SWPS.ORG.UK

Head’s Piece The 6th February will be a very special celebration - on that day in 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave the first British

women the right to vote. It is a hundred years celebration, but it still seems remarkable that, within the life time of some of our fellow citizens (and given the fact that women tend to live longer than men, those citizens will more likely be female), there was a point in time when it was thought that women could not be trusted with suffrage.

Over these last hundred years, there have been some important and, at times, stunning changes and developments. Most obviously, we have had two female Prime Ministers; in addition the leaders of the DUP and SNP are both women; our female Home Secretary looks across the dispatch box in the House of Commons to her female opposite number. There has undoubtedly been progress – something of which those brave women a hundred years ago could only have

dreamed of. And yet the issue of gender continues to be discussed and debated: the gender pay gap is now unambiguously on the agenda in the

political and commercial world; the range of sexist abuse that women in public life receive on social media for expressing their opinion is horrifically high, whilst the wider issues of sexism in the workplace continues to demand urgent attention.

At SWPS we intend to celebrate the hundred years of women’s right to vote - lauding the women who worked for equality and opportunity. As tangible examples of what can be achieved through persistence, commitment and principle, the suffragettes are an inspiration. As they embark on their future, what will our own students achieve in the years to come?

C Muller Head

SWPS NEWS

U p c o m i n g E v e n t s

2 & 3 FEB

Senior School

Production: ‘Arabian Nights’

3 FEB Rowing: Hampton Head (Y9-13)

4 FEB

DofE: Silver Training Day—Hog’s Back

5 FEB

Y11: A Level option forms to tutors DEADLINE

6 FEB

PSHCE: Mission to Mars Final

RS: Y11 to St Peter’s Church

7 FEB

Medics, Dentists & Vets

+ A Level PE: Trip to Dissection Lab in London

Parents’ Evening: Senior Sixth

8 FEB Art: Y11 Trip to Tate Modern

9 FEB

Theatre Studies: Trip to V&A—Viewing of Jerusalem

Classics: Y11-13 to King’s College London—Medea Talk

Y7 Lunchtime Concerts

These concerts begin at 1 PM.

Year 7 Parents/Carers, please advise us if

you would like to attend by completing the

reply slip attached to the letter that was

recently sent out to you and ask your child to

place it in the Music post box.

8 Feb 7P

1 Mar 7Q

Year 10 RS students visit the Hare Krishna community As part of our studies on Hindu beliefs and practices,

the Year 10 GCSE RS students visited the

Bhaktivedanta Manor in Watford on a rainy and windswept day last week. A highlight was the visit to the cow protection sanctuary, where we fed the cows and took a ride in a bullock cart. We also enjoyed a

delicious vegetarian lunch and watched worship in the shrine

r o o m . S t u d e n t s dressed up in Indian costume and even attempted a few

Indian dance moves as part of a demonstration!

It was a wonderful opportunity to bring our learning to life and to find out more about a particular tradition within Hinduism. As usual, the students were a credit to themselves and the school.

H O’Connor

SWPS.ORG.UK

Arabian Nights Matinee for Feeder Schools Five of our feeder schools joined us on Wednesday to see part of our imminent production of Arabian Nights – a

perfect opportunity for those involved to have a full audience, and a lovely opportunity to welcome local

children to SWPS. We welcomed pupils from Coworth Flexlands, Halstead, Twickenham Prep, Staines Prep and Upton House Schools – so an audience of over 90 children who were enchanted with the amazing performance which transported us into another world. They loved the

costumes, performances and special effects and went away bubbling with excitement and keen to read more of these magical tales. Congratulations to all, and the best of luck for the weekend performances – it was a privilege to get a sneak preview!

S Hallsworth

SPORTS NEWS

Judo Anika Rabi (Y9) has pre-qualified to represent the school in the Judo British Schools Championships at the EIS

(English Institute of Sport) in Sheffield on Saturday 17 March. As well as this, she has also been selected for the Regional England Development Squad, a talent ID and development programme for the England squad, which will allow her to train every month with the England coaches and squad.

Well done and good luck Anika!

Cross Country On Saturday 20 January 2018 Jess Swetman, Eve Pauffley and Alma Thomsen (all Y8) competed in the sleet, snow

and mud at the Surrey Schools Cross Country Championships held in Reigate. Alma in particular did very well achieving a place at the cross country county event to race for Surrey. They all deserve a mention for braving the hideous

conditions and representing SWPS and North West Surrey. Well done all of you!

Year 7 Self-Defence Workshop Around half of Year 7

and their mothers joined Premier Self Defence last Sunday for a workshop in understanding how they can

deal with the, hopefully unlikely, situation of finding themselves being attacked. Whilst instructors taught students tips on how to verbally diffuse a tricky situation, Debi Steven’s

message was loud and clear to the mothers in encouraging them to promote empowerment within our children.

The second half of the workshop taught students some physical tactics and to release their ‘inner warrior’ to

be used as a last resort to help escape an attacker. Kitted out for protection, the

fully armoured instructors took some hefty knocks as

their Year 7 victims/warriors put their lessons to the test to fight back and escape a posed attack. This was Level 1 with the Level 2 workshop being held on Sunday 20 May 2018 at SWPS. (10% discount available if

booked before 9 February!) Debi is doing some fantastic work through her charity Action Breaks Silence, not only in the UK, but in South Africa and India where

statistics on rape and sexual attacks would astound you. To learn more about her great passion and cause, or to get involved or simply donate, please visit the website: http://www.actionbreakssilence.org/ A call to all those technically minded - she is currently seeking help with promoting the charity on social media

and any advice or help would be gratefully received, please contact Sarah Robbie at: sarah@actionbreakssilence.org

Lunchtime Concert The Music Scholars were out

in force for their lunch time

concert on Thursday 18th January. The concert began w i t h a n e x u b e r a n t performance of the 3rd movement of Purcell’s Sonata

for Trumpet and Strings. Sophie Schofield played the solo trumpet part with the string section of the Chamber

Orchestra, Maki Gajic Murata played the harpsichord and the ensemble was conducted by Emma Brown. Lauren Christian, accompanied by Mr Stanley on the piano, then performed the 1st and 2nd movements of Cimarosa’s Oboe Concerto. This was followed by Hayun Lee’s performance of the sublime ‘Adagio’ from J S Bach’s Sonata in G minor

for unaccompanied violin. Amélie Christian sensitively

played the hauntingly beautiful Elegie for cello by Carl Davis. Alyssa Mantel-Cooper then stepped forward to show us that it is possible to play ‘Czardas’, Monti’s famous novelty piece for violin, on the descant recorder. The concert ended with Catherine Abela, who had led the strings on her violin at the start of the concert, deftly

playing the 1st movement of Weber’s Concerto in F on the bassoon. Many thanks to all the scholars and Matthew Stanley, their accompanist, for such an enjoyable and impressive concert! I’m still receiving the compliments on their behalf and I didn’t play a single note!

T Scrutton

SWPS.ORG.UK

On Tuesday we had the charity Mermaids speak to Year 10 & 11 on LGBT awareness, emphasising on the

T. The talk was by Jan Sampson who provided the students with an understanding about different gender

identities, informing us how Mermaids can support young people and she gave a very engaging talk, with a very good question and answer session at the end.

For more information on Mermaids and the work they do and how they can support young people see: www.mermaidsuk.org.uk

K Ferris

PSHCE

ARTWORKS OF THE MONTH

LIBRARY

Book of the Week This week’s BotW is ‘My Own Story’ the autobiography of Emmeline Pankhurst, selected by Mrs Vidgen for the 100th

Anniversary of women’s right to vote. Follow @SWPSLibrary to keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the Library!

Here’s one of our four Artworks of the Month, for

February, selected by the Art & Design Dept staff.

This one is by Grace Bradshaw (L6). Take a look at more of our students’ artwork on our new Art Dept website: artdesignswps.org.uk

Chosen by the DT Dept.

Here are some examples of pewter casting from

the students of 8W and 8X produced in their last l e s s o n i n D e s i g n Technology before rotating to HE. Students designed and made the pewter moulds in their sketch

books inspired by shapes and patterns from existing jewellery designers such as Theo Fennell, Stephen Webster and Rosa Pietsch, they then cut the pewter and using the brazing hearth heated this up and cast their moulds, the results are really fantastic showing a great deal of creativity. Students then cleaned up and polished

their designs before transforming them into jewellery pieces. J Blackman

DESIGNS OF THE MONTH