Sixth Form Mercury Wilson’s School’s newest student-run publication Volume 2, Issue 14, April 2013 Uni-d this Information! For those of us in the Upper Skip the student finance talk. 6th, who don’t have an Ox- Do you want to spend half an bridge offer to make up our hour being told that this uni- minds for us, we are going versity has the same student on a final round of three- finance policy as the last 5 hour train journeys and universities you’ve visited by a horrendously boring stu- 45 year old bloke, who chuck- dent finance talks, trying to les after his half hearted find a uni we can stomach attempt at banter about ‘last giving £27,000 to. night’s game’? Just visit the student finance stall where his Many of you in the lower colleague will tell you all you sixth have not yet experi- need to know in about three enced the bleary-eyed 6:04 minutes. to Sheffield. It’s a bit rub- bish, but it has to be done - Go on a campus tour instead. and who knows, you may Uni open days are a valuable way to get an impression of Steer the conversation away even find it slightly worth- where you’re going to spend three years and £27,000 from management-approved while. So we’ve compiled a ‘interesting facts’ about the guide of ‘helpful tips’ and history of the Great Hall and ended up sounding worryingly like your Consider going without your parents. talk about the stuff you will actually care mum. Ever tried asking what the night life is like about at university. whilst stood next to your dad? Exactly. BEFORE YOU GO Go to a taster lecture. As well as being a Do your research. Look on university WHILST YOU ARE THERE last chance check that you care about websites. Look at the course and the aca- Walk around. If you are early, walk to the your course, it also gives you a chance to demics. Is it worth visiting? Make sure uni. Get a bit lost. Get a feel for the city. judge the teaching quality and will hope- you can ask more interesting questions Keep a look out for interesting shops or fully be quite interesting. than ‘what’s in the course?’ Even look at whatever else the area might throw at the waste of cyberspace that is The Stu- you. Could you live here for three years? Talk to the academics. Even if you don’t dent Room. In between kids fretting that have any specific questions about the their B grade at RE GCSE will see them Talk to the student ambassadors. Alt- course, ask about their speciality and see instantly rejected from LSE and lonely hough they are generally on the universi- if you would be happy to learn from guys crying their hearts out to the unin- ty’s payroll, they are often friendly and them. terested internet about the lack of fe- helpful. Just bear in mind that you may males in their lives, there is the occasion- not get a truthful answer to an awkward Speak to the other people on the open al worthwhile post on there. The ‘ask a question, especially if a member of staff is day. They are a cross section of the uni- fresher’ threads can give you a taste of in earshot. versity’s applicants and, at the offer hold- uni life, even if it is (probably) just one ers open day, the people you could po- internet nerd’s opinion. Visit the Student Union. The SU organise tentially be sitting next to in lectures. It’s Fresher’s Week, student societies and healthy to talk to strangers and if you can Get a student rail card. Dull fact of the many of your nights out. Have a chat and find a few like minded people at the open day: they only cost £28 but get you 1/3 see what’s going on. They will also be far day then you will probably fit in come off almost all journeys. more willing to tell you about any griev- September. ances they have against the university. Visit in term time. It isn’t always possible, but you don’t quite pick up a university’s Pick up the student paper. If there is any- atmosphere when the only people about thing wrong with the university, in true are the academics and a handful of lonely journalistic spirit, they will jump at it and students. blow it way out of proportion. By Louis Woodhead 2 Sixth Form Mercury, April 2013 Dear All, Article Page The time for exams returns after a measly six weeks of lurking in the Information uni-d 1 deep, dark recesses of our broken folders and crammed diaries. So, naturally, revision is driving us all to jump off bridges and pull that Message from the editors 2 trigger that looks ‘ever so tempting’. The monarchy question 2 Well, before you do, have a read of this. It’ll probably cheer you all Two nights of Twelfth Night 3 up a bit... Miserable sods. The logic of Lorenzo 4 Happy revising! Kane Walpole and Nikhil Vyas The Monarchy Question By Nikhil Vyas For those of you who follow the Chinese important is the unquantifiable influence from the truth: Britain has one of the Zodiac, 2013 is apparently the Year of the that the monarch holds across the coun- richest heritages in the world. Between Snake. Somewhat appropriately, the try, through patronage or charity, along Shakespeare, Newton, Darwin, Brunel, snake represents unscrupulous dealings with the Royal Prerogative that allows her Dickens and the rest of the pantheon of and cunning - perfect for any budding to declare war without support from Par- national figures, combined with every- politicians out there. My own zodiac sign, liament. thing this country has been through, we the Year of the Pig, doesn’t swing around have more than enough history to be until 2019, meaning I have to wait a Monarchists are fond of claiming that the proud of. whole six years before I can truly cele- lack of written constitution in this coun- brate my supposedly passionate and de- try, coupled with the ambiguity of having At the heart of it, however, the monarchy termined nature. a seemingly powerless figure as Head of is such a deep-rooted institution that State, represents the ‘perfect kind of gov- whose validity people are afraid to dis- 2012, however, was the Year of the Mon- ernment’, yet this is based on the as- cuss. It’s left to individuals like Morrissey archy. Between the glorified boat parade sumption that a monarch has less of a to deliver the occasional rant and be la- that was the Diamond Jubilee, the unbri- propensity to start a nuclear war than a belled deranged, or boring, or unpatriotic. dled jingoism of the Olympics and, re- democratically elected president. And if it cently, the wonderfully ‘unexpected’ comes to it, I'd rather have someone with Yet this is the greatest enemy of a free news of Kate Middleton’s pregnancy, the a popular mandate and experience with state - when an issue can no longer be Royal Family have had more than their their finger on the button. fairly discussed, then we must genuinely fair share of tax-payer funded publicity. question the values of our society. Espe- And there’s no indication that it’ll end: Other arguments are economic: the Daily cially when that issue is one that flies in what with the most titled offspring of the Telegraph smugly told readers that the the face of any democratic principle: the decade entering the world this year, as monarchy only costs 62p a year per adult, idea of having a political position that is well as the impending demise of our cur- yet this does not account for the royal unattainable purely because of whose rent Queen (we can be reasonably sure security detail assigned to royal figures, child you are. that this medieval institution will stay or expenses such as the Royal Wedding or around for a while longer). Diamond Jubilee. It’s not fair on us, it’s not fair on the roy- als themselves (face it: would you want to Yet why does the monarchy inspire such And whilst the monarchy may apparently live your life, from cradle to grave, with devotion? Almost all the institutional bring in more money than it costs the whole world watching you?) and it’s relics of Britain's past are slipping: House through tourism, this is also based on the not fair on the values of this country: of Lords reform is on the agenda, the false supposition that without a royal rationality, decency and pointlessness. Supreme Court is now the final court of family, we would automatically lose all Though, perhaps, it fulfils the last of those appeal and even the Church of England is visitors for royal houses and other sites. three. changing its traditional stance on gay Look at France’s Palace of Versailles: now marriage and women clergy - but the a proud symbol of the overthrow of a legitimacy of the Royal Family still goes tyrannical regime, and one of the coun- unquestioned. try’s most popular destinations. Whilst it may seem that very little power Which leads to my final point: monar- is held by the monarchy - all the Queen chists pretend that without the royal fam- essentially does is sign laws and formally ily, there would be no focal point for appoint the Prime Minister - what is more British unity.