SWPS.ORG.UK

Head’s Piece Is the art of public speaking dead? If you have seen the Darkest Hour, then you will have understood and appreciated the power of

the spoken word to move and to inspire. Reports of modern cinema audiences clapping after Churchill’s speech did not surprise me, having myself been moved by the closing oration. In the closing moments of the film we see Churchill’s political opponent, Lord Halifax, mutter that Churchill had “invoked the English language

and put it to war”.

Any performer with words understands only too well the power that the spoken word can have. Public speaking must possess the qualities of tone, nuance, and pace; but it must also express clearly and confidently what one thinks and feels, more importantly, why one thinks and feels that way. Eloquence in any public realm is a skill which is learnt both by being taught and being practised.

A structured debate is most often the formal forum to tests one’s argument and persuasive delivery. In debate, one can both present the argument to the best

of one’s ability, whilst searching for weaknesses in one’s opponents. In many ways, it is an ideal intellectual activity which produces wonderful by products. That is why I have been so thrilled at the renewed Debating Society under the auspices of Mr Stewart. Over the coming weeks and months, interested students

will have the opportunity to learn the art of debate, to hone their oratorical skills and, best of all, test their intellectual mettle.

C Muller Head

SWPS NEWS

Upcoming Events

20 Jan

Rowing:

Weybridge Winter Head (Y9-13)

22 Jan

Charity: Staff vs Sixth Form Quiz

Junior School Council: Meeting

23 Jan Geography: Y10 Field Trip to Juniper

Hall

24 Jan RS: Y10 visit to

Bhaktivedanta Manor

25 Jan Welfare: Y9 FSB & Men. C

26 Jan

A Level: Y11 & L6 Subject

discussion Breakfast

Senior School Council: Meeting

26, 27 & 28 Jan

Model United Nations: Conference at LEH

School

Y7 Lunchtime Concerts

These concerts begin at 1 PM.

Year 7 Parents/Carers, please advise us if

you would like to attend by completing the

reply slip attached to the letter that was

recently sent out to you and ask your child to

place it in the Music post box.

25 Jan 7M

1 Feb 7L

8 Feb 7P

1 Mar 7Q

R e s i d e n t i a l T r i p s

SWPS are offering variety of residential

trips, details of which can be found on our

website. This page is updated whenever new

trips are added, and currently covers the

period 2018—2019.

HEALTH INFORMATION In the light of the current winter illnesses, we would like to highlight the following advice in line with NHS recommendations:

‘Winter Vomiting Bug’ (Norovirus)

This is highly contagious and everyone is advised to stay off school for 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea to prevent the spread of infection. Flu like symptoms

Given that flu virus is very infectious, one is more likely to give it others within the first 5 days of infection. Symptoms may include sudden fever, aching body, tiredness and exhaustion, a dry, chesty cough, sore throat, sneezing, headache, difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite, gastric symptoms, nausea and vomiting. The general advice to contain infection is ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’: use tissues when

sneezing, throw the tissues in the bin and wash hands immediately. Symptoms can continue for 1 to 2 weeks but severe symptoms should subside

within two to 3 days. In adults infected with flu, they will be infectious from 1 day before symptoms start and for 5 - 7 days after becoming ill. Children may continue to be infectious for longer than 7 days.

Please pay close attention to these guidelines and observe the recommendations. We wish you a healthy season!

SWPS.ORG.UK

LIBRARY

SPORTS NEWS

EKF England Karate Champion! Amazing news from Maddie Jones (Y9) who now holds the title of the EKF’s

(English Karate Federation) England Karate Champion, as well as her previous title of UK National Champion in Go Kan Ryu. The Jones family travelled to Leicester last weekend for the Championships where

Maddie won Gold in her team events (as well as a black eye!) and went on to win Gold in her individuals.

Maddie will now have overseas tournaments representing the country where we wish her the best of luck and

look forward to hearing of more of her successes!

Calling all Netball Mums!

After the resounding success of last year’s, we will be

holding our second annual P E R K O N I A N N E T B A L L TOURNAMENT on Saturday 24 March at 2pm. Would you like to enter a team to compete against

former students, staff and current netball teams? If you wish to be involved then please email Mrs Sam Kassir, our Alumnae Officer at

a lumnae@swps.org.uk

SWPS Success in County Swimming Champs There was success for SWPS Swimmers at the Berkshire & South Bucks County Swimming Championships 2018.

Tilly O’Dea (Y9) won Gold to become Junior County Champion in the 50m Freestyle event & took Silver in the 100m Freestyle 14 years age group final. Natasha Holroyd (also Y9),

secured Silver in the 800m Junior Championship final and Katie Ford

(Y7) also gave an excellent performance in the 12 years age group to win two Golds and two Silver medals in the 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle events.

Badminton

The U16 Badminton team had a very successful

afternoon at Tomlinscote School this week where they won the District Competition. The team consisted of: Alexandra Oprisan, Ruth Devapragasam, Rebecca

Sproston and Isobel Henderson. The team won all five of their matches against both Tomlinscote and Winston Churchill School, in both singles and doubles matches.

The team will go forward to the County Round at Guildford High School on Friday 23 February. We wish them every success as they try to repeat this first round success and reach the Regional Round which are scheduled for Thursday 8 March at Guildford Spectrum.

R England

Book of the Week This week’s BotW is ‘The Lucifer Effect’ by Philip Zambardo, selected by Mrs Vidgen.

Follow @SWPSLibrary to keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the Library!

PSHCE

Tuesday afternoon was busy with a variety of different PSHCE lessons. The Year 7s

have started work on their

cross-curricular ‘Mission To Mars’ project, where they are working in groups to research and find ways to get to Mars! They only have a few more

weeks on this project until the grand finale on Tuesday 6

February. Year 9 had lots of different lessons. The first: a talk on Young Women’s Health, by our SRE speaker, Esta Hardy. Another

group had a ‘Dangers of Drugs’ workshop by the charity HOPE UK. Students learnt about

different types of illegal drugs, their street names, effects and the risks of taking them etc. and the final group learnt all about the dangers of smoking.

For more information about HOPE UK, visit http://www.hopeuk.org.

K Ferris

SWPS.ORG.UK

COMMUNITY

...and here is another January ‘Artwork of the Month.’ This

one is by Abigail Adrian (Y9).

Take a look at more of our students’ artwork on the new Art Dept website:

artdesignswps.org.uk

ARTWORKS OF THE MONTH

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

selected by the Art & Design Dept staff. This one is by Gemma Thorpe (Y10).

This has been organised in partnership with CRY (Cardiac Risk in the

Young). Family and friends have raised over £7000 to make this two day screening event possible locally for free, for 200 people. It is held in

memory of our daughter Jenny Bucknell who was a keen swimmer, a swim teacher and life guard and rowed at Ross, Llandaff and Cardiff University. Jenny was very sporty and was just about to graduate as a Doctor from Cardiff University, when at just 23 she literally dropped dead from an

undiagnosed heart condition. Sadly, 80% of those affected have no symptoms, the first anyone knows is when they die (sudden adult death syndrome SADS). Since then, we have been raising money for CRY in Jenny’s memory, to help prevent other families being devastated as we have. If abnormalities are picked up they can be treated.

We have raised money to pay for this screening of 14-35 year olds, as

well as two ECG machines and would like to encourage everyone between 14-35 to utilise the free testing; all you have to do is book an appointment on line (www.testmyheart.org) and attend.

Kind regards, Tony Yates & Veronica Bucknell