Inside Heathfield enews issue 8

Issue Number 8, w/c 17th June 2013 & w/c 24th June 2013 Parents’ Day 2013 Parents’ Day, a Heathfield tradition, drew the academic year to a close with the gathering of governors, girls, parents and staff. As always, the day was very special especially for the UVI who were welcomed into the Fellowship during a dedicated service in the Chapel. As a symbol of joining the Fellowship the girls were each presented with their Fellowship badge by Miss Valaydon, Chair of the Fellowship. Form II also took part in a graduation ceremony to celebrate completing their time in Lower School where they received a certificate and had drinks and nibbles to celebrate. After this there was a concert which showcased girls’ musical, dancing and acting talents in St Mary’s Theatre.

This was then followed by the prize giving and speeches in the Sports Hall where we welcomed guest speaker Mrs Brenda Trenowden, CFA, who is Head of UK and Ireland Global Client Management at BNY Mellon. Brenda left the audience with plenty to think about including the power of networking, one’s ability to apply passion to all they do and the fact that it is sometimes best to ignore your parents!

A number of awards were presented for academics, drama, music, art, Leith’s and sport as well as the Sixth Form prizes. At the end of the service the Headmistress’s awards were presented which included two coveted Lily Badges going to Tallulah and Octavia (Form UVI), The Headmistress’s Cup was awarded to Ingrid (Form LVI), the Bearing Cup awarded for a consistently high standard in manners, deportment, appearance, attitude, language, tone and punctuality which went to Phoebe (Form III) and the Flip Gregory Cup presented to Minnie (Form II) for showing great courage and determination in adversity. In addition in the final Assembly of the term Amber (Form I) was presented with the Mary Grant Cup for sheer determination, resilience and making the most of her talents.

During her speech Mrs Heywood took the opportunity to thank the Heathfield Parents Association (HPA), the outgoing HPA representatives as well as Mrs Cave, this year’s Chair, and also the Fellowship Committee and Chair Miss Valaydon. Mrs Heywood thanked outgoing staff with special mention of Bethany Kelly, Heathfield’s Deputy Head for the last four years and Corinne Smith, Heathfield’s Head of Creative Faculty and Subject Leader of Cookery who has worked at the school for an impressive 28 years.

Once the prize giving drew to a close the girls and their parents gathered on the school fields for a picnic in their year groups whilst the staff and governors had a drinks reception with the outgoing UVI. Miss Lloyd, Marketing Manager

Issue Number 8, w/c 17th June 2013 & w/c 24th June 2013 Race For Life On Sunday 23rd June, Heathfield’s girls and staff attended The Race for Life at Kempton Park Race Course.

In total an impressive 57 girls from Forms III - LVI and 10 staff ran, walked and in one case (Phoebe, Form III) skipped their way around the 5k course! We are proud to say we have so far raised over £1,300 for Cancer Research UK. If you would still like to make a donation please visit our Just Giving page. Everyone taking part enjoyed the feeling of solidarity when running with thousands of other women and girls. Many ran with a personal message on their back, dedicated to friends and family for whom they were running. What a fantastic achievement for everyone involved – well done!

Mr Doyle and Miss Talbot, Heads of House

Form IV into Sixth Form The academic year culminated in a very busy few days for Form IV who took part in the annual “Form IV into Sixth Form” programme in order to give the girls a real insight into life in the Sixth Form at Heathfield. Their experience included living in the Sixth Form bungalow where they got used to cooking for themselves, managing their own time and working independently. There were also team building exercises at the Oakwood Activity Centre and the girls took part in taster lessons in A Level subjects such as History of Art and Politics.

Together they worked hard on a number of projects which they were able to present to an audience of parents and teachers. Their presentations, which included a range of televisual awareness campaigns, were informative, well-presented and very amusing, indeed. The girls were remarkable in their attitude, and their ability to overcome difficulties and personal hurdles was commendable. Well done!

Miss Dawson, Subject Leader - Business Studies, Deputy Head of House - De Valois & Deputy Head of Sixth Form.

House Tennis The House Tennis competition was divided into two tournaments, Junior and Intermediate, with scores from both tournaments being added together to give the overall winners. De Valois came first in both the Junior and Intermediate Tournaments making them the outright winners with a total of 71 games. Austen came 2nd with 45 games, Somerville 3rd with 44 games and Seacole 4th with 43 games. Well done to all.

Ms Reynolds Director of Sport

Issue Number 8, w/c 17th June 2013 & w/c 24th June 2013 LVI Geography Trip to South Dorset On 17th June the LVI geography students went on a trip to South Dorset to collect data for their A Level Unit 4A examination paper which the girls will take in 2014. The aim of the trip was for the girls to gather information about three different coastal areas along the South Dorset coastline. The girls explored Corfe Castle, Weymouth and Lulworth Cove with each area proving very different with its unique characteristics whilst being honeypot sites, attracting many tourists each summer.

The girls undertook surveys in each location by bravely approaching people and asking them questions regarding their perception of the impact and management of tourism in the area. Once the girls overcame their fears they soon realised that people were very happy to help a student with a clipboard, especially when they are relaxed and on holiday!

In addition to conducting surveys the girls undertook a number of additional tasks which included conducting an environmental quality transect of West Street in Corfe Castle. They created field sketches in Weymouth of the Eastern and Western sections of the offshore bar, giving evidence of its possible formation and whilst in Lulworth Cove the students identified areas of recent slumping and discussed the conflict between the nearby noisy military firing range and the holiday activities in the cove below.

The trip allowed the girls to gain a wealth of knowledge in preparation for their A Level year which starts in academic year 2013/2014.

Mrs Mason, Head of Humanities Faculty

UK Maths Challenge In the final Assembly of term certificates for the UK Maths Challenge were presented. For the Junior Challenge Victoria (Form I) and Minnie (Form II) received their Bronze award. Asuka (Form II) received a Silver and Emma (Form II) alongside her Silver award also received Best in School. In addition Kate (Form IV) entered the UK Maths Challenge Kangaroo 2013. This was by invitation only based on Kate having gained a Gold standard in the Intermediate Challenge earlier in the year. Kate was presented with a credit in the Kangaroo which is the highest accolade. Earlier in the year Anna and Lily (Form III) gained Silver awards for the intermediate Maths Challenge.

Mr Doyle, Head of House - Somerville & Teacher of Mathematics

Heathfield Achieves its Silver Eco-Schools Award Throughout academic year 2012/2013 Heathfield School has worked hard to achieve its Silver Eco-Schools Award.

The Eco-Committee have been enthusiastic and committed, running campaigns such as Girls Go Green Week and Waste Week. In addition, with some generous fundraising by the HPA Heathfield now has its very own camping area in the school grounds, and the IT department introduced Paper Cut, a programme which monitors and encourages everyone in the school to reduce their printing. The Catering team are working with catering supplier 3663 who take away Heathfield’s waste oil and turn it into fuel for the 3663 distribution lorries. The school continues to recycle paper, ink cartridges and batteries. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and contributions to helping the school achieve its Silver Award.

Miss Lloyd, Marketing Manager

Issue Number 8, w/c 17th June 2013 & w/c 24th June 2013 Lily Ball After constant debate, organisation and excitement, the much awaited Lily Ball finally arrived. On 26th June the girls, parents, teachers and guests were all congregated at the Lansdowne Club, Mayfair. It was a beautiful venue complimented by everyone's elegance (an astounding transformation from the girls’ conventional attire!)

After drinks, everyone was seated for dinner, on a carefully planned rotation, in order for each table to gain the most out of their teachers before the dancing commenced. The food was delicious and the conversation even better!

After what seemed no time at all, dinner had concluded, and we were to discover that the teachers would quickly dominate the dance floor. With all guests enjoying each other’s company through the exhibition of some killer moves, the evening drew to a close with a few teachers and girls left dancing until the very end.

The evening turned out to be a great success and ran very smoothly. A huge thank you must go to Mrs Ingram for her exceptional organisation of the event. It would not have been possible without her.

It was definitely a night we will never forget and a lovely way to end our seven years at Heathfield. Good luck to next year trying to top that!

Ilaria and Isabel, UVI Form Students

De Valois win the House Shield In the final Assembly of term it was announced that De Valois had won the House Shield for the fourth consecutive term in a row. Congratulations to the worthy winners.

Miss Lloyd, Marketing Manager

Issue Number 8, w/c 17th June 2013 & w/c 24th June 2013 Forms I & II trip to PGL With the internal school exams over, Forms I and II departed for an action packed final weekend of term to Osmington Bay, Dorset. Upon our arrival we were greeted by our enthusiastic group leader, Pete, who was ready to start the fun with Wacky Races, including some interesting chicken impressions from staff and children alike.

The following day after breakfast the girls were divided into four groups to have a go at abseiling, orienteering and the tunnel trail. Congratulations to Darcey for conquering her fears in the worm tunnels and to Lucia for managing to find her own way out. In the afternoon Form II went to the Sailing Academy where they took part in a series of water-based games, the favourites being Fruit Salad and Sumo wrestling (against Mr Valner).

After a well-deserved supper and slice of birthday cake for Nicole’s 12th birthday the whole group joined Pete for some evening entertainment involving a number of challenges both individually and as small teams.

On Sunday morning the girls rotated between aeroball and mountain biking and Minnie made us all proud by getting back on her bike after a spectacular fall. The afternoon activity involved the whole group competing as two teams in Dragon Boats. Ben’s red team proved that working as a team, shouting the loudest and good timing was a winning combination (4 times!) to defeat Miss Kay and Mr Valner’s team. To celebrate a great day the girls were rewarded with a disco and treats.

On Monday Form I took to the waters for a kayaking session where Nicole shone through as a proficient kayaker during the games of World Domination and Zombie Apocalypse. All the girls in the group were great sports and tried all of the instructor’s challenges. In fact the whole weekend was a fantastic experience for both children and staff. Special thanks to Mr Valner, Su and Colleyn for helping make the end of year Lower School trip a success.

Miss Kay Teacher of PE & Deputy Head of House – Seacole Junior Showcase On Tuesday 25th June at 7pm, the lights went up on the Junior Drama Showcase in the St Mary’s Theatre. Students in Forms I, II and III presented six outstanding performances to an audience of family, friends and staff.

The evening opened with an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew written by LVI Drama Prefect, Janet and performed by Form I. The actors transformed into narrators and characters from the story, telling the prequel to the whole school play (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) seen back in December.

Following on was Form II’s performance of The Odyssey in two Acts. We watched spellbound as the gods on Mount Olympus battled over Odysseus and his crew trying to make their way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. All the actors delivered a superb interpretation of Odysseus’s journey and the monsters he encountered; including a scary Cyclops and a devious witch!

To conclude the audience were treated to two more Greek myths performed by Form III, starting with the story of Persephone and how the four seasons came about. Following this was Pandora’s Box which told how Zeus punished mankind for taking fire from Prometheus. Both groups used a range of skills such as choral work, multi-role playing, and direct address to the audience. The evening ended with a hilarious rendition of Roald Dahl’s The Witches performed by the rest of Form III. The audience were thoroughly entertained by these scheming witches plotting to turn all children in to mice!

The entire evening was a great success and showed the huge amount of theatrical talent here at Heathfield.

Mrs Bamford, Director of Drama

Lower School Magazine Form I and Form II students finally finished working on the first issue of the Lower School magazine, Heathfield Girls Are… The theme of the first issue was ‘superheroes’. Students and staff received colour copies of the magazine after the end of term Assembly and the reception has been fantastically positive. The theme of the next issue will be decided by the best entry suggestion in a competition open to the whole school. The deadline is Friday 13th September. Well done to all the girls involved!

Miss Sass, Subject Leader - Religious Studies and Mrs Reeves, Head of Lower School

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