Though I did sometimes indulge in the fantasy of acting and the fun perks that came with it, I’d never seriously considered acting in an actual project. It was my brother (now a drama school student) who was aiming for Hollywood, so I would sometimes help him tape his auditions and read lines for him. Consequently, my mum was part of many audition forums online where they’d send out open casting calls. It was on a whim and “just for fun” that I decided to sign up for an audition that fitted my description and, by a stroke of luck, I managed to land the role.

You can read their poems below – many congratulations to all students who entered this competition! 

Mr Dilley – Subject Leader of English

The evening started off with a speech from a special visitor, Mrs Kaur, who talked to us about Sikhism and what her faith means to her. This was followed by a speech from Mrs Mohamed, who spoke to us about her journey in Islam, and about how her faith has grown over the course of her life. Some Muslim sixth form students then spoke about what their faith means to them, touching on the five pillars of Islam and reflecting on the similarities between the Muslim and Sikh faiths.

The topics for debate were assigned and released just one week before the event, and so it was a race against time for all schools to put together a debate team, research, gather evidence, build counterarguments and prepare for the day.  

We had six talks: abolitionism, celebrity culture and the media, representations of female crime, exam skills, wealth disparity and its effects on childhood, and gender, feminism and the family.

Amnesty International is a global movement which is independent of any government or political party, and each year, they identify people from around the world whose human rights have been violated, and ask their supporters to write two types of letters: messages of solidarity and support to those who have been affected, and appeal letters to governments. 

To prepare for this exciting event, we attended preparation sessions at lunchtime with our groups. Outside of school, we did background research on the countries we were representing, to find out about their contributions to climate change and what they are doing to fight climate change. We also prepared an opening statement to present at the beginning of the conference and created PowerPoint slides to demonstrate how our school is being eco-friendly.

That beach holds a special place in my heart. My first experience of the vastness of the ocean mesmerised me, and it continued to do so every time we returned. Our best pastime was to dip our feet in the cold sea and play with the waves. 

We are incredibly proud to say that there have been students past and present involved in this year's set of programmes.  

This year’s challenge also included a short essay competition on the theme of remilitarisation for participants who had reached the top level – I was in third place in this competition and in the challenge overall.