The Royal Masonic School For Girls Senior School Weekly News Update
Friday 2nd December 2016
SENIOR SCHOOL NEWS UPDATE Friday 2nd December 2016 Forthcoming Events at a Glance
Lockdown Practice – Wednesday
Here are just a few important
14th December
forthcoming events coming in the last
Over the last couple of years we have been
two weeks of term and at the beginning
developing and refining a Lockdown Procedure
of next term…
as part of our Critical Incident Planning. This is
For our full calendar, click here
designed as a basic emergency response to a
Saturday 3rd December
situation arising where the safest action is to
FORMS Christmas Fair
keep the staff and pupils secure within the
Wednesday 7th December
school buildings until the danger has passed.
FORMS Meeting
As a result of feedback received following a
Friday 9th December
previous practice drill in 2015, we have made
Christmas Concert
improvements to the physical alert system,
Sunday 11th December
security of school buildings and procedures.
TEDx Youth@RMS
On Wednesday December 14th 2016 we will
Wednesday 14th December
be running a second practice of the new
Senior School Christmas Lunch
system involving the whole School. The
Senior School Carol Service
practice will be calmly executed by the staff
Thursday 15th December
and will last about 5 minutes, concluding with a
END OF TERM
fire drill. The girls will be briefed during
———————————— Monday 9th January 2017 Boarder Return Tuesday 10th January Term Starts Tuesday 17th January Charity Cake Sale and Non Uniform
Monday and Tuesday registration periods next week and reminded on the Monday prior to the practice. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me Diana Robinson Bursar
Day Wednesday 18th January STEAM Lecture Monday 30th January Life Skills Evening for Parents/ Guardians 4th—5th February EXEAT Weekend
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SCHOOL NEWS School Advent Service Every year at the Advent Service I say how lovely Chapel looks by candlelight, and what a shame that the congregation can’t see what I see from the front! Well this year Ice, one of our Photography students, was on hand to take some lovely photos
You can see a full gallery of Ice’s photographs here Many thanks to all of you who attended and I was glad to hear all the positive comments as people left the service. Our theme was Compassion, Love and Kindness and we looked at Love for God (whatever that means to each person), Self-compassion (and looking after ourselves with Kindness) and Love and Kindness for our neighbour (whoever that is for each of us). Please put the date in your diary for Advent Sunday next year – December 3rd 2017 at 7.00pm. I hope you all have a lovely and special Christmas break. Reverend Quill
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SCHOOL NEWS Year 7 Enterprise Day Recently, all Year 7 girls had the chance to run their own business for the day. The girls were randomly placed in groups and they had to work together to make their products. They managed the make a selection of beautiful cards ranging from Christmas cards to birthday cards and even some new year and thank you cards. Parents and staff came into the Great Hall at lunch time when the girls sold their products. Every single card was sold during the selling period and the girls then had to calculate how much profit they made. The profit from their sale was donated to the School Charity fund. The girls had a great day and were very positive in their feedback. Mr Buddie also got them to do a blog during his IT lesson about the day. Thank you to all the parents who came to purchase the products! You can see some more photos of the day here
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Performing Arts Events Coming up On Friday 9th December at 7.00pm in the Great Hall is our annual Christmas Concert. This promises to be our biggest yet with all the school orchestras and choirs playing festive music, and the premiere of a new work for massed choir by our Composer in Residence, Chris Brammeld. Finally, tickets are now available for our visiting opera production 'The Diary of Anne Frank', produced by critically-acclaimed About Turn who wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. The performance is on Monday 23rd January at 7.30om, Starring international soprano Polly Ott, we are incredibly lucky to host this production. Tickets are strictly limited as it is to be held in Alex Drama Studio, so I recommend you buy them early. They can be purchased here: https://www.trybooking.co.uk/950 All of our events are advertised in our printed Programme of Events.
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PERFORMING ARTS Senior School Production: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Lord what fools these mortals be! On a Midsummers night, four young lovers wonder into a forest in search of love but are met by an enchanted wood where fairies lie and spirits roam. From the 8th to 10th November, RMS put on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a futuristic twist, accompanied by a soundtrack of hard-edged synths and newly composed music by Mr Brammeld. The concept of the play was ‘transforming the power of love’, which was controlled by the Pucks manipulating the mortals. We took the meaning of ‘transforming’ very literally, by creating a monotone world and turning it into a colourful Utopia. By ripping up the set, lighting and colour changes, creating a sense of magic in the atmosphere, we created the fairy world run by Oberon and Titania. Moreover, the added humour of Nicki Bottom transforming to an ass and the audiences response of her song, showed how we keep the audience entertained throughout.
Due to the addition of the contrast of the monochrome to the bright costumes, set and lighting, it created more freedom for the lovers to explore themselves and along the way finding love, when the Pucks allowed them to. The show was a huge success due to the hard work from the actors and the crew behind the scenes. The cast had a huge responsibility of learning such complex Shakespearian and as a result, made some members of the audience say that it was the best adaptation of the play they had ever seen. The long monologues and complex pronunciation showed the level of skill our actors have. Each person involved put all their effort to create such a professional and impressive production and I think we executed this perfectly. Chloe, Year 12
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SPORTS NEWS RMS Crowned District Hockey Champions Congratulations to our Senior Hockey Team who have been crowned District Champions. On their way to the title (scoring 10 goals and only conceding 1), they beat Watford Girls Grammar School 3—0, St Michael’s 5—0 and Parmiters 2 – 1. Congratulations to the whole team (and coaches!): Emily B, Hannah C, Jess A, Jess F, Jess B, Nikki G, Lizzie J, Beth H, Elena L, Sabrina K, Emily H, Laura M and Bronte T.
This week’s other sports results… Hockey:
Year 8 beat Rickmansworth School 6 - 1
Football: Year 9/10 Team beat St Clement Danes 3 - 1 Netball:
Year 10 A Team beat Watford Girls Grammar School 15 - 6, Year 10 B team won 20 - 4
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CHARITY NEWS This week: Advent Service: Last Sunday evening, Reverend Quill led a wonderful Advent Service in the Chapel, to mark the beginning of the Christmas season. Members of our Sixth Form Charities Committee volunteered to stand with our Sparks buckets and we were really grateful and impressed with people’s generosity. We managed to raise a staggering £420! This is a really pleasing total and it takes us one step closer to our £10k goal, so thank you very, very much!
Sparks Christmas Stall – Saturday 3rd December, Dining Hall, 11.00am—4.00pm Please come and support us at the Christmas Fair, this Saturday. We will be in the Dining Room, with an array of activities and items on offer. Our Christmas elves will be there running our lucky dip, cookie decorating, personalised baubles, 'pin the nose on Rudolph the reindeer', face painting, tattoos, a hair salon, lavender bags as well as our usual Sparks merchandise, including badges, lanyards, pens and our new addition - Sparks Christmas cards! If these items 'spark' your interest, then come along and help us spread the Christmas cheer. We ho ho hope to see you there! Merry Christmas!
Next week: Candy canes and Sparks Christmas cards! We will be selling candy canes and our signature Sparks Christmas cards at centre doors every day next week. Buy a candy cane for a friend and write a little note on one of our labels, which we will attach with ribbon and deliver in our Santa sack near the end of term! Christmas cards can also be either bought to take away or delivered to a friend in school, just come and write the card and we will put a chocolate coin insider, ready for delivery! Non- uniform day! - Thursday 8th December: The theme will be Christmas knitwear, so whip out your favourite Christmas jumper and wrap up warm! To avoid being on Santa’s naughty list, please remember your £1 and refrain from wearing logos, shorts or showing bare midriffs (it will probably be too cold for this anyway!). Our Charities Committee elves will be collecting the £1s in their forms and Year groups. Of course, larger donations are also always welcome and greatly appreciated!
Christmas Concert! – Friday 9th December: This is the perfect opportunity to get into the Christmas spirit. Come along to enjoy an evening of wonderful Christmas music, which will be performed by an array of talented RMS musicians and singers. We will be there too, fundraising at the door, and would really appreciate any donations, no matter how big or small. So come along to help spread the Christmas cheer! Katie and Hannah
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SCHOOL NEWS RMS to host TEDx Event in December We are delighted to announce that RMS will be hosting a TEDx event at School on Sunday 11th December from 1.00-4.00pm
Background TED is a non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK, and this November, the TEDIndia Conference will be held in Mysore, India. TEDx Youth@RMS The RMS TEDx’s theme is RESILIENCE and we have already confirmed a number of outstanding speakers who will attend the event, including Dr Manrutt Wonkaew (art director, stylist and choreographer), Liz Atkin (visual artist), Tom Fox (experimental instrument maker), Lee Cox (London cabbie and aspiring teacher), Peter Jukes (news curator and podcaster) and former TV Presenter Gail Porter (now a motivational speaker). For more information, visit bit.ly/tedxrmsinfo (this website will be constantly updated as other speakers confirm) Tickets for the event are entirely FREE and will be available to students, members of their families, staff members and the general public. We want to encourage whole families attending and so the ticketing facility will allow Group Booking. We are releasing tickets gradually in batches and full information about the schedule can be found here bit.ly/tedxrmstickets— the first batch will be available after 7.00pm on Saturday 22nd October.
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SCHOOL NEWS “RMS Works on Paper” Art and Textiles Exhibition at Watersmeet, Rickmansworth ‘RMS Works on Paper’ is an exhibition by our students, featuring a piece of work from each girl who is currently working towards a GCSE or A Level in Fine Art or Textile Design. The exhibition aims to showcase the outstanding preparatory drawings, prints, embroidery, models and photographs that often hide within the pages of lovingly crafted sketchbooks and folders. Each girl has thoughtfully selected a piece of work that exhibits her talents, observations and interests. For further information call 01923 776611 or email leisure@threerivers.gov.uk Artistsmeet at Watersmeet is open Monday to Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm, Saturday 10.00am - 2.00pm. Entry is free; High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH www.facebook.com/artistsmeet
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SECOND HAND UNIFORM
Winter is fast approaching and we have some excellent quality ski and winter gear in stock if you are on the slopes in the near future! Our opening times for the rest of term are: Date
Day
Time
02/12/2016
Friday
8-9am
09/12/2016
Friday
8-9am
16/12/2016
Friday
8-9am
We have just completed the ticket sales from last year – please contact us so we can update you and arrange payment or keep funds on account for you. We have also had a large influx of lost property so it’s worth coming down to see us to see if you can reclaim any lost items! If you would like to join our uniform volunteer rota please email us at forms.rms2hu@gmail.com Thank you for all your support this year! FORMS
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