Apart from teaching English to students and staff, the English Department is involved in several other activities as well.

Debates

• This increasingly popular discipline became part of the English curriculum only a few years ago. Since then, it has become our most important extracurricular activity. Newton is one of the founding members of the Peruvian Debate Association, and we were thrilled to have one of our students, Katie Gushwa, selected for the Peruvian national team for both the 2003 and 2004 World Schools Debating Championships held in Lima and Stuttgart. The 5-person Peruvian team for the World Championships in Calgary in 2005 contained no fewer than 3 Newton students: Kyle Hecht, Ruben del Aguila and Lorena Alarco, proving that our debaters are world-class.
• We also participate in the British Schools Debates held throughout the year in different member schools. This give the opportunity for students from Form II to Form V to practise their skills in public and for those who wish to improve further, the Debate Club meets weekly to practise research and planning skills, which are all important in successful debating.
  

Presidential Elections

• Last year our Form III classes participated in a mock presidential election. The campaign kicked off with speeches in each of the participating classes. Winners were chosen by ballot and passed on to the second round. This time the candidates had to face their whole promotion and try to convince this sceptical audience that they had the answers to Peru's problems. The two candidates with the most votes, Erich Koechlin and Denise Albornoz, faced each other in the final round, with Denise prevailing.

The presidential campaign Newton 2006 will begin just after the results of the Peruvian national elections of 9 April are in. Given the surprising turn the national elections have taken, this mock election promises to be a very interesting one. Like last year, this campaign will be a short one, and will be over in three days.

Short Story Competition

• Our students' literary talents are put to the test in the British Schools-sponsored short story competition, where they face stiff competition from our sister schools. This is a relatively new activity, but the quality of many of the entries is always high. Newton College has had winners and runners up for the last two years in the various categories, and this is something that we hope will continue.
• This year's British Schools event took place on the 31st March. The following students were winners of the Inter House Competition, and therefore qualified to be our official delegates for 2006.
  
  Upper: Eduardo Escudero and Rosita Wang
  Lower: Irene Yensen and Stephanie Guin
  
  We wish them the very best of luck!

Book Week

• Book Week takes place in the final week of the first term. Games, competitions, debates and a special 'Beat the Teacher' (figurative not literal) head to head - all with a literary flavour of course - represents a small part of what happens in this exciting end to the term. Read the article by clicking here.
  

Drama

• The English Department piloted drama as an important school activity back in 1995 with All You Need Is Love, (a Beatles-influenced version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night). The department has participated in the direction of productions such as Bugsy Malone, The Crucible, Animal Farm and an adaptation of The Tempest. While the Drama Department is now in charge of producing school plays, members of the English Department continue to support this activity in a variety of ways and some of our staff members were seen on stage in the 2004 show Oliver!. Mr. Goodman made a memorable and menacing Fagin. See the pictures by clicking here.

Theatre / Cinema visits

• Whenever the opportunity arises, the Department organises trips for students to see productions of plays in Lima theatres or recent releases of films relevant to our studies in cinemas. In December 2005, the Literature groups of Mr Bolton and Mrs Petrozzi went to Teatro Britanico to see Alberto Isola's production of Shakespeare's 'A Merchant of Venice'. An excellent night out was had by all!