8 June 2018 - Issue 7
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Leavers’ Ball 2018 on the i360
Head’s Introduction It was a delight, as ever, to welcome 120 prospective girls to Roedean on Thursday for our annual Rockpools Day. With the guidance of Roedean staff and the enthusiasm of our fantastic Roedean girls, our visitors had an amazing day, searching for crabs, starfish and a variety of sea-life on the shore, along with enjoying a variety of other science, art and team building activities. Thank you to Mrs Banham and the admissions team and to all the staff and girls who gave their time and energy to make this another very successful day. It was also our pleasure this week, to welcome Robin Fletcher, the Chief Executive of the Boarding Schools’ Association, to Roedean. Following a tour of the School with Head of School, Lucy and Deputy Head of School, Molly, he toured our wonderful boarding facilities with our Housemistresses and talked to some of our younger boarders. His final task was to plant two apple trees in the Cloisters, in order to join the BSA’s Boarding Orchard, representing the importance of the tree of knowledge. Roedean is the 142nd school to plant a tree to join this group, with the majority in the UK, but also including others in USA, Turkey, and Malaysia.
Today, we also had the pleasure of welcoming all the new staff who will be joining Roedean in September. They were able to learn more about Roedean, meet their mentors, and spend a day in the Departments to get to know the staff here and our approach and ethos. In core areas of the curriculum, we are increasing the staffing to accommodate the School’s growth and it is very exciting to have additional staff to help build and develop the educational experience for the girls. Exciting news is also emerging from Roedean Farm. As the new chicks continue to grow and the sheep enjoy their annual shearing, new fencing has appeared beside the sheep field which is about six foot high. The rumour is that the farm will soon be home to a small number of pygmy goats. We will confirm this rumour, when we know more... We also heard some fantastic news from the Classics Department. A number of girls entered The Classical Association’s Jowett Sendelar Essay Competition. Congratulations must go to Liza and Anne-Sophie for achieving distinctions for their essays, and also for the other nine girls who achieved merits and commendations. It was wonderful to see that Roedean enjoyed so much success, but most of all, that the girls enjoyed the experience of writing to such a high level for an external audience. This week has been as varied as it has been busy across the school: the Roedean Musician of the Year competition began, we heard about EdClub at Roedean and being part of a global community in Chapel, there was an Art Trip to Graduate Fashion Week, there has been tennis and an amazing football tournament, as well as individual sporting successes. I am grateful to everyone involved in these activities, each of which is the result of detailed preparation and thought, as well as a commitment of time and enthusiasm – well done and thank you! This week has been the busiest for those doing A Level and GCSEs, so many will now have a sense, I am sure, that the end is in sight. I would like to congratulate all those in Year 11 and 13 for the positive approach you have maintained, and I wish you all well for next week.