Ever seen a house captain and thought they seem terrifying and unapproachable? As a new academic year begins, the mantle of leadership and legacy of our school’s four houses has yet again been passed down to a new group of students. We see our house captains at every single school event, leading their houses with high energy and pride. This year, I had the privilege of interviewing the head house captains of Nightingale, Upsdell, Rowell and Crozier to understand their goals f

Laptops hummed, and ideas soared as more than 300 girls from 12 schools united at German Swiss International School on March 7th for CodeHers – A girls' only event made to empower the next generation of women in STEM. Whether they were writing their first line of code or polishing up on a project, all students left inspired and more confident. But why does this matter? In a tech-driven world where innovations are happening every second, there’s an immense gap in gender dispar

Panache, KGV’s annual charity fashion show, never fails to transform our familiar school hall into another world. This year, clock motifs decorated the stage, a call to the theme ‘Timeless’. Before the show, a palpable excitement filled the air, with all eyes cast on the lit up catwalk. Who knows what delights might grace the stage when the designers have all of fashion history to take inspiration from? The show kickstarted with Alex Hon’s baroque themed line, The Four Season

As I sat in that familiar, dimly lit classroom on a Friday afternoon, period five, a sense of gloom hung in the air when my teacher announced that we had a group project due in a week. I immediately looked up to search for my name, randomly clustered with those of six classmates; I knew this was going to be a long weekend. Regardless of the subject, I’ve started to notice that my classmates tend to gravitate toward specific roles in a team.  The Team Carrier The Carrier is th

Avengers: Cash Grab  Doomsday  is definitely a movie that you’ve heard of, thanks to Marvel Studios’ ambitious marketing. Robert Downey Jr. was unmasked as Doctor Doom on stage, but who knows how they’ll explain why one of Marvel’s most famous Romani characters looks like Iron Man? We know the cast of the film from a five and a half hour livestream of…chairs, and also that ( sigh ) Chris Evans will return as Steve Rogers from a theatrically exclusive trailer. The marketing fo

Student bands, swinging lights and amazing covers (plus an original song!) made up Lion Rock, KGV’s annual concert which rocked the school hall last night. For those of you who weren’t there, you missed out on quite the show put together by our brilliant student musicians with support from Ms. Carlile, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Edwards. Lion Rock saw bands playing songs that you might love (or be really tired of hearing) including  Eye Of The Tiger  by Survivor and  Supermassive

You’ve probably felt it. That pang. A pull. Maybe while scrolling through a ‘ Roaring Twenties’  Pinterest board. Or while binge-watching Bridgerton, wrapped in an era you never experienced firsthand. A yearn to be  in that period. That nostalgia for a time you’ve never lived in, it’s called anemoia. Traditionally, psychologists have thought that nostalgia is based on our recollections of that experience. But this doesn’t really explain anemoia since people are yearning for s

TW: Discussion on feet. Mention of belly buttons. A few weeks ago, I was interning under a barrister for some awesome work experience. As an avid law enthusiast, I wanted to make sure that everything from my performance as a mini pupil to my attire was perfect during this internship…I won’t bore you with the lawyer details, but I do want to talk about high heels. I read the rules of court-room etiquette and appropriate wardrobe, and, seeing that my school shoes, Doc Martens,

What makes the Mona Lisa  one of the most famous paintings in the world? I think that’s a question we’ve all wondered about at some point. Personally, I think there are countless masterpieces that deserve more hype, yet thousands of people visit the Louvre everyday just to see this small portrait. So what actually makes her a world-famous celebrity? The painting itself was unique for its time as Leonardo broke the unspoken rules of portrait painting: he painted her full face

This essay is dedicated to Daniel Naroditsky (November 9, 1995 – October 19, 2025). We grieve over the loss of him, and may he watch us from the skies. “Never play for the win, never play for the draw, just play chess!”  Alexander Khalifman What do chess and life have in common? Some might say it’s the inevitable sacrifices or the permanent feeling of a ticking clock, but for me, it’s about initiative. Once, in a game with a powerful opponent, he demanded: “Do you even unders

The girl inside Clara’s head - The prototype - wears confidence like a second skin.  She never trips over apologies. Her silence is a language people lean in to hear. The prototype owns shelves of untouched trophies,  aces every test without a breath. Her paintings hang in quiet galleries, while Clara’s are stuffed behind the bed. Everyone loves the prototype. And Clara is so jealous she could break, because the prototype is the version of Clara  that never learned the shape

Approaching their final days of Year 13, the class of 2020 plastered ‘Guess Who’ posters for different teachers around the school as part of their senior prank day. A poster that stood out to the little Year 8s (now in Year 12!) to this day was this one: Could you guess the teacher in the photo?  For those lucky enough to have her, this could only be one teacher.  Crowned the ‘Most Motherly’ teacher of KGV, Ms Jodi Moran has been an active member of our school community for a

How a chocolatier’s food craving became a global sensation You’ve heard of Dubai Chocolate, but do you really know the whole story? At first glance, it appears to be another typical trend, a luxury item sold solely for the fleeting whims of social media. Little do you know, there’s a story beneath the surface. Dubai Chocolate gained immense attention after being flaunted by influencers all over social media and featured in advertisements for copycat chocolates around the worl

The past weekend saw KGV host the 2025 ESF Computing Conference, also known as ESF CoCo. Planned over six months by students from a number of ESF schools, the event was a major success. With over 250 students from all over ESF in attendance, KGV was filled with bright, creative, and curious minds brought together by a passion for computer science. KGV’s former principal, Mr. Mark Blackshaw, attended the event and gave an intriguing, thought-provoking keynote speech discussing

It started with ads for AI assistive writing software. Then AI-generated books, videos, and pictures started popping up on every Internet space imaginable. Then that amped up to ads purporting to teach me how to make money off a book I can write in 2 minutes with AI. Even in your everyday lives, you’ve undoubtedly encountered people using generative AI to do schoolwork. There’s a spectrum of usage: from initial generation of ideas, to technical/grammatical assistance, to aski

Diwali, one of the 10 biggest festivals in the world, is considered to be an extremely auspicious occasion. Why is Diwali so important to the South Asian community? With hundreds of stories about its origin and importance hailing from over a dozen countries, one reason is most mentioned over others: it’s a way of cultivating a sense of togetherness.  This was most definitely present on October 18, two days before the festival, when KGV put on a Diwali celebration. I remember

READ WITH CAUTION: YOU MAY BECOME EXTREMELY SELF-AWARE Imagine that our brains are made up of a huge network of roads diverging and converging in all directions, with each road leading to different decisions. It can be really confusing for our racing thoughts to know which way to go. In order to avoid the long winding roads, our mind likes to take shortcuts through the help of cognitive biases . To be exact, cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that influence ou

Anyone who’s walked up to the fourth floor math corridor will recognize the colorful paintings that adorn those walls. But have you ever taken a closer look? The first time I did, I froze in my tracks. The paintings were by Mrs Vaze, my own math teacher! It was like discovering her secret double life, yet it made perfect sense - Mrs Vaze is the type of teacher who loves adding mathematical story interludes to our classes, whether it’s about how the Pythagoras theorem was NOT

So you’re probably wondering: how can I get into a good university? If you’re a Y10 or Y11 student in IGCSE, it’s hard to picture interviews, university admissions and acceptance letters flashing on your computer screen. I’ll be honest, I had no idea what I was doing either. The good news is, I’m here to help! As I sit here typing away on my last KGV school day, preparing to leave the place that’s served me well for six years, I’d like to tell you how you can achieve the next

; ← this thing. But also: Once, a friend and I had a conversation that veered into our favourite punctuation symbol. My answer was immediate: the semicolon. Generic favourite choice to be sure, but it’s so versatile and elegant that I can’t help it.  So how exactly does one use it? At its simplest, a semicolon is used to link two independent clauses (i.e. able to function as standalone sentences) together. If both of your two halves are complete sentences on their own, they h