Free Speech Oxford Competition 2013: Press Release

On January 27^th 2012, Holocaust Memorial Day, Christ Church Oxford hosted a student organised public speaking competition for sixth form students there to talk about topics surrounding persecution and freedom. The competition, which was created and organised by a number of sixth form students, was put on in the memory of Paul Jacobsthal, a German Jew who came to seek refuge in Oxford during World War Two. Pupils from seven local schools took part, with the competition judged by Oxford academics, who kindly gave up their time to judge the competition. The student organisers of Chenderit School, a comprehensive in south Northamptonshire, received a wave of positive feedback after the event and plans are already in place for the competition to be held again next year with extra sessions being added, so that the competition can start to become more inclusive now that it has had its test run.The event itself consisted of several schools coming together to talk about topics to do with free speech and persecution at Christ Church College. Topics of this nature were chosen, because of the Paul Jacobsthal project and holding the event on Holocaust Memorial Day. The format of speeches was done in the traditional ESU public speaking style with a chair, speaker and questioner. There were seven judges with different backgrounds including Oxford academics and a QC, all of whom freely gave their time to judge the competition. Accompanying the public speaking was work done by year nine students from Chenderit who had just started studying the Holocaust. A selection of year nine students were able to produce a timeline for Paul Jacobsthal’s life after the student organisers of the event felt, and still feel, that this event should reach out to more than just sixth formers, especially when the Holocaust gets studied in younger years.

The whole concept of the event began in November last year, when students from Chenderit School were approached by Dr Megan Price from the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford University about their latest project on a man named Paul Jacobsthal. Paul Jacobsthal was a German professor of archaeology at the university in Marburg, Germany who mainly studied Celtic art. During the 1930’s Adolf Hitler re-wrote history by claiming that claiming that Germany had influenced all Greek and Roman art and architecture, as they were the `master race’. Along with a few other archaeologists Jacobsthal went against Hitler’s thesis and because of his Jewish roots, was forced into exile from Germany because of the Race Laws and ended up in Oxford in 1935 where he took refuge at the university. For a time he was interned to the Isle of Man in 1940 of suspicion of being an `enemy alien‘. He remained in Oxford after the war and rebuilt his contacts with fellow archaeologists back in Germany, many of who helped him out during the war at their own risk. The Institute of Archaeology at Oxford currently have a collection of Jacobsthal’s work, including diaries, photographs and drawings that were used to create an exhibition that ran from January to March of this year.

The sixth form students of Chenderit were then approached and asked to help appeal their project to young people. Seeing as the whole project was based on persecution and inequality, a public speaking competition was ran on Holocaust Memorial Day whose theme was “Speak Up Speak Out”. It was therefore decided the topics would be based on the idea of freedom of expression and discussion and to help commemorate the life of Paul Jacobsthal. A trip to Oxford in November helped the students to learn and understand the Jacobsthal project. What started out as five or six students getting involved in the organising and running, ended up with at least twelve come the evening of the event, including students from Gosford Hill and Cheney School who also helped with the organising of the event, prior to the evening. Another handful of students then got involved and did an amazing job at handling the event on the night.

With all the positive feedback we got from the evening the same set of students are now in the process of putting the event on again next January. It seems to be a mutual decision that the event will be all-inclusive and try and find competitors that maybe haven‘t really considered public speaking before. Already around twenty schools have been in contact and want to be involved in the event after having heard about January‘s competition. One of the best pieces of feedback received was from a teacher who said that the competition had reminded him why he wanted to be a teacher.

Student organizers from Chenderit have recently been to Worcester and Trinity College in Oxford who have since said they would love to get involved in the project and help accommodate students and provide judges for the competition.

With a now all-inclusive policy, it seemed important to hold workshops before hand so that everyone is on a level playing field come to the event in January. For four weeks from 27^th September a workshop will be held every week at a participating school. The first two will be on political discourse and the last two on public speaking and rhetoric. Christ Church has been in contact with a number of politicians and ex-Cabinet ministers to see if they want to be speakers at these events. It was felt that the politics was important for sixth formers as for the majority there is never an opportunity to understand UK politics before we get the right to vote, so this is just one way of getting that information.

The day of the event will also be extended to the whole day so that there is the opportunity for a keynotes speaker to come and for tours of the Oxford colleges, kindly taken by people from the colleges. This has been done so that the students can see that university and Oxford in particular is a real option for them should they wish to take it.

The future of the Free Speech Oxford in the coming years is yet to be decided, but it is very important for everyone involved that the competition continues and gets bigger and better each year. For this year competition the new, year twelve’s at Chenderit will be getting involved in the event management and organization side and will hopefully take the reigns and spearhead the event next year.

A competition of this sort is not just a chance for sixth formers to exercise their public speaking skills, but also a chance to recognize why free speech is so important for everyone.


　

　

　

　

　

　

London 2012

So after two weeks of intense competition, the London Olympics were brought to a close on Sunday night with four hours worth of entertainment. It was another successful olympics for team GB, who ended up third in the medals table with 65 medals, surpassing Bejing's 47, along with new world records and some of the most successful athletes ever.

After the hype of the Opening Ceremony, it was slow going to GB, who's first gold medal didn't come until the women's rowing, thanks to Heather Stanning and Helen Glover, but the gold rush continued after that. It's fair to say that Team GB excelled in the rowing in London.

Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Ben Ainslee and Jessica Ennis are sure to be the stars people will most remember in 2012 after all four of them picked up gold medals. Chris Hoy became the most successful British athlete in terms of gold medals with six gold medals in track cycling, beating Steve Redgrave with five. Hoy and Bradley Wiggins are now Britain's most decorated Olympians with seven medals each.

However, lets not forget the international stars of 2012. Michael Phelps became one of the greatest Olympians in history with 22 medals, 19 of which are gold. Phelps' last medals were won in London as he now goes into retirement.

Although he got no individual records this time round, Usain Bolt kept his fastest man title, picking up gold in the 200m and 100mm, beating rival and teammate Yohan Blake who beat Bolt at the Jamaican trials. Together, along with the rest of teh Jamaican relay team, they did get a knew world record time for the 4x100m sprint with a time of 36.85.

Kenyan David Rudisha became a star by setting the fastest time for the 800m with five of the athletes running under 1.43. China came second in the swimming after the USA with 16-year-old Shiwen Ye winning gold in the 200m and 400m IM, but American swimming star Missy Franklin, 17, walked away with five medals, four golds.

As a whole London 2012 has become the biggest TV event in the US, as NBC announced that more than 219 million viewers tuned in for the games compared to 215 million in Bejiing. Worldwide polls have suggested that London 2012 is the most successful Olympics in 20 years.

The games finished with the closing ceremony of Sunday which featured a whole range of acts, showcasing Britain's talents, also proving that Britain is still making great music. Among some of the artists were: Ed Sheeran, Emile Sande, The Who, Spice Girls, One Direction even John Lennon made a appearance in video. However for me, one dissapointing performance (that didn't feature George Michael) was Queen's collaboration with Jesse J. Let me first say that I do not dispute Jesse J's talent - she is one of our better vocalists of the 21st century, but for a legend like Freddie Mercury to be replaced with a star who has only really become a hit with all ages thanks to a TV talent show, it left me a little dissapointed. Personally I cannot suggest a suitable replacement for Freddie Mercury. If it were practical I would suggest the hologram technology that brought Tupac back for California's famous Coachella festival eariler this year. Despite this however, and George Michael (let's not go there), the closing ceremony was a spectacle, one of the best moments coming from Boris Johnson dancing to the Spice Girls.

Its strange not waking up in the morning, looking at the TV guide and seeing that the Olympics is no longer taking over the BBC, but I think its safe to say we won't be forgetting London 2012 in a hurry.

For video highlights/interviews of London 2012: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/

Has Rihanna gone too far?

We all know Rihanna is someone who pushes boundaries and usually everyone loves her for it, but now she has been photographed going into a studio in London wearing a T-shirt saying C*** Life along with a gun logo. It comes days after her tweeting a picture of her new tatoo `Thug Life' in memory of Tupac.

When leaving the studio the singer seemed to have realised her mistake and covered up the slogan, but it still begs the question - why wear it in the first place? It's not like she is so naive not to expect photographers to get a shot of the t-shirt.

Rihanna has previously said to critics who believe she is too sexual in her videos and other such things that she doesn't see herself or want to be a role model. Well here's some words of advice RiRi - you're a role model whether you want to be or not. Fact. It was so the moment you signed a recording contract with Jay-Z and Def Jam and even if you decide not to be one, thats not going to stop young fans wanting to be you.

My words to Rihanna are this:
Stop being so selfish and just accept the fact that you ARE a role model and start thinking about what you're showing to your loyal fans and how you represent yourself. Grow Up.

Prime Minister David Cameron and other political leaders to appeat at Leveson

The Prime Minister, David Cameron is to appear at the Leveson inquiry next week to further investigate press standards and the relationships between politicians and the press. George Osborne, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg are among others to appear at the Royal Courts of Justice next week.

Gordon Brown and George Osborne will both appear on Monday. Tuesday will be former PM John Major, deptuy Labour leader, Harriet Harman and Labour leader, Ed Miliband. Deputy PM Nick Clegg and SNP leader Alex Salmond will appear on Wednesday. David Cameron will spend the whole of Thursday at the inquiry.

The Leveson inquiry is to continue on Monday after a week out.

Last time the inquiry was in session, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt spent six hours in front of the inquiry to discuss his input into the News Corporation BSkyB bid.

Next week will focus further on the relationships between politicians and the press stirred up by Prime Ministers' past and present, relationships with the main culprits, i.e. Rebecca Brookes, who opened the lid on her relationship with current Prime Minister David Cameron when she was at Leveson last month.

The Leveson inquiry, set up by David Cameron last July, is looking into first the culture and ethics and practices of the media in general and secondly unlawful activities by journalists which will begin when detectives have finished looking into phone hacking and police corruption and prosecutions have been concluded.

Disney's 'John Carter' flop

Disney's latest film John Carter is set to lose around $200 million after the film became one of Hollywood's biggest flops and an embarrassment for Disney.

The head of Disney's film-making studios, Rich Ross, and the man responsible for giving John Carter the green light, has resigned since the film has been released.

The sci-fi film starring Taylor Kitsch cost a whopping $250 million to make and only made $30,180,188 in the USA on the opening weekend. Worldwide it made $179,300,000 on its opening weekend. Doesn't sound too bad, but when considering that a film needs to make at least twice the budget overall to be considered a success, its not looking great for Disney.

The film has recieved at best mixed reviews, many saying the film is dull or messy when refering to the plot. Although some say the film isn't a total failure, when looking at the extortionate $250 million budget it doesn't fair well, especially when looking at the latest box office smash, The Hunger Games, produced by Lionsgate, which made over $150 million on the opening weekend. Yes, less than John Carter worldwide, but meaning by now the profit the studio needs has already been achieved, seeing as the film cost a measely $78 million to make when compared with John Carter.

Also consider the fact that 3D was pushed onto the film by the studio, not director, Andrew Stanton who didn't want it. The 3D itself is poor, and leaves us asking, why did Disney insist on using 3D in the first place?

Clearly, Disney made a massive error with John Carter and hopefully they can try and make something back with new action film The Avengers, (Marvel being owned by Disney), which is meant to rival the likes of The Hunger Games at the box office this summer.

Struggling pupils failing at GCSE

Latest data released from the schools league tables show that only 58.2% of pupils are achieving 5 GCSE grades A*-C. The Department of Education has released the information of around 5,000 secondary schools with around 200 pieces of data for each.

Those students that are struggling are those from disadvantaged backgrounds as expected and statistics show that a third of these children achieved the governments benchmark of 5 GCSEs.

Of those students who started secondary school above average (achieving level 5), 95% of them achieved good grades and GCSE and reached the benchmark.

When BTecs and NVQs are excluded, 52.4% of pupils got five passes at GCSE.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: "Today's figures reveal a shocking waste of talent in many schools across the country. All too often, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds aren't given the same opportunities as their peers."

The figures show that those children and teenagers struggling at school aren't being given the attention they need to get them to the government benchmark of at least five GCSE grades A*-C. It is the children that are already achieving highly that are given the attention when they do not necessarily need it to achieve. A lot of the under achievers come from under privileged backgrounds suggesting that these students need as much help at school as they can get as they do not seem to be getting it at home.

Oscar Nominations 2012

The Oscar nominations were annouced today. Unsurprisingly, silent black and white movie The Artist has a number of nominations (9 to be precise). Other nominees include War Horse, Moneyball, Harry Potter 7 pt2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

For a full list of nominations go to:
http://oscar.go.com/nominees