer.

But then life happened; and things changed.

He became a stranger to her – distant and unkind; cold and unfeeling.

I remember her utter confusion so well: almost as if it belonged to me.

‘Where had things gone wrong?’ she wondered.

Each and every night she would cry herself to sleep;

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months;

And before she knew it—her childhood was over-

Gone with the night breezes.

And finally Truth revealed herself;

A child who depended wholeheartedly on you,

Who trusted and clung to your every word—was now broken.

I remember that child; that child no longer exists.

For experience snatched the little existing innocence and sanity she had left.

And in the place of the pre-existing youth and innocence she once possessed,

tears now trickled.

I wept for her, as what she called life became a memory.

Every touch, every word, every kiss.

And all she could bring herself to whisper were the words ‘I remember—

I remember’.

College Life

13

College Life

Clubs and Societies

History Society- Kaiser Wilhelm II’s trial

On the 30th of September, the History Society club at CTC

prepared an interesting event. The trial of Kaiser Wilhelm II of

Germany. Naturally the Club prepared prosecuting and de-

fending lawyers and a court to pass the judgment upon our

friend the Kaiser, which was impersonated by none other

than our principal Mr. Mark Eagers! Kaiser Wilhelm was ac-

cused of genocide and treason against his country in the First

World War alongside the violation of international laws dur-

ing the war.

Alex was elected as the prosecuting lawyer. He was tasked

with convicting Kaiser Wilhelm II and to convince the jury that

our friend the Kaiser is not innocent. On the other hand, Phu-

ong was chosen as the defending lawyer and had a hard time

in defending the Kaiser. Both the defence and the prose-

cuting bodies did a wonderful job, but in the end it all came

to the decision of the jury, which was under the direction of

our History Teacher: Mr. John Oliphant.

The decision of the jury was that Kaiser Wilhelm II was found

guilty of genocide and the violation of international laws, but

it was seen that he did what he could in the interests of Ger-

many. In conclusion, we had a great lunchtime where we

looked back in history and confronted an interesting topic

with our fellow students and teachers.

By Andrei Gherasim

History Society-Stalin’s trial

It is the 24th of November and the History Society club has

prepared yet another interesting event for us. The trial of Jo-

seph Stalin or as we all like to call him, Uncle Joe. We had the

pleasure of inviting our principal, Mr. Mark Eagers, once again

to play the role of the villain and he eagerly accepted.

This time, I was chosen to take on the role of the prosecuting

lawyer at the risk of losing my own life for going against our

comrade Stalin. It was easy to see that the prosecution had an

easier job then the defence as Stalin committed quite a lot of

atrocities. Therefore I accused comrade Stalin of genocide,

destruction of the Russian economy and sabotage of the

armed forces during the 2nd World War. However, even if

there was plenty of reasons to accuse Stalin, there were even

less to defend him and in my opinion I had an easier job as

prosecutor as I would have had as a defendant.

Bea was chosen as the defending lawyer. She defended Mr.

Stalin extremely well with some minor help from the accused

himself. Their argument was that Stalin did everything he had

done in the interests of Russia and that executing the so

called ‘’Enemies of the People’’ was necessary.

However, as you all know it all comes down to the decision of

the jury. Not very surprising, comrade Stalin was found guilty

of all of the above and he was sent to the firing squad. Ouch!

This time the room of the club was filled up even more then

last time and lots of people found the trial interesting and

entertaining. As a member of the club myself I invite you to

take part in our events every Monday lunchtime and we

promise you, that you will have fun.

By Andrei Gherasim

End of term Badminton Tournament

14

On 22nd October the Staff and Student Choir gathered to perform an informal

concert.

College Life

The staff and stu-

dent choir in full

voice, led by Mr.

Wilkins

Above left: Amirah

Chairil (flute); Khu-

ong Duy Nguyen

and Mr. Cook

(violin)

Above right:

Lingyun Qian

Thu Binh Pham Minh Thu Vu

15

College Life

A Visit to Europe House

In the current UK and Europe-wide political debate, the fol-

lowing questions are arguably on many people’s lips:

What does the EU do?

Should the UK stay within the European Union?

How democratic is the UK parliament?

How democratic is the European parliament?

How many countries are there in the EU?

How many countries want to join the EU?

…and these were some of the questions that we were interest-

ed in discussing as well.

Mr. O’Dwyer (Government and Politics tutor), and Mr. Cutting

(EFL and Study Skills tutor), took a number of AS and A2 Poli-

tics students to the European Parliament UK Office in Smith

Square this November, for a conference arranged as part of

Parliament Week, and arranged by TEAM (The European At-

lantic Movement), bringing together sixth-formers from all

over London and further afield, to discuss the topic:

‘How well is democracy served by the UK and European par-

liaments?’

The conference was led by TEAM Chairman, Lawrence Smy,

and participants came from a wide range of backgrounds. We

even met a group of students all the way from Singapore, in

London for a cultural experience. We hope they got one!

We arrived in time for the morning session, which consisted of

a series of short presentations by experts such as Dr. Marion

Ferrat, a Committee Specialist at the Energy and Climate

Change Select Committee in the House of Commons, and Chris

Terry, Research Officer for the Electoral Reform society (ERS).

We learned about the role of select committees in parliament,

and whether an alternative voting system would be more

democratic for the UK.

CTC students were mixed in with other groups, and so had the

opportunity to discuss questions with peers from other

schools and sixth-form colleges. There were differences of

opinion, and plenty of opportunities to debate the topics.

We heard lots of information about the EU; its structure and

governance, the EU Council and EU Commission The speakers

were energetic and passionate about their subjects, and there

were a number of intelligent questions from the students par-

ticipating.

After lunch, students discussed in their groups, and then pre-

sented on some aspect of UK democracy. Not surprisingly,

considering the age of the participants, there were presenta-

tions on whether the UK voting age should be lowered to 16,

as well as whether UK democracy would be best served by an

EU exit. It was inspiring to hear so many young people with an

informed interest in the politics of this country.

Our students had an invaluable opportunity to meet col-

leagues and to discuss ideas in groups. I think they found the

experience very rewarding, and we all came away with a

greater passion and knowledge of the EU and the UK’s role

within it.

By Mr. Cutting

16

The Learning Resource Centre Book

Sale

In late September the newly reorganised and renamed Learn-

ing Resource Centre hosted a book sale to support Readathon

and Book Aid International. Students and staff had the oppor-

tunity to purchase used books that had been withdrawn from

the library collection, as well as other books that had been

donated by staff and departing students. The total raised this

time was £52.50. After adding the amount raised at the previ-

ous book sale that took place towards the end of the summer

term the community at CTC raised a grand total of £169.50.

The Librarians would like to thank all students and staff for

raising such a great amount of money for good causes, and

hope to see you at the next LRC charity event.

For more information on Readathon and Book Aid Internation-

al, and to see how your donations are being put to use, visit

the following websites:

http://www.readathon.org/ http://www.bookaid.org/

Gavin Barwell MP for Croydon

Mr Barwell took time out of his busy schedule to give a lively and informative talk to a group of students on the UK Parlia-mentary System and in particular the role of a Whip.

He fielded questions on a range of issues including the im-

pact of UKIP, policies of the Conservative Party, the issue of

the European Union, the possible result of the 2015 Election

and finally local issues concerning Croydon such as transport

zoning and road safety.

College Sports Clubs A variety of sporting clubs and societies are on offer at

CTC, including Badminton, Football, Volleyball Street-

dance , Basketball, Tennis, Golf, Fitness Club and Table

Tennis. Here are the Volleyball Club and the Badminton

Club in action.

College Life

17

Photography Feature

Borough Market

A2 student Guanting Lu visited Borough Market in London this term. Here are some of his favourite images.

18

Student Art Gallery

Brighton (inspired by Turner) by Alina Aliyeva

Self Portrait by Darius Tarbiat

Inside Outside by Haocheng Wu

19

A commentary on my poem, To the unavoidable day:

That night was calm and the world outside my window was glowing faintly. There I was, all alone in my room, gathering the

strategies and the weapons of knowledge to be prepared to fight the big battle – IGCSE exams. A moment later, I became emo-

tional when I thought about my future after the exam. At that time, I knew I could not study anymore so I grabbed a piece of

paper and a pen to write down about how I felt inside.

The background of this poem is the beautiful bay in the late evening during the summertime. In this poem, I imagined myself as

a girl wondering about her future when she spends her private moments at her favourite place – the bay. She loves the idea of

being together all the time with people she loves. In fact, it hurts her to realize that not much time is left to be with her cher-

ished parents. In her heart, she always knows that someday, she would have to leave the ones she adores in order to achieve

her special dream. Nevertheless, she knows it is impossible to have everything she wants. So, she tries to keep herself motivat-

ed and not to be sorrowful because she knows that she would have to face it any way though she is unwilling to do so.

by Eaint Phyu Sin

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