student magazine winter 2014
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Winter 2014
News and Reviews
Poetry
Art
Photos
The CTC Magazine
Endeavour
2
Contents Contributors
Magazine Committee
Yulia Promskaya
Guanting Lu
Andrei Gherasim
Students
Haocheng Wu
Idan Seyed Akhavan
Fatimah Iman Mullah
Alina Aliyeva
Darius Tarbiat
Eaint Phyu Sin
Elena Grazia
Staff
Mr Cutting
Mr Houssen
Mrs Bose
Mr Eagers
Mr Gibbs
Join the Magazine Team We are always looking for more contributors to write articles,
take photos and help put together the magazine. If you are
interested please see Mr Houssen in the Learning Resource
Centre for more information.
Greetings from the Principal 3
Message from the Student Committee 3
‘Get-to-know-you’ Dinner 4
Halloween Party 5
Awards Ceremony 6
Prize Winners 7
McCarthy Award Winners 8
Remembrance Day 9
National Poetry Day 10
Poetry Competition Winners 12
History Society 13
October Informal Concert 14
A Visit to Europe House 15
Charity Book sale 16
Sports Clubs 16
Gavin Barwell MP 16
Borough Market 17
Student Art Gallery 18
Poet’s Corner 19
On the cover:
Student artwork by
Haocheng Wu (front)
Elena Grazia (back)
Endeavour; The CTC Magazine,
Cambridge Tutors College
Water Tower Hill
Croydon CR0 5SX
www.ctc.ac.uk
3
Greetings from the Principal
As I write this there is, sadly, no snow lying deep and crisp
and even outside to welcome Christmas, the end of term
and the end of 2014. However to keep your spirits warm,
may I commend this edition of the College’s magazine?! We
still have over two weeks to go but I know our students and
staff are looking forward to the Christmas break as the start
of the term, and summer warmth, seems a long way away.
The College is in good health. Our numbers this term were
good and we are now closed for January entries. A real
sense of purpose exudes CTC and many A2 students are
eagerly awaiting news from their universities, not least
from Oxbridge to see if they have been called for interview.
We have a strong cohort this year and I know you will join
me in wishing them every success.
May I also take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry
Christmas and very best wishes for 2015.
Mark Eagers
Principal
This term, members of the CTC community have
enjoyed spotting our liveried taxi driving around
town!
Introductions
A message from the Magazine
Committee
Hello, dear readers. Welcome to the pages of Endeavour, the CTC Student Magazine. Working day and night, our small but hard-working team has finally produced this magazine that provides you with information about what's going on at our college and what people are interested in.
Here you can find a range of articles for all tastes such as those about the Halloween Party 2014 organized by our won-derful outgoing Student Committee, the Europe House Con-ference on the UK and EU Parliaments that some of our poli-tics students had the opportunity to attend, the Awards Cere-mony for our graduated colleagues and many others.
In addition, as a member of the new Student Committee, we promise that your time at CTC will be the time of your life with tonnes of enjoyment and will leave you with a lasting impression. Enjoy reading! Yulia Promskaya
4
We Like to Party!
The ‘GET-TO-KNOW-YOU’ DINNER
This year CTC's student committee has found another solu-
tion which helps new students to adapt more quickly to life
at our college and start to experience the benefits of being a
student more fully. We organized a "Get-To-Know-You" din-
ner in one of Croydon's Indian restaurants to push more
than 20 new shy colleagues into a relaxed and friendly at-
mosphere of student life (with pretty much the same num-
ber of returning students). I interviewed some of them to
see what they had found the best.
“[The] Get to know [you] dinner was a fantastic chance
to escape from exhaustive school days and to be
plunged into [a] friendly atmosphere that was reigning
in an Indian restaurant. The food and service were
splendid and I greatly appreciated an opportunity to
meet and talk to new students.” (Valeriya Pankova,
returning A2 student)
“On Friday, 19th of September, I went to the college's
"get to know [you] dinner". It was fantastic! Besides
the fact that there were a lot of new students who
were very interesting to talk to, there also were many
students from the second year with whom I had never
chatted before. The food was not bad too. I think it
was a very nice way to spend Friday evening.” (Pavel
Novitskiy, returning AS student)
“[The] 'Get to know [you]' dinner brought students
from various countries, who have different cultures
and beliefs, together. You would probably sit opposite
someone you had never met before, and then just
started from dialogues like ' How was your summer
holiday?', 'What do you think about the college so
far?'. When the dinner was finished, you went down
the hill with your new friends, [and] the conversation
kind of became ' You know once I kicked my little
cousin's ass because she grabbed my chicken wing...'
“ (Yeung Pok Nga Lau, new AS student)
Report and photos by Yulia Promskaya
5
We Like to Party!
HALLOWEEN PARTY
Monsters, zombies, witches around...That is not a horror mov-
ie, that is the CTC Halloween party! We brought all the strange
creatures of our college together in the atmosphere of terror
and fear, and... Fun! We caught a serial killer, stopped zombies
from escaping from the grave and become vampires our-
selves!
In addition to all the competitions and games with prizes, a
variety of pizzas, snacks and drinks was provided. And, of
course, we had music and disco helping us to 'break the ice'
for some of our shy monsters.
That was a great way to spend Friday night before the half-
term holidays!
By Yulia Promskaya
Photos by Guanting Lu and Yulia Promskaya
6
CTC AWARDS CEREMONY 22nd November 2014
We welcome back to CTC our college alumni.
This year the Cambridge Tutors’ Awards Ceremony took
place for the first time ‘in-house’. Can you imagine our very
own Test Hall, converted into a welcoming venue for the
afternoon? What many students no doubt remember as a
place of apprehension – a place to ponder countless hours of
difficult exams and tests – was transformed by mood lighting
and celebratory balloons. There were tables laid with table-
cloths and serviettes, all decorated in tasteful white. I’m sure
that returning students would have hardly recognised the
place.
The buffet was a vast spread of oriental-themed food, pre-
pared with care and attention to detail. There were spring
rolls and tasty sauces, duck pancakes and Thai green curry,
among a range of other food, including sweets and desserts;
all lovingly prepared by our resident chefs de la maison, Joe
and his team. Our staff and the alumni were keen to try all
the different types of food on offer.
The chair of the Trust Council, Mr. Robin Worthington, start-
ed our proceedings with a speech outlining some of the
differences that the students might find between a small CTC
class, and the anonymous setting of a large university lecture
theatre. He heartily congratulated our students on their
achievements.
Our principal, Mr. Mark Eagers, at his very first Awards cere-
mony, brings ‘fresh eyes…and a determination to make CTC a
better place’, in his own words. CTC students will be
‘ambassadors to improve international relations’ as they
move out into the world.
Then came the main event: the awards and prize-giving stag-
es of the afternoon. Our A-level students were awarded their
certificates, and they wasted no time in coming up to collect
them from our principal.
The head of EFL, Dr. John Rodgers, then told a story about a
shark in a swimming pool, which brought howls of delighted
laughter from the audience. Perhaps in a previous life Dr.
Rodgers was a stand-up comedian He certainly should get
employment as a storyteller.
By Mr. Cutting
Celebrating Success
Staff and alumni enjoying the ceremony.
Photos by Mr. Gibbs
7
Celebrating Success
Subject Prize Winners
The individual subject prizes go to the following hard-working
and extremely deserving students:
Accounting: Khak Tuan NGUYEN
Art: Le Gia Linh TRAN
Biology: Yau Hui LIM
Chemistry: Qing Yu KWOK
Economics: Thuy Dung NGUYEN
EFL: Xinzhu XIAO
English Literature: Pokua ADDEI
French: Cristian URIGIUC
Further Maths: Zi Koon PONG and Le Gia Linh TRAN
Government & Politics: Torgyn SUZHANOVA
History: Amii LEPPIK
ICT: Edward GOMBERG
Mathematics: Vanessa CHONG
Physics: Zi Kon PONG
Pure Maths: He JIANG
Statistics: Yau Hui LIM
Extra-Curricular Awards
And the awards for extra-curricular activities went to the fol-
lowing students:
Outstanding Contribution to College Life:
Chee Lin Piong (‘Samson’), who took the award for his ser-
vice on the Student Committee for two terms, and for the
formation of the College Summer Ball committee, which
helped to make this year’s event such a resounding success.
Sports Prize Winners
Football: Player of the Year - William Chong Kar Jue
Basketball: Player of the year - Yuxiang LIU
College Magazine: Cristian URIGIUC, for all-round contribu-
tion
8
The McCarthy Awards, given to students achieving at least
two A* grades at A-level, were awarded to (16 students were
in fact eligible for the award, which made the choice of win-
ners difficult):
1. Le Gia Linh Tran
2. Zi Koon Pong
3. Ying Xi Tan
4. Tze Ho Elden Tse
5. Thanh Thanh An Do
6. Vanessa Chong
7. Arisa Roongjirarat
8. Linh Trang Nguyen
9. Zhen Yi Chan
10. Yau Hui Lim
11. Khak Tuan Nguyen
12. Lip Yee Kuok
13. Yu Pei
14. Chengjiu Liu
15. Chen Xu
16. He Jiang
Two of our 2014 alumni, Yu Pei (Jess) and Zi Koon, made
short speeches about their time at CTC, and thanked the tu-
tors for their great support and for never giving up on them.
Zi Koon told the story of his arrival to Croydon in January
2013, deciding to make the ill-advised decision to walk from
East Croydon station to Sanderstead to his host family, trudg-
ing through the snow with a huge amount of luggage. What a
welcome to this country! He reminded us also how close-knit
the CTC community is, and how international and welcoming.
In his closing address, Mr. Eagers spoke of all the ‘well-
motivated, aspirational and courteous students’ in our 2014
year. Looking to the future, he mentioned his hopes for the
further development of the college, and said that he hopes
that when the students return to CTC at any time in the fu-
ture, there will be many exciting changes that they will see.
Congratulations to all our alumni of 2014!
McCarthy Award Winners
Celebrating Success
9
College Life
Remembrance Day
It is astonishing to think that this year, 2014, marks the cen-
tenary of one the bloodiest conflicts in human history which
changed the shape of the world forever. It was the first truly
global conflict, the first Total War and its ending merely set
the stage for round two. Some say this started in 1936 with
the Spanish Civil War; those in China would say it began in
1937 when Japan invaded them; for western Europe, and
Empire nations, it was 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland;
for Russia it was June 1941; and for the USA, war began in
December of that year.
This year a key memory for me to mark the start of the Great
War was the magnificent, moving, display of poppies at the
Tower of London. Over 860,000 ceramic poppies were plant-
ed in memory of all the Commonwealth lives lost in the war;
millions came to see it and pay their respects. It was a won-
derful idea, beautifully executed. And rightly so.
The war was triggered by the assassination of the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian na-
tionalist, Gavril Princip. The Austrians blamed the Serbs and
having secured the unconditional backing from Germany (the
infamous “blank cheque”), issued an ultimatum to Serbia
which was unacceptable. Through the complex system of
alliances that existed, Russia back Serbia, France backed Rus-
sia… and Germany had a Plan to deal with it all. Britain re-
mained aloof until Germany invaded neutral Belgium, and
the war, supposedly Over By Christmas, lasted for over four
long and very bloody years.
There are many extraordinary features of the war. However
one that never ceases to amaze me is the bravery of the sol-
diers at the Front executing the impoverishment of ideas of
their leaders: heavy bombardment and then Over The Top
running in No Man’s Land over churned up land onto and
over barbed wire in the teeth of machine gun fire. Casualties
were simply appalling and unimaginable. Consider the Emir-
ates stadium, home to Arsenal FC, filled with 60,000 fans to
watch a game: it was this number who were killed/wounded
on 1st July 1916 on the British side alone. The slaughter was
terrible. The figures become almost meaningless; but we do
not forget.
It is right that we stop to think, to be quiet, to remember on
11th November. At a precise moment in history, at 11a.m.,
on this day in 1918, the guns fell silent. Sadly the peace
settlement was such that another conflict was made more
likely. As Foch said about the peace: this is not peace: it is an
armistice for twenty years. How right he was.
By Mr. Eagers
Photo (showing the ceramic poppies at the Tower of
London ) by Guanting Lu
10
College Life
National Poetry Day 2014
This year’s National Poetry Day was held on Thursday 2nd
October. We marked the event at Cambridge Tutors with
some wall displays in the library, and with a lunchtime event,
where students and tutors read out favourite poems, or po-
ems that they had written themselves. The theme of this
year’s National Poetry Day was ‘Memory’. It could be argued
that all poetry is in some way connected to the idea of
memory. Poets often attempt to capture and to recreate pre-
cious moments from their own past, or from an imagined
one. Wordsworth, one of our greatest poets in the English
language, wrote that he defined poetry as ‘emotion recollect-
ed in tranquility’. And one of Philip Larkin’s poems has the
title ‘I Remember’. Poets are strongly preoccupied by the
theme of memory, therefore. By putting their own recollec-
tions into verse, therefore, could we say that poets are trying
to preserve a memory of a person, or a place, or an emotion?
But in examining our own memories, we know that they are
far from perfect, and may be distorted by time, or idealised.
Here are two poems with the theme of memory that I like. In
this poem, written in 1862, Christina Rossetti looks forward
to a time when someone else will remember her:
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Taken from: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
poem/174266 [Last Accessed: Nov 2014]
11
National Poetry Day 2014
Here is another poem by from 1918 where the theme of
memory is prominent and affecting:
Piano
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling
strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as
she
sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the
past.
DH Lawrence
Taken from: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/
piano.html [Last Accessed Nov 2014]
In the weeks before National Poetry Day, one of our librari-
ans, Ms. Bose asked tutors at the college which poems they
most remembered, or indeed had memorised. There were a
number of responses. Depending on when they were at
school, tutors may have had to memorise poetry as part of
their literature classes. When I was at school, however, we
weren’t required to learn any poetry by heart. I think that
this is a shame. Cambridge University recently conducted
research, as part of National Poetry Day, to find out which
were the most memorable poems for the nation. The lead
researcher of the project, Dr. D. Pullinger had this to say:
“Had we been doing this research a hundred or even fifty
years ago, the results would have been more predictable. Up
until 1944, children memorised ‘staple poems’. But in the
second half of the century, poetry learning became deeply
unfashionable within education – the baby thrown out with
the rote-learning bathwater. And yet, many people do still
know a poem or two, for all sorts of reasons. So that’s what
we’d like to know: what are the poems that live in people’s
memories, at this moment, in October 2014? What poem or
poems beat most strongly at the heart of the na-
tion?” (Pullinger, 2014: www.poetryandmemory.com)
Among our tutors and staff, popular choices of memorised
poems were ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by the First World War
poet Wilfred Owen, and parts of Tennyson’s great elegy for
his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, ‘In Memoriam’.
The library event was attended by our principal, Mr. Eagers,
as well as by some of our tutors: Dr. Oliphant, Ms. Sandhu,
Ms. Krey, Dr. Farrelly, and by Ms. Bose. Students from Mrs.
Das Gupta’s GCSE and A-level English Literature classes had
written poems on the theme, and we were able to hear these
poems read out. Mr. Eagers spent time looking at all of the
poems that were entered into our very own poetry competi-
tion. Although it was a difficult decision, he finally chose two
winning entries: poems by A-level student Fatima Mullah,
and by GCSE student Idan Akhavan. Each received a fabulous
Amazon book token to spend as they wished!
Thank to you all concerned, who helped the event come to
life; especially to the students who submitted their work, and
to those who read aloud at our Poetry Day event.
You can read more about the Cambridge university project
and hear people talking about their most memorable poems
at:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/project-seeks-nations-
most-memorised-poems-to-investigate-power-of-poetry-by-
heart[Last accessed: Nov 2014]
By Mr. Cutting
College Life
12
National Poetry Day 2014—Our Winners!
Winner—GCSE Category
Idan Seyed Akhavan
Remember when we hung out
In the parks to play
Where we would chat about
Repeating it every day
As we bonded more closely
We would treat each other
Like siblings only
From one day to another
Remember when we looked
Towards the future
Finding ourselves hooked
With feelings of laughter
Now you have gone
Moving on with your life
To clearly be done
With stress in your life
Winner—A Level Category
Fatimah Iman Mullah
I remember a child who once existed;
An unfortunate victim of Aphrodite;
Equally loved and physically devoured her other half as if no other existed;
Naïve and gullible—almost willing to be deceived by his lies;
Innocence and youth trickled from the depths of her eyes;
And he loved her for all she had to offer.
But then life happened; and things changed.
He became a stranger to her – distant and unkind; cold and unfeeling.
I remember her utter confusion so well: almost as if it belonged to me.
‘Where had things gone wrong?’ she wondered.
Each and every night she would cry herself to sleep;
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months;
And before she knew it—her childhood was over-
Gone with the night breezes.
And finally Truth revealed herself;
A child who depended wholeheartedly on you,
Who trusted and clung to your every word—was now broken.
I remember that child; that child no longer exists.
For experience snatched the little existing innocence and sanity she had left.
And in the place of the pre-existing youth and innocence she once possessed,
tears now trickled.
I wept for her, as what she called life became a memory.
Every touch, every word, every kiss.
And all she could bring herself to whisper were the words ‘I remember—
I remember’.
College Life
13
College Life
Clubs and Societies
History Society- Kaiser Wilhelm II’s trial
On the 30th of September, the History Society club at CTC
prepared an interesting event. The trial of Kaiser Wilhelm II of
Germany. Naturally the Club prepared prosecuting and de-
fending lawyers and a court to pass the judgment upon our
friend the Kaiser, which was impersonated by none other
than our principal Mr. Mark Eagers! Kaiser Wilhelm was ac-
cused of genocide and treason against his country in the First
World War alongside the violation of international laws dur-
ing the war.
Alex was elected as the prosecuting lawyer. He was tasked
with convicting Kaiser Wilhelm II and to convince the jury that
our friend the Kaiser is not innocent. On the other hand, Phu-
ong was chosen as the defending lawyer and had a hard time
in defending the Kaiser. Both the defence and the prose-
cuting bodies did a wonderful job, but in the end it all came
to the decision of the jury, which was under the direction of
our History Teacher: Mr. John Oliphant.
The decision of the jury was that Kaiser Wilhelm II was found
guilty of genocide and the violation of international laws, but
it was seen that he did what he could in the interests of Ger-
many. In conclusion, we had a great lunchtime where we
looked back in history and confronted an interesting topic
with our fellow students and teachers.
By Andrei Gherasim
History Society-Stalin’s trial
It is the 24th of November and the History Society club has
prepared yet another interesting event for us. The trial of Jo-
seph Stalin or as we all like to call him, Uncle Joe. We had the
pleasure of inviting our principal, Mr. Mark Eagers, once again
to play the role of the villain and he eagerly accepted.
This time, I was chosen to take on the role of the prosecuting
lawyer at the risk of losing my own life for going against our
comrade Stalin. It was easy to see that the prosecution had an
easier job then the defence as Stalin committed quite a lot of
atrocities. Therefore I accused comrade Stalin of genocide,
destruction of the Russian economy and sabotage of the
armed forces during the 2nd World War. However, even if
there was plenty of reasons to accuse Stalin, there were even
less to defend him and in my opinion I had an easier job as
prosecutor as I would have had as a defendant.
Bea was chosen as the defending lawyer. She defended Mr.
Stalin extremely well with some minor help from the accused
himself. Their argument was that Stalin did everything he had
done in the interests of Russia and that executing the so
called ‘’Enemies of the People’’ was necessary.
However, as you all know it all comes down to the decision of
the jury. Not very surprising, comrade Stalin was found guilty
of all of the above and he was sent to the firing squad. Ouch!
This time the room of the club was filled up even more then
last time and lots of people found the trial interesting and
entertaining. As a member of the club myself I invite you to
take part in our events every Monday lunchtime and we
promise you, that you will have fun.
By Andrei Gherasim
End of term Badminton Tournament
14
On 22nd October the Staff and Student Choir gathered to perform an informal
concert.
College Life
The staff and stu-
dent choir in full
voice, led by Mr.
Wilkins
Above left: Amirah
Chairil (flute); Khu-
ong Duy Nguyen
and Mr. Cook
(violin)
Above right:
Lingyun Qian
Thu Binh Pham Minh Thu Vu
15
College Life
A Visit to Europe House
In the current UK and Europe-wide political debate, the fol-
lowing questions are arguably on many people’s lips:
What does the EU do?
Should the UK stay within the European Union?
How democratic is the UK parliament?
How democratic is the European parliament?
How many countries are there in the EU?
How many countries want to join the EU?
…and these were some of the questions that we were interest-
ed in discussing as well.
Mr. O’Dwyer (Government and Politics tutor), and Mr. Cutting
(EFL and Study Skills tutor), took a number of AS and A2 Poli-
tics students to the European Parliament UK Office in Smith
Square this November, for a conference arranged as part of
Parliament Week, and arranged by TEAM (The European At-
lantic Movement), bringing together sixth-formers from all
over London and further afield, to discuss the topic:
‘How well is democracy served by the UK and European par-
liaments?’
The conference was led by TEAM Chairman, Lawrence Smy,
and participants came from a wide range of backgrounds. We
even met a group of students all the way from Singapore, in
London for a cultural experience. We hope they got one!
We arrived in time for the morning session, which consisted of
a series of short presentations by experts such as Dr. Marion
Ferrat, a Committee Specialist at the Energy and Climate
Change Select Committee in the House of Commons, and Chris
Terry, Research Officer for the Electoral Reform society (ERS).
We learned about the role of select committees in parliament,
and whether an alternative voting system would be more
democratic for the UK.
CTC students were mixed in with other groups, and so had the
opportunity to discuss questions with peers from other
schools and sixth-form colleges. There were differences of
opinion, and plenty of opportunities to debate the topics.
We heard lots of information about the EU; its structure and
governance, the EU Council and EU Commission The speakers
were energetic and passionate about their subjects, and there
were a number of intelligent questions from the students par-
ticipating.
After lunch, students discussed in their groups, and then pre-
sented on some aspect of UK democracy. Not surprisingly,
considering the age of the participants, there were presenta-
tions on whether the UK voting age should be lowered to 16,
as well as whether UK democracy would be best served by an
EU exit. It was inspiring to hear so many young people with an
informed interest in the politics of this country.
Our students had an invaluable opportunity to meet col-
leagues and to discuss ideas in groups. I think they found the
experience very rewarding, and we all came away with a
greater passion and knowledge of the EU and the UK’s role
within it.
By Mr. Cutting
16
The Learning Resource Centre Book
Sale
In late September the newly reorganised and renamed Learn-
ing Resource Centre hosted a book sale to support Readathon
and Book Aid International. Students and staff had the oppor-
tunity to purchase used books that had been withdrawn from
the library collection, as well as other books that had been
donated by staff and departing students. The total raised this
time was £52.50. After adding the amount raised at the previ-
ous book sale that took place towards the end of the summer
term the community at CTC raised a grand total of £169.50.
The Librarians would like to thank all students and staff for
raising such a great amount of money for good causes, and
hope to see you at the next LRC charity event.
For more information on Readathon and Book Aid Internation-
al, and to see how your donations are being put to use, visit
the following websites:
http://www.readathon.org/ http://www.bookaid.org/
Gavin Barwell MP for Croydon
Mr Barwell took time out of his busy schedule to give a lively and informative talk to a group of students on the UK Parlia-mentary System and in particular the role of a Whip.
He fielded questions on a range of issues including the im-
pact of UKIP, policies of the Conservative Party, the issue of
the European Union, the possible result of the 2015 Election
and finally local issues concerning Croydon such as transport
zoning and road safety.
College Sports Clubs A variety of sporting clubs and societies are on offer at
CTC, including Badminton, Football, Volleyball Street-
dance , Basketball, Tennis, Golf, Fitness Club and Table
Tennis. Here are the Volleyball Club and the Badminton
Club in action.
College Life
17
Photography Feature
Borough Market
A2 student Guanting Lu visited Borough Market in London this term. Here are some of his favourite images.
18
Student Art Gallery
Brighton (inspired by Turner) by Alina Aliyeva
Self Portrait by Darius Tarbiat
Inside Outside by Haocheng Wu
19
A commentary on my poem, To the unavoidable day:
That night was calm and the world outside my window was glowing faintly. There I was, all alone in my room, gathering the
strategies and the weapons of knowledge to be prepared to fight the big battle – IGCSE exams. A moment later, I became emo-
tional when I thought about my future after the exam. At that time, I knew I could not study anymore so I grabbed a piece of
paper and a pen to write down about how I felt inside.
The background of this poem is the beautiful bay in the late evening during the summertime. In this poem, I imagined myself as
a girl wondering about her future when she spends her private moments at her favourite place – the bay. She loves the idea of
being together all the time with people she loves. In fact, it hurts her to realize that not much time is left to be with her cher-
ished parents. In her heart, she always knows that someday, she would have to leave the ones she adores in order to achieve
her special dream. Nevertheless, she knows it is impossible to have everything she wants. So, she tries to keep herself motivat-
ed and not to be sorrowful because she knows that she would have to face it any way though she is unwilling to do so.
by Eaint Phyu Sin
20
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