Book Week - Some reflections
For my part, it was the competitions which added more than a little spice to Book Week. The annual Beat the Teacher competition was eagerly awaited by all, not least by the teachers who had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the students in the previous year's head to head. Carlos Flores had produced his now legendary posters and the scene was set. The competition itself is quite simple – take 6 teachers (Mrs Petrozzi, Mr Quantrill, Mr Goodman, Mrs Bernedo, Mrs Palacios and Mr José del Giudice and 8 students (Alonso Otárola, Anna Paula Andrade, Lara Guzmán, Patricia Santa Cruz, Andrea Cino, Eduardo Escudero, César Casanova and Stephanie Horna) fill them to the top toe full of 8 works of literature in both English and Spanish, ask both sides fiendishly difficult questions… and see who wins.

The competition moved briskly, students and teachers notching up good scores on texts such as Macbeth, A Streetcar Named Desire, Como Agua Para Chocolate and El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba. It was a case of the first to the xylophone in a desperate effort to shore up the team's bid to become the 2007 champions. Nobody really knew who would win… the teachers with fewer numbers yet more experience, or the collective might of those feral IB students.
Well, it wasn't to be. The teachers won. I won't mention the score, suffice to say that a rather festive atmosphere pervaded the teachers' quarters that Wednesday afternoon. There were more than a few sighs of relief too, I can tell you.

The first 'Call My Bluff' competition was a far more balanced affair. Based on the popular UK TV series, 8 specially chosen teachers from various disciplines (Dr. Ash, Mr. Pool, Mrs. María Clelia Garcés, Mr. Crebbin, Mrs. Ana María Remuzgo and Mr. Lucho García) were pitted against yet more desperate students of form IV.

The object of this game is not to show off one's knowledge, but to invent the best lie, using as much 'floro' as one can muster in the 3 minutes allowed in order to convince the students that indeed this was the definition of the word on the powerpoint. The students' job was to simply discover which teacher was telling the truth. Words such as 'Algarada' and 'Nileometer' were posed by the host, Mr Quantrill, and had the students searching the faces of the teachers for tell-tale signs of mendacity. They have always been taught to trust teachers after all…

After lashings of lies and fantastic amounts of 'floro', the contest was deemed a tie after running well into the break period. For me, the fact that the audience wished to give up their lunch break to witness the thrilling end was proof in itself that the afternoon had been a great success. Needless to say, the rematch in 2008 will be hotly awaited!

An ongoing competition which proved immensely popular with students and staff alike was the 'Match the book to the Teacher' game (we couldn't think of a better title). Teachers provided the front cover of their favourite books and students had to guess each teacher's chosen book.

There were more than 70 entries, and only one winner – Silvana Alberti from Form IV.

In conclusion, book week was a fun week. We had the participation of all three levels of the school and for the very first time the English and Spanish Departments joined forces.
Students laughed at teachers, teachers laughed at students, books were read, books were suggested, books were debated. Children dressed up, authors were interviewed and we all had a jolly good time indeed.

My own thanks to those people who gave up their time to make this year's one of the best ever.

Steve Bolton, Head of English