28 January 2022 – Issue 4
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Deepdene at Roedean
Head’s Introduction
Yesterday was the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, and this week’s Chapel services focused on Holocaust Memorial Day. Despite the time which has elapsed, it is our collective responsibility to keep these painful memories alive, to endeavour to avoid further genocides in the future. I am very grateful to Ms Keller, Mrs Black, Mr Marchant, Jemima, Jane, Thea, Ellen, Alma, and Ingrid, for addressing such a challenging theme so thoughtfully, by sharing the personal stories of those who suffered persecution in World War Two – the services were poignant and powerful, and I am sure that they will have resonated with the School community. For me, this week encapsulates what Roedean is all about – an exciting enterprise challenge and an inspiring talk from a former Dragon, fantastic Oxbridge news, Roedean girls competing in a range of sports, and academic and sporting enrichment for pupils from Deepdene, and much more. Each week, our experience is varied, enlightening, stimulating, and fulfilling. Congratulations to Sophia, Molly, Stella, and Kristina for winning places at Oxbridge – this is a wonderful achievement, and we are incredibly proud of you. I am also very pleased to hear that very many of our Year 13s are holding excellent offers from a wide range of institutions, including UCL, Exeter, and Bristol – well done! I enjoyed listening to the former Dragon, Sarah Willingham, this week, and I felt that her key messages were both sound and empowering. She spoke to an audience of girls from across the School, at the end of the highly successful Enterprise Day, about her personal approach to running a business – not only was she incredibly natural and relatable, but her fundamental desire to empower others was very evident. She also spoke about the challenges of running a hugely successful business and being a parent too. She explained that the key is to get the very best out of the time you have each day. There was a full audience of students, and it was great to hear their interesting questions and Sarah’s very candid answers. I am looking forward to marking Chinese New Year on Tuesday. I am grateful to Rita and Eileen, who are leading a group, which is preparing some traditional cultural activities to share with the rest of the school community – these include traditional papercutting, a chopstick challenge, and calligraphy, and these will take place in the Library. I hope that many of you will be wearing something red on Tuesday, as this is a lucky colour in Chinese culture, and good luck with trying your hand at the cultural activities. I am also looking forward to the firework display, which will be a fitting way to celebrate Chinese new year. I wish you all a restful weekend and best wishes for next week!
Dragon Sarah Willingham Talk
Four Roedean Students Win Oxbridge Places!
Free Sanitary Products at Roedean
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Dragon Sarah Willingham Talk We were incredibly privileged to welcome the highly successful entrepreneur, Sarah Willingham, to Roedean. She is a British entrepreneur and investor, perhaps best known for her management of high-street restaurants such as Planet Hollywood, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Pizza Express, and her tenure as a ‘Dragon’ on the thirteenth and fourteenth series of Dragons’ Den. With a wonderfully down-to-earth manner, Sarah spoke about her experiences as an entrepreneur, and also answered many thought-provoking questions from our students. This gave them an insight about her not only as an entrepreneur, but also as a person and mother of four children. She said she believes that parenthood and business can exist simultaneously, without sacrificing the quality of either, that the most valuable thing that she has is her time, and finally that the main thing she has learnt from business which she incorporates into her family life is that empowerment is one of the most important things to give to her employees, and to her children! It is exactly this which allows them to flourish.
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
Unsung heroes in the spotlight
We are very grateful to Sarah for coming to Roedean – the talk was engaging and inspirational, and was enjoyed by staff and students from all year groups. ‘I was so excited to find out that an ex-dragon was coming into Roedean to give us a talk on her life in business and was fascinated by her experiences in the den as well as the inspirational advice she had to offer.’ – Georgia (Yr12) ‘For me, the talk was incredibly captivating and inspiring. 'You never know if you will succeed if you don't try' is a piece of advice that applies to all areas of life. Whether that is in business, school, or your pursuits in life, taking the first step is usually the hardest -but the most rewarding. Overall, I really enjoyed the talk, and I am sure many others did too!’ – Sarah (Yr12)
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.
Eileen and Rita (Yr13) – for spear-heading the group of students preparing activities for Chinese New Year on Tuesday next week [Dr Barrand] Clemmie (Yr10) – for showing kindness towards a Year 7 on the bus each day [Miss Orrells]
The Melting Pot Challenge for Year 9 Grace said, 'We really enjoyed Enterprise Day, as it was really interesting and enjoyable to take part in designing and advertising our product. It was overall a really fun experience, and it was nice to work with people on a project which wasn’t our normal schoolwork.'
On Monday, the whole of Year 9 took part in The Melting Pot Enterprise Challenge. This was an opportunity for the students to work in groups on a variety of challenges based around designing a new product made from chocolate. Throughout the day they had to use a range of skills from across the curriculum, such as creative writing, Art & Design, and Maths, to help present their business ideas. The day ended with the students pitching their concept to a panel of judges, including a real-life Dragon from Dragon’s Den, Sarah Willingham. She was impressed with how well the students had done without much prior business knowledge and only a short time to pull all their ideas together. Well done to the winning team, Fleur de la Chocolate. The day was an enjoyable one, with all the students putting in lots of energy to their ideas and coming up with amazing products and packaging.
And Rida also really enjoyed the day: 'I thoroughly enjoyed Enterprise Day, because it really did resemble running a chocolate business. It was a fun, frantic, fantastic three hours, where we threw ourselves into the finance, product, technology, advertisement, and management of the project. My favourite part of the day was pitching to Sarah Willingham, an ex-Dragon, who thankfully didn't tear our business ideas down, but was kind and gave good constructive feedback. Going forward, I feel I have a better idea of the world of business and what it means to be businesswoman.' Mr Low
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HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
Four Roedean Students Win Oxbridge Places! The entire school community is incredibly proud of four students in Year 13 who have won places to study at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Congratulations to Sophia, Molly, Stella, and Kristina! Sophia, who is one of our Head Girls and joined Roedean in Year 7, has won a place at Somerville College, Oxford, to study Medicine. The small number of highly-coveted places make this an impressive achievement: ‘After so many sleepless nights, finally getting the email, then plucking up enough courage to open it, it was fantastic to see that I had got an offer – I just can’t wait until October.’
College, Oxford. ‘The application process and background work was really interesting, and, I know it might sound strange, but I actually enjoyed the interviews – although, because they were virtual, it was a shame not to see the college, so I’m excited to visit when I can.’ Kristina is an outstanding mathematician, and she has won a place at Lucy Cavendish College to read Mathematics. She has consistently been successful in national Maths Challenges, achieving the highest mark in the School, and has qualified for the British Maths Olympiad. ‘I am really looking
Molly has a place to study Land Economy at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. She is studying Geography, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, and Physics at A Level, and is interested in Global Development. ‘Even though Land Economy is not directly connected to my A Level subjects, it combines elements of them all – it’s also so diverse that it will be a really exciting challenge.’
This month, Mrs Marshall Taylor. one of our School Chaplains, has popped over to Lawrence to spend some time getting to know the Lawrence girls and what life is like for them. Handwritten invitations are delivered to the girls and, on Monday evenings, the table in the Common Room is laid out for supper and girls are invited to join in and have a taste of family mealtime in their own House, rather than the School dining hall. It is really lovely! Mrs Diplos
In addition, Thea has been placed into the Summer Pool for a place to read History, so there may yet be further good news. Each year, Roedean students win Oxbridge places to read for undergraduate degrees in a wide range of subjects, with the Arts and Sciences both represented, and this highlights the academic strength and breadth in the School. The final applications for all universities have been sent off to UCAS today, and we are delighted that many Year 13 students already have excellent and achievable offers from a range of top institutions. Although the students were informed about the Oxford offers at the start of term, the decisions from Cambridge were only announced yesterday, so there has been a long wait. Along with the fantastic successes, there have also been some disappointments, but the School is very proud of all those who applied for some of the most highly-contested university places in the world, regardless of the outcome.
Stella joined Roedean in the Sixth Form, and she has been offered a place to study Ancient and Modern History at Corpus Christi
Lawrence House Host Supper
forward to studying on a really interesting course, and being challenged by other Mathematicians around me.’
Congratulations!
Chinese New Year 2022 is the Year of Tiger. Next Tuesday is the first day of the Chinese New Year. People who are born in the year of the tiger (those who are 12, 24, 36, 48, etc. years old) are recommended to wear red socks during this year to ward off disaster. Also, children will receive red pockets with “lucky money” inside from the elders on the first day of the new year, and this symbolises good luck for the entire year. Moreover, 2022 is an important year all over the world. The twenty-fourth Olympic Winter Games will be held in Beijing from February 4 to February 20. It will be the first time China has hosted the Winter Olympics, making Beijing the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games. On the occasion of the coming Spring Festival, we wish you all the best! 新年快乐! Page 3
Rita and Eileen (Yr13)
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
Deepdene at Roedean – Weekly Enrichment It is wonderful for Roedean to be able to welcome the Deepdene pupils in Years 4-6 to Roedean each week for a programme of academic and sporting enrichment. They absolutely love it – as well as enjoying our fantastic sports fields, they are also exposed to a range of inspiring academic challenges. So far this year, they have learnt some Russian, Philosophy, Drama, code-breaking, dance, printmaking, music, and creative writing.
who had poisoned the suspicious drink, and who had left their fingerprints at the crime scene. The crime they had to solve was who had poisoned Mr Blond – and, using their newly-learnt scientific skills, they deduced that the perpetrator was Dr Barrand! Thank you to Dr Staniford for the fantastically exciting sessions this week.
And this week, they entered Roedean's Forensic Science Laboratory! – using Chemistry, they were challenged to identify who had left the muddy footprint,
Free Sanitary Products at Roedean Hello, my name is Kate (Yr13). When I first got my period in school, I was embarrassed, confused, and didn’t know what to do. The shame surrounding the topic made it impossible for me to talk to my peers about how to handle this. Luckily, I was greatly supported and had access to sanitary products, but for too many girls these products that mark ‘becoming a woman’ are luxuries, not givens. I knew that I had to change that. When I was given the opportunity to be a Pastoral Prefect, I understood that I needed to make a big change, and my first call of action was periods! Currently, every bathroom in the School is supplied with a small wicker basket, filled with tampons, sanitary towels, and pantyliners to use when you are unprepared for your ‘time of the month’. The company we have used for these products is ‘Grace & Greene’, which is a UK-based, 100% biodegradable, organic, cotton-based company. They also aim to demystify periods with simple, straight-talking transparency – this is very similar to my aim, which is to take away the stigma of the word 'period', and open up a conversation on this topic. My next steps include posters to demonstrate the reasoning behind this project, and adjustments to the PSHE programme in order to provide a sufficient education on this topic. Furthermore, I aim to help spread awareness on the problem of period poverty, and work with charities that aim to provide products for people in local communities who are unable to provide themselves with this basic human necessity. If anyone is interested in helping me with this project, please contact me on ks52@roedean. co.uk So, please don’t be scared to start conversations, use these products, and help raise awareness for this issue, so that, one day, free sanitary products will be provided for everyone, everywhere. Page 4
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Student Book Review Toffee by Sarah Crossan Toffee was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. It's in the name – a book that is hard to chew but even sweeter to read. This is not the first time Sarah Crossan has written such a genius piece; other books by her, such as 'Moonrise' and 'One', have had the exact same effect on many readers. One second you are smiling from ear to ear and the next your face is lined with tears. 'Toffee' centres around a young girl called Allison, who escapes her abusive father and runs away. She finds herself in an abandoned shed at the bottom of a garden of a large house, which she assumes is empty. But the inhabitant called Marla,
an old woman with dementia and an apparent great weight of loneliness, discovers Allison. However, she mistakes her for an old friend – Toffee. Allison is trying to forget her past and rediscover herself, so what is to stop her claiming a new identity? This beautiful book is written in a poetic form, simple to read with a woven complexity to the plot line. It allows you to fly through the story, while every moment still sticks in your mind. Heart-warming and heart-wrenching! A definite must read! Maria (Yr11)
New Books in the Library The Power of the Dog – by Thomas Savage
You’ll be the Death of Me – by Karen M. McManus
A cult classic set on a Montana ranch in the 1920s, Savage's deft psychological drama pits two brothers against each other when one of them brings a young widow into their lives.
From the author of ‘One of Us Is Lying’ comes a brand new pulse-pounding thriller. Three former friends ditch school for old time's sake – with horrible and deadly consequences.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Manningtree Witches – by A.K. Blakemore
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
A visceral and gripping debut novel from poet A. K. Blakemore, The Manningtree Witches takes the reader into the midst of the Puritan regime and harrowing witch trials of seventeenth-century England.
The Last House on Needless Street – by Catriona Ward
These Violent Delights – by Chloe Gong
This is the story of Ted, who lives with his young daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia, in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street. An unspeakable secret binds the family together, and when a new neighbour moves in next door, the truth may destroy them all.
Star-crossed lovers in a fantastical 1920’s Shanghai must confront both the burning rivalry of their families, and a deadly threat lurking in the shadows in this compelling retelling of Romeo and Juliet.
The City of Tears – by Kate Mosse
May 1572: for ten violent years, the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless lives have been lost, and the country has been torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship, and sovereignty. But now a precarious peace is in the balance and a royal wedding has been negotiated. It is a marriage that could see France reunited at last.
Trio – by William Boyd
It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives.
Hatmakers – by Tamzin Merchant
The Twyford Code – by Janice Hallett
Magical milliners abound in this endlessly inventive and thoroughly charming debut about enchanted headwear, vanished ships, and the dark rumblings of war.
A unique and addictive mystery, revolving around a secret code found in a famous children’s author’s work, by an English teacher who subsequently disappears, and her former pupil, who years later decides to discover what happened to her.
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HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
Holocaust Memorial Chapel First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me Ms Keller, Mrs Black, Mr Marchant, Ellen and Alma (Yr12), Ingrid (Yr9), and Jemima, Thea, and Jane (Yr13) led the service: 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day. It is the day each year when nations remember the six million Jewish people who were systematically persecuted and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust. On this day, we also remember the other groups of people who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis: Roma people, the mentally and physically disabled, gay people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, political opponents, and many others. Sadly genocides have taken place since the Holocaust, and so this day also remembers the millions of men, women, and children, who have been murdered in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. Genocide is when a group of people is targeted for destruction just because of who they are, such as their race or their religion. Genocide does not happen out of the blue, it is the result of prejudice and persecution, which see a group treated differently from the rest of society in a de-humanised way. Today we are reminded of what can happen when prejudice and persecution are left unchallenged, and of our responsibilities to stand against these processes when we see them in our own communities. To help ourselves recognise the signs of prejudice and persecution, we need to look to history, to understand how it begins and learn to recognise the early signs to prevent it from happening again. In looking to the past, the Jewish Holocaust took place in the context of the Second World War, both in Germany and Nazi-occupied territory in Europe.
However, the images of concentration camps such as Auschwitz with which you may be familiar are only the end of the story. In order to recognise how a country was able to demonise such a tiny percentage of its population (less than 1% in fact), we need to trace back further to understand the conditions that existed in Germany which allowed prejudice and indifference to turn into extreme persecution and death. In 1933, the Nazi party were elected in Germany, with the promise to solve the economic problems of the Great Depression. However, part of Hitler and the Nazis’ plan was to address the ‘Jewish question’, using the economic problems to blame a whole race and tapping into pre-existing prejudices towards the Jewish race. The result was a series of over 400 antisemitic (anti-Jewish) laws passed by the Nazis between 1933 and 1942. What did it look like to lose these basic rights? It is difficult to imagine today in a liberal democracy, how it must have felt to lose such basic rights, but this was the beginning of the end. Here are some contemporary accounts of Jewish Page 6
people living in Germany and German-occupied countries during these years. Consider how it would make you feel to lose your rights. Mindu Hornick, living in Berlin in the 1930s, aged 15: 'Once we were forced to wear Jewish stars in 1941, that was terrible, suddenly we were singled out. We were different to school friends, we were different to our neighbours. My father was taken away from us. His businesses were confiscated, and honestly I don't know how our mother fed us.' Ivor Perl born in Hungary in 1932: ‘having rocks thrown at us was quite normal, as was being called ‘dirty Jew’ in a Hungarian town called Mako. On the streets, Ivor had stones thrown at him, abuse shouted at him and his hat knocked off his head.' Peter Prager, born in Berlin in 1923 wrote about school life in the 1930s: 'When I went to the Grunewald gymnasium, one of the things which I remember particularly was when we had the lesson, which we were all taught, that Jews were inferior. Because the biology teacher made all the Jewish children, there were three of us, stand up, and he had a drawing on the board of Jewish heads, and he was trying to show that our Jewish heads had a different shape from the Aryan heads, and therefore we were inferior. And he said it in a quite pleasant way; he said to us, 'Well, don't be frightened, it's not your fault that you are inferior, but that's just the way nature has made Jews.'.'
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
12-year old Anne Frank, writing in her diary in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam wrote: 'Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to turn in their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use trams; Jews were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5pm; Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty salons; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8pm and 6am; Jews were forbidden to go to theatres, cinemas or any other forms of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools, tennis courts,
jockey fields or any other athletic fields; Jews were forbidden to go rowing; Jews were forbidden to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8pm; Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools. You couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do that but life went on… I don’t dare do anything anymore, because I’m afraid it’s not allowed.’ The de-humanisation of Jewish people up to this point via state laws turned more sinister in November 1938 and persecution became violent with the destruction of thousands of Jewish businesses in a targeted attack known as Kristallnacht. Perhaps this was the turning point which paved the way for the systematic state extermination of the Jewish race during World War 2. Against this worsening situation, some Jews were lucky to be able to leave Germany at this point, including famously: Albert Einstein, the German physicist who moved to the USA, and who revolutionised our understanding of space, time, gravity and the universe – with his Theory of Relativity.
Karl Marx the German philosopher who was a famous advocate for Communism. Sigmund Freud – an Austrian neurologist who invented Psycho-analysis. Miss Keller shared a personal reflection: And because some people managed to leave or escape, there are generations of Holocaust survivors children and grandchildren who you may also have heard of today: Steven Spielberg, Mila Kunis, Scartlett Johanson... me. But you can probably work out, that for the majority of people, leaving or escaping was not an option – if your money and your passport had been taken away, how could you possibly leave the country? So there are also generations of the 6 million who died who will never have had the chance of a life, a family, children, grandchildren… My uncle Simon, survived. He survived the horrors of Auschwitz concentration camp where he was repeatedly subjected to medical experiments to see what would happen if wounds were infected and left untreated. He survived the nightmare of Bergen Belsen concentration camp from which he was liberated at the end of the war. But he never recovered from the loss of his wife – Rivka – and his daughter Frieda. Both had been killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz on their arrival at the camp. Over 1.5 million Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust – not because they were children, but because they were Jewish. As we have heard, the Holocaust did not come out of nowhere. It began with prejudice – which paved the way for discrimination – and finally enabled persecution – the sustained campaign of harassment and repression that culminated in genocidal violence. At the root of this was a denial of people’s humanity. Only by dehumanising their victims were the Nazi regime and its collaborators able to commit atrocities. Aware of this, in the aftermath of the Second World War, steps were taken to ensure that never again would humankind witness such horrors. Page 7
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
The Holocaust was a shameful episode in human History and it is all too easy to recognise the direction in which things were moving in Germany in the 1930s with the benefit of hindsight. Although there has been a post-war commitment to building a more peaceful world, the challenge still remains for us today to recognise the early signs of prejudice and actively work against this to avoid the dangers and destruction to which it can lead. As the historian Ian Kershaw has written, ‘The road to Auschwitz was built by hate – but paved by indifference’. Would you recognise it if you were living through it? There were some people who did rise up – who fought the Nazis – resistance groups across Europe. The Warsaw Ghetto, in Poland’s capital city, was an area of land within the city in which hundreds of thousands of the city’s jews had been herded into a confined space – most died of disease, starvation or were murdered. Eventually in 1943 the Nazis were ordered to kill those left and for 5 weeks there was an extraordinary act of resistance as the ghetto inhabitants held off the Nazi’s Army.
The inhabitants of the ghetto were determined to document what was happening –– and in doing so they hid 35,000 manuscripts, drawings and photographs in the hope that after the war the evidence of what had happened – the stories of those who had died – would be found. They were. In boxes, milk churns, and buried under ground – waiting for any survivors to later return to recover them and to ensure their lives and memories were not forgotten. The man behind this was called Emmanuel Ringelblum. He understand that the Nazis were preparing a systematic denial of the Holocaust, even whilst he was living through it. So he brought together in the ghetto, academics, teachers, journalists, artists, religious leaders, and together they gathered testimonies from people so that one day the world would know what had happened.
28 January 2022 – Issue 4
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
Roedean at the Guildford Cross Country
each other on throughout the race. The U15 and U18 team ran 1.5km each before tagging each other. They had a challenging start, with lots of runners on the start line, but this did not deter Pearl, Phoebe, or Emma, who gave it their all and overtook 3 teams between them. Well done to all the girls who took part. Miss Wakeling
Roedean took four teams to the Guildford High School Cross Country Relays on Monday. The U12 and U13 teams ran 0.8km, each tagging each other in the pen before the second runner left. It really was a team effort, and the girls supported and cheered
2nd VII Netball vs Christ's Hospital The 2nd VII did played really well against tough opposition on Thursday. The sunny side goal post made shooting hard, but the girls pushed through, working around the D. A particular well done to Emma, who was named Players' Player of the Match, and Lucy who was Coaches' Player of the Match. It was an enjoyable game, where the score did not represent the game. The girls left having had an enjoyable afternoon of sport. Miss Wakeling 2nd VII
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 8
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