Both teams worked incredibly hard and the maths department is very proud of them. 

The Junior team also placed 3rd and got a bronze medal, a great result for CSG's first venture into the Naboj tournament. 

Y10 Art Drawing Day at the National Portrait Gallery

On 25 February, the Year 10 art students went en masse to the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. There were 45 of us, so we travelled by tube rather than squeezing onto Number 29. When we got there we split into smaller groups as we had tickets to an exhibition of works by Lucian Freud called Drawing Into Painting. This was a huge show of his drawings and paintings from way back when he was a teenager through to his later works. We found it very impressive but also accessible as his figurative subject matter is very straightforward.

He famously said: “Everything is autobiographical and everything is a portrait,”

After that, the permanent collection in the main gallery was the perfect venue for us to settle into for some serious drawing time as the current Year 10 project theme is Identity. We spent the rest of the day drawing and taking photographs of the collection and enjoyed seeing that, as well as painting, there were other art forms such as sculpture, photography and film.

Here are some pictures of what we did.

The Art Department

Sixth Form Student Gives Speech at the Houses of Parliament

Two of our Y 12 students recently took part in the Sovereign Minds Spear Oratory Prize for 16–18 year olds. (https://www.sovereignminds.org.uk/spear).

There were 2000 entrants, of which 200 got through to the quarter-finals, 25 to the semi-finals, and 5 to the finals. Jacob and Eva got to the semi-finals.

This is the message we received from the organisers of the event:

Your student’s achievement in reaching this stage is truly exceptional, and you should be immensely proud of them. To stand out at this level reflects not only their confidence and clarity of thought, but also the support and encouragement they receive from their school.

All entrants had to choose one from 10 different subjects to write their speech about, and Jacob chose 'Future of Work', and wrote about the impact of generative AI in the creative industry.

Jacob’s speech: Future of Work – Impact of generative AI on creative professions

 Artificial Intelligence is not just another tool. This technology has the power to transform the future of work, and when it comes to jobs in creative industries, for the worse. We’ve all heard about the water AI wastes, the copyright law it violates and how it may ultimately lead to the end of mankind. That’s not what I’m here to talk about. What scares me is the far more real, far more imminent threat generative AI poses to creative jobs.

Some may still claim that these are the problems of tomorrow. This is clearly not the case. Take a look at The Velvet Sundown, an AI-generated band with over 160,000 listeners on Spotify. Their music is trained off the work of millions of non-consenting human artists, left completely uncredited and completely unpaid. Very reasonably, these artists hoped that their record labels would sue the creators of this AI slop. Instead, the labels have partnered with them to create more content. Record labels like Universal have signed deals with AI firms like Udio, granting them permission to train AI models with their library of music. Just take a minute to let that display of utter moral bankruptcy sink in. Imagine someone stealing your car and your insurance company settles with the criminal to let them take your car whenever they want. This is no different. Record labels hold an enormous amount of influence over what music gets pushed and promoted on streaming service algorithms. If unauthorised and unoriginal AI music has major label support, how is any independent, or indeed any new music at all ever supposed to succeed on streaming services flooded with a sea of slop forced down your throat by AI-powered algorithms.

The impact of generative AI is the same across industries. AI ‘actors’, like Tilly Norwood, can significantly cut production costs by stealing the roles of humans. If you were a director for a small theatre company running on a tight budget, and you needed a voiceover for a scene, why would you go through an expensive and time-consuming process to audition and hire a human when you could instantly generate a voiceover with the press of a button? This takes away paid jobs from eager to-work new talent in an already suffering job market. 3 and half million people in the UK are unable to find work. I’m confident that we can all agree the right thing to do is create more jobs, rather than handing them over to soulless and untested technology. Whether you work in a local theatre or a multi-million-dollar film studio, it’s the same. Everyone wants to save time, everyone wants to save money, but when you use AI, you lose out on humanity, and the genuine creativity that comes with it.

So what is genuine human creativity, and why shouldn’t we allow AI to replace it? Isn't this technology just a new medium, just a new way to express and enhance creativity? Put simply, no. Creative art is a communication and response to the state of the world. We lose this essential function of art when we replace human creativity with machine generation for two reasons: One - it ceases to actually be an act of creation. It becomes mere regurgitation of pre-existing ideas and stale content. AI copies and pastes, amalgamates and repeats, but can never create anything new. Creativity is a personal exploration of emotion, not an algorithm or piece of code. Two – Art is a communication of thought, vision and atmosphere that transcends the boundaries of time and location. A creative who was working 100 years ago can still have an impact on you today. In the future, when your great-grandchildren are listening to AI-generated music or watching an AI-generated film, they will not be connecting with the minds and voices of anyone in 2026, or in fact any point in time at all, only an AI simulation of it.

So, what is the way forward? The industry clearly cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of creatives. It’s obvious that governments need to introduce need strict industry regulations to prevent the abuse of AI, but beyond this, we need to provide an incentive not to use AI in the first place. We must boycott companies that use AI to replace the creative work of humans, and we must support independent art. Go to a small venue and take a chance on a band you haven’t heard before, watch a play from an emerging theatre company and just do your research. If the technology is good for one thing, it’s making information readily available, and allowing you as a consumer to make informed and educated choices. If the world truly is a dollar democracy, remember you have a vote.

(Eva’s speech will be printed next week)

Assembly Speaker – 16 March 
Electric Theatre Collective

The speakers for the Sixth Form Assembly this week were talent manager and coordinators, Pheya and Ariana. They work for ETC, Electric Theatre Collective, a globally renowned Visual Effects (VFX) and animation company providing high quality, highly creative post-production services for screen-based advertising, with three sections, VFX, colour and moving image studios. Founded 15 years ago, the company has worked on huge projects with collaborators such as Netflix, Nike, Apple and Sainsbury’s – they made their Christmas advert featuring the BFG.

They have two offices. One in London and one in New York. In the company, they really prioritise teambuilding exercises outside of work, creating a friendly and social environment where everyone feels part of the team. This allows people from different backgrounds and levels of the company to ask questions and learn from each other in a productive way.

They acknowledged how, historically, getting a start in the film and television industry has been ‘who you know, is how you get in’ but said things were different now and encouraged us to get involved. Anyone can do this as long as you want it enough! Ariana went to university to study art and design but then did an internship where she learnt special effect skills.

Their work on Netflix’s recap teaser for 2026 projects and shows involved 30 artists, took 4 months of filming, modelling and the whole technical process. If you haven’t checked out the teaser, you definitely should! The graphics are so cool and showcase the cool briefs that you can get when working in advertising— it's not all just Fairy Liquid and boring product placement.

Roles in the industry include director, VFX supervisor, animator, colour and light artist, concept artist, and production coordinator. There are so many different roles involved in making each shot and ways that you could get involved. Animators often make their own references, they even showed us the video references that ETC’s animators made for their Sainsbury’s BFG advert. Their business is very much about working as a team to manage the pressure to create a project on a deadline.

Overall, they told us all about how important VFX work is in the process of making film and advertising when there are so many shots that would otherwise be impossible to create; but with their work the possibilities are endless.

They finished by telling us how we could get involved. They listed some ways to access the VFX industry, such as starting as a runner for a studio such as theirs, Screenskills or Foundry. They also said they offered work experience and to email them at workexperience@electrictheatre.tv

There were a number of questions from the audience, such as what were their views on the impact of AI and how visual work in the gaming industry is produced. After the assembly, many students stayed behind to ask supplementary questions.

AB and Agnes

Visiting Artist Lisa Milroy 

Earlier in the week we were lucky enough to be visited by renowned fine artist Lisa Milroy.

She is an artist who we study and refer to regularly across all year groups, so we were very excited when she came by. As a practitioner and ex lecturer at the Slade School of Art we appreciated her sharing some of her invaluable ‘tips of the trade’ with our A Level students.

She had much praise for the high quality of the students’ work and was impressed to see the range of artwork on display all over the school.

Vaishali Londhe
Art Department