FRIDAY FLYER-Issue 171

HoHoHo! Greetings from the Ho College ;D

A festive second half of the Autumn Term enriched with kindness, gratitude, and academic competitions.

With the aim of nurturing a striving, passionate, and motivated student body, Ann Yi (Academic Prefect) organised a Key Stage 4 Debate Week consisting of three rounds of debate. Each senior house had three representatives competing for their house.

Rosebery and Crawfurd took part in the first round, diving into the motion of “This house believes that book piracy does more harm than good.” Despite both teams having limited debating experience and facing a challenging motion, the girls did their best in delivering passionate speeches and raising razor-sharp Points of Information (POIs). The judges were particularly impressed with the latter. Although Rosebery emerged victorious, both teams engaged in friendly debate, gaining insights about the topic, as well as debating techniques and methods.

The second round, spearheaded by Propert and Granville, addressed the motion of “This house believes that AI should be integrated into law enforcement.” Like the girls, the boys made full use of the scope of the motion, presenting interesting arguments and getting into their competitive spirit. Granville was announced as the winner, making them qualified for the final round against Rosebery. It is noteworthy that the boys went head-to-head in terms of the judges’ points allocation, with Propert being behind by a very small margin. That being said, both teams gave their best effort and expressed their appreciation for this learning opportunity.

Many looked forward to the final round—the Sixth Form Centre was buzzing with noise and excitement. Rosebery and Granville competed on the motion: “This house believes that media companies should self-regulate their content as opposed to the state.” The difficulty of the motion was immediately grasped by the two teams, but they went to work anyway. After 20 minutes of preparation time, the teams came together.

Special thanks to Mr. Thompson, Mr. Caroll, Mrs. Brown, Ms. Perrang, Sameer, Karishaa, Jayden Lim, the BSE Society, the Prefect Team, and all the participants who took part in the event.

For the KS5 students, Jing Yan (Head of College) is organising a “Youth” themed Public Speaking Competition for Bright Stars of Epsom to conquer the fear of public speaking, unleash their inner speaker, and embark on this new adventure that they might love. It consists of a Qualifying round where participants submit videos, and the Final Round where shortlisted candidates compete. The deadline for the first round video submission is the 15th of January, so students are encouraged to utilise their term break to practise. She also hosted a workshop and shared useful resources to support participants in the process of crafting and practising their speeches. Most importantly, feedback will be dedicated to every speech presented to allow future improvements on the journey ahead. We aspire that these competitions have contributed to the professional and personal development of the students.

Our recent initiatives to achieve our aim of building a more intimate and well-connected community in Epsom included the “Stockings Colouring and Hanging Activity” with the Prep students. A few prefects visited the Prep school to cut out some printed stockings for the Prep kids to colour in with their own creativity, which were then connected in strings to be hung up to adorn the spaces in the Prep school. Christmas music, children’s cheering, and laughter filled the room, rendering a festive atmosphere.

Next term, the heads and deputy heads of houses are organising Prep time support for the junior students in Carr, Holman, Rosebery, and Crawfurd from 7-8 PM. They have already gathered a list of names of students from KS5 that volunteered to provide support, such as conquering the language barrier and guidance in academic work. We would like to grasp this opportunity to thank the volunteers for bringing Epsom towards a tight-knit community.

Happiness stems from gratitude. “I am happy because I’m grateful,” Will Arnett, the Canadian-American actor and comedian, once said. But “Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone,” said the American novelist and poet - Gertrude Stein. Therefore, the Well-Being and Service prefects harnessed the opportunity that this Christmas brings and collaborated to encourage KS5 students to express their gratitude by writing on the Christmas cards. We also guided the students that their gratitude could extend beyond their teachers, to the security guards, dining hall staff, housekeeping staff, etc. Afterwards, the cards are collected, and the prefects deliver these surprises to the intended recipients. Besides that, Alis (Well-Being prefect) arranged a Kindness week right after half-term break to motivate the students to be “Kinder than Necessary.” The week was packed with presentations from the Media Society, Business & Economics Society, Interact Club, and Humanities Society. Carr boys also wrote up words of appreciation on sticky notes to be stuck on a board.

We hope that these projects have helped to maintain the well-being of our peers, brighten up the days of Epsom staff, and foster a value-led community.

Four GOALs of the Prefect team achieved ✅

As the term comes to a close, a new door of opportunity opens up for the year 12 students. Just this week, we have sent out the prefect application details and the details of attributes and job descriptions of each prefect role/department. It's crazy to think that a year ago we received this email detailing all of this information; now it is our job as prefects to pass on the role down to the new groups of Year 12s. As I reflect on our year as prefects—from the late-night planning of events, emailing the respective representatives for events, to running around making sure everything runs smoothly during events—I cannot think of a bad moment as a prefect, as I am able to give back to a school that has given me so much in return. As we prepare to receive the applications in term 2 of the academic year, we can only hope that the new applicants are as motivated and passionate about giving back to their school and society as up-and-coming prefects.

In closing, we wish everyone a joyous holiday season ahead and look forward to a vibrant upcoming term! 🎄🌟

Best wishes from the ECiM Heads of College 2023/24 - Jing Yan Lee and Elliot Ho (HoHo)