Inside Heathfield enews issue 42

Issue Number 42—September 2015—2

Heathfield e-newsletter Michaelmas Half-Term 2015 Welcome to the Half-Term newsletter. The weeks have flown past in a flurry of activity and endeavour since we returned from the long summer break. New girls have settled in and started to play an active part in the school community and new staff have found their feet and have already become an integral part of our dynamic teaching community.

Work has started in earnest in the classroom at the beginning of the academic year with our STEM building well on the way to playing a full role in our academic life and, in the theatre, girls have auditioned and been cast in our forthcoming production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Girls old and new have participated in a variety of sporting fixtures home and away, field trips and art, geography and science trips to name but a few.

I wish you a restful break before we all return for the second half of the Michaelmas Term and all that it entails.

Mrs Jo Heywood Headmistress

Save the Date for a Taste of the Roaring Twenties!

In keeping with Heathfield tradition, (and let’s face it, Heathfield is very keen on its traditions) this year’s whole school show will be a musical. The irony of the title therefore will not be lost on some when they discover that the choice of production is Morris and Scanlan’s 2002 stage version of the 1967 film of the same name: Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Based on a 1956 British musical ‘Chrysanthemum’ and then the aforementioned 1967 film starring Julie Andrews as the eponymous heroine, this romantic comedy tells the story of Millie Dillmount, a ‘thoroughly modern girl’ who arrives in New York, determined to marry for money rather than love.

Needless to say, after a few twists and turns, including a narrow escape from the scheming landlady’s determined efforts to sell Millie’s friends off to the white slave trade; love wins out in the end.

Auditions and rehearsals for the 30 strong cast began in earnest as soon as we got back to school after the summer and it is very exciting to announce that several of our new girls have been brave enough to get involved including 6 of our First Form and Freya, one of our new Lower Sixth. As well as Ms O’Connor and Mrs Dance, who are the Director and the Musical Director respectively, we are also really delighted to be able to work with Jane du Toit, our choreographer, who is teaching the girls to tap dance. The performances will take place on 4 and 5 of February 2016 so please save the date!

Sioban O'Connor Director of Drama

Issue Number 42—September 2015—2

By George!

On Wednesday 7 October the Lower and Upper Sixth Politics students attended a talk from the controversial politician George Galloway at Eton. Mr Galloway was a Respect Party MP for Bradford West from 2012 to 2015 after being expelled from the Labour Party having being found guilty of four charges of bringing the party into disrepute.

His beliefs are particularly left-leaning, and he is currently running for the London Mayor Elections in 2016. He discussed a wide range of issues ranging from the NHS (a service he powerfully believes in, arguing strongly against its potential privatisation) to private school education (of which he highly disapproves). He talked about issues within the current government and gave an outspoken opinion on its members, while also praising Jeremy Corbyn who is both a close friend and a political ally whom he greatly admires. After speaking, he answered questions on his political career thus far and went on to discuss current affairs such as the refugee crisis and the rejection of the assisted dying act. Overall, we had a brilliant time seeing such a controversial figure justify his ideas upfront, allowing us to see completely different political ideologies we may otherwise never have known.

Oxford Maths Institute Proves a Useful Addition for Oxbridge Candidates On Saturday 10 October, two of our prospective Oxbridge students were given a private tour of the Maths Institute and many of the colleges at Oxford University. Kate Wiwatdirekkul and Diana Chinalieva were accompanied by Mrs Zoe Benjamin, the Subject Leader in Mathematics at Heathfield, and her husband, and the tour was given by one of Mrs Benjamin’s ex-students, who completed a degree in Mathematics at Oxford University and is currently doing his PhD there. Diana is applying to study Mathematics in Oxford and was able to have a tour of the college she has applied to as well as having the opportunity of going around the beautiful Maths Institute with a current student. Kate is applying to Cambridge to study Computer Science, but thoroughly enjoyed the tour and discussions about studying STEM subjects at university. Both girls were intrigued by the presence of Mathematics throughout the building; from Café Pi to the use of binary to display the time on electronic noticeboards. It was a fantastic day out and gave the girls a great insight into the demands and rewards of studying a degree at such a prestigious university. Laurence, the student who gave the tour, has offered to visit Heathfield to talk to the UVI Form about studying at university and to help us judge the Interhouse Maths competition that will be happening later in the year.

Zoe Benjamin Subject Leader - Mathematics

An Insight into Oxford University Maths Institute

Issue Number 42—September 2015—2

Austen Weekend: September 26-7 Sport, Skating and Shopping and a Heathfield Tradition The Austen weekend was a busy and competitive one. On the Saturday, many of the lacrosse teams took on St Bart’s with the 1sts recording a notable victory. Once everyone was back in school, the contests did not stop as the Houses formed to participate in a junior school style Sports Day with events ranging from the egg and spoon to sack race. Well done to Somerville who were the eventual winners. The girls also started preparations for Nicky Stalls by designing personalised bags with each House receiving a bag in their own colours.

Form III then hosted Eton College to a social where, after dinner, a disco was set up in the SMAT and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

‘Girls get into their sacks for Austen’s

On the Sunday, the girls travelled to Guildford for a bit of shopping Junior Sports Day’ before visiting the Spectrum for the ice disco where they were even allowed to pick the music. After returning to school, it was time for the first White Chapel of the year where the girls wore their white dresses for the service.

Thanks must go to the house mistresses, Austen staff and especially the Austen House Captains for being such a great help over the weekend.

Andrew Valner Head of House – Austen

‘Girls get their skates on in Guildford’

‘Jumping into action for Austen’s Junior Sports Day’

At the Proms On 4 September, the members of the music group went to the Royal Albert Hall in London to see a classical concert

by BBC Proms.

The first piece was Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture. At the beginning of the piece there is a dramatic pause which builds your anticipation for the rest of the piece and the concert. The first two horn solos are very contrasting as the first is very slow. However the second is a lot more lively which gives the piece a sense of growing excitement which I really enjoyed.

The second piece was Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto. There are four movements the first of which was andante.

Each of the movements had various features and they were all contrasting and interesting which kept me engaged throughout.

The final piece, symphony No.8 was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. The piece started with the movement Adagio giving a distinctive mood. I liked the piccolo solo in the middle of the piece.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our night at the Proms and we can use this experience to help our musical studies.

Emma Hazell and Asuka Ikenobo, Form V GCSE Music students,

Issue Number 42—September 2015—2

Day at the Museums for Form IV On Wednesday 23 September, Fourth Form went on an art trip to London. When we arrived, we headed for the Natural History Museum. We drew a variety of drawings here from plants to dinosaurs - there were so many from which to choose. We enjoyed looking around and observing all the natural forms, as this is the current topic we are studying in art. We then moved on to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design. We visited the sculpture exhibition, where we took many photos and studied the various forms. Then we went to see the collection of textiles and fashion, which was very interesting as it inspired us for our future dress-making work. We finished the day off by seeing the collection of glass and ceramics. The trip was thoroughly enjoyed by all, and I was particularly interested in the textiles pieces. Thank you to Mrs Leibovici and Mr Alves-Khan for taking us on this great trip.

Ellie Mountain Form IV Student

A Dreamy Evening for Make a Wish Music and Drama Captains’ Concert Parents, pupils, staff and friends packed the St Mary’s Theatre for an evening of music, drama and dance organised by the Music and Drama Captains on October 9 to raise funds for the Make a Wish Foundation. The audience enjoyed 15 outstanding and varied performances from girls from the First Form through to the Upper Sixth. A representative from Make a Wish opened the evening by explaining how the foundation grants wishes to seriously and terminally ill children who would like the opportunity to forget about their illness for just one day and see one of their dreams come true. An emotive video played to a hushed auditorium saw wishes ranging from a little boy becoming a superhero for the day to a little girl having her room transformed into a princess’s room and parents talking about what the experiences meant to their child.

Vocal and instrumental performances on the theme of ‘Dreams’ ranged from an ensemble of First Formers giving a rendition of ‘When you wish upon a Star’, an emotive performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Miserables by Olivia Adderley (V), an audience-pleasing rousing performance of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ by Phoebe Parker (LVI), a flute solo from Katharine Carr (I) playing Mozart’s ‘Menuetto and Trio’ and a flute duet of ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin by Franny Hunt-Davis and Emma Hazell. Lilla Stone (I) delighted the audience with her harp playing of Canon in D by Pachelbel. First Formers Ksenia Alexandrova and Isabella Baillieu also pleased with their impressive gymnastic choreography to Justin Bieber’s ‘What do you mean?’.

Other performers who took to the stage to give outstanding performances included Diana Chinalieva, Maya Russell Smith, Amber Milligan, Hermione Foster and Atalanta Thornton, Catharine Reid, Daisy Chetwynd-Talbot, Holly Allen, Tansy Adams and Sophia Adderley and Olympia von Woellwarth-Lauterburg, Thea Lumley and Matilda Shelton-Agar. Thanks to the generosity of the audience, £465 was raised for this very worthy cause.

Liz Ivens, Director of Communications

Issue Number 42—September 2015—2 De Valois Weekend: October 10-11 In which the First Form Speed Date and the LVI head Underground In the early afternoon, following a successful morning for the lacrosse teams, all girls headed in various directions to spend £5 for the Harvest Festival Chapel Challenge. Thankfully the weather was pleasant and we were able to head off on foot. Following some interesting calculations of how best to spend their £5, vast amount of goods were safely deposited in the Chapel for our local food banks.

That evening, the Junior School hosted Papplewick for their first social event of the year. To break the evening in, speed dating was first on the agenda. In pairs, both boys and girls had a few minutes to get to know each other. Before the dancing began, a challenge was set in which each boy and girl had to vote for their ‘prom king and queen’ on the basis of who was the friendliest and most welcoming. Isabella B was voted in by the Papplewick boys. A huge thank you must go to the ‘match making’ Fifth Form who helped to get the shy and reluctant boys onto Exciting times: First Ever Social for Form I the dance floor.

At the same time, the LVI headed off to Radley for a London Tube Stations-inspired party. The girls enjoyed the opportunity to dress up with varying interpretations of ‘Angel’, ‘Arsenal’, ‘Barking’, and ‘Shepherd’s Bush’ to name a few. The girls had an excellent evening!

On Sunday, the Harvest Festival Challenge continued in Chapel when the House finalists, Seacole and Somerville, went head to head in a relay race down the centre of the Chapel. Congratulations to Seacole House for being crowned Champions. Following Chapel, Form I took part in their first lacrosse tournament of the season and the rest of the school had the option to go to Gravity Force, where they were able to make flips and tricks across trampoline mats and into large foam pits. A great weekend was had all round and thanks must go to the fabulous boarding and de Valois Staff who helped to make everything happen.

Janet Talbot

Head of House - de Valois

Going Underground with the Lower Sixth

Inspirational Links On Tuesday 6 October, eight members of the Sixth Form went to St Mary’s Ascot to hear the first of their Inspirational Women talks. This was led by Annoushka Ducas MBE; founder of Links of London and owner of Annoushka Jewellery. She talked to us about life after school and how she never went to university but instead travelled the world, picking up skills that would help her start her multimillion pound businesses.

She was a great speaker and really inspired us, particularly because she went straight into the working world without university, and how her first business was a sandwich making shop, which funded her travels. She explained the importance of travel, and how inspired she was by different cultures. She also explained the importance of marketing, and how much celebrities can influence sales, and the image and brand of the products; the meaning behind each box. Thank you very much to Annoushka and St Mary’s for inviting us; it was a great evening!

Iona Minoprio

Issue Number 42—September 2015—2

Planting the seeds of the future Our boarding orchard at Heathfield School was first established in March 2015 by the school’s Eco Committee who planted four John Standish apple trees.

John Standish apple trees were believed to be raised by John Standish of The Royal Nurseries, Ascot around 1873, a mere 26 years prior to the year Heathfield School was founded.

This planting was undertaken in preparation for the visit from Robin Fletcher, National Director of the Boarding Schools Association, who formally acknowledged our inclusion within the BSA’s Boarding Orchard, planting the orchard’s 51st tree on Wednesday 16 September 2015.

Our latest tree, ceremoniously planted by Robin, was a Bramley Apple Tree; the Eco Committee selected this tree for two reasons: The first Bramley Apple tree grew from pips in 1809 and was planted in her garden by a young girl called Mary Ann Brailsford. The girls felt this showed a great example of how young people have been recycling and caring for their environment for over 200 years.

The committee excitedly explained their second reason to Robin that at the start of term girls in younger years collected produce from the school grounds to undertake a baking activity. Although the girls collected blackberries for their crumble the Bramley apples had to be purchased; the Eco Committee saw this as an opportunity to incorporate our orchard into future weekend activities.

Louise Champion Housemistress – Form III

Stop Press: Congratulations to Daisy Curran, Honor Congreve, Emmy Nicholls, Imo Butcher, Grace Congreve, Lydia Manduca and Alex Tromans who were all invited to trial for the county at the Berkshire Lacrosse Trials.

@HeathfieldAscot

Heathfield School

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