It's been years since student singers from St Paul's have contributed their voices to a performance of our first Director of Music's masterpiece, The Planets. Now, in the last six months, it's happened twice: in September, girls made up the choir at the end of the suite's last movement, "Neptune, the Mystic" during a celebration of Gustav Holst's birthday at St Paul's, and on 20 March they joined the Kensington Symphony Orchestra in performing the full orchestral version at St John's, Smith Square.
"In September, we honoured Holst's 136th birthday with possibly the first performance of The Planets in Holst's version for four hands on one piano with the voices reinstated in the final movement," says John York, the head of senior music and keyboard at St Paul's. As part of York2, John has played the four-handed version all over the world with his wife Fiona. "The effect was truly magical. The girls were singing from the Marble and slowly walked away to fade as the pianists dropped out."
An invitation from the Kensington Symphony offered the senior choir, conducted by the head of singing, Heidi Pegler, a reprise of their performance. "The timing couldn't have been more auspicious," John says. "The choir had learned the notoriously difficult music for September and could surely do it again. Patiently waiting in the gallery of the lovely church in Smith Square, they were almost invisible as they held the first mysterious top G and covered the undulating, ever-changing harmonies. A large enthusiastic audience responded wonderfully."
"The familiar music of Holst's cycle felt thoroughly right," adds John - "and, with the voices supplied by the girls of St Paul's, very special indeed. I hope that these two performances will be the first of many."
Baked goods and baby photos raise nearly £1000 at year 7 fair
March 2010
Students from year 7 raised £919 on March 18 by organising a charity fair. The annual event, our youngest students' first opportunity to run a fund-raiser, brought sweets, cakes and raffles - not to mention neon gifts - to the rest of the St Paul's community.
Tomoka Kan and her group discovered that our students enjoy treats even more than trying their luck when they proposed raffling cookies at the fair. "When we were planning the stall, we discovered people wanted to buy the baked goods, not the raffle tickets," says Tomoka. "We kept the prices really low so that more customers would come - and we were able to sell quite a few brownies, cookies and Rice Krispie treats."
Some other groups used their imagination to think up new attractions. "I did the 'Guess the baby teacher' stall, which we titled 'Where did it all go wrong?'" says Jessica Phillips. "It was satisfying to see people pushing through the crowd to see our display board full of baby pictures. Preparing it was a challenge, because we had to get permission and then pictures from the teachers, but it all worked out in the end."
Meanwhile, Isabella Tagliaferri and her group had set out the most dazzling stall at the fair - a stand where all the wares were neon coloured. "Many other groups had activities to do with sweets, but our stall was different, maybe even unique," Isabella says. "I had a great time and we sold lots of stuff. We didn't get to keep much, but it was so much fun and we raised a lot of money for an amazing cause. I was really glad to be a part of it."
Physicists team up at pizza social
March 2010
Year 12 physicists from four south-west London schools set friendly rivalries aside on 18 March when they took part in a physics-and-pizza social event at Godolphin and Latymer School. Students from St Paul's, Godolphin, St Paul's School and Latymer Upper School joined in with what they now hope will become an annual tradition.
"We formed four mixed teams," say Michelle Lee and Pria de Eyto, "the Integrators, lnx, Quantum Café, 1, Universally Challenged and Supanova. After an intense six rounds and consuming a large amount of pizza, our team proved aptly named when 1 won by a landslide. It was a very enjoyable evening and we hope the schools will carry it on."
Liquid nitrogen and spaghetti towers: St Paul's Science Week is super cool
March 2010
National Science and Engineering Week at St Paul's started with a flash. A chemistry activity on Monday 8 March introduced students to safe explosions, flaming methane bubbles and the fiery consequences of burning a jelly baby in potassium chlorate.
Meanwhile, a treasure hunt that would lead girls around the scientific curiosities of our facilities started with the search for the clues on little orange cards secreted around the site. "As well as learning more about science, we got to know more about the school buildings, especially the science block," says Eleanor Gibbon. "We got to know different people in our year group and older girls who gave us hints to where some classrooms were."
Year 7 girls tried their hands at engineering on Wednesday when they took part in a competition to build the tallest tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows. "Building the towers in 30 minutes was so entertaining and hard," says Florence Gilks. "All the marshmallows kept sticking to the spaghetti, which then stuck to your fingers."
The unusual building materials brought their own consolations. "The spaghetti and the marshmallow tasted good together," says Samira Kelly. "My team came fourth with a 23-cm tower because it collapsed when we let go. The tower had been breaking up even as we held it - we started laughing so hard that our shaking broke the tower even more. Although we didn't win, the activity was extremely fun and I would recommend it to all the new year 7 girls next year."
As the week went on, contestants in the treasure hunt wound their way around St Paul's. "We had to start again twice because we kept getting misled by the second clue," says Gwenyth Audran.
On Thursday, physics teacher Marcin Slaski staged Dr Slaski's Super Cool Liquid Nitrogen Show, where students could experiment with cooling substances to incredibly low temperatures. "I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked into the Singing Hall and saw a huge metal bucket with smoke coming out of it," says Inara Ramji.
"First," says Emily Parfitt, "we poured the nitrogen over our hands. Because our bodies have such a higher temperature, the nitrogen evaporated before it touched us. Second came a rubber tube that froze when you dipped it into liquid nitrogen - and you could snap the top off. Finally, he put flowers into the nitrogen and they hardened until we could crush them with our fingers."
On the same day, the student-led Food Society brought examples of space food for a talk on nutrition in outer space. "Things like strawberries taste the same but in smoothie form," says Kea de Burutel, "although the mint chocolate chip ice cream had a very distinctive taste. We also saw someone drinking water in space, with nothing but droplets floating in the air."
As closing lecturers celebrated the end of Science Week and the cycle of David Attenborough film showings in the Great Hall reached its finale, the treasure hunters solved their final clues. "We made lots of interesting discoveries, such as finding out we had a preserved human brain at St Paul's," says Gwenyth. "We got there in the end."
Fencing team makes winning début at Crystal Palace
March 2010
It takes speed, skill and agility and it's one of the fastest-growing sports at St Paul's. Aliya Itzkowitz, from year 11, became the UK's top under-17 sabre fencer in January - and on 16 March our fencing team took part for the first time in the Public Schools' Fencing Championships at the National Sports Centre in Crystal Palace.
The team won the tournament's Johnson Cup, awarded to the girls' school that scored the most points from last-eight matches in the girls' sabre event. St Paul's also finished as the third highest-scoring team in girls' Mount Haes events and the third most improved school since last year.
Every member of the team went through to the final round of 32. Aliya Itzkowitz won the girls' junior sabre, Camilla Higgins finished 12th in the girls' senior foil and Kate Dunbar won her first direct elimination match to finish 12th out of 57 in the girls' Mount Haes foil. Phoebe Bright, Lucinda Conder and Bomee Kim ensured the Johnson Cup result by coming 3rd, 6th and 7th respectively in the girls' Mount Haes sabre.
"This is a national-standard tournament and many of our students' opponents had international experience," says chemistry teacher Amy Hudson, who accompanied the team. "They handled the pressure of their first competition brilliantly and seemed to really enjoy the day."
Kate Dunbar, who is now in year 9, started fencing at St Paul's last year. "I was a bit nervous in the beginning but Miss Hudson and our fencing coach, Jessica Lacheta, encouraged me," says Kate. "The competition turned out to be loads of fun and it's inspired me to get more involved in fencing."
Natural history society springs into being
March 2010
Student scientists at St Paul's have already joined forces to pursue their interests in fields from chemistry and medicine to forensic science and psychology. The latest discipline to become the focus of a student-led society is natural history, thanks to five biology enthusiasts in year 12 who will launch the group's first meeting on 11 March.
"We want to show how varied and exciting learning about biology can be," says the society's first president, Mary Ann Rhiemus. "We also hope to prepare people for studying human sciences and environmental biology in the future." The society's weekly meetings will vary from debates and speaker events to visits to the London Aquarium, dissections and even the chance to "paint" with maggots.
Jenny Chapman, a biology teacher, is the society's staff liaison. "The society is a brilliant opportunity for students to get their teeth into an exciting, fast-moving subject," says Jenny. "We hope to cover a broad range of topics from trypanosomes to telomeres."
Secrets of the rainforests unfold at Science Week
March 2010
St Paul's annual Science Week ended in the rainforests of Borneo and the Caribbean on 12 March when the ecologist Dr Nick Brown visited us to give a closing lecture on "Secrets of the Rainforests". The forestry lecturer and senior tutor at Linacre College, Oxford has published more than 30 scientific papers and appeared on many BBC Radio 4 science shows and the documentary series Planet Earth. His current research has seen him devise a biodiversity monitoring project for Trinidad and Tobago.
"Dr Brown invited the audience to consider why rainforests are so diverse, how humans can use them and how rainforest animals and plants will cope with climate change," says biology teacher Jenny Chapman. "We're very lucky to have had such a fascinating speaker to end Science Week."
Spanish students old and new meet at Blood Wedding
March 2010
Two cohorts of Spanish students from St Paul's came together on 5 March at a performance of Federico García Lorca's play Blood Wedding. Members of years 12 and 13 who are studying the language visited the OFS Studio Theatre in Oxford to watch the St Hugh's Players production, which was directed by a St Paul's alumna, Ellen Jones.
The scarcity of plays in translation in Oxford drama inspired Ellen to direct Lorca's tragedy of passion and revenge. "It turned out to be even more challenging than I anticipated, because the cast and crew were so enormous," says Ellen, who is reading Spanish at St Hugh's College, Oxford. "Trying to get thirteen very busy students in the same room at once is nearly impossible - but we were able to rehearse every day except one for seven weeks."
Fortunately, Oxford offers some of the best opportunities in the country for students to take part in drama. "New writing always sells really well in Oxford, physical theatre is popular and there are many unusual adaptations," Ellen says. "We played around with Spanish and English in Blood Wedding. One of my friends wrote original music for the show, which quite a lot of music students are doing at the moment. We got a huge audience from language students in Oxford, the university Spanish Society and local schools' Spanish A-level students."
"The university support system for drama is massive," adds Ellen. "The profit from every student play goes back into university drama, so many different funding bodies, like the St Hugh's Players, can lend money to plays and take a share of the profit or loss. I belong to the St Hugh's Players committee and we decide whether or not to lend them money after student theatre companies apply to us with a bid outlining their budget, marketing strategy and vision."
Penélope García Rodríguez, a Spanish teacher, accompanied the group to Oxford. "Blood Wedding is one of the works we study at A2, so it was a wonderful opportunity for the girls to see the text 'rise from the book and become human,' as Lorca put it," Penélope says. "The production showed great sensitivity and imagination and efficiently solved the challenges of producing a play that combines poetry with live music and singing."
Soirée musicale heads from high Baroque to High School Musical
March 2010
Every term, the Soirée musicale brings student and staff musicians together to celebrate St Paul's passion for making music. On 3 March, 233 girls from all year groups - or more than a third of our students - spent an evening in the Great Hall presenting the breadth and depth of our musicians' interests.
"What impresses above all in these Soirées is the sheer range of music offered and the huge numbers of skilful and enthusiastic girls involved," says John York, the head of senior music and keyboard. "This time, the music travelled from the high Baroque of Monteverdi to the cheesiest High School Musical."
"Praise should go to the trainers of all these wonderful performances," John says. "The director of music, Yeo Yat-Soon, opened the evening by directing a sonorous fanfare from Monteverdi's Orfeo by the brass group. Eighty minutes later, Mark Wilderspin, the head of curricular music and composer-in-residence, conducted our highly effective training orchestra, the Sinfonia, in a lively march from Vaughan Williams's English Folk Song Suite."
Between Monteverdi's fanfare and Vaughan Williams's finale, the heads of singing, wind and strings - Heidi Pegler, Hilary Sturt and Barbara McGregor - conducted our many instrumental groups. Vocal ensembles directed by students themselves performed versions of songs that ranged through decades of US popular culture, from Leonard Bernstein to Beyoncé by way of the theme tune from The Flintstones.
"A large audience shared my enthusiasm at the Soirée musicale," says John. "I marvel, as always, at my colleagues' professionalism and the quality of everybody's work."
Year 9 biologists enter national challenge
March 2010
A team of girls from year 9 have become the first students from St Pauls to take part in the Biology Challenge, a national biology competition for pupils in years 9 and 10. The group have been discussing the science behind stem cells, cloning and photosynthesis to prepare for a multiple choice paper and the possibility of competing against other UK schools in the Challenge's national heat.
"It's a great chance to expand our knowledge beyond the syllabus," says Alice Charlotte Hart, one of the team members. Jenny Chapman, a biology teacher, adds - "This is a brilliant opportunity for our students to join more than 25,000 others in a prestigious national competition that will stretch our best biologists."
Being here 