The Alleynian 703 2015

W elcome to this year’s edition of The Alleynian . We hope you enjoy the diverse range of news, features and reports detailing the thoughts and actions of Dulwich College. This year has seen some important moments, with the opening of Phase One of the new Laboratory, the enormous success of the first Dulwich Creative Week and the fifth appearance of the fabulous Upper School Symposium all proving to be particular highlights, and all featured in these pages. The second of these, Dulwich Creative, gave rise to the leading focus of this issue – creativity. The creative instincts and abilities of boys at Dulwich permeate throughout, from collaborations with the sculptor Conrad Shawcross to thoughts on the landscape of Iceland to an account of our first Music Composition Competition. Other features reflect on what Dulwich’s pupils are thinking about or have been up to – School Captain Anamay Viswanathan considers what leadership at Dulwich looks like; Marko Marsenic – and me – think about the impact the internet and mobile devices are having on our lives. Dramatic, musical and sporting achievements have been typically outstanding this year, with the success of the Dulwich Olympiad, another unbelievable cup run from the 1st XV, productions of The Caucasian Chalk Circle , The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Hiawatha , and concerts at Dulwich and further afield all exemplifying the exciting successes of students outside the classroom. This edition of The Alleynian is also the first since the re-establishment of a student editorial committee, a group we have created with the intention of handing ownership and responsibility of this vital school institution back to those who started it more than a hundred years ago: the students. We wanted to involve those who were interested in more of the commissioning, editing and writing of articles, and in this debut year we hope you will enjoy what we have produced. Only in our infancy, we are constantly on the lookout for new members of the team and, as I hand over to next year’s Senior Prefects for the Creative Arts, I hope many of you will take an interest in joining this body and getting involved with another exciting and thought-provoking edition.

Student Editor Ollie Norton-Smith

Staff Editor Mr Rory Fisher

Editorial Committee Ollie Norton-Smith

Keesje ’t Hooft Shehzore Adil Miles Dee (Art) Theo Forbes Ben Higlett (Sport) Hamish Lloyd Barnes (Drama) Marcus Kottering Edward Reid Edmund Stutter Staff Section Editors Art : Mrs Mary Jo Doherty Drama : Mrs Kathryn Norton-Smith

Music : Miss Jemima Lofts Sport : Mr Phil Greenaway

Photography Miss Maggie Jarman (Drama, Valete, Iceland, Symposium and many others) Ms Deborah Field (Symposium, Music and others) Mr Nobby Clark, Ed Reid, Marko Marsenic, Will Reid (Drama) Mr Andrew Waugh, Mr David Lee (Sport) Mr Daniel Shearing (The Laboratory)

Design and Layout Mr Nicholas Wood

Proofreader Miss Rebecca Smith

Printing Cantate

With thanks to: Mr Simon Northcote-Green, Miss Maggie Jarman, Ms Deborah Field, Ms Emily Hughes, Mrs Sally Gatley, Mrs Victoria Joseph, and all our contributors. The front and rear cover show images from the notebook of Oscar Maguire (Year 13), which depict creativity in action. The inside covers show drawings produced as part of Dulwich Creative.

Ollie Norton-Smith Student Editor

Contents

Contents

Essays

News

70-71 72-74

6-11 12-15 16-18 19-23 24-27 28-30

Life-extending drugs The tale of two autocrats

The first Dulwich Olympiad ‘The Lab’ – Phase One Nepal – an inspirational country struck by tragedy Charity through the year The 2014 Symposium: Power The Union – New Societies

Creative Writing

75-80 81-83

Three Upper School short stories What we do at Wordsmiths

Features

Art

31-39

Creativity

84-86 87-99

New York, modern art Art review 2015

• Dulwich Creative • Work in progress – the Conrad Shawcross sculpture project Technology • Are we driven to digital distraction? – mobile devices and education • The deep, dark web – snooping and secrecy on the internet • Duke of Edinburgh – are phones allowed?

40-46

Drama

100-109 110-119

Production reviews House drama

47-49

What leadership means at Dulwich – the work of the Senior Prefects Iceland and thoughts on the view at Storhofdi After Shackleton • An OA in Antarctica

Music

50-51 52-56

120-122 123

Concert reviews Composition competition

• Persistence and Endurance – Shackleton and Maths Not The Alleynian – Dulwich magazines from the Archives An exchange with a difference – an Anglo-German journalism project Food, football, friendship – experiences of Pamplona Engineering legends – automotive excitement in Bologna Threatened wonders of the wild – an expedition to Madagascar

57-59 60-61 62 63 64-65 66-67 68-69

124-135 Sport

136-139 CCF

140 Chaplaincy

141-142 International Dulwich – looking backwards and forwards

The Weizmann Competition 2015 Pueri Alleynienses: Leavers’ addresses

143-146 OA News

147-170 Valete

D ulwich The First Olympiad

More than 400 students, both boys and girls, from eight Dulwich Schools – 102 from Dulwich College in London – competed in athletics, table tennis, swimming, basketball and football. Miss Sarah Wood introduces the first inaugural Dulwich Olympiad, held in Beijing in April

B oth in terms of competitive spirit and the success. In the boys’ competitions, DC London was highly successful in many fields, gaining 26 gold medals in 36 athletic events, eight gold medals in 21 swimming races, one possible gold in table tennis and one team gold medal out of the three on offer in football. Although there were no gold medals in the three basketball competitions, two closely fought finals with DC Beijing provided some of the most tense and exciting drama of all the events. The National Olympic Sports Centre in Beijing had an athletics stadium, basketball venue and swimming pool that the boys could only have dreamt of competing in, a set-up for many personal bests and feats of personal triumph. It is impossible to name them all here, but Ed Olsen was honoured in the final awards ceremony for his 2.01mins in the 800m and Jack Ramsay for his ability to get medals in such a number of disciplines. The real triumph of the Olympiad, though, was the strength of the friendships and alliances that were forged both individually and collectively between the Colleges. This was most aptly demonstrated at the final Awards ceremony, where the musicians were able to demonstrate the talent that abounds not only friendships formed between the schools, the first Dulwich Olympiad has been an undeniable

‘The real triumph of the Olympiad was the strength of the friendships and alliances forged both individually and collectively between the Colleges’

at DC London but also in the International Schools. Again, it would be impossible to name all the amazing boys who performed, but Charlie Godsiff and Will Horseman surely ranked alongside Ben Schlossman as outstanding contributors to the tour, although Ben got the recognition on the night for his contributions in Beijing. The College students demonstrated the all-embracing Dulwich spirit with their good conduct, good company and multitude of talents. They were fantastic ambassadors for the school and we look forward both individually and collectively to hosting the next Olympiad in 2019. With an even greater number of schools and students involved, it really will be a hugely exciting event to look forward to.

Pictured : Ed Olsen (Year 12) was honoured in the final awards ceremony for his 2.01mins in the 800m.

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‘We all knew that we were here not just to do well for our own pride, but also for our teammates and, even more importantly, to congratulate our opponents’

‘Nothing could have preparedme for China’

Among the sportsmen and musicians who represented DC London were three student journalists with instructions to report on the Olympiad. One of them, Darrius Kudiabor Thompson (Year 11), shares his highlights of an unforgettable cultural event D escribing an amazing experience to someone is always hard, especially when that person can never feel what you felt or see what you saw. What

Below : Ben Osuntokun (Year 12) with other DC London musicians.

done!’ for being a great sportsman. There are photos to prove it! And this friendship didn’t just stop in Shanghai: it followed us to Suzhou, where we were welcomed in style by a chorus of Taiko drummers and played a well- fought match against The Scots College in front of a cheering crowd of Dulwich College Suzhou students. After a well-watched and appreciated lunchtime concert, our musicians again had a full audience after the rugby, with the combined talents of the schools were on full display. From Shanghai and Suzhou we travelled to the main event in Beijing and here the competition heated up. Our two days were filled with many competitions, including a second round against The Scots College and the dynamics were those of collaboration and competitiveness. Everyone wanted to get a gold medal in the Athletics or win the basketball tournament for his age group. But even with that natural competitive spirit, we all knew that we were here not just to do well for our own pride, but also for our teammates and, even more importantly, to congratulate our opponents. During the opening ceremony we flew our respective Dulwich flags proudly and during the athletics, runners would encourage one another in a team huddle before racing. We cheered on our school teams with chants while watching nail-biting basketball matches for three different age groups. All Dulwich schools cheered on Dulwich London in the second leg against The Scots College, which was fought hard but ended in defeat. In every sport we had worthy opponents; some we won and some we lost. But we knew we were all there to witness and congratulate each other’s skill. Even Dr Spence showed his football finesse in a game of 66 – I mean, who knew?

makes describing our first Olympiad harder is that there is nothing to compare it with. I have seen some breath-taking sites: the foothills of the Himalayas, the entrancing lights of Las Vegas, the maze-like streets of Venice, and so much more. When I have come home, my mother has asked me, ‘how was your trip?’, ‘what did you do?’, ‘what was it like?’, ‘tell me all about it?’ And I say, ‘it was a great trip, Mum!’ and that’s as far as I go in terms of adjectives. Indeed, I have had my fair share of adventure and I consider myself lucky. But nothing could have prepared me for China. When I was asked to report on the first Dulwich Olympiad, I felt honoured and buzzing with excitement at the thought of standing in the midst of it and explaining it to all the people back home. Soon enough, I was standing in a very urbanised Shanghai, the first stop on our tour, feeling more daunted about what might be thrown at me. But after a warm welcome from all the staff at Dulwich College Shanghai (including some familiar faces), I settled in. Even before I started writing about our stunning swimming performance and our even greater struggle in the U17 football match, I could sense the beginnings of a unique Olympiad atmosphere, which would only build over the coming days. Despite the eight-year age range between Dulwich’s competitors, we quickly became close. But something else happened during our three-day stay in Shanghai. Over the course of the different events, from ten-aside rugby matches to combined Big Band performances at a specially arranged food fair, there was a growing bond between the two schools – Dulwich College London and Dulwich College Shanghai. Yes, we knew we shared the same foundation, but now we were talking with them, walking with them, playing music and competing against each other in amicable matches, shaking hands at the end to say ‘Well

I make it sound like this tour was just about sportsmen: it wasn’t. The musicians were working hard to prepare a performance at the closing gala concert, where we sat mixed in with people from the Dulwich College International schools and ate a traditional meal. While we listened to the melodious sounds of the combined band and choir, we got to know each other on our tables, exchanging hopes and dreams as well as email addresses. After the big events came a few days of relaxation and exploration of the wonders of China. During a much- needed lie-in, I began to think about the past few days and how amazing it was that I could now say that ‘I was there during the first Olympiad’. We have seven Dulwich schools abroad and we often say we want to build a bridge between us. Well, we have now done more than that: we have walked over and shaken hands. Finally, I came upon the right word to describe this trip: ‘unforgettable’.

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‘Music rehearsals are still interrupted by apologetic athletes who have rushed from the fields’

‘The daily lives of the pupils in China are just as hectic as anything seen in London’

During the Olympiad, student reporter Matthew Verri (Year 12) found time to observe some of cultural differences as well as to reflect on sport in China ‘Green men at traffic lights are more of a recommendation’, we were warned as we arrived at Dulwich College Shanghai

Below : The Dulwich College Olympians, led by Thomas Boutelle (Year 12).

1988 in Seoul, China won five gold medals and took 244 athletes to the Olympics. Fast forward 24 years to London in 2012 and China took 396 athletes and won 38 gold medals, coming second in the overall medal table. The Youth Olympic Games were set up in 2010 and in those two Games, China has won more medals than any other country, demonstrating the huge surge in sporting activity. China has traditionally achieved success at table tennis, badminton, and diving, yet on the back of the 2008 Olympics, the country has seen more success in Swimming and in Athletics than ever before. This was clear for all to see at the Dulwich Olympiad, where Dulwich Beijing and Dulwich Shanghai in particular impressed. Away from the sporting aspect of our trip and China as a whole, the pupils at the China schools are very similar to their London counterparts. Music rehearsals are still interrupted by apologetic athletes who have rushed from the fields, with the daily lives of the pupils in China just as hectic as anything seen in London. The students from the International Schools were so helpful towards us; often a pupil would follow you from a distance, almost willing you to ask where the lunch hall was so that they could take you there. One striking difference was the lack of pat-ball courts, though perhaps after the 2019 Olympiad in London that sporting discipline can crack the Chinese market. The 2015 Beijing Olympiad was a truly spectacular occasion and those boys in Year 9 and below will no doubt be relishing the opportunity to compete in a home Olympiad in four years’ time. It is now apparent we share so much more than the ‘Dulwich College’ name with the International schools and these bonds will only grow in strength in the future. One thing is for sure: the bar has been set very high ahead of 2019.

“ Right, OK. I’m sure I can cross a road easily enough.” Wrong: it is common in China for cars to ignore red lights if there is no oncoming traffic. Unfortunately, pedestrians do not count as traffic. The task is made easier by the barrage of horns that will greet you should you be brave enough to venture a foot onto the road. Once you see that green man, you go. And do not stop. China was not all stress – not in the slightest. In a country still feeling the legacy of the Olympic Games in 2008, sport is quite clearly on the rise. This dramatic increase in sporting participation is no more obvious than in the medal tables from recent Olympics. In

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Few recent visitors to Dulwich College can have failed to notice the construction process that has been underway to create the first half of The Laboratory, the College’s new Science facility. Marcus Kottering (Year 12) was one of the first students to see inside, on a guided tour for The Alleynian a few days before opening

M y tour begins with the weekly meeting of the project’s construction committee. After an hour, I am still struggling to understand much of the technical jargon that is clearly a hugely significant part of this building process. With precise efficiency, the team go through a booklet containing a long list of details outlining major concerns, checking that each party is in-sync to allow for smooth operation. I ask Simon Yiend, the College’s Chief Operating Officer and my tour guide, what ‘FF&E’ stands for. He simplifies things for me by explaining: ‘If you took the building upside down and shook it, that’s what would fall out’. It seems a reasonable concern. One gets the impression that this team has been working together for a long time, which, as it turns out, is in fact the case. In November 2011, Dulwich contracted McLaren to begin the planning of the build and estimating the overall cost. The attention to detail they gave to the project was impressive – even small, but nonetheless important, aspects were considered: the shade of the Burette racks in the Chemistry labs (grey or white?); design for signage; the logistics of liquid nitrogen storage. With the meeting concluded, Mr Yiend and I arm ourselves with high-vis jackets and helmets before entering the building through the boys’ ground floor toilets, which serves as the main entrance until the proper version is completed. We soon find ourselves on the Physics floor, into which light floods from the rooftop. Two voids run from the top to the bottom of the building: one is to display a work of art made by the celebrated sculptor Conrad Shawcross, the other is for the James Caird, Shackleton’s boat that has until now resided in the North Cloister. The surroundings of this College treasure have been cleverly designed to fill the zig-zagged floor with glass gravel, so when an LED light is passed through, it looks like it’s cutting through the ice. With scientists today pushing the boundaries of technology, from discovering the minutest particles to exploring entire galaxies, the Laboratory is clearly designed to foster similar ambition in the work that goes on in its 18 classrooms. Less obvious, however, is the way the new building also has examples of highly advanced technology

Left : Shackleton’s James Caird in its new home inside The Laboratory.

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Below : Boys enter The Laboratory for the first time (left), the ‘Dragon’s Curve’ terracotta pattern (right) and one of the new bright, open classrooms (opposite page).

The 24 visors attached to the outside of the building, each comprising 112 terracotta ‘baguettes’, help to reduce over-heating and glare in the laboratories Up to four per cent of the electrical power is supplied by 50 photovoltaic solar panels on the roof; the maximum available space on the roof has been used for solar panels The thermal properties of the building are such that less than 15 per cent of the heating supplied by the new boilers is required for the new building; the remaining <85 per cent goes to the Barry Buildings Cooling of the building is achieved by ground source water pumped from a borehole, which is 122m deep; water at 12.7 o C runs through kilometres of piping buried in the concrete of each floor before being pumped back to another ‘sink’ borehole by the War Memorial. This is known as an ‘open loop’ system

integrated deep within it. For example, satisfied only with an environmental regulation standard of ‘Excellent’, the College took the decision to install a Thermally Activated Cooling System that pumps water through pipes from 122 metres underground, through chalk and clay, to extract heat from the building. Although cheaper in the long term, the system was expensive to build and the drilling process didn’t come without its problems. At 119 metres below the surface, the enormous £48,000 drill got stuck. To solve this issue, a pump had to be brought down from Wales to blast out chalk and flint residue 14 feet into the air. Ascending onto the roof gives us a view of the College few have glimpsed, but also the sight of yet more high-tech equipment. This includes solar panels, which will provide four per cent of the building’s electricity, and a mechanical plant ventilation system. There are also plans to have a powerful telescope on the roof as well (I sense another society in the making). It is also interesting to observe how much science is being used in the construction of the building itself. As we pass through the central atrium, the heart of the building, a vacuum machine is being used to lift a pane of glass off the ground – a process only made possible by scientific endeavour exploring the properties of matter. Then, as we move into one of the classrooms walled by glass, one can only imagine the research undergone into the interaction of light with other materials to have created the tinted windows allowing clear vision looking out, but dimming the clarity when looking in. It’s this sort of wonder that the building itself feels designed to provoke.

‘The quality is remarkable. Every detail is covered,’ says Mr Yiend. He explains that the Master was keen to ‘break the artificial divide between art and science’, and deliberately artistic concepts are carefully woven into many of the building’s design aspects. The architects have embraced the direct juxtaposition of tradition and modernity created by The Laboratory’s proximity to the Barry Buildings: its reflective three-storey pane of glass that looks out onto the face of the school, coupled with the distinctive terracotta cladding, allows The Laboratory to appear ‘influenced by the Barry Buildings’ yet ‘a statement in its own right’. This warm red-brick feel is also mirrored by the use of light wood for the inner-chamber, intended to contrast the bright, open classrooms. Even the apparently random terracotta pattern has a story behind it. Designed by the esteemed sculptor Peter Randall Page, the pattern, known as the ‘Dragon’s Curve’ was discovered in the 1960s by the biologist Aristid Lindenmayer whilst attempting to replicate various shapes of nature in an algorithm. Each individual tile had to be drawn up, numbered, sent to a production company in Belgium, and signed off. Today, the algorithm is used in music and physics, and can also be seen in Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park , where a number of pages are dedicated to explaining how it can be reproduced. ‘I’ve been with it all the way through, and you don’t always know how it’s going to turn out’, Mr Yiend tells me as my tour draws to a close. We can now say with a degree of certainty that Phase One has turned out triumphant in all manners of architectural ambition, artistic subtlety and scientific wonder. We wait for the completion of Phase Two with anticipation.

The Phase One building is 1170m 2 in area

It has taken 295 working days to build (construction work started on 3rd Feburary 2014)

It is supported on 168 piles to a depth of between 29m and 16m

It weighs 4.4 kilotons (3.7kt for concrete frame; 700t for superimposed loads: cladding, partitions, floor/ceiling finishes and services) Some 97,756 worker hours have gone into the building work onsite, and 48 trades have been involved; these hours do not include those spent on professional services, design etc. offsite The 18 laboratories and 3 preparation rooms are largely identical in terms of space and proportion, allowing flexibility for reorganisation in the future The external cladding pattern was generated using a 3D modelling software called Rhino, working alongside an algorithmic modelling application called Grasshopper Each of the 143 external cladding panels is unique and had to be cast individually in Belgium; there are six different shades in the 4,164 terracotta tiles

The borehole water was originally rainwater which is two years old by the time it reaches Dulwich

The glass skylight in the James Caird Hall above the lifeboat is 13m at its highest point. The waves faced by Shackleton and his crew were up to 18m high Endurance, Shackleton’s three-masted barquentine, at a length of 144 feet, would comfortably fit in the space of the James Caird Hall and the corresponding paved area outside

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‘The entire place smelled of incense and spices’ One of the members of the expedition, Kiran Honeysett (Year 11), recalls the vivid sights and sounds of Nepal. His account was written before the earthquake struck A s we stepped out onto the tarmac in Kathmandu, we experienced a wave of heat, sound and smell crash over us. This was the moment we realised how different

NEPAL An inspirational country struck by tragedy

Nepal really was. First we felt the sun pouring its light down on us, warming our backs and helping us loosen up after the full day of air travel. The next thing we experienced was the sound: the seemingly normal sounds, such as people talking, or cars, had been turned up to a huge volume. The most obvious was that of the car horn: this was an almost continuous noise that continued well into the night. Then came the smell: the entire place, it seemed, smelled of incense and spices. We made our way from the airport to our hotel in a convoy of trucks precariously carrying our luggage on their roofs. As we drove, we gained our first impression of life in Nepal. In a relatively small city of only 2.5 million it seemed everyone was out on the single stretch of road that we were driving along. The city was not at all as we expected: the houses were all built up with bits and bobs, here and there. We arrived at the Gangjong hotel and the rest of the evening was a blur of administration followed by an introductory meal at a local restaurant. There we were given a selection of beautiful foods, which conveniently adjusted our palettes to the Nepalese cuisine in elegant style. The next day began with a very brief flight to the town of Pokhara. This was followed by a drive to the site where we were to begin our trek from Phedi to Dhampus, a small village populated by the Gurung ethnic group, a people who have lived in the area for thousands of years maintaining their farming traditions. We trekked up through farms and forests, taking in the stunning views of the mountains and the green valley below. At Dhampus, we stayed in a small hostel with a perfect view of the Annapurna range opposite, which made for one of the most exquisite sunrises I have ever experienced.

Miss Joanna Woolley

I n October half term, 2014, 43 Dulwich boys and six staff visited Nepal on a Geography and Religious Studies expedition. We returned having had an incredible experience and with many memories – but little did we realise how precious these memories were to be. A few months later, Nepal has been hit by not just one, but two devastating earthquakes, on Saturday 25th April and Tuesday 12th May 2015. These quakes reached magnitude 7.8 and 7.3 on the Richter Scale and the country has been shaken by multiple after- shocks. At the time of writing, official records state that 8,000 lives have been lost and 18,000 people have been injured. But having experienced the remoteness

These earthquakes are the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since 1934. After hearing the devastating news about the first earthquake, staff and pupils were moved by the unfolding disaster. Those of us on the expedition had seen Kathmandu, trekked in mountains around Pokhara, and been on a jungle safari in Chitwan. We were inspired not only by the breath-taking geography and religion of this amazing country, but also the generosity of the Nepalese people that we met along the way. This personal experience and link with Nepal has meant that our Dulwich boys have shown real generosity of time, spirit and dedication to helping the relief effort by raising money and awareness for this cause. Taking into account Upper and Lower School cake sales, donations, a mufti-day and a Sunday chapel collection, Dulwich College has been able to donate more than £3,300 to the UK Disaster Emergency Committee.

and poverty of this country, we know this figure will sadly no doubt rise in the months to come.

Pictured : Fundraising for the Nepal relief effort included selling specially decorated cakes (above) at cake sales (following page). Also shown over the page are members of the Dulwich expedition and one example of the wildlife they encountered.

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In the morning, once we had recovered from the sunrise, we ate and begun the next stretch of our trek to the town of Landruk, where for much of the journey we were followed by a very sweet Tibetan Mastiff belonging to the owners of the hostel we had stayed at before. This stretch of the trek was uphill mostly, but we still managed to take in the grand view. Upon arrival at the campsite, we found everything was already set up for us by the porters, who had somehow managed to carry all our baggage to the campsite hours before we had even arrived. Our next trek was to Gandruk, the second largest village in the area, where we visited a small museum and a Buddhist temple, both of which helped us understand first-hand what life is like for the rural people of Nepal. As we made our way back from the museum, it began to pour with rain but that did not dampen our spirits, as that night we had a sing-off with some of the Nepali guides. They sang a vast array of traditional songs while we sung a range of western classics such as ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis. Our final day of trekking was a very steep descent that took us to a ‘substantial’ bridge at Naya Pul, where we were picked up by our bus and taken back to Pokhara. After another day in which we drove five hours to the Chitwan Valley, a national park famed for its wildlife and beauty, we set out early on a jungle safari on foot and realised why the journey was worth it. After being fortunate enough to see a rhino bathing in a river, we rode elephants, travelling high up through the dense forest before taking a trip up the river to spot crocodiles and birds. When we returned to our lodges, we ate before enjoying a series of dances performed by the local Tharu people. After returning to Kathmandu by road we began the long trip back to London full of experiences and memories noone will be able to forget for a long time.

Mr Jake Tasker and Paul Formanko (Year 13), Charities and Community Service Prefect, round up the College’s fundraising activities W inston Churchill’s words tend to echo down the years, and in the context of charity none echo more than these. In our often money-obsessed and career-driven world it can be very easy to focus on the first half of his statement – making sure we’re making a living, or in terms of the boys currently at the College, keeping them on the right track. I hope, though, that some of things they have seen and heard from various charity representatives over the year help them to realise Winston Churchill had a point: not only do we enrich our own lives when we give; the impact on others is hugely significant.

‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give’

Boys (and girls where DUCKs is concerned) across the College have been enthusiastically raising money for all sorts of good causes over the past year: Macmillan Cancer Support, Selfless, Hope and Homes for Children, Christian Aid, Comic Relief, Kick It Out, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund, Centrepoint, and all sorts of others. It has been great to see so many boys involved in supporting such a variety of good causes and such engagement is testament to the creativity, awareness and compassion of Dulwich College boys.

Below : Contestants in the Charity Dodgeball match.

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O ver two days in the Lent term, four football teams took part in the ‘Faith Societies Football Tournament’. A Jewish representative team played a Christian representative team on the first day, with Muslim and Hindu representative teams playing the following day. At half time, the Christian and Jewish teams were drawing 2-2, but the Jewish team came out on top, winning 4-3 in good spirits. A similarly close encounter between the Hindu and Muslim teams meant the score was 1-1 after normal time. The match then had to be decided by a sudden-death penalty shootout and the Hindu team came out on top. All this set up a semi-finals to be played: Christian Vs Muslim and Hindu Vs Jewish. Money was raised by the refreshment sale that accompanied the first match and, at the second, a pizza sale. The Muslim and Hindu boys each paid a match fee to play. In the tournament finals the 3rd and 4th playoff saw the Christian team beat their Muslim opponents 3-0. In the final, the Hindu team managed to win 3-2 on penalties. The Jewish team became the 2015 runners up as both the Jewish and Hindu teams rallied their vocal supporters. Thanks to all who were involved in the planning, the coaching, the refereeing and the organising of these events which have raised more than £120 for the various charities involved. Special thanks must go to Nick Chitty, Tohid Ismail, Henry Lewis and Kayan Dave for their enthusiasm and leadership. Congratulations to the Hindu team for taking the trophy.

F O O T B A L L T O U R N A M E N T

R efreshed from the summer, students participated in a wide range of charity events around the College as the academic year began. With money raised going towards several key and leading charities, many students were motivated by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge of the summer and set out to fundraise either for our Charity of the Term, Macmillan Cancer Support, or for charities of their own choosing, which included the WWF, Children With Cancer, Prior’s Court Foundation, Level Water, Breathe, Diabetes UK, Tools for Schools, Trinity Hospice, Water Aid, Gutsy Gastros, Wings of Hope, and many more. Events during the Michaelmas term ranged from sports-related projects such as the ‘Oarsome Foursome’ Row (see the article that follows), a penalty shootout tournament, a 60km run, a Cycle to School Day and even a Football Heads competition, to several sales (including bracelets, sweets, cakes, drinks, and Krispy Kremes) and even some more unique events, such as a Roald Dahl dress-up day. In total we raised just over £11,000, with around £3,000 going to Macmillan – enough to fund a Macmillan nurse for a patient for several days, or enough to pay for a Macmillan Mobile Cancer Information Centre to visit a site for a few days. Many congratulations to all those who took part in the Michaelmas term.

B oys of all ages at DC did a brilliant job of raising money and awareness for charity in the Lent term. The £6,307 raised across the school was split between 11 different charities. The Lower School raised £1,021 for a variety of charities over the term. They held sweet sales, a Fifa tournament and raised money through World Book Week. The Junior school also contributed significantly to the Lent term total by raising £866 through ‘The Big Pedal’ and a number of other initiatives related to Comic Relief. The Middle School focused on raising money for Hope and Homes for Children – a charity supporting families who are looking after orphans in Romania, Sudan and similar countries – and raised a total of £2,206. Events of all kinds were organised and for one day only DC had its very own Oriental Restaurant (thanks to 10P). The Upper School raised money for Selfless, a professional skills sharing charity set up by OA Faheem Ahmed. They offer their skills to those who can’t afford them or don’t have access to them. Boys in the Upper School raised money through pizza sales and other events – most notably through the Faith Societies football tournament, in which representatives for the DC Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities made up teams, with the Hindu team being crowned champions. Overall, the Upper School raised £2,214 for Selfless.

O nce exams are over, the Summer term lends itself to all sorts of Charity initiatives, with opportunities for boys to express their passions and raise money and awareness in all sorts of ways. The Summer Charity of the term, Hollington Youth Centre in Camberwell, has been supported by the College from its foundation in 1886. Boys have supported the Hollington Youth Centre by bringing in unwanted computer games and raising funds through Mufti days. The most encouraging moment of the Summer term very clearly occurred days after the terrible earthquakes in Nepal. Communities within and around the College, especially the Geography department, rallied students and staff to raise money for the Nepal Earthquake Appeal (see the article on Nepal elsewhere in this Alleynian). In total, £3,353 was raised from all sorts of parts of the school; the Chapel collections, Lower, Middle and Upper Schools, whole college Mufti, parental donations, and a huge bake sale that raised more than £600.

Above : Enjoying 10P’s pop-up Oriental Restaurant

Above : Money has been raised through events such as this Wii tournament.

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I n September, the Junior School was overrun by Fantastic Mr Foxes, Willy Wonkas, a few Georges with their marvellous medicine and even some Oompa Loompas. The Year 3s invented a new Roald Dahl character, made stunning dreamcatchers, devoured delicious Dahl-inspired cakes and were launched on their Jumpsquiffing Reading Journey. All in the name of a good cause – Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. From their fun and frolics, they raised almost £200.

Below : Faheem Ahmed (OA), founder of Selfless, the Upper School’s Lent Term charity.

A t the beginning of the summer holidays, Holden, all members of the J14 A crew, rowed a colossal 175km (110 miles) along the river Thames from Oxford to Putney in aid of Wings of Hope, an amazing charity that gives schooling to orphaned and impoverished children in India and Malawi. The idea was first formed on a damp, cold day in December as we left an assembly containing an inspiring invitation from a representative of the Wings of Hope charity. We were asked to devise an event by which we could fundraise to help their schools around the world. However, the full amount of organisation necessary and the time that would take was yet to be realised. After months of organisation, and thousands of pounds of sponsorship secured, the five of us left Putney, and drove to Oxford. On day one, a bleak but mild Friday morning, we set off from Oxford with relaxed optimism, comfortable that we had ‘little’ to do and a long time to do it in. However, we didn’t realise just how wrong we were. After 50km we really started feeling the strain. Despite our determination to make it to Henley before nightfall, delayed food stops, a lock operated by onlookers, and a break down all forced us to stop 5km away from our goal at dusk. Luckily, a friendly riverside Hotel in Sonning saw our plight and looked after our boat overnight while we turned into our tent, exhausted. We awoke on Saturday morning with a conscious dread and realisation that not only had we to get back into our uncomfortable seats and move our aching muscles, we also had to cover the miles we hadn’t managed the previous Ralph Ellison, Noah Armitage-Hookes, Alfie Armitage-Hookes, Patrick Craig and Thomas

Ralph Ellison (Year 10)

day. But with the encouragement of Mr Croucher, our coach, and our knowledge that we had in fact less time than we thought, we pushed on and arrived at Penton Hook marina at 5pm. We were also spurred on by the words of an infant onlooker who asked, ‘why is that boy at the front doing nothing?’ while looking at Thomas, our cox. On the last day, Sunday, woken by the strains of sunlight shining into the haven of a Travelodge (the campsite let us down), we started with confidence that the worst was over, and that that night we could sleep in our own beds. We started off and with Mr Croucher’s continued firm pressure, pushed our way past Molesey and Hampton to Richmond Lock (the last), where we refuelled with food and prepared ourselves for the final sprint. However, it was with painful backs, blistered and bleeding hands that we finally arrived at the Dulwich College Boat Club Boathouse, all numb with exhaustion. Looking back on what we did, our accomplishments are something to be pleased with and we feel very proud, despite the certainty that we would never ever let ourselves be drawn into that situation again.

S elfless – the NGO selected as the Upper School’s charity for the Lent term – has also launched a campaign to treat obstetric fistula, spearheaded by former Guy’s academic student president and Vice- Captain of the College, Faheem Ahmed, who visited the College in February. Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged obstructed labour. Complications during childbirth often lead to the death of the baby and incontinence in the affected women, causing severe emotional distress. Currently, more than 70,000 women suffer from obstetric fistula in Bangladesh, the vast majority of whom do not have access to the necessary yet inexpensive treatment. With support from the Department for International Development (DFID) and Tropical Health Education Trust (THET), Selfless’ #FightFistula project aims to support these women by helping to develop the long-term capacity of local surgical providers in the region while also offering

medical students and doctors from the UK a unique opportunity to appreciate both the clinical and social issues associated with this severely debilitating condition. At the launch of the campaign, Faheem highlighted growing inequalities where the ‘world’s poorest third receive less than four per cent of all surgical treatment, whereas the richest third receive over three-quarters.’ Drawing from his experiences at Harvard’s Global Health department, Faheem argued the case for surgery as a cost-effective public health intervention and emphasised the need to ‘offer students and trainees more opportunities to experience healthcare overseas in an era of globalisation’. By providing students with structured training and guidance to ensure that the highest clinical and ethical standards are maintained, initiatives such as #FightFistula seek to develop a ‘future generation of safe surgeons dedicated to global public health.’

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T H E 2 0 1 4 S Y M P O S I U M : POWER

Sam Warren-Miell (Year 12) reports on the Upper School’s annual opportunity to break through subject boundaries and wrestle with difficult ideas. This year, Jo Brand and Martin Rowson were among the range of speakers encouraging their audience to ‘speak truth to power’

W e tend to be mistrustful of those in positions of power, and wary of its abuse encroaching on our own freedoms: a whole day discussing the topic might run the risk of creating a kind of cumulative dispiriting effect. Speakers at the 2014 Symposium were therefore tasked with relating different ways of approaching power and identifying its agents and instruments. Indeed, when Dr Spence’s initial address introduced some of the themes that would be carried through the day, most significant was the importance of questioning power in society and those who hold it, of ‘speaking truth to power’ and even mocking the powerful outright. Since the story of those in power throughout history is so often a story of men, it was significant that a woman was chosen as this Symposium’s opening speaker. Indeed, much of Jo Brand’s talk centred on her experience as a woman in a male-dominated world. She spoke of going from Brunel University, where men outnumbered women eight to one, to the Maudsley, where she worked as a psychiatric nurse, and faced both the bureaucratic power of the NHS and the power wielded indiscriminately by the police, who on at least one occasion in her experience beat a mentally ill man so severely that he spat out his teeth on arrival at the hospital. When she entered the comedy circuit, it included a mere 20 women to around 250 men, she explained, and her career in comedy had enabled her to appreciate the importance of pushing boundaries and engaging with taboo subjects in order to challenge power structures in society. Brand finished by fielding questions on a host of topics spanning mental health diagnosis, Ed Miliband, Russell Brand, and feminism. The last was perhaps a dangerous topic to broach in a room of 450 teenage boys, but was nonetheless handled carefully and lucidly by a speaker who brought a strong female voice to a day that might have otherwise been dominated by men talking to men about men.

Our second speaker represented another approach to using language to challenge power. Chris McCabe’s poetry explores how closely entwined the personal and political can be in the modern world, and in his introduction to his work he stressed the importance of challenging the ‘received language’ spoken to us by politicians. The pieces he read covered events central to the 21st-century British experience – Tony Blair’s decision to enter the war in Iraq, the 7/7 bombings, and the recession – and tackled each in such a way that the personal was never lost in the service of any kind of didactic political message, with a vibrancy of language that captured the essence of both his own experience and the shared experience of the nation. Perhaps the most enlightening and invigorating presentation of the day was the Symposium’s closing talk by Martin Rowson, one of the world’s leading – and most ferocious – political cartoonists. In a style as cutting and blunt as the work he produces, Rowson addressed the Sixth Form on the history of the political cartoon and its role, to ‘rip aside the raiments of the rich and the powerful and show that they are the same pissing, shitting, stinking, bleeding bastards as the rest of us’. Rowson’s potted history of the form included images that have undoubtedly entered the public consciousness – Hogarth’s Beer Street and Gin Lane , Gillray’s The plumb-pudding in danger, Low’s bitter depiction of the Nazi-Soviet pact – while his own cartoons represented the distillation of those themes, applied mercilessly to the politicians of the past 30 years. To Rowson, the character assassination practised by political cartoonists has a kind of shamanistic, voodoo quality. He spoke of ‘stealing the soul’ of Alistair Campbell, when he drew him for a series of caricatures composed at The Gay Hussar restaurant in Soho, and let his audience in on some of the secrets of the craft, for example the ‘Mickey Mouse rule’, which dictates that any memorable character should be reducible to certain immediately recognisable traits – Rowson used the example of Tony

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‘Since the story of those in power throughout history is so

S Y M P O S I U M S C I E N C E

often a story of men, it was significant that a woman was

chosen as this Symposium’s opening speaker’

The Symposium also included seminars given by Dulwich College teachers. Alfie Curry (Year 12) attended two that saw how the day’s theme could be applied to scientific concepts A t first glance, the theme of ‘power’ perhaps looks as if it lends itself more to the humanities. But it is easy to forget that power has a scientific meaning – the rate of transfer of energy. It is this sort of power that was discussed by Dr Galloni in her talk entitled ‘Fusion Power.’ Fusion is the method by which the sun gets its energy, and, since it leaves no harmful waste, it offers a possible solution to the world’s energy problems. It involves fusing lighter elements to form

Below : Jo Brand addresses the Upper School Symposium and Martin Rowson leads a caricature workshop.

larger elements, which releases energy. Generally, Hydrogen isotopes, such as Deuterium and Tritium, are fused to form Helium. Dr Galloni described the two most promising methods for obtaining industrial scale fusion: magnetic and inertial confinement. Magnetic confinement fusion uses magnetic fields to contain super- heated plasma, the collisions in which will cause fusion reactions. A huge step in this field will come in 2019 when the ITER reactor in France is completed. This aims to demonstrate that more energy can be gained from fusion than is put in – a significant step to allow it to become an energy resource. Inertial confinement fusion involves compressing and heating a fuel cell containing Deuterium and Tritium in order to initiate fusion, achieved by using high-energy laser beams. The largest inertial confinement experiment is the NIF in the US. ‘The power to change the world: the remarkable history of the transistor,’ by Mr Whittaker interpreted power in a different way. The transistor is arguably the most powerful invention of the modern age, but not because it converts a large number of joules per second. Thousands of this electrical component are in every computer, underpinning the whole of modern life. A transistor’s power stems from the way it can be used as an electrical switch: current can only flow across two of its terminals if there is a voltage on its third. It can also be used to amplify a signal. Mr Whittaker’s talk started with the cathode ray tube that led onto thermionic valves, the forerunner of the transistor. He went on to tell the story of its invention by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley in 1947. Finally, its use in computing was demonstrated through a description of AND and NAND logic gates.

‘The transistor is arguably the most powerful invention of the modern age’

Blair, with his signature ears and teeth, to demonstrate how this can allow cartoonists to reapply the features of public figures to animals and inanimate objects, in the service of the lampooning. He showed us the development of the ‘Cleggnochio’ character, as an illustration of how to develop a memorable representation of a politician who is distinctly unmemorable in both appearance and personality. But perhaps the most revealing story Rowson told was that of the piece that won him the 2002 Political

Cartoon of the Year Award. In the aftermath of its publication, The Guardian received myriad complaints from people who apparently found a depiction of Tony Blair and George Bush’s bottoms more offensive than the unjust war these men were inflicting on hundreds of thousands of innocent people. This, Rowson said, ‘shows how easy satire can be’, and how crucial his role is, in ruthlessly exposing to the public in the clearest terms the shortcomings of those who exercise power over us.

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