UK
5 February 2021 - Issue 4
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HEAD’S
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WEEKLY REVIEW
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Race Around the World – we’re on our way
to Ghana!
Head’s Introduction
A sense of community is incredibly important at the current time, so I am very pleased that our weekly year-group and House assemblies, along with the ‘socials’ after Chapel every Friday, are doing a wonderful job of helping to keep different groups within the School feel connected. Among many other things, there are Kahoot quizzes run by the House Captains, virtual scavenger hunts, advice on how to get good sleep, and Task Master Challenges. You can read about some of the activities in this Review, but all of them remind the girls that they are still together, even if not in person. There are so many ways to touch base with each other, and I was touched last week by Miss Ono, who sent a ‘hello’ in the form of a recording of a piece of music on the piano – thank you. Looking beyond Roedean, I am delighted that we have been able to loan St Mark’s 20 iPads to help support those children who may not have an appropriate device to use for their lessons. Thank you to everyone at Roedean who is contributing towards activities which we can share with the children at St Mark’s and Deepdene. Well done to the Sports Leaders, and to the PE Department for their regular video workouts and challenges, and to those who have sent recordings of books to Mr Wilson to share, and in particular to Megan in Year 12, who has produced an amazing art tutorial using recycling – well done, and thank you. I would like to thank Ms Earl and the girls for leading this week’s Chapel service which focuses on different faiths. The girls who spoke identified the importance for them of their different faiths, and this marked the end of the first week of Roedean’s International Month. There will also
be more activities and talks to attend next week, and the details of these are available in the Bulletins. I encourage you all to get involved as much as you can to engage with something new and different! We appreciate that both students and parents are keen to know how they are doing at School in the current circumstances. I am therefore very grateful to my colleagues for their contributions to Parents’ Evenings as we approach the halfterm break. We had Year 9 last week, Year 11 Options Evening this week, and it will be the Sixth Form next week, reporting on their assessments. This has been a busy two weeks for Year 13 in particular, so I hope that the assessments have given them an opportunity to showcase what they have learnt. Furthermore, those in Year 13 who have undertaken the Extended Project Qualification will be giving their presentations from next week – good luck. Finally, as a School, we do a combination of GCSEs and International GCSEs (IGCSEs). Until this week, only the GCSE summer examinations were formally cancelled, but we are pleased to have just learnt that all IGCSE examiations have also beem cancelled. This will mean that we are not asking the girls and their teachers to prepare for two different forms of assessment next term, which would have added additional challenge.
Megan’s Recycling Art Tutorial
Remembering the Holocaust
I wish you all a restful weekend, and good luck for our last week before half-term!
Miss Ono’s Salut d’Amour
Year 8 Weekly Challenge
5 February 2021 - Issue 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
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.
Lola, Zainah and Imani (Yr11) for speaking in this week’s Chapel [RB] Megan (Yr12) for producing a wonderful tutorial for the children at St Mark’s on how to make animals out of everyday recycling materials [SSN] Shannon for playing the piano so beautifully for Chapel [EEA]
Making Animals out of Recycling Video Tutorial Well done to Megan in Yr12, who has produced a wonderful step-by-step tutorial for the children at St Mark’s to show them how to make farm animals out of everyday recycling materials –what a brilliant thing to do! SSN
Staff heroes in the spotlight Each week, a member of staff who has gone above and beyond the call of duty can be nominated by their colleagues or the girls. Mrs Herridge for stepping in without a second thought to cover some Olympiad invigilation on Wednesday, and for simply being fantastically generous with her support [RB and JSH]
A Salut d’Amour from Miss Ono Miss Ono, one of Roedean’s Piano teachers, has recorded Elgar’s Salut d’Amour to say ‘hello’ to everyone at Roedean, and perhaps to give everyone an excuse to grab a few minutes of relaxation during the lockdown. We hope you enjoy it!
Key Stage 4 Task Master Montage Last Friday, Years 10 and 11 were set some challenges by Mrs Robins, Mrs Shrubsole, and Miss Beadle – this is what they had to do: ■
find an object with the most holes in it
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recreate a famous piece of art with household objects
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write down the most things you can sit on
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create a rainbow without using pens or pencils
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write a dog-related poem, with each line beginning with the letters in the word poodle
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collect as many items that begin with the first letter of your name
Keira (Yr11) was an impressive second, but congratulations go to Maria (Yr10), who won the challenge and decided to donate the value of her prize voucher to one of our chosen charities, the Beachy Head Chaplaincy – what a lovely thing to do!
5 February 2021 - Issue 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Year 8 Weekly Challenge Each week on a Friday, Miss Orrells sets Year 8 a challenge – the first was to create something to celebrate Winnie the Pooh Day, and the second was to recreate their favourite book covers in some format. Here are some of the fabulous entries! KOR
Race Around the World 2.0 – 4,370 kilometres, and well on our way to Ghana!
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Year 10 – 515.13km Year 8 – 684.28km
And here are the top performers: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Lennie (Yr7) – 117km Jemima (Yr11) – 139km Maria (Yr10) – 165km Amelia (Yr10) – 320km Izzy (Yr8) – 557.7km
Can you do better?
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Please follow the relevant link to log your distances – as this is like a New Year’s Resolution, you can include distances back to 1 January!
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To make it easier to log your distances regularly, you can pin the wufoo link to your browser by clicking on ‘Bookmark this tab’ or similar, depending on your browser. Well done, and thank you for getting involved! RB Page 3
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Race Around the World 2.0 STUDENT Race Around the World 2.0 STAFF Race Around the World 2.0 PARENT Race Around the World 2.0 OR If the country where you currently live does not appear on the route because you also have a UK address on the school database, please do let us know before we reach that country by emailing Miss Boles on jbo@roedean.co.uk.
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We really hope that this might give you a focus to keep up your exercise – to generate a bit of healthy competition, here are the two top performing Year-Groups:
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Well done to everyone who has logged their distances via wufoo – we have already covered 4,370 kilometres! That means we’ve already been to 6 countries where Roedean girls live, 10 countries in total, and made it as far as Algeria, on our way to Ghana!
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5 February 2021 - Issue 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW Dear David Attenborough,
HHH – 'Life in Letters’
We are two eleven-year old girls from Roedean School, and in one of our lesso ns were asked to write a lette r; we decided to write to you.
The students in Year 7 who are taking part in this course learn the background behind a certain topic one week, and then the next week they try writing in that style or addressing that theme themselves. The topics covered are the following: the history, evolution, and style of epistolary novels; open, protest, and lobbying letters; letters of appreciation, gratitude, and love; history's most famous letters; penfriend letters; and Amnesty’s Write for Rights project. Last week was 'The Power of the Pen', which is lobbying letters, and here are two examples of the work the students produced – well done to everyone involved! ESH
Dear Jair Bolsanaro (President of Brazil), I am writing to discuss the things that your council has done to the forest. I understand if you are not going to read this. But even if you read ‘dear’ or think for a second about this letter, it would be an improvement on the current situation. I’m not trying to write a soppy letter to you asking you to change your ways – I am trying to tell the truth on what is happening in your country.
We have watched loads of your shows, wanted to say that we think that the causes you bring up areand grea t. We believe that people ruin the environment and need to stop. We would really like to know how we could make a difference, as being outs ide is one of our biggest pass ions? We also wanted to ask you some quest ions: why did you start doing docu mentaries about animals? What was your inspiratio n to start maki ng nature programmes? Do you children are being taught enough about nature? Has lockd ownthink d the environment more, less, or about the same? And lastly, ruine what was the favourite docu mentary that you have filmed?
Thank you so much for taki ng your time to read this letter, and we cannot wait to have a reply!
Best wishes,
Evelyn and Tessa
In the 1970s, the government had been the cause or had attributed to 38% of deforestation. Now it is closer to 70%. Considering that you were elected in October 2018, that does mean you are contributing to this. It does not mean all, but so far you have not tried to lower the number of trees being cut down, and it’s been 3 years. 200,000 acres of rainforest in Brazil are cut down every day, meaning 150 acres being cut down every minute. Meaning that it’s nearly 3 acres every second. That is the equivalent of two football fields every minute. This may also lead to many animals going extinct. There are ten million different animal species in the Amazon rainforest – the rainforest is their home, and you don’t have the right to destroy their homes. An average of 137 species are going extinct each day because of deforestation, and you’re making it worse. The amazon rainforest is known as the ‘lungs of the planet’, because it produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. If you cut it down, you will be slowly killing us humans, and the earth is becoming a dystopia because of people like you. I hope you realise the huge mistake you’re making.
Being Human Academic Week 2021 We are pleased to present a programme of events and activities next week for pupils and staff to explore what it means to be human. There will be a wide range of online talks and papers presented by pupils and Old Roedeanians on a wide range of topics for your daughter to get involved and to talk about the ideas and issues raised. We are incredibly proud of the range and insight that the pupils have presented. Below is just an example of some of the topics raised:
Sincerely, Rhea, Bobby, and Peony, Roedean School
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Artificial Intelligence – The Future of Automation
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Philosophy – Is Free Will Real or Just an Illusion?
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Genetics – Rethinking Genetics and Identity Politics
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Humans in Space – Could Humans Live on Keplar 452b?
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Technology & Behaviour – Does Technology Affect How Young Adults Behave?
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Psychology & Neuroscience – How Do Humans Make Their Own Decisions? Can Humans Live Without Rules?
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Anthropology – How Tribal Are We?
There will be full details in next week’s Head’s Weekly Review
A Surprise Lockdown Visitor Last weekend, Mrs Black woke up to find this strange visitor in her garden, which she says has been the highlight of her lockdown – to find a sheep in her garden was all the stranger because she lives on a main road in suburbia! Fortunately, Mr Fieldsend was able to come along to help, and the famer reclaimed her lost sheep! Page 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Remembering the Holocaust On Wednesday, Year 12 & 13 historians, together with some of the Year 11 students, attended a live Q&A session with two Holocaust survivors, Peter and George Summerfield, as part of the University of Sussex’s annual Holocaust Memorial event. Here are Holly and Abby's reflections: The live Q&A session was fascinating. Learning about Peter and George Summerfield's experiences as a Jewish family during that time, having to flee from the Nazis and Berlin in 1939, was an eye-opening experience. It has certainly put into perspective our own lives today and has reminded us how incredibly fortunate we are not to have had to experience such horrors and hardships.
5 February 2021 - Issue 4
At the end of the Q&A, we thought their final advice was important for everyone to keep in mind; that discrimination of any kind is what divides society, that discrimination or bullying is what keeps evil alive. If everyone chooses kindness, then there will be no space for evil, and it will die out. They reminded us that kindness is something that everyone should choose, because it costs nothing and means everything. You can watch a filmed testimony featuring the twins talking about their escape from Nazi Germany: University of Sussex Holocaust Memorial Event 2021: Be the light in the darkness
During the session, the twins answered a range questions about their experiences during the Holocaust, during the war, and about life afterwards in England. The men talked with such grace and in great detail about their first-hand experiences. When asked about how they felt about Germans and Germany today, they answered by saying that, when they go to Germany and talk to younger people, they are immensely grateful because the younger generations realise that what happened in the Holocaust was wrong. They also said that they do not blame them for what their ancestors may have done, which we thought was inspirational as the men chose to forgive and not hold anything against the younger generations of Germany.
Holly and Abby (Yr13)
Masters Excellence for Mrs Haining Congratulations to Mrs Haining, who is currently completing an MA in School Leadership of Mental Health and Wellbeing – she recently undertook an assignment completing an evaluation of the School’s Mental Health Provision, and she has just been awarded a Distinction for it. She said, ‘This assignment was a great opportunity to assess what we are doing well as a school, in supporting mental health and wellbeing within our community, as well as drawing links with current literature and research.’ Her next assignment explores student resilience through positive education and psychology – we wish her all the best with it.
Inspiring Conversations with Grace Moore Grace Moore is an international Rugby 7s player for Ireland, and she joined both Lara (Yr12) and Miss Bamford for a chat about what a day in the life of an international rugby player looks like, how she broke into international rugby, and where her passion and inspiration for rugby came from. Grace was also extremely honest about her battles with mental health, and how rugby quite literally saved her life. We are so grateful that she was able to spend some time with us and we really enjoyed hearing her story. Page 5
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Blind Veterans Sponsored Visual Impairment Last term, eight Year 8 students supported our neighbours ‘The Blind Veterans’, by participating in a Sponsored Visual Impairment. The students wore specially adapted goggles that imitated visual impairment. They set themselves targets between 2-4 hours to wear the goggles whilst going about their day-to-day lives. The experience proved to be extremely challenging and rewarding. The students learnt some valuable lessons which they have shared below: Naisha: ‘I decided to do 4 hours wearing my googles and it was a big challenge. At first, I thought it would be easy, I thought time would go quickly. But it was the opposite, everything went so slowly, and I was bored as I could not visually look at things, so I had to find other ways to entertain myself. This challenge was very hard. I realised I took my eyesight for granted. Doing everyday tasks was also a struggle, such as taking out the laundry, eating food, and even playing badminton (which I was extremely bad at). Sometimes during the challenge, I felt tempted to take it off for a peek, but I knew I could not, and it would ruin the whole point of this, so I didn’t. The thing that kept me going throughout was that I knew I would have that feeling of achievement at the end, I knew I would do something good for charity. This challenge has changed my perspective of how I feel about people with sight loss. It also helped me sympathise for the Blind Veterans and others with sight loss, as I now know I kind of know how it feels. Doing it for 4 hours was hard, but I have no idea what it’s like to live with for the rest of your life.’ Freya: ‘What is the world without all the colours What is the world without all the light It’s is a world of darkness Blacker than the night No more jaw-dropping sunsets Or mesmerising seas Just feeling and senses Like the touch of a cool breeze This is why we appreciate our eyes For they show us the hills, trees, And the skies And appreciate those without sight For exploring the world as if stuck in the night.’
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Clara: ‘The last three hours have been really challenging. They have been extremely hard; my concept of time has been drastically changed. There were times that I just wanted to take the mask off. The hardest thing was to make breakfast! This has made me way more aware of the challenges that blind people face. It has also made me even more aware of how hard it would be with sight loss. As you use every sense and get used to having all 5 senses. One thing I would say to a person with sense loss is congratulations! You are amazing for powering through. So, when you remove one it is very hard. This has probably been a life-changing experience for me; it will make me work harder and appreciate everything I have. I am so glad I took part in this!’ Eloise: ‘I was involved in the Blind Veterans club and we were blindfolded for a period of time. It was very challenging and made me think how difficult it actually is to do things normally but with a blindfold on. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. It was even frustrating at times. One of the most challenging parts was the fact that I had to find my way around the house without hurting myself. I feel like a lot of my other senses became more apparent to me and I was able to hear and smell a lot better, as I was not focusing on what I was seeing. Although it felt like a long time for me, to think that some people have to go through this every single day is really sad. Overall, it was extremely hard and very frustrating. It is definitely a new experience, and it is interesting to know a little bit of all the struggles that you have on a daily basis.’ Galya: ‘This was an extremely hard challenge to complete. I wore the goggles for three hours, but it felt like it was much longer. It was much harder than I expected and there were many times when I wanted to take them off. The hardest thing to do was to make breakfast as it was really difficult not to spill things and I felt quite frustrated with myself. I think that in the future I will really appreciate the fact I can see when there are so many people with visual impairments who struggle with many everyday tasks. One of the questions was are you proud of yourself, but I would say I am not, because three hours is nothing compared to what lots of people with visual impairments have to go through every day.’ By taking on this challenge, these girls raised £315, which will go towards reminiscence boxes. These boxes will contain sensory objects and items from years gone by, to stimulate memories and encourage conversation between members and staff. Exercises like these are essential in encouraging good mental health. The Blind Veterans said in response:
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Dear Students Fundraisers
Dear Students of the Co-Curricular Group,
I am writing to thank you on behalf of all members and staff at Blind Veterans Uk Brighton for the effort you have put into raise a wonderful £315 for our charity.
I am writing to thank you on behalf of all members and staff at together Blind Veterans UK Brighton for the letters, cards and gifts you put and for Christmas. Our members were so touched by your thoughtfullness going on to give you 'Blessings and good fortune for 2021'
I'm sure you already know that Mr Wilson and I have agreed that the funds will go towards creating reminiscence boxes for the permanent members. These boxes will contain sensory objects and items from years gone by to specifically encourage conversaton amongst membe rs and staff. Excercises like this are essential when encouraging good mental health, and may be used by everyone, not just those living with memory loss. With the money you have raised, I am confident that we will be able to create some exciting boxes, enabling us to provide a proven source of therapy to our members.
The relationship between the pupils and staff of Roedean and the it has members and staff of Blind Veterans UK is an important one and really been wonderful to see it strengthen over the past three years. We spirit ty communi the and show you kindness and support the value year which enables you all to undertake such acts of positivity. THis past the has been very difficult for all of us, but it has been made easier by presence of such good neighbours.
Stay healthy!
It would be interesting to hear some of the things you found difficult about your sight-loss experiences. Did any of you try to eat whilst wearing the goggles? How did it feel trying to negotiate your way around? We look forward to sharing experiences when we are able to welcome visitors back to the centre.
Kindest regards
Until that time, take care and stay healthy.
Emma Allum and all at Blind Veterans UK Brighton
Kindest regards
here We are so looking forward to the time when we may invite you all in the again, for visits, volunteering, tours and educational purposes, but meantime, wish you all the best.
Emma Allum and all at Blind Veterans UK Brighton
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5 February 2021 - Issue 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
SPORT
Strava Challenge – Week 5 Results We had a total of 12 entries for last week’s challenge, so a huge well done to the following winners: ■
3K – Miss Johannisson
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5K – Lizzie (Yr9) – 25:05
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7.5K – Izzy (Yr8) – 31:22
Week 3 Anyone for a cup of tea…? Week 3 was a breeze for the tantalizing tea drinkers of Roedean. Tasked with creating the best and trickiest trick shot, using only a teabag and mug, the girls kettled into gear, with their teabags at the ready and mugs raring to go. Well done girls for another tea-rrific week! LBA
Congratulations to everyone who has taken part! SCH
Lizzie (Yr9
Star of the Week Miss Johannisson
Olivia (Yr9) made a superb effort last week of running her first ever half marathon – that is a total of 13.1 miles – in an outstanding time of 2 hours 11 minutes! Olivia has been working super hard at her running during lockdown, and this an outstanding achievement!
Izzy (Yr9
Olivia (Yr9)
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 7
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