SIXTH FORM NEWS

Hello everyone, I hope everybody had a lovely week, despite the cold!

We have had a very eventful week in Sixth Form, kicking it off on Monday with the International Women's Day assembly given by the Head Girl Team. This year’s theme was embracing equity, which the International Women’s Day Organisation defines as recognising that each person has different circumstances and ensuring that everyone is given the same resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. The girls learnt about three intellectual women: Rosalind Franklin, Ada Lovelace and Katherine Johnson, who all made groundbreaking discoveries in their fields but whose work was credited to men. They also heard about women who have acted as role models to members of staff in the school and received a purple ribbon to mark the special day.

On Tuesday, the whole of Year 12 attended a UCAS convention in Surrey Sports Park to visit multiple wellknown universities such as Southampton, Nottingham and Sheffield. The girls really enjoyed talking to representatives from lots of universities and exploring the broad range of courses available to them. It allowed them to discover courses that they hadn’t thought of before and will be very beneficial to them when applying to university in Year 13.

On Tuesday lunchtime, St Teresa’s received a visit from a St T's alumna, Mrs Reid Banks, a famous British author of the best-selling “The Indian in the Cupboard.” She kindly donated her latest (and 48th!) book ‘The Red Red Dragon’ to our library. Our previous Deputy Head Girl, Emma W, along with the Head Girl Team from Prep School, gave Mrs Reid Banks and her son a tour of the school. The Head Girl Team arrived back at school just in time to meet her and find out what life was like at St Teresa’s in the 1940s. It was such a pleasure to meet such an inspirational woman and we hope that she comes to visit again soon!

Wednesday saw large amounts of snow on St Teresa’s grounds, resulting in the school’s closure for a ‘snow day’. The staff acted quickly to ensure that all lessons were available to attend online, including a relaxing hour of yoga for the Sixth Form and staff, run by Ms Elliott. When we returned on Thursday, we all enjoyed walking and playing in the snow, glad to have the school open again so soon.

On Thursday, the annual Oxbridge Programme trip went to the Oxbridge Masterclass UK Student Conference, hosted in Oxford. The trip was open to all girls from Years 10-13. The programme for the day included Science and Humanities seminars in addition to specialist sessions about applying to Oxbridge, for example Dr Julie Arliss’ session about “Oxbridge interview questions to help stretch and challenge flexible minds”.

Last Friday, as a treat to help them to relax after their mocks, the Year 13 students participated in a Sound Bath during their Friday Enrichment lesson. Hannah P said that the sound bath included gongs, crystals and Himalayan bowls and it was very therapeutic and really aided them to unwind. She also commented that girls felt that they were ‘in a deep state of relaxation’ and felt an increased sense of calm. The music, made by the variety of instruments, sent many students into a state of rest and Hannah said that they were all fascinated by the experience, feeling a reduced sense of stress. The sound bath was conducted by Sue Greenwood who has a PhD in music. Hannah highly recommend joining one of her sessions if you can.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead and that you take some time to explore the women who have influenced your life.

Julia T Deputy Head Girl