The Alleynian 704 2016

The Alleynian 704 2016

THE ALLEYNIAN no .704 | 2016

T he Alleynian is no ordinary school magazine. As readers can tell from the number above, it has had a long history; not all will be aware, though, of the very different incarnations seen during this time. About 20 years ago, what seems like every aspect of College life was meticulously recorded in a hardback book. Looking even further back, The Alleynian was more of a student newspaper, packed with thoughts and opinions that must have seemed ephemeral it the time, but which now provide fascinating insights into the experiences of Dulwich boys. Now, in an era of electronic media and repositories of information, what should The Alleynian look like? What should it aspire to document? Well, we think it should look something like this – the publication that you are holding in your hands. The changes that you see to this issue are the result of thinking by the Editorial Committee about The Alleynian ’s purpose, size and format. We are all keen that it reflects the experience of Alleynians, of both life at the College and in the world beyond. It must also document – or attempt, at least, to record – something of the extraordinary variety of activities boys undertake at Dulwich, and that give this school its uniquely rich and stimulating environment. We arrived at a publication that feels more like a journal, perhaps a reflection rather than a record, but one that hopes to represent the Dulwich experience both broadly and in depth and that, above all, communicates what it is like to work, explore and learn at Dulwich College in 2016. The cover, and with it our main articles, rightly focuses on Dulwich Inventive: a week where boys’ imagination was fired by scientific understanding and experiment; where the whole College was involved in myriad workshops, seminars, practicals and events. But we also explore something that has dominated in and beyond the College this year: politics. The Editorial Committee was struck by how much events around the world have inspired debate amongst Alleynians – in the Upper School Common Room; in the lunch hall; on social media. ‘The Alleynian Politics Debate’, a discussion between several boys, all in their final year Dulwich, all of whom have varying political views that are well known to their peers, mirrors the conversations that have been going on informally around the campus. Also included are important reflections by pupils who have been undertaking work in foodbanks as part of the College’s Community Service programme; a report on the significant work of this year’s Senior Prefects; an interview with an OA (something we hope to replicate every issue); an insight into some of the expeditions that have taken place in the past year; reviews of art, music and drama; a feature on the continued success of Dulwich’s debaters; some opinion pieces by up-and-coming student journalists and writers; even a timely investigation into the mysterious contents of the DC Clock Tower. On behalf of everyone who has been involved in producing it, we hope you enjoy this issue of The Alleynian and that it gives you some of the insights we claim above. We would welcome any feedback and thoughts on how the magazine can continue to evolve.

Staff editor Rory Fisher Staff team

Nathalie Coppin Colm Ó Siochrú Mary Jo Doherty Senior Prefects for the Creative Arts and student editors Hamish Lloyd Barnes Zach Fox Editorial Committee Charlie Scoular Dan Norton-Smith

Shehzore Adil Matthew Verri Ben Tudor Marko Marsenic Barnaby Mills Aidan Williams Staff Section editors Art: Robert Mills Drama: Kathryn Norton-Smith

Music: Jemima Lofts Sport: Phil Greenaway Photography Efforts have been made to credit photographers where possible; The Alleynian team would like to thank anyone whose photographs have not been specifically credited, particularly Maggie Jarman, Deborah Field and Mary Jo Doherty Design and Layout Nicholas Wood

Proofreader Zoë Folbigg

Printing Cantate

With thanks to: Joseph Spence, for his continuing encouragement and support; Simon Northcote-Green; Richard Sutton; Maggie Jarman; Deborah Field; Sally Gatley and Kate Bridgman; Victoria Joseph; and all our contributors, particularly our section editors Cover The covers show images generated during Dulwich Inventive. On the front cover is an image derived from a petri dish containing bacteria. Several of these were created in an experiment by Year 9 pupils, who grew the bacteria from swabs taken in different locations across the College, and each copy of The Alleynian features one of four different dishes. The back cover shows an installation inspired by cells, and on the inside covers are versions of ‘spin paintings’ created by pupils at DUCKS

Rory Fisher, Hamish Lloyd Barnes and Zach Fox

6-17 OPINIONS

Be prepared (to be laughed at) – Dan Norton-Smith Happy flying! – Mitchell Simmonds Rationality and resurrection – Jonathan Wolstenholme End the age of anxiety – Sam Warren-Miell Tests under examination – Kamil Aftyka ARTICLES & REPORTS

Dulwich Inventive week The Weizmann Competition Slave to the algorithm: code-breaking past and cryptography future STEM Day NASA Night Trip to CERN DULWICH INVENTIVE: SCIENCE AND IMAGINATION AT DULWICH 18-32

POLITICS 33-40

The Alleynian Politics Debate Behind the rise of the keyboard politician Teachers as researchers: global citizenship at Dulwich

CHARITY & COMMUNITY 41-47

Saturday School Foodbanks: facing the reality of Britain’s poverty City Heights: life as an OA classroom assistant Report on the work of the Senior Prefects

DEBATING 48-52

Power of speech: a year of debating success Captain’s log – leading Team England OA debaters – an interview

What’s happening at DCTV Chaplaincy report Spotlight on design AROUND DULWICH 53-56

59-60 57-58

YOUNG ENTERPRISE

FREE LEARNING Us & Them: the Upper School Symposium

Faheem Ahmed OA INTERVIEW 61-63

EXPEDITIONS

REPORTS 64-72

CCF 73-75

Stok Kangri East Africa Iceland Vienna and Budapest

CCF Arctic Survival RAF Air Squadron Trophy Competition

DUKE OF EDINBURGH 76-77

Gold Award Assessment Expedition

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THE SECRETS OF THE CLOCK TOWER: FINALLY REVEALED!

WRITING

80-84

HOUSE POETRY COMPETITION WINNERS ART gallery sixteen The year in Art St Ives Year 10 Art Residential

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DRAMA

REVIEWS 105-119

House Drama

Upper School Middle School Lower School

A2 devised drama AS text adaptations The White Road The Playhouse Apprentice

MUSIC

120-128

The Joint Foundation Schools Concert Review: Winter Concert, St John Smith’s Square

House Music: the blessing and curse of organising an entry House Electric Music competition: photographs by Ed Reid The Composition Competition Learning to love the piano: Alasdair Howell, Year 6

SPORT

129-135

Rugby Cricket: South Africa tour

Rowing Hockey

Basketball Swimming Water Polo

DULWICH INTERNATIONAL 136-138 OA NEWS 139-142 VALETE 143-156

An interview with the Deputy Master External

OPINIONS: SCOUTS

Be prepared*

Dan Norton-Smith (Year 12)

Scouts may be derided by some, but the activities on offer should be taken seriously

*to be laughed at

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I remember back in Year 6 being excited – exhilarated – to join the Scouts. Partly, it was the knowledge that most of my friends would be doing it. Perhaps even more important was the elaborate, subconscious image of scouting I had conjured in my mind. I saw a warm, wooden shack, devotees of duty huddled around tables completing badges, hot cups of tea sustaining us. This fantastical illusion was quickly, cruelly shattered. At 6.30pm on a cold Friday evening in October, I turned up, fresh-faced and flushed with enthusiasm, to the distinctly unromantic setting of the upstairs room of the PE Centre. Tea and quiet camaraderie? Hardly. Anarchy prevailed. Green-shirted boys ran wild in a frothing, Fanta-fuelled frenzy. I was shocked. This was no cosy woodland hut, built from scratch by a charming band of youths with wholesome 1930s smiles. I had entered a nightmare. Suddenly, a loud cry: ‘Fall in!’ A rush of movement left me dazed, disorientated, and alone in the middle of the room. Brusquely, I was shunted about and pushed to the edge of the room, joining a crusade semi- circle of scruffy boys. The events of the evening continued with similar disarray and I left disheartened. The true scout, though, is a stoic. Through sheer dogged determination, I persevered, attending every subsequent meeting that I could. By the end of my first term, I had been invested, and was awarded my first badge. So what had happened since that fateful first meeting? Why – how – had I persevered? This takes us to the very heart of what scouting teaches: to put it bluntly, how to fend for yourself. One advantage of being thrown summarily into the deep-end is that one soon learns to join in, to participate in activities in order to have as much fun as the people around you.

As a member of the Dulwich Scouts for nearly six years, I have been able to see the group evolve into two separate troops, each making use of a new scout hut in the Trevor Bailey Sports Centre. With these structural changes came alterations in atmosphere. But although the mood is calmer – dare I say more controlled – I still see the sense of the mischief that I experienced as a ten-year-old. And there are just as many opportunities for structured naughtiness. Last year, there were 1,273 combined nights away for those involved with the Dulwich Explorer group and both troops: I challenge any reader to find another local club with such opportunities. During my time I have been up and down the country hill-walking, mountain-climbing, wood-chopping, and billhook-wielding; getting muddy, getting wet, getting food, pony-trekking, sailing – the possibilities are seemingly boundless. Indeed, it is through the Scouts that I found a new love – the unorthodox ‘sport’ of caving. A weekend option turned a throwaway decision into a passion and now I have even been invited to join the Greater London South Caving Committee. This happens a lot: a chance weekend away ignites a subdued spark within you, leading first to experience, then expertise. Consider the Service Team, dedicated to looking after the Broadstone Warren site in East Grinstead, a place that has remained central to the Dulwich Scouts over the many years of service. There is an enormous sense of fulfilment to be found in hours spent hacking at rhododendron; and chopping wood not only allows access to some exciting weaponry, but also facilitates site access for the general public. This energy, channelled into something so genuinely helpful to the local community, always seems to justify the aches and pains of the day after.

THIS WAS NO COSY WOODLAND HUT, BUILT FROM SCRATCH BY A CHARMING BAND OF YOUTHS WITH WHOLESOME 1930S SMILES. I HAD ENTERED A NIGHTMARE

Finally, there are the amazing, once-in-a-lifetime international trips, usually aimed at Years 11-13. In 2014, I was lucky enough to find myself on an expedition to Tanzania, a three-week tour of villages, schools, and natural wonders. It sounds like a cliché, but this really was a life- changing experience. Encountering this fabled part of the world proved immensely valuable – and provocative. It has helped me to realise that there is more to life than exams, grades and the dreaded world of employment. In fact, I plan to return to Tanzania during my gap year to work with the tour company that we used that is run (by chance) an OA and an ex-Scout. But first, let me return to where I began. I am now a Young Leader. I now catch glimpses of nervousness in new members bewildered by the unfamiliar. And I know that not all will respond as I did. Scouting isn’t for everyone: if the new recruit hasn’t acclimatised by, say, the fourth meeting, his future likely hangs in the balance. But to those teetering on the edge, I ask this: how do you truly know if you’ll enjoy it or not, if you don’t get stuck in? Think of the opportunities, facilities, and friendships; the sense of purpose, the achievable goals…What’s not to like? And the uniform is rather fetching, too…

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OPINIONS: AVIATION

Happy flying! Last year saw more commercial aviation casualties than the previous four years combined. Is flying quite as safe as we think? Mitchell Simmonds (Year 11)

T here are a number of possible causes of crashes, but the good news is that airlines and aircraft manufacturers are working hard to decrease that number. The first cause that many investigators examine is that of pilot error. Therefore, it makes sense to examine the training of a pilot – is it rigorous enough to ensure mistakes are avoided? In addition to passing numerous medical and aptitude tests, a new pilot will begin by learning to fly basic aircraft as well as being tested on ‘upset recovery’ – the procedures for recovering from abnormal situations such as stalls, low speed and other problems. But that’s just the start: next the pilot will sit 14 written exams followed by a practical flying test, and then train in a Level D flight simulator, which, inside at least, looks identical to a real a cockpit identically. To make things especially tricky, an instructor can change the airport or

weather conditions and introduce a system failure or aircraft malfunction at any point during the flight. Still the pilot is not ready, however. Following training in the simulator, pilots have to undergo the most exacting test: a ‘checkride.’ Here, they are given a standard flight to fly, but the examiner may initiate any emergency, causing one or several failures of the aircraft. The pilot, unaware of what will occur, must deal with the situation and make a decision within seconds. He or she will carry out the necessary checklists and procedures before safely landing the aircraft – there might be no visibility, a complete autopilot failure, and no engines working. After passing this exam, our pilot is now more than ready to fly real aircraft. However, every six months their licence is frozen whilst they undergo another checkride and a medical examination. Furthermore, modern day aircraft such as the Airbus A380 have systems to

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Illustrations by Finbar Kelly (Year 12)

prevent the pilot from committing an error. If the wrong button is pushed, or a switch flicked that could put the aircraft at risk, it will simply not react and sound a (very) loud siren instead. Thus pilot error is extremely unlikely. But there are other potential dangers: what about hijacking? Here, too, precautionary measures are well developed. In addition to extensive airport security, American pilots flying domestically carry firearms and there are approximately three separate locks on the cockpit door. There are now also hidden CCTV cameras in the cabin that feed footage to the cockpit, so that the captain is able to view what is happening behind the cockpit door. It is true that in March 2015, Andreas Lubitz, a co-pilot flying for the Germanwings airline, used this to lock his colleague out of the cockpit and crash the airplane, killing himself, all 144 passengers and the six crew. It emerged that Lubitz suffered from suicidal tendencies that he had concealed from his employer; since then, airlines have stepped up tests to ensure pilots cope with the mental strain that flying can put upon them. A final cause worth considering is less controllable: flying is constantly at the mercy of the weather.

Again, preparation and procedures are key to combat the unforeseen. Flight deck crew will always plan diversion airfields and will constantly monitor the weather. Pilots have weather radars on board and are always in contact with air traffic control to negotiate alternative routes if necessary. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, pilots are trained to fly using the plane’s instruments and land in zero visibility. Air traffic control work with the pilots to provide a safe and smooth landing – newer aircraft can touch down in anything from snowstorms to monsoons without any difficulty. Feeling reassured? Despite high profile crashes in the past twelve months, including that of the still unlocated MH370 or the more recent EgyptAirMS804, when the casualties are added up, the year has been a relatively safe one. In 2014 there were 1,021 casualties, So, although the amount of losses is still too high, it is decreasing thanks to modern technology. Finally, if you do feel a little jittery as your flight taxis up the runway, just remind yourself that the probability of dying in a plane crash is a consoling 1 in 5,371,369. thankfully considerably fewer than the 2,370 deaths in 1972, still the worst year in aviation.

Mitchell is President of the Dulwich College Aviation Society

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OPINIONS: RELIGION

Rationality and resurrection

We should reconsider the facts of the Easter story Jonathan Wolstenholme (Year 13)

E aster. chocolate, bunnies, eggs, cake, family. A smaller, springtime version of our sentimentalised – and commercialised – Christmas. the Bible-thumpers banging on about Jesus. But as the story centres not on a cute baby in a manger, but the unscientific absurdity of a man rising from the dead, we can more easily ignore the myth-mongers, and tuck into our next mini-egg. No one believes in the Easter We must still, of course, endure Easter is when Christians remember the resurrection, the fundamental fact of our faith. If Jesus did not rise, our evidence supporting his claim to be the son of God is thrown out. The apostle Paul spelt out the consequences of this in his first epistle to the fledgling Christian community at Corinth, later captured in the wonderful hymn of the London-based Anglican priest, GR Woodward: ‘Had Christ, that once was slain, ne’er burst his three day bunny. Surely no one actually believes in the resurrection? I do.

and death in order to spread a lie they didn’t believe? Yet these disciples of Jesus, poor Galilean fishermen with nothing to gain and everything to lose, proved willing to testify unto martyrdom to Christ’s resurrection. To me, that also seems pretty incredible. Alleynians: heed what your truly liberal education teaches. Consider the evidence, without predetermining the conclusion. Too many ignore inconvenient evidence because it might lead them to uncomfortable conclusions. Instead, they indulge in the fiction that Christianity – indeed, any faith other than our secular ‘norm’ – must be, by definition, fact-free. What evidence, then, can I offer? Can you take any of it seriously? Am I about to brandish my Bible? As it happens, I believe that a great deal of the accounts of the man Jesus given in the New Testament are reliable. So do most serious biblical scholars. But we needn’t dwell only on the dusty testimony of texts. History makes its case. ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’, argued Tertullian in his second-century treatise, Apologeticus . From their graves sprung a living community, a civilisation, millennia of art and culture. From

prison, / our faith had been in vain; but now hath Christ arisen’. For Paul, ‘if Christ be not risen’, man lay ‘yet in sin’; he might ‘eat and drink’ his fill of this world, ‘for tomorrow we die’, with no hope of eternal life. On Easter Sunday, Christians greet each other triumphantly, proclaiming: ‘Christ is risen’ – ‘he is risen indeed’. For me, Easter is about much more than eating our fill of chocolate; it concerns the events around which I try to base all my actions. But how can I have so much confidence in this resurrection? Unlike the credulous of 2,000 years ago, we know that people don’t come back from the dead – that we needn’t believe anything we hear – don’t we? It’s easy to sneer. But it’s totally unfair to assume that people extraordinary. Many contemporaries vehemently denied the resurrection, including the Jewish authorities who demanded Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s also strange to assume that those who radically changed their lives on the basis of an encounter with the risen Christ would have made those changes had they not experienced what they did. And who exactly would suffer torture 2,000 years ago just jumped at any opportunity to believe the

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Illustration by William Cook (Year 10)

their death, new life: resurrection. Philosophy can be even-handed, even favourable. Eminent philosophers as resolutely atheist as Antony Flew (1923-2010), the Dawkins of his day, moved in later life towards some sort of theism, and claimed that ‘the evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion’. We return, as John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, reminded an audience at Alleyn’s earlier this term, to these points: Jesus died and was buried; the tomb was found empty; On this, the majority of biblical scholars, Christian and non-Christian alike, agree – despite the apparently impossible implications, and the reductive attempts to explain it dozens of eyewitnesses claim to have seen him alive afterwards.

away as a group-hallucination of depressed and feverish imaginations. It may seem impossible for someone to rise from the dead. If, like Dawkins, you chose unscientifically to view the question with the presupposition that it is impossible for God to exist and for miracles to happen, it will continue to seem impossible. But the body of evidence should check scientific dogmas. What happened to Jesus? This is a question that matters deeply to me, and to my Christian brothers and sisters. It is the kernel of our faith. It is probably the most significant question differentiating the otherwise-similar Abrahamic religions. And it is a litmus test of what we moderns mean when we look for ‘evidence’ and argue ‘rationally’.

FOR ME, EASTER IS ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN EATING OUR FILL OF CHOCOLATE; IT CONCERNS THE EVENTS AROUND WHICH I TRY TO BASE ALL MY ACTIONS

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Illustration by William Joynson (Year 10)

ABOUT 10 PER CENT OF UK ADULTS TAKE ANTI-DEPRESSANTS. BUT SETTING EVEN STATISTICS ASIDE, MOST OF US WOULD SURELY AGREE THAT WE LIVE IN AN ANXIOUS WORLD

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OPINIONS: MODERN LIFE

End the age of anxiety The modern world is driving us to despair and nihilism. We must do something about it Sam Warren-Miell (Year 13)

I t is perhaps uncontroversial to suggest that the dominant mood of our age is one of anxiety. But why is this? First, the omnipresence of surveillance: who could say that they were genuinely surprised by recent revelations about the intrusive snooping of GCHQ? Secondly, job security is far lower now than in the post-war era, with the proliferation of zero-hours contracts meaning that a significant proportion of the workforce operates at the behest of employers, deprived of the rights won by previous generations of organised labour. Thirdly, most teenagers feel the pressure of constant communication. The pervasiveness of social media

presents a psychologically uneasy choice: being constantly available, or being sealed-off from the community. Fourthly, competition rules – whether for status or employment. Call-centre workers feel the anxiety of meeting sales quotas; corporate lawyers work 16-hour days to maintain their place at the top; the intensely exam-based structure of schooling means that, from a young age, children are brought up to regard themselves as in competition with their peers, a competition often extrapolated to the job market. Behind all this, individualism is affirmed as the only mode of being – and attempts to communalise in resistance to this ideology are

obstructed by what Althusser called ‘Repressive State Apparatuses’. (Grime gigs, for example, are often shut down in advance and under specious pretexts by the Metropolitan Police.) The effect of this on mental health is clear: about 10 per cent of UK adults take anti-depressants. But setting even statistics aside, most of us would surely agree that we live in an anxious world. In a perverse response, governments valorise security, national or economic. Such attempts to reframe the causes of anxiety as their solution always fail: tightened national security leads to fear and to the marginalisation of the ‘enemy within’; moves towards ‘economic security’ do nothing, in material terms, but further deprive the

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WE MUST REJECT ‘THE SEEMING OF A LIFE’, THE LIFE OF PURE INDIVIDUALITY WHICH IS SUBMITTED TO US

East requires Western control. The economist Thomas Piketty forecasts a return to Victorian levels of wealth inequality; areas of extreme poverty and unemployment are found within the most developed nations. Young people throughout Europe, submerged in nihilistic despair, turn to extremism – the consequence of being brought up to believe that there is nothing other than the pursuit of individual satisfaction; the consequence of being brought up to live without an idea. We are in the position of those who were tasked, in previous generations, with formulating a new emancipatory politics. We must mobilise our experiences of truths elsewhere in life – in science, the determination to investigate, analyse, and achieve a result; in art, the creative construction of something outside the fixed logic of the situation; even in love, the ability to conceive of the world from the point of view of ‘the two’ of amorous life instead of ‘the one’ of vulgar individualism. We can be militant in refusing the injunction to live without an idea, to live the life that is nothing more than ‘the seeming of a life’. We can reconstitute a different form of politics. We can, and so we must.

poor and sick of what little support they receive. (Apparently, we cannot afford a strong economy – but we can always afford to go to war.) What of the wider cultural response? Firstly, one is told to treat anxiety and its effects under the rubric of ‘management’: anger management, time management, and so on. Thus is mental health subordinated to individual responsibility and the language of the workplace: constantly managing, constantly being managed. One is informed that anxiety can be addressed through the so-called ‘power of positive thinking’, or – very fashionable now – ‘mindfulness’. It is as if the causes of anxiety could be imagined away. Secondly, the idea of a collective emancipatory politics is subordinated to the discrete struggles of competing demographics. The notion of class struggle has been dissolved under the name of ‘intersectionality’ into a myriad of competing, identitarian concerns. The public face of feminism, much to the frustration of an older generation of feminists, has turned to ‘representation’ and empty bourgeois sloganeering – ‘feel good about yourself!’ – resiling from collective efforts to redress socio-economic imbalances.

How do we respond? I should like to focus on two statements of the French philosopher, Alain Badiou. The first: ‘It’s a choice between happiness and satisfaction’. We must reject ‘the seeming of a life’, the life of pure individuality which is submitted to us. We can obscure our own anxiety and reach a kind of complacent satisfaction; but this comes at the cost of genuine happiness, which exists only as a component of the figure of change. Just as the students of May 1968 scrawled on the walls of the Sorbonne the slogan, ‘Boredom is counter- revolutionary’, it lies to us to affirm that ‘Mindfulness is counter-revolutionary’. The second: ‘When you abdicate universality, you obtain universal horror’. The material problems we face can only be adequately met with a universal politics, indifferent to identity. As in the 19th century, we face a cynical capitalism conceiving itself the only rational societal model; who could forget how Francis Fukuyama announced the ‘end of history’ immediately after the fall of communism? As in the high-imperial era, we are told that the poor are to blame for their poverty; that Africans are generally backward; that the Middle

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OPINIONS: EDUCATION

Illustrations by Robert Zhang (Year 10)

Tests under examination

Frequent testing can greatly enhance learning of new things. But gaining good results is not an end in itself Kamil Aftyka (Year 12)

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I t is a truth universally acknowledged that to memorise information, just reading it a few times in a textbook is not very effective. In a study by Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke at the Washington University in St Louis, students who took a short test immediately after reading a piece of prose greatly increased their chances of recalling the information again in a test some time later. Indeed, the researchers claimed that if students know that they will be tested regularly throughout a whole term (even each period), they would study more and remember a larger amount of information. No one can deny that tests can clearly be helpful in structuring our learning – but only, I would argue, if they are used in a wise way. Crucial to young people being successful and motivated learners is an understanding of the reasons why they are in fact taught any bit of information. ‘Because it is written in the syllabus’ or ‘because it might be in the test’ may both be plausible explanations – pretty much everyone wants to achieve good results in public examinations and learning what is in the syllabus seems like an obvious way to achieve that goal. However, at least two responses can be made to argue against this view. The superficial response goes like this: ‘real’ learning begins when students start to go beyond the syllabus and also when they encounter a subject in many different ways – not

just through testing. It costs time and hard work to go beyond the outlines but it pays back in the future – we become more independent- minded, gain more intellectual confidence and find pleasure in different intellectual undertakings. This might be too idealistic for some – those who just want to succeed in the jobs market or who are simply less ambitious about what schools and universities should offer. But there is a second reason. The motivation to learn a given thing because it will be required in an exam produces is also unrealistic. After all, ‘in life, there is no grading on the curve or otherwise’, as Kathy Davidson from Duke University points out in her book Now You See It . It is not very controversial to say that success in life is defined in much more complex terms than letter grades; however, in the first 18 years of life the highest priority is assigned to obtaining high grades in exams. There seems, therefore, a tension between the definition of success in life and success in school, exemplified by a widely held view (or a kind of open secret) that there is not an ultimate correlation between these two types of success. The more emphasis we place on learning for testing, the more we are likely to forget about that common sense belief. Learning just to get a good grade on a test cannot give, by itself, a complete view on a subject; neither

can it be a prescription for achieving the success in life. But still lessons at schools all over the world are designed to prepare us to take tests successfully. The best learning surely occurs when we are challenged to step outside our safety zones, something difficult to achieve even with challenging past papers. There is one further reason to treat tests with caution. As Mike Feerick, CEO of the online education platform ALISON notes, ‘there’s an idea that kids always need synchronous courses to be engaged – this is completely flying against the cultural norms of this generation, where resources are self-paced, on-demand’. The rise of internet has brought about a shift in the way young people gain knowledge – personalised newsfeeds and self- paced online courses (MOOCs) are two well-known examples. Linear syllabi, the same for everyone, are now looking distinctly outmoded. It is also worth mentioning that the processing of knowledge online is a collective undertaking, based on the equality of members (co-learners) participating in it. In schools, we still see too often the well-established hierarchy in the relationship between teachers and students, where the role of the former is to provide the material; the job of the latter to absorb it efficiently. As Sir Michael Barber, education expert and former head of the Downing Street Delivery Unit, puts it, ‘the teacher is no longer just a transmitter of knowledge, but neither is she or he a mere facilitator. The role is that of an “activator”… someone who injects ambition, provokes thought, asks great questions, challenges mediocrity, and brings passion and insight to the task at hand.’ A worthy aim for education – but not so easy to achieve if your students are quietly doing a test…

THE BEST LEARNING SURELY OCCURS WHEN WE ARE CHALLENGED TO STEP OUTSIDE OUR SAFETY ZONES, SOMETHING DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE EVEN WITH CHALLENGING PAST PAPERS

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DRIVEN BY IMAGINATION

This year, the College celebrated all that we do scientifically and creatively for one unforgettable week in October. Following on from the 2014’s Dulwich Creative, Dulwich Inventive was driven by the imagination of boys and teachers thinking beyond the confines of individual disciplines, with every pupil in the school being involved in some way – from DUCKS’ liquids workshops to the Upper School’s Fame Lab Finals

D uring the week, boys heard from over 25 visiting speakers and scientists and worked with them in a variety of workshops and interactive sessions. Visitors included Lord Professor Robert Winston, Dr Lewis Hartnell and Dr Hugh Hunt. The Enigma Machine from Bletchley Park was in school for a day and we were delighted to host the first exhibition of art by Henry Fraser OA as he made his well- publicised venture into painting. Departments hijacked time, space and events throughout the week. Every pupil was engaged in a code-breaking activity, with a new clue being released each day. They became masters of spin, creating paintings while learning about centrifugal force in art lessons; launched paper aeroplanes in DT at 80 miles per hour from the top of The Laboratory; and in Religion and Theology asked whether scientists could put their trust in God. Trips were arranged throughout the

week to see performances and visit museums, to attend workshops and participate in experiments, such as making elephant toothpaste, projectile volcanoes and experimenting with chemiluminescence. There was a cinema trip to The Martian and a West End theatre visit to see Nicole Kidman star as Rosalind Franklin, the ground- breaking chemist who contributed to the discovery of DNA in the play Photograph 51 . While the primary focus was to engage pupils, we also involved parents, former pupils and students from local schools who were invited to see the Science telescope at our stargazing event and to engage with astronaut Shannon Walker via our live satellite connection on NASA night. It was a highly successful week that got everyone thinking about the links between Science and the Arts, and represented inspiring, challenging and active learning at its best.

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1. The stargazing event 2. Henry Fraser OA (centre) at the launch of his exhibition of paintings 3. Virtual reality as seen through an Oculus Rift headset, made available during the week 4. Lord Professor Robert Winston, one of the many visiting speakers during Dulwich Inventive 5. Mixing ingredients for ‘elephant’s toothpaste’ 6. The ‘toothpaste’ emerges… 7. Year 9 at the Science Museum 8. Centrifugal spin paintings 9. The Master joins in with a group of spin painters 10. Controlling drones being raced at Eller Bank 11. Breathtaking >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 148 Page 149 Page 150 Page 151 Page 152 Page 153 Page 154 Page 155 Page 156 Page 157 Page 158

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