Parent Newsletter 27/05/16

SENIOR SCHOOL NEWS UPDATE Friday 27th May 2016 This Term’s Events at a Glance

Lower School Prize Day and

Here are just a few important forthcoming events—for our full calendar, click here

Invitations to Prize Day and Sports Day

Sports Day Saturday 2nd July have been emailed to parents/ guardians.

Friday 27th May HALF TERM

Please note that attendance at Prize

Tuesday 7th June FORMS Meeting

Day is optional for Years 10-13 but all girls should attend Sports Day, which

Thursday 9th June Higher Education Forum (Year 12)

will start at 12.45pm.

Friday 10th June Year 8 to Greenwich Year 7 Geography trip to Chiltern Hills Monday 13th June Year 7 to Whipsnade Zoo

Picture of the Week!

Cadogan House

Thursday 16th June Celebration of Sport

enjoyed an

Friday 17th June Art and Textiles Exhibition

Safari Pete and the

assembly with Eco Warriors—

Monday 20th June Year 9 Geography trip to Windsor

Rev Quill seemed to enjoy meeting

Saturday 25th June FORMS Summer Festival

some of the visitors too!

Saturday 2nd July Prize Day and Sports Day Friday 8th July END OF TERM

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SCHOOL NEWS Emails Sent this week Year 8

Civil War Day Information

Year 7

History/Latin Trip to St Albans—information and consent form

Year 9

Letter from Miss Cook regarding form changes for Year 10

Whole School

Lower School Prize Day and Sports Day Invitation

Year 12

Reminder re. Year 12 Higher Education Forum and other information

Year 11 &Year 12 English

Information about residential creative writing course February 2017

If you have not received any of the emails listed below, please contact Pippa Hopkins phopkins@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk Parent Portal queries & updating contact details To advise us of any changes to your contact details, change of boarding status etc., please contact changeofdetails@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk . This is a group email address and your communication will be sent to all the relevant parties within the School. If you have any other questions relating to the Parent Portal, please contact our Data Systems Manager Mrs Bulow on

GCSE and A Level Art and Textiles Exhibition Our annual Art and Textiles Exhibition opens for public viewing on Friday 17th June from 4.15—6.30pm in the Sports Centre. It will also be open on Lower School Prize Day/Sports Day on 2nd July. The exhibition showcases work by our GCSE and A Level Art and Textiles students, and the standard is always exceptionally high—we would encourage all girls and parents to try to come along to see for themselves!

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YEAR 11 CELBRATIONS

The Year 11 Evening of Celebration was a fitting farewell to the year group, who all looked wonderful in their finery and did themselves proud with their contributions to the evening.

I would like to wish them all the best for the remaining examinations and look forward to seeing many at Sixth Form Induction.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say good luck to those that are leaving for pastures new, and hope that they will let us know how they get on.

Mrs Heaffey Head of Year 11

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GOLF AT RMS Tee in the Park “6 Hole challenge”: Parents’ golf competition We would like to market another wonderful facility the school has finished for the benefit of the girls. Now that the School six hole pitch and Putt Golf course has had a year to bed in, we are planning to open it up on Sports Day for parents and relatives from 12.00noon until 4.00pm. The girls are already using it for house day, lessons in PE and an external competition.

Many of you will be at School on Saturday 2nd July for Prize Day in the morning and Sports Day in the afternoon to support your daughters. There is often a little free time at lunchtime or between events, so we propose to hold a simple six hole “Open “ competition to anyone who is interested and can bring their own clubs.

Score cards and course map will be provided. We believe it should only take about 40 mins to complete the six hole course. Really only three to four clubs are needed, but you can bring as many as you like. A £5 entry fee will go to the School Ghana Charity.

Tee off times will be arranged as people arrive.

Finally we are looking for equipment to help the girls use the golf facilities more frequently. If you have any old golf clubs that you no longer want (especially short irons and putters) please could bring them in to the PE Dept.

Many thanks Mr Dichlian—Adventure Sports Leader

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YEAR 13 LEAVERS’ DAY The Year 13 Leavers’ Day is still in full swing—hopefully the girls and staff will be returned to Planet Earth in time for this evening’s celebrations….

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SCHOOL NEWS History Trip to Vietnam—Easter 2016 At the star of the Easter holidays we ventured on a dream trip to Vietnam. Here, we were to learn about the culture and history of this fascinating country. Our cases loaded with flip flops and sun cream we prepared for the long journey via Abu Dhabi.

Saigon Sights Landing in Saigon and we were hit with a wave of heat. The city is busy and bustling and certainly a bit of a culture shock. Our first day was full of sight-seeing led by our enigmatic tour guide, Yee. We visited the Reunification Palace, which was grand and one of the few very modern buildings in Saigon. We saw some of the beautiful French colonial building, including the Notre Dame Cathedral and the central post office which was designed Gustav Eiffel before he drew up the plans for the Eiffel Tower.

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SCHOOL NEWS We visited many temples in the city one the most astonishing being the Emperor Jade Pagoda. It was built by the Cantonese community around the turn of the 20th century and is still buzzing with worshippers, many lounging in the front gardens. It is one of the most attractive pagodas in the city. Dedicated to various Chinese-Vietnamese divinities, in a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist styles, the pagoda houses numerous statues and delicate woodcarvings with intricate tiles on the roof.

We visited Vietnam's first traditional medicine museum, the FITO Museum which displays an amazing collection of 3,000 items relevant to the development of traditional Vietnamese medicine. Implements used to prepare indigenous herbs, objects commonly found in traditional pharmacies as well as ancient books and documents on traditional Vietnamese medicine can be seen in the galleries. We all stocked up on special herbal teas here that are meant to make us all look youthful and live forever‌ or so we hope anyway!

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SCHOOL NEWS The War One of our main reasons for visiting Vietnam was to learn more about the impact of the war between the Vietnamese Communists and the Americans, fought in the 1960s.

The Americans did not want the political system of Communism to take over the whole of the country and sent soldiers there to try and stop the Vietcong, who were the Vietnamese communists, from taking over. This was a bloody and catastrophic war for the country as the American forces dropped thousands of litres of chemicals on Vietnam in an attempt to destroy the jungle there, in order to be able to bomb it more effectively. We visited the War Remnants Museum which contained horrific images and stories of the war, and included a real guillotine, a simulated "tiger cage" prison and jars of deformed foetuses blamed on the chemical Agent Orange The Vietcong were known for digging deep tunnels all across South Vietnam during the war and we experienced these when we visited Cu Chi. Here tunnels have been preserved and you can go down them and see what it was like for fighters in the Vietcong. There was barely any room at all, it was hot and dark. We also could climb in some of the holes that the Vietcong would have climbed through.

Unfortunately for Mr Grogan, his department didn’t want to let him out of the hole!

We all felt very brave as we emerged from the tunnel unscathed and feeling like we’d done some hard work!

Mr Broome and Mr Grogan particularly enjoyed themselves as they were allowed to go and fire some real life guns on the shooting range.

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SCHOOL NEWS We had an afternoon at leisure when we visited Saigon Zoo where we saw a whole range of animals from elephants to giraffes to lions. Many of us spent some time of the fairground rides and let some steam off on the dodgems! We followed this up with a trip to a water puppet show which had to be seen to be believed. This was typical example of Vietnamese culture and a real treat to see.

The Mekong Delta After spending time in Saigon city we transferred down to the south to explore the more rural parts of the country.

We took a boat ride down the Mekong River, taking a glimpse at the Delta scenery, houses built on stilts and local fish farms along the way. We cruised among the islands named Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle and Phoenix Islands. We then stopped off at a honey farm where we tasted freshly produced honey and peanut crackling.

Round the back of the farm we were greeted with a surprise guest- a rather large carpet python who we were given the chance to hold.

Mr Broome was straight in there for a hold, whilst some of us stayed well back! We then enjoyed a gentle bike ride on some vintage Vietnamese bikes through a tropical orchard garden. Saskia took a trip of the back of a moped and rode along next to us! We then ate fruit and enjoyed some traditional Vietnamese music before our boat ride back.

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SCHOOL NEWS Shopping Our tour guide Yee was a fun character who spent a lot of his time teaching us some Vietnamese words and songs. By the end of the first day we were all singing along to Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh! very loudly, particularly Minty! Yee also treated us to a song he wrote called Honey I love you where he sang to us about his girlfriend leaving him all alone. No RMS trip would be complete without a bit of shopping. We visited several large markets in the city and soon got to grips with bartering for the produce we wanted to buy. We filled our bags with Vietnamese traditional hats, t-shirts, magnets, baggy trousers and plenty of gifts to bring home. Our final night was spent in a luxury hotel in the centre of Saigon which gave us the chance for some relaxation around the rooftop pool. This also meant that quite a few of us went home with some very questionable tan lines and burnt bits! We rounded off our trip with a mocktail on the roof of our hotel as we watched the sun go down. This was followed by a night of karaoke, which we have promised we will never mention again‌..

Food!

We ate so many new foods in Vietnam. Every night we dined at a different restaurant, leading up to our final day when we dined in a restaurant that is in the top 100 restaurants in the entire world. One night we ate on a cruise liner as we sailed down the Mekong River and experienced traditional Vietnamese dancing. We did dare each other to eat some strange and wonderful foods in our evening game of food roulette, but no-one dared try the baby chick that had been boiled alive in its shell!

Experience of a lifetime Our trip to Vietnam was an unforgettable experience. We have learnt so much about the culture of the country and taken ourselves out of our comfort zones. Every day was jam-packed with culture and it was great to experience this with all of our friends.

Our tans may have faded but our stories and memories will last for many years to come- much longer in fact than Miss Simmonite’s handbag from Ben Thanh market.

We would like to thank Miss Simmonite for organising such an amazing trip, and Mr Grogan, Mrs Eccles and Mr Broome for accompanying us on our adventure.

You can view a gallery of photos from our trip here

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SCHOOL NEWS Year 9 and 12 Trip to Alicance—Easter 2016 On April 11th a group of 19 year 9 girls, four year 12 girls and three teachers travelled to Alicante for our Spanish study trip. We departed early and we were all very excited.

After a short trip to Gatwick Airport, we all checked in and were ready to go to sunny Spain. The trip took 2 hours and 30 minutes and when we arrived, at 3.00pm the sun was shining above us. It was so warm compared with England.

We took a bus to our hotel and settled down.

The hotel was very nice, most people said it was the best hotel ever on a school trip. It had direct views to the beach and the harbour and all rooms were spacious and comfortable.

After a little “siesta” –that is to say, a napwe were ready to hit the town and firstly we had a drink at a Spanish galleon (huge old style ship) that was in the harbour. Then, we had tapas in a very authentic tapas place and finally we got as a treat a nice ice -cream on our way back to the hotel. It was delicious.

That night we were so tired that most of us went to bed early and slept straight away.

Some watched TV for a while and realised that Spanish people speak very very fast on TV! The next day, we started early, waking up at 7.00am and having breakfast in our hotel. We went after that to our language lessons, which lasted four hours but were actually –surprisingly, even - fun and luckily we had two breaks. Most of the time we worked on our speaking skills and played lots of games while revising practical stuff, such as how to order food, shop for presents, ask for directions, etc.

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SCHOOL NEWS After our language classes, we had lunch and we went to the Castle, on top of the Benicantil Mountain. The views were amazing! We had a tour guide who explained the long history of the place, the biggest Spanish fortress in the Mediterranean, including the not so funny fact that the British took over the castle during the 18th century and the Spanish decided to build a tunnel and blow the castle up to make the British surrender. Luckily, we are on better terms with the Spanish now, because these people can take certain things quite seriously, it seems.

For dinner, we went could choose where to go to and some of us played it safe and went to McDonalds, to our teachers’ disappointment. However, Millie H wins the price of most adventurous eater, always trying different Spanish dishes and enjoying nearly all of them!

On Wednesday we went to school again and then we had a salsa lesson. It was a lot of fun and by the end of it, all of us could dance some new steps!

We also had our shopping spree! We went to a huge shopping centre and we all shopped till we dropped. We bought everything you can imagine, from make up to clothes, from food to stationary, you mention it. After having dinner there, we went back to our hotel and it was our last night! We were feeling all a bit sad that we had to go the next day!

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SCHOOL NEWS Thursday was our last day in Alicante. We woke up a bit later so we could enjoy our breakfast in the hotel, which was, by the way, amazing. So much choice and with direct views to the sea! Then we went to the market where Lord P. set an “apprentice-like” task to us. We were in teams and had to buy a list of products as fast as possible and spending as little as possible. This force us to use our Spanish and made ourselves understood. I was quite impressed with how my team did. Lord P seemed a toughy at the beginning, but in the end he bought ice-cream for everyone as a treat for managing to buy everything within budget. After that it was time to go to the airport and say “Adiós Alicante”.

On our way back, we had the chance to express our gratitude to our teachers, since we gave them a few pressies we bought for them. They both seemed very pleased with their presents, especially with their chocolate. Nevertheless, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Frossard, Mrs Clivaz and Mr Piqueiras again for taking us to Spain. They were really good to us.

Finally, we would like to recommend to everyone in Year 8 who is studying Spanish to go on the trip next year. It was a fantastic experience and we had also the opportunity to use our Spanish and learn more about Spanish culture. Languages are a tool to learn about other lifestyles and promote tolerance and this trip made me feel I had improved my understanding of the “Spanish way of life”, which I certainly could happily get used to.

Congratulations to Viktoria W who won the Alicante Diary competition—and received a Values Alpha for it!

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SPORTS NEWS Another successful week for RMS athletes… 

Congratulations to the Under 14 and Under 16 athletics teams who won their County League meet on Tuesday—Under 14 team won with 48 points and have qualified for the regional A Final of the Track and Field Cup Final , and the Under 16s with a fantastic score of 60 points. Both teams are currently third in the County league table and are aiming to qualify for the Cup Final in July—well done to you all, and good luck for the future rounds.

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Congratulations to the Year 9 Tennis team who beat Abbots Hill 8-4 and qualified for the finals, and to the Year 7 Tennis team (playing in a Year 8 Division 2 tournament) who also beat Abbots Hill 12-0 and proceed to the semi-final

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There was also success for the Under 12 and Under 15 cricket teams who won the Three Rivers Sports Partnership tournament

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Huge congratulations to the Year 9/10 Sailing team (Gina B, Heather A and Anneliese N in Year 9, and Ella D, Juliet D and Alex B in Year 10) who won the first match of the season with an emphatic victory over fierce rivals Watford Boys Grammar School.

The girls won two races and drew one, coming away with a 2.5 to 0.5 win. It was a fantastic team effort by the girls, and we look forward to more successes to come!

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FORMS NEWS

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SUMMER HOLIDAY CAMPS

Super Camps at RMS in 2016 Super Camps, the UK’s no.1 for childcare during the school holidays, will be running holiday activity camps here again during summer 2016.

Super Camps has a fun-packed schedule lined up for summer 2016, and with guaranteed water-based activities, each child will go home smiling after a fantastic day. The emphasis is on participation and enjoyment with enthusiastic Super Camps staff on hand to help children acquire new skills and confidence, and make new friends.

Camps are open from 8am – 6pm, Monday – Friday.

To celebrate 20 fabulous years looking after children across the UK, Super Camps is offering parents a year-round 10% discount off standard rates.

Use discount code 'PARENT16' when booking online or over the phone.

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COMMUNITY NEWS

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COMMUNITY NEWS

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