BHHS Newsletter issue 25

Newsletter Brighton & Hove High School GDSt

Issue 25 April 2015

Dear Parents and Girls,

Despite all the rhetoric and relentless campaigning, one thing a General Election does is make us think about what it means to be a citizen; to consider our responsibilities to our community and to those around us and it has always been important that schools prepare young people to be good citizens. However, in the context of an ever-shrinking and more closely-connected world, the idea of global citizenship has never been so important.

We’ve been looking at our school strategic plan this week. One of our core aims is to develop the school’s outward-looking face. We want our girls to be educated, not just in terms of academic subjects but also as global citizens who can look beyond their individual concerns and understand the complex challenges that face today’s interconnected world. We want to nurture young women who are aware of their social, ethical and political responsibilities and who are ready to show leadership and work together to change the world for the better. We want them to be able to take innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to problem-solving. Importantly, also, we want our girls to be able to prosper in an increasingly global jobs market.

In order to develop girls as global citizens we need to look at our curriculum – both inside and outside the classroom; at our commitment to charitable fundraising; at our links with the local and wider community and at the ways we collaborate with other organisations.

A hugely successful initiative last year was our collaboration with the CRED organization that saw 24 of our girls from Years 9 to 11 travel to Ethiopia to work with Women at Risk - a project where Ethiopian women successfully provide structured counselling and vocational skills training for sex workers on the streets of Addis Ababa. Their task was to run a summer school for the children of these women, with catch up classes and activities that would help them integrate into mainstream schooling.

This summer another group of Brighton and Hove High girls will travel to Bulgaria to work on a project with the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion (an agency of The Trussell Trust, the charity that runs the UK Foodbank network). The activities will serve children from underprivileged Roma communities in Stara Zagora, a town 3 hours outside of Sofia. Our girls will become peer teachers for the week, whilst also learning

about the needs and challenges of the local community. There will be a number of fund-raising

activities in aid of this Bulgarian project taking place over the coming months and any contributions that girls and parents can make will be most welcome.

I would also, as ever, be interested in hearing ideas and suggestions from girls and parents about how we might continue to develop education for global citizenship at BHHS. Have a good weekend.

dates

Jennifer Smith

Mon 27th A2 Photography exam; Y10 exams continue all week; Hullabaloo Community Choir, 6:30-9:45pm; Tues 28th A2 Photography exam; Weds 29th A2 Photography exam; AS Art exam; A/L PE moderation (at Sussex Downs); Thurs 30th AS Photography exam; A/L PE moderation (at St Bede’s); Y8 Junior Maths challenge, p5 (new date); PA meeting, 7pm; Fri 1st May Last day of Y10 exams; Sun 3rd Sixth Form Theatre Studies rehearsal; Mon 4th BANK HOLIDAY Upcoming events... Tues 5th A2 Art Exam; Sixth Form Theatre Studies exam & moderation; School Council training; Wed 6th A2 Art Exam; School Council meeting; Thurs 7th A2 Art Exam; Summer Instrumental Concert, 7pm; Fri 8th Assembly (not Y11) with James Dawson; Y11 Assembly in 604; Last day of teaching for Y11; Y8 HPV (change of date); Sat 9th Junior School Open Afternoon, 2pm; Sat 9th & Sun 10th DofE Expedition Weekend; Sun 10th Stonewall fundraising event, 12pm (Pavilion Gardens) 2014-15 Issue 25: 1

instrumental concert Thursday 7th May at 7:00pm

VISIT THE B RIGHT ON PAGE FOR SHAKESPEARE’S BIRTHDAY GET CREATIVE This challenge brings Shakespeare into the 21st century, uniting his classy writing with modern delivery techniques like instagram and the adobe slate app; plus there’s a lovely feminist twist and a duck...

A cornucopia of delights awaits you on the B RIGHT ON PAGE.

Do check out the competitions page on the English Department firefly site where you will find a rich panoply of competitions to enter. These range from the local to Trust to National competitions. The Brighton Festival Peacock poetry prize looks wonderful and there’s also the WRITE STUFF competition, judged by Barbara Taylor Bradford and aimed specifically at girls. Of course, this is also the season of the Girls’ Day School Trust’s annual Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize. Full details of these and more await you on firefly; enjoy! http://www.barbarataylorbradford.co.uk/thewritestuff/ 2nd May 2015 marks Free Comic Day and local comic shop DAVIDS BOOKS & COMICS in Sydney Street, Brighton will be taking part in this international event.

For more details see http://www.freecomicbookday.com/ 2014-15 Issue 25: 2

DofE

Last weekend eleven Year 11 pupils met up at Jack and Jill windmills to begin their Bronze practice Duke of Edinburgh expedition. They were split into 2 groups and their routes were to take them along the South Downs and then down into the Ditchling and Plumpton Green areas. The weather was sunny, but very windy as they set off to test their navigational and team work skills. Mistakes were made, but rectified and after 6 hours of walking they all arrived tired, but ready to put up their tents in testing conditions. Next came the difficult skill of cooking hot food on a trangia stove in very windy conditions, but they passed with flying colours.

They spent a cold night under canvas, nursing sore legs and a few blisters but all survived and were ready to set off early to complete their routes back to Jack and Jill. Well done all of you - and now you can look forward to doing it all again on your qualifying expedition in June after successfully completing your GCSEs! Thank you to all the staff involved for supervising the girls.

Mrs S Thomas & Mrs J Thomas

HOST FAMILIES SOUGHT

We are looking for families who would be able to host a student from our German partner school as a paying guest from 13th to 21st June. The students have a full programme during the day from Monday to Friday but are in families at the weekend. Please contact Mr Condon or Mrs Zubiena if you are able to help or would like further details.

Mr Condon

2014-15 Issue 25: 3

STEM COMPETITIONS FOR YEAR 7...

This week we have launched two competitions to promote STEM with our Year 7 students.

The Mars Balloon competition. BHHS have a capsule reserved on the next high altitude balloon flight to investigate how things behave on Mars. The balloon will take our experiment up to 30km above Earth and then safely return it so we can see our results. All we need is a brilliant idea that will fit inside a Kinder Egg capsule. Year 7 have been challenged to design the BHHS experiment. The submitted ideas will be judged by a cross-curricula STEM team and the winning idea will be constructed and sent off. Deadline for entries Friday 8th May. More details on the STEM club Firefly page.

The Thales Scratch competition. Thales is trying to encourage the next generation of software and systems engineers by asking students to build their own program using Scratch. As Scratch is very versatile, the girls can really use their imagination to create an interesting and innovative program – a game, story or simulator. Deadline for entries is Friday 19th June. Please see Mrs N Smith or Mr Whiteside for any further information or support.

Mrs N Smith

religious

recommendations from the RE & Philosophy Department Mrs Dowglass

No major religious festivals from the main world religions this week

tv

radio

Friday 24th | BBC2, 9pm | Sex and the Church How Christianity has shaped Western attitudes to sex, gender and sexuality throughout history Friday 24th | Radio 4, 11:30pm | Philosopher’s Arms Sex equality philosopher Janet Radcliffe Richards discusses the issue of gender equality and pay – and whether society should expect women to take 50 per cent of senior positions Sunday 26th | Radio 4, 6:05am | Something Understood Helen Goalen and Abbi Greenland, who together make up the theatre company Rashdash, reflect on the nature of friendship between women Tuesday 28th | Channel 5, 4:25am | Divine Designs - Tomorrow’s God Visits Coventry and Chichester cathedrals to highlight the new contemporary designs after WW2 Tuesday 28th | Radio 3, 10:00pm | Free Thinking Alberto Manguel discusses his new book Curiosity about the thinking of Aquinas, Hume, Carroll and Dante 2014-15 Issue 25: 4

Brighton & Hove High School GDSt

JuniorSchool Dear Parents,

I do hope that you are aware of the Art Competition we are running in conjunction with the Art Rooms for all primary pupils in Brighton and Hove. I spoke to the girls this week and I hope that many of them will take part as not only does the theme “recycling” offer up some creative inspiration, but the prizes are very exciting. Attached to the newsletter this week are full details. If families do need a little more time then we are happy to receive contributions on the Tuesday after the bank holiday (ideal project for bored girls!) but judging will be done on the Tuesday so this really will be the deadline!

The exhibition entries will form part of our open event on May 9th at 2pm alongside some art activities (again based on recycling) that girls may like to join in with. Please keep this date in mind and if you have friends whose children may be interested, please pass on the details.

Best wishes,

Sian Cattaneo

calendar monday 27th Year 6 Bikeability Y2 Wilderness Wood Visit tuesday 28th Year 6 Bikeability wednesday 29th Year 6 Bikeability U-11B Rounders v Sion (Home), 2:40pm U-11 Rounders v Lancing Prep Worthing (Home), 2:40pm thursday 30th Year 6 Bikeability Reception 1 Parent Lunch, 12 noon PA Committee Meeting friday 1st May Year 6 Bikeability Year 3 Cake Sale saturday 2nd Brighton Festival Children’s Parade

Plea for Sainsbury’s Children’s Vouchers

Thank you for the Sainsbury’s vouchers we have collected so far. The current total is more than 2,100. Last year we collected just over 5,000 and it would be great to beat that this year. The scheme runs until the 5th May so if you could drop in every now and again and change allegiance until the beginning of May (we realise the draw of a certain other store is very tempting with free tea/ coffee!) we will be able to order more fun things for the girls to use at playtimes.

Once again thank you and keep sending in those vouchers!

Mrs Rose & Mrs Donley

clubs...

All clubs will be running as usual in week beginning Monday 27th reminders...

CHANGE OF DATE: Please be advised the Nursery Parent Lunch is now on Thursday 18th June (rescheduled from 11th June)

2014-15 Issue 25: 5

TEXTILES club...

The Textiles Club met again this week for the first time since Mrs Hadfield’s return from her sabbatical.

They dyed some of their washed and combed fleece using natural dyes. They used the outer skins of onions to create yellow dye and left it overnight in a slow cooker. They also created purple by crushing and boiling blueberries with vinegar and steeping the fleece in it. They are expecting the results to be much more muted and delicate than modern chemical dyes and therefore hope to be able to recreate authentic Tudor colours.

CHILDREN’S PARADE preparations...

As the Brighton Festival Children’s parade approaches, preparations are continuing and this week Years Five and Six were joined on two afternoons by an enthusiastic group of parents for the costume workshops. The school hall was suddenly filled with dozens of plastic bottles, hundreds of metres of netting in flame colours and more black elastic than you have ever seen. It was a hive of industry as the girls all got busy creating their own flame skirts, wristbands and headdresses. They then set about transforming the bottles into jetpacks. This was done with a lot of glue and silver paint and some of the mums went home looking a lot more sparkly than when they came! The Samba Band have been out practising their rhythms in the lovely sunshine and the dancers will soon be limbering up and rehearsing. We are all looking forward to a fabulous day on Saturday May 2nd so make a note in your diaries and come and cheer us on as we join the rest of Brighton in what we hope will be a parade to remember

2014-15 Issue 25: 6

DENISE PRITCHARD

Thank you to ‘The Book Nook’ in Hove for visiting us on Monday and sharing all of their beautiful books, including lots of new titles and authors.

Vanessa, the manager, Year 6 were very fortunate commented on how much to have a visit, on Monday afternoon, from Denise Pritchard, she enjoyed talking to such avid and motivated readers! one our school Governors. She Thank you also to all of you came to talk to the girls about that popped along to browse how important branding and slogans are when advertising and or buy after school. promoting new products. The girls Sasha Dugdale-King, published poet (and Harriet’s mum!) provided Year 6 with a wonderful discussed what came to mind poetry writing workshop this week. The girls when they looked at a variety enjoyed listening to the songs of a nightingale of logos from Nike, to Disney to then reading a John Clare poem based on this.

McDonalds and Maybelline!

They then had to recreate their own poems They were then split into groups based on the song of either a thrush or blackbird; to look at a selection of wellknown slogans to see if they could they could use sounds, made up words, real words, foreign words or anything that they felt remember which product was being advertised. Mrs Pritchard had been asked represented the bird’s song. The girls came up with some great ideas and had a thoroughly to come and talk to the girls to help them think enjoyable time performing them to their class. about the branding they may wish to do for the products they are going to design and make for their Business Enterprise task this term. All girls thoroughly enjoyed her talk and certainly came away with plenty to think about. Many thanks to Mrs Pritchard for taking the time to do this.

visits

YEAR 4

PARENT POWER GARDENING update...

A huge thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday to help with the re-vamp of our garden - it was a great day! We achieved a lot – clearing out the shed (not a small job by any means), sorting the compost, clearing out beds and not forgetting the tyre planters! As a result of everyone’s hard work we now have a new raised bed ready to be filled with soil for planting, a fabulous bright circle of tyres which will look fantastic when filled with plants and some tyre flower stacks so we have really increased our planting space. We’ve already started planting in Eco Warriors and the aim is that other year groups will also be able to get outside and get planting!

Miss Lyons 2014-15 Issue 25: 7

match reports ROUNDERS v St Christopher’s U-11A This was a good first game of the season for the team. In particular our fielding was very intelligent and well lead by captain, Holly. Daisy’s play as backstop was particularly effective, with a very accurate throw to second base, limiting the opposition’s chance of scoring from a backwards hit. We saw some excellent hitting from Bonnie, who in the second innings scored 3 of a possible 4 rounders. As a team we need to increase the power of the hit, as often we hit the ball, but didn’t manage to score. At half time, our opponents led 10½ to 6½ and with just ½ a rounder between the teams in the second innings, the final score was 19 to St Christopher’s, 14½ BHHS.

U-11B Well done to all of the girls in the U-11B rounders team. This Wednesday they played a fantastic match. We showed some excellent fielding skills, managing to catch out five batters within the first innings. Unfortunately by the end of the first innings we were falling behind, 11-2½. We fought back and upped our batting, managing to score 6 rounders. St Christopher’s matched us and this resulted in a 17-8½ win to St Christopher’s. Our Player of the Match went to Amelia who displayed some wonderful defence skills as backstop. All of the girls improved throughout the game and showed some real promise. We look forward to your next match. Well done girls!

U-9 The U-9s had their first rounders match of the year at home on Wednesday. For some players it was their first ever match. Both teams agreed to play the fixture as a training match in order for all players to learn and be coached as they played. We were put into bat first in difficult conditions with a strong cross wind which didn’t help the bowling and we gained and conceded quite a few half rounders through no balls. This also made it difficult for the batters to make contact with the ball however we managed two full rounders in our first innings with a score of 6½ with one amazing hit from Eliza and Sylvie managing to get round following her hit and some miss fielding.

We then fielded and restricted St Christopher’s to five 5½ rounders with some good bowling from Eliza and good general fielding from the team especially Amy, Leah and Amelia. In our second batting innings we amassed another 6½ rounders with individual rounders from Amelia, Amy and Leah. St Christopher’s were then faced with chasing our total of 13 needing 8 rounders to win. We fielded efficiently and conceded 6 rounders, including two full rounders and several half rounders.

St Christopher’s total of 11½ meant that we won the fixture but it was felt that everyone gained something from this type of fixture and we have plenty to work on prior to our next match. Well done to all of the girls who played it was a great start to the season.

U-8 Both of these teams had little or no experience of rounders so this first contest was used as a training match. For a first outing the U-8s made a great start. They won the toss and fielded first, Rosie looking as if she had been bowling all her life, put some great bowls through to Fleur at back stop.

St Christopher’s scored 5 rounders. BHHS went into bat confidently and scored 2½ rounders. Again Rosie bowled well and made a beautiful catch and the fielding team stumped one of the opposing team out. BHHS last innings was a great effort with some great hits from Atlanta and rounders from Ruby, Bertie and Kitty. Final score 11-8½ to St Christopher’s. Player of the Match was Ruby A. 2014-15 Issue 25: 8

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Brighton & Hove High JUNIOR School GDST Charity No 306983

In conjunction with Art Room Brighton

Recycled Art & Sculpture Competition & Exhibition Open to all primary school pupils Submissions will be exhibited on Saturday 9th May, 2pm

Radinden Manor Road, Hove BN3 6NH 01273 280170 | enquiries@bhhs.gdst.net | www.bhhs.gdst.net

Junior School Open Day & Exhibition Saturday 9th May, 2pm (Tours will also be available on the day) For our annual art competition and exhibition, we are looking for sculptures or paintings using recyclable materials.

You could create a giant piece of fruit using bottle caps or paint a portrait on an old shoe; anything goes! Your artwork can be comprised of just about anything recyclable or reusable, from egg boxes to food tins, old clothing to toothbrushes. Allow your imagination to run free and let those creative ideas burst out from the recycling box!

• The categories are: Ages 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12 • The First prize for Ages 6-9 and 10-12 categories are a year’s tuition at the Art Rooms Brighton, worth £375 and second place will receive a term’s course tuition worth £65 • The first and second prize winners for Ages 3-5 category will win art materials • The closing date for the Art competition is Friday 1st May (4pm) • Art competition entries can be handed in to BHHS Senior School (Montpelier Road, Brighton BN1 3AT) or BHHS Junior School (Radinden Manor Road, Hove BN3 6NH) and marked as “Art Competition Entry” together with the information slip below

Art Competition & Exhibition Entry Slip - please fill in, detach and hand in with your entry Child’s Name: ........................................................................................................................ Age: ..................................

Child’s School: .........................................................................................................

Parent/Guardian Name: …………………………………………….....................…..

Contact Telephone No: …………………………........... E-mail: ……………………………........…………………………....

2014-15 Issue 25: 9

PA

NEWS 11

April 21st 2015- issue 7

Check out our Facebook Page Brighton and Hove High Parents Association to keep up with the latest News.

Parents Association Committee meeting Thursday April 30th 7pm at the Senior School Library.

Welcome back to the summer term, I hope you all had a great Easter Break.

The Summer Events are kicking off with Quiz Night on Friday 24th May hosted by the Master Tim Cattaneo. Nicola Chair

Roller Disco

Saturday 16th May 2:30 - 4:00pm Impulse Leisure Southwick.

Letters with all the details will be sent out soon.

Summer Fair

We are thrilled to announce our Summer Fair will be on Saturday July 4th. We are planning a fun Þlled afternoon at the Junior School which will include internal and external stalls, food, entertainment and lots of activities for everyone. If you are interested in hiring a stall or would love to help out, lets us know.

Wanted

Any unwanted fabrics. We would love you to bring in as much fabric as possible, as we are planning on making and decorating the summer fair with lots of colourful bunting. There will be a box by the Junior School Entrance

We are always looking for volunteers to help with events! Get in touch to join in or if you have any brilliant fundraising ideas!

Parents/staff netball every Weds night term times Junior school lower courts 7.30-9pm followed by a beverage at the Dyke (optional).

All welcome Call Jo 097941335164 or email jphillimore69@hotmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brighton-and-Hove-HighSchool-Parents-Association/1411628875754408

Cake Sales

Well Done Year 4 on a fantastic Easter cake sale. Star Baker was and Lily-Summer & Mia G received Commended.

The girls raised £167.50 a fantastic amount to spend.

We are looking forward to y3 Seaside Theme on Friday 1st May. Y5 have decided to spend the money they raised on new bean bags for their classroom!

Brilliant!

If your year hasn’t made their minds up, get together with your year rep and have a good think!

Exciting News!!!

The PA have pledged £10,000 to the Senior School to go towards building a Botanic Geo Dome for the school grounds. We are looking forward to an update at the next PA committee meeting!

Watch this space…

pa@gdst.bhhs.com