10th November 2017 - Issue 8
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW Head’s Introduction Speech Day last weekend was a wonderful event, and I was delighted to award so many prizes to the Senior girls and see so many faces from last year too. At Roedean, we are constantly telling the students that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them, so it was really pleasing to hear Clemency Burton-Hill reiterate this; I am sure that the girls will have taken a great deal from her speech.
‘Vulnerability is okay’ – Speech Day with Clemency Speech Day last Saturday was a wonderful event, with our Guest Speaker, Clemency Burton-Hill, where the senior part of the school celebrated the girls’ successes and achievements from last academic year. The girls in Years 10 to 13 and the parents of the Prize Winners enjoyed the event a great deal, including the fantastic music – the String Orchestra opened and closed the proceedings, and the musicians also accompanied the two choirs. The music was extremely challenging, including Libertango, by Astor Piazzolla, and Las Amarillas, by Stephen Hatfield, but it was performed with impressive timing and musicality, under the expert direction of Miss Fewkes and Ms Bartlette. As ever, it was lovely to welcome back those who left Roedean last year, many of whom have started their university courses or Gap Years. Although some are abroad or had too far to travel to take part, nearly three quarters of last year’s Year 13 were able to return, and it was great to see them. Grace R gave a lovely Leaver’s Review, reflecting on her time at Roedean and how her time at School had prepared her for the next stage of her life. Congratulations to Maggie EB (Yr13) and Rosie J (Yr11) who also reviewed the year from their peers’ perspective, and did so eloquently and confidently.
Clemency Burton-Hill is an established broadcaster and writer, and she drew on her experiences in her speech. As a talented violinist, she congratulated the girls on the wonderful music, but she also commented about how impressed she was with the number of Roedean girls going on to read Sciences and Engineering at university. She spoke in a most engaging way, and a lot of what she said resounded with the girls in the audience, and, I am sure, reassured many of them. Clemency encouraged the girls to take some chances and not to be afraid of leaving themselves a little vulnerable at times; she spoke about how taking risks is a valuable learning experience, and one which can often be avoided by girls who are keen to be right and do things correctly. She also told the girls that, in a world where it is now normal to have a number of different professions in one career, it is okay not to know exactly where you are heading at any given point; Clemency used her own career as an example of this, having spent a decade as a television actress, still playing music to a very high level, presenting Breakfast on BBC Radio 3, and just completing her third novel.
Discovery Day this week was a great success, and I am grateful to the very many members of the school community who played their part in making it run so smoothly. Congratulations in particular to the Admissions Department – to have over 130 prospective girls on site and busy at the same time is a huge logistical challenge! We have marked Remembrance Day with two beautiful services in our Chapel today, and again I would like to thank our musicians for singing beautifully and Anamika for playing the Last Post so well. I am also pleased that some of the girls were able to share in the service with the Blind Veterans UK yesterday, and that Maggie, Ohi, and Maria will represent the School by laying a wreath at the Rottingdean War Memorial on Sunday. Good luck to Year 11 for your Trial Exams next week. I wish you all a lovely weekend and good luck for next week. She spoke very well from the platform, and she was also very happy to have photographs taken with the Prize Winners. Following this, Lucy B, Zarbanu M, and Sorcha H (Yr12) had the chance to interview her, and they found her to be very candid, and again, very reassuring.
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
10th November 2017 - Issue 8
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. Bo Ana M, Cecily B, Isla B, Issy H, Tilly L, Lola C, Issy J, Ella KM, Darcey M, Phoebe H, India H, Dorothea B, Charlotte A, India B, Sydney O and Sylva C (Yr8) for all their help chaperoning our visitors for Discovery Day – they did a fab job [Admissions team]
Amelia M and Niamh A for noticeable kindness and support on a number of occasions, towards both girls and staff [JC]
Maths Olympiad for Girls – November 2017 Twenty of our most able Sixth Form mathematicians chose to enter this year’s Maths Olympiad for Girls, a national competition designed to encourage girls to tackle ‘advanced mathematical problem solving’, lasting two and a half hours. The scale of the competition’s difficulty is demonstrated by the fact that the average mark nationally in 2016 was just 6 out of 50 (12%), so the ability to gain any marks at all should be considered a feather in one’s cap. Four Roedean girls gained impressive double figure results, including Cherry L, Alicia T, Linlingyi L, and Maggie X, which is a terrific achievement; Linlingyi and Maggie deserve special commendation, as they were awarded ‘Distinction’. The Mathematics Department would like to praise all those who put themselves forward for the competition; not only does this show
a willingness to challenge themselves, but it will be a terrific thing to refer to in their UCAS Personal Statements in a year’s time. Fancy having a go at a question? Here is a problem from this year’s test: A positive integer is said to be ‘jiggly’ if it has four digits, all non-zero, and no matter how you arrange those digits you always obtain a multiple of 12. How many jiggly positive integers are there?
Remembrance with the Blind Veterans On Thursday, ten members of the Senior Singers and www.PrintablePaper.net Miss Fewkes represented Roedean at the Remembrance Day Service held in the St Dunstan’s Chapel at the Blind Veterans UK. The girls sang with great confidence, particularly in the descant, and those in the congregation were very appreciative. Ellis R (Yr13) also read a World War I poem with great poise, and, to begin and end the two-minute silence, Anamika N-W (Yr9) played the Last Post and the Rouse beautifully. It was lovely to share this with some veterans and the families of those connected with Blind Veterans UK, and we hope to be able to contribute in this way again next year.
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10th November 2017 - Issue 8
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Discovery at Roedean Discovery Day on Wednesday was an absolutely brilliant event from start to finish, including all the wonderful academic activities and the fantastic catering at the end of the day, and some also enjoyed the very exciting sleepover. It was wonderful to see so many engaged and delighted girls on site, who were looked after so well at every stage of the day. Everyone I spoke to was full of enthusiasm for the school, the staff, and, of course, the girls. This incredible teamwork across the whole school continues to build the School’s excellent reputation, as well as the quality, creativity, and enthusiasm of the girls who choose to come here. Thank you to everyone who was involved in the making the day such a wonderful success! DBA
Huge and grand, Towering above me, Smiling faces, Shining with glee, The kindest staff You would ever know, Everyone is super friendly , And so… If you want happy memorie If you want amazing scen s, es If you want the best scho , ol Look no further than Roed ever, ean!! Delilah B
Roedean Bonfire Night Tall and grand, Leaning above me, The colour of sand, er, Pebbles scattered all ov , rs Like a rainbow of colou w paint, llo ye Drenched in pastel r, As big as a sky scrape s ud clo y sp It pierced the wi That loomed above it. ? What am I thinking of Lilah O
Fame! Over half term, Erin J (Yr7), Eden W-N and Ava D (Yr10) starred in seven performances of Fame The Musical at The Old Market Theatre. They all did brilliantly, and the sell-out show was awarded five stars in the Brighton Argus, and Ava also received a name check in the review for her role playing one of the principals. Well done!
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House 1 had an absolutely lovely evening celebrating Bonfire night. All four boarding houses met outside House 1 at 7pm and walked around the School looking at all the fireworks in the sky, and the weather was just perfect. We finished off outside House 4, and all had sparklers. House 2 came back to House 1 for hot dogs and s’mores. It was a perfect, fun-filled evening, which will definitely go down as a good memory for all the girls.
10th November 2017 - Issue 8
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Archive photos Here is a fifth example of a modern copy of one of our archive photos which was taken in 1927. You’ll have your chance to try to do this – let’s see what brilliant reproductions you can come up with! Send them to Loretta S or Natasha R (Yr13).
The winning entries
Bookmark Comp House 4 – Toffee Apples The House 4 girls absolutely loved making delicious bonfire night toffee apples and s’mores. Guy Fawkes night was celebrated and enjoyed with tasty treats whilst watching the Brighton fireworks with friends and sparklers!
Hockey On Wednesday, the U12B had their first experience of indoor hockey. The biggest difference is that there are fewer players (6-a-side), and that it is much faster than the outdoor game, and you are allowed to rebound the ball off the sides. The match was played in great spirit, and both teams learnt a lot from playing indoors. Roedean created plenty of chances as they began to use the sideboards more from the back, but we failed to convert any of our chances from short corners, due to Brighton College’s very strong defence. The final score was 1-1, and both teams will benefit them this hugely technically experience. A special mention goes to Bridget R and Maria V, who distributed the ball very well from the back. ACA
to lift the ball proved rather restrictive to the girls and it took a while for them all to adapt their passing technique. Amy N was probably one of the first to truly adapt and showed great individual strength and skill in the middle to put in some well executed shots from the top of the D; she managed to score a corker before time putting us into the lead.
It was an indoor hockey extravaganza on Wednesday for the U12s against Brighton College, with both teams putting on a fantastic display.
Roedean got better and better during the last two thirds and started to move the ball around rather than forcing it up the middle. Isabella P showed her strength in defence by driving the ball against the wall to find our roaming forwards of Izzy B, Amelia K and Amy N who all scored great goals. The highlight was Amy diving for the ball to make a reverse stick hit. The game required quick thinking skills and lots of short sharp passing which favoured us, as we had been working on this in training. I was particularly delighted with Nia S and Maddie M who both rose to the challenge and were able to put in the short accurate passes to their team mates.
The As played first and both teams initially struggled with the pace and intensity of the new style game. The rule of not being able
We defeated Brighton College 6-2 and I was delighted with everyone’s grit, determination and ability to adapt to playing indoors. KAN
Victorious against Brighton College
Christmas Fair 2 December 2017
If you have any donations for the tombola, please drop them in the Houses or to the Parents’ Guild at the Gala Concert
We welcome contributions from all parts of the Roedean community. If you have something you would like featured in the Headmaster’s Weekly Review, please email: marketing@roedean.co.uk Page 4
As part of the School’s ‘3 Rs’ theme, the Art department, in collaboration with the School Library, launched a mini-competition to design a bookmark. We received a huge number of exceptionally original designs, which made judging extremely difficult. However, the three joint winners were Kate F (9R), Rose O (7S), and Edie F (8P) – well done! The runners up were Gina D (8S) and Tallulah H (7M). All the winners and runners up all receive book tokens. There were also highly commended entries from Phoebe H (8P), Flo I-S (8M), and Harriet M-H (8M), and they all receive double merits. Congratulations to all who took part! JJ WHAT’S COMING UP IN THE
WEEK AHEAD?
Mon 13 Nov
Year 12 & 13 History Conference Year 13 Scholars’ Dinner with Lancing College Swimming Gala at Moira House Year 8 Twelfth Night performance at the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival
Tue 14 Nov
Years 12 & 13 Business trip to Brands Museum Year 8 Twelfth Night School performance
Wed 15 Nov
Oxbridge Interview Forum at Lancing College
Thur 16 Nov
Pitch Perfect Appeal Breakfast Sixth Form ‘Safe Drive, Stay Alive’ course Badminton vs Burgess Hill (H)
Sat 18 Nov
Years 12 & 13 Model United Nations Conference Year 12 CAP Theatre Trip ‘Contractions’
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