The Beech Tree Newsletter Easter 2018

Easter 2018 Issue 3

2018-19 Prefect Team Announced!

As our Upper Sixth girls gear up for their A Level exams and enjoy their last spring and summer days at St Mary’s, they traditionally hand the reins of responsibility for prefect duties on to the Lower Sixth girls. Our outgoing prefect team gave way to the incoming one in the last week of term; we are very grateful to the 2017-18 team, headed by Caro Borton and Kirstie Stage, for their commitment and hard work throughout the past year.

Many congratulations go to the 2018-19 team; a fantastic year group brimming with energetic girls, keen to put their unique talents to work for the benefit of the school and lead all those in the years below. We were delighted to appoint Cicely Willis as Head Girl, along with her two Deputies

Georgia Brand and Olivia Willis. They are joined on the Senior Prefect Team by Heads of Houses: Mary Lawrence (York), Amelia Atkins (Newby), Louisa Harman (Harewell) and Willow Pemberton Pigott (Head of Junior Girls).

We also have Subject Prefects this year, who will lead in each department across the school. These are: Art, Helen Cheng; Charity (working with Chaplaincy), Lucy Blyth; Dance, Isabelle Evans; Economics, Tina Xu; English, Megan Feltham; Games, Georgia Freely; Hewarth, Helena LeeBoaler; History, Elfrieda Stovin; Maths, Iris Zhang; MFL, Clementine Lussiana and Maddalena Manca; Philosophy, Heidi He and Sciences, Hannah Langton and Coco Zhu.

VISION FOR THE FUTURE

From the Headmistress

St Mary’s Senior Prefect Team 2018-19

Our girls have shown such great spirit this term; their willingness to take on new challenges constantly inspires me as we all go about our work at the school, and I’m sure this is the je ne sais quoi which so impresses people when they visit St Mary’s. From the House Challenges, through to the weather cutting us off for a couple of days; from individual achievements and projects, through to the daily support I see the girls giving each other in the classrooms, dormitories and hallways, the young women in our care are constantly meeting, and surpassing all expectations.

Highlights of this term for me have been seeing our Sixth Formers grow in confidence as the House Debating Challenge heated up, seeing girls in the middle years of the school stretching their wings in the Fashion Show and on a language exchange to Spain, and watching our youngest pupils delight in the clubs and societies they can join here.

The spirit of St Mary’s is something the girls learn from our staff, too. Being ambitious for each other, ourselves, and our community, is something which keeps the school a place full of joy and wonder, and teaches us all how to be the best we can be.

My aim for St Mary’s will always be to preserve the great strengths and traditions of the school and to build on those, but also to continue the reflective process of positive change and development which is necessary for an ambitious twenty-first century school.

Having spent a bit more time at St Mary’s since her appointment, Headmistress Designate, Maria Young, has been developing her vision for the school and you can read more about this on our website by visting www.stmarys.eu/headmistress-designate/

Sarah Matthews Acting Headmistress

NEWS Towards the end of term some of our UIV and LV girls went on a cultural exchange to a Mary Ward sister school in San Sebastian, in northern Spain. Lodging with families, the girls were immersed in Spanish language and culture; they had a chance to enjoy a fantastic exhibition at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and travelled to see other nearby sights including the basilica of St Ignatius of Loyola, where the girls are pictured, above.

Closer to home there were different trips taken by academic departments and special interest clubs throughout the term. In January Fifth and Sixth Formers went to a lecture by associate professor in Space Physics and trainee astronaut Dr Suzie Imber; a hugely inspiring event.

Members of our Theatre Club went to see Twelfth Night at Stratford on Avon; all agreed that a vivid, vibrant live theatre production like this is second to none.

In March our UV Latin students along

with Sixth Form Classicists went to see an excellent performance of the Greek comedy Lysistrata at UCL, and our youngest girls in LIII went to Southampton for a gigglepacked production of George’s Marvellous Medicine.

Enjoying collaboration with other schools, Sixth Form History students went to Millfield for their

annual History Conference where they heard Dr Matt Rendle from the University of Exeter giving an intriguing talk on the causes of the Russian Revolution. UIII marvelled at the wonders on our doorstep at Salisbury Cathedral, including seeing the Magna Carta and handling some original Medieval manuscripts.

A Remarkable Requiem A choir of several schools combined to give a triumphant performance of Fauré’s Requiem at Wimborne Minster in February. With the St Mary’s

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2018

Chapel Choir leading, and singing some stunning solos, groups from six local prep

From the courtyards of St Mary’s to the laboratories o events to celebrate British Science Week took place i locations. While our lunchtime Science Club, which c extremely popular, conducted some explosive experim school, A Level Biologists went to a DNA technology along with students from Clayesmore and Kings Bruto

schools took part. The initiative, lead by St Mary’s Director of Music Mr Harris, was several months in the making and its fine quality a testament to the hard work of all the children involved.

Photo credit: Michael Blyth

Back in the school refectory, pupils were voting on the which will be submitted for entry to the BSW national from the sounds emanating from the school labs all w were enjoying some of the most startling investigation

of Bristol University, in some remarkable continues to be ments out of doors at workshop in Bristol on.

eir favourite posters poster competition, and week, all year groups ns of the year!

Visiting, and Virtual,

Speakers Thanks to our well-connected staff, parents, governors and friends, we are frequently able to gain access to hardto-pin-down and unusual speakers at St Mary’s. This term was no different, with BBC journalist Razia Iqbal visiting for the day, and, in advance of the Rwanda trip in 2019, Gisele Kamanzi visited to speak to Economics and Business students about life in a developing country, as well as to give a talk to UVI on the Rwandan genocide.

Meanwhile, thanks to Skype technology, Mrs Bowe was able to arrange interview sessions with Sr Jane Livesey, General Superior of the CJ Order and Professor Lord Winston. Girls who took part relished these fantastic opportunities to ask direct questions; an incredible resource.

Fabulous Short Fiction Local author Rebecca Westcott has been hugely supportive of the school in the past term. She paid one visit to give a talk to girls in LIII to UIV about her journey to becoming a writer and the benefits of keeping a diary before delivering a creative writing workshop for them, and returned a few weeks later as the judge in our annual Born to Write competition.

At the awards ceremony, Rebecca praised the young writers for their ability to draw in the reader in a remarkably short space of time. She read some examples of brilliant opening sentences, making the gathered audience realise just how well-written these pieces were!

Winning students from St Mary’s, Knighton House, Hanford, Sandroyd and Queen Elizabeth’s School attended. Overall winner was Timothy Robinson from Sandroyd, Madeleine Humphries from St Mary’s was the Year 7-9 Category winner and Francesca Allman from Queen Elizabeth’s School won the Year 10 & 11 Category.

Congratulations also to those who received Highly Commended awards: Tatiana Welchman (Sandroyd), Scarlett Ridge and Lottie Butterworth (St Mary’s), Josephine David and Lauren Semmens (QE), Eliza Ellis (Hanford) and Megan Elliot (Knighton House).

Fashion Show

2018

At the end of term the St Mary’s Art Department provided a stunning showcase of the girls’ textiles work in their popular biannual Fashion Show.

This year’s event saw creations produced by our younger years based on Pop Art whilst our UV showed us some fabulous pieces inspired by architecture. Various eras of fashion were represented throughout the evening with hats from 1920’s and skirts and dresses from 1950’s as well as some of the St Mary’s staff modelling a variety of costumes from the last 100 years in their ‘Fashion Through the Ages’ selection.

The girls put on a phenomenal, exuberant show and were joined by visiting pupils from Knighton House and Hanford prep schools who had spent the last few months creating outfits to present on the St Mary’s catwalk.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this fashion extravaganza!

&

Inaugural House Shout In keeping with Mary Ward’s philosophy on endeavour – “Do what you do, that is apply yourself diligently to the work you have in hand, to perform it carefully and perfectly” – it was decided that we should hold our very first House Shout on Mary Ward Day this year. Each House performed a senior solo, a junior solo, a House song and an ensemble piece. The girls and their housemistresses put much thought into choosing entertaining pieces and, after hours of rehearsals, performed their pieces to the rest of the school and the judges, Mr Harris and Penny Clements, Director of Music at Cobham Hall School. Dressed to fit with the theme of the day – festivals – the girls took the stage. The standard was exceptionally high, making the judges’ decision very difficult but, after much deliberation, York House were chosen as the deserving winners.

Pitch Perfect Inter House Hockey Despite the strong winds and torrential rain, the girls were eager to get back on the hockey pitch for their Inter House Hockey tournament as term began in January.

With great support from friends and family, the matches proved to be exciting. In the Hewarth competition, pre-tournament favourites took first place, with Harewell 2nd and York 3rd.

When the UIV teams met, there was some superb play with great defending; Harewell took 1st place, Newby 2nd and York 3rd. In the senior full XI-a-side tournament, a combination of LV, UV and VI, teams had to adapt to new players in different positions so spectators were shown some exciting new dynamics from the house teams. It was a fantastic display of Houses welcoming new players into the senior squads, showcasing their talents both in individual and team play, whilst not compromising on skill or tactical expertise. Overall, York placed 1st, Harewell 2nd and Newby 3rd.

Boarding Life Our boarders have enjoyed a number of outings and social events through the term, highlights were the Burns Night supper held with a brilliant piper and a beautifully-read Address to the haggis. The Culture Club celebrated the Chinese New Year with girls from all Houses and there were foods from around the world to sample at the International Food Fair. Although the much-awaited trip to Harry Potter World had to be postponed due to the second snowfall, girls have enjoyed other outings to places like Bournemouth’s Clip ‘n’ Climb and look forward to further adventures in the summer months.

Sports Roundup

BOARDING HOUSE NEWS

Aquathlon At the end of term, St Mary’s hosted our first ever Aquathlon with over 280 competitors from 17 schools taking part in the event. Despite the cold and drizzly weather, the athletes all undertook the swimming and running challenge with grit and determination and endured the chilly transitions to finish with some impressive results.

Netball With the Spring Term being our main netball season it was perfect that we were able to kick-off with some training from the Army Inter Corps Netball Champions. The Adjutant General’s Corps Team came to St Mary’s to coach our U12 – U15 netball squads and it was an excellent opportunity for them to learn valuable skills for the coming season.

We have had an extremely successful season with all of our teams celebrating successes throughout the term. Our Second Team started their season with a win against Godolphin and were grateful to Fleur H who stepped up from the U14 team and the defenders, Mary, Electra BS and Tallulah C, who prevented Godolphin from ever finding their rhythm.

Our First Team, Seconds and U15’s all came away with convincing wins over Leweston in February. Caro B and Fizz W played some outstanding netball for the First Team while the U15’s chose Bego VC and Alexa G as their players of the match.

The U14’s beat Clayesmore 20–14 in February with Alice J walking away

with player of the match and her performance also earned her the welldeserved title of Sports Star of the week. In the same week, our Second and Third Teams beat Warminster 2511 and 23-12 respectively.

The highlight of the 17/18 Netball Year was the success of our U15’s at the North Dorset Tournament. St Mary’s beat Gillingham, Blandford, Sherborne Girls and Clayesmore and drew an exciting match against Bryanston. This meant we finished with equal points to Bryanston but sadly, when it came down to goal difference, we narrowly missed being overall winners but celebrated our well-deserved runners up position. All members of the team played their part with Dodo, Bell and Lucy TT in defence, Olivia O and Emily

B creating space down the court and Alexa G and Bego VC securing goals with cool confidence.

Our newly formed U12 team were able to start getting to grips with the game at the North Dorset High Fives Tournament, hosted here at St Mary’s, and our U14 A and B teams displayed great skill in their wins over Monkton Coombe at the end of term.

The final matches of the season were played against Downside and our terrific First Team were overjoyed to win the last match they would play together. Our U15’s also walked away with a victory to bring their amazing season to a close.

Cross Country We have enjoyed some excellent Cross Country results this term with Theo C placing 22nd out of over 150 runners at Bryanston in January where she showed fantastic endurance and pacing. Close behind her were Fleur H and Rosanna W. Rosanna had the run of her life and beat her personal best by more than a minute!

The Junior team also had a successful day with Sofia S running a strong and steady race with Mia T, Olivia TT and Bella hot on her heels.

Ten girls represented St Mary’s at the Dorset County Cross Country Championships at King’s Park in Bournemouth. It was super to have representatives from St Mary’s running in the Minors, Juniors and Inters competitions. Our youngest runners, Emily D and Bella, showed great potential. The Junior Team set themselves

ambitious targets and, despite the mud and rain, four of the team finished in the top 100 runners in the county. In the Inters, Theo C did a brave run, especially after coming back from an injury, and finished in the top 20 and Dodo ran a superb race to finish in the top 40.

The

m o r f t ’ s t s a e a ‘B the E

The end of February took us all by surprise by bringing the first significant snowfall Shaftesbury has seen since 2010. Old Girls, including one of our current governors, may remember sliding down the drive on metal trays in the snow to collect the milk and bread in the past, and the weather can still have a dramatic impact on school life up here on the hill. It was nothing our gritty girls and staff couldn’t handle, though, and a happy weekend was spent sledging and building snow sculptures, including an awesome igloo constructed over many hours by the girls in Mary Ward House. We welcome the arrival of Spring, but many of us will have happy memories of fun in the snow at the beginning of 2018.

FAREWELLS At Easter we said goodbye to the Moranzoni family who have lived on site and contributed to the spiritual and practical life of the school in numerous ways since September. They return to the Shalom Community but hope to return to visit St Mary’s whenever they can and we wish the whole family well in their next adventure. One of our Geography teachers, Mandy Blackmore who was sharing maternity cover in the department, is also leaving, and we wish her very well.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Friends of St Mary’s Spring Social 21st April 7:30pm Sports Awards Dinner 24th April Open Morning and Forces Luncheon 4th May Royal Wedding Garden Party 19th May Parent/Daughter Tennis 10th June Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat 29th & 30th June

St Mary’s School, Shaftesbury Dorset SP7 9LP +44 (0)1747 852416 www.stmarys.eu

Parents’ Day 7th July