NEWSLETTER 16th October 2015
LETTER FROM THE HEAD Dear Parents As we reach the end of the first half term of the academic year, I look back with satisfaction when I consider all the activity around the school over the last seven weeks. The school has been characterised by an energy and purpose both in and out of the classroom, and the girls are all deserving of their two week holiday so they can recharge before the seven weeks of school that take us to Christmas; a half term that is packed full of activity! This week a group of pupils from Years 10 to 12 were accompanied by Mrs Forshaw and Mr Vickery to Oxford University for a day. This was an opportunity for them to get a brief taste of life at the university and to meet some of its students. Three of our rd nd st old girls; Emma Lipczynski, Katie Tomsett and Amanda Pearce (who are in their 3 , 2 and 1 years respectively) were able to give the group an excellent picture of life at Oxford and, no doubt, much food for thought. With a large number of our current Year 13 applying to Oxford and Cambridge this year, it was good to see a real sense of enthusiasm amongst this group of younger pupils. Whilst talking about Year 13 I have been delighted to see offers from Russell Group universities such as Bristol and Warwick beginning to come in - this augurs very well for the rest of the applications which are being submitted as they are completed by the girls. Parents of Year 12 and 13 girls will be able to access their Interim Reports via the SIMS Learning Gateway later today. These short reports will provide a really valuable progress check after just over 6 weeks of teaching. In some cases these reports will highlight the need for the girls to redouble their efforts as they adjust to the more independent nature of study at A Level, and I trust that advice given and targets set at this stage will lead to sustained and impressive progress over the rest of the term. Parents of Year 7 pupils will receive the targets for their daughters which have been generated with the help of the MidYIS th baseline tests taken by the girls a few weeks ago. An information meeting will be held on Tuesday 10 November where Mr Pickering, my Assistant Head, will explain the assessment, tracking and reporting system. Yesterday afternoon I hosted the termly Governors meeting where we discussed in detail our strategic plan to take the school forward to 2018. A lot of work has been done over the last five years to develop the school both in terms of curriculum and physical environment, and we look forward to continuing this work in the years to come. As a school with solid financial foundations we can look forward to continued substantial investment to enable exciting new projects to enhance the learning experience for our girls. This half term holiday presents an opportunity for a trips and excursions to happen before the weather turns for the winter and we have two groups abroad as I write this letter; one group is studying the fabulous art and architecture that can be found in Florence and another is honing its Spanish speaking skills in Cordoba. In addition, the Gold Duke of Edinburgh group is heading off to the Peak District for their expedition - we wish them luck as they undertake what is a very challenging walking and camping experience! I will be in school for the first week of the holiday having meetings with a variety of contractors who will be working on the pavilion project which we hope to start during November. th
During the first week back after half term will be hosting our Sixth Form Open Evening on Wednesday 4 November. This event will allow us to showcase the very special nature of the education on offer in Years 12 and 13 - the unique combination of quality teaching and pastoral care which gives our girls such an advantage in the university admissions process and beyond in the world of work. We have a Sixth Form here that I am very proud of and I am looking forward to discussing the variety of options which we can offer to girls, both from our own Year 11, and those who will be attending from other schools. You will have received a letter from Mr Pickering last week inviting applications for scholarships and I would encourage you to consider the variety of scholarship opportunities available (Academic, Art, Drama, Music or Sport). At my meeting with the PTA this week, the committee agreed to make a series of purchases of premium items for the school to enhance the girls’ experience, and plans were made to continue to develop the fund raising work of the PTA, including planning for the Winter Fair at the beginning of December. The PTA is now in need of a Treasurer. It is not a particularly onerous task just requiring the keeping of a log of income and expenditure and the presentation of a termly financial summary. If any parent feels that they can fulfil this role please do contact either myself of the Chair of the PTA, Lesley Lipczynski.
Mrs Kugathas will be on maternity leave after half term and we wish her well as she anticipates the birth of her child. I hope to give you the good news of the safe arrival of her baby very soon! We are fortunate to have secured the services of Mrs Asha Mayor, a highly experienced teacher of Biology who has taught at, amongst other schools, Reigate Grammar and Cranleigh School. She will be teaching Mrs Kugathas’ timetable until her return after maternity leave later in the academic year. nd
I hope the girls have a very restful holiday and I look forward to welcoming them back to school on Monday 2 November. Yours sincerely
CROYDON HIGH SCHOOL Old Farleigh Road, Selsdon, South Croydon, Surrey CR2 8YB Tel: 020 8260 7500 Fax: 020 8260 7461 E-mail: info2@cry.gdst.net www.croydonhigh.gdst.net
D Leonard
JUNIOR SCHOOL A CRACKING ASSEMBLY!
Assembly got a little messy in the Junior School last week when Mrs Bradshaw set the girls two egg related challenges. The first group of willing volunteers were tasked with breaking an egg into a container without breaking the yolk. Tips such as “tap the egg on a flat surface” and “don’t hold it too high” were proffered from the audience, and most of the girls managed the task with some skill. The second group were simply asked to ‘unbreak the egg’! Mrs Bradshaw helpfully provided glue and masking tape but the volunteers did not seem to think that these were necessarily up to the job. None-theless, not to be defeated they all made attempt s to re-fill and repair the eggs. After a few minutes it was decided that, despite their best efforts the task of un-breaking an egg might not actually be possible. Mrs Bradshaw then discussed with the girls that there are somethings that cannot be reversed. Being unkind to someone is impossible to un-do. We can, of course, pour the egg back in by apologising and even apply some glue by being particularly nice later. However, unkind words once spoken can no more be un-said than our eggs could be un-broken. This week Mrs Bradshaw followed up the egg assembly with a discussion about what to consider before saying something: to avoid a broken egg!
JUNIOR INFORMAL CONCERT
Our first Informal Concert of the new school Year featured year groups from 1 up to 6, and a correspondingly wide range of musical styles. Zadie, Ishanvi and Oyinlola in Year 1 all gave their first concert performances and we heard some very accomplished playing from Reena, Miu and Sneha in Years 2 and 3, all on piano. We had more piano pieces from Temilola Dawodu, Leonie Meyer and Aiyana Wimalasuriya in Year 4, and it was nice to hear a flute solo from Francesca Middleton- Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘Edelweiss’ from The Sound of Music. Mishti Busa brought along her keyboard to perform ‘The Skye Boat Song’ and Chanelle Ohemeng-Mensah gave a lively performance of ‘I’m an Old Cowhand’. Three Year 6s performed for us: Amelia Middleton on Trumpet, Abigail Daly on Piano and finally Senaya Wimalasuriya performing a movement from a concerto by Rieding on the violin, before the Jazz Band, who only started playing together a month ago, rounded off the concert with a mostly improvised piece. Well done to all the participants!
OUR LOCAL AREA
Year 1 have been learning about ‘Our Local Area’ in Geography. Throughout the half term the girls have been learning about the different types of houses that we live in and the businesses within our community such as a medical centre, a large supermarket, a dentist and also the facilities we have access to such as a library, community hall and Church. This then led to use looking at the jobs people do in our local area. We were very fortunate that we were able to go into St Johns Church where we were greeted by Reverend Jenny; she gave us a very warm welcome. The girls enjoyed looking around the church and informing her about what we had seen on our walk.
THE SILVER SWORD by Lara, Juno and Amelia
Nineteen girls from years 5 and 6 groaned as we had to wake up on a Saturday morning, but we were extremely excited to see the performance of “The Silver Sword“at the Ashcroft Theatre. We found out that the musical performance was about a paper knife, the silver sword”, which three children called Brionna (the youngest), Ruth and Edek (the eldest) treasured as it had been a gift to their Mother. The story followed the children’s hunt from their home town in Poland at the end of WW2 to find their long lost parents. After the delicious snacks in the interval the lights went dim so we quickly put our beverages away and listened with interest for the next part of the amazing performance. At the end we strolled down the stairs conversing about what we had just seen. It was a heart-warming performance that we all enjoyed.
SENIOR SCHOOL SENIOR HARVEST FESTIVAL
On Friday 9th October we held our annual Harvest Festival in the School Hall. This year Emma Spencer was the guest speaker representing the Salvation Army, from The Vine, a New Addington food bank. Following the wonderful procession of harvest gifts from Year 7, the Heads of House judged the best decorated harvest box competition and then Year 7 proceeded to load up the school minibus with the harvest gifts. Emma and her team were very grateful for the food donations from the CHS community, and spoke to the school about how and when they will be used over the next few weeks. Thank you to all girls who donated some food items for this Year’s Harvest Festival. Congratulations to our winners Jasmine Aaliyah, Eve Papacharalambous, Thirisha Anpalakan and overall winner Kaylin Screene
BIG BIOLOGY DAY
The CHS Biology Department held a Big Biology Day last Weds. Mrs Conrad was very impressed by the standard of the baked entries for the Biology Bake Off. Students were very creative in their creation of a cake decorated to look like a biological specimen! The lower school winner was Anna Kassim with her excellent eyeball, and the Upper School winner was Carlotta Meyer with a cake showing the very detailed internal structure of a kidney. Photographs of all the cakes have been entered into a national competition organised by the Physiological Society. There was also a Big Biology Quiz at lunchtime which was won by Sam Martin, Sophie Hemming-Taylor and Lucy Wingrove. Edible prizes were awarded in assembly on Friday. Mrs Conrad would like to thank all those students who took part.
NATIONAL POETRY DAY
CHS was in full poetic swing on Thursday 8th October as National Poetry Day hit the School. Girls examined an anthology of the staff’s favourite poems in tutor time and moved on to poetry themed lessons across a variety of subject areas. The theme of the day was LIGHT and this was in evidence at lunch in the LRC when 37 girls wrote acrostic poems on the theme of light following presentations from Hannah Parsons, Alita Butcher-Wallis and Kristen Agyekumhene on their favourite poems, and an engaging talk from Dr Chapman about prisms. The lunchtime event concluded with festive cake, a feast for the mind! Poetry flash mobs were a real highlight of the day as groups of girls burst in on lessons and surprised participants with energetic recitations. The whole school was alive with the speaking and writing of poetry; a wonderful celebration of an important cultural day.
Collaborative Poems – Light Inspired Light can fill up the darkness Ignite a Flame Glorious sunshine fills the city like a light bulb in a dark room Heating up the atmosphere Twinkling and sparkling the light goes on
Let the light shine through the dark at night Into the darkness it flows Giving to the people of the world Hypnotised by its flickering flames Together we soar beyond the light
Luminous rays Ignite the room Great flickers of light Happily dancing Through the night
MY EXPERIENCE PLAYING WITH THE LONDON MOZART PLAYERS by Y8 Charlotte Haines On the 4th October five orchestral string players attended an event that was organised by the London Mozart Players at the Fairfield Halls. The cellists were Chanelle Mensah, Amy Murrell, Amba Patel and Charlotte Haines. The violinist was Shenai Lewis. The piece that we performed with the London Mozart Players was called Fiddlers Hill composed and conducted by Jeff Moore. Moore who is a violinist with the LMP wanted to create a piece that was "Useful" meaning anybody could take part whether they were a beginner or at an advanced level. I really enjoyed working with other musicians and we all achieved so much given that we only had a ninety minute rehearsal before we performed to the public. It was a great experience and I would love to do something like this again.
LIFE DRAWING by Y12 Blanche Brown and Caroline Ip
On Wednesday 14th October, girls from years 10-13 took part in a day of Life Drawing run by Royal Academy tutor, Jeanette Barnes (http://jeanettebarnesart.co.uk/.) The day was a great experience for all girls and some fantastic studies were produced. Jeanette Barnes was very inspirational and introduced the girls, particularly those who were new to life drawing, to exciting and experimental drawing techniques that can be applied to the girls’ coursework. Jeanette encouraged the girls to produce work outside of their comfort zones in terms of scale and use of material. By doing this she encouraged the girls to broaden their horizons and think more freely about how they draw.
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD by Fariha Baba and Blanche Brown
On Tuesday 13th of October, a group of girls from Years 10-12, piled onto the minibus, set for New College, Oxford. Upon arrival, the girls had a question and answer session with current Oxford undergraduates. After learning about the reality of student life, including discovery of the Oxford Quidditch team, they went on a tour around New College, before heading to lunch. Afterwards, the girls were given a talk by New College's admissions officer about the application process for Oxford. The girls also had the opportunity to ask questions about specific courses which was very useful. After this, three CHS old girls currently studying at Oxford: Emma Lipczynski [third year English at Pembroke College], Katie Thomsett [second year Human Sciences, New College] and Amanda Pearce [first year Modern Languages, New College] showed the girls around some other colleges, libraries and even the science museums. All the girls felt inspired by the busy Oxford town centre and incredible architecture. The day was a great success and we’re sure many girls will be applying for Oxbridge in future years!
THORNTON HEATH COMMUNITY PROJECT
On Thursday evening, 15th October, 14 girls, Miss Dixon and Mrs Beck went to Thornton Heath Leisure Centre to meet the organisers and players of a community Netball project. We donated some equipment and played against their teams in their first competitive Netball experience. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening supporting our local community, Madame Mayor also joined us in the celebration.
PHOTOGRAPH 51
Twelve Year 12 and 13 Science students accompanied Mrs Conrad and Ms Kolankiewicz to The Noel Coward Theatre to see Nicole Kidman in a performance of Photograph 51 (the first time she has been on stage in London for 15 years). This new play looks at the life of the scientist Rosalind Franklin and her ground-breaking work whilst at Kings College that helped unlock the structure of DNA. A small cast of 8 actors kept us captivated as we saw her using X ray crystallography to discover the shape of the molecule, and trying to keep ahead of other scientists by battling for recognition as a female scientist in the 1950’s. Ultimately it was her eponymous photograph that helped Watson and Crick develop their model, but she gained little recognition before her death aged just 37. The 90 minute show took us on quite a journey through the highs and lows of scientific research and her personal relationships. We all agreed that this is a show well worth seeing.
BOOK CORNER
Finding Jennifer Jones by Anne Cassidy - When a child is found murdered on the beach, nineteen-year-old Kate Rickman’s past catches up with her. She becomes the prime suspect. Why? Because nine years earlier she committed a terrible crime, the consequences of which she will never escape. Tired of living a lie, she decides to break her parole rules and contact a girl from her past, someone who will understand what she’s going through. A tense sequel to Looking for JJ which forces us to think about punishment, guilt and forgiveness. A great Young Adult read (Year 9 and up).
WHOLE SCHOOL A CLASS OF 2005 REUNITE
The class of 2005 organised a 10th anniversary reunion and asked to hold the event at school. On Sunday 11th October girls arrived at the year 11 common room with their ‘picnic’ lunches, some with family in tow. For the majority, it was the first time they had returned to school since 2005 and the photos and magazines from the archives brought back many memories. Former Deputy Head Mrs Stainbank joined the reunion and later Mrs Leonard came to meet the girls and brought them up to speed with all the latest Croydon High news. Their afternoon would not have been complete without a tour of the school and all were impressed by the many areas of the school that have been developed. Each and every one was buzzing after the tour as they bid farewell and left with their goody bags with promises and plans of meeting again at Ivy Link (CHS alumnae network) Summer Lunch.
SPORT
EVENT/ OPPONENTS
Biathlon
Surrey Schools
AGE GROUP U10
RESULT Lauren Baldwin - 2nd
U11
Amelia Middleton - 4th, Orrin Blair - 25th
U12
Hannah Carter - 30th
U13 U14
Olivia Thompson - 2nd, Tay Blair 9th, Jasmin Vickars 31st U13 Team - 3rd overall rd 3 in their group
U15
2 in their group - qualified for finals
nd
Lauren, Amelia and Olivia have all qualified for the Nationals! WELL DONE GIRLS Cross Country
Croydon Schools
U8 U9
Tony James Bromley
U9 U10-11
Hockey
Bromley High
Greenacre Netball
Caterham Coloma Nonsuch Surrey Tournaments
Sutton Tumbling
Surrey
U13A
Lost 0-3
U13B
Lost 0-3
U15
Won 3-1
U12A
Won 9-0
U12B
Won 3-0
U16A
Lost 11-25
U16B
Lost 7-22
U12A
Won 18-5
U15
Lost 11-35
U12A
Won 9-0
U12B
Lost 3-4
U14
3rd place
U15
2nd place
U16
4th place
U19
5th place
U13A
Lost 10-7
U13B
Lost 7-6
U9
5th place
U11
7th place
U13
6th place
U15
3rd place
U19
1st place
Abisa Subramaniyam 77th, Amara Watson 107th, Zariya Bennett 110th, Amber Bloomfield 3rd, Francesca Middleton 4th, Claudia Fletcher-Alvarez 15th Amber Bloomfield, Francesca Middleton, Aiyana Wimalasuriya, Sophia Patrick and Claudia FletcherAlvarez all in top 30 Fun Run Scores not recorded 1st Amelia Middleton, 25th Lara Bowler, 27th Orrin Blair, 28th Katrina Warren