30th September 2016 - Issue 4
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW Positive Mental Health Awareness Week
Head’s Introduction Today is Founders’ Day, when we commemorate the founders of the school and those from the Roedean community who have passed away this year. When the Lawrence sisters founded the school in 1885, whatever their dreams and aspirations for it were, they cannot have imagined what a remarkable school it would become - they would be so proud of Roedean and of the girls. At Open Day tomorrow, we are expecting record numbers of visitors, and I would like to thank the girls and staff in advance for their hard work in showcasing the school - I know that those who come will be hugely impressed with everything they see. What a fantastic week it has been for sport at Roedean! There have been fixtures in hockey, netball, and volleyball, and our teams have enjoyed wonderful victories. A few highlights are a fantastic 5 - 0 win for the 1st team against Mayfield, a strong hockey school which beat us 3 - 1 last year, and a great victory for the junior
hockey players against LOGS. Congratulations to all the girls in Roedean teams, and to the PE staff. In the Performing Arts, rehearsals are in full swing for the House Plays and the winter production, and it was a delight to see the Music Scholars perform on Monday. We must never lose sight of the depth of talent we have at Roedean. This week we have celebrated European Languages’ Day, and had a focus on Positive Mental Health, with talks and sessions for everyone in the community. I hope that you have all been inspired to work hard in languages, and to develop a positive mindset and take care of yourselves. There can be no doubt that today’s coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Support will have lifted everyone’s spirits. I wish you all a wonderful week.
House 1 Blackberry Jam Earlier this week, House 1 started their preparations for the annual Macmillan Coffee Morning which took place today, from 10.30 to 11.30 in House 1 ODR. The girls thoroughly enjoyed making 10 jars of blackberry jam; they spent lots of time and had so much fun making covers for the jars and the labels too. It tastes delicious and, at a bargain price of £1 for small jar and £1.50
for a large jar, who could resist! All proceeds are being donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.
This week, the school has enjoyed a series of events for Positive Mental Health Awareness. We have hosted two visiting speakers this week, Alicia Drummond and Ben Dew. Alicia, who leads an organisation called ‘Let’s Talk’ is an experienced counsellor and coach with expertise in working with teenagers, their families and teachers. Alicia entertained Key Stage Three with a fun and informative guide to coping with their adolescent years and gave a valuable seminar to staff. Ben is a youth worker from Brighton’s LGBTU organisation ‘Allsorts’. Pupils have also taken trips to the farm, enjoyed a yoga session, as well as many events put on by our House staff team. With a focus on balancing work, rest and play, the highlight of the week was an inter-house Bake-Off! The results of the Bake-off are: Best Hospitality and Quality:
Keswick
Best Taste and Originality:
House 1
Best Teamwork and Most Challenging:
House 2
Best Initiative and Best Presentation:
House 3
Best overall:
House 4
30th September 2016 - Issue 4
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.
Roedean Music Scholars Perform
Persia Kosten Modder (U3) for learning how to do the Victoria Escorts extremely quickly [AFM]
Scarlett Beasley (L4) for reading and reviewing 14 books for the Summer Reading Challenge – what a fantastic effort! [SBL]
Natasha Tan (6.2) for singlehandedly training the new Sixth Form student librarian team [SBL]
Mrs Ashby (Staff) for her day-to-day support and dedication in every department of the school [JC]
This year the Music department has initiated a new series of teatime recitals, to showcase performances from Music Scholars and award holders, as well as workshops and masterclass performances. There will also be year group performances later on in the year, featuring the whole of Years 7, 8, and 9 in presentations of different world music styles. On Monday, European Languages’ Day, we had our inaugural recital given by the Roedean Music Scholars and award holders, with pieces from five European countries; this recital proved that Europe has a common language – music. The recital included girls from Year 7 to Year 12 who set a very high standard for the term: the diction of the singers (Josephine French and Amelie Samarasinghe) was outstanding; the pianists played with finesse and period sensitivity, and there really is nothing like a harp, played beautifully by Charlotte Burrows, to give class to a recital. I’m looking forward to Anamika Nebhrajani-Wallace’s next jazz
Georgie Williamson (6.1) for an outstanding essay on why people supported Mary in 1553 [RCH]
‘It was a good experience and it was lovely to be surrounded by nature. It was really fun!!’ Prim Niumpradit
‘It is great to know that we have now finished our coursework! Good luck to those who are doing it next year and thank you for all the Roedean staff that came.’ Eva Bate
The entire recital really was exceptional and the music chosen was diverse and entertaining. There was everything from Baroque to Jazz, with woodwind, brass, upper strings, piano, harp, and vocal music all represented. What a pleasure it was to have such a bank of talent. Many thanks to those who came to support, to Miss Bartlette for organising this musical feast, and particularly to Mr Rous for his sensitive and unflappable piano accompaniments. The next teatime recital is on Monday 3 October, and it will include performances from our woodwind and brass players. This will conclude the day of masterclasses for these players and will include a performance from Margaret Archibald, our instrumental coach for the day.
Geography Field Trip The U5 Geographers spent last weekend conducting the fieldwork for their GCSE coursework. They had a productive weekend, and here are some of their comments:
Tina Ho (6.2) for the time and care she has given helping other students [KCA]
gig, and I hope that Freya Stewart found Schumann the perfect escape from the slavery of that day’s Geography GCSE controlled assessment. KH
‘Although the coursework was tough, the trip was really enjoyable as we had the time to go outside and have a bit of freedom with our friends, and we had an endless supply of hot drinks! The evenings were very relaxing and a lot of fun.’
‘It was really nice to be out of school in the countryside an be able to finish d coursework all at our once.’ Fr eya Finnegan
A mix of endless hot ids, old chocolate-coffee hybr nd a school emo songs arou tting y ge campfire, and actuall rtainly ce our coursework done g’ trip.’ in st re te ‘in an made for d Freya Stewart
Mary McHarg an
Georgia Arnold
ography field ‘Although our ge me intense trip involved so made the was coursework, it ssibly be; we best it could po iful Box Hill ut enjoyed the bea h sunny days it w e id ys countr great people!’ and a group of Lucy Brown
‘Although the coursework was tough, the trip was really enjoyable as we had the time to go outside and have a bit of freedom with our friends, and we had an endless supply of hot drinks! The evenings were very relaxing and a lot of fun.’ Page 2
Georgia Arnold
‘Despite spending a tiring our weekend completing 25% of ng sti toa rk, wo rse Geography cou g gin sin d an s marshmallow a around the campfire made it as ally eci esp , ful little less stress we were all in good company.’ Zarbanu Malekshahi
HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
30th September 2016 - Issue 4
Roedean Farm News Our new Roedean shepherds have done a grand job at making the sheep feel at home, but they have spotted that the big ewe is outrageously greedy! Our newly appointed Sheep Prefect, Millie Hoffmann (U3), has been schooling us on how to approach sheep, and her mum, Bronwen the Vet, came in on Wednesday to train us to turn a sheep over so that we can pick burrs off them. We’re now making the complex preparations for receiving a dozen-and-a-half chickens!
SPORT
Roedean Aquathlon This year is the second time that Roedean has hosted an Aquathlon in conjunction with Hedgehog Kids’ Tri, and it was a perfect example of Roedean working as part of the community. Congratulations to Gracie Bernard (U4) who won her category, Tri-Star 3. It was also fantastic that the Sixth Form undertook much of the marshalling for the event as part of their Sports Leaders’ training. The aim for next year is to host a full triathlon!
Sports Leaders in Action
Ruby’s sporting success
The U4 girls took to the swimming pool this week to try out their leadership skills. They were given a task to teach front crawl arm action to a group in each lane. They handled the task brilliantly, breaking it down into small chunks so that their pupils could manage it. They were enthusiastic and proactive, making the most of the equipment and time that they were given. It was a really positive experience and they were able to show a range of skills in an area they had not tried before. Well done to all the leaders!
Congratulations to Ruby Anning (L4) who has been invited to join the Sussex Track & Field Squad for the second year in a row. The squad targets the county’s leading young athletes, based on their performance over the last season. Ruby is county champion across four events this year (both indoors and out) and is also a county record holder. Those athletes who have been selected are invited to four workshops over the winter months. But Ruby’s success does not stop there, and she has also been selected for the Sussex Netball Satellite Academy 2. Well done, Ruby!
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HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW
30th September 2016 - Issue 4
SPORT
Victories for the 1st XI and U12 Hockey! On Tuesday, the Roedean 1st XI Hockey played against Bede’s. We started the game brightly, showing promising signs down the right hand side with Beatrix Wright (who is only in U4!). After two well worked short corners, Roedean went into half time 2 - 0 up. In the second half, Roedean worked hard on their defence to prevent Bede’s from scoring and showed promising counter attacks. The final score was 5 - 0 to Roedean, and special mention must go to Beatrix for her outstanding attacking display down the right wing. On Thursday, the U15 hockey team had a tough match against a strong Burgess Hill side. The final score was 5-0 to Burgess Hill, but Clara Hollowood deserves a special mention, showing great captaincy by leading by example. On Wednesday the U12A, B and Cs travelled to Mayfield. This was the first time that we had put out so many teams in this young age group, and it was which was wonderful to see. The As started strongly and scored 3 goals in
quick succession. The training drills appeared to be working, as Ella Kennedy Martin used the right wing to good avail and put several strong crosses in. India Harrison and Isobel Harvey were often on the end of these on the back post. Unfortunately we seemed to lose our shape a little and the Mayfield girls came back strongly. They scored towards the end of the first half to make it 3 - 2, which was quite nerve-wracking going into the second half. We kept our heads and scored a cracker from a well worked move by Isobel Harvey – the final score was a fantastic 4 - 3 victory for Roedean. The Bs had an exciting game with our girls looking strong in both attack and defence, but unfortunately we were not able to capitalise on the pressure. The player of the match was Millie Jenner. The Cs unfortunately lost 2 - 0, but this score did not reflect the game. The girls worked hard and began to gel as a team. There was excellent play from Sylva Crawley and Poppy Stockton.
British School’s Golf Competition Natasha Tan and Polina Kos’ele playing at Sunningdale. Both girls played 18 holes representing Roedean. It was a glorious day and both played very well. Natasha was 5 points off the eventual winner.
JJ WHAT’S
COMING UP IN THE WEEK AHEAD?
Mon 3 Oct
Wind Instrument Masterclass & Teatime Recital Swimming Gala
Tues 4 Oct
Netball U15 vs St Catherine’s (A)
Wed 5 Oct
U13A Hockey Tournament, Worth (A) National Swimming Championships in Horsham U12A-D Hockey vs Hurst (A) U13B&C vs Millais (H)
Thur 6 Oct
U3 Visit to Hastings and Pevensey Castle L4-L5 English Schools’ Cross Country Cup, 1st Round, Chichester U15A Hockey vs LOGS (H) U14A Hockey vs Farlington (A) Sixth Form Information Evening for U5
Fri 7 Oct
HOUSE PLAY FESTIVAL
Sat 8 Oct
U12A Versatility Netball Tournament, Windlesham (A) 1st & 2nd Hockey vs Ardingly (A) U14A&15A Hockey vs Ardingly (A)
Sat 9 Oct
U14&18 ISFA National Football Tournament (A)
Results Tues Wed
Thur
Sport
Team
Result
Hockey
Roedean 1st
5–0
Bede’s 2s
Hockey
Roedean U14A
0–2
Bede’s U14
Hockey
Roedean U12A
4–3
Mayfield
Hockey
Roedean U12B
0–0
Mayfield
Hockey
Roedean U12C
0–2
Mayfield
Hockey
Roedean U13A
6–0
LOGS
Hockey
Roedean U15
0–5
Burgess Hill
Senior Volleyball
Roedean
2–1
Farlington
Netball
Roedean U14A
23 – 25
Warden Park
Netball
Roedean U14B
10 – 33
St Paul’s
1st Hockey vs Bede’s
U13 Hockey
U12B vs Mayfield
U12A vs Mayfield
Opposition
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