FILM REPORT During the year many films have, as usual, been shown as part of lessons in various subjects. The projection room itself has been improved in two ways: a ventilation fan has been put in and a new ceiling has also been provided that has improved the acoustics of the room considerably. A new screen is also on order. More films than ever are probably being seen weekly by everyone, thanks to the screening of so many films on television every week. Visits to local cinemas have not grown less. There is an increasing need as a result to try to provide some guidance in the selection of films by means of actual programmes designed to foster better understanding of films and filming. Already Mr. Hall has shown and is showing how films are actually made in the school, using 8mm film stock. In addition a certain number of films have again been shown to develop proper appreciation of films- Documentary films are easiest to obtain and cheapest. Thanks to the resources of the British Film Institute, other films have also been borrowed to illustrate silent screen comedy, for example. An extract from the film, "A Night to Remember", showing the sinking of the liner "Titanic", caused some amusement and its realism seemed dated already, perhaps because television has accustomed us to an even more realistic approach to what we see on the screen ! J.L. HELP FOR AFRICAN CHILDREN Miss Newton's sister and brother-in-law run a hospital for Zulus in Zululand. Every year in September we form a Society and the girls knit squares for blankets and the boys make toys and scrapbooks. One day after school, Miss Newton gave a talk on Zululand and showed some slides of the villages and countryside around the hospital. Each of the first year forms produced at least one blanket between them, and a blanket was made by each of two of the second year forms. Many of the members made individual blankets and one or two or their mothers helped oy making clothes and blankets. Miss Newton went to Zululand at Easter to visit the hospital. She took all the blankets she could with her. She would like to thank the members once again for the splendid effort they made- H.S. GEOGRAPHY FIELD COURSE EASTER, 1966 On April 13th, a party of intrepid Sixth Formers set off for a week's intensive fieldwork in South Wales, based on Newport, under the guiding hands of Mr. Humphreys and Mrs. Pritchard. Had anyone told us beforehand that we would encounter snowdrifts in mid-April we would have laughed at the thought, but, sure enough, upon leaping energetically Jrom our beds on the 16 first morning and throwing wide the curtains, a Siberian landscape greeted us. Travel throughout was by luxury coach, and since this monster could not tackle the snowed-up valley roads, our plans for Thursday had to be scrapped and the day's proceedings took the form of morning and afternoon lessons, to give us the general background to the area we were to study. On Friday the snow cleared sufficiently for us to make the short trip to Cardiff where we were given two interesting lectures, by the Cardiff chief planning officer in the morning, and by Dr-Emlyn Evans, a university lecturer, in the afternoon. By Saturday we were all eager to get to grips with some actual fieldwork, and the day's itinerary certainly gave plenty of scope. Included were visits to the attractive, walled town of Chepstow, to the impressive Severn Bridge, to the spectacular scenery along the Wye Valley, particularly at Symond's Yat, and to the Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon. Perhaps the exhausting nature of that tour accounted for the reluctance of most of us to rise at the unreasonable hour of eight in the morning ! However, worse was to come ! On Sunday, the one day when it did not either snow or rain as it only can in Wales, we set out on the longest trip of the course. We made a complete traverse of the coalfield, through Ebbw, Sirhowy and Taff valleys, to arrive on a small, windswept moorland road, where we left the coach and tramped three miles to some spectacular limestone scenery at Ystradfellte. Several hours were spent exploring limestone gorges, caves and potholes before we motored on to the heights of the Brecon Beacons. There, the more athletic of the party scrambled up to some 2,500 feet amid the clouds and mist. The journey back was through Brecon and Abergavenny. It was a relief to return to a less hectic timetable on Monday. The highlight of the week was a visit to Oakdale colliery, one of the largest in Wales, employing over 2,000 men. Having donned miners' helmets, the boys visited the underground workings while the girls were shown around the surface workings. This interesting visit was followed by another to the huge aluminium works at Rogerstone, where we were given a tour of the rolling mills, furnaces, presses and so on. The following day we returned to London at the end of a most enjoyable week- The combination of economic, human and physical aspects of geography was a most successful one and the interspersing of hard work and more pleasurable pursuits rendered benefit to all concerned. P.T. EASTER TRIP ABROAD Duing the Easter holidays six girls and one boy from the fifth form went with a teacher to stay in Germany for a fortnight. They stayed with their pen friends, to whom they had been writing for over a year. Some of them had seen their pen friends before, when they came over to England last summer. 17