Inside Heathfield enews issue 41

Issue Number 41 September 2015 Full STEM Ahead Welcome to all our new girls and our new staff at the beginning of the Michaelmas Term 2015 and welcome back to our returning pupils and staff. We are looking forward to a very special year in the history of Heathfield with the opening of our long-awaited STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) facility for lessons followed by its official opening by Lord Robert Winston next January.

Over the summer, we were delighted by the news of outstanding academic success at A Level and GCSE Level by Heathfield girls and we look forward to the start of another year of hard work and application and success on the sporting field and across all other extra-curricular activities.

Mrs Jo Heywood - Headmistress

Lashings of Trials, Drama and Ice Cream Seacole weekend: 5-6 September 2015 The first weekend back to school was a busy one for all. On the first Saturday, some girls completed prep while the great majority of girls took part in Lacrosse and Netball Team Trials.

After lunch, Houses met in locations around the school to begin the task of preparing their House Drama competition entries.

Each House had a script for a fairy tale which they could adapt and personalise as they wished. The Art room buzzed with girls preparing props and costumes, while others learned lines or worked on the plot.

At 4.15pm everybody needed a break so a lovely tea of chocolate brownies and strawberries was served to girls in their year groups before Forms I and II went off to the pool to play on the huge inflatable. This was great fun for all and the girls have requested to do it all again later in the term.

Form III played an ‘alternative’ style of rounders with Miss Reynolds on the lax pitch and Form IV upwards were ferried to the local shops so that they had a bit of time off site and an opportunity to buy what they needed as well as a few treats maybe.

At 6.30pm, supper was a pizza takeaway (actually home-made pizzas!) in common rooms before all girls headed back to their House bases for more rehearsals and art work.

Sunday started with a lovely service in Chapel before yet more rehearsals which continued all day with a break for lunch. At 4pm we all stopped for tea and everyone was pleased to see the sun was shining as the ice cream van could be heard heading up the drive with ice creams for all those that wanted it.

Finally, at 5pm, we all headed for the theatre and thoroughly enjoyed watching the plays produced by each house. The marks were very close and de Valois were the worthy winners! Well done de Valois!

Mrs Jeanette Kemp – Head of House - Seacole

Tatler Schools Guide: ‘Heathfield is buzzing at the moment!’

We were delighted to receive an outstanding review in the new Tatler Schools Guide 2016 which has just been published with the October edition of Tatler magazine. Tatler reported that ‘Heathfield is buzzing at the moment’, a testament to the hard work of all our staff and pupils in driving this unique school forward.

Ms Liz Ivens - Director of Communications

Issue Number 41 September 2015 From Camping to Coaching Somerville weekend: 12-13 September 2015 The busy weekend began early on Saturday morning with Lacrosse training conducted by senior players, Phoebe Clarke, Honor Congreve, Katy Smyth-Osbourne and India Fisher, supervised by coach Wendy Reynolds. Thanks to their hard work the younger girls learnt a lot and their mentors were excellent role models.

After prep and lunch, Form III set up their camp by the woods on the top field. Thanks must go to Deborah Hunt and Pauline Munro for helping to set up and pack the tents.

Forms I and II, who had been away on a three day camp, arrived back late Saturday afternoon. They were tired but very positive about the experience.

Chapel on Saturday evening involved a big input from the House Captains, who prepared music to accompany the service, decorated the Chapel and read all the lessons. Like the lacrosse coaching in the morning, they gave a fine example of leadership to the younger years.

Form III sang the evening away around their camp fire, while toasting marshmallows and halloumi and vegetable kebabs. Retiring to their tents and sleeping bags, they managed to surprise even themselves by soon falling quietly to sleep. The weather was favourable but cold by dawn.

Next morning, the junior forms had a lacrosse camp.

It was a chance to learn new skills and for many new girls a good introduction to the game.

At the Proms GCSE and A Level music students visited the Proms on 4 September.

In the afternoon, many in the senior forms went to the movies while Form III had a session of yoga. The girls enjoyed the yoga and it will be offered again on future weekends.

Forms I and II picked blackberries in the woods and then cooked individual apple and blackberry crumbles supervised

by Pauline Kerley.

Mr John Doyle – Head of House - Somerville

Issue Number 41 September 2015 Heathfield Taking the Lead Recently all girls in the Lower VI took part in a Leadership and Management course that we are running at Heathfield. The course has been developed by the Institute for Leadership and Management and, if completed, leads to an ILM level 3 Award in Leadership and Management. Currently, Heathfield is the only girls’ school offering this qualification. The day began with two classroom sessions, looking at different leadership styles and team motivation. The girls then split up into groups and headed outside to put theory into practice, by completing a variety of command tasks. Some of these were more difficult than others, but the girls managed them all and showed that they had taken on board much of what they had studied in the morning. The course will now continue for some of the girls on a weekly basis until the end of term.

Mr Jeremy Hart, Director of Sixth Form

An International Welcome: September EFL Get-together A good number of overseas girls came to the EFL party on September 10. This was a time to meet and look forward to the year ahead. The girls enjoyed cake and coke and chatted in the dining room. Heathfield’s new International Prefect, Kale Wiwatdirekkul, had a chance to introduce herself for her role this year. Kale will be joined by Hira Maya Küng to form the team representing international student affairs for 2015-2016. Russian and Chinese students like Marina Zhao (pictured front) Tanya Pavlenko (seated left) and Torry Liu (seated right) came along to this party. Masha Parfentyeva, who is new to Heathfield, and speaks Russian, French and German, met up with new friends to exchange stories about summer holidays at home and abroad. Other girls who attended the gettogether included Sasha Khaneeva, Anastasia Fedotova, Anastasia Konnova, Daniela Zapryagaeva (standing left) and some IELTS students in the Upper Sixth Form. New overseas girls, joining Heathfield, this year, include Jasmine Tung (standing right) Anna Boyko, Ksenia Alexandrova, Lucia Giro Aguilo and Paula Guzman. International students add a vibrant dimension to life at Heathfield. These students are all ambitiously fast learners—they make rapid progress in English for their school studies—working hard towards English Language qualifications from external examination boards and college centres. Exam successes in 2015 include Viviane Munzing, Blanca Orbaneja, Blanca Rios, Diana Chinalieva, Fernanda Milans del Bosch and Maria Iturbe who were all awarded IELTS grades for university entry or gained Advanced-level English Certificates from The University of Cambridge.

Mr Marcus Snow - Teacher of EFL

Stop Press One of Heathfield’s equestrian stars Rose Hugh Smith has been named in Horse and Hound magazine as one of the eight young riders in the country to watch: a fantastic achievement. A former team bronze medal winner at the pony European championships, Rose, 16, was second reserve for this year’s junior European Championships. Horse and Hound say: ‘Already winning at advanced medium level British Dressage, we are certain that Rose will be one to look for on the youth teams in years to come.’

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