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The Stopfordian 2011–2012
CHRISTMAS CAKE CLUB
November marked the start of Christmas for me, as I gained
the opportunity to contribute to the Christmas dinner.
After enjoying the Creative Cuisine club in the early part of the
Autumn Term, Mrs. Groves gave pupils such as me, the
opportunity to make our first ever Christmas cake from
scratch. During the following weeks, we set about producing
what would be the centre pieces of the dining table on
Christmas Day. My peers and I learnt numerous skills along
the way, the most enjoyable part being the icing and
decorating of our cakes.
Since I have been tasked with producing a cake from now on,
I will certainly be heading off to the Christmas cake club once
again this November to refine my skills.
David Ward (4H)
GRADUATE FASHION WEEK
On Monday 11 th June the Lower Sixth Textiles students went
to the Graduate Fashion Week at Earls Court in London. We
had the chance to look around stands displaying work from
the Textiles, Fashion and Fashion Marketing degree courses
from over 40 universities. These showed a great range of
work including the graduates’ final collections, as well as
seeing and comparing their marketing strategies. We also had
the chance to browse through their portfolios which provided
inspiration for our own coursework projects which we will
start next year. In the evening, we attended the Nottingham
Trent fashion show, where graduate designers showcased their
collections. At the show, there were many differences
between each graduate’s collections. They were individual
and original, with collections varying between menswear and
womenswear, knitwear, evening wear and beach wear. While
at the show we managed to meet Katie Williams (OS 2008)
who was on the Leeds University stand. Katie, whose
specialism is menswear, has just graduated with a first and so
it was great to look through her portfolio.
Stephanie Hargreave (L6)
DEBATING REPORT
Debating continues to be valued as a vehicle of expression for
a large number of Sixth Formers and each year group yields a
unique set of enthusiastic debaters who quickly establish
themselves as reputable speakers and play a dominant role in
selecting topics for discussion and setting a standard and style
of debating throughout the year. There were some fiery,
quirky and impassioned debaters emerging from the Lower
Sixth this year and they swiftly wrested control of debating
from the core Upper Sixth debaters, who were swallowed up
by the demands of Oxbridge applications and academic
pressures in the second half of the Autumn Term.
As is frequently the case, the motions are informed by events
in current affairs, hence the impetus for the first debate of the
year arose from the controversy surrounding the rights of
travellers to remain on Dale Farm. Sam Allport and Chris
Helme took a harsh line on the travellers, arguing for the
motion that they should be evicted from Dale Farm, but it
failed owing to the very meticulously prepared counterarguments
of Shelby Whyatt and Tom Fawcett. In another
early debate some Sixth Formers were keen to re-visit the
question of the value of the monarchy. The motion, ‘This
House believes that the monarchy should be abolished,’ was
proposed by Joanna Boon and Tom Fawcett, who faced a
strong opposition in the form of Harry Allport and Quintus
Carr. Despite some individuals’ concern about the
overworked nature of the motion, the debaters were able to
bring fresh angles to their arguments, members of the House
produced spirited arguments and the motion was passed.
Another memorable debate early on in the year arose in
response to Mr Ehegartner’s Anti-bullying Week. The purpose
of the debate was to raise consciousness about the
psychologically damaging effects of using the term ‘gay’ as an
Activities and Awards 41