Head's Weekly Review - Autumn Issue 4

HEAD’S REVIEW

Head’s Introduction

I am delighted that our Year 7s have done a brilliant job of settling into the routines and expectations of a senior school life. I am grateful to the History Department for taking the year-group to Arundel last Friday, where they represented the School brilliantly.

This week, each class of Year 7s missed a lesson during the day to learn the rhythms of Samba. They then demonstrated their new-found skills in front of their parents, before the Year 7 Parent-Tutor evening. It was great, and I am sure that they all enjoyed it. Tomorrow, at Open Day, the Year 7s will also be touring prospective families, and they are looking forward to being proud ambassadors of the School. Well done!

As a school, we have marked this week’s European Day of Languages in a variety of ways: there was a highly successful bake-sale on Tuesday, along with a linguistic quiz, and Mr Sampieri also led a thought-provoking Chapel. It was a pleasure to hear four students speaking in their native languages, as well as sharing their experiences and passion for languages.

I understand that the Year 11 Geographers had a very successful trip to Calshot, to cover the practical events of their GCSE course – thank you to Mr Carter, and all of his colleagues who accompanied the trip.

Thank you in advance for your contributions to Open Day tomorrow, and I wish you all a restful weekend!

SNS U15A Netball

Year 11 Geography Field Trip – Calshot 2023

Chapel –European Day of Languages

Year 7 Samba Workshop

Year 7 Samba Workshop

On Tuesday, all the Year 7s and the Year 5 children from St Mark's took part in a fantastic Samba drumming workshop.

Each group had the opportunity to learn how to play Samba rhythms on the Surdo, Tamborim, Agogo, and Repinique. They also learnt body percussion and gave a wonderful performance at the end of the day to their Parents, Guardians, and Tutors.

Well done goes to Year 7 for displaying superb concentration throughout the day and developing some great rhythmic skills!

Thank you to all those who helped and supported, and thank you especially to Ollie and the team at The Beat Goes On.

Ms Bartlette

News of Friends – two ORs Operate Together!

OR Iris Kwok (No. 1, 2000-04) recently got in touch with us to send us this photograph of her and fellow OR, Paris Seyed-Safi (No. 2, 2002-09), operating together at St Mary's Hospital.

It was wonderful to see two ORs excelling in their careers, and coming together in unexpected places!

'Although Paris and I graduated from Roedean a few years apart (and in fact never knew each other whilst we were at Roedean), we both happen to be working at St Mary's Hospital currently. It didn't take us long to find out that we were both Old Roedeanians! After we qualified from medical school, we both happened to go into Trauma and Orthopaedics as a speciality, and, in fact, we both developed a specialist interest within that in Trauma and Foot & Ankle surgery. We had a complex case last week fixing a badly broken ankle – and everyone worked brilliantly together to get the patient fixed up.'

Miss Carragher

Language and Culture Ambassadors

Congratulations to the following students on their appointment as Language and Culture Ambassadors!

Reading your letters of application has been truly fascinating, and we are really proud to have such a wonderful team of linguists and culture enthusiasts to work alongside the MFL Department.

Well done!

Alayna (Yr11)

Athena (Yr11)

Aubrey (Yr11)

Audrey (Yr11)

Candis (Yr11)

Elisa (Yr11)

Evie (Yr11)

Freya (Yr11)

The MFL team

Hannah (Yr12)

Jana (Yr11)

Jasmine H (Yr11)

Mancy (Yr12)

Merla (Yr12)

Molly (Yr9)

Olivia (Yr12)

Rida (Yr11)

The following are some quotations from the girls' application letters:

'I have grown up surrounded by a mixing pool of cultures and communities, being exposed from a young age to different ethnicities, races, traditions, and beliefs. I have always been keenly interested in exploring other people’s way of life and have taken to languages, as I believe they show a great deal about the history and culture of a region. I grew up in the Caribbean, which is full of different dialects and languages brought over from all around the world. I have also been visiting Spain since I was very young, and fell in love with the people and place.' -

Freya

(Yr11)

'Growing up in Dubai, I had the privilege of being immersed in a diverse and multicultural environment, and I acquired the ability to read and write Arabic as it was a mandatory skill, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I hope to be able to continue somewhere in the future.' –

Jana (Yr11)

'I may not be able to speak any other languages fluently, but that does not mean that I don’t have a passion for languages themselves. I do have an eagerness and a want to learn as many different ones as possible. Recently, I have gained my 365 day streak on Duolingo, learning Greek. My mum actually suggested doing a language on Duolingo during a summer holiday. I thought about it, but I couldn’t think of a language I was eager to try to learn. It wasn’t until I then went on holiday to Cyprus that same year when I thought 'Greek sounds fun'. Everyday I have religiously completed Greek lessons and can now confidently say fairly long sentences. It is my goal for when I go to Greece to try and speak only Greek to those who are native speakers.' –

Molly (Yr9)

'I am passionate about languages, as I take both French and Spanish for GCSE and enjoy them very much. In addition to this, I speak Tamil and read a bit of Arabic at home. Personally, my experience of languages is a blend of different cultures and backgrounds. Growing up, I spoke a mix of Tamil and English at home, with contrasting cultures and unique etiquettes. This summer, I plan to learn Tamil reading and writing (there are 247 letters!) –

Rida

(Yr11)

Sara's Achieved Grade 5 Piano with Merit

Well done to Sara in Year 8, who achieved Grade 5 Piano with Merit over the summer –congratulations! Page 3

Chapel – European Day of Languages

On Tuesday 26 September, we, as a community, celebrated the European Day of Languages, an initiative launched in 2001 by the Council of Europe, promoting all languages spoken around the world.

To celebrate this occasion, we organised a cake sale. Many congratulations to Lily in Year 7, for being our best baker, and thank you to all who participated in this event.

Roedean is indeed a unique place, where over 40 nationalities come together, making us truly

special. Our multiculturalism is a vibrant aspect of our identity, and it's something I certainly cherish.

Speaking a foreign language takes courage. It's an act that requires enduring the embarrassment of making unfamiliar sounds, the frustration of not understanding, or worse, not being understood. However, these initial challenges are just the beginning. As with anything in life, practice makes perfect. If the end goal is fluency in a foreign language or even two or three, those moments of embarrassment

Good morning everybody. Today I am going to speak about languages.

Languages have always interested me, but they particularly piqued my curiosity when I joined Roedean and studied French and Spanish for the first time. I enjoyed it so much I opted to take both for GCSE: it is challenging at times, but they complement each other nicely, and it’s very interesting learning not only the language, but also the things that make each unique.

Personally, my experience of languages is a blend of different cultures and backgrounds. Growing up, I spoke a mix of Tamil and English at home, with contrasting cultures and unique etiquettes. I also know how to read a bit of Arabic. One of my goals is to improve my Tamil reading and writing – fun fact: there are 247 letters in the alphabet!'

享我學語言嘅經歷。

Hi everyone, happy mid-autumn festival! I’m Athena in Year 11, and today I will share a bit about my experience learning languages.

I’m from Hong Kong, and my mother tongue is Cantonese, which is one of the most widely spoken Chinese dialects. I also speak English and Mandarin, both of which were compulsory parts of the school curriculum back home.

When I was younger, I used to hate Chinese lessons, mainly because the writing system was so complicated! However, after I came to Roedean and began studying Japanese here, I began to appreciate Chinese more, particularly the tens of thousands of characters. I found it absolutely fascinating how different East Asian languages could have similar pronunciations for the same word, but they could be written in completely different ways.

For me, the most interesting part about learning languages is finding out about various writing systems. I also love exploring the similarities and differences between languages, because language and culture are closely linked. By understanding a language, you can better understand the culture of where that language is spoken.'

are undoubtedly worth it. But let us also acknowledge that leaving your own country and immersing yourself in a foreign land is an act of immense courage. It is an essential step on the path to becoming fluent in a language. Leaving your family and the familiar behind, facing uncertainty, and embracing new experiences can be daunting. Yet, it is through this journey that we truly grasp the essence of a language and culture.

된 경험들을나누려고 합니다

Hello everyone, my name is Sihu, and I am currently in Year 11. Today, I would like to share my journey with languages and the impact they have had on my life.

From a very young age, I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by a multitude of languages. Born in South Korea from Korean parents, my exposure to various languages began at the age of five when I started traveling to European countries with my mum and sister. Furthermore, my aunt lived in the United States, which led me to attend school there for 5 months when I was very young. This opportunity provided me with the invaluable experience of communicating and connecting with friends from all over the world, rather than only following the Korean education system. The challenge of attending school and talking in an unfamiliar language not only helped me grow linguistically, but also significantly helped my adaptation when I later went to school in the UK.

Throughout my journey of engaging with languages, I have come to realise that being able to speak a foreign language is a great advantage that benefits me wherever I go, enabling me to gain knowledge and understanding a lot. Therefore, I firmly believe that speaking foreign languages is very important. Learning a new language can never be a disadvantage, Instead, it broadens our connections and relationships, and expands the range of opportunities available to us in the future.'

'Goeie more! My naam is Megs en ek is in jaar 10. Vandag gaan ek oor my taalervaring praat en my kultuur.

Good morning! My name is Megs, and I am in Year 10. Today I am going to be speaking about my language experience and my culture.

I am from South Africa and only moved to England in January 2022. In South Africa, there are 11 different languages spoken across the country: English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Venda, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Ndebele, siSwati, and Tsonga. There are a lot! These languages are only spoken in South Africa and not anywhere else in the world. This makes them very unique and special.

As we do French and Spanish here, in South Africa I learnt how to speak Afrikaans and Xhosa as my 1st and 2nd additional languages. In my opinion, being a South African is truly special, as we have a rich history and culture that we value in each other. On that note, I just want to say good luck to the Bokke in the World Cup Rugby, we are rooting for you all the way! I am forever proud be a South African.' Megs

Mr Sampieri

大家好, 我叫 Athena, 我今日想同大家分

Sihu

Year 11 Geography Field Trip – Calshot 2023

The weather was kind to us this weekend as the Year 11 Geography GCSE cohort visited the Calshot Centre at the mouth of Southampton Water.

From Friday to Sunday, 72 students completed the compulsory physical fieldwork element of their Geography course, investigating river variables on the River Darkwater and beach characteristics along this beautiful stretch of Hampshire coastline. The Calshot Centre is also a leading outdoor activities provider, and it seemed sensible to make the most of the opportunity that their expertise and equipment could provide to our girls. We fully utilised the Calshot dry ski slope, climbing wall, archery hall, and low ropes facilities, resulting in a wonderfully varied weekend of adventures.

Early morning Yoga on the beach was provided by Mr Halsey, evening bonfires (and marshmallows) were organised by Mrs Finn, and a beach sprint competition was ably led by Mr Bond. Considering breakfast was at 7.50am and evening lessons did not finish until 8.30pm each day, the students did extremely well to pack in so much activity and successfully last the distance!

For those doubters that tell us teenagers are lost to their mobile phones, this weekend was proof that friendship, learning, socialisation, and positive physical activity can successfully take the place of screen time (or, at least, that the two can co-exist!).

To their credit, the girls were fantastic ambassadors for Roedean last weekend and they returned to School very tired, but with a deeper understanding of the Geography fieldwork sequence of enquiry, and having experienced a wonderful weekend away together.

Many thanks from the Geography Department to all the Year 11 Geographers, Miss Holmes, Mr Halsey, Mr Marchant, Miss Smith, Mrs Finn, and Mr Bond for their energy and time. We will be returning to Calshot again in the future...

Mr Carter

First Place for Liv and Andrea in Netball!

This weekend, two of our talented U13A team Netball players, Liv and Andrea took part in the Boost Netball Tournament, for Magic's U14 team.

It was a lovely tournament, in memory of a keen young netballer called Jemima, who sadly passed away in November last year, aged just 8. Liv and Andrea worked extremely hard, and their efforts were rewarded with a first place trophy in their age category.

Huge well done to both – what an amazing achievement.

Miss Donovan

Unsung heroes in the spotlight

Each week, many wonderful things happen at Roedean, about which many in the school are perhaps unaware; this section of the weekly review is dedicated to ‘unsung heroes’, in order to draw our attention to these people and remind us that our community is special.

On Monday 25 September, the U15A team played against Lingfield College in the Sisters in Sports National Cup first round.

The team played so well, showing great set plays as well as versatility due to the score. Leaving the afternoon with a solid win of 40-12, they are now through to the next round, which will take place in a few weeks’ time.

Well done to everyone who played, especially Minnie who was named Player of the Match.

SNS U15A Netball OR Hockey Match

The Old Roedeanians came to play the U18B team to open up the season. Despite an even first 10 minutes, in which both sides had shots and each respective keeper was brought into play, the ORs struck first and continued to control the match comfortably with a 2-1 win.

Both sides showed skilful individual passages of play, and a fluid defensive wall making it hard for each team to get into the D.

U18B team had some talented forwards who were fast but often isolated by the OR defence, and, as a result just lacking the final finishes needed to even the match.

Special mentions go to the OR Chair who organised the players. It was such a lovely morning, welcoming back all the OR members, and catching up during a traditional match tea was delightful.

We look forward to welcoming back the ORs for the Netball match next season.

Miss Kirby-Jones

U13C Netballers

Turn a Loss into a Win!

After last week’s competitive game, the team was determined to turn the tables and fight for a win.

It was Ardingly who were the ones to face this driven and competitive team. As the whistle blew to start the game, the team were off, looking to drive the ball right and speed down the line; Ying and Momo did this well, linking up with Bea and Chiara across the midfield. With some excellent link-up play, Erin found the back of the net in the first 5 minutes. Hazel and Lili were strong in defence, and helped clear up the ball which escaped down the pitch.

A sneaky goal from the opposition drew the scores level, but Momo pounced on a loose ball to score our second. After half-time, Jemima had to work a bit harder to keep the goal clear, and she was unfortunate to let one more in, but 3 more goals, two from Bea and one from Erin, meant we finished with a 5-2 win.

The Opposition's Most Valued Player was Erin and the Coaches’ Player was Ying.

Miss Kirby-Jones

Miss Walsh

Ayla and Daisy (Yr11) – for being proactive and alert when supporting a pupil in the lower years – well done on being fantastic role models [Mr Halsey]

U12 Netball vs Windlesham House

On Tuesday 26 September, the U12A team played in their first ever match against Windlesham House in the Sisters in Sports National Cup first round.

Heidi stepped up as Captain for the Match. Our attacking play in the first quarter was very energetic, finishing on 4-4. Going into the second quarter, we were pumped but fell back 2 goals down. The third quarter was a big dip for us. Defensively we had to work incredibly hard to turn the ball over and finish with a goal. The defenders managed to limit the goals in the last quarter, but we had a few to catch up with and finished the game 14-19. It was not the score we were after, but the girls worked incredibly hard. This is the first time they have all played together and the Windlesham teacher said at the end that we have a great team and season ahead of us.

Well done to one and all.

U14A Netball Battle Against Cardinal Newman

Last week, the U14A Netball team played a tough first-round match for the National Cup against Cardinal Newman. It was fast-paced from the start, and both teams had strong possession play down the court. Amarah and Lula had a busy time trying to turn the ball over in defence, and they had some moments of brilliance. Unfortunately, the opposition went into the second quarter with a two-goal lead.

For the next half, we struggled to look after the ball down the court, and found ourselves losing the ball due to handling errors. The score going into the final quarter was 11-16, and, with just 12 minutes left to play, it was going to be an uphill battle. Izzy and Liv shot well and, although we won the quarter, we finished the match 17-21.

A big well done to the girls for grafting hard in the first game of the season, and I look forward to seeing the progress through the plate.

Sport Stars of the Week

Congratulations to the following, who were last week's Sport Stars of the Week:

Year 7 Lola, for incredible umpiring in Hockey lessons this week

Year 10 Nisreen, for showing great effort in Games lessons this term

Year 8 Eva, for brilliant work ethic in Netball match this week

Year 11 Mia, for a superb goal against Eastbourne for the U16A team

Year 9 Yan Yan, for a storming match for the U14A team against Eastbourne

Year 12 Alice, for swimming well and competing in the regionals gala this week

Year 7 Mabel, for fantastic coachability and improvement in Netball

Year 10 Megs, for excellent progress in Hockey and getting into EG Talent Academy

We welcome contributions from all parts of the Roedean community. If you have something you would like featured in the Head’s Weekly Review, please email: aws@roedean.co.uk

Year 8 Katherine, for excellent effort in Swimming sessions.

Year 11 Maya, for her outstanding effort and progress in hockey

And well done to the following, who have been selected for this week: Well

Year 9 Emma-Lynn, for great work ethic in all PE lessons.

Year 12

Cheyenne, for consistent effort in all sporting endeavours

Mr Campleman

Miss Walsh

Miss Kirby-Jones