End of Term Newsletter
Contents ART
C L A S S O F 2 0 2 2 C E L E B R AT I O N S
COMPUTING
C U LT U R E W E E K
DRAMA
M E N TA L H E A LT H W E E K
FRENCH
MENCAP
GEOGRAPHY
S P O R T S D AY 2 0 2 2
M AT H S
T E L E P H O N E C A M PA I G N 2 0 2 2
MUSIC
S TA F F N E W S
PE
STEM
Headmistress' End of Term Message Dear Parents and Guardians, It has been an action-packed year here at Haberdashers’ Girls’ School and I am delighted that once again the school has been able to offer our students an outstanding academic programme and a full range of co-curricular activities and events. Coming back to our pre-Covid state has not been a simple matter of turning on a switch and I would like to give my upmost thank you to all of our incredible staff, both teaching and nonteaching who have made this possible. Their commitment and dedication to our students creates an environment and the opportunities to enable our students to thrive. I also want to say thank you to our St Catherine Parents’ Guild, who work tirelessly supporting our school community, organising social events for parents and students, running our successful outgrown uniform shop and creating lasting memories for our
students. You really do make a difference. Thank you. Finally, our parent community. Thank you for supporting us and your children. Your children make every day at Habs a fun and enjoyable place to work and teach. I wanted our end of term letter to be a little different this year. You receive so many letters from us and as a parent I know how hard it is to keep on top of school admin! This is in an easy-toread flipbook format newsletter with lots of fantastic images to showcase what an incredibly fruitful and fun year we have had. We are planning on keeping in touch next year with more communication like this, so feedback will be gratefully received. My personal highlights this year have been our first Habs Giving Day, our first joint Sports Day at the StoneX Stadium and our
celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee. All three events demonstrated how strong and caring we are together as a community. Across all the achievements this year you can see how our values of ambition, curiosity, courage and community are exemplified and upheld. It is a joy to see. Looking forward, I am very excited about the new term. September will bring us both change and challenge. All our students in Lower Sixth will experience co-education teaching at Habs for the very first time, alongside major timetable changes through the school and for parents and students, the introduction of our improved communication portal Firefly. In the meantime, I wish you all the very best for your summer.
Mrs R Hardy
Parent Portal change...
Parent Portal to Firefly We are pleased to inform you that we will be moving from our current Parent Portal system to a Firefly Parent Portal. This new platform enables us to bring both school communities together and simplify our communications between students, parents and teachers. The Parent Portal will close and all data will be removed on 3 August 2022. Please may we kindly ask you to download all data stored on Parent Portal, such as fees bill, reports, mid-year grades and any exam information before 3 August. All data will be permanently deleted from your account on 3 August. The Firefly portal will launch for parents and students on 31 August and we will send log in instructions and a how to guide on 31 August 2022 (please note that your email address held by us on 3 August 2022 will be used for Firefly, so if you change your email details after this date please notify the school).
Art
SEPTEMBER TRIP
The Art department took Lower Sixth students to see the Alice in Wonderland exhibition at the V&A. This exhibition had a marked impact on the students first coursework project.
OCTOBER TRIP The Art department took Lower Sixth students to Margate back in October. Students visited Turner Contemporary Gallery, met and worked alongside local artists, used paint and sea water whilst creating artwork on the beach, and ate plenty of chips. An amazing weeklong visiting artists programme saw a different artist visit the school each day. Artists were able to demonstrate great new hints and tips showing the students their secret techniques of how to get the best from each media. A special one-off visiting artists Saturday Workshop was so popular we will have decided to plan this again for next year.
FEBRUARY TRIP The Art department organised a trip for Upper 5 students to the Turner Contemporary summer exhibition in Margate, which helped to kickstart their second course work project.
GCSE AND A LEVEL ART EXHIBITION The pinnacle of each year for the Art department is the GCSE and A Level Art exhibition. This wonderful event allows students, friends, and family to celebrate each student’s success. Each student’s individual display highlighted their passion for art
J U LY T R I P The Art department organised for Middle 5 students to visit St Ives for their three-night residential trip at the end of term. Students visited galleries, working with local artists and had the opportunity to draw and paint the beautiful scenery.
and their wonderful artistic talent. The evening was very well attended with family and friends all very proud of the students’ achievements.
Music SENIOR SUMMER CONCERT
The Music department would like to shout about the Senior Summer Concert, which featured all of Lower 4 sounding fantastic singing together as a massed choir; the Performing Arts Evening, which showcased the stunning musical theatre talents of our students from Lower 4 to Lower Sixth, singing
as soloists, or in duets and small ensembles; the House Music Festival, which gave the opportunity for students to perform to each other and a guest adjudicator; the Junior Summer Concert, which featured a wonderful array of solo musicians, orchestras, ensembles, choirs and bands.
S P O T L I G H T: S T R I N G S A N D O R C H E S T R A J O I N T C O N C E R T Our final concert of the year gave the stage to our young string players, as well as two new orchestras – Chamber Orchestra and Camerata. The audience was treated to some mesmerising chamber music, particular highlights including an incredible performance of Beethoven’s First Piano Trio, and Haydn’s String Quartet op.77, no. 1.
The culmination of the evening was a memorable performance of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, an orchestra of musicians from Years 7 to 10 from both Haberdashers' Girls' and Haberdashers' Boys' Schools. The reception to this was incredible, the standard of this young orchestra an exciting marker as to where orchestral playing at Habs is heading over the coming years.
Computing During Spring Term, 40 students across Year 8 competed in the CyberFirst Competition. In teams of four, the students completed challenges based on advanced cyber-security topics. Four students made it to the final round of the competition. The team, Fruit Pi, placed second in the UK out of all competing independent schools, achieving two thousand points in one day. This is the highest placement in the competition that Habs Girls has had in over three years.
Drama The Drama team have been busy this term with a range of events including the ambitious production of EMILIA by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, with a company of over 120 students from Upper 4 to Lower Sixth performing to full houses. The whole of the Lower 4 have worked in class on a show based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, performing to an audience of parents on the field. The Arts Award scheme continues to provide wonderful opportunities for students to extend their learning out of the classroom and this term the Lower Sixth Gold Arts Award group have completed projects including organising a STEAM Day of workshops for the whole of the Lower 5, curating an Art exhibition of work created by middle school Art Clubs, working with the
Lower 4 in form times and hosting a Recycled Fashion show. The Lower 5 have also been to the West End to see the fabulous &Juliet as part of their Bronze Arts Award, and Lower 5 and Middle 5 students have led creative workshops with the Middle School and Junior School as part of the Bronze and Silver qualifications.
French Lower 5 French students put on an event celebrating the Francophone world this half term. Students worked in small groups and were tasked with researching a French-speaking country and creating a stand, showcasing their research in a creative way. The stands were informative and very well-displayed, and the students enjoyed being able to learn more about the French-speaking world. Prizes were awarded to the winning groups, who really impressed the judging panel.
Geography In the Geography department, we have returned to normal with trips, both day and residential. Just before half term, the Lower Sixth geographers had four days at Dale Fort FSC, Pembrokeshire, Wales, where they were learning about human and physical geography data collection, presentation and statistical methods. A wonderful time was had by all staff and students who were invigorated to get back and start their NEAs.
Maths Two Maths trips went out this half term. Lower 4 pupils visited Spymissions in Milton Keynes for code breaking activities including a laser assault course. They also visited Teardrop Lakes in Milton Keynes where they were able to walk around the lake and see the ducks. Upper 4 pupils went to Bletchley Park. They saw the Enigma machine in use, had a go at some codebreaking and had a tour of the huts where the codebreakers worked. They learnt about the history of Bletchley Park and the people who worked there. Both trips were in glorious sunshine and very much enjoyed by all.
Physical Education AT H L E T I C S
It has been a fantastic summer term of Athletics with students competing in different competitions across District and Regional Level. Students from Lower 4 to Middle 5 took part in the Habs 7 Athletics competition on Wednesday 15 June in Oxford, where they competed against six other schools from the Haberdashers’ company. There were some impressive results across both teams, with the U14 team finishing in second place and the U16s taking first place. On Friday 10 June, students from Years 7 and 8 competed in the East Area Prep Schools competition. There were some fantastic results, including: Eniola O finishing second in the U13 70m hurdles and first in the high jump, Sedona D finishing second in the U14G 100m, Shammah S finishing first in the U14G 200m and Anna M finished second in the U14G 1500m.
Following their results, these four students have now been selected to compete for the East Area in the National Prep Schools competition on the Monday 4 July in Nuneaton. On Saturday 11 June, several students competed in the Hertfordshire Schools Track and Field Championships. Results included: third place for Sedona D in the Junior Girls Long jump, first place for Omi M in the Inter Girls 100m and first place for Dina S in the Inter Girls 800m. Following their performance, Dina S and Omi M were selected to represent Hertfordshire in the English Schools Athletics Association Track and Field Championships in Manchester from the Friday 8 to Saturday 9 July. This is a fantastic achievement for the students and we wish them all the best in the National competitions.
DANCE On Wednesday 22 June, our Upper 4 and Lower 5 students had the opportunity to take part in a contemporary dance workshop led by members of the James Cousins Dance Company. Students developed their knowledge, understanding, and performance of contemporary dance and participated with high levels of effort and enthusiasm. In the afternoon, the Habs dance company took part in the workshop which enabled
them to further develop their technique and contact skills. This was a fantastic opportunity for all students to try something new and have fun!
LACROSSE Habs PE introduced mixed Lacrosse as an co-curricular club for the Middle 5 and Lower Sixth students from both the Girls' and Boys' School. This was the first mixed Lacrosse team to be introduced at Habs. It was incredibly successful with 40 students from both schools participating weekly. The team had their first school match ever against Stowe, with 32 students participating in lacrosse. We are proud of all students and their hard work!
NETBALL The PE department travelled with 47 Upper 4 and Lower 5 students for a weekend at Liddington PGL. The weekend consisted of netball matches alongside a range of outdoor activities including rock climbing, abseiling, zip wire, vertical climb, giant swing, and trapeze. The weekend of netball was very successful, with our Upper 4 A team coming 1st, Upper 4 Bs coming 2nd and Lower 5 A and B teams coming joint 3rd place. The trip was open to everyone, not just squads, and is an excellent example of how we can keep all our students engaged with sport. The students were fantastic throughout the whole weekend, the PE department were very proud!
ROUNDERS The U14 Rounders team finished first in the District Tournament earning gold medals. Congratulations to the team for all their hard work and success. Well done to all rounders teams this year from U12 to U15 on your involvement, we had lots of fun!
TENNIS The PE department had a great Tennis season after having two years off for Covid with full participation at lunchtime and afterschool clubs. The Tennis league was a success all round, with U12 team as overall winners, U13 second in the whole of Hertfordshire and the U14 and U15 teams both securing runners-up. Notable Team Tennis performances are made to both U13 and U15 squads against Berkhamsted and RMS. The U14 Rounders team finished first in the District Tournament earning gold medals. Congratulations to the team for all their hard work and success. Well done to all rounders teams this year from U12 to U15 on your involvement.
STEM Larissa C in Lower 5 was the South East regional finalist of the Big Bang competition this year and presented her project on digital healthcare at the National Big Bang fair at The NEC in Birmingham on Wednesday 22 June. She did a fabulous job communicating her research on the impact of digital devices and apps on healthcare, how they are currently used and how they may be used in the future. Her superb work won her the Junior Scientist of the year runner up prize! Larissa was mentored throughout her project by Habs alumni Dr Mala Mawkin so this was a lovely ‘Habs STEM’ joint effort. Larissa very much enjoyed her time at the fair, especially when she got to meet Habs Girl Alumni Nicola Jacobson who was presenting with the National Grid team.
Class of 2022 Celebrations
On Wednesday 29 June, we said farewell to the outgoing Upper Sixth at their Leavers’ Evening. With Covid having caused so much disruption to their final years of school it was great to be able to give them a proper send off. The evening started with a ceremony where the whole year group was celebrated and academic and co-curricular excellence within the cohort was acknowledged. The celebrations then continued outside with a drinks reception for parents, students and teachers from the Girls’ School and Boys' School before the students headed into their Leavers’ Dinner. This dinner was a wonderful occasion, and it was fantastic to see students from both schools coming together to celebrate their time at Habs. As the evening drew to a close, there were hugs and tears all round as they said their goodbyes and looked forward to the future.
Culture Week
In collaboration with the Boys’ School, and a little longer than a week, this year’s Culture Week (Monday 20 to Friday 4 June) involved two whole school assemblies on Diversity and Pride, daily lunchtime workshops led by the variety of societies we have in school and a Pride party in the heart of the school grounds. Diversity continues to be so important to us as a school because of its natural prevalence in our lives. Everyone around is different in one way or another, which is why Diversity Week plays such a pivotal role. It gives us all a reason to look at the boundless display of culture, religion, race, sexuality and more
that is all around our school – and the world – and celebrate our differences. Activities ranged from Jewish Society’s Afikomen challenge, South Asian Society’s sari draping competition, African Caribbean Society’s creative writing workshop, East Asian Society’s origami making and Middle Eastern and North African Society’s Dabke dance tutorials. Overall, the week was a great success and it was wonderful to see the incredibly positive response to this celebration of our differences from both students and staff.
Mental Health Week Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 was a joyous experience, marked by the return of full assemblies and focusing on the many aspects of how we might care for ourselves. Initiatives from pupils were excellent. Our main speaker to Year 12 Girls’ School and Boys’ School students was Hyphen, otherwise known as Aadarsh Gautam (OH 2011). Hyphen is a BBC Futuresounds artist. He played at Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2019, was shortlisted for Glastonbury in 2020 (before it was cancelled due to Covid), and Latitude in 2021. He has been cosigned by Yungblud, Saweetie and Jay Sean. His latest songs have been featured regularly on BBC Radio 1 and the ‘New Music Friday’ playlist. Most recently,
he’s been writing for Tujamo, a German House Producer with a billion streams, who is in the Top 30 DJs globally. He is also a mental health spokesperson for Formula-E. He has made a promising start to a music career, which seemed unlikely after graduating with a degree in Philosophy and Economics from UCL and working at Goldman Sachs. The aim of the talk was to help remove the stigma around speaking out about our mental health and to give practical tips on how we can improve it, based on personal experience. Hyphen talked openly about his experiences with depression and his career. A fantastic, interactive presentation, with pupils being able to ask questions live through a QR code link. We thank Hyphen for his time and energy.
Mencap On Sunday 26 June, Haberdashers’ Girls’ School and Haberdashers' Boys' School hosted the 2022 Habs Mencap Funday, which was organised by a committee of 12 Lower Sixth and Year 11 students from our two schools. Around 270 student volunteers from both schools looked after our guests, children between the ages of 5 and 16 with physical and learning disabilities. We were further supported by around 40 colleagues from both schools. We are extremely grateful for the generous donations from our Habs families. It is their generosity, which enabled us to host the event. Each child was looked after by two, sometimes three students, depending on the need of care. The children are then able to participate in various games, arts and crafts, dance, or simply enjoy the chance to run in the open spaces. Each of these activities was led by other student volunteers. Further attractions included face painting, bouncy castles, a ball pool, a coconut shy and bubble shows. On top of this, Chris McGeever (OH 2006) again mesmerised us all with his magic show. After a two-year hiatus and autumn restrictions delaying the start of our preparations, this year has been particularly challenging for our Mencap Committee, as only very few students had had any opportunity to experience a Mencap Funday before.
Therefore, many of the seemingly obvious elements had to be re-learned, the school’s forgotten memory revived, and the vast team of helpers (staff and students) across the schools retrained. It is a credit to the attitude and resilience of the Committee that they managed to organise all the Mencap activities with commitment and ultimate success. As always at the Funday, the work of all our students is a sight to behold. From the moment the guest families arrived in the coach car park, they were welcomed with warmth, smiles and care by our students. It is difficult to exaggerate the maturity that the students display, with which they take charge of the day and, importantly, with which they support each other. We are very grateful again for the generous support from Mencap via their Barnet office, most importantly through Reshma Hirani, the Mencap Hate Crime Reporting Coordinator. Reshma provided invaluable advice for the training of our volunteers. Many of our regular guests' parents tell us that the day is one of the very highlights of the year for the families, one that both children and parents look forward to for weeks and weeks. The messages are moving and a joy to share with our student volunteers. Indeed, given the aforementioned context, they may also underline that our Funday might now just be more important than ever.
Mencap Committee 1. Ali D (Girls’ School) 2. Eden D (Girls’ School) 3. Krish (Boys' School, Co-Chair) 4. Kishan (Boys' School) 5. Michael (Boys' School) 6. Arun (Boys' School) 7. Tanush (Boys' School) 8. Ishaani P (Girls’ School) 9. Sienna P (Girls’ School) 10. Tabby P (Girls’ School, Co-Chair) 11. Dylan (Boys' School) 12. Evie S (Girls’ School)
Sports Day 2022 The events of Thursday 30 June 2022 will always be viewed as a significant day in the history of both schools. Indeed, the inaugural joint school sports day was a superb example of the benefits of collaboration and a fine illustration of what can be achieved when both schools come together to share the same common purpose. Over 1,200 athletes all participated in at least two events, ranging from traditional track and field, through to the wagon wheel roll and the community mile. The intention was to create a sports day that would appeal to all students, regardless of athletic ability and we were adamant that the day should be as inclusive as possible. Each participant would become part of a franchise team, created from the colours of the Houses across the schools, thus the Yellow Lions as an example, were made up of athletes from the Houses of Millar (Girls’ School) and Strouts (Boys’ School). Every event was scored equally and each discipline contributed to the final result. As with many things at school, the relative success of an event is really
only determined by the pupils themselves and we were delighted with the ambition and courage shown by all of the participants. Furthermore, each individual’s commitment to Sports Day was best illustrated by the fact there wasn’t a single empty lane in over 65 races on the track.
There were some fantastic results across the board from our students, including Eniola O who ran 11.80s in the Year 7 70m hurdles, Shammah S who completed the Year 8 300m in 44.3s. There was also Omi M in Year 10 who won the 100m in 12.2s and Sixth Former, Bella P who came first in the Year 12 High Jump by completing 1.45m!
The schools would like to extend their gratitude to all of the staff who played an active role on the day, whether that be via the officiating of an event or by performing a vital role in the supervision of the pupils. As one might imagine, many months have been spent planning and organising an event of this magnitude.
And after six hours of competition, spanning over 130 events, the final standings were as follows:
Well done to all who participated!
1st THE RED FOXES (Sprules and Hendersons) 2nd THE BLUE SHARKS (Harold and Russells) 3rd THE YELLOW LIONS (Millar and Strouts) 4th THE GREEN DRAGONS (Gilliland and Joblings) 5th THE PURPLE PANTHERS (Gillett and Meadows) 6th THE ORANGE GRIFFINS (Powell and Calverts)
Telephone Campaign 2022
The 2022 Telephone Campaign will be held Monday 8 to Monday 22 August, with recent school leavers from both Haberdashers’ Girls’ School and Haberdashers’ Boys’ School calling Old Haberdashers and parents to raise funds for bursaries, scholarships and other Habs priorities. Callers are looking forward to the conversations, which are also an opportunity to share Habs stories old and new with the wider Habs community.
Staff News Leavers Rachel Astor Damian Berry Emma Bridgeman-Williams Juan Carbonell Sarah Deamer Hannah Diwakar Andrew Doe Emma Green Kate Healer Joseph Holmes Abbey Jones Michael Lewis Mary McCarthy Louise Jeffcock Michelle Sorohan Adele Tebb Divyesh Thakerar David Thompson Charlotte Turner Lauren Woodville
Teacher of Design and Technology Reporting and Data Analyst Teacher of Drama Teacher of Spanish Teacher of Art Teacher of History Head of Middle School Teacher of German Head of Economics Information Services Officer Deputy Head (Pastoral) Director of Operations Teacher of Geography Teacher of English (part-time) Teacher of Economics Head of German Second in English Chief Operating Officer Assistant Director of Music Head of Psychology/Teacher of Maths
New appointments Neal Ahya Misbah Arif Joseph Asamoah Maria Begona Gamboa-Roman Kieth Chester Jessica Curtis James Driscoll Rob Dunn Gloria Folaranmi Daniel Foster Alexander Freeman Zarqa Hayat Hayley Linale Lucy Lourenco Rebecca Mitchell Simon Montgomery Faith Turner Dhara Valambhia
Teacher of Economics Teacher of Chemistry Teacher of Design and Technology Teacher of Spanish (trainee) Caretaker Head of Spanish Development and Database Manager Chief Operating Officer Head of Economics Head of German Teacher of Classics Teacher of Chemistry Teacher of English Teacher of English Assistant Director of Music Teacher of Maths Head of Drama Head of Psychology
New school day timings START END Registration 8.35am 8.45am Period 0* 8.45am 9.15am Period 1 9.15am 10.15am Break time 10.15am to 10.35am Period 2 10.35am 11.35am Travel time 11.35am to 11.40am Period 3 11.40am 12.40pm Lunch time 12.40pm to 1.55pm Period 4 1.55pm 2.55pm Travel time 2.55pm to 3pm Period 5 3pm 4pm Period 6 4.15pm 5.15pm (co-curricular) The timetable will run in a two-week cycle. *Note: Period 0 is tutor/assembly on all days with the exception of Wednesday, when it is curriculum time.
Transport notices Please click here for a letter with updates regarding our coach service, including information about tickets next academic year, route and timetable changes and capacity on routes.
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