27th January 2017 - Issue 4
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Head’s Introduction Last weekend we saw that to ‘fight like a girl’ meant to mobilise millions of women, men, and children across seventy countries in every continent on earth in a civil and peaceful march, to stand up for equality and against discrimination in all its forms. It was a hugely uplifting day, and I know that the march resonated with many girls and staff at Roedean. As a girls’ school, it is important that we are engaged with what is going on around us in the world. This sense of solidarity was also reflected in our Chapel this morning
to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, in which we were reminded us that it is our collective responsibility as a world community to stand up against genocide and persecution. Our Assemblies this week were accompanied by Maggie Z’s stunningly beautiful playing of the hulusí, a traditional Chinese instrument, in order to get us ready for the start of Chinese New Year; it was a wonderfully calming way to start the day. Next week is Positive Mental Health Week, and,
Having a good time doing farm duties!
as they have in previous terms, I am confident that the girls will get involved in the calming activities on offer, such as yoga and Pilates, and filling in a huge circle of colour in the Art Department, which will go on all week as a stress-busting activity. I am sure that the fireworks this evening to mark the start of Chinese New Year will go off with a bang, and that the Sixth Form’s Gatsby-themed party in Keswick Hall is a wonderful event. Good luck to you all for next week, and Gong Xi Fa Cai!
恭喜發財 – Gong Hei Fat Choy 恭喜发财 – Gong Xi Fa Cai Happy Chinese New Year! Welcome to the year of the rooster. Some of the girls on the One-Year Foundation Programme, led by Miranda L, our Events Prefect, have prepared a series of typical Chinese activities for the school. At lunchtime, the Blyth was filled with music played by our girls on traditional instruments, such as the hulusí and the pipa, there was a chopstick challenge, and we saw the girls writing Chinese characters, and made lanterns. Everyone is looking forward to the fireworks tonight.
Six girls pass the Sussex Uni Geometry course Congratulations to the six girls in Year 13 who have successfully passed the Sussex University Geometry course! Six of our most talented mathematicians, Catherine C, Hermione H, Valerie L, Rachel L, Miranda L, and Vicky Z, attended first-year undergraduate lectures alongside university students, and then were required to sit two exams in order to pass the course. Clearly, this is a remarkable achievement since they have not yet completed their A Levels.
This partnership with Sussex University has been in place for well over ten years, and we have established a proud tradition of Roedean girls not only studying at university level, but in actual fact also gaining higher marks than most of the university students. This opportunity allows our students to experience a university-style education, as well as challenging their mathematical understanding, helping them become more secure in their knowledge of many of the ideas in the Further Maths A Level course, and providing them with credits that they could actually use to contribute to their own first year of university study. Congratulations!
Here is an example of a question from the end of course examination: Obtain a Gaussian array from the following set of equations, and transform it to reduced row-echelon form to obtain the solution. How do you think you might have got on?
-x + 8y - 3z = 2, x - 5y + 2z = 3, -x + 10y - 4z = 4