School News

Renovation of the Music Block

We are delighted to announce that the newly-refurbished Music Block will be ready in time for the new academic year.

The building will be a huge asset to both the Music and Drama Departments, and will incorporate six sound-proofed and climate-controlled music practice rooms, break-out rooms, a Music Classroom including an IT suite, a dedicated Music Library, instrument storage facilities, and areas for individual quiet study.

The ground floor of the new building will also comprise a large second Drama Studio which will be used for teaching, rehearsing, occasionally as a dressing room, and for public performances. The Studio will be equipped with stage lighting and has been designed to be a versatile space.

There will be an opportunity to tour the refurbished building at the Reunion on 16th October.

Sixth Form twins win prestigious Arkwright Scholarships

Identical twins, Valeria and Victoria, both celebrated being awarded a prestigious Arkwright Scholarship at the end of last November.

The Scholarships aim to inspire potential future leaders in engineering, and the girls went through a rigorous selection process which involved submitting a detailed proposal for their project on detecting the presence of ionising particles.

As part of the Scholarship, the girls are being sponsored by Rolls Royce and the ERA Foundation, and support is offered in various different ways. This includes through valuable hands-on work experience, support for their project, and a personal mentor who can help them with their studies and career planning.

The girls’ interest in applying for a Scholarship was sparked by attendance at the School’s STEM club in which they were actively encouraged to explore the dynamic field of electronics and coding. Valeria and Victoria said: “We are very excited to have been awarded Arkwright scholarships. We're really looking forward to developing our project and can't wait to begin working with our sponsors, Rolls Royce and the ERA Foundation."

Live Crib 2020

While we were sadly unable to invite parents and OCs to join us for Live Crib 2020, we were delighted to be able to send a recording of the magical and festive socially-distanced performance for you all to enjoy at the end of the Christmas Term. Many thanks to all of you who contributed to the Live Crib Just Giving page which raised £220 for the Cardinal Hume Centre and Crisis.

Creative Arts

The Creative Arts have continued to flourish at Mayfield with beautiful art works being produced even during lockdown.

Mayfield in top 20 all-girls schools for Cricket

We are delighted to announce that Mayfield was named in the Top 20 allgirls schools in The Cricketer Schools Guide 2021. The award followed an exhaustive process which saw a record number of schools submit entries to be included in the guide, despite the ongoing pandemic. All entries were judged against an extensive set of criteria, which included a compelling commitment to cricket in the curriculum, facilities, fixture programmes and coaching.

Emily Starr, Mayfield’s Head of Cricket, who has represented England (Indoor) at U19 level and Northamptonshire County Cricket, said, "We’re delighted that the School has been recognised as one of the top 20 all-girls schools for cricket. Cricket was introduced as a major sport just three years ago and in that time we have established a comprehensive programme, supported by a significant investment in our facilities and infrastructure, and we have exciting plans to develop these even further. The girls have responded positively, with dedication and determination, and we have reached regional finals in the U13 and U15 age groups, and have girls in the Sussex team. This year we had planned our first international tour to Barbados, but due to the pandemic we had to postpone the trip – we’re now hoping to go in 2021/22 once guidelines allow this.”

“The award followed an exhaustive process which saw a record number of schools submit entries to be included in the guide...”

Lockdown Listening Programme

Mayfield’s most recent outreach initiative is the Lockdown Listening Programme in which the girls have been encouraged to reach out to members of their family or local community who may be feeling isolated or lonely (after consultation with their parents or guardians), to see if they would welcome a regular chat on the phone. This has been a great success and we continue to be impressed by news of the girls proactively supporting friends and neighbours, and hope that they and their ‘partners’ will gain something from the intergenerational friendships forged and perspectives broadened. For some, an ostensibly unimportant conversation can provide a lifeline. Year 9 Olivia said: “I am really enjoying emailing my lockdown listening partner and learning about her life as a Nun, and her experiences of Mayfield long before I was born. It is lovely for both of us to have made a new friend and to share our experiences of Mayfield past and present.”

Bugsy Malone

Last February, the Drama and Music Departments collaborated to stage 'Bugsy Malone', a musical gangster spoof set in New York City, substituting real bullets for splurge guns! The plot is loosely based on events in America during the prohibition era, specifically the exploits of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Staged in our Concert Hall, the two-tiered set design, painted with a hint of art deco style, helped to create the right ambience, along with flapper girl costumes, suits and trilby hats. The cast looked the part as they acted, danced and sang the story with aplomb. Accompanied by an eight-piece band, with Dr Matthew Ward as Musical Director, the live music helped to lift the mood and added to the feeling that we were all at The Speak Easy after-hour’s club.

The entire cast were superb, belting out numbers and creating memorable characters. In the title role, Year 12 India made an excellent and convincingly charismatic Bugsy, directly addressing the audience with witty banter and a cheeky grin. Year 13 Hettie delivered a fantastic comic performance as Fat Sam, whilst his nemesis, Dandy Dan, was played by a suave Year 13 Genevieve. Soloists Year 13s Megan and Tali performed wonderfully as the female protagonists, Tallulah and Blousy, respectively. Year 9 Yaa made a soulful Fizzy, as she sang 'Tomorrow' with a fitting mournfulness.

The cast, band, and backstage, all worked incredibly hard to stage the production and deliver these creative performances and catchy songs. Everyone who took part should be incredibly proud of themselves for showing such commitment and delivering a truly wonderful production.

Sarah Becvar Embroidery Workshop

Pre-lockdown, the Textiles Department was delighted to host a workshop by OC Sarah Becvar (Class of 1993), in which Mayfield ‘Mothers and Daughters’ very much enjoyed designing and creating their own embroidered zipped pouches. Workshop participants learnt how to use the sewing machines to free embroider their own designs onto the front of their lined linen pouches, before assembling the various different layers of fabric and inserting a zip to create the finished product. Great fun was had by all.

International Women's Day 2020 and 2021

Mayfield celebrated International Women’s Day 2020 by inviting Year 6 and 7 pupils from Blackboys Primary School, St Mary’s RC Primary School, and Ashdown House, to a series of fun lectures and workshops presented by eminent Mayfield alumnae. The keynote speaker was OC Dr Helen O’Connor, a Senior Climate Change Advisor to the UK Government, who is currently training for a trip to Antarctica, where she will work with a global network of female scientists to find solutions to climate change. She spoke to the children about her work and encouraged them to follow their scientific passions.

The children also took part in workshops on veterinary science, emergency medicine, physics and engineering. Their particular favourites were workshops run by vet and former Mayfield pupil, Claire Burfield, who brought her two lovable dogs to the session and showed the children x-rays of different animals; and by Jaguar Landrover engineer, Naomi Lee, who spoke about her engineering career in HM Forces, and involved the children in making and racing elasticband-powered cars. The competition was fierce!

IWD 2021 looked very different due to lockdown restrictions, but we were delighted to welcome two amazing women, OC Giovanna Forte and Martha Silcott, who shared their stories about overcoming obstacles to bring new products to market. Passion, tenacity, and the support of good friends, helped Giovanna Forte of Forte Medical, and Martha Silcott of FabLittleBag, launch their products. Giovanna has developed a unique urine collection system, Peezy Midstream, that is being used by healthcare professionals worldwide to collect reliable samples for early diagnosis of infections. Martha's product is an eco-friendly solution to sanitary product disposal. This was a refreshing presentation discussing taboos surrounding feminine healthcare delivered by two inspirational women.

Mayfield PPE

Mr Warren and Mr Rees-Moorlah put the School’s 3D printers to good use during lockdown and produced over 700 face visors for local front-line healthcare workers at a number of locations including Hospice in the Weald; GP surgeries in Mayfield, Tonbridge, Bexhill, Heathfield, and Buxted; Covid-19 Hubs in Eastbourne and Hastings; Brighton Hospital; Chichester Hospital Intensive Care Unit, and Holy Cross Priory Care Home.

Mrs Budden and her Textiles team also worked hard making isolation gowns and scrub bags for local hospitals and doctors’ surgeries in the Wealden area. They also made 30 fabric cotton masks for Apley Grange Care Home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire – an SHCJ Care Home where Mayfield’s beloved Sr Anne and Sr Teresa Joseph are spending their retirement.

We are also very proud of OC Amber (Yoyo) Lei (Class of 2012) who used her own initiative to source 10,000 medical grade face masks from Hong Kong for frontline workers in the UK, arranging all the logistics herself, and passing the masks on to Mayfield for distribution where they are needed. We would like to say a big “thank you” to Amber on behalf of all the local surgeries and hospices who have benefitted from her foresight and generosity.

Learning in Lockdown

Mayfield overcame the challenges of remote learning during lockdown and continued to provide an excellent educational environment for the girls, albeit an online one, whereby the girls logged on for face-to-face lessons with their teachers as per their usual timetable. We also encouraged them to be creative, and to stay fit and active through a range of School-wide initiatives that the girls hugely enjoyed.

These included the ‘Mayfield E-Drama Extravaganza’ in which the girls learnt a short monologue or poem, and then recorded their performances so that Mrs Sally Gerstmeyer (Head of Drama), and Miss Clark in the IT Department could combine them into the wonderful ‘Mayfield E-Drama Extravaganza’. It was a great success and we all very much enjoyed watching it. We would also like to say a big ‘thank you’ to accomplished actress and OC, Rosie Cavaliero, who gave up her time to perform Year 8 Chloe’s poem ‘Ode to Lockdown’ for the ‘E-Drama Extravaganza’.

The girls also continued with their practical creative subjects such as Art, Ceramics, Textiles, and Food and Nutrition, thanks to the Departments devising creative projects that the girls were able to complete at home. The VE Day cooking was a particular treat for the girls’ families, with a scrumptious array of sweet and savoury treats being cooked up to celebrate the VE Day Bank Holiday!

A Message from Kenneth Pont, Former Head of Music

Following the amazing response to the 2018 Schola Reunion, I listened to some of the many reel-to-reel recordings and broadcasts we made together over 30 years. Professional recordings were made by Anthony Howells of the Oxford University Press and John Aitchison of Martlett Archives, all of which have been re-mastered at my request to produce four superb CDs. Each has an attractive inlay card with dates, biographies and names of the choir.

CD 1 ‘Laudate Dominum cum Schola Cantorum’ is a recording of two choral works made in St. Dunstan's Church in June 1989. The recording took over seven hours and contains ‘Missa St. Leopoldi’ by Michael Haydn – a work written for the trebles of Salzburg Cathedral Choir (where Michael Haydn succeeded Mozart as Organist), and ‘Ave Maris Stella’ by Samuel Wesley - one of the best known Marian Hymns to the Virgin which was written in 1786. The fourth movement is a masterly example of combining Gregorian Chant in a two part composition for treble voices. There is an English translation. Both works on this CD are accompanied by the Primavera Chamber Orchestra.

CD 2 Opera ‘Dunstan and the Devil’ by Malcolm Williamson. Those of you who were at Mayfield in May 1972 will remember the Mayfield Festival visit of Malcolm Williamson (Master of the Queen's Music) who was 'composer in residence'. With Castle Opera Company we mounted two staged performances of his opera ‘Dunstan and the Devil’ in the Parish Church, and two weeks later were invited to take the production to St. James's Church, Piccadilly, as part of the Westminster Festival. The Mayfield performance was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3. This was the first major concert for Schola 1 who sang the part of the chorus of angels. Sadly, the names of the angels are not listed in any of the programmes. An especially interesting feature is an introduction about St. Dunstan, compiled and narrated by Malcolm Williamson himself. The two further CDs will be made available before Christmas.

The CDs cost £10 each and can be ordered via Marie-Sophie Reijers, OC Co-ordinator, on oldcornelians@ mayfieldgirls.org. Mr Pont has asked that all proceeds from the sale of the CDs be used to purchase musical instruments for the newly-refurbished Music Block.

Mr Pont in The Courtyard in front of his portrait painted and gifted to the School by accomplished artist and former parent, Daphne Todd

Staff Farewells

Mrs Natasha Evans – Head of English

Natasha was a much loved and respected Head of English. Her passion for literature was hugely inspiring –for her Department members and her pupils. As well as engaging with the texts within the curriculum, she was always keen to expand the girls’ experience of reading and brought a huge range of novels, plays and poetry before them. Those of us who worked for her were equally challenged to broaden the girls’ – and our own – studies of literature.

Natasha was an extremely kind Head of Department, often keeping the tricky or more mundane tasks to herself rather than delegating them. Her endless support and patience engendered confidence and loyalty, although we were always encouraged to try new approaches and ideas. Whenever there was a change to the syllabus, her reaction was always, ‘How do we make this work for the girls?’ Her positive attitude was infectious.

As well as the usual duties, Natasha ran the Mayfield Poetry Festival each year, and a truly impressive cast of poets came to the School to share their poems with pupils and the wider community. Among these world-class poets were Daljit Nagra, John Agard, Grace Nicholls, Patience Agbabi, and Robin Robertson. As part of the Festival, Lower School pupils took part in an Eisteddfod where they learned poems and recited them to compete for prizes, judged by a visiting poet. Natasha also oversaw our annual ‘Shakespeare OffbyHeart’ competition which involves all girls from Years 7 to 10. The girls learn and perform a scene from any Shakespeare play, and the finals are held in front of the whole School. This experience embeds the plays they study in their minds, and encourages them to experience the verse and drama for themselves.

The entire School is, of course, sad to see her go and she will be hugely missed. However, as she embarks on a new adventure in Wales – her original home as well as home to some of her favourite writers – we all wish her only good fortune in the future.

Mrs Jane Leslie, Teacher of English

Mrs Elizabeth Crawley – Housemistress of Leeds House and Teacher of English

Elizabeth Crawley joined us in September 2013, with her husband Tony, from Packwood Haugh, Shropshire, to take charge of Leeds House. Her extensive experience was invaluable in ensuring that the girls in Leeds had the support, encouragement and discipline to start their Mayfield careers in the best possible way. Perhaps it was those years in Prep School that helped her sustain a calm and unflustered air, while coping with (or pretending not to see) the hairraising pranks of Leeds girls. With a clearly defined sense of duty, balanced by a great sense of fun, she seemed indefatigable and was also expert – and immensely patient – in picking up the pieces (literally and metaphorically) and pouring oil on the troubled waters of Lower School friendship issues. More seriously, numerous girls (and indeed parents!) have been nurtured and supported through bereavement or have learnt to respond to daunting challenges with Mrs Crawley walking beside them. Many recognised and appreciated this at the time, others perhaps took a little longer!

Credit must also go to Tony, Mr Crawley, who tried to keep a low profile but was regularly roped in to help, most notably by ‘offering’ to be involved with Lower School Farm Club, invariably a thankless task, but an invaluable support particularly to Mr Christian. The important link between Lower School and Leeds House was cemented by Mr and Mrs Crawley in different ways.

As a valued member of the English Department, Elizabeth’s love of literature was something she enjoyed sharing with the girls. Under her watch, we introduced bedtime reading and it remains a pleasure to see the girls, curled up in their PJs, reading in Leeds Common Room. Seeing her cope with the mayhem of wild games of Bingo in that same Common Room was something to behold: slightly bemused, long-suffering and affectionate towards her charges; a maternal figure who gave them space to be themselves, but cared enough to impose discipline and structure as required. If I were not to cast her as a feisty Georgette Heyer heroine, then she would certainly carry off the role of Just William’s (or perhaps Gerald Durrell’s) long suffering, but enduringly optimistic mother with aplomb.

A woman of quiet faith, Elizabeth valued the integrity of Mayfield’s ethos. She, in her turn, played an important part in the Catholic life of the School. I am grateful to her for the way in which she contributed not simply as a Eucharistic minister, but also in all that she did to foster the faith of the girls in her care; leading by example in living out her faith.

We wish the Crawleys every success in the future. Elizabeth is not really retiring, she is going to enjoy time with her new family old and new. Mayfield’s loss is her grandchildren’s gain: I hope they know how lucky they are!

Miss Antonia Beary, Headmistress