12th January 2018 - Issue 2
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Head’s Introduction Roedean has hosted a large number of visitors this week, and I am grateful to you all for making them so welcome. The junior netballers’ games were played in tricky, windy conditions, and today we have been joined by our Honorary Chaplain, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who has been in lessons and spoken with a number of students to get an idea of what makes Roedean tick. Yesterday and today, a number of girls hoping to join Roedean in September have had assessments for Art, Dance, Drama, Music, and Sports awards, and tomorrow 130 pupils will sit our entrance tests. I am very grateful to my colleagues who are making them feel so welcome and coming in on a Saturday, and particularly to the Admissions’ Department for masterminding such a busy and complicated few days. Thank you too to all those Roedean pupils who have volunteered to come into school tomorrow to host - your enthusiasm and willingness to help is outstanding. I am delighted with the fantastic news coming from our University Admissions team. The Year 13 students have been very ambitious in their choices and determined in their applications. Congratulations to all those who have received excellent offers at a wide range of top universities and colleges. We also heard, this week, that four Roedean girls have received offers from Oxbridge which is a wonderful achievement. All those who applied, whether or not they were successful, put in months of consistent endeavour and single-minded focus. All that effort is never wasted, and I am very proud both of those who did achieve offers and those who didn’t on this occasion - your application and ambition have been very impressive. I am sure that all these offers will not only provide a clear target for the summer, but will also have helped get them through their trial A Level examinations this week! Good luck to you all for next week, especially to Year 9 who will be thinking hard this weekend about their GCSE subject choices, ahead of their options fair next week. I wish you all a very good week!
Fantastic University and Oxbridge success Congratulations to four Roedean students who have just received offers from Oxford and Cambridge. It is increasingly difficult to win places at the most competitive universities, so Melanie C (Natural Sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge), Georgina K (Medicine at Christ Church College, Oxford), Emily T (Chemistry at St Edmund Hall, Oxford), and Yian Z (Mathematics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) all deserve our congratulations. We are also delighted that Martha N has been offered a highly-contested place to study Medicine at King’s College London. Emily and Martha joined Roedean in Year 9 and 7 respectively, Melanie came to the School for the Sixth Form from China, and Georgina and Yian won Sixth Form Brighthelm Scholarships for girls from the local area.
Furthermore, it is wonderfully positive that so many of the Year 13 students have already received achievable offers from their chosen universities (with Durham, Edinburgh, King’s College London, University College London, and Warwick the most popular), for a diverse range of courses, including Law, Architecture, Politics and International Relations, Sound Engineering, Physics with Astrophysics, Wine Business, Computer Science, Graphic Design, Criminology, and Art Foundation. In addition, a number of students have won places at American universities, and one has an offer from the University of London Institute of Paris. Good luck, and well done to the whole year group!
Rose spends the day at Roedean We are delighted that the Queen’s Chaplain, and Roedean’s Honorary Chaplain, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, has spent the day with us today. She began the day speaking to Years 7-10 in Chapel, and then took an active part in a variety of lessons, as well as chatting to groups of students and staff at lunch and at break. She was certainly impressed with what she saw, and enjoyed meeting with lots of the students. We really are very fortunate that Rose gives her time so generously to Roedean.
12th January 2018 - Issue 2
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. Lara S (Yr9) for continuing with her farm duties, even after falling into the sheep drinking tough, in full school uniform! [ALU]
Genevieve H (Yr10) for not only completing and submitting a draft of an English coursework essay set before she attended Roedean, but also getting fully involved in the co-curricular life of the school! [HBO] All our scholars for making the girls coming in for their practical scholarship assessments feel welcome and helping the heads of department on the day [Admissions Team]
Winter Photo Competition – The City Are you a budding photographer? The termly Roedean photo competition theme for the Christmas holiday was ‘The City’. The entries for the summer holiday competition were excellent and are now up along main corridor. The deadline for your submissions for this round is Friday 19 January. Please email them to Miss Boles on jbo@roedean.co.uk – the best entries will be displayed for all to see along the Main Corridor.
Textiles at Roedean The Y7 Cosmos and Y8 Elephant HHH groups started their term of Textiles this week with some block printing. Mrs Petit was really impressed with the variety and creativity in the designs chosen by the students. Block printing is a great way of creating and personalising textiles, from cushions to aprons, from stuffed mice to pillow cases! On Tuesday evening, the Textiles after-school club began, and it was amazing to see and hear about the range of projects that pupils are now undertaking: one pair are making a leotard for dance, another girl is designing and making a pair of trousers, two others have designed their own bespoke cuddly toys, and there are even some fashion accessories being made! You could be forgiven for thinking it would be chaotic, with all these different projects taking place, but the Textiles after school club is an oasis of calm, where the quiet contemplation of creative projects and the repetitive action of the sewing machines contribute to a truly mindful environment. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, why not go along to AD2 on a Tuesday, Activity 2?
Fantastic recognition for Mrs Wu I was in Beijing on 16th-22nd December 2017, taking part in The World Chinese Education Conference which is held once every 3 years. The conference recognises the best teachers of Chinese around the world. In The People’s Congress Hall in Beijing, delegates listened to the World Chinese Education Report, the teaching and learning development strategy, the plan for Chinese education worldwide over the next three years, and the ceremonies giving awards to teachers and schools. It was a great honour that Yang Jiechi, Qiu Yuanping, and Xu Yousheng, Chinese state leaders met with the delegates and also took official photos with us. I was awarded the China National Award for “Long-term commitment to Chinese education outside of China”. This recognises the best teaching results, both in the UK and China, for examinations, as well as the excellent and consistent success of my students in Chinese language and cultural knowledge competitions, both in the UK and in World competitions.
I publish my teaching and working reports in the annual Chinese Teaching Journal, and this means that I have become a well-known Chinese teacher in the UK Chinese teaching field. I have taken great enjoyment in contributing my passion and skills to my teaching, and I always strive to help my students achieve their full potential. I am very proud to have won this award. Mrs Wu
I have taught the Chinese language for more than 20 years at a wide range of establishments, at all levels from preparatory schools to university Open and Elective courses. Since 1999, every one of my students in secondary schools and the local Chinese schools have passed Chinese GSCE with an A* grade. I am also the founder of 3 local Chinese schools and have taken more than 10 different schools to compete in the UK and World Chinese language competitions, and all of them have won the competitions in that time.
Their Majesties’ visit to House 2 On Friday last week, House 2 celebrated the last festivity of the Christmas season, the Three Kings’ Day. Claudia, Patricia, Ines, and Maria spoke to the other Year 9s about what happens in Spain on this special family day. We enjoyed this festivity with a movie, hot chocolate, and marshmallows. Before lights out, all the Year 9s made sure they had their shoes outside their room so that the Three Wise Men, who very kindly came all the way from the Far East, could give them bags of goodies as a reward for having been such fantastic girls in 2017. MDC Page 2
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
12th January 2018 - Issue 2
Year 10 Art – Christmas project
Frosted Holly
The Year 10 holiday project for Art was a photographic assignment. At the end of last term, they looked at the work of two photographers, Imogen Cunningham and Amber Locke, as a stimulus, and they were asked to produce photos over the holiday in response. Everyone took some brilliant shots and rose to the challenge, but the very best were Victoria C and Jess M, whose photos were outstanding. Jess produced some close-up images of nature in black and white which are really beautiful and evocative. Victoria produced a set of incredibly detailed photographic assemblage pieces – she created the images with exotic fruits and vegetables, and then photographed them. Mrs Ellis actually thinks that Victoria’s pieces are more accomplished than the stimulus artist!
Universe
Autumn
Rooted Tree
Pastorale
Pines
Creative Writing On Tuesday and Friday in Activity 1, there is the opportunity to take part in some creative writing. I was lucky enough to be allowed to take part in the junior session with Ms Peters last Friday. There was a wide variety of enthusiastic writers, from new participants to those who were a considerable way through their first novel! All came equipped with notebooks and ideas. This week, the writing was inspired by sentence prompts given on wooden sticks: ‘Starters’, ‘Non sequiturs’, and ‘Last straws’. We had about 10 minutes of silent writing before those who wanted to share were given the opportunity. There was a wonderful range of dark, mysterious, and engaging plot twists, as well as some excellent character development. Below is what I managed (sentence prompts in bold), but after hearing what the students produced, I honestly think this was probably the worst of the bunch!
“I had this system for getting exactly what I wanted out of people. Some people might think of me as cynical, or manipulative, even, any maybe I was, but it was about survival. My survival. That was more important than social niceties or pretences. I suppose you want to know the system, don’t you? It isn’t complicated, not really, not when you have observed for as long as I have. But you need to understand that to appreciate this system, to really get under its skin, you need to be prepared to end all of your relationships, cut all ties: you have to become an Outsider. It wasn’t so much that I had been blind to the truth. It was just that I had seen the truth differently. I know that’s not the question you asked, but it’s the answer nevertheless. You see? The truth, the answer, Page 3
is different things to different people. Most people, I’ve noticed, don’t see it at all, so that’s where my system comes in. It’s about seeing the truth, but appearing to be blind.” If you want to hone and explore your creative writing, you can attend on Tuesday Activity 1 in E1, or Friday Activity 1 in the Blyth. HBO
Roedean’s history Former Roedean teacher Neil Hargreaves visited our archivist Jackie Sullivan this week to gather a wealth of information on the history of Roedean School; this is for a talk that he is giving to the English Speaking Union, Brighton Branch, in March. We hope it goes well!
12th January 2018 - Issue 2
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Junior Netball vs Hurst The U12A team had an extremely closely matched game, with lots of talent on display. The defence played amazingly well and were outstanding throughout. As a team, we now need to go away and work on converting the defensive wins into goals. The final score was a 10-14 loss. Amelia K played wonderfully through the mid-court at Centre, and she worked well with Amy N, the Player of the Match. Bella D also won the defensive Player of the Match. It was great and the girls showed so much potential.
some brilliant passes to keep possession and were communicating fantastically! It was fantastic to win the first game of the season, and the Player of the Match was Rania K.
U12C
The U13A team had a storming game against Hurst this Wednesday. The girls did not take their foot of the throttle and worked incredibly hard throughout each quarter. In particular, they excelled when defending and were able to turn over the ball on numerous occasions. The girls also did well at keeping possession, although they took too many passes to get the ball to our attack. As a result, our shooting opportunities were very limited. The final result was a heavy defeat. The outstanding Player of the Match was Sylva C.
U12A
The under 12B team had a well-contested game, in which they played exceptionally well in the centre court and the shooters moved well to offer options in the circle. The defence was awesome and made so many flying interceptions. Unfortunately, the game ended 11-3 to Hurst, but there was lots to be proud of – particular mention goes to Sasha H and Erin S. The U12C team really enjoyed their first game of the year, and they won 10-4! In the first quarter, Roedean was drawn to the ball and struggled to space out, resulting in Hurst keeping possession and taking a 3-0 lead. Then in the second quarter, the girls started to spread out and pass effectively down the court, taking us into a 5-4 lead. From this point, it was all Roedean, and in the second half the girls made
U13A
The U13B team played really well against a strong Hurst team. The girls fought hard and approached every contest with a good attitude; their persistence and determination resulted in improvements as the match progressed! India B read the play well and made many interceptions in defence. Zainah M played brilliantly, working really hard in the defensive circle, and she was named as Player of the Match. The final score was 5-14 to Hurst, but I was pleased with the wonderful efforts from the U13B team.
U13B
U13Cs played in a very well-matched game against Hurst. The weather was lovely with perfect conditions for Netball. The game started strong with Hurst getting ahead, and Roedean was down 0-2 after the first quarter. We kept fighting hard, moving excellently off the ball. The second and third quarters were very evenly matched, with Roedean scoring some excellent goals!! The final third was where Roedean played out of their skins, scoring 5 spectacular goals! We unfortunately lost 7-10, but the girls should be proud. Chloe E and Dorothea B were voted Players of the Match. The U13D team had an impressive first match with a lot of positives. The game was tight at half time, with a 2-2 score. A special mention must go to Emilia B and Lola C for their outstanding defensive display. Hurst however enjoyed more success and composure in the circle, and the final score was 12-4. The Player of the Game was Tavi P.
JJ WHAT’S COMING UP IN THE
WEEK AHEAD?
Tue 16 Jan
Yr10 GCSE Dance 3Fall Workshop and Performance
Wed 17 Jan
Brighton Schools Cross Country at Waterhall Netball U12A&B & U13A vs Windlesham (A)
Name the Roedean Bear! Following on from the Christmas Fair, we are holding a competition to name the Roedean Bear. Poor Roedean Bear has gone far too long without a name, so, for 50p, we are asking you to suggest a name for him. Please come down to the admissions office, before the end of January, with your suggestion(s). We will then ask Mr Blond and Miss Keller to choose their favourite from the suggestions – whichever name is chosen will become his official name and the winner will receive their own giant version of Roedean Bear. All of the money collected will go to the Lumos charity. 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
Netball U12C&D & U13B,C&D vs Windlesham (H) Thur 18 Jan
Year 8 Gamelan Indonesian Music Workshop and Recital ‘Top of the Bench’ Chemistry competition
Fri 19 Jan
Southern Schools’ Book Award Evening
Sat 20 Jan
EXEAT
Follow us
@RoedeanSchool
@RoedeanSchool