Issue 26-02-2010
Featured story
A Quaker experience
I am, and believe that I always will be, an atheist. From early in my school education I was presented with many ideas about God, stories of the Bible and was preached to by the local vicar every Friday morning. We learnt about the various cultures and religions and I...
Top stories
A Quaker-educated perspective on the world
We can all remember this… ‘we trudge to school, and we complain that it’s too early, or too dark, or too wet, or quite possibly all three’. We’ve slept till the last minute ‘and not many of us bother with the luxury of the morning news’. Oblivious then,...
That Friday feeling
This comment was written following a Friday Meeting for Worship during which recordings of those who had witnessed the earthquake in Haiti were played. With our best Friday-faces on we trudge to school. And we complain that it’s too early, or too dark, or too wet or quite...
Why and how should we remember?
In 2008, I took part in the Imperial War Museum’s visit ‘Away to Remember’ and was in Belgium on the ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice. In 2009 I was invited to the memorial service in Westminster Abbey to mark the passing of the last of the generation who fought in 1914 to 1918....
All articles
World Challenge Expedition to Namibia
I have only just finished putting all of my Namibia pictures up in my study. It is strange looking at how much we actually experienced while we were there. Our adventure starts back in Fifth Year, the first interest, the impossibility of raising well over £28,000 as a group, the...
Ackworth drama - Hairspray
‘Last term we performed the musical comedy Hairspray. The story explores prejudice against size and race in 1960s America. I played the role of Penny Pingleton, the main character’s best friend. Penny, a quirky, geeky, ‘in-her-own-little-world’ girl, brings with her the majority of the comedy in this play. Her...
Ackworth School welcomes Terry Waite
Nearly 170 students and visitors packed Ackworth’s Meeting House and waited in anticipation of the arrival of our famous guest. Local Quakers and members of other denominations joined the Sixth Form to hear Terry Waite talk about his ‘Spiritual Journey’. We were anticipating that this high profile speaker, who had...
Ackworth debae - Should the practice of euthanasia be legalised?
The issue of euthanasia has been receiving considerable press coverage recently, with several separate incidents of so-called ‘assisted suicide’ taking place in different parts of the United Kingdom. The Ackworth School Debating Society chose this contentious issue as the topic of a recent heated debate. What follows are the arguments...
Competition: friend or foe?
We are always told to more work quickly, reflect less and produce more, but at what expense? Our society has become controlled by competition and the ruthless need for success. But honest hard work is no longer sufficient, celebrity culture monopolises our society and TV screens, when news of Jordanâ€...
PeaceJam news
In March 2010, the Ackworth School PeaceJam group will travel to Bradford University for the annual PeaceJam conference hosted by the Peace Studies Department. It gives young people from all over the UK a chance to meet and learn from a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. This year’s Laureate is...
Bootham’s doing 10:10!
Jonathon Taylor has ditched the usual way of attracting new pupils and has begun to play the ‘green’ card. The Bootham headmaster recently took the decision to get the school involved with the 10:10 initiative. This project has been set up to encourage people to cut carbon emissions by ten per...
Care of elderly is becoming battleground
A film feast
A democracy not based on honesty and respect is no democracy at all
What are we to make of the different parties’ views on the big question of care for the elderly, and other important social concerning fairness and under privilege? We are entering again that phase of our democratic life when the entire country will be awash with avoidances and half-truths. The...
Art and materialism
At the beginning of a new decade with the threat of global warming looming, there is increasing pressure to cut our carbon footprints, and materialism is often seen as the evil we need to overcome. However, it is also often forgotten that materialism includes art, literature and film, which the...
Martin Hugall – dedicated service
Why did you apply to teach at Friends’ School Saffron Walden? My university tutor was a Quaker and I was impressed by him and when this job came up I just knew that it was right for me as I particularly wanted to work in a school with a Christian...
News from Friends’ School Saffron Walden
Hope for Peace During Quaker Schools Week Friends’ School celebrated with a series of events. We hosted a one-day seminar with the Peace Education Network and held a special assembly and workshop with Candia Crossfield, a young Quaker and Peace worker. The Sixth Form attended Meetings for Clearness run...
Model United Nations Conference
On Sunday 7 and Monday 8 February 2010, two teams from Friends’ School participated in a Model United Nations Conference at Felsted School. The countries we were representing were Costa Rica and Democratic Republic of Congo. These countries were allocated to us and we had to research them in advance of the Conference....
Reflections on Haiti Week
As part of the Haiti week at Friends’ School Saffron Walden, Year 7 volunteers talked about the impact of the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country. As a Quaker school, we are committed to helping people in all walks of life and all over the world. By raising awareness in our...
Leighton Park arts - The Crucible by Arthur Miller
In February Leighton Park staged its senior production, The Crucible. The language is challenging; the narrative gripping; the location atmospheric; the characters beautifully drawn. At Leighton Park, we wanted to concentrate on the emotional content of the play. Student actors often find it difficult to come to terms with the...
Leighton Park reflections - An interview with John Dunston, head
When waiting to interview John Dunston, I am not afraid to say I was nervous, but the second I walked into his room, John straight away made me comfortable and gave me a feeling of being welcome. I have known John Dunston for six and a half years as Head...
Leighton Park reflections - Living in a Quaker School as a Quaker
As a Quaker it is motivating to be in a Quaker school like Leighton Park, as you get to learn more about the beliefs and values of Quakerism. Even if you are not a Quaker you still get to fully experience the Quaker values and way of life; we have...
Quaker values and today’s society
In the last few weeks, news of John Terry’s infidelity has spread across our front and back pages. It is ironic, since in 2009 he had been named ‘Dad of the Year’ after a Daddies Sauce survey. It seems to be impossible to escape the ‘cult of celebrity’, with...
The Leighton Park ReachOut Project
PeaceJam Youth Conference March 2010
The PeaceJam Youth Conference in Bradford will be focusing upon extreme poverty throughout the world in a series of talks, debates and projects. It is being eagerly awaited by the Mount School PeaceJam group! PeaceJam aims to bring together Nobel Peace Laureates and young people, providing events to inspire the...
York Independent State School Partnership (ISSP)
Tregelles’ Woodland Area
The Prince’s Trust
The Prince’s Trust has a project challenging Sixth Form students to raise £500 for the charity by setting up and running their own small business. The ‘Challenge 500’ scheme involves groups from local schools working with successful business professionals to reach the £500 target in whatever way they wish. Every part of...
Participation in city affairs
The York Youth Council (YYC) is a newly founded council committee for people aged eleven to eighteen years. The youth council is made up of nominated young people representing the schools and youth groups of York. The big aim of the youth council is to give the young people of...
Sibford celebrates as past meets future
June marks the eightieth anniversary of the opening of the main school building. September sees the twenty-first anniversary of the opening of the Junior School. Meanwhile, Sibford is also looking to the future as it embarks on the second stage of a major expansion programme. ‘It’s exciting times...
Pupils reap the fruits of their labour
When Sibford School introduced outdoor learning to its junior curriculum we hadn’t bargained on the knock on effect it might have in the school kitchens. While covering the whole curriculum from English and history through to maths and science an inevitable byproduct of outdoor education tends to be plenty...
Hope and imagination
According to Quaker faith & practice 23.85 ‘the two qualities which are most important to children of today are hope and imagination. Hope to believe they can change the world they live in and imagination to find ways to do so.’ The truth of this statement was brought dramatically home...
Learning to make a difference… in Kenya
I’m Joe Patrick and I am head boy at Sidcot. Last summer I travelled to Kilifi in Kenya with my friend Matt, as we wanted to learn more about the charity organisations that sponsor young people in Africa. We planned how we were going to get there and funded...
News from the Sidcot Quaker elders
One thing that is prominent at Sidcot is the friendly, open atmosphere and to a lot of the students, Sidcot is more than just a school – it’s a community. As student elders, we are active in encouraging the Quaker spirit around the school by setting up various events, groups,...
A summer in Ecuador
Quaker week at Sidcot Junior School
Spirit Rising
In 2008 Quakers Uniting in Publications gathered an editorial board of ten young people from different branches of Quakerism and different countries. The board spent a year gathering contributions from around the Quaker world. Then they met in 2009 to select and edit the pieces. Now titled Spirit Rising: Young Quakers Speak,...