Inside Heathfield enews issue 20

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 Heathfield Highflyers and Staff Awards In the final assembly of term Heathfield Highflyers and the Staff Awards were presented. This half term staff awards went to Anastasia (Form III), Honor (Form IV) and Janet (UVI Form). The following Heathfield Highflyer awards were presented to: Science Faculty Boots, Sophia, Amber and Mercedes (all Form I, Austen) for their Maths project on a Theme Park where the girls in Forms I-III were challenged to take part in a FUNctional Maths activity during the last two weeks of term to celebrate the variety of applications the subject has in different professions. The girls had to design a theme park within a budget and make a presentation to convince investors they should lend them the money to get it started. The Highflyer award winners opted to make their own website for the project, called Bams Burger.

Humanities Faculty Sophie (Form IV) for her piece of English lyrical writing.

Arielle (Form II) who gained full marks in a Geography Project on a underdeveloped country.

Anna (Form IV) for producing an outstanding revision resource made entirely in her own time.

Creative Faculty Billie (LVI Form) for producing an outstanding History of Art essay which gained a grade A. Sophie (LVI Form) for creating an impressive art book.

Congratulations must also go to Elinor (Form V) who was awarded the Mary Grant Cup for making the most of her talents, showing determination and resilience as well as being cheerful and compassionate.

Miss Lloyd, Marketing Manager The House Shield Following Heathfield tradition, the very last item on Mrs Heywood’s agenda in the final Assembly of term was the announcement of the House Shield winners. Heathfield girls are extremely passionate about the House Shield as they work so hard gaining points throughout the term for their Houses, whether through earning bedroom grades or by participating in House competitions. This term Somerville came 4th, Austen 3rd and much to Seacole’s delight De Valois came 2nd. De Valois and Austen have dominated the House Shield victories for the past few years and Seacole were so thrilled to be named the victors. Next term the whole House will be taken out to enjoy supper at Pizza Express.

Miss Lloyd Marketing Manager

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 Science Week This year the theme of Science Week was ‘Explore the Future’. The department decide to launch this year with a big interhouse challenge of ‘Mail yourself a Pringle’. Houses were restricted to the dimensions and weight of a large second class letter, materials were provided but Houses were allowed to improvise. Various different ideas were tried out using DVD cases, putty and cotton wool, but in the end Austen won with their Pringle suspended in a reel of sellotape. It was also encouraging to see staff taking part in their own competition in which they had to fund their own postage, which saw the winner Madame Lanshear investing £12 into winning the bottle of wine, with Miss Kong being thwarted by being 9p underpaid on her postage!

In Science Week itself the usual high octane demonstrations and activities happened each lunchtime in the Assembly Hall. Monday saw Dr Harden displaying a hydrogen powered car and the power of robotics whilst being accompanied by the usual loud bangs. Tuesday saw the launch of two hot air balloons with Mrs Kemp and Miss Fagan. The rain sadly meant the initial launch was inside but as it dried up it was moved to the courtyard. On Wednesday we saw dry ice made from just a fire extinguisher and bed sheet. It was then used to change pH and create very effective Eppendorf bangers. Thursday saw the students being given an opportunity to enhance their skills, with mirror writing, drawing in the dark, trampette writing, investigating the wonders of the Mobius strip and investigating the density of coloured solutions. Prizes were awarded to the best staff and students in each category, but special mention must go to Sophia (Form I) and Ella (Form III) for their enthusiasm and effort. Finally the week ended with an Assembly of opening Pringle parcels and House Captains lighting hydrogen filled cans with Seacole’s being the most effective. The week drew to a close with an ice cream party - liquid nitrogen style, this unsurprisingly was the best supported event as a result of the promise of free vanilla ice cream.

Thanks must go to the Science Department for their support but particularly to Mrs Milner as solo technician for the week and our temporary ‘technician for a day’ Janet (UVI Form).

Miss Wells, Head of Science Faculty

Hinduism Day The Bollywood Workshop Company came to Heathfield to teach Form III about Bollywood and demonstrate Bhangra dancing. Wearing bangles and Bindis the girls learnt a Bollywood style dance routine and competed for best performer. At break Miss Sass delivered Indian sweets to everyone whilst Bollywood music played throughout the Assembly Hall. The Form III girls were then quizzed on what they had learnt in the morning and the winning team won their very own set of Indian bangles. A delicious authentic Indian meal was served by the catering team at lunch and every girl in the school was given a Bindi to wear. Indian Festival facts could be found on the dining tables along with candles reminiscent of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. In the afternoon the Form III girls participated in a Heathfield Holi Festival. Holi is a Festival of Colours and represents good overcoming evil.

Dressed in white t-shirts and swimming costumes the girls gathered on the top field to throw coloured powder paint and water bombs at each other. Lots of fun was had by all!

Mrs Reeves Head of Lower School and Teacher of Religious Studies

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 LAMDA, Music and Fashion Show On Friday 21 March the eagerly awaited LAMDA, Music and Fashion Show began at 7.30pm in St Mary’s Theatre.

The first half of the evening was dedicated to LAMDA and Music. The orchestra opened the concert with Ode to Joy followed by the Form I ballerinas who performed Le Petit Rien, Emily and Jamila (both LVI Form) and Phoebe (Form IV) sang Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof and Thea-Rose and Misato (both UVI Form) did a ballet duet I am Afraid. To conclude the first half, everyone was on their feet dancing and clapping along to Somebody that I used to know by Gotye, Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader and Happy by Pharrell Williams performed by The Remedies, Heathfield’s band.

Whilst the stage was transformed into a catwalk for the second half, parents, governors, girls and staff made their way to the foyer for canapés and champagne. On their return to the theatre the fashion show began with a powerful and striking video, then one by one the girls strutted and posed down the catwalk making sure the revolving stage and wind machine were both used to their full effect. The fashion show displayed textiles work by 35 Heathfield girls from Forms I to UVI, and these pieces were modelled by 18 girls during the show. Angela Drisdale-Gordon from the London College of Fashion and Yasmin Le Bon judged the fashion show with Sophia (Form I) and Aliya (Form V) being awarded prizes for the best designs with their Leather Gown and Restriction Dress respectively. To conclude the evening Angela Drisdale-Gordon and Mrs Heywood announced that Heathfield and the University College of London, London College of Fashion have now become official partners.

Miss Lloyd, Marketing Manager

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 Theme Park Maths Challenge Forms I, II and III have been participating in a FUNctional Maths activity in their Mathematics lessons during the final two weeks of term. The purpose of the activity was to celebrate the variety of applications that the subject has to offer and to consider why Mathematics is important in so many different professions. The main part of their activity was to work in small House groups to design a fictional theme park that would be the first of its kind on the moon.

Each group was given a budget, which would need to be paid back from the theme park’s profits, and had to use this to buy rides, cafes, shops, an administration office, ticket offices and toilets. Some groups researched the cost of other items such as ticket booths and drying machines to be used after water rides. The next challenge was to calculate the cost of maintaining and running their theme park, based on the number and size of the items they had bought. They then had to decide upon a ticket price and calculate their annual income based on projected customer numbers over a three week period. The final part of the challenge was to design a business plan presentation to convince NASA to loan them the amount of money required to build and run their theme park, explaining how long it would take them to pay back the loan and why NASA should invest in their theme park over all of the other proposals. The work that each group produced was outstanding; we were particularly impressed by their creativity, the time they spent on the activity outside of the lesson and the clarity of their calculations. The winning teams for each year group were as follows: Form I ‘BAMS Burger’ by Sophia, Boots, Mercedes and Amber (Austen) Form II ‘de Luna’ by Victoria, Lydia, Grace and Arielle (De Valois) Form III ‘Big Bang’ by Kitty, Chrissie and Cece (Somerville) ‘Comet Chaos’ by Amber, Ella and Emmy (De Valois) Mrs Benjamin, Subject Leader – Mathematics

European Youth Parliament On Monday 10th March, nine LVI Form girls, accompanied by Mr Grey and Mr Pithers, travelled to Oxford to debate in the world-renowned Oxford Union. The girls were representing Heathfield in the Thames Valley regional heat of the European Youth Parliament, a prestigious pan-European competition. The girls had been chosen to oppose the motion on European Union Fisheries Reform and, whilst this may not have been their natural first choice, they rose to the challenge admirably. Blanca delivered a well-written and thoughtful attack speech with passion and clarity and this undoubtedly helped to win over fellow delegates. The girls put up a strong show against the motion, proposed

by St Helen and St Katharine, Abingdon, and Emily gave a fantastic summation speech to close the debate. The motion was passed by only a narrow margin thanks to Heathfield’s strong arguments.

The girls contributed to a variety of debates throughout the day on issues as diverse as private investment in the space industry and intra-European migration. The girls were up against very tough opposition and unfortunately did not make it through to the national final but can come away proud of the fact that they have debated in one of the world’s most prestigious venues.

Mr Pithers, Teacher of English

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 Form I visit to Rushall Farm Form I’s annual investigation of Rushall Farm took place this year on 10th May, luckily on a day free of rain! The girls set off with their antennae alert in search of facts and figures to feed their report. Cliff, the Education Officer, was ready and waiting in anticipation, as he rates our Heathfield girls as most entertaining and curious, having had to respond to some very interesting questions from previous years. The lambs did not let us down – Clemmie was invited to assist in the birth of the second of twin lambs, resulting in the naming of Clement for the newly-born. Learning about the world of bees, Amber was able to display the effect of the ‘Waggledance’ on the many worker bees (the rest of the group!).

Always looking to extend the students, scientific soil testing was introduced at the three main field sites, helping the girls to appreciate the farmer’s decision on what to grow and how best to use crop rotation. Cliff showed many examples of diversification; such as the charcoal pits, the camping field and the barn hire. The favourite activity was kept until last – everyone enjoyed a cuddle with the lambs despite having to wear plastic aprons as protection!

Prizes will be given to the most comprehensive and well-presented reports – possible contenders for the highly sought after Highflyer award!

Mrs Mason, Head of Humanities Faculty and Miss Wells, Head of Science Faculty

Biology A Level Field Trip The three A Level Biology students set off to Exmoor on their annual field trip on Friday 14 March. After stopping off to collect our counterparts from Luckley House, we arrived at the Nettlecombe Study Centre for lunch.

Having been introduced to our tutor Andy and settled into our room, we went to our classroom where we started to learn about timber production management. We then walked to a nearby forest to see evidence of these techniques.

After supper, we were with Andy rounding up our results and looking back at the photos of the day.

Day two was spent looking into the plant species and biodiversity in differently aged burn plots on the Quantock Hills moorland. We set up quadrants and measured the distribution of plants, while also calculating the values of the abiotic factors. We then returned to Nettlecombe and calculated the diversity index for the species we found, and had an introduction to Sunday's activity. As we finished theory work faster than anticipated we earned ourselves an evening outside of the classroom setting up a badger night camera and listening for bats.

After a cooked breakfast, we drove up to Exmoor, to an area called Embercombe, avoiding the highland cows meandering through the road. We walked down the stream until we reached an area of confluence. Then the fun started! Having stroked several wild Exmoor ponies, we began collecting samples of invertebrates from the pools and riffles of the stream. As fun as this was, with the water at only 9.5 degrees and a strong wind chill, it certainly tested our determination! We identified the different species and recorded our data, before moving on to our other sites. Among the highlights were a rogue slug, a mammoth collection of cased caddisfly larvae and Tayiwo (UVI Form) putting her hands back in the icy water to pose for a photograph! We posed for our final group photos and set off back to Nettlecombe to calculate statistics using the Spearmans rank technique. We reminisced about our trip with a slideshow of some of the more amusing moments, and set off upstairs to pack.

The trip was a great success, and we certainly made many friends along the way. We'd like to say on behalf of the Luckley girls and ourselves a big thank you to Miss Wells, Dr Jones and Mrs Buck for making this trip possible.

Janet, UVI Form Student

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 AS and A Level Drama and Theatre Studies Practical Examinations No sooner had the curtain fallen on Fiddler on the Roof, than the rehearsal pace picked up again for the LVI and UVI Form Theatre Studies girls as we had to put the finishing touches on their productions for their Practical Unit. Both examinations are worth 40% of their total exam and needless to say the expectation and the demands are high.

At AS the candidates are expected to perform a script of their choice in a particular style and at A Level the expectation is that they devise their own work. All their decisions need to be fully justified and explained in writing. Internally assessed and externally moderated, the process is rigorous and the girls are examined not only in terms of their final performance but also in terms of their contribution to and understanding of the rehearsal process.

Inspired by the work that they had done in our workshop earlier in the term with Tim McMullan from theatre company Complicite both groups decided that they wanted to work in that style. The LVI chose to perform scenes from Sarah Kane’s deeply psychological play 4:48 Psychosis. The play was written throughout the autumn and winter of 1998-99 as Kane battled with one of her recurrent bouts of depression. On 20th February, 1999, aged 28, the playwright committed suicide. On the page, the piece looks like a poem. No characters are named, and even their number is unspecified. It could be a journey through one person's mind, or an interview between a doctor and his patient. The UVI were just as ambitious, choosing to do a creative adaptation of Alexander Pope’s mock heroic poem; The Rape of the Lock. It was fascinating to see how different the two pieces were from the simple rawness and clinical physical theatre approach that the LVI took, to the stylised and highly technical comedy of the UVI. The final examination took place in St Mary’s Theatre on Monday 10th March and the evening was well attended by parents, staff and pupils. All the girls must be congratulated on all their hard work.

Ms O’Connor, Director of Drama

GCSE Drama Practical Examination In anticipation of what will be expected at A Level, the candidates are able to choose their play for this unit. They do however, have to choose something that will fit with a particular theme or idea given to them by the board and this year the theme was Contrasts. They chose to perform JB Priestley’s 1945 classic socialist play; An Inspector Calls.

Just in case you don’t know, the story takes the form of a ‘whodunnit’ and tells of Arthur Birling, a prosperous manufacturer in the early 1900s who is holding a dinner party to celebrate his daughter’s engagement to the son of a local business rival. The evening is interrupted by the arrival of a Police Inspector who tells that a young, workingclass girl has died after swallowing some disinfectant, and then proceeds to implicate them all in the events that built up to her suicide. The play fitted the theme because of its subject matter and also through the contrast between the characters’ attitudes and responses to the events.

The six Form V girls worked extremely hard on the piece which was performed in front of an external examiner, somewhat unusually but very fittingly, in the Drawing Room and those of us who were lucky enough to see it found it a very tense, fast paced and extremely effective production.

Again, big congratulations to all involved.

Ms O’Connor Director of Drama

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 Somerville Weekend, 22 and 23 March 2014 The senior girls were busy preparing for public examinations this weekend with a Sixth Form Study Skills and Revision seminar taking place on Saturday morning aptly entitled “Ace your Exams”. In addition girls took part in English revision sessions with Mr Pithers whilst the GCSE Art students spent the day with Mrs Leibovici preparing for their GCSE Art examination which was due to take place before the end of term. Whilst the upper school were busy revising, Form IV Duke of Edinburgh girls took part in their expedition and during the weekend covered more than 30km, arriving back on Sunday tired and sore but proud of the challenges they had overcome. On Saturday afternoon Forms I and II took part in a walk around Englemere Pond, Form IV took a trip to the cinema and in the evening the House Captains ran a whole school Easter Egg hunt.

Sunday started with Chapel before Forms I and II planted up fifty pots of herbs and small plants. In the afternoon Form III walked to Martins Heron via Lily Hill Park with Alison and Mrs Meeson. The GCSE Religious Studies girls attended revision sessions with Miss Sass and Forms I and II with girls from Forms III and IV went to the New Victoria Theatre in Woking to watch the Moscow State Circus.

Mr Doyle, Head of House – Somerville and Teacher of Mathematics

Georgie runs the Richmond Half Marathon On Sunday 23 March, I participated in the Richmond Half Marathon in aid of Prostate Cancer UK. Having only decided to run the race in January, I was a little apprehensive about how far I would get before I collapsed, and also doing it alone was very daunting. Luckily for me my training paid off and I completed the race in a time of 1 hour and 58 minutes. Half way through I was struck with an injury in my knee, but luckily there were two runners who encouraged me to complete the race and ran with me all the way to the end. I can't thank Heathfield enough for the support and donations and the money they have helped me raise. With everyone's help we came to a grand total of just over £1000. This means so much to my family and I, a cause so close to our hearts. Thank you so much again for all the support. http://www.justgiving.com/georgina-procter Georgie, UVI Form Student

Randy Mayfield visits Heathfield On Wednesday 12th March Heathfield had the pleasure of welcoming Mr Randy Mayfield from the Unites States.

Randy Mayfield is an accomplished singer/songwriter who has travelled extensively, both in the US and internationally to more than 80 countries.

Mr Mayfield led Heathfield’s Chapel with the song God Is So Good; in which he sung with us in eight different languages and everyone found it thoroughly enjoyable as well as challenging when trying to pronounce some of the words!

Later on, a lunchtime concert was held in the Chapel at which there was an amazing turnout. Mr Mayfield sung a number of songs, which consisted of Ten Thousand Reasons, Fool With A Fancy guitar, You Raise Me Up, O Solo Mio, Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone and All I Ask Of You, from The Phantom Of The Opera in which I was very lucky to be asked to perform with him.

I’m sure everyone would agree with me that it was such a treat to have Mr Mayfield visit Heathfield for the day and watch his amazing performance.

A special thank you must go to Miss Kong for arranging such a fantastic day.

Honey-Bee, LVI Form Student and Head of Choir

Issue Number 20, w/c 10th March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 Fifield Girls’ Interschool Arena Tournament Heathfield was the only school to field two teams at the girls’ interschool arena polo tournament at Fifield polo club on Sunday 23rd March. Weather conditions were favourable for once and a good day of polo was had by all.

Both Heathfield Red and Heathfield Blue had never played together as teams before Sunday and played very well against Downe House, Wellington, St Mary’s, St George’s and Wycombe Abbey plus a combination team. We were up against older and far more experienced players but our players were not fazed and kept the opposition at bay winning most of their chukkas and only losing by a bare minimum in a couple.

The blue team even won their penalty shootout despite it being their first experience of polo shootouts, confidently hitting their balls into the centre of the goal.

The red team finished fourth overall and the blue team sixth. Congratulations to all the players.

Mrs Glimmerveen, Equestrian Co-ordinator Staff vs Pupil Netball Each year the Staff vs Pupil netball becomes more and more competitive and this year the staff managed to gather three teams together and even dedicated time to practise during the week leading up to the tournament. The staff A, B and C teams took on a UVI Form, LVI Form and Form V teams whilst the rest of the school cheered the teams on enthusiastically. In the end the staff B and C teams did not win any matches against the girls but the staff A team proved a little more challenging for the girls. To conclude the tournament the staff put out their strongest team and played Heathfield’s 1st netball team. Much to the girls delight the 1st team beat the staff 10-8. The netball tournament was a great event and an excellent conclusion to the term.

Miss Kay, Teacher of PE

Issue Number 20, w/c 10h March 2014 - w/c 24th March 2014 House Swimming House Swimming was a closely fought competition with only 10 points separating second to fourth positions and another 14 points between first and second.

Within the Lower School, Floria (Form I) from Seacole House dominated the individual races by winning all that she entered. Well done to De Valois House for winning the Lower School section.

Jemima (Form III), of Austen House dominated the intermediate section and set two new House records in the Individual Medley and Front Crawl. Austen House went on to win this section.

Within the Upper School it was fabulous to see so many girls fiercely competing. Special mentions go to Daisy (Form V), of Seacole House and Saskia (UVI Form). Daisy set three new records in the Individual Medley, Front crawl and was part of the winning Seacole Freestyle relay team. Saskia finished her swimming career at Heathfield on a high, setting a new record in Breaststroke. Well done to Seacole for winning the senior section.

Huge congratulations go to Austen House who were crowned the overall House Swimming Champions for 2014.

Miss Talbot, Head of House – De Valois and Teacher of PE

Daisy represents South West Lacrosse

House Lacrosse House Lacrosse as ever was an excellent event and the weather was kind. The competition was tight especially in the Lower School event with Seacole and De Valois leading the way but in the end De Valois came out on top.

In the senior event no one could keep up with De Valois who ran away with the competition although an outstanding performance in goal by Aliya (Form V) meant they really had to fight for their 1-0 victory against Somerville. Mr Doyle, Head of Somerville House was up and down the side lines cheering his teams on and never giving up hope!

Congratulations to Daisy (Form V) who is the first Heathfield girl to be selected to represent the South West Regional Lacrosse U19B team, making her one of the top 36 players in the region. Daisy was selected to captain the team who went on to win the regional tournament. The team beat both the North and the South East Regional teams with Daisy playing her part in both victories by scoring and assisting several goals.

Ms Reynolds, Director of Sport

Ms Reynolds, Director of Sport

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