Review of 2015/16
The painting on the cover is a collaborative piece, measuring 8 feet by 4 feet, inspired by the Japanese artist Hiroshige. It was completed during Festival Week by girls from Upper Three to Upper Four, and symbolises harmony and peace.
The year 2015-2016 has been a wonderful year for Roedean, and I am very proud of what the girls and my colleagues have achieved over the last few years. Girls are excelling in a range of different fields, from academic work and winning top university places, to sport and dance, and music and community action work – the girls’ talents never cease to amaze me. One of the highlights of this past year was our outstanding ISI Inspection report, which we received in May. I am delighted that the exceptional work which goes on every day at Roedean was identified by the inspectors in the four days they were here, and they were full of praise for every aspect of school life – we were awarded ‘excellent’, the highest grading, in each of 14 categories. Roedean is very clearly the school of choice for girls’ education in the area, and the girls who sat public examinations last year did themselves and the school proud. At A Level, an impressive 62% or all grades were A* or A, which represents a 14% increase from two years ago, and 75% of all GCSE grades were also at A*-A – these represent the best A Level and best GCSE grades in the same year, which is outstanding. Roedean provides an environment where every single girl can excel and realise her potential in a variety of fields, and the girls understand that education is not just about excellent grades, but also about complementing these with other interests and pursing their passions and talents. Roedean’s trajectory is very clearly upward, and what Roedean girls will achieve over the next few years is an exciting prospect. It is impossible to capture everything that has gone on at Roedean in the last year, but this review should give a strong flavour of the school and the wider Roedean community – I hope that you enjoy reading it. Oliver Blond Headmaster
Contents Flashbacks 6 Sally Gunnell OBE – our guest at Speech Day
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Eleven girls trek in Nepal
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Two Roedeanians are National Champions
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Roedean visits NASA
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52 marathons in 52 weeks!
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Roedean musicians lift the roof off the Chapel
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Carol Gao
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Alan Smith
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Roedean Rocks!
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OR Eugenia Cheng makes Maths more palatable
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Circumnavigating the world – OR travels 45,000 miles
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Royal honours for OR Benita
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Caitlin Boyland
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Penelope Houston
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Valete Alison Fraser
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Valete Sue Stanway
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Last words from the Head Girl
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Flashbacks September Bushcraft 101 girls from Years 7 and 8 had a wet and wild three-day adventure in the Oxfordshire woodlands. The rain came down, the trees shook, and the monkjack barked, but nothing could stop these Roedean girls from having fun. They learnt many new things, including knife skills, rope bracelet making, knowing your woodland surroundings, and the all-important Tribe songs! The next day, the girls swam in the spring lake, which turned out to be very fresh indeed! New friendships and happy memories were made by all, and the trip ended with a hearty salmon feast, and a competition involving the eyes of a fish and some very brave girls!
November Spooktacular music
October The House Plays For the House Play Festival this year, the directors were required to adapt the plot of an existing play or novel, and also to include live music and dance or physical theatre in a fifteen minute performance. The whole spectacle was wonderful, as ever, and the performers, musicians, and directors excelled and deserve praise for the quality of the performances and the imaginative ways in which they approached the task. There were many standout moments, and congratulations in particular to Eleanor Flavin (Upper Four) for a great performance in House 1’s production that was influenced by S J Watson’s ‘Before I Go To Sleep’; to Eunice Yuen (Six One) for her masterful stage management in House 2’s production, inspired by ‘Othello’; Michelle Douglas (Lower Five) for her physical performance of a clock in the House 3 production that was motivated by ‘King Lear’ and a Malaysian folk tale; and Lauren McNellis (Upper Five) for a moving performance in House 4’s production of ‘Strings’ based on Romeo and Juliet. House 2 won the prize for ‘Best Production’, and the cup for most votes went to House 1 – it was a wonderful evening.
The Gala Spooktacular Concert was a worthy inclusion in Roedean’s renowned musical calendar this year. With over 150 students and colleagues performing, led heroically by Miss Fewkes, the ‘spooktacular’ concert really was a triumph, in every sense of the word, and the Chapel was full to bursting. The ambition of the programme was spectacular, including music of the utmost complexity, and using the Chapel as its venue presented a gothic quality. The Chapel was bedecked in spooky paraphernalia, including green lights, ghosts hanging from the chandeliers, and bats and cobwebs strewn all over the walls. The programme blended a clever range of musical genres from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor at the opening to Scooby Doo and Monster Mash, with spine-chilling effect. It never fails to amaze how so much is achieved by the Music department, and there were at least a handful of girls putting down one instrument for another between pieces, swapping a violin for a flute, or a cello for a clarinet. The orchestral offer included favourites such as the Harry Potter Symphonic Suite by John Williams and, from the choral selection, the musical Wicked’s Defying Gravity by Stephen Schwartz. Congratulations to all involved – it was fantastic!
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December Roedean Christmas Fair The Narnia-themed Christmas Fair was an amazing event, and it was wonderful to see the whole Roedean community of girls, staff, and parents all working together, dressed in Christmas outfits and covered in tinsel and glitter. The girls created wonderfully imaginative stalls, and there was a tangible buzz. Santa’s Grotto was very popular, as were the stalls and Aslan’s Café hosted by the Parents’ Guild. The entire event raised well over £3000, and Lower Four won the prize for the most money raised by their stalls. It was a wonderful event, and we look forward to next year’s fair!
January
February
Gabriella in the NCO
Darcey’s been published!
Gabriella Kaye (Upper Four) won a coveted place in the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. This was a massive achievement, because the competition to get in as a clarinet player is very tough indeed, as there are so few places, so she is to be hugely congratulated. Her audition was in October, when 1250 other children also auditioned for a place in the orchestra, so she had a long wait to hear her good news. Gabriella has enjoyed taking part in a variety of concerts this year, including performing at the Barbican. She is certainly one to look out for in the future, not only as a clarinettist, but also as a talented saxophonist.
Darcey Priddle (Upper Three) had some of her Joan Miró-inspired artwork selected to feature in a new book by Anthony Penrose, entitled ‘Miró and the Magic Animals’, which went on sale in April, published by Thames & Hudson. Darcey was very excited that her work has been published for the first time – she is certainly a creative talent.
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March International Women’s Day Roedean marked International Women’s Day with pride and launched the week’s focus on this important day by inviting every member of the school community to write the name of a woman who had been an inspiration on a badge and wear it with pride – it was interesting to see the range of people chosen, from the famous to family members, and writers to sporting heroes. The girls enjoyed the chance to find out more about influential women in global history, and there were talks, debates, and a variety of activities on offer, allowing everyone in the school to engage with the theme.
April
May
Dance Showcase
ISI judges Roedean to be excellent!
Genres and Styles was the theme of this year’s Dance Showcase, and this was certainly evident in the many contrasting dance routines, with elaborate costumes helping to demonstrate different decades through dance. From the Charleston to more modern Street Dance, the dancers soared through the 20th century, and the girls also demonstrated how contrast and style can add variety to classical ballet. The sheer enjoyment of every dancer was obvious, with beaming faces, big smiles, and total engagement, and the Showcase finished with the ‘Macarena’.
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It was in May that Roedean received the report from its ISI Inspection in March, and we are delighted that the school was judged to be excellent in every area. The ‘girls have an exemplary attitude towards learning’, along with ‘high levels of success in the many extra-curricular activities’, and ‘excellent standards of personal development’. Beyond the academic, the girls are also highly successful in the many co-curricular activities available to them: ‘the school provides a range of excellent facilities and resources which enhance the educational experience’ and ‘the contribution of extra-curricular opportunities strongly supports pupils’ excellent achievements’. Roedean’s commitment to its holistic vision of education is clear to see: the girls are becoming intimidating adversaries in sport, they achieve very highly in the Performing Arts, and they feel strongly about charity fund-raising and are keen to be involved in community action work, as well as being supported as much as possible to realise their full academic potential.
Whether the girls are boarders or day-girls, relationships are often central to a successful boarding school, and the Inspectors found at Roedean that ‘pupils are very supportive of each other and develop strong bonds of friendship’ and they display ‘high levels of self-esteem and mutual respect for each other’; it is a school where the ‘staff express their pride in their pupils’, and where the ‘outstanding integration between pupils of different nationalities and between day and boarding pupils results in mutual respect’.
We are delighted that the school’s remarkable provision in terms of teaching, facilities, pastoral care, boarding, and co-curricular opportunities has been recognised in this way – these highest of accolades from the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate highlight the fact that Roedean provides a fantastic all-round education for the girls.
June Roedean Festival Week Following Roedean Day, which included Key Stage 3 Prize Giving, the last performance of the summer production, and a victory for House 3 at Sports Day, the final week of term saw an amazing variety of activities. There really was something for everyone, including a trip to Hever Castle, rock-climbing and sailing, writing and recording a five-track album from scratch in a day, as well as a ‘bake-off’, a treasure hunt over the South Downs, sea-swimming, Science challenges, an Apprenticestyle activity making and selling jewellery, a large-scale art project with a Far Eastern theme (see the cover), and a full-day Bollywood Dance workshop. The two days were rounded off with an evening event allowing the girls to showcase what they had done over the previous days, while also enjoying a barbecue. The grand finale of the Festival was a whole-school trip to Thorpe Park, where everyone had a brilliant time on the rides and probably ate too much candyfloss. It was a fantastic way to round off the school year, with the girls working together on activities beyond the curriculum, and having a great time doing it.
July Trips to America and Nepal Two groups of girls had the most amazing opportunities over the summer holidays to travel to Florida in America and to Nepal. Their experiences will, no doubt, be one of the highlights of their school careers. Articles later in this review provide more details.
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Sally Gunnell OBE – Roedean’s guest speaker on Speech Day
We were delighted to welcome Sally Gunnell OBE to Roedean on Saturday 7 November 2015. Her achievements in the world of Athletics are legendary: she became the Olympic Champion in 1992, and this was followed in 1993 by her victory in the World Championships in Stuttgart, where she broke the World Record, in a time of 52.74 seconds. Sally is perhaps most famous, however, for being the only woman to have held Olympic, World, European, and Commonwealth titles concurrently, and she is the only female 400 metres hurdler in history to have won both the Olympic and World titles and broken the World Record. Speech Day was a wonderful occasion, and it was a delight to revel in the girls’ successes. We welcomed back over forty of last year’s leavers, and it was great to see how they had blossomed in this new stage in their lives and they were obviously relishing the new challenges they were facing. Roedean’s musicians lifted our souls, with Mozart from the String Orchestra and an exceptional performance of the beautiful ‘Con te partiro’ from the combined forces of the choir and orchestra. This was all a wonderful prelude to our guest speaker’s address, when Sally Gunnell spoke about visualising success; her speech was hugely inspiring, and completely accessible to every single member of the audience.
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Sally retired from athletics in 1997, but she initially remained heavily involved with sport, as a presenter for the BBC, and since then, she has also drawn on her experiences to promote health and well-being in Britain, and she is a passionate advocate of initiatives to encourage all families to engage in an active lifestyle. Sally spoke eloquently, in a way which was relevant to girls of all ages, about the tremendous and often underestimated power of self-belief. She told us that 60-70% of success is in the mind, and illustrated this with examples from her career. In the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, at the eighth hurdle she was leading the final, and, just at that moment, started to question whether she might actually win the race. Instead of maintaining her focus on her own race and form, she started to think about the competitors around and allowed herself to consider what it would be like not to win from that leading position. As the expected winner, she felt the pressure keenly and this affected her performance. The result was that she stuttered into the ninth hurdle and her great rival, Ledovskaya from Russia, passed her on the home straight to take the victory and the Gold Medal. Sally also told us how she remembered being embarrassed that she had won the Commonwealth Games in 1990, because she had not believed that she was good enough to
do so. After these experiences, Sally realised that she needed to develop the mental side of her running – she was in fantastic physical shape, but her mind was not at the same level – and she worked intensively with her coach on the visualisation of her races. Not only did she visualise success, but also every permutation of what might go wrong in the races in order to ‘see’ how to rectify the situation. The result was the self-belief that she could win, in spite of any external factors which tried to intervene. Her visualisations of success bore fruit, and she became Olympic Champion in Barcelona in the following season in 1992, and subsequently won the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, breaking the World Record as she did so, with a fantastic time. Sally’s final assertion that ‘who would have thought that a farmer’s daughter from Essex could become Olympic Champion?’ illustrates perfectly the point that we should all have high aspirations and dreams, coupled with the self-belief to push ourselves as hard as possible to realise them. After the Prizes had been presented, Sally had her photograph taken with many of the prize-winners, and we are sure that the photos will feature very prominently in some of the girls’ scrapbooks (or maybe Facebook pages) for years to come.
With an outstanding guest speaker and her thoughtprovoking address, wonderful music, the pleasure of enjoying the successes of the prize-winners, and the chance to catch up with the girls who left last year (and some former members of staff too), the entire event was a great success. Many of those present, both staff and girls, commented that Sally Gunnell’s address was the best that they could remember – it really was fantastic. 11
Eleven girls trek in Nepal Written by Helen Boobis For many, Nepal is synonymous with poverty, with recovering from a devastating earthquake in April 2015, with snow-capped mountain peaks, and with golden stupas glinting in the sunlight. But for those of us who participated in the Global Action trip this summer, Nepal means so much more. In Nepal, the eleven girls and two staff discovered a country that is rich in culture and forward-thinking in its approach to equality and diversity. We visited NGOs who were working not just to repair villages that were destroyed after the earthquake, but to empower them, with a social and economic infrastructure that would enable every member of the community to contribute, and to collaborate with other communities in the area. We discovered incredible innovations in mapping seismic activity and information sharing, in sustainable energy sources, and in supporting both men and women with the impact of changing gender roles.
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We had such wonderful experiences, almost too many to mention: we visited temples, meditated, and taught monks English; we celebrated the Dalai Lama’s birthday in a Tibetan refugee camp, where we dug a hole to house a tank that would provide the camp with fresh water; we performed a traditional Scottish dance in exchange for the wealth of Tibetan and Nepali ones we had been shown; we trekked for 5 days in the Himalayas to an elevation of over 3000 metres whilst climbing over 3000 steps; we white water rafted in the rain, played Tigers and Goats with Gurkha veterans, and so much more besides. In fact, we very rarely glimpsed the snow-capped peaks of the Annapurna mountain range as it was the wrong time of year, but in the evenings, over a mug of hot lemon and a game of cards, someone would point to a parting in the clouds and we would share a moment seeing the awesome geographical context of where we were. All these memories will stay with us for a very long time to come. The eleven Roedean students who participated in this life-changing experience were an absolute credit to the school; they were, without exception, kind, resilient, resourceful, pragmatic, strong, intelligent, thoughtful and determined. As the school roll moves to almost 500 this year, and we celebrate our wellearned academic successes at GCSE and A Level, it is very heartening indeed to have witnessed first-hand our cherished holistic education in action. The Nepal trip happened because these students spent two years preparing and fundraising for it, and because, ultimately, it was simply something that they had put their minds to. Increasingly, I think this attitude is what will come to define a Roedean student.
We left having formed new friendships with people we would never have met. The experience was humbling, challenging, and exciting. Martha Nicholas
Going to Nepal was an eyeopening and meaningful journey. We enjoyed the wonderful culture, endured the seven days of trekking, and most importantly experienced the tremendous difference that teamwork and kindness can bring to a group. Starry Ou Yang 13
Two Roedeanians are National Champions Written by Ross Barrand
Sport is going from strength to strength at Roedean, under the clear direction of Miss Karen Andrew, our Faculty Lead for Sport, and we are delighted to be considered intimidating adversaries by many of our competitor schools. The provision for sport is developing, as is its breadth, and the flood-lit allweather pitch envisaged for later in 2017 will be a very welcome addition to the school’s facilities. Eva Wang was featured in the last Roedean Review as National Champion in Table Tennis, and she has continued to be very successful, but this year, we are again proud to have not one, but two Roedeanians who are National Champions in their sports: Amber Anning (Lower Five) is a talented sprinter, and Amelie Hurley (Upper Three) is a Street Dance champion. Here is a little more about the girls and their successes: Amber is 15 and has had an exceptional year in Athletics, ending it as the European and British record holder. She has been a member of Brighton & Hove Athletics Club since she was 9, and her dedication to the sport since has produced some wonderful results. Last summer, representing Sussex, Amber won the English Schools’ Junior Girls 200m final and also, competing up an age group, became the National Under 17 Champion over 300m. This win was particularly special, because she broke the record of Dina Asher-Smith, who competed in the Olympics in Rio this year. Amber ran 38.73 seconds, and, in so doing, became the first British Under 15 girl ever to run three successive 100 metres inside 13 seconds. Having moved up an age-group, in January, Amber won the Southern Indoor Athletics Under 17 200m title, and she was silver medallist in the Triple Jump. The following month, she won the Under 17 300m 14
title at the indoor National Championships in Sheffield and was again silver medallist in the Triple Jump. Amber has been competing in Sportshall since she was 9 years old and has always loved it. She ended her county career in 2016 with an unprecedented ten age-group records out of a possible eighteen. At the final league match of the season, she spoke to the county’s youngest club athletes and urged them to ‘continue doing Sportshall until you are as old as me, because it is fun, develops your skills, it’s great winter competition, and some of the best athletes in the UK started out in Sportshall.’ In March, Amber won the South East Regional Sportshall All-Rounder title and travelled up to Manchester in April, where she was delighted to be crowned the UK All-Rounder Champion. She has subsequently become one of Sportshall’s two ambassadors for 2016-17. In July this year, Amber won the English Schools’ Intermediate Girls’ 300m title and achieved her first international selection as a result. She was very proud to represent England, winning the Home Countries’ Schools’ International 300m race, and she won a second Gold Medal, anchoring the 4x300m relay team to victory. She rounded off the season with another Gold medal representing the South West of England in the Schools’ Games, beating athletes from Scotland, Ireland, and other regions of England, meaning that she has been unbeaten for two years at the 300m distance. Along with preparing for her GCSEs this year, Amber’s goals for 2017 are to be selected for the GB Commonwealth and World Youth athletics teams – we wish her well for these lofty ambitions. Amelie has had a wonderfully successful year in Street Dance, and managed to combine it with
settling in to a new school. She started the year by becoming the runner-up in the Advanced Under 14 crew section in the UDO World Street Dance Championships with her crew Stereoshok. She also came in the top five, out of 130, in the Under 14 Quads category and Duos, with routines she helped to choreograph. This success was followed quickly by Amelie winning her first Under 14 regional solo title at the Yorkshire UDO Street Dance Championships, and this meant that she qualified to represent England in both the 2016 European Championships and 2016 World Championships as a solo dancer, which must have been such an honour. In November, at the UK Street Dance Championships, she won the Under 13 Duo category, with a routine she choreographed, and she won the Silver Medal in the open age dance battle competition at the UK Hip Hop Internationals in February of this year. The following month, she won her second regional solo Under 14 title, and became the UDO European Under 14 Street Dance Champion in May – over three days of competition, she was 1st with her crew Stereoshok, 1st in the Solo category, and 2nd in her Duo. These successes are the result of a huge amount of hard work, and Amelie should be very proud of what she has achieved. She also dances as much as possible at school, and she choreographed the Upper Three year-group routine, under the guidance of Miss
Stidston, for the annual Dance Showcase. She also received the Upper Three prize for Dance and Key Stage 3 half colours for Dance and Drama. In August this year, Amelie represented England at the UDO World Street Dance Championships in Glasgow, which lasted three days was the biggest to date with 330 Teams and over 3000 Dancers from 30 countries. She came third in Advanced Under 14 crew and duo, and 4th in the solos. She deserves particular congratulations, because every dancer had placed in the top 3 in the regional or national championships to qualify to take part, so competition was stiff. Her dance success has attracted the attention of the media, and you may well have seen her in some television adverts over the year: she featured in the Christmas Iceland advert for 2015, and in the Robinson’s Fruit Shoot advert for 2016, and she is the main representative in the current WWF Wear it Wild advertising campaign. Over the summer, Amelie also filmed an advert in Portugal for JC Penney, and this is now airing on American television. We hope that Amber and Amelie’s achievements will inspire even more girls at Roedean to strive to realise their full potential in sport, and the school does everything possible to support these magnificent endeavours. 15
Roedean visits NASA Written by Dom Orys
For fifteen girls and staff, the summer holidays started off with a bang with a trip to Florida to visit the Kennedy Space Center. The first three days were spent completing a project on robotics, which involved the girls building their own Mars lander robots. They had to learn how to programme the movements, including using a variety of different sensors and automated routines, and this culminated in a challenge to control the robots without seeing them directly, only using front mounted cameras, on a section of mock Mars surface material. The girls loved the experience, despite the difficulties they encountered. There were many highlights of the trip, but going on a space shuttle simulator and seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis, as well as meeting an astronaut, Mike Mullane, were certainly at the top of the list. The group also went on a tour of the whole Space Center facility, seeing the launch pads, the vehicle assembly building, flight control, and also the room and consoles used for the Apollo missions. Helping them to understand the scale of the space craft, they visited the ‘rocket garden’, with actual-size models
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of the various different rockets that have been used, including the enormous Saturn 5 rockets. The girls also had some time to enjoy the ‘Islands of Adventure’ theme park, which includes incredible rides themed around Harry Potter, King Kong, Jurassic Park, and Spiderman, and they experienced skydiving in a vertical wind tunnel too. In addition, the group went on an airboat safari, seeing alligators, birds, and a variety of other animals indigenous to the area, and they had a talk from a native American Indian on his clan, way of life, and the history of the region. There was a little shopping done in the vast American malls, and they had a memorable meal in a Greek restaurant which culminated in the girls dancing around the room with a professional dancer and the waitresses, and even had many of them dancing on the tables! Overall, the trip was a huge success – the girls learnt a great deal about space exploration and put their mathematical and scientific skills to the test, as well as taking advantage of the wide variety of opportunities available to them in Florida.
52 Marathons in 52 weeks! Written by Ross Barrand
We are both delighted and amazed by the fact that our Finance Bursar, Mr David Brett, has this year completed 52 Marathons in 52 weeks, from 6th June 2015 to 5th June 2016. As a result, he has reached a total in excess of 100 Marathons and been welcomed into the ‘100 Marathon Club’, which currently has about 550 members. It provides a focal point for runners in the UK who have completed over 100 races of Marathon distance or longer. I asked Mr Brett what would make you think up a plan of running a Marathon every week for a year, and his reply was “On June 6th last year, I won the Marathon I ran again last Sunday. That was the start of it. Because I had to reach the total of 52 and I had had to take some time off earlier in the year, Sunday was the last of 4 Marathons in one week, and I came last! I think I need to rest for a bit now!” What is even more amazing is that Mr Brett didn’t just run 52 Marathons in the last year… he has done all of this too: four Half Marathons, three 10-mile races, one over a distance of 15K, one 7-mile race, nine 10K races, 1 over 5K, and a staggering 1020 miles of training! The races included local events in Brighton, such as the Roedean Race for Life 5K, to an international marathon in Marrakech. The longest event was a 50-Mile Ultra-Marathon in Kent. His best result was a win at the Viking Coastal Marathon, and his worst was last place at the Reculver Marathon. The future might include moving up to a 100-Mile Ultra-Ultrathon but, in the interim, he is trying to take it easy so that he can recover! Congratulations from the entire Roedean community!
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Roedean Musicians lift the roof off the Chapel Written by Sue Stanway
Roedean girls ‘have outstanding creativity’ (ISI Inspection 2016) – the Brighton Festival Fringe Concert in May could not have been a better illustration of this quotation from our Inspection report. Our girls performed excellently, whether playing in the orchestra, singing in the choir, or doing both, demonstrating outstanding talent and skill. In the Chapel, excitement built, performers started to feel ‘butterflies’, and proud parents were almost as nervous. The harpist, tuning her instrument, lent a real texture to the sounds of brass and percussion finding their note. ‘I can’t bear the tension,’ said another lady, ‘I wish it would start.’
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Six soloists had the honour of playing a concerto movement with the full orchestra, a wonderful experience for those so young. The first was Ada, composed and serious, as she waited for her orchestral introduction with Mozart’s familiar waves. When she came in with a melody of ice-crystal sounds, the tumbling notes of his Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor evidenced her virtuosity and immediately transported us to the eighteenth century. Sitting watching the string performers, I could see why so many major painters have been inspired by that very subject, the still profiles, the fixed concentration, and the dextrous fingers are ever-fascinating.
The exquisite ‘Laudate Dominum’ came next, gentle but insistent, and, accompanying the choir, the most elegant strings. We were all earnestly anticipating the next solo and is it not a real challenge to present a piece so very familiar to thousands? Our chapel rang then with Tillie’s exceptional rendition of Mozart’s ‘Queen of the Night’ from The Magic Flute. The audience was transfixed by her mastery of the incredibly difficult notes, including top Fs beyond the range of all but the most accomplished; her applause was rightly long and deafening.
homeland with Jane Lister’s exquisite harp cadences introducing an entirely different section of concentrated strings. Katherine’s emphatic mastery of Sibelius’ piano ‘Romance’ was wonderful – she lingered over the very last notes with real longing and the piece gained her two bouquets. Kelly HT’s Ravel was carefully built and the lovely two-melody movement from his Piano Concerto in G was carried by her beautiful ice-shard notes. Her mastery was superb, with real beauty, and Miss Fewkes’ hug confirmed her triumph.
Dora’s cello was rich and lustrous in Bruch’s ‘Kol Nidrei’, and her first notes evoked the Jewish
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Obituary
Obituary
Carol Gao
Alan Smith
The school returned from the summer holidays to begin the academic year 2015-2016 to discover the tragic news that a member of the student body had tragically died during the holiday. The school felt the death of Carol (Yi Yang) Gao keenly and it is always tragic for someone so young to pass away. The Service of Remembrance which was held in the Chapel was an occasion when we recalled all the wonderful memories we had of Carol during her time at Roedean, and Mrs Lin Wu presented a poignant and moving meditation in Chinese:
高一扬，安息吧！ 我们深情地怀念在2014年九月到2015 年六月与我们一起学习的你。你既美 丽又聪慧，既文雅又友善。我们特别 怀念你轻快指间弹奏出的钢琴曲。你 往日的音容笑貌与英国罗婷女子中学 同在。你永远活在我们的心中，伴随 我们进步和成长。 高一扬同学永垂不朽。 (We all vividly remember Miss Yiyang Carol Gao as a beautiful, clever, gentle and friendly Chinese girl during her time at Roedean from September 2014 – June 2015. She was especially talented at playing the piano. Her lovely face and happy voice are still at the forefront of our memories. She will always live in our hearts and accompany us as we progress through life. Yiyang Carol Gao, We pray for you now, rest in peace.)
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Mr Alan Smith was only at Roedean for a comparatively short time, but he was extremely fond of the school and his teaching made a huge impact on his students. Three girls from Upper Five shared their memories of him: Esmee Ellis – On behalf of our Maths class, we loved our lessons with Mr Smith, and as girls who struggle with Maths, he broke complicated things down in a way we could understand and enjoy. In between algebraic equations, Mr Smith would tell us all about his wife Rosemary and his daughter who runs a cupcake business, and if we were really lucky he would bring us in some treats to enjoy. Georgie Tomlinson – Mr Smith was a fantastic, energetic and bubbly man, who never failed to amuse us and made us laugh permanently. He was an incredible teacher to us, a friend to his colleagues, and an amazing man to his wife and family. I truly believe I would not have enjoyed Maths last year and got an A without his help and encouragement. He will be truly missed and will always be in our hearts. Maggie El-Beleidi – Mr Smith was inspiring; always kind and understanding. His passion for Maths will never be forgotten, nor will his classical guitar playing. He will be hugely missed by all, but memories of his teaching will live on in his students forever. We love you, sir.
After his funeral, a Memorial Service was held in Chapel for the school to mark Alan’s passing, and Mr Dom Orys, Head of Maths, presented a beautiful eulogy: ‘Throughout life, people come in and go out of your life. Some people you know for many years, and for others it is much shorter. Alan Smith was only teaching here at Roedean for one year, but in that time he made a profound impact on the lives of those he met. He was an impressively kind and considerate man, who always made time for anyone who needed help and at the end of any of the frequently lengthy conversations, you always came away with not only the answer to your question, but also the reasons behind the answer and often some additional information just for good measure. I remember one occasion when I was looking at a difficult Maths question and couldn’t see a way into it. Mr Smith was in the office at the time, and he spotted my confused look and came over to look. For a moment it felt as if I was sitting down with my own patient Maths teacher and he helped me see a different way of looking at the problem. In many ways he was the teacher that we should all aspire to be. Of course, in his fashion, he then proceeded to explain a variety of other mathematical ideas to me, and then said to me “Well this Maths is good fun, but I have a problem for you”. I wondered what he was going to ask me. Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he said, “I’ve been stuck on this level of Candy Crush for a week and I can’t see how to do it.” He may well have helped me with the Maths that day, but the childish glee on his face when we beat the level together is a more treasured memory for me.
the childhood sense of wonder. He was genuinely interested in everything and always had something fascinating to share. He leaves behind a wife, three daughters and three grandchildren. Hearing their beautiful words at his funeral, I know how much he meant to them and also to everyone he met. Whilst I only knew him for one year, I am proud to have called him my colleague, and more importantly, my friend.’
In Memoriam In memory of Carol Gao and Mr Alan Smith, Roedean has created a memorial garden between the Science and Music blocks. There was a short service and two cherry trees in full bloom were planted as a memorial to them, and there is a bench with a memorial plaque, so that it may be a place of quiet reflection in the future. It was a touching occasion, and the trees will serve as a beautiful reminder of both Carol and Alan for the school.
During his long and illustrious career as a Maths teacher, and Head of Department, he wrote many textbooks, including the one that we currently use for IGCSE Maths. He was also completely fascinated by astronomy. I am sure that many of you will remember the incredible photos that he showed us in an assembly last year, that he had taken through some of the many telescopes he collected over the years. He also inspired this love of astronomy in several of the students he taught, and helped me rekindle my own interest, resulting in me buying the telescope he recommended to me. His love of folk music was also a great passion for him, and formed a large part of his life. He regularly played with different friends and bands, on his guitar or mandolin, with great skill and care. Alan retained 21
OR News
Roedean Rocks! Written by Caroline Donald
This year saw a resurgence of enthusiasm and engagement from our alumnae, with record numbers of speakers giving talks and visits back to the alma mater, and generous offers of help and support. When students leave Roedean, they don’t really leave. Roedean will have become part of the girls’ DNA – with lifelong experiences and memories forever. To make sure girls keep in contact once they embark on their careers, and to harness everyone’s energy to help people in their careers, two new initiatives began this year: Roedean Rocks and the Roedean Community Network. Roedean Rocks is a Facebook group for alumnae. Launched on 2 February 2016, its popularity soared with 1,000 members joining within the first two weeks of its existence. At the last count, Roedean Rocks had 1,361 members and 176 OR articles on the social networking site. As well as this, Roedean Rocks has enabled Roedeanians to share 97 business opportunities and job adverts, as well as helping to fundraise for 14 different charities, showing how strongly Roedeanians stick together well after their time in East Sussex.
The network is having a broader reach than the virtual world. Through the group, a dozen members of Roedean Rocks have given inspiring talks to 200 of our current students, covering topics such as Basking Sharks, and Girls’ Rights on International Women’s Day, as well as Stem Cell research, and nutrition. This grassroots alumnae support and engagement is vital to the life-blood of the school, and it creates invaluable opportunities for our girls. Seeing Roedean Rocks’ success, the final tests are being carried out to launch the Roedean Community Network. It is an online network to enable alumnae to connect, network, mentor, and keep up to date with news from school. Former student Sheena Kandhari said: ‘Attending Roedean gave me the best foundation for independent living. Through boarding, I established lifelong friendships. I am very grateful to my parents for having sent me there. With the newly found Roedean Community Network, I am fortunate enough to continue to form new friendships with those who have Roedean rooted in their souls.’
Find the group by searching ‘Roedean Rocks’ on Facebook, or by visiting this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RoedeanRocks Alumnae can join the Roedean Community Network here: https://community.roedean.co.uk
Roedean Rocks! 22
OR Eugenia Cheng makes Maths more palatable Written by Caroline Donald
America and has been translated into six languages, a surprising hit for a text visibly, if judiciously, seasoned with numbers, graphs and equations. Eugenia is so committed to mass Maths demystification that she recently left a tenured professorship at the University of Sheffield to take a position at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she teaches Maths to Arts students, lectures widely, and continues her research in category theory on the side. Eugenia adopts a literal approach to making Maths more appetising. ‘Maths is about taking ingredients, putting them together, seeing what you can make out of them, and then deciding whether it’s tasty or not,’ she said. Every chapter in How to Bake π offers recipes for desserts and other dishes that encapsulate mathematical themes. To demonstrate how Maths seeks to identify underlying similarities across a broad set of problems, for example, Eugenia starts with a recipe that can be readily tweaked to make mayonnaise instead of hollandaise sauce. Maths lessons at the School of Art Institute of Chicago might not be what you expect. That’s thanks to Old Roedeanian Dr Eugenia Cheng (19871994, No. 4). As the school’s scientist-in-residence, Eugenia aims to get students thinking creatively about what, for many, is an intimidating subject. Eugenia is winning fame as a Maths populariser, convinced that the pleasures of Maths can be conveyed to the legions of numbers-averse humanities students still recovering from algebra and trigonometry at school. She has been featured on shows like “Late Night with Stephen Colbert”, and her online Maths tutorials have been viewed more than a million times. The hardcover edition of her first book, How to Bake π: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics, has sold about 25,000 copies in
Eugenia has also recently returned to Roedean to give a lecture to current pupils of the school, the Theatre was packed out with the girls eager to hear what she had to teach them, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. During her time at Cambridge University and three postdoctoral fellowships in Europe and the United States, Dr Cheng would often find herself in a tiny minority. ‘I’ve been to conferences where there were more cubicles in the women’s bathroom than there were women to use them,’ she said. Today, in the United States, less than 30 percent of graduate students and about 12 percent of tenured faculty members in Maths are women. Dr Cheng is striving to change attitudes across the board: ‘I want to be a role model for men as well as women,’ she said.
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Circumnavigating the world – OR travels 45,000 miles Written by Caroline Donald
If you think you have clocked up some mileage, it is probably nothing on Caroline Bowen (1991-1998, No. 1), who has just completed racing almost 45,000 nautical miles around the world on Qingdao, a 70ft yacht, as part of The Clipper Race to raise money for the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer [EORTC]. Throughout the race, Qingdao and her crew have been battered by storms and snow flurries, as well as greeting pods of whales and bird migrations. They have spent the year living on a stripped-down yacht, relentlessly crashing through the waves and existing on no more than 4 hours’ straight sleep in a 24 hour period.
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It must be a family thing. For the first half of the race, her sister Leo Bowen (1994-2001, No. 4) has also been in the race, in competition on another boat, Garmin. She raced 19,000 nautical miles, raising money for Cancer Research UK. Caroline raced the full clipper race to its finish back in London, whereas Leo returned to England after the sixth race from Hobart to Airlie Beach in Queensland due to her work commitments as a doctor. The Bowen family has certainly embraced their rivalry that began when the 12-strong clipper race fleet left London on 31 August 2015 for the first leg to Rio de Janeiro.
‘Our cousin has a wager on us,’ Caroline said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in December 2015, adding when asked what is to be gained or lost, ’a life-time of humiliation’, no doubt for whomever is beaten by the other. Asked about their sibling competitiveness, the two regular sailors don’t shroud it in denial. ‘I think we both have competitive natures,’ but ‘this is a bit of an unusual situation where it has literally been boat on boat.’ The clipper race is the brainchild of British oceanracing great, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, and the 40,082-nautical-mile journey is also the only global race open to amateur sailors who are assigned to boats skippered by professional sailors. The Bowen sisters are nonetheless seasoned sailors, having raced in Chichester Harbour and the Solent their whole lives, and even entered Roedean team yacht into the Arrow Trophy in 2014, with plans to do so again this year. Caroline had also completed the prestigious Rolex Fastnet Race just prior to leaving on the Clipper Race. Talking about her decision to sign up for the race, Caroline said, ‘I was just sailing back [at Cowes one] afternoon and thought, “Maybe it is the right time…” It was quite short notice and I thought, “I’ve got no reason not to do this.” That evening I said to Leo, “C’mon… this is the right time to do it.” And it was. We were both able to take time out of our careers just then.
‘So it is fantastic to share this with her because, as Leo said, we have always sailed in different fleets and very rarely have sailed against each other. We are not the sort of siblings that have done these things together, so it’s amazing.’ We look forward to catching up with Caroline and Leo when they are both back on solid ground. The final results put Garmin in fourth, just two points behind the third placed team Great Britain, and Qingdao came in fifth, a fact their cousin will be certain never to let rest!
For more information on the race, and to see the final points, follow this link: https://clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings You can donate to Caroline’s justgiving page here by following this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Caroline8Postcards And here is Leo’s: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/LeonoraBowen
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OR News
Royal honours for OR Benita Written by Caroline Donald
We are delighted to hear that the President and Trustee of the charity ‘Place2Be’, Benita Refson (Ronson, 1960-1964, No. 2) has been appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s Birthday 2016 Honours’ List in recognition of services to education.
sooner…, if only their parents had been supported and understood themselves… So all this led to the establishment of Place2Be.’
Benita has played a pivotal role in supporting children’s mental and emotional wellbeing. Under her leadership, Place2Be has expanded to support a school population of 116,000 children in 280 schools UK-wide, as well as supporting families and teachers, and training over 3,500 professionals annually working with children.
‘I have never sought personal recognition, so I saw becoming a Dame as an honour for the whole organisation. But I admit to bursting into tears in the car park when I heard! We must never rest on our laurels. Having stepped down from being Chief Executive in 2014, I am now President of the organisation and am delighted to remain actively involved. Place2Be is an organisation that is so close to my heart, and I still have the same level of enthusiasm and commitment as I did on day one.’
‘My experience as a counsellor working with teenagers gave me the inspiration and passion to set up Place2Be as a separate charity in 1994. I trained and worked with students at a Youth Agency with young, angry adults who were already offending – many were victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse in childhood. I also worked as a student counsellor at London University with bright academic students who brought a range of issues, such as suicidal tendencies, eating disorders and addiction, and unhealthy ways of managing their emotions, which were affecting their sense of wellbeing, belonging, and long-term vision of their lives ahead. It became increasingly obvious to me that many of their responses to the world they lived in had something to do with their childhood, so, for me, there was the inevitable thought, ‘if only’. If only they had been able to talk about their fears
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Benita is keen to stress that the honour is to be shared and celebrated by everyone at Place2Be:
Benita is continuing to work with Place2Be, and other charities and schools, to help prevent children and families from struggling with mental health ussies. ‘We all need to be honest and start talking about the many times we feel vulnerable, the times we need support, and, in my case, talking about the benefits of counselling. It’s good to talk!’ She went on to say, ‘I would love to see the day where every school has a school-based counsellor, and when every school sees emotional achievement on a par with academic attainment. We need more professionally trained child counsellors to deliver this, so I hope that more people will be drawn to the profession and be able to share their expertise to make the world a much better place.’
OR News
Caitlin Boyland Written by Caroline Donald This summer, Caitlin Boyland (2006-2011, No. 1), joined a British delegation of rowers from 15 Universities to compete at the European Universities Games in Zagreb, Croatia. She achieved 5th place overall with a time of 8:44.87. Caitlin was spotted on a talent identification programme at Loughborough University. Currently training at a High Performance Centre in Nottingham, Caitlin has high hopes of reaching the Olympics in Tokyo 2020. ‘Roedean offered me the best sporting/life balance I am delighted to have broken into the GB Rowing Squad.’
OR Obituary
Penelope Houston Written by Caroline Donald Roedean is sad to hear of the death of Penelope Houston (1941-1945, No. 4). Born in Kensington, London, she was the daughter of Duncan McNeill Houston and his wife Eilean. Her father was a rubber broker, while her maternal grandfather was Thomas Marlowe, an early editor of the Daily Mail. She attended Wimbledon High School, before winning a scholarship to Roedean School in 1941, whilst the school was evacuated to Cumbria. In 1950, she joined Sight & Sound, the journal of the British Film Institute. During this early period, she was involved with initiating the feature for which the magazine remains best known, ‘the critics’ decade poll for the 10 best films ever made’. Houston did not create the feature, which she described in September 1962 as an ‘impossible but intriguing game’, but she was responsible for its high profile. Then a quarterly journal, Houston became the editor of Sight & Sound in 1956, where she remained until 1990. During this period she was a regular contributor to the Monthly Film Bulletin. She also had a period as a film critic for The Spectator, deputised for The Times critic, and for The Observer as CA Lejeune’s deputy in 1957. She also wrote for The Observer and, occasionally, for The Guardian. As well as being a film critic, Penelope was also a keen author. Her book Keepers of the Frame: The Film Archives can be found in our OR Authors’ collection on the Community Network. 27
Valete Alison Fraser Written by Andrew England
Miss Alison Fraser joined Roedean in September 1983 and worked in House 2 as well as teaching Biology. She gradually took on greater responsibility in Biology, becoming Head of Department. She was a Master Teacher, a Health and Safety guru, and sat on the Common Entrance committee. She was unstinting in the hours of help that she has given her students, both in Biology and in her careers advice; the Biology results at A Level and GCSE this year, as well as the fact that all four Six Two applicants for Medicine courses at university achieved the grades to take up their places, including one at Cambridge, is testament to her dedication. During the 33 years that she has been here, Miss Fraser has had a number of roles: she organised the Medical Society, the many Murder Mystery Days, and Rockpools Days, including events that started on a small scale but, Rockpools Day being a good example, is now a full-scale military operation. She has run the Wildlife Club, involving Badger Watch, and started the very popular owl experience. Working right to the end, over her last six months at Roedean, Miss Fraser carried out an archaeological dig in Biology 1 and discovered many biological artefacts from a bygone age! She is highly respected by her students and, I am told, the only Roedean teacher to have an Appreciation Society on Facebook. She was a stalwart of the Science department, who could always be relied upon to get things done. She will be missed, and the entire school community wishes her well for her retirement.
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What is your funniest classroom memory? This is actually a very difficult question to answer because almost on a daily basis something has happened with at least one class to make the whole group (including myself) laugh with each other. One of the funniest was spotting one student’s pet rat that she had tried to sneak into the lesson. The unusual rippling movement down her blazer arm and the ‘whiskery face’ sticking out at the cuff rather gave the game away. On a personal level, having visitors being brought into the laboratory just as I was demonstrating the difference between how gorillas walk compared to humans was another. What has been the biggest single change you have noticed? The changes to the school uniform over the years. How do you plan to spend your retirement? Where to start? Apart from spending more time in Scotland with my parents, I hope to continue to travel. Having spent part of my childhood living abroad, I have always taken the opportunity to learn about other cultures and to travel as often as I can. The wish list includes travelling to South America and as a biologist this will hopefully include a trip to the Galápagos Islands. I would also like to return to Hong Kong in the cooler part of the year in order to tackle some of the hiking trails. In between planning such trips, I have some major gardening projects to get to grips with and lots of local Sussex walks to explore.
Have numbers doing Sciences increased over the years? No, although the numbers of students can vary slightly from year to year, studying Sciences at A Level has always been a popular choice. What will you miss most about Roedean? A large number of things that include the following: the mutually supportive relationship that exists between all sectors of the staff and the students, which is what makes Roedean such a special community; the friendship and support of my colleagues; the laughter associated with being in the classroom; the sea views; the noise level associated with the adjudication of the House Plays; the wonderful school concerts, plays and art exhibitions. What has been the highlight of your career I really cannot answer this question because it is too difficult to pick out and quantify any one specific highlight. If you had £1million to donate to the school, how would you want it to be spent? Firstly, adding a student study area and science library to the Science Wing and secondly adding a much grander entrance to the Theatre – this entrance would include specific gallery space for exhibiting the stunning art work produced by our girls.
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Valete Sue Stanway Written by Sarah Ellis
the Theatre here in 1994. Mrs Stanway has taught many notable girls in her time and will happily tell Art studio stories of Rebecca Hall (actually an Art Scholar), Camilla Al Fayed (and her bodyguard), the actresses Honeysuckle and Perdita Weeks, and various daughters of the nobility and so on… While we are on famous names, Mrs Stanway was taught by none other than the likes of Patrick Caulfield and Howard Hodgkin at Art School. Pop Art is her first love when it comes to her Art, and, if she has created a house style, it is one which invariably involves food, cakes, sweets, and attempts at photo-realism.
Picture the scene – it is a misty morning in the summer of 1970. A young, newly qualified Art teacher, Miss Susan Davenport, makes the journey from Penge station to Roedean for the first time. She is small, has very long dark brown hair, and is wearing her favourite Biba outfit and a pair of very fashionable and slightly risqué boots. She was successful in her application for the role of Teacher of Art, and I am sure she had no idea at the time that a 46 year career lay ahead of her. During her time at Roedean, she has also been Head of Lower Four, and, of course, latterly a very successful Head of Art. Mrs Stanway has many Roedean stories, which she is only too happy to share, and they are always told with such humour and attention to detail. A lover of the Royals, one highlight of her career at Roedean was when she met Prince Charles at the opening of
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Few, if any, can claim to have been more devoted to the Roedean cause and many, many girls have studied under Mrs Stanway, experienced her unique approach, and gone on to achieve great success in the creative industries. She keeps touch with so many of her pupils and is often invited to be guest of honour at events and exhibitions, not to mention the weddings of her former pupils. The girls love her – well-known textile designer and OR, Clarissa Hulse, explained that the Art studio was always a haven for young boarders who were homesick and that Mrs Stanway always had time for them – nothing has changed. They do say ‘no-one is indispensable’, but Mrs Stanway may well be the exception to this rule. She will be greatly missed by everyone at Roedean, and will always be welcome. On Sunday 4th September, a 30 strong group of alumnae, Council members, former staff and current staff covering 5 decades reunited for dinner to celebrate Mrs Stanway’s retirement. Anabela Chan created an incredible evening for Sue who was bowled over with gratitude for all the gifts and kind words everyone had to say. The same could be said for ORs who wanted to show their immense gratitude to Madam Stanway, her patience, kindness and incredible commitment to them as their teacher.
How many Headmasters and Headmistresses have you seen? I saw Mrs Fort for one term when I first came in 1970. Mr Hunt arrived in the Lent term of that school year. Mrs Longley followed, then Mrs Metham. After her came Mrs Shaw, Mrs King and now Mr Blond. That makes seven! What has been the biggest single change you have noticed? There have been so many changes that it is impossible to focus on just one – but many changes are just tiny shifts that eventually lead to bigger ones. The lovely part is that the girls are still so enthusiastic and, of course, what never changes is the fact they are always the same age as all their predecessors while being taught! That is what makes teachers very nervous! The school photos, apart from changes in school uniform, have the pupils looking exactly the same. It is the staff who age! Who is the most famous person you once taught? There are many ‘up and coming’ ex-pupils, but I suppose, on a grand scale – Rebecca Hall, Honeysuckle and Perdita Weeks – all well-known actresses. I still see them often, in films and on the television, but I used to know them all very well in person, as they all took Art. Rebecca took GCSE Art, then applied for and achieved a Sixth Form Art Scholarship. After a few weeks, she decided that Drama was more her future, and so left Art. I was sad, as she was very talented, but she has endured in drama! Honeysuckle and Perdita were also really excellent artists both at GCSE level. I still remember Honey doing costume illustrations for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Perdita’s lovely bird and parrot illustrations! Unfortunately for me, neither went on to take A level – they would have been great! How big was the school when you first started reaching here? The school was roughly what it is right now. We had only boarders at the time and there were a lot of international students then. Greek Shipping heiresses, and others with international royal connections. Lots of children of the military and the occasional English Duke’s daughter. There were also many children of famous ‘Brand Pioneers,’ such as Kate Black of Black and Decker, Vanessa Needler of Needler’s Chocolates, Erica Fox of Fox’s Glacier Mints (they were friends, no rivalry!), Joanna Moss of Moss
Bros, and Nicola and Dinah Dyas of Robert Dyas. I was always amused because Sharon Jacque and her cousin Coral Grossman lived in the house right next to the school gates and yet were still full boarders! If you had £1million to donate to the school, how would you want it to be spent? I have often thought of what I would want to spend money on in the school, but a million pounds would not buy much these days. If I had fifteen to twenty million (and we are still searching the attics for the odd Leonardo) I would build, of course, a brand new Art block, but also incorporate that into the current Music Wing and Theatre area. In what is now the ‘Tranquillity Garden’ next to the Chapel cloister, there is lots of space for a multi-storey art facility with exhibition space that could be joined on to the Music Wing. It would make a great ‘Entertainments Area.’ I would then give money for an Archive Room to be set up in the current Main Art Studio. I can dream!! However, we have so many architects who were taught at Roedean, we may be able to give them some commissions! What has been your proudest moment at Roedean? I have had many proud moments at Roedean, not just one. My pupils make me proud, every time they have ‘success’ and that is not just at the end of an examination, but in a piece of work at which they have persevered and feel pleased with. Sometimes I watch that ‘secret’ smile of satisfaction on a pupil’s face when she finishes a piece and then skips off, knowing it will be there the next day, nice and finished. However, I do feel an amazing pride when I sit at supper with my former pupils who are now parents of pupils I am currently teaching, as happened when the latest cohort of Six One’s joined the school last September – there is a great sense of continuity there, and of course, I can make sure they both behave!! How many mother and daughters do you think you have taught? I cannot possibly calculate the number of mothers and daughters I have taught – I am terrible at Maths, anyway! All I know is that just before writing this article, a parent, who was my ex-pupil, emailed me from the other side of the world to say how thrilled she was with her daughter’s new AS Art grade! That says it all, really.
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Last words from the Head Girl Saoirse McGilligan Interview with Ross Barrand
Saoirse, the Head Girl for the last academic year, threw herself into the role, as well as contributing to a wide range of activities at school, including key roles in House Drama and captaining the inaugural Roedean football team. She achieved three A grades at A Level, in Latin, French, and Biology, and she is now reading Classics at University College London.
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What is your first memory of Roedean? On my first day, I remember being given a tour of House 4, along with other new girls. Red seemed to cover every wall, decorated with posters of house activities, from house netball to the acclaimed house plays that we had all heard so much about. It was quite nerve wracking for all of us as we looked round at the people who we would be spending most of the year with, but within five minutes of us talking, that anxiety had disappeared, as we played cards, and I had already learnt a Hong Kong version of “Snap”. My first day could really epitomise my time at Roedean – that it could be nervous or challenging, but there was always the constant support to allow you to succeed. What is your best memory in the classroom? One of the many Chemistry demonstrations, probably the one where bubbles of methane were set on fire in our own hands. Each time it felt like the fire would reach you but it never did. What have you learnt from Roedean? Going to Roedean, I didn’t know that ‘girl’ subjects existed. But what I did learn is that by pursuing your interests, you can aim high and expect to achieve success, so that now I don’t have to be afraid of taking any opportunity. When did your eureka moment about Classics happen? Halfway through my first year of Sixth Form, we were studying the story of the King Pentheus and God Bacchus, and after reading it a few times through, I understood that the purpose of this story wasn’t just to catch out A level students 2000 years later, but was entertainment carrying its own message for Romans at the time, and that made the society much more tangible and alive.
What are the highlights of your time here? In academia, I enjoyed the opportunity to discover more about the Classical world with trips to productions of plays in London, such as Medea and Antigone, and a tour of the most impressive sites in Greece, from Athens to Delphi to Olympia. The Classics reading competitions allowed me to try another aspect of Classics, in which I won Highly Commended in Ancient Greek and Latin. I enjoyed the opportunity to play different sports, and was encouraged to try other sports; I was able to play football for the girls South East Team. Before joining Roedean, I had never really had a particular interest in Drama, but through participating in House plays in Six One I was able to write and co-direct the winning House Play, an experience I never thought that I would encounter. As Head Girl I was fortunate enough to have many unique experiences, one of my favourites being able to speak at the Mayor’s office. What’s special about this school? It stays with you for the rest of your life, all across the world. If you had £1million, what would you change? I think a slide would be appreciated from the Humanities floor to the Main School Corridor – the stairs are never-ending. I know there’s a lot of people still holding out for an all-weather pitch too... Which three words would you choose to sum up your time at Roedean? Challenging, engaging and exciting. Give one piece of advice to your successor as Head Girl. There’s so many opportunities to enjoy, so have fun, but also learn as much from the more challenging times as from the fun times.
roedean.co.uk Roedean School, Roedean Way, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 5RQ Tel: +44(0)1273 667500 Registered Charity 307063