Sponsored Visual Impairment Training

Next week, 32 brave Year 8 students will be taking on the challenge of a 'Sponsored Visual Impairment', to raise funds for our neighbours, the Blind Veterans UK.

The students have volunteered to wear specially designed goggles, which will replicate varying degrees of sight loss, for one hour during the school day. They will be supported by a guide during this time. After the first hour, the students will then swap roles, so that they can experience both simulated sight loss and guiding.

Throughout 2022-2023, each year group at Roedean is focusing on a dedicated charity, and the Year 8 chosen charity is Blind Veterans UK. In preparation for the event, members of staff from Blind Veterans UK kindly delivered training to the Year 8 students on how to guide and keep an individual with visual impairment safe. The staff were very impressed with the Year 8 students' commitment and enthusiasm. They, along with the rest of the school community, look forward to seeing how the activity goes next week.

If you would like to make a donation to support this endeavour, please do so here: https://www. justgiving.com/fundraising/roedeanschooly8

Thank you in advance, and well done to the Year 8s taking part!

Mr Wilson

It is lovely that we have received congratulations from our sister school in South Africa – the Executive Director, Mrs Lindi Dlamini, who is speaking at our International Women's Day festival in March, sent her congratulations, as did the Head of School, Mrs Annabel Roberts. We also received a message from Mrs Sue Rabie, Librarian, who hosted the group who travelled to South Africa in 2018.

While we are celebrating 138 years since the School was founded, and 125 years on the current site, Roedean South Africa is also celebrating – 2023 is their 120th year!

Following on from our news about the offers received from Oxford and Cambridge last week, our Year 13 have also been celebrating receiving a bumper crop of UCAS offers from a wide range of universities, including Bath, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Imperial, King’s, Leeds, Manchester, Norland, Nottingham, Royal Holloway, SOAS, Southampton, UCL, Warwick, and York, and others, for a vast number of varied and exciting university courses.

This year, we have applicants for courses that include Acting, Architecture, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Physics, Classics, Criminology, Fashion Design, French and English Literature, History, Interior Design, International Development with Economics, Law, Occupational Therapy, Philosophy, Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, and more, indicative of the fact that Roedean students confidently head out into pathways that are as individual as they are.

Our medics and dentist applicants have been called to interview at a number of universities across the UK, following a very competitive application process that has involved them undertaking the BMAT and/or UCAT tests. The Science Department has been busy providing mock MMIs (Multiple Mini Interviews) and mock panel interviews to help the students to build their technique and confidence, following their training with the Medic Portal earlier in the academic year. The student-led MedSoc continues to go from strength to strength with budding future medics already preparing for their applications from Year 10.

Some of our Year 13 students have also been making applications to top universities abroad. This year, we have applications to the USA, Canada, Australia, Spain, and Hong Kong, which has involved additional assessment preparation and interviews. And our Art students have been