The Royal Masonic School for Girls Senior School Weekly News Update
Friday 6th October 2017
SCHOOL INFORMATION This Term’s Events at a
Prize Day Arrangements
Glance…
On Friday 20th October, girls should arrive at School at
Here are just a few important
the usual time. Prize Day itself starts at 10.00am and will
forthcoming events—for our full
finish at
calendar, click
approximately 12.00pm. Pupils who are not involved in
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Drill may leave at this time, once they have been
calendar
dismissed from the Great Hall. Drill begins at 12.45pm and should finish by 1.15pm. School Coaches will leave
Sunday 8th October
at 1.30pm. Pupils who are staying into the afternoon or
WHOLE SCHOOL OPEN DAY Compulsory attendance for ALL pupils Monday 9th / Tuesday 10th October Open Mornings at School
who are leaving on a coach may order a packed lunch from Miss Whitfield BY 2.00PM on FRIDAY 13th OCTOBER. On Friday 20th October, Devonshire will be staffed by Miss Whitfield until 4.00pm and the Resource
Monday 9th October
Centre will be open from 12.00pm to 12.45pm and then
Year 11 Options Talks
from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.
Tuesday 10th October
Mrs Young
Sixth Form Preview
New School Coach Route
Wednesday 11th October
We are pleased to announce that in response to
Non-Uniform Day (Senior School)
increased demand, we have launched a new coach route
Cake Sale
this term.
Year 12 Photography to Bath
The route starts in Berkhamsted with a stop outside WH
Thursday 12th October
Smiths on the high street in the morning and at the
LAMDA Examinations Year 8 County Hockey Tournament
station in the afternoon, and also stops at Hemel Hempstead Station, Kings Langley High Street,
Saturday 14th October Boarders to Madame Tussaud’s A Level Physics Workshop
Chipperfield and Sarratt. As with all school coaches, the service is timed to arrive at School at 8.15am, and will leave School at 4.15pm.
Chapel Choir and Choro Trip RMS Community Choir Workshop/ Concert
We are currently operating a 16 seat minibus but should demand for this service increase, we will be able to provide a larger coach.
Tuesday 17th October Drill Performance
If you are interested in this route, please contact Mrs Hoile via email ehoile@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk or by
Friday 20th October
telephone 01923 725308
Prize Day / Half Term
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SCHOOL INFORMATION Life Skills Events in the Academic Year 2017—2018 Every year we run a series of Life Skills Evenings, covering a number of topics that are very relevant to the girls’ lives. Some events are specifically designed for parents / guardians only, and others are suitable to attend with your daughters. In recent years, we have invited a number of external speakers and experts to share their thoughts and strategies with us, and all of the events have been very well received by those who have attended. Events take place in the New Mark Hall, usually starting at 7.00pm. The following events have been planned for the coming year, and we hope that by giving your advance notice of these dates, lots of you will be able to come along. 27th November 2017
Successful Friendships
5th February 2018
Mindfulness at Home & School
5th March 2018
Being the Best Possible Me
14th May 2018
Relationships and Identity
Absence Procedures Please could we remind you about the procedure for Senior School pupil absence is as follows: If your Daughter is absent please send an email to absence@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk. Please also send an email to your daughter’s her form tutor. On this email, please ensure you include the following information:
Your daughter’s FULL NAME
Your daughter’s FORM
Brief details about the reason she is, or will be absent from School
Please could we ask that you use the above system from now on—there is now no need to leave a message on the telephone line. Additionally, with this procedure it will then not be necessary for you to provide a written note when your daughter returns to School. Many thanks for your cooperation.
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SCHOOL NEWS RMS School Drill 2017 The first Drill performance of 2017 will be on Tuesday 17th October, and is open to all parents of the School from Ruspini to Hind House. Please come and experience this unique tradition in the Great Hall starting at 7.30pm. Records indicate that Drill was first performed by Royal Masonic Girls as early as 1850, and it was a method of exercise to keep the girls fit and flexible. As recently as the mid 20th Century, girls’ schools used drill as part of physical education. We believe that we are the only school in the UK, and perhaps in the world, that still retains a Drill Team, and still performs, albeit as a Performance piece. So come and experience RMS's best kept secret.
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SCHOOL NEWS Senior Team Leadership Day vs John Hampden Grammar School The annual RMS and John Hampden Grammar School leadership day is an unmissable opportunity for the student teams at both schools to develop a range of essential skills required as leaders, whilst learning to effectively communicate as a team. This year was no exception; the day was packed with a variety of activities, from problem solving in classrooms to covering the length of the school grounds orienteering, all targeted at honing in on such important skills. Activities had been carefully constructed in order to challenge and encourage us to think more specifically and pragmatically about the ways in which, as leaders, we can be most effective, whether this be within the prefect body or in the wider school community. Of significant importance throughout the day was the development of an aim for the upcoming academic year. Several ideas were considered on the girl’s side, however we decided on #ThisRMSgirlCan, an initiative concerned with the empowerment of individual interests and the ways in which RMS girls can be encouraged to challenge themselves, perhaps by trying something new. We will be looking to implement this into school life as quickly as possible through for example, the #ThisRMSgirlCan board, focused on celebrating the ways in which girls have personally challenged themselves.
Although not the most important aspect of the day, the girls’ team came out triumphant against the boys, being awarded the trophy for our performance throughout the day. As a team, we must acknowledge and thank the efforts of Harry Kemsley and his team who organised such a valuable day, alongside the teachers who gave up their time to support us. Emily, Deputy Head Girl (PR)
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SCHOOL NEWS—FOCUS DAY Well what a Focus Day. Ruspini House, Cadogan House and the Senior School all took part in the ‘Great Outdoors' Focus Day last week on Thursday 28th September. In Senior School we were ambitious and ventured into new territories enabling students to select their own activities for their own personalised Focus Day via the new CHQ system. It also enabled Year groups to mix and all students to try out new skills and learn in different environments and many said how they appreciated using our amazing School grounds. Activities were a mix of in school and out of school opportunities. Well the sun shone and the range of activities proved very popular. Our social media was very active showcasing all the amazing activities. Focus Day even had its own hashtag #RMSFocusDay. Staff organised such a diverse array of activities and we have included a few write ups from students about the day. Activities that students were able to participate in were a walk along the River Chess, indoor sky diving, a visit to London Zoo, Bletchley Park, Coltspring stables, Phasels Wood Activity Centre, a canal walk, a photography walk in the grounds, Art in the grounds, orienteering in the grounds, bringing Flowers inside, giving your mind some fresh air and your body some yoga, an Apple Day and visit to the school orchards, making jewellery inspired by the Great Outdoors, rugby, golf using our golf course, international outdoor games, outdoor recreational games, Italian Culture, gardening, a sing OUT, a performing English outdoors festival, an Astronomy Workshop led by the National Space Centre and Minecraft and coding led by a STEAM ambassador and published expert on using Minecraft.
Mrs Bloomfield-Proud
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SCHOOL NEWS—FOCUS DAY Focus Day—A Background Since its creation in 2012, Focus Day at RMS has always been a day every girl looks forward to. As a Year 13 this was my final Focus Day and was based on the ‘Great Outdoors’. My day consisted of activities such as photography in the grounds, a literacy festival and art on the Garth.
All the year groups were integrated in the activities and it was a great time to get know fellow Sixth Formers as well as the younger years. During the day, I learnt several skills such as group participation, resourcefulness seen in our photography and creating art with natural objects.
Overall, it was a lovely day where girls integrated and learnt more about their surroundings which could so easily be taken for granted. Layla Year 13
Year 9 Thoughts... I really enjoyed Focus Day this year, especially since we could all choose our activities. I started Focus Day with ‘Art in the Grounds’, where we worked together collecting natural items like leaves and conkers and placed them in mandala shapes. In the end we made a very colourful mandala...that then got destroyed by a lawnmower days later. After ‘Art in the Grounds’ I had ‘Sing out’ with my friends. We were split into large groups and walked around the Garth singing. It was a great laugh especially because most of us couldn’t sing! But we had a go. At the end of the day I had the ‘English Literature Festival’ where all the year groups were split into groups of ten. We then had to perform a sketch where Disney princesses met reality television, the results were hilarious. Overall Focus Day was really fun, it was a great opportunity to learn new things and have fun with the other year groups. Jess H, 9R
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SCHOOL NEWS—FOCUS DAY Year 7 Thoughts Focus Day was one of the most fun event I had ever done in my entire life! When Focus Day was first mentioned in the Great Hall assembly, I had absolutely no idea what it was! The theme was the Great Outdoors and we found out what activities were available for our year groups—some, like skydiving, were only for Year 9 and above. When Focus Day finally arrived, all of Year 7 was super-excited! Some of us were going to Phasels Wood Activity Centre, and most of us stayed at School. I thought that all of the activities I took part in were interesting, as I learnt to work with other year groups and also had a great time with them along the way. “Sing Out” was all about singing songs and then performing them outdoors. My group chose the song Do a Deer from The Sound of Music. We chose tress for children to hide behind—I thought we looked pretty cute! It took a lot of concentrating to get the performance exactly how the Sixth Formers wanted it—we got there in the end! For the next two sessions, I did the Outdoor Literary Festival, which was very enjoyable. For my first session, we did a replica of Take Me Out! The theme was Disney Princesses. I was Tiana from The Princess and the Frog—which was great fun! I have to admit, to start with I was a bit shy working with the other year groups, but I was with a couple of friends, so that made it easier. But working with the other year groups was really interesting and it was great to get to know people from other years, who were all very supportive and encouraging of us younger students—they were kind to us and not at all “I know best because I am older”! The next session we did was Strictly Come Dancing. I was a judge and acted as Rapunzel—this was very funny! Tiggy played Hermione Grainger— she was brilliant, and my cheeks ached afterwards from laughing to much! Focus Day is very different from normal days at School as we are not in uniform and we work across all the year groups. It really was the best day ever, and I enjoyed it very much! I am glad that this School has such a fun event that takes place every year—I cannot wait for next year’s one as I am sure it will be just as much fun—I just wonder what the theme will be…? Rhianna J, 7G
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YEAR 7 TRIP TO WOODROW All Year 7 girls go to Woodrow High House for a very active two day residential trip in September. It is an RMS tradition that helps bonding between classes and you make a lot of new friends. In our classes we were split in two groups and remained in that group for the rest of the day. We had a lot of fun, and one of our first activities was where we had mental and physical challenges that provided a lot of fun and bonded us as a team. Our next team activity was to proceed through dark underground tunnels and, if being in pitch black wasn’t hard enough, inside the small tubes we had to change order so no-one was in the same position as before. Then we went through solo. When it was my turn, I crouched and looked through the tunnel. It was, very, very ,very dark and from going through previously , I knew it would get even darker. I have to admit, this task made me feel uneasy. But I swallowed my fear and challenged myself. I thought. If everyone else can do it, so can I. It got darker right away. I had no guide now, but I persevered and navigated the tunnel. I made it out though, and got quite a fast time of 22.24. Two people in my group even managed to break the record! Well done to them. We also did pioneering. We made catapults and tried to launch balls onto targets. We then found out who we were sharing a room with. I had a really nice room and could not have asked for better. We finished the evening with a night walk. It was quite scary and at one point we had to turn off all our torches. We learned about things called Geocache. It was really interesting. We had a good night sleep followed by the low ropes activity. We had to do all sorts of team challenges and one I am very proud of is where we had to balance a giant see-saw. Then we had to, while keeping it balanced, get into eldest to youngest order. We also played Titanic where we had to swing from one platform to two smaller ones. It was really hard but with teamwork we got to the end. Then we had to get everyone onto one platform. After that we had parachute games. It was really fun and we played games like fruit salad that was facts about you e.g. run under the parachute if you have a dog. Sharks and lifeguards was also good fun. The lifeguards have to save people from the sharks. We also played mushroom where you make a mushroom with the parachute. Overall I would say Woodrow is a great trip and I wish we could go on it again. By Laura F You can see more of our photos here
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SPORTS RESULTS Watford and Three Rivers Sports Partnership Multi-sports The Year 7 team came 3rd at the Tree Rivers and Watford School Sports Partnership Multisports Tournament despite a depleted team. All the girls performed very well on the day at their first big tournament representing RMS. Thank you to those girls who stepped in at the last minute to play.
Netball RMS vs St Margaret’s Year 7 A Team won 15-0 Year y B Team won 25-1
Swimming RMS - Godstowe and Wycombe Abbey Junior A Team came 2nd Junior B Team came 1st Intermediate Team came 1st
Tri Golf Congratulations to our Year 4 A Team who won the Watford and Three Rivers Sports Partnership Tri Golf competition this week. They will go through to the partnership finals on Thursday 19th October.
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PERFORMING ARTS PRODUCTION 2017
Book your tickets via https://www.watersmeet.co.uk/royal-masonic-school-presents-9-to-5-
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FORMS EVENTS
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