By Liv Brown, Year 8

Meet the team...

At a team dinner with Miss

Kemp in July… Nandos!

Some of the class of 2018-

19 posing in a meeting!

Co-Editor Swetha runs a brain-

storming session...

Celebrity Crush Quiz

Romance: Fiction vs Reality—Pratyaksha

Valentine’s Cookie Recipe—Aimen

Best Love Songs of All Time—Liv

Classic Romantic Films—Naerthi

Boys Will Be Boys? - Liv

Poetry Corner: To my BFF —Lana

Beauty Products We Love—Parveena

Netflix Romcoms—Freja

Easy Valentine’s Card Designs

—Aidana

The Adventures of Nutella &

Cookie (Comic Strip) - Kiri and

Kitty

NEWS FILMS FEATURES MUSIC BOOKS ART

A:Funny

B:Sarcastic

C:Hard working

D:Fasionista

Who's your celebrity crush?

What's your hobby? Where would you go on a date?

A: Gymnastics D:Acting A: Walk in the park D:Cafe

B:Singing B:Posh Restaurant

C:Photography C:Movies

What's your style? What type of person are you?

A:Casual

B:Party clothes

C:Formal

D:Dresses

What's your hairstyle?

A:Side parting

B:High ponytail

C:Messy

D:Open hair

If you got mostly…

A:Tom Holland

B:Ariana Grande

C:Cole Sprouse

D:Lili Reinhart

NEWS FILMS FEATURES MUSIC BOOKS ART

By Grace Heaffey

Ah, whether it’s a classic like, ‘When Harry met Sally’ or a

more recent love story, like ‘ To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before’.

I think everybody and anybody can appreciate a cheesy, sweet

romantic comedy once in a while. However, how different are

they from our run-of-the-mill relationships?

Lets start at the beginning of the day, the morning, when the

female lead wakes up with the most subtle hint of makeup,

and not a hair out of place. I know, I’m not just speaking for

myself when I say that many of us are far from that in the

morning, after hitting snooze about 20 times. Then the male

lead enters their cosy, inviting bedroom with a tray of the most

artistic looking breakfast. A handsome lead that claims he

doesn’t know how to cook, but can still whip up a gorgeous

breakfast, when I can barely make toast without burning it.

As the day progresses, their love for each other only seems to

be going stronger even if they just met the other day, before

that, neither of them knowing a single thing about the other.

Nonetheless, now they are madly in love and they will face

everything together, be it the spontaneous rainstorms every

time they kiss, or the insane hurdles the director- I mean ‘life’-

throws their way. Instead of something rational, like one of

them getting a cold, from the number of times they have been

drenched while they were smooching outside, one of them has

to leave. By plane of course, because you can’t really see the in-

credibly good-looking hero dashing through a port trying to

get to a boat, instead he will speed through an airport, without

a ticket trying to stop his one true love, from leaving forever.

Nonetheless, we will still continue watching these amazing

movies, dreaming of our Peter Kavinsky and Harry Burn.

By: Pratyaksha Sandilya, 9 Sapphire

Romance: Fiction vs Reality Pratyaksha calls out some of the ridiculous tropes of our beloved romantic

comedies...

Baking with Aimen Valentines Cookies

Method:

Combine butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy and

well-combined.

Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely com-

bined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.

Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of

the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that's

OK!).

Cover with clear wrap and shape into a disk. Repeat with remaining

cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap. Transfer dough to refriger-

ator and chill for at least 2-3 hours3

Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a

baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Generously dust a clean surface with flour and deposit one chilled cook-

ie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to

1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 1/4" (for thicker, softer cook-

ies). Continue to add flour as needed both on top of and beneath the

dough so that it doesn't stick.

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes

to prepared baking sheet.4

Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-10 minutes, or until edges just begin to turn

lightly .golden brown

Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before moving and frosting.

Combine sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until com-

bined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If

you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.

Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton 5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece

of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks

open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).

Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.

Allow frosting to harden before enjoying.

You will need...

1 cup unsalted butter softened to

room temperature (226g)

1 cup sugar (200g)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (315g)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

Sugar Cookie Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g)

3-4 Tablespoons milk

2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Gel food colouring optional

Additional candies and sprinkles

NEWS FILMS FEATURES MUSIC BOOKS ART

Want to share your top picks for next

issue? Speak to Miss Kemp, or one of

our friendly editors!

1) The Snowman-This film is not to do with ro-

mantic love— it is to do with the bond and

compassion between the boy and the snow-

man.

2) Titanic- This film is about love and tragedy.

The main characters, Rose and Jack, fall in love

on the doomed maiden voyage of the Titanic.

3)Into the Woods-This film is about the love be-

tween the baker and his wife, but also exposes some of

the fake loves people may encounter in life!

4) The Fault in Our Stars-this is the story of a 16 year old

girl called Hazel who has cancer. Hazel falls in love with a

boy called Gus, a fellow ‘cancer kid’ - and the

two go on an amazing adventure to Amster-

dam.

5) Finding Nemo-Is a well known movie which

is about friendship between Dory and

Marlin. Just keep swimming!

Classic Romantic Films Perfect for a cosy night in!

List by Naerthi, Year 7

NEWS FILMS FEATURES MUSIC BOOKS ART

Boys Will Be Boys?

Co-Editor Liv Brown investigates inequalities in society...

The phrase “Little boys hurt little girls who they like” encourages an idea of romanticising vio-

lence. The term is similar to “Boys will be boys” allowing leniency because of male

‘nature’ (noting here that I am not in any way assuming this is the case for all men because

that would be ignorant).

When girls are young we are often told that little boys are silly and hurt the girls they like.

Now, what is wrong with this statement? Showing affection through pain and violence should

never be idolised. Teaching boys that it is okay to hurt girls because they can’t convey their

emotions in any other ‘unmanly’ way is very problematic.

Now, I know this is a very dark and serous article-usually I write the Netflix top romantic

movies-but there are millions of statistics proving the scale of this truth.

• Abuse will affect 1 in 4 women ( and 1 in 6 men) in their lifetime. This is appalling, you are

massively more likely to be in an abusive relationship than to be in a car accident (1 in 200),

• Abuse leads to, on AVERAGE, two women being murdered each week and 30 men per

year-JUST in the UK.

• Abuse is 16% of all violent crime (in England and Wales), however it is still the violent

crime least likely to be reported to the police because of the fear that victims won’t be heard,

shamed or ending up in a worse condition,

• Abuse has more repeat victims than any other crime (on average there will have been 35

assaults before a victim calls the police).

No one should be afraid to call out or report what’s happening. Staying in an unhealthy and

abusive relationship shouldn’t be advertised at such a young impressionable age.

Phrases like “boys will be boys” or “boys hurt girls they like” don’t encourage gentlemanly

behaviours, it encourages TOXIC masculinity.

Recently there is a lot of stigma surrounding a short film for Gillette*-the razor company-

who created a short film which pointed out the corrupted ideals of masculinity and called it

out.

The issue some people are having is that it seemed like the advert was pointing at men and

blaming every problem: like violence and sexual harassment.

The company switched the famous slogan “the best a man can get” to “the best men can be”

the short film depicts scenes surrounding bullying, sexual harassment, sexist behaviours, ag-

gressive male behaviour and encourages stepping in to prevent these things happening.

“Because the boys watching today, will be the men of tomorrow.”

In my opinion, claiming that this short film is aimed at every aspect of masculinity is ridicu-

lous. Having someone as influential as Pierce Morgan claim he is boycotting Gillette just be-

cause he thinks “Men these days don’t know what the hell they’re doing…all the qualities that

were good in men are being portrayed as evil” is disgusting and outdated. Bullying, violence,

sexism and sexual harassment isn’t a quality to be celebrated and Gillette is right to have

shown this. Masculinity isn’t the same as TOXIC MASCULINITY.

Excusing any form of toxic masculinity is unacceptable and boycotting Gillette due to the

very realistic and inspiring short film would be immature and naive because what is happen-

ing in the clip happens in real life too.

*https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0

By: Olivia Brown

NEWS FILMS FEATURES MUSIC BOOKS ART

To my BFF

An Ode to Friendship, by Lana—Year 7

I have a heart

And that is you

My BFF

As soon as our friendship started I knew it would go well

Not a fight just

Love peace and laughter

I hope we will smile

And never frown

You make me smile and laugh

And when we are separated

All I think about is…

You!

Poetry Corner

Want your work featured in Poetry

Corner? Speak to Miss Kemp!

Beautiology

Revolution Fast base concealer - Superdrug £5

This concealer is definitely on the must have lists and will certainly banish those un-

der eye bags. It is in 13 shades so everyone can buy one. It is quick, easy and travel

friendly. It blends out completely well and does not make your eyes look paler than

the rest of your skin. It is good for school because when you put it on, it is not cakey

and not obvious—you would easily pass Mrs Lowe without her noticing, she may

even call you smart!

Barry M Molten Metals Bronze Bae nail polish– Superdrug £3.99

Valentine’s is around the corner, so you don’t want sad looking nails! Then

this is the nail polish for you. This nail polish is great - it just looks like a nor-

mal nail polish but it is definitely a must have for a night out with friends. It

will give your nails that shine that you have always wanted. So, put on that

bright red dress and pair it up with this bronze bae.

Not sponsored (unfortunately) By Parveena Ahuja 10O

Ariana Grande Ari body mist - Superdrug £10.00

This body mist will give you a very feminine fragrance. One spray and it will

amaze your senses. It has been spun with musk, woods and an addictive

scent of marshmallow. If you’re scared that your perfume will wear off then

this is for you because this mist lasts for hours which is something you

wouldn't want to miss out on, would you?

Be obsessed eyeshadow palette - Boots £6

This eyeshadow palette is teen and adult friendly, it will give you that

silky eye look that you’ve always wanted. The colours are not extreme

and it gives a nude look. If you cannot do a smoky eye without looking

like an utter maniac then try this, the texture is more pigmented and is

easily picked up by a brush.

NEWS FILMS FEATURES MUSIC BOOKS ART

High school senior Bianca has an awakening when she

learns that her friends think of her as the DUFF

(Designated Ugly Fat Friend) to her popular prettier

friends. Desperate to reinvent herself she asks for the

help of the high school jock to save her senior year from

being a disaster.

I really enjoyed this coming of age movie as it has a really

good message at the end to love yourself.

When someone gives out the wrong number, Sierra’s

identity is mistaken as the cool girl from school. This

mistake leads to an unexpected romance. She joins

forces with the popular girl to win the love of her high

school crush.

I enjoyed this movie but believe it could be improved

as it was pretty clichéd.

Freja Tink has reviewed some of Netflix’s most popular romcoms, to help

you find the perfect movie this half term...

A 16 year old cancer patient, Hazel Grace, falls in love with Gus

Waters from her cancer group. They feel like they really get each

other. When Gus gets an invitation to meet an author he and Ha-

zel go on the adventure of their short lives.

Although at times deals with difficult issues and was at times sad,

I really enjoyed this movie. However I rated it 4 stars as I thought

it wasn’t as good as the book.

A high school student finds herself face to face with her

long -term crush when she signs up to run a kissing

booth at the spring carnival.

I didn’t understand how much hype this movie got as it

seemed to go on and there wasn’t much of a plot. It also

idealised that boys should control every aspect of life.

After spending the night with the girl of his dreams he is

left in the friend zone. He gets the opportunity to travel

through time and spend the night over and over till it is

perfect.

This movie was fun to watch however it was yet again

pretty clichéd, and an inferior reworking of Groundhog

day.

A plague has left the planets population divided between humans

and zombies. One of the zombies rescues a living woman and she

sees that he is different to all of the other zombies and they form an

unusual relationship.

This is one of my favourite movies as it is not clichéd like many other

romance movies and is an entirely new concept.