Head's Weekly Review - 13 December 2018 - Issue 14

13 December 2018 - Issue 14

HEAD’S

WEEKLY REVIEW

Head’s Introduction The Autumn term has ended with a wonderful week of Christmas festivities, which began with the Christmas Fair last Saturday. It was brilliant to see the ingenious range of activities and festive products, all designed by the girls to raise funds for the Library at St Mark’s - there were homemade decorations and cards, photo booths, a silent auction, sponge the teacher, a gospel choir and carols in the Fireplace, and so much more. I am delighted that the Fair raised over £7300, which is record – to raise so much money while having great fun is excellent, so well done to everyone involved!

House Christmas Spirit Competition House 4

for the best performance of a carol (– great carol mash-up!)

House 3

for the best looking Christmas tree (and brilliant homemade decorations)

Lawrence

for the best House Staff Santa (and amazing Christmas snacks)

House 1

for the best Christmas-themed cookie (and multi-lingual carol)

House 2

for the best atmosphere of Christmas cheer (and Egyptian twist!)

Keswick

for the best homemade Christmas cracker (and special commendation to Ava and Sophia for the amazing edible Winter Wonderland)

Best overall

House 2

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, each of the Houses took part in the annual Christmas Spirit competition, and it was brilliant to see how the girls all worked together to transform the Houses. Day girls and boarders all sang together in different languages, there was dance, a human cracker, a carol mash-up, lovely cookies, and amazing homemade decorations – all the Houses did fantastically well, and congratulations to House 2 who won overall.

The Roedean Academy also launched this week, and the programme will begin in January. The Academy brings together nearly 50 students from four schools – Roedean girls were joined by representatives from Longhill High School, Blatchington Mill School, and Peacehaven Community School. It was wonderful to see likeminded students in Years 10 and 11 all excited to start the programme of academic enrichment. I look forward to seeing how the Academy develops.

The two Carol Services were beautiful occasions in our Chapel, and I was incredibly impressed by the musicality of all 3 choirs and their diverse programme of carols, and by the girls from each year who read the lessons. The wonderful formal structure of the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was contrasted brilliantly with Final Chapel, which was quite a raucous affair, with the inter-house Jingle Bells competition and our rewritten Twelve Days of Christmas as the highlights.

All in all, it has been a lovely final week of term. I wish you all a great break, and hope that you all enjoy spending time with friends, family, and loved ones – merry Christmas!

Christmas Fair – over £7300 raised!

Thank you and well done to everyone involved in the Christmas Fair. The girls really went to town with their stalls, and they had some brilliant ideas to engage with our visitors – the girls enjoyed themselves, but it is wonderful that they also knew that they were raising funds to help build the Library at St Mark’s, an amazing cause.

Well done to the Parents’ Guild too, whose stalls, including the Silent Auction and tombola, raised lots of money as well, and they also oversaw a wide range of external stall-holders in the Studios.

Overall, it was a brilliant event – congratulations to everyone!

HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Unsung heroes in the spotlight

St Mark’s Library

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.

If you still want to buy a book for the St Mark’s Library, you can follow this link, or just pop into the Book Nook in Hove, which will supply the books at an amazing discount, or even just call the shop to buy a book over the phone! Thank you in advance for your donations – they will make a wonderful difference to the children at St Mark’s!

Dasha P (Yr12) for donating her exquisite handmade cards to our Christmas Fair stall and raising a considerable sum of money for charity [SEL]

Ava Z (Yr12) for her amazing edible Winter Wonderland scene [HSM]

House 1 had dinner in the ODR on Friday, and the brilliant catering team provided a lovely supper of chilli, wedges, nachos, and the most delightful Christmas-hat cakes – they were eaten so quickly that there was no chance to snap a photo! We exchanged our Secret Santas and everyone was delighted with their gifts. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a joyful New Year, from all the girls and staff in House 1.

Poppy B wrote to Sir David Attenborough as part of a Year 7 Tutor Programme initiative.

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 Hockings for being such a creative and enthusiastic organiser of all Christmas events and crafts in Lawrence [MDC]

Roedean Staff Carpool Karaoke!

The Staff had a bit of fun in the last week of term – follow this link to have a look! https://youtu.be/Sjr4hq8J7MM

House 1 Dinner

A Letter from Attenborough for Poppy!

Fleur F (Yr7), Olivia K (Yr8), Aitana M (Yr9), Niah S (Yr10), Carina C (Yr11), Clara H (Yr12), Anya I (Yr13) for all reading the lessons so beautifully in the Carol Service [RB]

13 December 2018 - Issue 14

Mr Wilson and Ms Bartlette guided all their tutees to write personal letters to someone who had inspired them and also linked this idea to their Tutor Group Assembly, and Poppy wrote to Sir David Attenborough. Imagine how delighted she was to receive a personal letter, signed by hand from David Attenborough!

House 1 at the Christmas Fair Alvina S, Radyna K, Hanna F, and Kim S were whizzes at selling our wares to the crowds, including homemade marmalade, apple sauce, chutney, mince pies, gingerbread men (made by the German girls, of course), hot chocolate reindeers, Christmas cakes, and fudge! Victoria C painted a beautiful Christmas sign to advertise the House, and we made £85 profit. Many girls and small children enjoyed our lucky dip box and pick-a-lolly game. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

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How to Change the World The Roedean Sustainability Group recently welcomed a Greenpeace speaker to their CAP session. The girls were incredibly inspirited by his talk ‘How to Change the World’, which touched upon various environmental topics, including plastic pollution, palm oil, and global warming. Last week, the group made wooden Christmas tree decorations and wax wrappers for the Christmas Fair, as sustainable alternatives to plastic baubles and cling film. They sold everything they made and were able to raise £44, which will be invested in eco-projects to make our Roedean community much more environmentally friendly. Well done girls for your fantastic work this term and for your growing commitment to sustainability!

MDC

13 December 2018 - Issue 14

HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Thank you to the catering team for putting on such a fabulous Christmas spread for the girls and staff!

We were delighted to recieve the following appraisal from our Stage Director on the night, Frencesca Murray-Fuentes:

Carol Concert

Comedy of Errors

by Roedean School at The Old Market, 20/11/2018 appraised by Francesca Murray-Fuentes I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulation s to Roedean School for your fantastic produc tion of Comedy of Errors as part of the 2018 Shakes peare Schools Festival. It was a brilliant night of theatre, and I’d like to highlight just a few elements that really stood out.

Your company of master storytellers delivere d a punchy, energetic and colourful Comed y of Errors, bringing wonderful flair to this story of mistake n identity.

Your confidence on stage must be comme nded, along with your effective delivery of the text and your excellent projection. Your comprehension of the narrative journey and your attention to detail was fantastic.

But my favourite thing about this performance was the entire cast's commitment to your characterisation - each performer wholeheartedl y embraced this production's concept and found fun and delight in it!

This was a beautiful, witty and thoroughly

enjoyable performance of Comedy of Errors.

Performing Shakespeare’s words on a profess ional stage takes courage, resilience, and imagination.

You and your teachers should all be incredib ly proud of what you have achieved.

I hope to see Roedean School in the Festiva

l again next year!

Francesca Murray-Fuentes

The first verse of Once in Royal David’s City, sung by a single voice with only the light of a few candles and Christmas lights, is the start of Christmas for me every year. Georgia A’s clear diction and excellent tuning set the tone for the rest of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. All three choirs sang beautifully, and the accompanying musicians also played very well.

The programme, designed to complement the traditional nine lessons of the Christmas story, which were read with exceptional clarity and composure by readers representing every year-group, included well-loved classics for the choir and congregation, along with contemporary pieces. One in particular is note-worthy: the Year 7 Choir sang a lovely piece written by Galina B, one of their number, which included a lovely Glockenspiel motif, and it was a very accomplished piece for such a young student!

The Senior Singers performed with great confidence and skill, and the Staff Choir tackled a challenging piece by John Rutter, and pulled it off excellently.

It was brilliant that one of the carols and the first verse of O Little Town had the added touch of some excellent signing by a group of girls who are learning British Sign Language with Miss Cybniak. It really was beautiful to watch them showing what they have learnt.

Congratulations to all the musicians who took part, and particularly to Miss Fewkes and Mr Rous, and the entire Music Department. Thank you for a magical service – truly the start of the festive period!

RB

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HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Roedean Academy – academic enrichment for students from 3 local schools and Roedean The Roedean Academy launched for 2018-2019 this week, and the programme will start in January.

Nearly 50 students from Roedean, Blatchington Mill School, Longhill High School, and Peacehaven Community School, came to Roedean on Tuesday to find out how the Academy will work, and to select the modules they will take. They also heard from the inspirational speaker, Jan Meek, an amazing woman who, despite being 74, is going to trek to the South Pole next year. She has already rowed the Altantic and walked to the magnetic North Pole, and her message was that we should all push ourselves to do things we do not always believe we can do, and always say, ‘Why not!’ when people set us challenges!

The Academy will run for 8 weeks, with core modules in the Arts, Humanities, and Science and Maths, allowing the students to choose their main area of focus. Each week, these core elements will be complemented by other modules which are about enrichment for its own sake, and these include Beginners’ Portuguese, Greek Tragedy, Economics, Black Holes, Life Drawing, Sustainability, Film Music, and Politics, among many others.

This will be a wonderful opportunity for all of the participants (and the teachers love it too, because they have the chance to follow their own passions too, something that is not always possible because of curricular specifications!) to work with like-minded students from the area, and to explore these amazing areas of academic study together.

H(o)H(o)H(o) – the elves have been busy!

The approaching end of term meant that projects in HHH have come to a head! Pupils in Year 8 and 9 have been working on some weird and wonderful creative projects in Textiles and 3D Makers this term, all of which have been guided by their imagination (Head) and developing practical skills (Hand). Mrs Petit told me about a girl in Year 9 who had never even sewn before, yet last week she took home a skirt that she had

made from scratch! Where’s the heart, I hear you cry? Well, several pupils plan to give their creations to loved ones as gifts – what could be more heart-felt than that?

Season’s Greetings to all and a massive thank you to all our wonderful HHH teachers.

HBO

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13 December 2018 - Issue 14

House 3 Secret Santas House 3 girls enjoyed an afternoon of Secret Santa gift-giving to welcome in the festive season, and then enjoyed a wonderful evening of Christmas celebrations with the house Christmas song, cookie monster Santa, cake, candy cane mice, and homemade Christmas stockings.

13 December 2018 - Issue 14

HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Work from the GCSE Art trial exams

Carol L

Lawrence Christmas Dinner Lawrence boarders had a fantastic Christmas dinner last Wednesday. The food was lovely and the company was even better. There was music, laughter, and a great Christmassy atmosphere. The meal was followed by a series of fun games which had everyone in stitches. Musical chairs brought out the most competitive side of each participant, while the best snow-woman costume and the best spaghetti tower games got them to work together in very committed teams. It was a memorable evening all round, which concluded with an improvised disco for the keen dancers.

MDC

Saoirse J

Merry Christmas from everyone at Roedean

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