The Chronicle, Spring 2019

38 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Dressed to Impress

Sixth Former Phoebe Forbes chose a documentary format to explore her Extended Project topic of ‘The manipulation and management of Henry VIII by Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn’. To illustrate her view that the young Queens used their style of dress to influence the King, Phoebe sewed, by hand, a set of three exquisite period dresses. Worn by her friends during the making of the documentary, these truly regal outfits created a striking tableau in the Quad. Phoebe tells us more: ‘The different details of the dresses reflect the ambitions and influences of the young women. To capture Henry’s attention, Catherine of Aragon turned away from the restrained style of her native Spanish Court and adopted an elegant English look,’ explains Phoebe. ‘In turn, Anne’s more revealing dresses in the French style allowed her to draw Henry’s attention away from his first wife. It could be argued that Jane Seymour’s appeal was in adopting a style that was a mixture of both previous wives’ sartorial choices – elegant, in the English style, yet also revealing.’ As far as possible, Phoebe used 16th-century sewing techniques to create her dresses, making them an even more impressive achievement.

Phoebe with Eva Livingstone as Catherine of Aragon and Sophie Marston as Anne Boleyn

Alphabetic Attire

Dress Up Day in March in aid of the school charity Plastic Tides brought a riot of colour and imagination to the Quad. Pupils were asked to take inspiration from their House letter, so you can see below Thomas Glover and Tim Hohage as headmasters for Kendall (H), and Annabel MacDonald-Smith, Lara Engel, Izzy Wates, Phoebe Cain and Aniella Weinberger as kings and Kit Kats for Corfe (K).

Physics in Freefall Lower Sixth Physics pupils visited Thorpe Park at the very end of term to support their classroom learning of mechanics and energy transfers. Experiencing the concepts they have been learning about really helps to support understanding and generate curiosity; nothing opens your eyes up to the power of gravity like being in freefall! As an added bonus pupils were able to visit a STEM Fair run by the University of Middlesex where they were able to immerse themselves in VR worlds, learn about detection of human responses to various stimuli and test their strength and agility whilst monitored by computer software – amongst many other things.