12 March 2021 – Issue 8
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Mental Health and Wellbeing – Essential
Reads
Head’s Introduction
Welcome back to Roedean! After such a long time away from School, our staff and most of the girls are back, and it is wonderful to hear the corridors full of chatter and to see the girls so happy to see each other and their School. Years 11 and 13 were greeted by blue skies and sunshine on Tuesday, Years 10 and 12 returned to grey skies on Wednesday, and Years 7, 8, and 9 came back to gusting high winds and rain yesterday, but nothing could dampen their spirits! I hope that all our parents are pleased to see this part of normality return. Today, the minibuses brought the girls into School and we have the whole school with us, bar those who can’t return due to international travel restrictions. The staggered start has meant that all our girls and staff were able to return safely and smoothly. It has also meant that there has been a calm atmosphere throughout the week which is so important. Although the girls are excited to be back, the long period of
Jerusalema Dance Tutorial This dance which has gone viral over the last year might even be the new toilet-roll challenge for Roedean! www.youtube.com/watch?v=32c_ urQxQ88 Miss Abaza has recorded an amazing dance tutorial to teach you the steps, so why not give it a try – then different groups can record parts of it, and then we’ll put it together before the end of term! RB
remote learning and the anticipation of return can cause anxieties, and we wanted to avoid as much undue stress as possible for their first days back. This has worked very well. We have been able to meet all the girls properly, give them the attention they need, and, in addition, testing was completed without queues, delays, or difficulty, and our teachers were able to ensure that everything was ready (and working) for their first face-to-face lessons. Thank you to our excellent (and now highly experienced) testing team, led by Mr Chamberlain and Mr Wailes. I am very grateful to the entire testing team, for the highly efficient, yet caring and supportive way the testing has been conducted. The team has processed well over 1000 tests – well done, and thank you. This week began with Roedean’s brilliant festival to celebrate International Women’s Day. The remote format of the event worked very well,
and it meant that we were able to welcome a wide range of excellent speakers. Both girls and staff clearly enjoyed the event, and many of the speakers have been in touch to say how engaged the girls were and that their questions were interesting and perceptive. My thanks go to Dr Barrand for planning and overseeing this important event. If you have not already booked tickets for next week’s evening virtual lecture with Sarah Jenkins, I would certainly encourage you to do so – see details on this page. Sarah is a very engaging speaker, who has made great strides to widen the outlook of Saatchi & Saatchi London, and the wider advertising world – I am looking forward very much to hearing what she has to say. Well done to everyone for this week; I wish you all a lovely weekend, and good luck for the last two weeks of term.
Headaster's Lecture
IN CONVERSATION WITH SARAH JENKINS Wednesday 17 March 2021 Virtual Event – 7:00pm
BOOK NOW We are delighted to invite you to attend our inaugral Headmaster's Lecture on Wednesday 17 March 2021, at which the speaker will be Sarah jenkins. Sarah is Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi London, where she is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of the agency. She is a passionate advocate for greater diversity in the advertising industry; she has been instrumental in work of the Advertising Diversity Task Force, which encourages collaboration between forward-thinking and preogressive agencies to make the communicaiton industry more diverse. Tickets for this virtual event are free – you are welcome to make a charitable donation to support the School's work in the local community and beyond.
#IWD21
Art work
12 March 2021 - Issue 8
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
#IWD21 Roedean’s Festival Celebrating Inspiring Women marked International Women’s Day on Monday, and it was another inspirational day. We were very fortunate to have 18 wonderful female speakers on the day – all spoke remotely, but this didn’t affect the huge impact of the day. The range of topics addressed by the speakers meant that there was something to match the interests of every girl. In each of the five slots during the day, there were five speakers presenting concurrently, so there were over 100 girls in almost every session. Here is just some of the feedback from the girls: Freya (Yr7): 'I was particularly inspired by the speaker Red Hong Yi, because of her incredibly realistic and emotional works of art that are made from household materials, such as socks. She is an installation artist from Malaysia who supports the anti-racism movement, and I loved hearing about how she expresses this in her artwork. I found that her pieces of art told a story and really made me think about how you can use any media to create art.'
Maria (Yr10): ‘I just wanted to say that I personally thought that yesterday's International Women’s Day was the best one ever. I was particularly inspired and impressed by Dr Suzie Imber and Dr Aisling Swaine. Suzie's sense of adventure really resonated with me, and I could really relate to Aisling's efforts to help less fortunate people, as well as their own personal journeys towards the career and life they wanted. As always, Helen Richardson-Walsh spoke so well about her challenges and achievements. I really admire her resilience when faced with challenges.’ Asmitha (Yr7): ‘I was really inspired by all of the speakers on International Women’s Day, but in particular by Countess Alexandra Tolstoy. This is because she persevered and she continuously kept on going, even when things were hard. I was also really inspired by her because she found her purpose and made use of it, by exploring the world and doing things she loved. She was dedicated and hard-working, and learnt numerous languages so that her experiences in different countries would be more beautiful.’
Lots of girls and members of staff have commented how much they enjoyed the day, but it is also wonderful to have really positive feedback form the speakers, who were really impressed by the girls:
‘It was a pleasure. All the girls seemed really engaged with the subject, and the two who introduced me were impressively calm and competent. I definitely have a good impression of the school.’
‘It was fun speaking to the girls, even if online. I guess in some ways it is easier than a day trip down to the school, although one misses out in so many ways when not in real life. They responded well.’
Prof. Joyce Tyldesley
Jo Vickery
‘The girls were great and one in the first session had lived in Zimbabwe and she wanted to check I was working with local schools, as the ex-pat community and international schools had plenty of money. What a great response! Both sessions had good Q&As, the girls were super polite and had clearly thought about what they would ask, as well as thinking of questions related to the presentation. They had obviously been well-prepared to take part in talks – so well done to you and the whole team.’
‘There were indeed some good questions when the girls got into the flow. I much prefer face to face, but hopefully they found it interesting. What a wide range of speakers you had....I am sure there was something for everyone. I look forward to future opportunities to engage with the school and students.’
Dr Liz Chamberlain
‘The girls had some really good questions. I think it's great that the virtual format allows them access to so many fantastic women.’ Prof. Ellie Highwood
CFO Dawn Whittaker
‘It was a very enjoyable event, and I hope that the girls gained from the interactions – I certainly did and am always so happy to see the engagement of young people in the future of our planet’s health.’
Farwa (Yr7): ‘I was inspired by Serena Kern because she has worked her way to the top. She is very young, but she is Deputy Head of Global Trade Strategy at the Bank of England! Also, she mixes her dream of being a lawyer with her passion for music – which is amazing as they are both tiring jobs! She is an amazing woman, and I definitely aspire to be like her.’
‘Thank you for the great opportunity to interact with the obviously attentive and bright young women. Judging by the quality and depth of the questions, they were obviously listening to my talk and thinking about it in depth. I truly enjoyed the interaction. I had to cancel other engagements to be with them, because I enjoy interacting with young people. I commend you and your colleagues for organising this – I was curious and I learned a little bit more about Roedean online as well. You have given me a great gift: access to the brilliant young women and the chance to share my story with them' Dr Segenet Kelemu
‘I really enjoyed this morning. I was unsure of what level to 'pitch' the talk at in terms of the more political and complex aspects of my work – but the questions brought us into that complexity and showed an incredible level of knowledge and sophisticated depth to the questions. I could have stayed on way longer and really debated with them! I'm also finding that the 'next generation' are way more informed than I ever could have been – my teenage niece is teaching me things about gender that I am discovering through her and her online networking!’ Dr Aisling Swaine
‘I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to the students and I was so very impressed by their engagement and enthusiasm, and the creativity and thoughtfulness of the questions!’ Serena Kern
‘It was an absolute pleasure to speak to the girls.' Charlotte Fiell (OR)
Prof. Jacqueline McGlade
It was a brilliant day – and I hope that everyone was able to take something incredibly positive away from it. #IWD21 #ChoosetoChallenge RB Page 2
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
12 March 2021 - Issue 8
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. Izzy (Yr8) for encouraging others to stay active [KWA] Dr Asiling Swaine
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy
Helen Richardson-Walsh OBE
Red Hong Yi
Jess and Liv (Yr13), Anita (Yr11) and Lila (Yr10) for their contributions to this week’s Chapel [RB]
Olive (Yr11) for nearly beating Florence (last year’s Head girl) on her stay-at-home workouts [KWA]
Serena Kern
Dr Suzie Imber
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. Mr Hawkes (Estates) for looking after the pool even when no one is using it [KWA] CFO Dawn Whittaker
Charlotte Fiell (OR)
A Mystery Solved When sorting our post yesterday, we had a small letter to Chloe with no surname, but it had a sticker on the back with an address and telephone number, so I called it this evening. The woman who answered was Mrs Sheila Oliver from Saltdean, and the card was to say a MASSIVE thank you for the homemade Christmas card and cake she had received from Chloe. We spoke for about 10 minutes, as she could not tell me enough times how wonderful it was to receive a homemade card and Christmas cake as a surprise, and even more so that she got to hear from us today. She had her 90th birthday in lockdown alone, and has 1 daughter who lives very far away and hasn't seen her in a year, so she didn't feel alone this Christmas as she had this card from Chloe! She still has it, and even loves all the glitter! She didn't want to eat the cake as it was so beautiful too, but, eventually, she did. She wants Chloe and us all to know that this act of kindness has kept her going, and similar things will keep the world moving. Chloe is thrilled to hear about this phone call and now has the card. She feels so honoured and is still in a bit of shock that someone has sent her something back to say thank you. But we're all smiling at this wonderful moment! Well done, Chloe!
OCK (House 3) Page 3
Ms Johannisson and Mr Burlinson for the huge amount of work they put in behind the scenes to make sure that International Women’s Day ran so smoothly on Monday – both were incredibly generous with their time and instrumental in the day’s success [RB] Mr Campelman for always being so kind and helpful, no matter what ludicrous task [KWA]
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Year 11 Portraits During lockdown, Year 11 Art students have continued to work on their Coursework Portfolios. These drawings and paintings are preparation for a larger final piece that they will complete as a conclusion to their Sustained Projects. It is fascinating to see the diversity of work produced by our students, and the different approaches they have taken to the same subject. SSN
Year 7 Tiles If any of you have become avid viewers of The Great Pottery Throw Down, you will be familiar with the tense moment of unloading the kiln to reveal the triumphs and heartbreaks of working with clay. On return to the Art Department this week, we were able to unload from the kilns work that had been in there since before the Christmas break. The firing was complete before the end of term, but the kiln was still too hot to open before we all left the site for longer than we imagined. We are really excited to share the tiles that our Year 7 students have made. Their tile designs were based on their observations of sunflowers and the work of Vincent Van Gogh. SSN
Page 4
12 March 2021 - Issue 8
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
National Gallery Workshops for Megan
Lockdown Life Drawing
The National Gallery is running a series of workshops via Zoom for young people aged 15-21, with the aim of helping you discover creative techniques to explore your immediate surroundings in a new way.
Life Drawing is a key component of the Sixth Form curriculum in Art. We have a lively programme of life drawing, which usually includes weekly classes, and weekend drawing and painting workshops. During lockdown, we felt it was important to maintain the practice, as it is so good for building students’ competency and fluency in drawing. As we are not able to draw from a live model, we have worked from historical paintings and sculptures, learning from painters and sculptors of the past. SSN
I attended this week’s ‘Hunting and Gathering’ session, in which we had the opportunity to listen to two people who work at the National Gallery, an art historian and an artist. Both looked at two paintings, Ruben’s ‘Samson and Delilah’ and van Eyck’s ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’, exploring each from their own perspective and considering aspects like colour and texture. The second half of the session was more workshop-like, and we got the chance to create an imagined scene based on an element of one of the paintings. In ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’, you can see a fruit tree through the open window, so I decided to create a drawing of the scene beyond the window. I imagined a walled garden with the fruit tree climbing up one wall. There are four more sessions taking place throughout May and June. They take place on Tuesdays from 5-6pm and they are free to attend. They are largely art-based, but next week’s session is about travel writing, so I would definitely recommend having a look at their website https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ events/after-school-looking and booking onto the sessions that interest you most. Megan (Yr12)
Literary supplement
Student Book Review
Our Reading Tree needs some help!
The Invasion is the second book in the Grey Land series, telling of the evil creatures that live in a deadly land. The land is filled with gloom, only made up of dark colours. In Ireland, a country filled with colour, all teenagers are 'called' to survive a day in the Grey Land, with all its dangers and magic. The creatures there have powerful hands to twist humans into creative shapes and animals to serve them in the approaching invasion. As the lands drift closer together, an invasion becomes inevitable. Traitors are prosecuted, armies are formed, and gates open up. This book is a massive page turner and grips from the very first page. Each chapter is told from a different person's perspective, always urging you to read on. This is a fantastic book you will want to read again and again.
Ms Shillito and Mrs Bailey would love to hear what you have been reading this term, even better if you could add it to our Reading Tree! Spring is definitely in the air, and it’s time our tree started to blossom! Come and see us in the Library to add your recent reads. Maria (Yr10) Page 5
12 March 2021 - Issue 8
12 March 2021 - Issue 8
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Literary supplement
Mental Health and Wellbeing – Essential Reads As we return to School after another lockdown, and a year on from the start of the pandemic, it is good to know that there are a wide range of books out there to support our mental wellbeing. All the books below, and more, are available in the Library:
Positively Teenage – by Nicola Morgan Positively Teenage gives you tools to approach your teenage years with optimism and understanding, and to develop real wellbeing for life.
You are Awesome – by Matthew Syed I'm no good at sport ... I can't do maths ... I really struggle with exams ... Sound familiar? If you believe you can't do something, the chances are you won't try. But what if you really could get better at maths, or sport or exams? In fact, what if you could excel at anything you put your mind to?
How Not to Lose It: Mental Health Sorted – by Anna Williamson It's not just your body that should be fit and healthy – your mind needs to be, too! How Not to Lose It is the go-to guide for achieving a balanced mind and strong emotional well-being.
You Got This – by Bryony Gordon
Yesss! The SUMO Secrets to Being a Positive, Confident Teenager – by Paul McGee YESSS! The SUMO Secrets to Being a Positive, Confident Teenager uncovers the secrets of overcoming the challenges, and also embracing the opportunities of one of life's most difficult stages: the teenage years. Perfect for every teenager, and all those involved in supporting them, YESSS! shows young people what it's like to live with confidence, resilience, hope, and happiness.
You Got This is all about being yourself and being true to yourself. The book openly talks about and explores topics such as self-respect, body image, mental health, and more.
Mind Your Head – by Juno Dawson
It’s Not Ok to Feel Blue (and other lies) – by Scarlet Curtis Over 70 people have shared their powerful, funny, and moving stories, exploring their own mental health, including Sam Smith, Emilia Clarke, Candice Carty-Williams, and Adam Kay.
We all have a mind, so we all need to take care of our mental health as much as we need to take care of our physical health. And the first step is being able to talk about our mental health.
One in four of us will experience a mental health issue. This book is here to tell you, or someone you care about, it's OK.
Cast Your Vote Now!
Roedeanies Storytime
The deadline for voting is coming up, so if you have read any of the books on the short list and would like to cast your vote, please contact Mrs Bailey in the Library (gba@roedean.co.uk).
Not being able to go down to St Mark’s to do reading with the pupils, we have been recording stories to send instead.
Winners will be announced via a virtual ceremony – details to be announced next week.
I emailed the authors of We All Belong following the completion of one of our 'Roedeanies Storytime' videos, by Kaela (House 3, 2020-21) and Clemmie (Yr9), and they got back to me with this lovely email message:
Dear students of Roedean School, We are very grateful to you for choosing our book, We All Belong, for your talk about diversity and acceptance. You read the book beautifully. Your teachers and parents must be very proud of you all. We hope you have a lovely time back in school – learning, caring, and having fun. Best wishes, Nathalie and Alex Goss
How amazing! GWI Page 6
12 March 2021 - Issue 8
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Strava Challenge – Week 8 results A huge well done to all of those that took part in last week's challenge! Harriet (Y7) has been working hard over the weekend, and she completed a 5.22KM run in the fantastic sunshine.
Race Around the World – 11571 Kilometres! Wow! We have made it to Botswana, so there’s really not far to go till we get to South Africa!
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
Well done to everyone who has logged their distances via wufoo – we’ve already been to 8 countries where Roedean girls live, 20 countries in total!
UK
It might be trickier to keep measuring your distances, but hopefully you can still do so at the weekends – it would be amazing to see how far we can get before the Easter holidays!
Bel
giu
m
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!
ny
ma
Ger
Hu
It
y
ar
ng
nd
erla
itz
Sw
a
Mali
Star of the Week Stars of the Week go to the Year 12 & 13 girls this week, for turning up in full force for their games lessons on Thursday, despite the full force of Roedean weather! Netball, cricket, and fitness lessons were all thoroughly engaging and all of you had a brilliant mindset and attitude. Well done!
Alg
eria
ly
Nigeria Ghana
Ita
ly
Israel
Nigeria
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
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
an a
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.
Bo
If you’re quick, places are FREE – CBA SE and the Sussex Archaeological Society are offering a number of students free tickets to the 'Archaeology and Climate Change Conference.’ This offer is open to students in full time education and will be awarded on a first come first serve basis. Simply send your name, school/institution and course details to cbasoutheast@hotmail.com to apply.
ola
Organised jointly by the Council for British Archaeology South-East (CBA SE) and the Sussex Archaeological Society (SAS)
Ang
Saturday 17 April 2021: Conference Online via Zoom
tsw
Archaeology and Climate Change
Ghana
Follow us
@RoedeanSchool
@RoedeanSchool