For me netball is an exciting and competitive sport which I have been playing for 11 years. During this time, I have played for Wimbledon, Cobham, Surrey and was fortunate enough to train in a Surrey Storm development hub team last year. I love the team work in the game and have been fortunate to make some great friends through the sport, particularly Fi (our hockey rep) who I have been playing alongside with, for 11 years.
As a mentor for netball I would encourage anyone interested in netball to give it a go, no matter your ability. Netball is a great way to work on your agility, coordination skills and most importantly to have fun! For those who play competitive through school or external teams I would love to share my knowledge about the game and support girls in a team or individually.
I have been playing tennis since the age of 6, competitively since the age of 12 and ever since it has been a huge part of my life. Tennis is a sport in which you are by yourself on your side of the court the majority of the time, and this teaches you determination, motivation and builds mental strength. It shows that with discipline, dedication and working hard, you can reach your goals and aspirations. Additionally, I love tennis because it is a sport of personalities where your style of game reflects your character. As a mentor, I would love to help the girls find their own passion and talent and have fun doing so (as enjoying the sport is the most important ingredient!). I also hope to inspire the younger years and help them develop into great athletes.
Good morning everyone, just a few sport notices from me.
Congratulations to the U14 basketball team who beat Glenthorne in the quarter finals and are progressing into the next round of the London Youth Games.
Well done to the U11s placing second in the Newton Prep Sport hockey tournament. They won both group stages and reached the final but narrowly missed out on gold.
Our juniors have also performed very well and the swimming team won the London League B swimming final. Congratulations to all the girls and a huge well done to Year 4 who won their age group!
Our sports star of the week is the Ski Team who competed at the British School Girls races last weekend. They all skied exceptionally well and should be very proud of their achievements. A special mention to Maryisa in year 8 who won bronze in the U14 unregistered.
Don’t miss the exciting Explore lectures coming soon – all with a STEAM theme! Explore Lectures are suitable for those in years 9-13 and start at 4.30pm, with refreshments available from 4.15pm, in our purpose-built Rutherford Centre. Lectures generally last 40-45 minutes with an opportunity for questions at the end.
Andy Murray is a phenomenal and dedicated athlete, whose determination and passion for tennis is incredibly motivational. Although he is very talented, his style of game was not suited to winning the top tournaments. He worked very hard, especially with Ivan Lendl, to make his game more aggressive in order to beat the exceptional players such as Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. His persistence and determination set an example for tennis players and non tennis players alike. Hopefully, he recovers from his hip injury and we see is playing career continue!
I have been competitively swimming at my club – Wimbledon Dolphins – for 10 years. I like the supportive atmosphere from both coaches and my friends who have been with me for a long time. I love swimming because it is not just a social sport but it is also very much individual, how well you want to do and how far you want to go is down to you, it is about your personal best and how hard you train that reveals your outcome.
As a mentor I would like to support and encourage girls of all ages to participate in whatever sport they find a passion in. It is important to me that we all find something, if it is swimming or not, that we can discover our strengths and weaknesses in and improve.
Rachel Brewster, Director of Marketing & Communications at WHS, looks at the challenges of how we engage with the news in the digital age.
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.” Thomas Jefferson
“Gradually I came to realise that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was honey, appetizing, a habit.” Martha Gellhorn
The great American journalist and war reporter Martha Gellhorn reported on virtually every major conflict of a 60-year career. But she did not live to report on the age of the internet. What would she make of “alternative truths”, the polarisation and poisoning of debate and the resurgence of propaganda that those of us who eagerly embraced the possibility and promise of the world wide web now bewilderingly ponder? Would she understand news as a commodity, freely available in bite-sized digital chunks over a 24/7 news cycle with “consumers” self-selecting what to read and hear within ever narrower echo chambers, largely unregulated and poorly challenged?
With the digital revolution, the ‘what’ of the news is only ever seconds away, via live streaming, through a myriad of news and social feeds, or indeed in the tweets of a certain president. There is little time for the ‘why’ and the ‘how’, and the absence of context – and, too often the propagation of downright lies – have fragmented public discourse. As our Rosewell Lecturer Tim Marshall reminded us in school recently, the direct and indirect consequences of this fragmentation can be seen from divided America to the gilets jaunes, from Brexit to authoritarian Hungary.
This is not to say that digital-first news has to be inferior to a nostalgic idea of ‘Fleet Street’. Indeed, the traditional ‘old’ press has seen rapidly declining circulation figures, advertisers taking their business to online providers and the slashing of editorial budgets. Fewer journalists cover ever more stories and quality has often suffered as a result. Highlighting the shortcomings of ‘digital-first’ news is not about ‘the scourge of the internet’ or wanting to turn back the clock. But pushed to the brink and with Jefferson’s words ringing out, the stakes have finally become too high: governments are looking to readdress the balance, regulate and hold Facebook, Google and others to account.
Market forces can and are acting more quickly than governments. Investors who had poured money into some of the newer kids on the block, such as BuzzFeed and Vice, amidst the hype for what they would represent, are now backing off, with the realisation that selling the news is not an easy money-maker. Multinationals that moved so much of their advertising spend to digital platforms have started to baulk at their brands being compromised by the positioning of an ad against inappropriate content online. Digital-first news organisations are being forced to restructure or consolidate in order to cut costs.
“A chill has gripped the once hot digital media sector, with companies formerly lauded as the future of news laying off staff and cutting costs to stay afloat.” Anna Nicolaou and Patricia Nisson, FT
Meanwhile, newspapers that themselves underwent seismic changes to embrace digital (in a dual print and online offering) have started to resurrect themselves. They are winning back some of the advertisers they lost. They have campaigned hard to grow their online readership. The New York Times (4 million) and Washington Post (1 million plus) have dramatically increased their subscriptions; here in the UK, The Times announced in July that it had half a million digital subscribers. Even the Guardian, which has eschewed a subscription model and opted for a ‘supporter’ model instead, announced in its year end accounts last year that it was on track to break even this year, after years of staring into the financial abyss.
Source: Reuters Digital Report 2018
How else are quality newspapers trying to shift the tide?
Economies of scale
News UK (which publishes The Telegraph, amongst other titles) and longstanding rivals the Guardian News and Media group have joined forces to allow advertisers to spend across their digital titles in one go, making significant savings and winning back custom.
The most extensive example of investigative journalism in recent years – the Panama Papers (revealing the financial dealings of nefarious international figures and companies) – came about as a result of a collaboration of over 100 media partners, sharing resources and expertise, as well as costs. This sort of investigative journalism, involving months of research, would otherwise barely be possible.
Marketing
Live events are big business and they have helped fuel international growth. The FT in particular has a strong global brand that sees it fill conferences across the world; the Guardian runs courses and lectures from King’s Place; alongside talks, merchandise and other spin-offs are ever more common in the drive for subscriber acquisition and retention.
In-house press officers have long helped publicise stories from the newsroom, aiming for take-up across broadcast media and wider online channels. Marketing teams are now bigger, with news organisations making strategic appointments to spearhead engagement.
Focusing on comment
Comment pages have grown in both their print and online offerings. Misinformation and erosion of trust have led many readers back to traditional brands for commentary on what to make of unprecedented political events.
“[Trump’s] presidency has created an urgency around news that has made old-fashioned journalism more in vogue then it has been probably since Watergate.” The Economist
Source: Reuters Digital Report 2018
Normalising the paywall
The way that ‘mainstream media’ has been dismissed for propagating ‘fake news’, all the while that mis-practice and international interference in elections is being investigated has of course galvanised readers, perhaps more than any campaign. (Though this powerful NYT campaign is worth a look and for an in-depth understanding of journalism in action, watch Reporting Trump’s First Year.) There has been a growing realisation that something we previously took for granted is not free. That news reporting with integrity and depth, which challenges our understanding of the world and holds politicians, business people and society to account is a craft of great value.
“Journalism is all about telling people about other people. It’s a craft dedicated to explaining how the world goes round, what is shaping our lives…” Gillian Tett, FT
Source: Reuters Digital Report 2018
“News is an industry in transition, not in decline… The quality press has staged a remarkable resurrection.” John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Businessweek
Yet it remains a precarious time for journalists and the media organisations that employ them. As educators, we have an important role to play. We will continue to foster news literacy through our Futureproof programme (run by our Director of Innovation and Digital Learning) and in lessons and co-curricular activities that interrogate the news. We give as many opportunities as possible to our girls to practise student journalism – whether it’s writing or editing the brilliant Unconquered Peaks, last year’s GDST student magazine Wave (spearheaded by WHS girls) or the monthly stories coming out of the Young Reporters Scheme and published in the local press online, championed by our English department. The Head’s challenge is for us to set reading a newspaper as homework – the logical next step.
And as global citizens, we now must all answer the question: What price are we willing to pay to protect quality news-gathering? So next time you’re looking for a birthday present, buy a (digital or non) subscription for a quality newspaper and spread the word.
“If we don’t hold them accountable, who will? We can’t hold them accountable if we don’t have a newspaper.” (From the film The Post)
Rachel Brewster
Director of Marketing & Communications
Sofia, Year 13, discusses whether the increasing power of China issomething that should be concerning the global community.
China is increasingly becoming a hot topic amongst economists as we see the developing influence it is having on the western world. We are seeing a new form of colonialism – neo-colonialism – whereby China has (by being the second largest economy in the world) significant power over countries. One would expect this to be only over lower income countries; however, China is even beginning to power the West’s markets and economies and even has the power to have political control.
It is evident that many African countries increasingly depend on China as a trading partner as trade was worth $10.5 billion in 2000, $40 billion in 2005 and $166 billion in 2011. China is currently Africa’s largest trading partner, having surpassed the US in 2009. However, dependency on China extends more deeply than trade. China has been seen to be providing many African countries with loans in the form of top-down development projects. Examples such as this can be seen in a $3.2 billion railway in Kenya, trekking 300 miles from Nairobi to Mombasa, which is faster than the equivalent distance of a train journey from Philadelphia to Boston. China has also built a $526 million dam in Guinea and a $475 million light rail system in Ethiopia, which is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. These infrastructure projects are effectively seen to be loans however these loans are extremely risky, with low or no interest, where often most of the money is not completely paid back. This shows that China is not investing in these projects for economic benefit, but to have leverage over a country. This allows China to have political leverage, especially in votes at UN conferences such as those involving the China/Taiwan governance issues or China’s allies such as North Korea.
In the most recent vote involving condemnation of North Korea, only 12 out of the 54 countries in Africa voted against China’s ally. It has also been found that if a country recognises Taiwan (which is under Chinese governance) as a country in its own right they receive 2.7 fewer Chinese infrastructure loans a year. Furthermore, if an African country voted overwhelmingly along with China in a UN General Assembly they receive 1.8 more infrastructure projects a year. This shows that increasingly in these vulnerable countries China is controlling their economies as well as their political views.
However, this is not only the case in low-income countries such as those in Africa, we have been seeing in recent years China is using a similar technique to have more influence over Europe. China is the EU’s largest provider of imports accounting for 20.3% in 2015. China has also invested a lot into Europe, arguably for profit however, some projects could also be for political influence even though European economies are significantly larger than those in Africa. Greece and Hungary worked together to prevent Europe condemning of a tribunal’s finding against China and its plan in the South China Sea. China has also recently invested half a billion euros into the Greek port of Piraeus and the Belgrade – Budapest railroad. China has also been seen to drive a wedge between the UK and the USA by decreasing trade between the two and siding with Europe on matters concerning Climate change. China has also been seen to exploit links with certain countries to make foreign policy hard in areas such as human rights.
It is clear China is having an increasing influence in countries everywhere, which is increasingly leading to the loss of democracy on the international stage. Countries should be weary of this increasing influence and so should decrease dependency on the super-power.
Andrew Hanson, a physicist from the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, visited the junior school last week to talk to us about temperature, solids, liquids and gases. He brought with him lots of liquid nitrogen and inspired and intrigued girls in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 with his demonstrations. The girls had many questions to ask and loved all of the physics that Andrew told us about. Outside in the playground at the end of the assembly Andrew made sure that we wouldn’t forget his assembly for a very long time! Thank you Andrew – you were amazing.
If you would like to find out more about physics look out for family events at NPL, including the Water Rocket Challenge, that families are very welcome to take part in.
Dina Asher-Smith is right now the face of British Athletics. Currently she holds the British record for the 100 metres and 200 metres and in 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Asher-Smith won both the 100 and 200 metres as well as the 4 x 100 m relay. In 2014 she won the World Junior Championships for the 100 metres when she was 19 years old. She became the first British woman to legally run under 11 seconds in July 2015 for the 100 metres. Last October she was named women’s European Athlete of the Year which is, needless to say, no easy task!
Dina Asher-Smith graduated from King’s College London in 2017, which shows just how incredible she can time manage doing a degree and training full time and this gives me inspiration if ever I feel that I am falling behind with work. What separates Dina from other athletes is how down to earth she is. I was fortunate to meet her during the BT Action Woman Awards 2018 (which she won) and she was saying that hard work is the key to all her success and anyone can follow her lead.
If you haven’t watched it, I thoroughly recommend watching a clip of the 4x100m relay in the European Championships. It is amazing watching her run – she is the fourth leg of the British team and she comes from being in fourth to winning it, by in what in sprinting terms is an enormous lead.
