4C, who started Latin this year, have been working very hard on the Cambridge Latin Course. This morning they performed dramatisations based on their translations of 'in basilica' ('in the law court'), a story in which our hero, Caecilius, is robbed by a thieving Greek merchant, Hermogenes, and takes him to court in order to win back his money.

Above: the final scene in which the iudex (judge) convicts Hermogenes [A Sangha, M Akhtar, D Shortt]
Below: righteous Caecilius testifies in basilica. [H Nicol]

Above: Hermogenes forgets his line! [M Stalder, K Gill, J Chang]
Below: Hermogenes tries to hide his ring so that it cannot be matched to the seal on Caecilius' wax tablet [B Tarlton]

This afternoon, despite the freezing weather, the 5th and 6th Form competed for their house in a cross country race down on Spens field. The results are still being collated; however, we do know that T Wildblood won first place. Below are some photographs of the event:

This morning's assembly began with a presentation from the 3rd Form, who went on a very exciting trip to the Intech Science Centre, Winchester on Monday 16th January. K Lavelle, L Mackenzie, R Pope, A Harris, T Ruparel, Z Ahmed, A Leney, W Morley, and J Williams described to us what it was like inside the planetarium and what they learnt from some of the exhibits. Mr Doggart then announced the following Superstar and Highly Commended Awards:

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This week the 5th and 6th Form had their first football match of the season against Dulwich Prep, a tough side. Mr Granville was very pleased with their performance and team spirit, mentioning particularly the 1st and 2nd XI, who both managed to draw 1-1, and the 4th XI who won 2-1. He was also thrilled to announce the newly appointed Captain of Football, E Pycroft.

Mr Smith reminded the boys about the new lost property system (check in the corridor outside the sports hall NOT the staff room), that the 3rd and 4th Form are competing in their inter-house cross country race this afternoon and that in this weather boys should be wearing swimming trunks underneath their games kit.

Finally Mr Doggart told the boys about last night's Argosy talk, which was delivered by Colin Javens, an inspiring man who refused to give up on his dream to drive home to Cape Town when he became paralysed, aged 20. He told the boys about how a car was built for him and how his expedition was a world first for anybody with his level of disability, raising over half a million pounds for spinal research charities. His message was twofold: to live your dreams and keep your friends. Photographs and a write-up by one of the boys will be online soon.

K Lavelle: On Monday 16th January, our third form visited the Intech Science Centre in Winchester. We had an amazing time.

L Mackenzie: The planetarium was an amazing educational experience. We sat down on rows of seats that tipped backwards and had to look up at the screen above us, whcih was curved like the night sky. All the stars and galaxies whizzed past us whilst we learnt about them.

R Pope: I learnt that it would take 80,000 years to get to the nearest star (other than our sun). We visited Mercury, Jupiter (which is made of gas) and Saturn. I loved seeing Saturn and its rings, which are made of ice.

A Harris: I learnt that there is a black hole in the middle of our galaxy and that there are over a billion galaxies in the universe.

T Ruparel: I learnt that there might be life on one of the moons that orbits Jupiter because it is covered in ice, which has water beneath it. I also discovered that there are robots still travelling through space that were launched 35 years ago and that there are over 1,000 working satellites orbitting Earth right now.

Z Ahmed: After the planetarium, we visited all the interactive exhibits. My favourite one was the sound wave music table. You had 4 headphones and lots of cubes and cuboids on a round table with an electric dot in the middle. You put 1 cube into the middle to start off your music. Then you gradually start building your music into a masterpiece!

A Leney: My favourite exhibit was the parachute men. The parachute men were little green men attached to parachutes and you put them into the middle of a big tube then pressed the air button that blew them up high. Then they floated back down tot he ground.

W Morley: I liked the earthquake simulator. You had to build a house and see how strong it was. I also liked the flight simulator, where you had to land a plane at Heathrow airport without crashing into the ground, which I did so many times!

J Williams: My favourite part was the computer whcih asked you questions like: are you male or female? are you left handed or right handed? do you have peaked or straight hair? is it light or brown? It then told you how many people in the world were just like you!

K Lavelle: It was a really fun trip and I had a great time; I really want to go again!