Inside Heathfield enews issue 27

Issue Number 27 w/c 29th September 2014 - w/c 13th October 2014 Debating Society On Thursday 9th October, the girls of Heathfield School Debating Society staged their inaugural debate in St Mary’s Theatre in front of a strong turnout of Form IV, Form V and Lower VI girls along with interested staff. The motion put before the audience was This House believes that the United Kingdom Government was right to legalise same-sex marriage. The six girls on each team gave excellent performances on what was undoubtedly a nerve-wracking occasion for all involved and the debate progressed quickly and, in places, extremely passionately. Boosted by apt audience questions and well-researched points, both the Proposition and Opposition gained applause from the audience for their strong debating skills. In the end, the Proposition won the day by a very large margin of thirty-seven to two as the audience voted to support the motion. After the debate, Mr Hart presented an award to Holly (Form V) for the Best Audience Question and to Ali (LVI Form) for Best Debater. Both the audience and the teams were energised after the debate and it bodes well for what we hope will become a Heathfield staple as we go forward into national competitions.

Mr T Pithers, Teacher of English and Deputy Head of House - Somerville

Invitation Day On Saturday 11th October Heathfield welcomed a large group of nervous girls who came to sit their entrance examinations for Heathfield’s Form I and Form III intake for September 2015. The girls a took series of tests in English, Mathematics, Science and Non-Verbal Reasoning and were invigilated by the Senior Leadership Team: Mrs Heywood, Mrs Gardiner Legge and Mr Hart. The candidates participated in a balloon debate which gave them a chance to express their views and opinions. After lunch the girls took part in Science, Photography and Cookery workshops.

Invitation Day was a huge success and we look forward to welcoming successful candidates back for interview.

Mrs S Frost, Marketing Manager Form V Geography Trip to Christchurch Bay Christchurch Bay, Dorset, proved to be a perfect location for identifying cliff recession and management of the area's various coastal features. Form V worked their way through field work tasks such as: timing the frequency of waves, deciding the direction of wind, discovering the many ways that natural processes are interfered with, or not, by councils, as well as displaying the evidence on field sketches.

Lunch took place on a recurved wall that was almost buried in beach replenishment (see photo). The 6km walk, the ferry across from Mudeford Spit to Hengistbury Head and the appreciation of the value of the beach-huts in such a desirable area all added to the girls' experience. Great preparation for GCSE questions in the summer!

Mrs B Mason, Head of Humanities Faculty

Issue Number 27 w/c 29th September 2014 - w/c 13th October 2014 Study Skills Session It’s so exciting when you finally get to start your new courses for GCSE and AS Level. Subjects that you really like and at a new challenging level too is inspiring, and then the workload hits! It’s at the point when studies start to bite that we call on the help of Chloe Mills who came in on Thursday 2 nd October to give the girls guidance and tips on how to tame the wild beast of too much work. In the morning the Lower Sixth had an Independent Learning Conference where they learnt professional methods of taking notes, skim reading and scanning for information and resource techniques. Feedback from the girls was very positive with comments like: 'It was useful in determining what I can take from it and use for improving my personal study skills' 'Very interactive and action packed. It was useful, especially in condensing text' 'Speed reading skills, time management and effective note taking - I liked how you gave us an idea of what note taking will be like in uni' In the afternoon it was the turn of the Fourth Form to learn about revision techniques in Maximising Success. This workshop was packed full of revision strategies for their exams and assessments which the girls found very helpful.

Their feedback was equally positive and included the following comments: 'It helped me learn how to revise effectively. Also, the interactive things were fun - it was good that we got to try them out' 'It taught me a lot of new techniques, which ones are best for me and how to do them. Couldn't be improved - it was fun, productive and I learnt a lot!'

'The way you explained the different ways to revise. How you got us involved with singing and activities and the booklet' 'I thought that it was very interesting and I feel like I will be able to revise a lot more easily now' 'I loved how it was so interactive, fun and super useful!’

A very successful day for all the girls and lots of useful strategies and techniques to help with their learning. Who could ask for more?

Mrs M Gardiner Legge, Director of Studies

Form II Trip to the Living Rainforest Not quite Brazil but Berkshire's Living Rainforest offers the chance to experience the heat and humidity of the tropics and an idea of the fascinating diversity of the tropical rainforest.

Form II visited the Living Rainforest on 7th October where they had an informative tour showing them some of the amazing adaptations of both plant and animal species. They asked and answered many questions as they observed Azara Agoutis and their relationship with the Brazil nuts, Madagascar Periwinkles and their medicinal uses and drip tips and aerial roots of other plants. In the afternoon the girls then worked hard on their own to sketch examples and collect information to follow up in a display at school.

The afternoon was finished off with a flying visit for afternoon tea at the home of the Cubitts where the class were all delighted to see Summer.

Mrs L Worrall, Teacher of Geography Bees A bee hive has been introduced to the top field in the school grounds and we look forward to producing our own Heathfield Honey in the not too distant future. We also hope that the Heathfield Honey will help those within our community who suffer from hay fever. The bee hive allows us to play a small part in trying to protect the bee population which is in decline whilst helping us to move one step closer to achieving our Eco Schools Green Flag.

Mrs S Frost, Marketing Manager

Issue Number 27 w/c 29th September 2014 - w/c 13th October 2014 School Charity 2014 Our chosen school charity this year is The Honeypot Children’s Charity. During Chapel we voted between three charities, and after being informed about them, Honeypot gained the greatest number of votes. “The Honeypot Children’s Charity is for every child to make the most of their one chance at childhood”. Since 1996 Honeypot has been working to enhance the lives of vulnerable children and young carers aged 5-12 years by providing respite breaks and on-going outreach support. They give young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home and provide a safe, nurturing environment where children at risk can develop their full potential.

An example of a child Honeypot has helped is Daniel. Daniel is 6 years old and has a chaotic home life. His mother drinks heavily, he has no contact with his father, he often goes hungry and he regularly misses school. On Daniel’s first visit, he was very anxious and needed to be reassured that his Mum would be fine whilst he was away. He called home at night and morning to make sure she had not done anything ‘silly’. Whilst at Honeypot he was able to relax slightly and almost forgot his troubles by being able to be a child.

As students we felt this was a suitable and relevant charity considering our age group, as not long ago we were small children ourselves. With this in mind, we are all motivated and ready to help.

We aim to raise as much money as we can for The Honeypot Charity; we will do this by involving as many students and teachers as possible in events and fundraising activities throughout the school year.

For example Mufti days, bake sales, and sponsored runs. This is a great opportunity for us as a community to engage with each other, and try to stop the issues that are involved with young carers, beyond what one may expect. We hope to raise lots of money for The Honeypot Charity, and along with this raise awareness.

Elinor, LVI Form student

Dash, Stash and Smash This year’s Harvest Festival took place during the Austen Weekend. On Saturday 11 th October the girls took part in a ‘dash’ around the supermarket. Each girl spent £5 and was given the brief to purchase food that would feed a family of four. Members of staff also donated £5 and the girls enjoyed investing their money wisely. The food was then brought back to school and ‘stashed’ in the Chapel. Darcy (Form III), Iona and Katie (Form V) dedicated their time to sort the food into piles and placed it around the Chapel ready to be blessed during the Harvest Festival service which took place on Sunday 12th October. The Harvest collection ‘smashed’ that of the previous years. The food gathered has been distributed to St Saviours Priory, Haggerston and a food bank in Bracknell. Our founder Eleanor Beatrice Wyatt decided to support St Saviours Priory when the school was founded and this is a tradition which continues each year.

Fr T Tregunno, Chaplain

Issue Number 27 w/c 29th September 2014 - w/c 13th October 2014 Emily secures a place at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris Congratulations to Emily (UVI Form) who has been accepted onto Le Cordon Bleu’s Patisserie course in Paris which starts next September. The application process was very similar to a University application and Emily had to send off her CV, a personal statement and portfolio. Emily will study patisserie during the course and will complete three diplomas – basic, intermediate and advanced patisserie. Emily plans to apply to go to University but may take up a Le Cordon Bleu work placement in Paris if offered the opportunity. After Heathfield and her time in the patisserie capital of the world Emily hopes to open her own cake company either in Paris or England.

Mrs S Frost, Marketing Manager

Austen Weekend Austen weekend came on one of the busiest of the term with visitors flocking in for Invitation Day as well as numerous lacrosse fixtures; therefore all visitors and guests were able to enjoy the wonders and thrills of ‘A Fist Full of Feathers’ Falconry group. The girls were treated to an array of impressive birds including falcons, hawks and kestrels, although I believe that the most popular choice was Maggie the eagle-owl.

Heathfield also did its part for Harvest Festival, with over one hundred girls paying a visit to the local supermarket in order to purchase food to feed a family of four; our total was very impressive with the Chapel bursting with pasta and soup cans that will be sent off to the local food bank, and we were able to break our record from last year.

In the evening, our academic prefect Lina (LVI Form) had prepared an impressive interhouse quiz, watched by the whole school; the contest was both competitive and dramatic with Somerville keeping their cool and carrying off the winners’ prize of book tokens.

On Sunday, Form III travelled to the newly renovated Imperial War Museum to visit the Horrible Histories Spies exhibition as well as the World War One display where the girls were able to see original uniforms, weapons and other artefacts; they learnt a lot about the horrors of war and how lucky they are as a result of the sacrifices of these brave soldiers.

Thanks to all Austen staff and Housemistresses for their great help and support over the weekend.

Mr A Valner, Head of House - Austen, and Subject Leader - Latin and Classics

Speed Dating Form IV took part in a lively and energetic “Speed Dating” activity during their PSHE lesson. The aim of the activity was to develop and explore the themes of Self-Esteem and Relationships and the link between good self-esteem and the ability to form healthy relationships.

During the “Speed Dating” the girls were seated opposite each other in a circle of tables and chairs and filled in a card listing their own positive personal qualities and characteristics and also what they would consider most important in a partner.

The girls then took it in turns to present themselves to the person opposite using the ideas they had written down about themselves to describe their personal qualities and characteristics.

Their partner had a card to record their responses to the presentation and then fed back how effectively the girl presenting had communicated and picked out some of her positive attributes. A school bell was rung when it was time to move on to the next person.

Mrs A Diaz, PSHE Co-ordinator

Issue Number 27 w/c 29th September 2014 - w/c 13th October 2014 Review of Music Trip to Cadogan Hall On 14th October, Heathfield Music Department took all the Music A Level and GCSE students along with some girls from younger years to watch a music concert at Cadogan Hall in London. The concert consisted of three most enjoyable pieces: Manfred Overture by Robert Schumann, Piano Concerto no.1 in B flat minor by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Symphony no.5 in E flat major by Jean Sibelius.

First we went to have dinner at Pizza Express, which was full of memorable ironic occurrences for me. Let me set a descriptive scene before I share my experience in this restaurant with you. When we were travelling to London on the minibus, Miss Kong gave us a quiz about the composers and pieces to be performed at the concert that evening.

The prize for the winner with the highest score was a free dessert of any choice in the restaurant. The competitive quiz was fun and packed with useful knowledge about what we were going to hear at the concert that evening. All girls participated with eagerness and enthusiasm, mainly because the thought of having a yummy hot chocolate brownie with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream was irresistible! I was lucky enough to appear to be the winner of the quiz, partly because Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite composers. After my main course I proudly ordered a chocolate brownie to claim my prize in which I promised to share with Izzy. When I was served dessert, it turns out that the size of the brownie was the smallest that one could ever get – it was smaller than the size of my fist! Izzy and I each had two bites. However, I was stuffed from my mains and found that the size of the brownie was just nice to finish off my meal with a sweet touch. What I considered as a misfortune in the beginning turns out to be a consolation as I think having a full tummy of food might just tickle my sleeping button and would have disrupted my enjoyment of the concert later on.

After dinner, we took a lovely 15 minute walk to Cadogan Hall. This hall was previously a church. I find the atmosphere particularly nice and welcoming because of its intimate small size venue. As soon as we sat down, we were drawn into the world of music. The first piece, Manfred Overture, was very mellow and I could draw an image ”of a hero who, tormented by the unnamed crime that has led to the ruin of a woman clearly intended to be his sister, wanders the Alps in search of oblivion” from the music that I have heard. The second piece was my favourite, especially the first movement. I was hypnotised by the hands of Natasha Paremski, the solo pianist. As we were seated at the side gallery at the top floor, we were able to have the bird’s eye view of the pianist at close distance.

Her fingers moved at the speed of lightning. The performance was so outstanding that I wanted to hear it again. The third and final piece had exceeded all my expectations. I fell in love with the 3rd movement of Symphony no. 5 in Eflat major by Sibelius. The occurrence which struck me most was the 4-bar motif blasted by the brass instruments.

The motif was simple but ever so beautiful combined with rich dissonant harmonies played by the strings. The chromaticism trapped within the romanticism thrilled me and I felt goose bumps all the way until the finale!

Overall, this was my favourite music trip ever. It was indeed a fantastic evening, certainly an educational one too where I plan to use some ideas from the pieces that I have heard for my A2 composing. I would like to thank the wonderful Music department for such an extraordinary trip and I look forward to more.

Diana, UVI Form

Music Captains’ Concert On Friday 10th October Izzy (LVI Form) and I organised our Music Captains’ concert. The concert began with Pirates of The Caribbean theme tune arranged by Diana (UVI Form), then a range of performances occurred ranging from Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen to Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.

As the theme was open this allowed a range of songs to be performed and in ranges of styles from piano to saxophone and also a ukulele and voice quintet. We really enjoyed the whole process of the arranging and also performing in the concert.

The evening was enjoyed and a definite success, many thanks must go to Mrs Dance, Miss Kong, Ms O’Connor and others who worked tirelessly alongside us to put on such an enjoyable concert.

Antonia, LVI Form

Issue Number 27 w/c 29th September 2014 - w/c 13th October 2014 Girls Go Gold Gifted and Talented PE students were invited to the South of England ‘Girls Go Gold’ day at St Catherine’s, Bramley along with 400 talented young female athletes to inspire them to excel in their chosen sports as well as academic physical education. The day started with a whole group lecture with Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson who shared her 25 years of experience as an elite Paralympian, before she rushed off to Parliament to hear the discussion regarding Scotland’s Independence. The rest of the day was spent split into smaller groups for seminars and practical workshops such as a Strengthening and Conditioning class with Surrey Sports, a Netball seminar with Tamsin Greenway, England Netballer and Surrey Storm player/coach, who shared her insight into what it takes to be an elite athlete and make it to the top. After lunch Anna Watkins, Olympic Champion, who won Gold at the London 2012 Games in the double sculls alongside Katherine Grainger, gave a funny yet motivational talk about her journey from participation in rowing to the podium. We found this interesting because it shows how girls can achieve anything with determination even if you are not the conventional athlete robot, as well as it being ok to take the unconventional route into professional level sport. We had the once in a life time opportunity to hold her Gold Medal; it was unbelievable how heavy it was! We even managed to get a cheeky selfie!

Honor and Tilly (both Form V)

Equestrian Success Congratulations to Isabella (Form V) and her team from the Warwickshire Hunt Pony Club who won the Virbac Cup in the preliminary competition at the Horse of the Year Show. The team then went on to compete for the Prince Philip Cup which they won, being crowned the mounted games winners at the Horse of the Year Show 2014.

During the Summer holidays Rose (Form V) competed for the Tigré Marble Junior International Dressage Championship Challenge Trophy at Sheepgate with her horse Florentino.

Rose and Florentino competed over 4 days and won the competition.

Congratulations.

Mrs G Glimmerveen, Equestrian Co-ordinator

Berkshire Lacrosse Congratulations to Daisy (LVI Form) and Honor (Form V) who have been selected for the U19 Berkshire lacrosse squad and Amber (Form IV) who has been selected as a reserve for the U15 Berkshire lacrosse squad. The girls will represent their teams on 8th November at the South West Counties Lacrosse Tournament.

Ms W Reynolds, Director of Sport

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