FRIDAY FLYER-Issue 132
24 Nov 2022
Headmaster's Welcome
Happy Friday Dear Reader!
Welcome to edition 132 of our Epsom Friday Flyer.
This week started with an assembly on the importance of being well read led by Mrs Carden-Brown. She was inspired to speak on the life and work of Marcel Proust, who died 100 years ago on 18th November 1922.
Proust was an early 20th-century French writer responsible for what is officially recognised as being the longest novel in the world. Entitled ‘À la Recherche du Temps Perdu’ / ‘In Search of Lost Time’, this epic work comprises 1,267,069 words; double the number contained in War and Peace.
Mrs Carden-Brown considered what being ‘well read’ means. She discussed what literature is, its value and why it is so important to read:
In order to ensure that Epsom students graduate from school being well read, we will soon be introducing our Epsom Reading Ladder. Students will be presented with a recommended reading list for their year group, and the aim is that, as students progress through school, they will benefit from the power of literature!
Those of our students who complete the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) are required to undertake extensive reading and research into their topic. EPQ presentations this week have included the following topics:
‘Has Malaysia’s affirmative action policy undermined the rule of law?’ by Ryan
‘How can the use of psilocybin – assisted therapy aid in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD)’ by Thaaranniyah
‘Is innate talent a myth? A wide perspective into the different aspects of the career world.’ by Jerry
Boys will be Boys – Opinions on toxic masculinity’ Violet Society
Today our students are voting on who will win the ECSA – Epsom College Science Award. This student-conceived and student-led competition saw students undertaking research into areas of interest in some depth and summarising their findings in the form of an academic poster that they used to present to the school. We will update you soon on this but suffice to say that the quality of the work undertaken was extremely impressive, indeed remarkable in some cases. Topics included:
Plasma Research by Hong Ming (Y10)
The History of Formula 1 by Elliot (Y12)
The Colonisation of Mars by YoungMok (Y12)
Can Bioprinting Replace Organ Donation by 2040? by Jing Yan (Y12)
Wildlife Conservation’s future ally or enemy? byThaara & Jing Xean (Y13)
As you may know, we are most fortunate to be able to host some very interesting guest speakers as part of our Epsom Live Talks series. These have included Datu Aru Suppiah and Mr Lim Beng Choon.
Last week we welcomed Tan Sri Rafidah and she gave a fascinating insight into politics and Malaysia’s political climate.
We are looking forward to welcoming David Dufrenois, Head of Global Account Management at Airbus based in Singapore, in the new year. These talks represent exciting opportunities for our students to learn more about business, innovation, entrepreneurship and much more. Students are able to understand what certain jobs entail and engage personally with highly successful C-Suite representatives.
Our extremely proactive and high profile Business and Economics Society (BSE Soc) have launched an exciting competition for our students this week…
Our College Store is now under new management and are keen to sell Epsom Merchandise that is attractive to both Epsom students and their families. They hope to stock items that can be gifted and purchased as memorabilia of happy school days. With this in mind the management of the store are partnering with the BSE Society on an initiative whereby Epsom students design merchandise for a competition. The winning designers will be awarded the item that they designed which in turn will be mass produced to go on sale in store. We are really looking forward to seeing what ideas are put forward by our students.
Our Form Tutors play a key role in providing academic support as well as excellent pastoral care to our students. Every morning Epsom students will check in with their tutor. To share best practice and to ensure continued professional development, Mrs Fowler, our Deputy Headteacher, Pastoral along with Mrs Avis Parker, who leads the academic programme for Key Stage 3 and 4, provided training to our Tutors.
The relationship between tutor and student is very important. Happy Children learn best! We love these pictures of Ms Archibald, our Head of Mathematics, and her tutor group as they capture the essence of the role of the tutor at Epsom:
Recently our Drama Department welcomed the Theater Exchange Company who spent two days delivering Drama workshops to our students in the Prep and Senior School. Such exposure to live theatre and workshops is invaluable for both our English and Drama Departments. The Company worked through various activities with our students and this culminated in an ad hoc production of Sherlock Holmes. It was wonderful to see students challenge themselves by stepping outside of their comfort zone, getting up on stage and performing. It was a most impactful and valuable experience for all involved:
Jing Xean and the Academic Prefect Team are introducing their latest project – Epsom Enrichment School Trips! These trips are being planned to enable students to explore their interests and provide insight into the day-to-day operations of various fields. The first trip will be to Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery. Future trips include a visit to a BMS Organics Farm.
Tiha, in Year 13, is making arrangements for Myanmar Refugees to come and visit Epsom on November 28th. Tiha and her team are inviting 12 students (each visiting student will be paired up with a buddy from Epsom) and 1 member of staff from the Myanmar Learning Center in Kepong to visit our school and the planned activities include: a get-to-know and ice-breaker session with members of our Charity CCA, joining some lessons and a scavenger hunt around our school campus. We are delighted to see our Prefect Team initiating this outreach and look forward to establishing and expanding this as an initiative.
If you are reading this as a parent then please check your emails for updates from the Friends of Epsom who are fundraising for worthy charities.
Speaking of charitable giving, this week saw the Comfort Crew – from whom you will hear more later – host a slumber party:
This event was extremely popular with students of all age ranges who enjoyed playing games, eating snacks and socialising with friends dressed in their PJs in our Grayling Centre!
As you can see, it has been another very busy (but extremely productive) week at Epsom!
I cannot believe that we only have 2 editions of our Friday Flyer left before the term break! Mrs Rouson is busy preparing the Prep Advent Calendar- watch this space – and we are looking forward to our Epsom Christmas Dinner where we will, in true Epsom Tradition, sing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ at the top of our voices!
In the meantime, allow me to invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy this edition of our Flyer…Happy Friday and Happy Reading!
Mr Matthew Brown,
Headmaster
Greetings from Granville House
This month has been another exciting one in the boarding house with a wide variety of events and activities for Granvillians to become involved with. Whether it be through standing for election to the Student Council, getting wet and wild on slides and rafts or presenting projects in the Grayling Centre, there never seems to be a dull moment. I am continually amazed with the pace at which these young men live their lives and how they constantly exceed our expectations.
One particular event has caught the house interest this month and that is Movember. Movember is a campaign held in November with a particular focus on men’s health. It is exemplified by a moustache and, although many of our young men are a little too young to sport one themselves, they still face the issues that the campaign seeks to address – issues which reduce male life expectancy.
The students in Granville have discussed some of the biggest factors which reduce life expectancy for men to almost five years lower than that of women. These include suicide, prostate cancer and testicular cancer with the final one being the most common cancer among young men and suicide taking one male life somewhere in the world every minute of every day. Around the school, events have also included a discussion on toxic masculinity led by the Violet Society.
These are not the sunniest subjects but are an essential part of our development and the mature approach taken by Granvillians has been commendable.
Mr Dean Jones,
Housemaster, Granville House
Prep House Football
On Monday 21st November, Years 3 to 6 turned out for one of the most highly-anticipated and hotly-contested competitions of the school calendar: Prep House Football.
All of the Prep School Students are placed in one of four senior houses for competition purposes: Crawfurd and Rosebery for the girls and Granville and Propert for the boys. Throughout the year they will earn house points for their house and compete in many competitions. This week was the first of many to come.
Mr Dien Wooler and his coaching team organised the event and decided upon the groupings for the matches.
The house captains and deputies were given the task of organising their teams and ensuring that everyone got an equal amount of playing time.
For the girls, the teams were a mixture of Years 3-6 and they played a six-a-side match with rolling substitutions.
Crawfurd House is captained by Kimora in year 6 with Riona, also in year 6 as Deputy Captain. The House Captain for Rosebury is Natlene in Year 5, with Mary in year 4 as her deputy.
All the girls gave the game a really good go, despite some of them not having played many times outside of PE lessons.
With many chances and near-misses on both sides, the eventual outcome was 2-0 to Rosebury.
The boys were split into two age categories: Year 3 & 4 and Year 5 & 6.
Oscar and James in year 6 are House Captain and Deputy for Granville and Paxton and Kiane, also in year 6 have the roles of House Captain and Deputy Captain for Propert house.
The year 3 and 4 match was 5-a-side and was a very energetic game. Granville managed to hold off the strong Propert attack for a while but could not withstand Naston (year 4) and his powerful striking! Naston put away 5 goals for his team, making Propert the undisputed winner in this match.
The year 5 and 6 boys game was a very evenly-matched contest. Both 7-a-side teams showed excellent skill on the football field and there were shots taken which hit the post at both ends, went over the crossbars and there were some dramatic and impressive saves from the various goalkeepers who took the gloves.
At the full-time whistle, the score was still nil-nil. As a result was required, it came down to penalties…
Each team had three penalty shots, with the goalkeeper at the full-time whistle, keeping his position for this nerve-wracking decider.
The final result went Granville’s way as they scored 2 out of three of their penalties whereas Yuqin in the Granville goal managed to save all three of the Propert shots!
All teams who found themselves on the losing side showed graciousness by congratulating their friends and all the winners showed an equal amount of humility.
The whole event was thoroughly enjoyed by all, including our very loyal and enthusiastic parents who came along to support. A big thank you to them as always for supporting what we do in the Prep School.
I would also like to thank Mr Wooler and the PE team who made this event so fun but also professional with the setup of the pitches and the top quality refereeing. As well as the PE teachers and coaches, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Prep School teachers and Teaching Assistants who helped the house captains get the teams organised and gave support and advice where needed.
Finally, a great big well done to our newly appointed House Captains and Deputies who led their teams in this, their first big challenge as student leaders.
I personally cannot wait for the next Prep School House Competition!
Jane Rouson – Head of Prep
The Comfort Crew say 'Hi'!
ECiM Comfort Society – Friday Flyer Article
The Inaugural Comfort Society Comfort Week: A Summary of Activities
Written by Teja, Y12
So… life, huh?
Life can get very exhausting. If you’re especially unfortunate, it can be draining even. And the last thing you need is someone invalidating that feeling. With that in mind, ECiM’s Comfort Society was founded, its initial mission to destigmatise exhaustion within Epsom. And so, one day, our to-be Director sends in a proposal letter to Mr. Pedro with ideas for a society, and the next… We hosted the inaugural Comfort Week to celebrate our first anniversary, which took place on 11th November!
The Comfort Society centers around ensuring the comfort of students. Yes, it can often be seen as trivial, especially if you grew up thinking of mental health as taboo. So, in executing the Comfort Week, we went back to basics during the planning process; if we presented the relevance of student comfort through an academic lens, we’d be closer to showing how attached these two seemingly separate subjects are. And that’s exactly what we did!
On the 14th of November, we kicked off our Comfort
Week with a LANGUAGE X COMFORT collaboration titled
Language & Communication led by Diana from Y12!
Alongside being the Director of the Language Society, she happens to be the Comfort Society’s Creative Director; both societies were thrilled to see her take the spotlight. Diana’s presentation discussed the language used to communicate inwardly, and introduced the concept of emotional honesty to those present. Diana even sprinkled in anecdotes on how the words she used to think of herself affected her self-perception, wrapping up profoundly on being truthful to the way you feel, and communicating with yourself candidly.
More energy arrived on 15th of November with a SPORTS X COMFORT collaboration, which Jaydn and Youngmok from Y12 delivered as a duo! Everyone there knew there were no two better to present on the topic, as one is a star squash player, and the other a co-coordinator of the Sports Society. Anxiety & Arousal (in regards to overall testosterone!) focused on the performance anxiety experienced by athletes, and how hormones are a powerful influencer on the way our body feels and responds to high-stakes environments. Since both Jaydn and Youngmok were athletes, they also shared some tips on how to motivate your teammates, and how they countered excessive anxiety right before competition time.
Science broke through with SCIENZ X COMFORT’s The Science Behind Stress presented by the Scienz Society’s President Keira! We sat down on the 16th of November prepared to listen to her points, and it was worth it. This presentation heavily engaged with the audience, showcasing just how real stress is. There was the discussion on adrenaline affecting our fight-or-flight, but Keira also talked to us about cortisol and how it greatly influences the stress our body feels. Collaborations like this mean a lot for students everywhere, where stress levels can sometimes be overlooked or pushed aside. And so, topics like this being introduced on a school level can help all individuals involved in academic settings learn more about what is best for today’s learners.
VIOLET X COMFORT on Novemb 17th punched a hole in the wall of stigma surrounding Men’s Mental Health. ECiM recognises November as Men’s Mental Health Month, and saw the Violet Society’s Xin Ling and Noh deliver a presentation titled An Introduction To Movember. If there’s one group of people in society whose mental health gets constantly brushed aside, our fellow men are a strong contender. For some, the topic alone takes a lot of courage to bring up. This presentation was nothing but the truth on to what extent we can overlook the importance of men’s mental health, and how its discussion still needs to be truly destigmatised. (PS: If you weren’t there, you really should’ve been! The presenters were amazing!) Overall, it was a very fulfilling society event. And you don’t need to ask whether we’d do it again–for the Comfort Crowd? Without question.
Warm regards,
– The Comfort Crew <3
An Update from our Head of Drama
It is difficult to quantify what a lifetime of performing arts experience brought to us at Epsom.
Daniel Foley and Nigel Miles -Thomas stopped by on their tour through Asia to educate and entertain. The Workshops in Shakespeare, communication and performance skills for our English ,EAl and Drama students were thoroughly educational and entertaining. Their visit culminated in the performance of The Return of Sherlock Holmes. What a joy to see our Epsom students watch live theatre.
Epsom was abuzz with renditions of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be ” and general appreciation for a genre often seen as out of reach. The simplicity and energy of a live performance is something we have missed and the joy of that echoed in our hallways will be something to behold.
This certainly won’t be our last as we endeavour to expose our students to a variety of theatrical opportunities in the future- watch this
