Activities & achievements 2014-15

Brighton & Hove High School GDST

Activities and Achievements 2014 -15

Montpelier Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 3AT 01273 280280|enquiries@bhhs.gdst.net|www.bhhs.gdst.net

BRIGHTON & HOVE HIGH SCHOOL GDST Activities and Achievements 2014-2015 ART

It has been another busy year in the Art department, which has seen GCSE & A level students visiting Tate Modern and Goodwood Sculpture Park. This has in turn inspired really exciting work both in Art & Photography.

Master classes and taster sessions in both areas have continued to be hugely popular for Years 5 & 6. At the other end of the school, four out of five A2 students are now planning to study Art either on Foundation or on a Degree course. All exam candidates, GCSE & A level, have just celebrated the end of their courses with two evening private views, showcasing their outstanding achievements. Once again two students, Ellie Chalk and Ella Murray, have been awarded Art scholarships in recognition of their amazing creativity to go into our Sixth Form next year.

BIOLOGY

Earlier in the year many Year 9 and 10 girls took part in the Biology Challenge Online Competition. Questions were set on the topics covered in most general Biology courses for pupils of this age but the Biology Challenge also rewards those students whose knowledge of the subject has been increased by reading books and magazines, watching natural history programmes and taking notice of the news media for items of biological interest.

We received more certificates than last year for the Biology Challenge with twenty three girls being awarded Bronze certificates, twelve Silver awards and two Gold certificates being awarded to Eve Hull and Nafisa Miah, who received the highest mark in the school. A further twenty three girls received a Highly Commended certificate and seventeen a Commended certificate.

BLOBS (Best Listeners of Brighton Schools)

The peer support system continues to thrive. 36 Year 10 students have worked with the Year 7 girls. They have helped them to settle in and they have assisted at the anti-bullying workshop. They have made themselves available to lower school girls and they have shown themselves to be active and willing listeners. The next group of Year 9s are already in training for next year. BHHS is a Stonewall Champion school for the second year running. We pride ourselves on being an open and inclusive school and the B.L.O.B.S will be on the lookout for any signs of bullying, including racial and homophobic bullying.

CLASSICS

The Classics Department had a very busy year. Miss Gandy joined the department in September and has been sharing her enthusiasm for everything Classical with her classes In October, all Year 9 Latin students went on a very successful day trip to Fishbourne Roman Palace. The girls researched how the interior and exterior of the palace would have looked in Roman times and all the girls were involved in a workshop where they were handling and trying to identify Roman artefacts. This was concluded by some willing volunteers dressing up in Roman costume and working in a Roman kitchen. The girls produced some outstanding projects in lessons afterwards.

During the Spring Term all year 9, 10 and 12 girls studying Classical Civilisation went to London to see a performance of Euripides’ Bachhae performed by students of UCL which proved really useful in furthering their understanding of Greek tragedy.

The Sixth form Classics students benefitted from visiting the ‘Defining Beauty: the body in Greek Art’ exhibition at the British Museum. This was an excellent opportunity to see some ground breaking statues which have been influential on modern sculpture and will be really beneficial to their study of ancient art and architecture. Three students from Year 12 will be attending the annual week long UCL Classics Summer School at the end of this term to further their study of Ancient Greek and we were delighted that two of these students –Heather Briddock and Amelia Hughes - received the prestigious GDST Pearson and Silver Award to help finance this study.

COMPUTING/ICT

The KS3 ICT curriculum continues to change and evolve to keep up with the fast changing real life technological developments. Alongside a blended learning HTML unit using Khad academy, all pupils now

complete a 6 week block on app development, creating a real world app with the information they think a BHHS girl should have (everything from lunch menus and teacher profiles to video tours). GCSE students this year visited the dConstruct conference at the Brighton Dome, listening to world class technology speakers lecture on the topic of “living within the network”. Pupils from many year groups did a fantastic job of representing the school at the GDST Digital Leaders conference at South Hampstead High. Challenged to create, market and design an app in a few hours, they created a game based memory aid app for people with cognitive difficulties.

CRED

In July 2014, 24 BHHS students from Y9 to Y11 went on a life changing trip to Ethiopia. The purpose of the visit was to provide a week of lessons and activities for over one hundred children of mothers on the Women At Risk rehabilitation programme in Addis Ababa. The children raced through the lessons, completing pages of sums and writing beautiful stories all without a word of complaint or interruption, just genuine interest. The subjects we covered included English, maths, geography, music, science, which were all incredibly fun and exciting to teach and the children were also introduced to activities such as dance, arts and crafts, parachutes, and sports as well as quite a lot of games we play regularly in England, but are unknown in Ethiopia. It was very much a two way process with all the BHHS students gaining a tremendous sense of pride and achievement when they realised the joy, excitement and learning opportunities they had been able to give these brilliant children.

The BHHS students were all able to visit some of the Ethiopian children in their own homes. These visits were eyeopening as there was such a huge difference in living standards. It was hard to discover that these happy, smiling children were living in a single room that could barely fit a bed in, often shared with up to seven other people. It was uplifting to see that women who had been part of the programme for longer had significantly improved lives with homes that even had commodities such as running water or a small kitchen. This made it really clear to us how much of an impact Women At Risk has had on these women’s lives and just how many people it has helped.

On our last day at the school each class put on a show for their mothers and teachers and, as you might imagine, there was not a dry eye in the house!

The trip gave us some insight into Ethiopian culture: the coffee ceremonies, the injera bread, the haphazard rules of the road, and the beauty of Debre Zeit, but what we will remember most is the phenomenal welcome we were given by happy friendly people who were so generous to us. It was an inspirational experience and we all feel very proud of what the BHHS students achieved. We would like to thank them, their families and everyone else in our community for all the hard work and help that made the trip so successful.

DANCE

This year has seen a partnership with professional company Penny & Jules and, collaboratively, we now have the Penny & Jules Youth Dance Company. This has welcomed dancers from Years 10-13 from all over the South East. The company have since qualified as winners of the regional heats and have gone through to the UDance finals in Plymouth this July.

January saw an additional performance at Momentum due to the overwhelming demand for tickets - over 200 girls from Years 4-13 danced beautifully and were an absolute credit to the school.

March saw us off to Crawley for our Rock Challenge heat with our piece "Shattered," based on the glass ceiling for women in the world of business, and saw us come away with a very respectable 5 awards of excellence.

In May, BHHS were the only school in East Sussex to be selected to perform as part of the youth dance platform at Brighton Fringe Festival. The girls were awesome and did us proud.

This year saw our first Music & Dance collaboration evening. We were overwhelmed with the support from parents and blown away by some of the talent that was showcased on Friday before half term.

In June, Yr10 GCSE dancers travelled to Sutton Arena for this year’s GDST Day of Dance Rally and took part in musical theatre workshops all day, working with a professional dancer (a Sheffield High School alumna) and learning sections from 'We Will Rock You'.

DRAMA

The Drama Department has had a busy year with performances and theatre trips. We have taken the GCSE and A Level students to see ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ and the A level students to see Frantic Assembly’s “Othello ‘’ both in London. We also went on a number of trips to The Theatre Royal Brighton.

The main school production in December was ‘A Christmas Carol’ adapted by Mrs Ashdown. The cast played as a true ensemble incorporating physical theatre and choral moves and voices. It was tremendous fun for both audience and cast.

The Sixth Form play was Splendid Productions version of ‘Dr Faustus’ directed by Mrs Edwards and performed on two evenings in February. It was both hilarious and disturbing and performed to a very high standard.

The House Plays were quirky and edgy as we expect from our girls. There were some stunning performances in each house but the overall winners were Grey.

The Year 10 and 11 GCSE students have given some superb performances this year. The A level students have performed some superlative work as their exam pieces.

The Year 7 students will round off the year with a whole year group musical production of Roald Dahl’s ‘Goldilocks’ and ‘Red Riding Hood’.

DUKE of EDINBURGH AWARD

In February this year, 13 of the present Year 11 cohort received their Bronze award at a ceremony at the American Express Community stadium. A second group is close to qualifying after they have completed their assessment expedition in the Alfriston area at the end of June.

The number of girls enrolled to do their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award has again increased. 51 girls from the present Year 10 cohort enrolled at the beginning of the school year and a mammoth practice expedition took place in May with 49 girls camping out at Plumpton race course. This group will do their assessment expedition in June as well as trying to complete their other physical, volunteering and skill sections..

ENGLISH

We are really proud of the creativity, energy and engagement of all our students. For example, earlier this summer both Celia Westwood-Dunkley and Maya Wall were finalists in the prestigious Brighton Festival Peacock Poetry competition. We also had great success in a new Trust venture: the GDST CREATIVE WRITING COMPETITION 2015. The theme of ‘Role Models’ produced some sparkling and diverse writing. Natasha O’Flynn, Clemmie Copeland, Grace White and Theodora Dowglass all produced some fabulous writing and were marvellous runners-up. Celia Westwood-Dunkley won second prize with a piece which used different narrative voices most creatively. First prize went to Rani Martin whose sci-fi twist was both modern and witty, while packing a powerful satirical punch.

Book Week & Afghan Connection Book Week 2014 back in October was as lively as ever. Books and reading are alive and well at Brighton and Hove High School! Our love of books is also making a difference to our twinned school in Afghanistan. A huge thank you to everyone who donated books and then bought books at our marvellous book auction. We raised at over £75 in just half an hour! With the funds from dressing up, we were able to send over £400 to support the important work of Afghan Connection.

In Book Week we were privileged to have two extremely talented and wonderfully inspiring authors in school.

Andy Lane and Nicky Singer were both powerful speakers, selling the importance of the written word and creativity by example. We celebrated our enjoyment and knowledge about books in the House Book Quiz too.

Congratulations to Gurney who were unstoppable and retained their House Book Quiz crown decisively.

English Department Book Week Competition Winners YEAR 7 BOOK RECIPES: First place: Theodora Dowglass; second place: Georgia Chalk; third place: Josefine Fast YEAR 8 BOOK MENUS: First place: Imogen Mohsin; second place: Maisie Edmunds; third place: Lauren Hull YEAR 9 ESTATE AGENTS First place: Bella Cardus; second place: Ellie MacKechnie; third place: Maddy Burnham Whole School Competitions PARODIES: First place: Eleanor Thomas; second place: Eleanor Palmer ESCAPE FROM A BOOK: First place: Natasha O'Flynn; second place: Helena Ratcliff CREATIVE BOOK COVERS: First place: Phoebe McCallum; second place: Teresa Mascarenhas; third place: Neve Kreimeia

World Book Day & The Mary Schofield House Short Story Competition This year’s Mary Schofield House Short Story competition used Brighton’s Royal Pavilion as a stimulus and produced a bumper crop of entries, causing the most delightful of problems for our judge: Helen Dennis. Helen is the author of the brilliant ‘Secret Breakers’ series. In fact the first book in this series includes a brilliant chase scene through the Royal Pavilion! This series is inspired by another fabulous building with a fascinating past: Bletchley Park where the code breakers of World War Two – like Alan Turing – worked. Helen presented the prizes in assembly and then spoke to years 7, 8 and 9 about the curious manuscript that has inspired her series – the Voynich manuscript – and how writers work.

The Mary Schofield House Short Story Competition 2015 FIRST PRIZE: SENIOR CATEGORY: Helena Ratcliff, Lyttelton JUNIOR CATEGORY: Molly Taite Jupp, Gurney SECOND PRIZE: SENIOR CATEGORY: Eleanor Finlay-Christensen, Gurney JUNIOR CATEGORY: Sasha Murray, Lyttelton RUNNERS UP: Alanah O’Rourke, Stanley; Miriam Ritterband, Grey; Imogen Mohsin, Grey; Natasha O’Flynn, Stanley National World Book Day Award 2015 We are enormously proud of all our students, never more so than when they show real grit and challenge themselves, while keeping up with all their many and varied school and home commitments, to enter national competitions. The World Book Day organisation launched a competition in January with a tight timeframe of only 3 weeks. They wanted students to celebrate the power of books inventively and creatively by bringing to life the phrase: 'Why we can't live without books'. We were bowled over by the variety and brilliance of the entries.

Alanah O'Rourke produced a powerful graphic, beautifully illustrated. Clemmie Copeland designed a fabulous book with a brilliant cover. Theodora Dowglass built a life-sized reader and a thoughtful essay. All three were highly commended.

In third place were Talia Maysey, with a straight-to-camera documentary, and Jenny Joseph and Teresa Mascarenhas who produced a magnificent and extensive scrapbook, blending image and text most effectively.

In second place was Phoebe McCallum with a dystopian vision of a world where reading is the ultimate act of rebellion. This piece made striking use of the first person narrator and invented names to authenticate its world.

It was very aware of the literary tradition in which it artfully placed itself.

In first place was Eleanor Palmer who brought the statement 'why we can't live without books' to life in breathtaking choreography and performance. This was an intelligent and moving piece which chose colour and music to enhance the message of the dance with real poignancy.

English Extras Our shadowing of the Carnegie Prize and the Southern Schools Book Award has also engaged many of our younger students with books and given them exciting opportunities to share their love of reading and to meet many of the authors who have inspired this. Many of our year 10 are also enjoying the Amazing Book Award.

Our Creative Writing group, run by a wonderful team of L6, has met regularly, enjoying themselves enormously.

A group of our keen readers also enjoyed the GDST Literary Festival at Streatham and Clapham High school last November. The STREAM festival involved many fantastic writers, like the award winning Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman, and illustrators, including Lauren Child and Chris Riddell.

Our year 11 students proved you can revise and smile as they undertook a marathon 5 hour revision session one Saturday before their GCSE examinations. This covered every question type and hammered home the importance of planning!

The L6 were lucky enough to attend a seminar session on their coursework text – Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ - led by Cedric Watts, Emeritus Professor of English Literature from Sussex University. They also enjoyed a trip to the British Library’s fabulous Gothic exhibition – brilliant early preparation for their A2 examination paper.

In May WriteInspired workshops with our year 7s produced some incredibly impressive pieces of work. The workshops were invigorating with all the girls on their feet and dancing, getting the blood flowing and brains engaged, ready to do some writing. The results were spectacular!

GEOGRAPHY

The Geographers have again made full use of the environment, both in the immediate area and further afield.

Early in the year the AS group went to stay in the New Forest and from there explored part of Dorset, much of central Southampton and visited a wide range of beaches, assessing both coastal management and environmental concerns. They and A2 students can widen their experience and knowledge attending local lectures organised by the Geographical Association, as the topics are generally related to A-level work, but incorporate the latest research being carried out at universities.

Younger girls have used the school grounds and the local area in order to develop their skills, with the Year 8 enjoying a sunny day along the Cuckmere River and on the very unusual beach at Cuckmere Haven. We have been lucky with the weather this year, which is not always the case, and the GCSE students recently went on a sunny, but very windy day, to several locations between Brighton and Seaford, measuring and sketching the different characteristics of both cliffs and beaches along the Sussex coast.

Development morning with Year 9 gave time for some consideration of what is meant by development, fairness and life in some parts of the world. The morning ended with an excellent talk from Professor Haddad of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington D.C. (but also a parent of one of the Year 9 girls), explaining the work being done to combat hunger and malnutrition around the world.

In November the GDST geographers took part in the largest school Geography investigation so far, using GIS to collate, display and analyse the responses to questions about their environment; the questions were answered by 11,792 students around the world. There will be another challenge next November, this time called the Ash Cloud Apocalypse, 35 years after Mt. St. Helens erupted.

GRIT WEEK

Monday the 9th of February saw the whole school take part in an off-timetable day aimed at building girls’ resilience. After taking a grit test – how gritty are you? - we all gathered in the hall for assembly. Here Suna Erygit-Madzwamuse (a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Research, University of Brighton) gave a talk on what resilience is and why it is important. She also gave us practical tips to build resilience from the simple things like getting enough sleep and eating well to building support networks. From there the girls broke into groups for the day’s main activity. Having been surveyed earlier in the term (without knowing why) they were placed into activities which were designed to challenge them. The 5 activities offered were; public speaking, ballroom dancing, musical performance, learning a language (Russian, Swedish, Finnish or sign language) and stand-up comedy. The girls spent two hours learning and practising new skills before performing to their group after lunch. To finish the day we all got back together in the hall to hear Simon Duncan tell his personal story of resilience. Simon was born with cerebral palsy and has always been a wheelchair user. He described the challenges he has faced and how he overcame them, stressing the power of positive thought combined with action. His funny and informative talk really resonated with the girls and many of them stayed behind afterwards to thank and talk to him. All in all the day was a great success and I hope that everyone managed to achieve something they perhaps didn’t think they could.

On Thursday Steve Coppin from the Life Skills Company gave a talk to girls from Years 10-12 and parents entitled “Having a good day every day”. The aim of these talks was to equip both girls and parents with some positive strategies to build resilience and raise motivation. Steve looked at what we need to be happy and how we can increase levels of happiness as well as ways in which we can change our mindset to become more positive.

GUILD

In September 2014 the Senior School voted to support two charities, Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance and Cancer Research. A team from the Air Ambulance came to school at the start of the Autumn Term and delivered a really informative assembly which raised awareness of the importance of the Air Ambulance to everybody. Girls interested in studying Medicine also had a very insightful day with the Air Ambulance team where they got first -hand experience of what it is to be a doctor for the Air Ambulance. During the year we have also developed links with the local Cancer Research shop and set ourselves up as a Donation Station. This proved to be very successful and has helped raise lots of money for Cancer Research through the sale of unwanted items of clothing.

All students at the senior school have supported these worthwhile charities through many interesting Guild Weeks as well as weekly collections. As a result of the girls’ hard work, the school has raised over £1 600 over the first two terms for these chosen charities and we are currently fundraising to raise this total even further during the summer term.

During the Autumn Term we donated all our gifts from Harvest Festival to City Mission and also held a very successful Senior Citizens Tea Party. The entertainment was provided by students and the Guild Reps were excellent at hosting the event and talking with their guests.

In addition, in the Autumn Term in the Senior School the Christmas Jumper Day raised £296.77 for Save the Children and the Children in Need Appeal raised £185. In the Spring Term we raised £817 for Comic Relief with a very successful staff Talent Show and raised £2400 in our Fashion Show for Risk and Blind Veterans UK. We also raised £205 for the earthquake victims of Nepal.

HISTORY

The History Department led a successful trip to Berlin and Prague, supporting the GCSE course on interwar Germany and the Cold War. Girls returned with an improved understanding of aspects of Nazi Germany, the Berlin Wall and the Prague Spring, as well as of just how many streets in Berlin led back to the hostel we were staying at.

HISTORY SOCIETY

We have been very busy in the school archives and have made a great deal of progress with our analysis of very old primary sources. We were especially interested in the Register of Pupils for the period 1880-1890. We conducted two enquiries.

The first was an investigation of the social background of students. We discovered that a large number of students here came from the worlds of commerce, banking, the law, educations, the armed forces and the clergy. We were surprised to find that many girls left BHHS before the age of 16 ‘to be finished’ – go to a finishing school elsewhere.

Our second investigation was more light-hearted. We conducted a survey of girls’ names over time and found that the most popular name in the 1890s was Mary, closely followed by Edith, Ethel, Alice and Hilda. Between 1907 and 1917 the most popular names were Dorothy, followed by Margaret and Mary. The most popular names today are Sophia followed closely by Emily and Lily.

We were very excited to be given the opportunity to meet and interview some quite old ‘old girls’ at a tea party arranged by Mrs Armstrong. We made some fascinating discoveries. For example many of the girls at school here between 1950 and 1958 had to come to school early to attend compulsory posture classes.

We have also been investigating the following. Please visit our link on Firefly to find out more. We have lots of information and pictures of: • The school over time.

• BHHS and WW1 and WW2 • The Guild System and House Systems • Uniform and food • Banfora Cup

HOME ECONOMICS

This year we have had 2 A’ level Food Technology trips, one to ‘The Real Patisserie’ in Kemptown and the other to ‘Tesco’ (Holmbush) in Shoreham, to compare and contrast the 2 very different outlets and their approach to baking and patisserie work. They were very interesting visits and gave an insight into the issues that all successful businesses have to take into consideration on a daily basis, including how much to make of each item (this can be dependent on factors such as weather or a food scare in the daily news) and the ongoing designing and testing of new products and ideas (New Product Development).

Once again it is time for the whole of Year 9 to sit their ‘Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering’ (Food Hygiene exam) and hopefully, by the end of the academic year, the whole year group will be qualified in food hygiene.

In February the master classes in cake decorating were once again very popular and enjoyed by many girls from Years 4 and 5.

Our extra-curricular food club has taken a slightly different direction this year and involves the girls in knitting jackets for rescue hens (i.e., poor old battery hens that have never seen daylight and usually have no feathers).

Girls have been volunteering to sit and knit in the HE room at lunchtime and make colourful jackets for the hens.

Another extra-curricular club that is happening in Food at the moment is ‘cake making and decorating’ and a few of the year 10 girls are doing 12 hours of cake making to develop a new skill as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award. So far they have done some piping work on cupcakes, learnt how to feather ice a Victoria

sponge and made a chocolate fudge cake with American frosting. Future cakes include carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and a possible attempt at a Battenburg.

Finally, we hosted a B-RIGHT-ON challenge in making the perfect cheese straws, and this was won by Abi Roach Penn in Year 9.

LIBRARY

With a lot of help from parents and staff, the new Junior School library was up and running for September.

Moving 6,500 books and relocating the shelving to the second floor was a huge task but pupils are now enjoying the bright new reading space and comfortable seating.

Year 5s used their i-pads this year to participate in the popular Book Trust’s Read for My School competition, reading as many books on-line as they could. Two lucky pupils won sets of 10 Penguin books for their efforts.

Junior pupils also took part in Brighton Festival’s Young City Reads, discovering copies of William Sutcliffe’s Circle of Thieves and the Raffle of Doom hidden around school.

As usual, in the Senior School, Book Week started October with a bang, launched this year by local author Nicky Singer. She spent the morning with Yrs 7, 8 & 9 and ran a VI Form workshop. Young Sherlock author, Andrew Lane, also visited us that week, speaking in assembly and to Yrs 7, 8 & 9 for an hour.

On a very wet Saturday in November intrepid pupils from years 8, 9 & 10 accompanied Mrs Foss and Ms Dean to the first South London Children’s Literary Festival (STREAM) held at Streatham & Clapham High School.

Malorie Blackman, Rachel Ward & Lauren Child were among the many authors present. The whole day was a great celebration of books and reading and enjoyed by all.

January saw the annual Southern Schools’ Book Award evening with pupils from Year 9 joining 28 other schools to see Kevin Brooks win this popular readers’ prize with his dark tale, The Bunker Diary.

H L Dennis came on a return visit to celebrate World Book Day in March, bringing her replica of the Voynich manuscript and talking to pupils about code cracking and the her series Secret Breakers.

In May, Queen of Teen author and Stonewall Schools’ Role Model, James Dawson, came to talk about LGBT issues and the pressures young women face via the media. James’s lively and humorous approach captivated his audience and brought a light touch to serious PSHE topics.

MATHEMATICS

It has been another highly successful year for BHHS in the team Mathematics competitions. In the UK Team Challenge our team of four Year 7- 9 girls beat over 20 local schools to take 2nd place at the regional competition at Lancing College, our third ‘top three’ placing in three years. Congratulations to Rachel Cruickshank, Alice Gornall, Rani Martin and Katie Hoffelner who trained hard in preparation for the competition and who made us all very proud.

Then in October eight Year 10 girls attended the Further Maths Support Programme ‘Maths Feast’ training session at the University of Sussex. Our team of Monica Kelada, Anneliese Kelly, Lisa She-Yin and Charlotte Tyler went on to compete in March against sixteen teams in the region, achieving second place and maintaining our reputation as one of the best schools in the area in team Mathematics competitions.

In the individual Mathematics Challenge at Junior Level there were Gold certificates for Katie Hoffelner in Year 7 and Sofia Olsson in Year 8. Katie was in the top 1200 entrants in the UK and she qualifies for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad, a remarkable achievement and our first such qualifier in recent memory. At Intermediate Level Eloise Ockenden (Year 11), Lisa She-Yin (Year 10), Maya Wall (Year 10), and Daria Ghezzi (Year 9) all achieved Gold, and three of them progressed to the Kangaroo competitions. At Senior Level Farhannah Badruzaman achieved Gold and also progressed to the next round.

MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

One of the features of the year in the MFL Department has been the international exchanges. Exchanges provide students with an opportunity to immerse themselves fully in a new culture for a week, whilst practising their language skills at every opportunity with their partner and the host family; students are able to put into practise what they have learned in the classroom in a real situation and they really do reap the benefits of this on their return.

In October, a group of twenty-one Year 10 and 11 girls participated in an exchange to IES Nervión in Seville.

During the course of the week-long visit, the girls attended lessons with their partners and had an opportunity to visit the stunning towns of Seville and Córdoba. The Spanish students came to Brighton in March for the second half of what proved to be a highly successful exchange and we celebrated with a Fish and Chips quiz night.

Also in October, our French partner school, Institut St Lô visited Brighton and our students made a return visit in

March. We were welcomed with a huge International Celebration Evening; the school had arranged a celebration of all their international exchanges and there were at least five different nationalities. During the week, the girls attended lessons with their partners and visited the Mont St Michel, ending the week with an overnight stay in Paris and a trip along the Seine by night. The German exchange is taking place in the final weeks of the school year.

Another highlight of the year was the MFL Festival which took place in October at Northampton GDST. Two teams of Year 7s took part in French and Spanish Spelling Bees, a Year 8 group, consisting of one expert in France, Germany and Spain, entered a general knowledge competition, Year 9 performed a hilarious play in French based on the rules of the “passé compose” and two Year 10s performed French poems to a full auditorium. Lucy Haggis in Year 10 won first prize in the poetry and the Year 9s came third. It was a superb event where we celebrated the importance of language learning with twelve other GDST schools.

As part of an on-going initiative, with HSBC & GDST Partnership Funding, Ms Zinola offered students a six week course which ideally fits the New Skill criteria for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Local state school students in Year 10 joined students from BHHS on Saturday mornings during the autumn term to learn Italian.

With the emphasis on practical communication the students participated in a wide range of learning activities from speaking in pairs and groups to practising new language through interactive exercises online. Progress was impressive, with these motivated students achieving surprising proficiency in a relatively short time. Well done to those students for taking up the challenge and showing the commitment to get up early on Saturdays!

MUSIC

This school year got off to a flying start particularly for our Senior Choir. In the first few days of term I received a message from a group called ‘Tenors Unlimited’ who were giving a performance at the Theatre Royal in Brighton and wanted a local choir to provide some vocal support. The time schedule was very tight to get everything organised and for the girls to learn the material but it all came together very nicely and the Senior Choir girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being part of a professional performance in such a beautiful venue.

All the school choirs have been working hard this year giving performances both within school and in the wider community. All choirs came together along with the Year 6 choir from the Junior School for our annual Carol Service, the highlight of which had to be Senior Choir’s performance of Edward Elgar’s ‘The snow’ with obligato violin parts provided by Eliette Harris and Hanna Ward-Penny.

Senior Choir also participated in the choir section of both the Mid Sussex festival, held at Burgess Hill School for Girls, and the local Springboard festival which is held at BHHS. In both festivals the choir not only won their class but were also recognised as ‘Best Choir in the Festival’ and received a cup and were invited to perform in the Gala Concert. BHHS has won the Springboard cup before but not since 1944. Several girls participated in solo classes at the Springboard festival with Anneleise Kelly, Eliette Harris and Hanna Ward-penny gaining 1st place in their classes and Natasha O’Flynn gaining 1st place in Junior Ensemble Class and winning the Junior Piano Championship Final.

The School Orchestra continues to thrive and, in the Instrumental Concert, earlier this term, they gave a stunning performance of Bizet’s Symphony in C and Rachmaninov’s ‘Vocalise’ which featured Eliette Harris and Helena Ratcliffe as soloists. The concert also featured a fantastic performance by our String Group of Vivaldi’s triple Concerto with Eliette, Hanna and Helena as soloists and ‘Pizzicato Polka’ by Johann Strauss.

Apart from our major performances in the Instrumental Concert, Choral Concert and the Carol Service there has been plenty of other performances going on throughout the year. Our ‘Cabaret Evening’ at the end of the Summer term is always a fitting climax to the musical calendar, but we have many more girls participating in the GCSE/A level Performance Evening in November and the Year 7&8 Performance Evening, in collaboration with the Dance Department, in the Summer Term and our regular series of Informal Concerts that take place every half term.

One of the highlights for me this year was the Music Department’s contribution to ‘Grit Week’ where we had 2 hours to prepare 40 rather reluctant girls for a public solo musical performance. We certainly presented them with a big challenge and the girls had to show real grit and determination to complete the challenge.

Although they may not have enjoyed the experience most girls appreciated and recognised the benefits of such an exercise.

After several attempts to get tickets over the past few years we were finally able to take 20 GCSE and A level girls to Glyndebourne Opera to see a performance of Verdi’s opera ‘La Traviata’. This was a fantastic opportunity for the girls to take in the full operatic experience, picnic included, in a wonderful venue. All the

girls, and supporting staff, were thrilled by the experience and I have already placed an order for 30 tickets for next term and have my fingers crossed that we will be able to repeat the experience.

BHHS girls continue to extend their musical experience outside of school through involvement in groups such as Brighton Youth Orchestra and Glyndebourne Youth Opera. Alex Jacobs, a Year 12 student, who, as part of the local rock band ‘Grasshopper’ is not only building up quite a reputation in the local area and on the festival scene but supported ‘The Charlatans’ in a concert earlier this term in Worthing.

Associated Board A considerable number of girls continue to take advantage of the opportunity to take Associated Board music examinations at the school. Ruby Brunner passed her Grade 8 violin examination with Merit. Bonnie White in year 6 gained our top mark of 140 (out of 150) in her Grade 2 Eb Horn examination as well as achieving 132, which is also a Distinction in her Grade 3 examination.

POLITICS

The meetings of the Politics Society led into a tightly-fought mock election campaign, in which representatives of the Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democratic parties competed for the votes of the school.

Turnout was 86%, a new high, with the Green Party winning a clear victory in the voting on 7th May.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

The inaugural House Public Speaking Competition took place in the autumn. All four Houses produced thoughtful and well-structured speeches, with the prize in the end going to a very deserving Gurney team.

The GDST Chrystall Prize semi-finals took place this year at BHHS. A fine speech by Marianne Scotland on the topic of the effect of mobile phones on our ability to tell great stories lost out to another fine speech from Portsmouth High.

The Debating Society has yet again focused on the tougher subjects such as euthanasia. Speakers hailed from years 7 through to 13, and there many accomplished maiden speeches.

RE & PHILOSOPHY

It has been a year of exciting developments for the RE & Philosophy Department.

Firstly, we have introduced philosophy into the teaching of RE in years 7, 8 & 9. This has meant that year 7 have discussed their philosophical worldviews, the difference between facts and beliefs as well as the concepts of physicalism and dualism. Year 8 have discussed the uniqueness of world religions and whether they all lead to the same God. Year 9 have evaluated Pascal’s Wager, Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument, Epicurus’ Problem of Evil and different philosophical definitions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

We have welcomed several visitors to our lessons including Father Ritchie speaking to Year 9 passionately about the work of Christians challenging LGBT discrimination in religious organisations. Also Mrs Dowglass’ guinea pigs made several guest appearances in the philosophy of ethics lessons, facilitating the question ‘Would it be wrong to place the guinea pigs in the microwave?’ and ‘In this context what do we mean by the word ‘wrong’? You may be pleased to know that no guinea pigs were harmed in the teaching of any RE & Philosophy lessons.

We are looking forward to delivering our new RE& Philosophy GCSE course this September which includes addressing philosophical issues through making pancakes.

Our new extra-curricular activities this year have included the RE Film Clubs and the Philosophy Club. In the RE Film Clubs we have run The Chronicles of Narnia for years 7 & 8 and Vera Drake, My Sister’s Keeper and ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ for the older girls. The Philosophy Club has had its first successful year and I am especially pleased that it is student prepared and led.

Finally, for the first time we launched the Ambassadors for RE initiative in school this year. Pupils were invited to apply for this role which is about helping to promote RE & Philosophy in the school and I am looking forward to the exciting projects that the ‘Ambassadors’ will be working on next year.

SIXTH FORM

We have enjoyed a busy, productive and successful year in the sixth form. The first half of the autumn term is always demanding and our Y13 worked really hard completing their UCAS applications whilst Y12 faced the challenges of AS study. However, we made time to bond as a sixth form and in September had both our Pizza Evening and Cultural Trip to the Tate Gallery in London. Both events were really successful and pulled the year groups together socially.

In the second half of the autumn term we had visits and workshops from John Young (BBC) for a Journalism Boot-camp and Natasha Devon who spoke brilliantly about “Loving the Skin You Are In” and issues connected to well-being and body image. We also ran a highly successful Networking Evening in November where our students were able to meet with local business people to make valuable connections and improve their professional social skills.

In December members of the sixth form enjoyed an action packed and enjoyable visit to Paris where a packed schedule allowed us to take in a huge number of sights and battled with the complexities of the city’s underground network.

In January we had a really informative session on safer driving and March saw excellent visits from the CEO of Brighton and Hove City Council, Penny Thompson and a workshop from Ms Baldwin who helped us understand the forthcoming election with her “Introduction to British Politics.” March was also the month of the Fashion Show and Y13 worked incredibly hard to raise a record amount of money for our chosen charities.

As the examinations approached we helped manage stress when Mary Condell visited and taught our students how to manage the rigours of the exam season. Additionally, June saw the Launch of the EPQ with a speaker from Southampton University. To round off social events Year 13 are looking forward to the ball on the 26 June at The Grand. We are sure it will be, as ever, an excellent night and celebrate another wonderful cohort of students passing through BHHS.

SPORT

Athletics This activity continues to be a strength in the department with all ages attending practices at the AstroTurf. We have again competed in the English Schools Track and Field cup at K2 in Crawley with a young Junior team finishing 3rd and the Intermediate team in 4th place. 4 Year 9 pupils – Eleanor Briddock, Eden May, Natasha Russell and Almi Nerurkar - have all been selected to compete for Brighton and Hove Schools at the Sussex championships.

Bouldering This year the girls entered the Inter School Bouldering competition at Boulder Brighton. 6 Schools entered in total and out of those 6 only 4 other girls were competing. The girls were graded on the different climbs that they did throughout the afternoon and Jess Le’Duc won the best individual female climber award.

We look forward to seeing our girls bouldering more regularly next year.

Cricket Cricket has been introduced this year and the girls have taken very well to the sport. Numbers have gradually increased to the point where we are now able to put out a competitive side and look forward to playing our first match.

Cross Country Our cross country teams continue to do well. In the Sussex round of the English Schools Cross Country Cup in October held at Bishop Luffa School at Chichester, Almi Nerurkar ran a brilliant race to win the Intermediate group. She was ably supported by Eve Hull, Josie Grumitt, Alex Lange Andrews and Abi Roach Penn. As a result for the third year in succession we had a team at the regional finals which were held at Knole Park, Sevenoaks. On a very tough and hilly course the team ran well to finish 12th out of 20.

We have had other competitions competing in the Brighton and Hove schools, Sussex Schools Senior, Years 7 and 8 and Trust schools. The girls have all run consistently, especially Almi who, for the second year in succession, was the highest placed Sussex Junior girl in the English schools Championships at Blackburn. Grace White and Eve Hull also ran in an Inter Counties race for Sussex.

Football We have had the opportunity to play many fixtures this year against other Brighton schools, winning some and losing others. All players have made progress in skill development and game understanding.

Hockey We have played local fixtures as well as games further afield at Farlington and Eastbourne. Results have been mixed, but the girls have all enjoyed their games. The Under 13 team show promise as a unit and our ‘A’ goalkeeper is attending Sussex development squad training. The Under 12’s are progressing well and finished the season with a triangular tournament with Newman and Longhill which our team won.

Netball This year we have played local fixtures as well as fixtures further afield as far as Croydon. Some of our most competitive fixtures have seen us play Burgess Hill, Farlington, Mayfield and Bedes. The U12’s this year made it through to the 3rd round of the Cup which saw them drawn against a strong Brighton College team and unfortunately they got knocked out at this stage. The U12 B team won the local schools tournament which saw some very good Netball played throughout. The U14 team has been strong and at the SISNA competition the girls lost to Mayfield 5-4 in a close though game in the hail, they then went on to beat Ardingly, Christ’s Hospital and Bedes. They then went on to losing out narrowly in good games to Brighton College, Eastbourne and Lancing College. The U14 team also became joint winners of the local school tournament. The U13’s went to Croydon in the cup and lost narrowly in this game. It has been a busy year of fixtures but it has been excellent to see so many girls representing the school.

Rounders The U12’s, U13’s and U14’s have competed in rounders tournament throughout the summer team with each team showing some excellent displays of batting and fielding and gaining valuable experience.

Swimming This year the girls have competed in two Gala’s one at Trust and a Sussex schools competition. The girls have done well at both of these events against a wide variety of schools.

Tennis We have entered the AEGON Tennis league and so far we have played Burgess Hill, Mayfield and Bede’s. Our best success to date was our win at U15 level over Burgess Hill School. A special mention goes to Iona Scott who has yet to be beaten in the singles format.

SCIENCE

National Science Week Activities Y10 had the pleasure of the mobile Planetarium to begin National Science week and were treated to an aweinspiring 20 minutes about the universe.

We watched a video that explained how humans have observed the universe and how technology has evolved over past years to further our understanding of conditions of stars in other galaxies. The girls had an amazing experience as they were transported around the universe; one minute flying alongside the James Webb telescope with mirrors the size of a tennis court, the next watching how the universe was created at the CERN laboratory inside the particle accelerator itself, as well as hearing first-hand accounts from real astronomers across the globe.

Years 9-12 were invited to join us for an evening dedicated to STEM careers. We were fortunate to have volunteers join us from across the spectrum of such industries and we were amazed by the sheer diversity of their expertise, from human-centred computer systems to clinical psychology and mechanical engineering.

Through presentations and Q&A sessions, the girls had the opportunity to find out about the skills, qualifications and experience needed to be successful in STEM careers and to understand more about the day-to-day work of a research scientist and an e-security expert, amongst others.

The evening was enjoyed by all, with many of our volunteers commenting on their delight in sharing their work with so many interested girls.

National Science Week continued the following week with lunchtime demonstrations.

After a disappointing start to the week of demonstrations, with the lack of fizz in own brand fizzy drinks, we were back on track with the “ethanol rocket” in the school hall.

Three bottles were launched from a piece of guttering by lighting the alcohol vapour in the bottles. The last one hit the opposite wall some 50 feet away!

The final demonstration, the “whoosh bottle” involved lighting a special type of alcohol vapour in a water cooler bottle. The spectacular “whoosh”, together with bright blue flames shooting out of the bottle, pleased the crowd.

Science Week involved a number of House competitions. The middle of the week saw two challenges: the Science Challenge and the Engineering challenge. The former involved experiments with a diverse array of fruit and metal strips to try and create the largest potential difference. They didn’t quite manage to ‘charge an iPhone’ (that takes 595 oranges cut into 2380 segments!)

The girls’ engineering skills were put to the test by a hungry (and clumsy) giant who required the girls to design and build a giant egg timer to allow him to cook his golden eggs for exactly three minutes.

The week finished with the Inter-House Science Quiz, with the Thomas Dolby hit “She Blinded Me With Science” from 1983 playing in the background. There were a number of different rounds, such as visual images to “guess the dinosaur” and “which planet am I?”, together with general science knowledge.

STEM Activities This year there have been a number of additional visits and experiences to showcase the diverse array of careers open to STEM students. Some Year 11 students attended a Science and Engineering conference and heard about how maths is playing a crucial role in the care of premature babies, how forensic science helped in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and learnt about the exciting developments in organic semiconductors and how they are likely to revolutionise our ability to harness energy from the Sun. Before Christmas, a small group of Year 10 students took part in the Astrophysics Masterclass at the University of Sussex. We welcomed ‘old girl’ Estelle Rowe, Director of the Engineering Development Trust’s Headstart scheme, to meet some of our girls in Year 10, 11 and 12 and speak about her experiences working as an engineer. We also enjoyed a thought proving talk about the Universe from Professor Peter Thomas and discussed everything from what happens near a black hole to the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

This talk was followed up by the Creative Communication of Science Enrichment day, where Year 10

entertained and inspired us with their creative interpretations of the Big Bang. This year provided our first pantomime and who could have predicted a Frozen inspired performance that included the epic “Do you want to build a Universe?” Other firsts included a moving musical composition, an interactive simulation created using Scratch, a 3D sculpture and a special news report featuring joke telling aliens. Congratulations to the puppet show team who astounded our guest judge Dr Pietro Bertagnolio with their imaginative show.

STEM club continues to support girls working on projects to achieve CREST awards. This year projects have included looking at the link between the colour of food and our perception of taste, how background colour affects our memory and recall, a potential house of the future and uses of iodine. STEM club also has promoted competitions, enrichment courses and other STEM opportunities. A number of girls entered the Formula 100 competition and considered what they would invent to improve the world. We have a few girls attending residential Headstart and Inspire courses held at leading Universities over the summer. Congratulations go to Suzy Martin who successfully applied for a special week of work experience at Thales.

STRETCH and CHALLENGE ACTIVITIES B-RIGHT-ON

This has been a great B RIGHT ON year with more pupils than ever visiting the firefly site to challenge themselves with the weekly brainticklers and larger challenges. Challenges have ranged from baking to bench design to Pi Day. Visit B RIGHT ON and banish boredom! Other benefits include house points. At the last count Lyttelton were storming ahead.

Temple Project Qualification (TPQ)

As TPQ 2015 goes live this summer term, it’s great to be reminded of the wonderful work TPQ 2014 delivered last year. When this optional, extra qualification started three years ago we were hopeful that it would provide an opportunity for girls to stretch and challenge themselves, whilst developing skills of time management, research, problem-solving and presentation. However, we never envisioned the passion and commitment and brilliance that the TPQ would inspire. The Celebration Show back in November showed that our students excel at every level. Congratulations to everyone!

TPQ BEST IN SCHOOL BRONZE: Imogen Mohsin, Grey SILVER: Madelaine Burnham, Grey GOLD: Eleanor Palmer, Lyttelton PLATINUM: Petra Soldar, Gurney

The GDST Quiz

We prepared for the second year of the GDST Quiz with a House Quiz before Christmas. The results of this then allowed us to draw a team from across the years and from each House. The team, consisting of Emily Jacobs (Gurney), Eleanor Thomas (Grey), Imogen Mohsin (Lyttelton) and Katie Hoffelner (Stanley), then went to Streatham and Clapham High School for the GDST Quiz itself; the experience was an enjoyable one, but they came up against a powerful Sheffield team, the eventual finalists, at an early stage and didn’t go through to the final round.

Work Related Learning

Undoubtedly the highlight of the year will occur when Year 11 embark on their placements later this month.

They will spend a week in a variety of work environments, gaining self-confidence and employability skills, as well as finding out about future careers. We look forward to following their progress in a vast array of fields: from schools and hospitals, to the police and trial courts. We wish them every success in their placements.

We also hosted our first STEM careers evening for Years 9 and 10 and welcomed a number of ambassadors who shared their career stories with the girls, inspiring them to consider opportunities in these fields.

Year 8 Enrichment

Science Museum Back in September year 8 travelled up to London to visit the science museum. The museum has a range of exhibits ranging from the more traditional sections dedicated to medicinal and veterinary history to hands on interactive exhibits which demonstrate, friction, wave power, construction, gravity, chemical reactions, electrical circuits, wind power and much more. This was the are the girls enjoyed most, particularly the rather loud rocket launching exhibit. AS well as exploring the museum the girls got to watch a

3D movie on the space station. This demonstrated just how much we take gravity for granted and how challenging even simple tasks can be without it.

What’s in the News? On Friday 7th November, Year 8 had a session with John Young, a journalist for South East news. The aim of the lesson was to encourage our teamwork, creativity, efficiency and give the girls a taste of what it’s like to be a journalist.

Squashed Tomatoes Challenge On Friday 29th May Year 8 took part in the squashed tomatoes challenge.

Working in small groups the girls had to design and build a device which could transport tomatoes safely down a mountain and over a river (in reality from the top of a clamp stand on top of a science lab bench to the ground just over a meter in front ). The girls rose to the challenge, quickly getting to grips with the pulley systems available and coming up with some interesting and well thought out designs. The winning team managed to safely transport 400 cherry tomatoes in 2 1/2 minutes – well done.

Young Enterprise

Our two Year 12 companies, Luna and Stitch, had a great deal of success this year turning a healthy profit and impressing judges to win an array of awards, including Best Branding and Runner-up Best Company. One of our pupils, Katharine Hughes, impressed the judges with her achievements throughout the program and, following an interview process, was presented with the Young Achiever Award.