BHHS Newsletter Issue 8 November 2014

Newsletter Brighton & Hove High School GDSt

Issue 8 November 2014-15

Dear Parents and Girls,

On Monday morning, as everyone at BHHS was taking part in our annual Remembrance Assembly, a terrorist bomb caused an explosion to rip through the assembly hall at the Government Science Secondary School in Potiskum, Nigeria. 46 pupils were killed – the work of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, which is waging a sustained campaign to prevent children from going to school. It believes girls should not be educated and boys should be limited to strict Koranic studies only.

That same evening I had the sad task of having to tell girls who had been chosen to take part in our CRED trip to Ethiopia this summer in support of the Women at Risk Project – an activity that had a life-changing impact on the girls and the children they worked with when we took part for the first time last year – that the trip is now being cancelled on the advice of the Foreign Office. It seems that there is a high threat of terrorist attack in the area from Al Shabaab, a Somalia-based militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda.

Our girls and their parents took the news with admirable stoicism but I must confess to feeling rather bleak at the end of the evening. Alongside an immense gratitude that in our school we are able freely to explore and discuss any topic in a safe environment sat a sense of deep sadness that women and children already deprived of so much are now being even further isolated by the madness of violent terrorism.

I am therefore cheered by the determination of the staff and girls who took part last year to continue to support the WAR project in every way possible. The girls will be running a special assembly next week to engage the rest of the school in their efforts and we are planning a big drive to collect as much children’s clothing (babies to teenagers) as we can to ship out to Ethiopia in time for Christmas. More information on the collection will come later but I know that we can count on an excellent response from everyone connected with the school. This will, hopefully, be a tiny step towards building something positive out of dreadful circumstances.

Have a peaceful weekend.

Monday 17

th

dates

CRED July 2015 trip meeting, 5:30-

6:00pm; Hullabaloo Community Choir, 6:30 -9:45pm; Tuesday 18th Y9 Parents’ Evening, 4:30-7:30pm; Wednesday 19th Chamber Choir, 7:30pm; Thursday 20th Senior Team Maths Challenge (Y12 & 13); Friday 21st Y7 Student Voice interviews; Young Enterprise evening event (Movie Night), 4-6pm Saturday 22nd Open Afternoon at Junior School, 1-3pm Upcoming events... Monday 24th Work in Temple Gardens starts;

Jennifer Smith

F Christmas i r Brighton & Hove High School Parents Association Presents

Chrystall Prize for Public Speaking, 12-4pm; Tuesday 25th Informal concert, 1pm; TPQ Celebration Show;

Brighton and Hove High Senior School

Thursday 27th Y12 Networking Evening, 7-9pm;

Saturday 29th November 12 noon - 3pm

Friday 28th OWN CLOTHES DAY for Bottle Stall; Y11 mock exams start; Saturday 29th PA Christmas Fair; Sunday 30th School Play Rehearsal, 10am-5pm 2014-15 Issue 8: 1

Brighton-and-Hove-High-School-Parents-Association

Entrance; Adults £1 Child 50p

pa@bhhs.gdst.net Raffle prizes from:

and many, many more!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL This year’s school play is an adaptation of the wonderful ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. Our talented cast are hard at work learning lines and staging each scene.

This production is a wonderfully spooky version of the story and we hope to deliver its Christmas message of love and charity and kindness powerfully but with some lighter, comedy touches. Do come! You will be shocked and horrified by our miserly Scrooge; concerned for poor Marley, tortured by some nasty ghosts and weighed down by his terrible chains of guilt and worried about poor Tiny Tim, whose life is threatened by his precarious health and cruel poverty. Tickets are on sale via parent pay for the two performances: 7pm on Thursday 11th December and Friday 12th December. They cost £7.00 each (concessions £5.00).

spanish exchange...

From 30th October to 5th November, the first part of the Spanish Exchange took place between nineteen Year 10 and 11 students from BHHS and their partners at IES Nervión in Seville. We had an action packed week of sightseeing in the beautiful Andalusian sunshine, and getting to know the teachers and students from our partner school. Day 1: Arrival at IES Nervión in Seville to meet the partners for an evening with the families; Day 2: Guided tour of Seville (Barrio de Santa Cruz, Catedral and Real Alcazar); Days 3, 4 & 5: With partners and families; Day 6: Trip to Córdoba (Cathedral and Old Town); Day 7: Lessons and farewells.

Both on a cultural and a linguistic level, this was an invaluable experience for our students as they were immersed in family life for a week. They formed such strong bonds with their partners that it was hard to tear them away! The students are now eagerly awaiting the return visit in March when we will welcome students from IES Nervión to Brighton. İViva el intercambio!

religiousfestivals...

this week’s recommendations from the RE & Philosophy Department Mrs Dowglass

Saturday 15th | SHICHI-GO-SAN (Seven-Five-Three) Japanese Girls of seven, boys of five and girls of three are dressed up in new clothes and taken to a Shinto shrine to pray for their future well-being

tv&radio...

Sunday 16th | BBC1 | 10am | Sunday Morning Live Topical debate covering religious, moral and ethical issues, with guest panellists and contributions from viewers; Sunday 16th | BBC2 | 9:30pm | Human Universe – What is Our Future? Brian Cox concludes his exploration of humanity’s place in the cosmos by examining what the future holds; Sunday 16th | Radio 4 | 7pm | Analysis – Conservative Muslims, Liberal Britain David Goodhart explores liberal Britain’s relationship with socially conservative Muslims in the wake of the so-called Trojan Horse affair. Visiting Leicester, he hears a number of divisive opinions on the matter from figures in the Muslim community; Wednesday 19th | BBC2 | 5:40am | What Makes Me, Me? [1/5] Robert Webb narrates a series of short films using a combination of animation and live-action footage to explore fundamental questions that children ask and adults often struggle to answer.

This week’s B RIGHT On Challenge is from the RE & Philosophy Department. Perform a ‘Random Act of Kindness’ over the next 7 days and email a brief account of it to Mrs Dowglass : a.dowglass@bhhs.gdst.net 2014-15 Issue 8: 2

rotaryinterviews

On Thursday evening, a small group of the Sixth Form were put through their paces in the Rotary Mock Interviews. Hattie Buck, Helena Ratliff, Pui Ming Chow, Scarlett Anderson, Zoe May, Abigail Harland and Zula Donoghue were all invited to prepare for their potential university interviews. They were all, without exception, hugely impressive and professional; I was very proud of them indeed. We are very thankful for the wonderful help that The Rotary Club provide for our Sixth Formers and their feed back was gratefully received. Fingers crossed that university offers will start to come flooding in and I am sure these students are pleased to feel more confident about being interviewed.

Mrs Pianet, Year 13 Manager

sport On Tuesday the U-16 Netball team played against Blatchington Mill. We had a young squad and the opposition came with a strong experienced team. We kept the score to within 1 point in the first two quarters and edged away in the second half to win the game 18-12 points. Well done to the girls for a strong all around team effort.

On Wednesday the U-14 team had a cup netball match against Uplands school. The match was close throughout with only three points between teams throughout the game. In the last quarter our girls maintained their composure to pull ahead and with excellent defence from every position we won the game 32-24 points. Throughout the match the team maintained their cohesion and showed that linking up as a team really does win matches. We look forward to seeing who we will play in the next round.

Miss Razavi

Recently Eve Hull (10H) took part in the South East Schools U-15 Biathlon championships held at Gillingham, Kent. This involved running and swimming and Eve achieved a fantastic second place on the day. She is now ranked 15th in the country in this age group. Well done, Eve.

Mrs Thomas On Monday evening our swimming team competed in the annual Roedean gala. There were 5 other schools competing - Roedean, Farlington, Benenden, Mayfield and Ardingly - all who have their own pools! There were 3 age groups - Open, U-16 and U-13 and we competed in every race with our small team of 7 girls. The girls swam magnificently and with enthusiasm finishing 2nd in the U-13s, tying 3rd in the U-16s and a brilliant 3rd overall behind Farlington and Roedean. Well done to all of you and thanks also to the great support team. Our Super 7 team were Eve Hull, Bella Cardus, Alex Lange-Andrews, Kay Sheridan, Bethany Hull, Emma Stern and Lauren Hull.

Mrs Thomas

roedean swim gala

2014-15 Issue 8: 3

Y8 pshe

writing the news Imogen Mohsin and Rani Martin, 8B

On Friday 7th November, Year 8 had a session with John Young, a journalist for South East news. The aim of the lesson was to encourage our teamwork, creativity, efficiency and give us a taste of what it’s like to be a journalist. The session wasn’t just informative but also great fun!

The lesson began with John asking us what had recently been in the news and asked us to weigh up how important each story was.

Should we put news about the air strikes or Ebola as our top slot?

We learned that in order to qualify as ‘News’ a story has to be: New, Extraordinary, Weird and Serious (spelling NEWS). He went through some local news stories ranging from breaking news about sextuplets to a breaking story about drugs trafficking and he asked us if they deserved to be on the news and for us to justify our answers.

In groups, we were given nine stories and had to choose the five best to put in a local news report, considering all the criteria of what makes a story newsworthy.

To give us an insight into what happens in a real newsroom , at unexpected times, a phone would ring and if you were on that table, you could pick it up. The phone calls would be dilemmas that we had to consider when choosing our stories. For example, one dilemma was that a woman wanted money to share her story with us. We had to learn to make fast decisions on how to solve problems – give her the money or find another story quickly!

Finally to end the session, we used our chosen stories to create headlines. We had three minutes to write a headline for all five stories (one each) before reading them out. The headlines had to be short but tell us the gist of the story, and they had to be exciting to entice and captivate the reader.

To add to the atmosphere and make us feel like real journalists, John brought in an example of a camera that they use. He also heightened the tension in our ‘Newsroom’ by playing stressful sound effects, such as the countdown tune, to signal when our time was up on each task!

This session was really useful as it gave us an idea of how journalists work and has inspired many students to think about this as a career. We are very thankful to our teachers for making this lesson possible as it gave us an insight into how important efficiency, accuracy and clarity are in our writing. This is something we can use in all our lessons.

STREAM south london book festival

Streatham & Clapham High School played host to STREAM this Saturday, the fantastic South London Book Festival introduced by Helen Fraser and opened by Malorie Blackman. 10 BHHS pupils from years 8, 9 & 10 attended in the company of Ms Dean and Mrs Foss. Malorie was a great speaker & really entertaining, telling us that she’d avoided writing about race for her first 49 books but following the Stephen Lawrence case, felt compelled to address it in her series Noughts and Crosses. We then saw Lauren Child talking about how she builds up her illustrations and comes up with the chemical formulae for Ruby Redfort. The older pupils really connected with the thriller writers, James Dawson, Rachel Ward, Sophia Bennett & Sam Hepburn and later in 2014-15 Issue 8: 4

Writers Keren David, Non Pratt, James Dawson, Lil Chase and Isobel Harrop with our girls the day writers of dystopian novels Sara Grant, Gemma Malley & Sophie Hamilton. In the Teen Issues slot our pupils had the chance to raise concerns they themselves felt about being a teenager and discuss with the panel of writers and other teenagers how they can empower themselves in scary situations. A great time was had by all.

Ms Dean report by Imogen Mohsin (8B) At 8pm, on Saturday 8th November, ten soggy, exhausted BHHS girls arrived at Brighton station, after a stimulating day at the Literary Festival at Streatham and Clapham High school. STREAM (the festival) involved many individual interviews of writers and panels of authors discussing their books. Also, there were many opportunities to chat with authors, buy books and get them signed.

After an early start and train journey, the day was kicked off by Emily Drabble who interviewed the award winning Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman. She spoke of how she came to be a writer, how books played a part in her childhood and what inspires her writing. We all enjoyed this interview immensely and some of us purchased her books, although unfortunately none of us managed to get into the Malorie Blackman book signing room!

There were a huge range of events for us to choose from and many notable writers and illustrators including Lauren Child and Chris Riddell who were interviewed individually. We also attended the Contemporary Thriller session which featured the authors Sam Hepburn, James Dawson, Rachel Ward and Sophia Bennett.

All the talks were inspiring but a particular favourite of mine was ‘Issues for Tissues’. The panel of authors debated for the coveted prize of a pack of tissues for the best solution to a teenage problem. These problems ranged from ‘How to deal with abuse on the street’? to ‘What shall I do now Benedict Cumberbatch is engaged?’. The atmosphere of this event was particularly interesting as the audience (a small one – much preferable to the huge crowds in some events) could join in with the conversation at any time!

Finally, to end the day, we attended Fiction in Dystopian Society, featuring Gemma Malley, Sara Grant and Sophie Hamilton, before walking through the torrential rain to the station (with now soggy books). We are very grateful to Ms Dean and Mrs Foss for accompanying us on this exhilarating day. report by Eleanor Thomas (10D) On Saturday 8th November the first South London Literature Festival, STREAM was held at Streatham and Clapham High School, a GDST school. I, along with girls from years 8 & 9, was given the opportunity to go.

We took the train early in the morning and arrived at Streatham in glorious sunshine. Over the course of the day we attended five different talks, each with different authors including Malorie Blackman, the Children’s Laureate. I found the talks inspirational and very interesting as we got to learn more about the authors whose books we admire. My favourite talk was Teen Issues in which we were able to discuss some very relevant issues we face as teenagers in today’s world. We all got lots of books signed (and bought quite a few as well) and discovered new books that we can’t wait to read.

I think the most prominent thing that struck me was seeing how books have the power to bring people together. There were people from 3 years old to 70, all looking joyous at being with others who love to read just like them. This includes the people who went on the trip; I feel like we all got to know each other really well and we made new friends because of books.

2014-15 Issue 8: 5

Brighton & Hove High School GDSt

JuniorSchool Dear Parents,

I have been attending the GDST Junior Heads’ Conference this week which not only offers me the chance to look at another school in our group but enables me to meet with my counterparts and share experiences. It is one of the great advantages of the GDST that we have this network which allows us to share good practice and ideas in a non-competitive environment. On a personal note it is always helpful to chat through ideas with colleagues who understand the Head’s role and the challenges that sometimes come with it! I know that I will return to school on Monday with renewed energy and ideas, having had a chance to take some time to be reflective.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Sian Cattaneo

calendar monday 17th - wednesday 19th

Book Fair, Junior Hall

wednesday 19

th

Y3 All Saints Church Visit

Lost Nursery Girl’s Coat

U-10&U11 Hockey v LOGS (Home), 2:40pm

One of our nursery girls had her coat taken by accident last week, possibly

U-11c v U-10b Netball (Internal Fixture), 2:40pm

from the waiting room.

thursday 20th

Y1 Medieval Banquet during school hours, girls only (tbc) Class 5A Parents Lunch saturday 22nd

As this has not

yet reappeared, could we please ask all parents of younger children to check the name labels in their daughter’s coat.

Open Day at Junior School

Reminder 5A Parents Lunch at 12pm on Thursday 20th November Note to mention: As of Autumn 2014, the last day of a full term will finish at 2:30pm. End of half terms will continue to be a full day. This will be in place from 16th December 2014. clubs&reminders

Sir Andrew enthrals Year One! Year One had a wonderful time on Wednesday, when a very special visitor came to see them. Sir Andrew of Rodmell, a local knight, came to teach them all about knights and has now left to go on a quest to find Princess Gertrude! The girls asked him all sorts of interesting questions and wished him luck on his exciting quest!

2014-15 Issue 8: 6

Miss Lyons’ Last week, despite the rain, we were outside getting creative with nature. Taking some inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy and The Woodland Trust the girls collected leaves, sticks, stones and other natural items to create faces. They all worked really well together in their small groups and produced some fantastic ‘non-permanent’ art.

Year 2 trip to Drusillas

Last Thursday Year 2 went to Drusillas as part of their ‘Fire & Ice’ topic to find out all about penguins. The girls had a really interesting talk from one of the zookeepers and found out lots of facts about penguins. Did you know penguins’ eyes are flat which helps them to see under water and they have a very rough tongue (like a cat) to help them catch fish. After our zookeeper session it was time to go and see the penguins being fed. We were very lucky with the weather and the girls were able to sit outside in the sunshine to have their lunch!

After lunch we got to explore more of Drusillas and have a go at some of the ‘Animal Olympic’ challenges (such as how long you could hang for and how loud you could shout) finishing the day off with a ride on their Thomas train.

All in all a very busy fun pack and informative day.

2014-15 Issue 8: 7

match U-11 GDST Netball Rally A huge congratulations to all of the girls who played in the GDST Netball rally on Thursday 6th November. We travelled on Wednesday afternoon and stayed overnight in a local Premier Inn before venturing to Northampton High School for the U-11 tournament. It is impossible for us to select a player of the tournament for the following reasons:

Amelia Ghassemi stayed tight to her player and watched the incoming balls to make some crucial interceptions. Hannah Pelham unfortunately suffered a recurrence of an injury in our initial warm up and this limited her ability to play, however she did play a full game against Ipswich. Despite her injury she participated in all of the warm ups and was very much a valued member of the squad throughout the day.

Esme Boden worked really hard on her centre pass set up and distribution of the ball into the circle. Holly Turnbull played exceptionally well in centre court and was patient to wait for the right ball into the circle.

Isabel Denslow developed her ability to hold space in the circle and really tried to put into practice the circle tactics we have been working on. Olivia Taggart played some outstanding Netball and cut out numerous attacks and some score lines would have been a completely different story without her. Daisy LanpardSawyer was without doubt the most improved player of the tournament. She really stepped up her game and used her speed and agility to both intercept the ball and distribute the ball up court. Finally, captain, Bonnie White played some really intelligent Netball, she got her eye in for shooting and put all the advice given into practice.

This is a really high standard competition and we knew that every game was going to be a challenge.

The tournament was organised into 4 round robin groups and the girls surpassed our expectations in their level of play and convincingly won all of our games in this section. Scores were; Blackheath 7-2, Northwood 4-1, hosts Northampton 4-1 and Ipswich 6-3. We then entered the second phase of the tournament, run as a cup.

In the quarter finals we went 2-0 down against Kensington prep, but then brought it back to a 3-2 win. This meant we were in the top 4 of 21 schools and had reached the semi-finals. This is something as a school we have never achieved in the past! In the semi-final we met Putney High who played some exceptionally slick Netball. We competed with them well and despite it being an end to end game, we ran out losers 6-2.

Putney then went on to win the tournament. In our 3rd/4th

playoff we played against Notting Hill. By this stage the girls were very tired, but fought hard and did the school proud with their level of play. The final score was 6-2 Notting Hill. Our final position in the tournament was 4th out of 21 schools, an amazing achievement!!

The girls were an absolute joy to take on the trip. Their behaviour, attitude and all round sportsmanship was tremendous! We would like to take this opportunity to thank Victoria Lacey for helping with the final travel arrangements and her support on the day and in addition Laurie Dunford for driving us home safely after our exhausting adventure!

2014-15 Issue 8: 8

U-11 v Sion Our usual B team came head to head with Sion’s A team. We had a slow start to the game with some weak passes and missed a few easy catches. This resulted in Sion gaining an early comfortable lead. However, in the 2nd half the team really improved in making the most of the space, delivering the ball accurately and receiving it effectively. This had a huge impact on the game, limiting Sion’s goals to only 2 in the 3rd quarter and none in the final. Special mention to India Maurice who was our Player of the Match for keeping a positive mental attitude, for keeping her head up and for her versatility on court moving from defence to attack. Sion also nominated Freya Hepburn as their Player of the Match. The final score was 11-0.

Our usual C team then played the Sion B team. The first quarter was evenly matched with Sion nipping ahead 2-1. The 2nd quarter was an end to end game, however, Sion scored all of their opportunities and this enabled them to gain a strong lead by half time. In the 2nd half we really fought back working hard on effective distribution of the ball and not rushing the pass. We had the majority of possession but just couldn’t find the net to score the goals. A massive well done to both Emie McGough and Alissa Bryan for both scoring a goal.

Sion nominated Scout Adams as their Player of the Game and in addition we’d like to add Phoebe Dowglass for her brilliant interceptions on court. The end score was 9-2.

U-9A v St Christopher’s The A team started slowly, were not finding space and making sloppy passes but were 1-0 up at quarter time. They improved their game slightly in the second quarter and led 2-0 at half time. In the third quarter they really started to find space make stronger passes and the all round quality of their game play improved.

Scoring two further goals, they continued to improve into fourth quarter and won the game 7-0. Leah and Ava Littlewood were nominated joint players of the match by St Christopher’s however Eliza Steeles was our Player of the Match. Well done to all of the girls in the team, a convincing win and we need to take our second half performance into the start of the next game.

U-9B v St Christopher’s The B team game was very congested with no-one on either team finding much space to start with and at the end of the first quarter no-one had scored. In second quarter the play was still slow and we struggled to get the ball into our shooters and the half time score was 0-1 to St Christopher’s. In second half we started to play a little better with some stronger passing and better positioning and had plenty of scoring opportunities, but still failed to achieve a goal, so we went into final quarter still 0-1 down. We continued to make progress

in the quality of our play. In final quarter we had plenty of shooting attempts, far more than the opposition but only managed to score once, resulting in 1-1 draw. All ten girls who played in this fixture made progress in the quality of their play and although on reflection, we should have won the game, a draw seemed a fair result. Our Player of the Match was Eloise Squires who was always free and the strength and accuracy of her passing has improved immensely.

U-8B v St Christopher’s A confident start from our Year 3s with an early goal by Florence Keogh. Great defensive play by Kitty Sharp and Jamie Oswald turning the ball over time and again. Occasionally there was some great movement down the court with Phoebe Cline feeding Florence into the D, although not all opportunities were utilised due to our passing accuracy, but this can easily be worked on. The girls have listened so well in lessons and in club and made a conscious effort with their footwork. Final score 3-1 to BHHS, a great effort U-8s, well done!

to good home

We have a number of chairs and tables available to collect on a first come first serve basis. The tables are outside the front of the junior pupils entrance and if you would like to take home any chairs, please contact the office who will arrange a member of the site team to put some aside for your collection.

2014-15 Issue 8: 9

Nursery was transformed into an episode of Masterchef for Halloween when we made our own pumpkin soup! The girls helped with every stage of the preparation, especially the tasting. The taste panel described the soup as “This is delicious”, “Yummy”, “I love this soup” and “Can I have some more please?”

2014-15 Issue 8: 10

PA

NEWS

Bake Sale:

Nov14th 2014- issue 3

Coffee morning:

Congratulations to Year 2 for a magniÞcent spooky Halloween Cake Sale.

The girls had great fun selling their cakes. Thank you to the mums also for the amazing Halloween decorations that made the sale even more fun. Gracie Marshall was Star Baker and Lauren Wills was Commended. The class now have £131.50 to spend.

Year 1’s Christmas cake sale will be on December 11th.

Wanted!

11

We had another successful coffee morning last month and we are well on our way to purchasing a new wooden house for the playground to replace the little plastic one currently being used by the little ones. Our last coffee morning for the year will be on Friday 5th December, there will be free mince pies and Panettone

Christmas Fair (29 November 12-3pm – senior school).

We are only a few weeks away from the Christmas Fair which is our main fund raising event of the year. We need lots of helpers for setting up and running stalls. If you would like to spare an hour or two on either Friday 28th 4pm - 6pm or Saturday 29th fair day please contact Julia Jeyes julia@graftonbanks.co.uk. Please be generous with your time – we can’t run the event without the help of parents.

Rafße tickets will be sent out in the next couple of weeks, we have a bumper selection of prizes this year. Please return any unsold rafße tickets to junior reception, we can re sell them.

The brochures for the fair can be purchased after school, one week before the event and will list rafße prizes, stalls and also an entry to the ‘lucky corner’ lucky dip. Brochures are also on sale on the day of the fair.

We need these items for the Fair! Toys, Games, Puzzles, books and DVDs

Thank you for all the Chocolate Donations so far, the blue bucket is still by the junior front entrance.

Look out for other information coming home in school bags for ways in which you can help –Tom-bola Bags will be on their way home soon to be filled!

Plus any budding cakes bakers out there, we welcome bakes for the cake stall …

All the Personalised Christmas Card Designs have been sent off to the printers and we should be expecting the proofs back the end of next week.

Any more orders from the North Brook Wrapping Paper can still be made on line. Delivery is now free and you receive a free roll of wrapping paper with every order. www.northbrookfundraising.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brighton-and-Hove-HighSchool-Parents-Association/1411628875754408

Also if that isn’t enough we will be holding a

Christmas Disco on Friday December 12th, £4.50 entrance, sure to be a wonderful festive party!

Nicola Chair

pa@gdst.bhhs.com