Sixth-formers made a trip to watch one of the most famous works by the influential 20th-century Marxist German playwright and poet, Bertolt Brecht.
The group of Year 12 and Year 13 German students took the train to Kingston to watch The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) in the town’s Rose Theatre.
Languages teacher Rebecca Grundy said: “Although not an official member of the Communist party, Brecht was committed to highlighting social injustices and the imbalance of power distribution through his work.
“He was a proponent of ‘epic theatre’ (episches Theater); it was his belief that theatre is a way of showing audiences the world as it is, and of encouraging them to respond.
“Brecht made use of the ‘alienation effect’ (Verfremdungseffekt) to achieve this; theatrical devices aimed to keep the audience critically, rather than emotionally, engaged. The students enjoyed spotting these in the play.”
Set in the Soviet Union around the end of World War II, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a re-writing of a 14th-century Chinese play, The Chalk Circle, by Li Xingdao.
It relates the story of a land dispute between two agricultural communes and of a visit by a singer and his band of musicians. The singer tells a parable as a way of settling the dispute, concluding that the land should go to those who will use it most productively – the fruit growers – and not the goat farmers who owned it previously.
It thus features a play within a play, which is itself an example of an alienation device. Other examples include the:
- Use of song to narrate the action and characters’ thoughts;
- Jarring use of props, including a teddy bear as a baby!
- Sparse set.
The visit reinforced the boys’ Sixth Form German studies. The Sixth Form course covers Berlin and its cultural scene. Brecht lived and worked in East Berlin for a large part of his career, although The Caucasian Chalk Circle was written in the United States, where Brecht was living in exile during the war.
He returned to East Berlin after the war and died there in 1956 at the age of 58. At first supportive of the government’s repressive measures following the East German uprising of 1953, Brecht eventually expressed his disillusionment over the events
The trip was organised by Ms Grundy, who accompanied the group, together with her fellow Languages teacher, Katrin Hood.
Year 12’s Hanan Moyeed said: “This trip was absolutely unforgettable. Seeing the play was a brilliant experience. It also links well to what we have been looking at in lessons.”
All Year 12 AS Geography students made the journey to Wandsworth for the human geography fieldtrip. They will be assessed on the fieldwork completed in their AS examinations next summer.
The visit to Stubbers Adventure Centre involved climbing, canoeing, archery and laser tag, with competition aplenty as the boys took on their friends and classmates.
The trip was part of the new QE Flourish enrichment programme, which Mr Bonham-Carter oversees.
Alongside the healthy competition, some of the activities involved an element of trust. In the wall-climbing, for example, participants had to rely on their team-mates who were on the ground holding their ropes.
“On the coach journey home, I had my left-over snacks from lunchtime, thinking what fun I had and what memories I made.”
In the event, their visit was to one of the UK’s biggest current civil engineering sites. Euston Station will be the London terminus for HS2 and will double the seat capacity for trains leaving Euston during peak hours. The plans include a ‘seamless’ connection between the Northern, Victoria, Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines at Euston. The project forms part of a regeneration scheme in central London spanning 60 acres.
“The trip to HS2 was fascinating and gave me a very useful insight into the day-to-day life of a civil engineer,” said Snehal. “I also learned how they impact our lives everyday by improving transport networks throughout the UK.’ 
The boys, who have spent the term using her Bad Copies series as a starting point to develop their painting and drawing skills, headed straight to the rooms in Tate Modern’s Materials and Objects collection dedicated to her work.
During the visit, the boys took time to analyse and record their observations in the form of written annotation and observational drawing. Guided by teaching staff, they were challenged to contemplate the meaning of the works on display and the artist’s intention, giving both objective analysis and subjective opinion.
“Furthermore, the visit developed their ability in out-of-classroom research and in generating independent ideas. Those are transferrable skills that the boys will be able to apply across their current and future curriculum.”
After being selected to represent the School in the event, the four emerged with a perfect score of 121 out of 121.
Hadi Al-Esia, Kovid Gothi, Saim Khan and Shreyaas Sandeep travelled to St Dominic’s Sixth Form College in Harrow on the Hill for the competition run by Advanced Mathematics Support Programme – a Government-funded national initiative.
Card Sort: Competitors had to reimagine every 3D shape (such as cubes) to try to unravel the shortest way to pass through or over them. “This was by far the most challenging round for the team to tackle as it involved a new dimension of geometry for them – a combination of Pythagoras and 3D visualisation,” Mr Shah added. “They finished the round with less than 20 seconds to spare.” The team’s favourite problem came from this round (see picture right): competitors were asked to calculate the distance from A to B if the net [what a 3D shape looks like if opened out flat] were open for the cone.Saim said: I particularly enjoyed the card sort round – trying to reimagine and visualise the shapes in a new way was challenging but immensely rewarding too!”