Sixth Form Mercury By the students, for the students. Volume 6, Issue 3, December 2016

With five matches played and none won, what has the rugby team got to show for all their efforts this season?

For one, the first XV has had a shake-up of the roster, following the return to school after the summer break, and now features some talented players you’ll want to watch out for.

Caleb Rio Nelson After playing rugby for the school spo-radically over the course of his school career, this tank of a centre seems set to add some much needed aggression and passion to the squad. Whether he’s carrying hard off set plays or providing

support and structure to the backs, it’s safe to say that over the past few weeks he’s become an integral part of the team.

Elliot Roberts A fly-half with a lot to offer, Roberts has been a core part of this team since our 90-0 against Wallington Boys (some time ago, now, alas). His deci-sion-making skills and continuous dedi-cation are part of the foundation of the team and from his performances so far, he seems set only to improve in the coming months.

Continued inside.

Trying times for the Wilson’s First XV

Want to write for the Sixth Form Mercury?

It is open to all sixth formers with an interest in writing!

Contact either Tommy MacGillivray or Matthew Kayanja for more information:

Email: kayanjam@wilsonsschool.sutton.sch.uk

End of year issue

By Terry Kwofie

Nisanth Mahalingam Passion, bravery, and ability in a small package – this relative new comer is definitely doing all the right things to stand out amongst the rabble. With excellent technique backed with decent pace, his strength in the outfield is defi-nitely not going unnoticed.

John Oh Oh, what a great player! Joining the school in Year 12, this tower of strength, speed and skill is always a playmaker at fixtures. His ball-carrying skill is a sight to behold; look forward to him being a leading man in the team’s road to improvement.

Alternatively, you could just look at the improvement the team has showed over just a few weeks. Starting the term with very little chemistry and rusty game sense, they have been led by new coach Mr Kimmins to a game of clean structure and great communication.

Look out for this team in the future because this is a season of huge change for rugby at Wilson’s.

If you need proof – just take a look at some of their plays in a home fixture.

Like a well-taken drop-kick, they’re go-ing up and in the right direction.

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Kayanja’s Christmas Crackers: Films of 2016

By Matthew Kayanja

1. ArrivalFeaturing a mind-blowing cast, with thelikes of Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner andForrest Whitaker, Arrival takes the topspot this year due to its original take ona classic genre, incredible cinematog-raphy, and powerful themes of love andloss.

It’s definitely a sci-fi epic, but it’s the close connection to the intimate human-ity of its main character, Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, which makes it ascend to something more than just a popcorn flick.

The film’s poster sums up the driving force in the film succinctly: ‘Why are

they here?’ And it’s a question that pro-vides tension throughout the whole film, bolstered by a maverick score from Jo-hann Johannsson.

It’s not just for the incredible visual beauty of the film, nor its plot that sucks you in like a whirlpool from the very start, but for the sheer humanity of the film that you should watch it, as it ex-plores the inherent flaws which make up the worst of us, and, even more tragical-ly, how the human spirit faces up to the ultimate pain of loss.

Sounds a bit deep for an alien film, I hear you protest. Watch it and you’ll realise it’s much more than that.

2. The Nice GuysThere couldn’t be more of a differencebetween the two films that make thetop two of this list, but in terms of quali-ty it was very hard to split them.

The Nice Guys is without a doubt the funniest film I’ve seen this year. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling have glorious chemistry together as a muscle-for-hire and conman-cum-private detective, re-spectively, who try to uncover a govern-ment conspiracy. And the addition of an incredible debut by young Australian actress Angourie Rice as Gosling’s daughter adds another hilarious per-spective on this wacky tale.

But the film is also actually very clever and well written, with a deep plot that actually requires you to connect the dots and that has political undertones.

Also, though not as much as Arrival, the film does explore the more personal side of its characters, with the notable ab-sence of the mother in the father-daughter duo of Gosling and Rice provid-ing some humanity to a relationship that is tender but throughout the film seems to be fraying at the edges.

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Overall, the film is a must watch if you like comedy and a big recommend to anyone interested in watching some-thing that will thoroughly entertain.

3. The Girl with all the GiftsThis film doesn’t reinvent the zombiefilm genre. But it does what I think allgood films should try to do: within thegenre it tries to nestle another genre,another theme that isn’t necessarily asapparent as the genre it is sold as.

The Girl with all the Gifts at its core is much closer to being a philosophical movie than a zombie action one, with its core questions being, ‘what makes us human?’ And, ‘If the line is blurred, how should we treat those we would-n’t strictly class as ‘human?’

The main idea of the film is that there are certain children who are part-human and part-zombie who came about from being in the womb when their mother was infected by a fungal zombie virus.

The main character Melanie, played by Sienna Nanua, is one such child, and

it’s truly incredible to see her act out the juxtaposition of an innocent child and a bloodthirsty zombie in one per-formance.

The film is not perfect. I felt some of the acting of the adult performers was a little stiff at points, but it’s made up for by an astonishing performance by Sienna Nanua (in my opinion the best

actress in the film despite being the youngest), along with some beautiful imagery throughout, and a heart-breaking conclusion.

Honourable mentions Deadpool: Self-explanatory, hilarious and clever in its reinvention of the superhero genre.

10 Cloverfield Lane: The most sus-penseful film of the year - heart-pounding, with a plot that grips you and doesn’t let go.

The Jungle Book: A beautiful film - a true accomplishment in CGI that also packs some laughs and classic songs, brought back to life for a new genera-tion.

Dishonourable mentions

Independence Day: Resurgence. I liter-ally fell asleep in the cinema. Breath-taking in its boringness.

Ghostbusters: Cheesy jokes can’t cov-er up a lack of a good plot.

Let the Glory Days Roll and Keep them Coming

By Tommy MacGillivray

Little Mix have released the best pop album of the year - and of their career, argues Tommy MacGillivray.

First things first: I know, it isn’t Lem-onade. Although Glory Days might not be the frontrunner for this year’s pop album of the year accolade, it certainly should be.

In a year dominated by generic EDM ‘bangers’ from the likes of The Chainsmokers and one-off no-name DJs, Little Mix have managed to cre-ate an album that riffs on popular trends but never gets bogged down in them.

While Perrie, Leigh-Anne, Jade and Jesy promised to ‘Get Weird’ on

their album last year, Glory Days provides a wild adrenaline rush of pop that I’m surprised Simon Cowell let get out of the door.

The album roars off the blocks with the sasstastic kiss-off track lead sin-

gle ‘Shout Out to My Ex’, which man-ages to go from tongue -n-cheek a-little-too-specific lyrics about an ex-One Direction member who shall not be named, into a euphoric foot-stomping chorus that ricochets around your head all day seamlessly.

Unfortunately the song only earned a fifth of the weeks at number one that Drake’s ‘One Dance’ accumulat-ed. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

What has always set Little Mix apart as a musical act is their versatility. They can make you cry your eyes out (‘Nobody Like You’) and then dance your trousers off on the very next track (‘No More Sad Songs’).

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Other album highlights include the pounding bass drop of ‘Power’ and the incessant horn ostinato of ‘Private Show’, both of which take absolutely no prisoners and leave no question as to who’s running the show in question.

However, not all 12 songs on this album were created equal.

The ‘drop’ on ‘Down and Dirty’ is about as disappointing as opening socks on Christmas Day and Charlie Puth fails to add anything of value as the album’s sole guest star.

This ties into the one major pitfalls of this album: the production. Simon Cow-ell’s SiCo Music has always had a reputa-tion for being miserly with a budget and this curse strikes yet another Little Mix project here.

The only named songwriter or producer that stands out in the liner notes is Me-ghan Trainor and you could already tell she was behind the album’s weakest track ‘You Gotta Not’, due to a confined melody that leaves the girls no room to emote, and the fact that it takes the form of a tick-box list of things a guy must do to even try to satisfy, let alone date, her.

Having said that, neither of these cri-tiques is down to any of the girls them-selves, and it is hard to take issue with any of the performances on this record.

All four have improved considerably since their X Factor days - Leigh-Anne in particular - and each girl brings some-thing to the table from a vocal stand-point. Perrie has fire in her lungs and Jesy’s sweet coo manages to perfectly

complement it without ever smothering it or letting it burn the house down.

Through the help of up and coming pro-ducer MNEK, it’s certain that their next single (the tropical-house-touched ‘Touch’) should be a smash on pop radio and I look forward to a splash of colour being brought back to Drivetime thanks to these incredible women.

From the Editors

Hey everyone!

It’s been a great term, and it’s been amazing to see the various things we’ve accomplished in it, be it the establishment of different societies like Economics Society or Physics Society, or the revival of the Sixth Form Mercury itself (not to pat ourselves on the back!)

What’s even more amazing is how fast this term has passed. Mocks beckon and then exams … but not quite yet. We’ll be back in January, but until then have a restful holiday! And get in touch if you would like to contribute to the next issue.

Thanks, Matthew and Tommy

Charity at Christmas

In the spirit of Christmas giving, please support one of our own students in the Lower Sixth, Arkaprabha Saha, in raising money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, as he takes part in the Marsden March on 19th March. The Royal Marsden fights against cancer through their pioneering research, diagnoses, treatment and patient care. Donations can be made at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/arkarmw

To help raise as much as possible, please share the link above on your social media. If you have any questions feel free to email Arka at SAHAA@wilsonsschool.sutton.sch.uk