5th May 2017 - Issue 2
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Head’s Introduction We started the week with a fantastic showcase of Roedean’s atmosphere and talent at our May Day Open Day. The school and grounds looked their best and the grounds and maintenance team are to be congratulated. The girls were excellent ambassadors for the school, the staff were wonderfully enthusiastic, and we had more visitors than ever coming to see our unique mix of an academic and truly holistic education. Whether the girls were tour guides, helping in departments, speaking, or performing, they were excellent – our visitors were hugely impressed with everything they saw, but, most of all, they commented on how confident and passionate the girls are. The public examinations season is well underway now, with more speaking exams for
our linguists and Art exams too. I am delighted to see how well the girls are coping with this. I know that they have worked hard and prepared well, so we wish them all the very best. It is great to see the girls enjoying all our summer term sports, with rounders, cricket, athletics, and more going on at Roedean and beyond. Our musicians are working particularly hard at the moment, and we are all looking forward to seeing the biggest event in Roedean’s musical calendar, the Brighton Festival Fringe concert, on Saturday. Our choir will be performing three fantastic pieces, and the orchestra will accompany five wonderful soloists. Very best of luck to all our performers, the Music Department and to Tiffany, Freya, Briana, Gabriella, and Fran. I have no doubt that the concert will be a triumph!
Bronze DofE Another successful DofE trip went out last weekend, confirming that everyone at Bronze level is ready to enter the next round, which is their qualifying expedition in June! Although there was less mud, more sunshine and warmer temperatures compared to the training expedition back in March, some groups still found themselves very lost. Despite this, the teams worked well together to find their way again and observe the beautiful countryside
around them – wild deer were even spotted. The stunning views up on the hills around Ditchling were momentarily ignored when several DofE groups from another school (all boys!) traipsed past them! Thank you very much to the Outspark staff, Dan and Joel, Mrs Dunlop, Miss Hawks, and Miss Schleiden, for making the experience another memorable one.
Next week is Positive Mental Health Week, and we have a wide range of activities on offer for the girls. Those doing public exams will certainly benefit from this, but everyone has exams this term, so this week will be valuable for all. Throughout the week, the focus will be on taking advantage of our wonderful grounds. There will be sports, yoga, a picnic, baking, exploring the site, along with healthy eating and nutrition. On top of this, Nahida challenged both staff and students to see if they could do without their phones during the day for the whole week; although some looked terrified at this prospect, I would encourage everyone to rise to the challenge! Good luck to all our musicians on Saturday, and to everyone for next week!
Roedean Gardening Club is happy to be a home for your neglected garden tools. We need spades, forks, trowels... Give those dusty sheds a spring clean!
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW Unsung heroes in the spotlight
L4 HHH Chair Restoration
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.
The girls doing HHH really do have the chance to do some amazingly interesting things – I wonder how many other schools have chair restoration as an activity?
Abby L (Yr9) for pushing through and producing an excellent analytical response in English [HBO]
Tasha S (Yr13) for stepping in to help the Psychology Department on Open Day [FA]
Mariam A (Yr9) for her consistent dedication to extension revision in Spanish [AK]
Annabelle K (Yr12) for being the driving force behind 12A’s Assembly presentation [FA]
Akum N and Natasha M (Yr11) for continuing to take an active part in the co-curricular programme, despite their impending GCSEs [HBO]
An Academic Lecture on Shostakovich This week’s Roedean Academic Lecture was given by Dr Barrand on Shostakovich, the Soviet composer. It was really interesting hearing and understanding how music and poetry changed throughout the years of the Cold War, and under Stalin. The motivations of composers working under the totalitarian regime is something I had never considered before, but it was truly fascinating to see how Shostakovich’s styles and themes developed over the years, due to the restrictions placed on Art and creativity, as well as changes in his personal life. Georgina K (Yr13)
5th May 2017 - Issue 2
T-Shirt Designing With summer just around the corner, it seemed the perfect opportunity for the junior boarders to get in the spirit by creating and designing their own T-shirts. Armed with a new pristine white T-shirt, textile markers, and fabric spray paint, the girls were given creative freedom to design a T-shirt however they desired. After several hours of cutting, slicing, spraying, and drawing, the girls had created some truly original and memorable T-shirts – we may have a few budding fashion designers in the midst of our boarding community! GW
A Walk to Asda On Friday evening, 13 House 1 girls thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely stroll to Asda. We set off from at 7:15pm, wrapped up warm with comfy shoes on. The girls really enjoyed blowing dandelions, even though some had never seen this done before. The girls had lots of shopping to do, especially the DofE girls who needed to boost their energy supplies! We got taxis back to School as it got dark very quickly, but it was a lovely evening and special thanks to Miss Whitton for taking the girls and giving them a memorable evening. Page 2
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
5th May 2017 - Issue 2
Even more success for Roedean Young Enterprise All three YE companies at Roedean had a very successful night at the Brighton and Hove finals last Thursday, where their hard work was both recognised and rewarded. The three companies left straight after school for the University of Brighton, to set up their trade stand and answer questions from the judges. They then each presented a short summary of their company journey, with all three companies really impressing everyone with their confident and succinct delivery. After this, there was a tense interlude while the judges debated the results. It was a great evening
for our Roedean companies, with Glow Wild winning ‘Best Presentation’ (Roedean’s third year in a row), Sugarush winning both Best Branding and Best Marketing, and Marbellous being named the Runner Up Best Company in Brighton and Hove. Normally, the Runner Up would not go any further in the competition, but the judges were so impressed with Marbellous that they went through to the Sussex finals which took place this Wednesday. Unfortunately, Marbellous did not win the Sussex finals, but they did extremely well to get so far and deserve to be congratulated!
Briana’s Dancer of the Day
Kieran Camburn in the boxing ring!
Well done to Briana K (Yr11) who competed in another dance competition over the Easter holidays. It was called Time 2 Shine and took place on 9th April at Dorothy Stringer. She came 3rd in her Ballet Solo 14 yrs+, and she won the Song & Dance Solo 14 yrs+ category. But that wasn’t all – she performed in two trios, and they came 1st and 2nd. As a result of her numerous successes, Briana was awarded ‘Dancer of the Day’ – congratulations!
At the very start of the holidays, Mr Camburn fought in a boxing match in The Grand Hotel, to raise money for charity, to support research into cancer treatments. This is what he wrote after the event: ‘The fight against cancer unfortunately didn’t live up to the hype. After a long term and all the training, I was run down and left trying to shake off a bug going into the fight. My opponent, by contrast, was taller, stronger, and more talented than me. However, as we had trained together a fair bit, I had a few reasons to be optimistic. The day itself was an emotional rollercoaster and a little surreal. When it was finally my turn to fight, I walked in to a generous reception and to see my opponent waiting for me. The first bell rang, and, almost immediately, I badly injured my shoulder – the referee and doctor called off the fight, judging that I was unable to continue. After training so hard, having waited around for 8 hours, and with so many friends supporting, it was a devastating way to end the journey. I wouldn’t have minded losing, it would have probably been less painful than the injury, but not knowing what would have happened still haunts me. Thankfully the generosity of the Roedean community helped me raise just short of £1,500. This really did make all the sacrifice, blood, sweat, and pain worthwhile. Thank you for all the support and donations. Lastly a big thank you to the staff who helped train me and to those who came to cheer me on – I really appreciated your help.’ Congratulations to Mr Camburn for raising so much money for charity – this in itself is a brilliant achievement. Page 3
5th May 2017 - Issue 2
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW SPORTS REPORT
Roedean Swimmers in Europe
Cricket is growing at Roedean
U12 & U13 Tennis vs Moira House
Last weekend, Josie F and Gracie B (Yr9) and Jemima V and Ruby L (Yr7) travelled to Belgium to compete at the Antwerp International Youth Swimming Cup, with teams from across Europe attending. Gracie made the youth 50m and 100m butterfly finals, and she finished 5th, which is outstanding. Josie narrowly missed out on a spot in the 100m breaststroke final, finishing 9th, and she also finished 7th in the 200m breaststroke. Jemima and Ruby had great swims too, both achieving many Personal Best times. Brighton Swimming Club won the overall cup for the first time, and it was a great experience for everyone involved.
At Roedean, we now have fixtures for cricket teams in Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 – the game is really taking off here, and it is wonderful to see how the girls are throwing themselves into it. On Wednesday, the U13 girls played their first league cricket game against Claremont Prep. After a successful year last season, the girls entered this year with a lot of promise. Roedean batted first and played conservatively, blocking the good balls and hitting the bad balls, scoring 74 runs in 12 overs. Claremont responded with an aggressive batting approach, and they were intelligent with their running between the wickets, scoring 91 runs in total, winning the game by 17 runs. The match was a great advert for girls’ cricket, and hopefully Roedean will learn from Claremont’s batting style in future games. ACA
On Wednesday 3rd May, a mixture of girls from Year 7 and 8 played some friendly tennis against Moira House in some breezy conditions. The games were relaxed and the focus was for the girls to be able to have the chance to improve their skills, so they had some coaching whilst they were in a match situation. Everyone had a lot of fun and we hope that the girls will continue working hard with their tennis for the rest of the summer. IRO
U12 Rounders at Westbourne House On Wednesday, the U12 Rounders team travelled to Westbourne House to play in their annual tournament. The girls played Farleigh in their opening game and batted well to score 4½ rounders. Our fielding was tight at the start, but some silly mistakes meant that they also scored 4½ resulting in a draw. In our next game we played Westbourne House, who proved too strong and beat us by 4 rounders. Our fielding had improved and India Harrison worked well on 2nd post. We met Brighton Prep next, and the game remained all square until the last few hits of the game where they went ahead. We ended our pool against Hurst, and gained another draw, but the girls had really stepped up their game. We went through in 4th position and played Brighton College who also came 4th in their pool. The girls were determined from the start, and we scored a fabulous 7 rounders to their 4 – it was a great victory to end the day.
Athletics Our Athletics team competed against Burgess Hill and Farlington on Thursday in a friendly athletics meet to prepare for the Track and Field Cup. We took a large squad of 30 girls from Years 7-10 and entered 2 competitors per event. We did well in the field, including a brilliant PB in the Long Jump by Jess M, and we smashed the relays in both the Junior and Inter age groups. Our Junior team won overall and the Inters came a close second! This was an impressive start to the season, and we look forward to Monday’s Sussex Schools’ Open competition at Withdean.
Maddie’s sailing Maddie Q (Yr8) competed at last weekend’s event at the RYA National Inland Championships at Grafham Waters, with winds gusting up to 32 mph on the Sunday. The event saw over 190 boats on the water over the course of the weekend. Her goal was not to finish last and, after spending the weekend racing against some of the top UK topper racers, she achieved this goal. Her determination and resilience was admirable, and we wish her well for future races.
Amber’s in the Argus Congratulations to Amber A (Yr11) who has been featured in the Argus newspaper this week, as she has been nominated for a Youth In Action sports award. This is in recognition of the fantastic amount she has contributed towards Athletics in the area. Well done, Amber! 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
JJ WHAT’S COMING UP
IN THE WEEK AHEAD?
Mon 8 May
U14 Football vs Burgess Hill (A)
Tue 9 May
U14&15 Tennis vs Brighton College (H) Beach Volleyball vs Burgess Hill & Farlington at Yellow Wave
Wed 10 May
U12&13 Tennis vs Lingfield Notre Dame (H) U12A&B Cricket vs Mayfield
Sat 13 May
Family Rounders
Sun 14 May
Rockinghorse Dragon Boat Race
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