Head’s Introduction
Last night’s Dance Showcase was simply spectacular! It was great to see so many performers on stage, dancing a variety of styles, and I was in awe at the exceptionally high standard. Congratulations to all the dancers, and to all of the dance teachers!
Climate Action Day today has been a great success, and I am delighted that the girls have learnt so much, and that, as a school, we can do all we can to make a difference. Having an entire day, off-timetable, dedicated to this underlines the School’s commitment to playing our part. The guest speakers were excellent, each one so passionate about what they do, and the activities were exciting and engaging, and, very importantly, hands-on. Congratulations to everyone involved, and particularly to Mrs Pashley, who has spearheaded this day.
Design Trip to Barcelona
The 24-hour challenge for MNDA is well underway, and I am sure that the Year 8s have already covered a substantial distance. I hope that it stays dry for them tonight as they walk through the night. They have already raised an impressive figure of over £4600 for MNDA, their year-group charity, which is outstanding. Good luck, Year 8 – I look forward to hearing the total distance covered, and the total raised for charity too!
It has been a week of overnight challenges! Well done to the 143 students in Years 9 and 10, who completed their assessed expeditions for the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver awards at the weekend, and 16 CCF cadets also camped overnight on Wednesday this week. Well done to everyone who took part, and I am grateful to my colleagues who supported them.
Roedean’s Humanities Week has included a range of activities both in and out of lessons, and I would like to thank Mr Megahey for planning this week. We have all been encouraged to think about people in the field of humanities, both living and historical, who have made an impact, and the students in this week's Chapel service spoke passionately about people who have inspired them.
On top of everything mentioned already, this week has also seen fund-raising activities for the upcoming trip to Moldova, the Inter Girls won the Brighton and Hove Athletics Championships, some Year 12 Biologists extracted Penicillin from mouldy bread with Mr Hall, we had a Pride tea with rainbow cakes, and both the Lancing Symposium and the Roedean Academy Symposium – well done to everyone involved in this impressive range of activities!
I hope you can all get some rest this weekend, and good luck to those away on the Year 12 Geography fieldtrip!
A Spectacular Dance Showcase
Unsung heroes in the spotlight
Each week, many wonderful things happen at Roedean, about which many in the school are perhaps unaware; this section of the weekly review is dedicated to ‘unsung heroes’, in order to draw our attention to these people and remind us that our community is special.
Maria, Irina, Claire, and Rukhshona, Olivia, Amber (Yr12), and Josie (Yr7) – for their thoughtful contributions to this week's Chapel service [Mr Megahey]
Mabel (Yr9) – for playing a Waltz by Chopin so beautifully on the Piano [Mr Megahey]
Letters, Numbers, and Mild Panic: the Great House Countdown
What do you get when you mix a big clock, a lot of brainpower, and four determined Houses? One epic Countdown competition, full of laughs, lightning-fast maths, and a few questionable 9-letter words!
All four Houses brought their A-game – and maybe a few spare vowels – as they raced against the clock to solve conundrums, crunch numbers, and impress our very own Dictionary Corner.
Here’s how the leaderboard looked in the end:
Bursting with energy and creative thinking, House 1 gave it everything..., and probably invented a few new words along the way!
2
Clever and calm under pressure, they kept the scoreboard ticking and the vibe positive, proving you don’t need to win to shine
Jola (Yr12) – for getting the highest score in the charity Moldova quiz on Tuesday [Dr Barrand]
Unsung Staff hero in the spotlight
Mrs Gleave – for being incredibly supportive in organising Roedean's hosting of the Girls' School Association meeting of Politics teachers [Mr Marchant]
Lightning with the letters and nearly unbeatable with the numbers, House 4 kept us all on edge with a performance worthy of a Countdown comeback special
3
Absolute champions of the numbers round, House 3 calculated their way to victory with cool maths skills and confident plays!
From marvellous maths to witty wordplay, every House had moments of brilliance. Whether you were solving in the spotlight or cheering from the sidelines, you helped make the event a Countdown classic.
Well done to all involved.
Lydia's Runner-Up
in
a Spanish Fiction Competition
Congratulations to Lydia (Yr12), who has been named as the runner-up in this year's Spanish Flash Fiction Competition, run by Oxford University.
There were over 450 entries, so this is an impressive accolade. The judging panel commented: 'We were impressed with the level of creativity and inventiveness'. They went on to say, 'It was wonderful to see a good command of Spanish throughout, as well as an ability to manipulate the language imaginatively'
Congratulations!
Mrs Wilson
House
1st
Mr Halsey
Design Trip to Barcelona
Over half-term, sixteen girls in Year 9 went to Barcelona to immerse themsleves in design and culture!
They enjoyed the Gaudi Park, with its wonderful architecture, had a go at making tapas, went to the Plaza Real, the Picasso Museum, and even spent a bit of time on the beach!
They were excellent ambassadors for Roedean, and had a brilliant time!
#WeAreMoldova
There are just over two weeks to go before this year's Project 125 Moldova group set off, and we are raising as much as we can to donate to the Rainbow of Hope Orphanage.
This week's Non-Uniform Day and Bake Sale raised over £350 to add to our total, and there will also be further charity events, including the fantastic Moldova car wash on Roedean Day – if you're coming for the day, why not have your car washed while you are enjoying the day?
If you would like to donate to this charitable endeavour, you can do so here https://www.justgiving.com/page/ roedeancharitysixthform – every donation will make a difference to the children's lives in the orphanage.
Dr Barrand
Mrs Quirk
CCF Camp at Lancing College
16 of our CCF cadets took part in an overnight exercise at Lancing College this week. The girls enjoyed their ration packs and sleeping outdoors, which was particularly good because some of them had done their DofE Silver expedition just a few days before!
Well done to everyone involved!
Mrs Pashley
Visit from Inspiring OR Maggie El Beleidi
On Wednesday afternoon, Roedean’s A Level Politics students were lucky to be joined by former Head Girl, Maggie El Beleidi. Equipped with a Master’s degree from UCL in Democracy and Comparative Politics, Maggie now works in Parliament at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK.
She shared insights about her journey from A Level Politics student here to forging a fascinating career. Maggie’s work has taken her to the Parliament of Lesotho and the National Assembly of Nigeria. Closer to home, she has also worked as an election observer, witnessing the democratic process play out in the 2024 UK General Election. Her discussion was an inspiring reminder of the amazing opportunities out there in the world of politics.
Penicillin
Congratulations to a group of Year 12 students, who have been recreating one of the world’s most famous discoveries – the production of the antibiotic penicillin from the mould Penicillium Chrysogenum. This experiment has taken place over 2 weeks as part of Mr Clark’s Dissect and Discover Club in the Biology Department.
First, we allowed a piece of bread to go mouldy – the blue-green hairy mould that you see growing on stale bread is the penicillium mould. This mould was carefully isolated and used to inoculate a liquid broth culture. The penicillium mould reproduced and started to produce lots of impure penicillin as a product. In essence, an antibiotic making factory had been set up! In an exciting activity session, the students learnt plenty of new university-level research skills to extract, purify, and test the strength of this 'liquid gold' penicillin, which involved removing and neutralising contaminants, spores, and leftover mould.
Maggie was also welcomed as the guest speaker at the Girls’ School Association meeting for teachers of A Level Politics, which was hosted at Roedean this year. Her reflections sparked excellent debate about how political education
The students have gained a real-world insight into life as a research scientist, experiencing hands-on pharmaceutical-grade biosynthesis of medicines here in the Roedean labs!
This has been an exciting experiment for the students to recreate, and it has allowed them to follow in Alexander Fleming’s footsteps – well done to everyone involved!
Mr Hall
can be strengthened further. We are incredibly grateful for her making time to return to Roedean and sharing her experiences.
Mr Marchant
A Spectacular Dance Showcase
Sixty dancers from Years 7 to 13 took part in this wonderful show – there were twenty-three pieces, showcasing a wide variety of styles, from contemporary and lyrical to jazz, tap, and classical ballet.
As the second half of term is so short, rehearsal time has been tight – some of the dancers have chosen to rehearse in between GCSEs, in the few days between DofE expeditions and CCF camp, and around cricket matches – but their professionalism came to the fore and the event was fantastic.
The showcase centred around Rooster, with choreography inspired by Christopher Bruce as a homage to the 1960s and the Rolling Stones. This piece, lasting ten minutes, is set to a number of iconic tracks, and features a number of talented dancers. It is also particularly impressive that three of the pieces were also choreographed by our students – well done to Megs, Charlie, and Claire.
Congratulations to all of the exceptional dancers, and to the Dance teachers who have prepared them so well. Thank you also to the wonderful Theatre team – I am so proud of everyone involved!
Miss Abaza
Year 12 Academic Symposium & Social with Lancing College
We were delighted to welcome 16 students from Lancing College to join us for our Year 12 Academic Symposium.
Our key note speaker, Dr Nara Orban (OR), started the event with a presentation outlining the key ingredients needed for a successful career. She was inspiring and an excellent role-model for our students. The student presentations were impressive and allowed the presenters to share their interest in a wide variety of areas, and to field questions from the audience.
The evening was rounded off with a lively quiz and buffet – thank you to Siyun and Candis for organising the quiz!
Miss Carragher
DofE Assessed Expeditions
Last weekend, 143 Roedean students completed their assessed expeditions for the highly-valued Duke of Edinburgh Award.
91 students in Year 9 completed a 2-day expedition for their Bronze award, and 52 Year 10s completed their 3-day Silver expedition. The students were committed and focused throughout, and were excellent ambassadors for the School.
Well done, and thank you also to all the staff who supported the expeditions, either during the day, or sleeping out.
Mrs Finn
This Week in Boarding...
This week, House 1 held a Karaoke cafe, the perfect combination of songs and a cuppa! Boarders are still working hard in the last few weeks of the year, and have fuelled their study sessions with classic cheese and ham toasties! The sun has finally made an appearance for the Summer term, and House 1 girls are not wasting a minute – the mini water shooters were loaded, and there were lots of giggles as they all ran around squirting jets of water!
House 2 had to abandon a planned evening activity as the rain came pouring down, but that stopped no-one as they all piled inside to make a giant version of the famous Miss Roe cookies. Once successfully baked, it was served with a big scoop of ice cream – the perfect way to save a rainy night! The girls returned to the kitchen later in the week to attempt homemade mochi – despite it being very messy, the mochi was delicious and went down a treat! There has been competitive spirit in the air, as the girls played popular card games Cheat and Spoons, and enjoyed some outdoor games whilst the sun was out. Competition continued as the House 2 sunflowers were ready to be planted outside – whose will grow the tallest in the big outdoors?
House 3 celebrated National Cheese Day with some very tasty homemade cheese straws! Gingerbread aromas filled the ODR as freshly baked biscuits emerged from the oven, which girls decorated beautifully... before devouring them! With the later sunny evenings, the boarders had the taste for summer and whipped up some homemade iced tea, a wonderfully refreshing drink after a hot day in the sunshine. Over the weekend, the boarders learnt to speed up the ripening of avocados by using bananas, and then came together to enjoy some avocado on toast!
House 4 honoured World Ocean Day with some 'turtle-y' awesome sea-themed crafts! Continuing with the ocean vibe, the girls settled in for a cosy evening watching Moana, and yes, there was some singing along! To cool down after a hot day, the boarders enjoyed
an ice cream bar, with an array of flavours and sauces to choose from, and, of course, sprinkles on top! Over the weekend, the girls celebrated a special House 4 birthday – Happy Birthday, Mrs Wilson!
Keswick and Lawrence have been busy with their noses in textbooks, but are still finding time for a bit of fun with some silly party games! Those who have finished their exams are enjoying well-deserved trips into town to celebrate with friends!
Year 9 and 10 prepared for their respective DofE expeditions, with lots of sandwich-making and hair-braiding! A big well done to those who completed Bronze and Silver DofE expeditions over the weekend!
Miss Barnett
Chapel –
Mr Megahey: 'In a culture that rightly values STEM, it can be easy to overlook the value of the humanities, but they are central to everything we do as individuals, societies and as a species. Consider a world without the humanities: why and how would medical developments occur without recognition of the value of human life? How could we make scientific progress without identifying what progress looks like? How could we plan for the future without learning lessons from the past? How could we navigate society – particularly an increasingly populated one – without reflecting on what our duties are to one another? And how would you determine your own goals in life without understanding what kind of person are? Over the years, many of the greatest minds that have ever lived have reflected on these aspects of being a human and their inspirational contributions have helped shape today’s world and culture.'
Maria: 'One philosopher that is particularly inspiring is Diotima of Mantinea, who plays a leading role in Plato's symposium. In the text, she stood out for her wisdom, teaching Socrates the philosophy of love.
She characterises Love as a mediator, an intermediate between ugliness and beauty, mortals and immortals, ignorance, and knowledge. Specifically, love is what enables humans to obtain the beautiful.
Diotima teaches Socrates that there are various objects of love – from the love of bodies and the love of souls to the love of what the soul creates, such as laws, institution, poetry, science, and knowledge, and lastly the love for what Plato names Beauty itself. Love, then, becomes a ladder -- a path upwards that allows humans to ascend from physical attraction to the intellectual and divine production of wisdom.
Besides the content of her teachings, what makes Diotima such an important and controversial figure is that she is one of the very few women, if not the only woman from Classical antiquity, credited with having philosophical ideas.
Although her historical existence is debatable, her presence in Symposium alone, real or imagined, proves that philosophy is and should be genderless as an intellectual pursuit that transcends roles, distinctions, and constraints.'
Josie: 'I'll be doing my history talk about an inspiring figure, someone named Saint Charles Borromeo. He was the Archbishop of Milan from 1538 to 1584. He was named the hero of the 1576 to 78 plague (also known as the black death). I chose Saint Charles Borromeo because of his Christian background and because of his kindness to his people. If you didn't know, being a Christian is one of the most important parts of my life and I also absolutely love history and have a keen interest in the times around the Black Death in Victorian era.
There were many things that he did that showed his bravery and the fact that he remained in Milan whilst most fled stands out as one of them.
He would often distribute food and sell personal possessions to help the poor people. As he wanted to keep a Christian community, he organised open air masses even though the churches are closed. He also set up plague houses in the winter of 1576 to isolate the sick and stop other people from being contaminated. In 1578, even after more than 1000 people had died in his area, Charles Borromeo remained alive even though he was spiritually and physically exhausted from all the work he was doing to help the people as much as he could. He also started rebuilding schools care places and seminaries for the population.
So these are just a couple of the things that he has done to make him such an inspiring person for me I would love to live my life in a way that is similar to Saint Charles Borromeo to be helping everyone as much as I can especially those who are going through conflict and to do that with God guiding me in his footsteps.'
Claire: 'For me, one of the most inspiring figures in the humanities is Sappho. As a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos, she is one of the few female writers from the ancient world whose work still survives to us today. Sappho is most recognised for writing about femalefemale relationships from her own experience, alongside other themes such as loneliness and anxiety about ageing. And this is one of the things I admire most about Sappho: the fact that she was able to write about such personal elements of her own life, all without any fear of judgement. Not only that, but she even managed to achieve recognition within a patriarchal society as a woman from the
LGBTQ+ community, making her success all the more inspiring. There is one anecdote about Sappho’s songwriting that particularly resonates with me: the legendary Athenian statesman Solon once heard a song by Sappho, and allegedly declared his intention to ‘learn it, and then die’, which just emphasises how much of an impact she had even amongst her contemporaries.
But besides the impressiveness of her success, Sappho also inspires me personally as a writer. I think that, as someone who occasionally experiments with poetry, it’s so easy to be overcome by self-doubt, especially when it comes to including aspects of our personal lives in our writing. But reading Sappho has shown me that it’s okay to be called sentimental, because it’s always the more personal aspects of her songwriting that have resounded with me, and with so many others across the ancient and modern world. So that is why Sappho inspires me: because no matter what challenges she might have faced as part of a marginalised community, she was still willing to present the most authentic and vulnerable version of herself to the world.'
Olivia: 'I’m going to tell you about a woman who helped changed the way in which we understand the world. Marie Tharp was a cartographer in the 1950s and she worked at a university with Bruce Heezen who was collecting depth measurements of the Atlantic Ocean. However, working in such a male dominated field meant that despite her great work she was dismissed and disregarded. While Heezen was out on expeditions collecting these measurements, Tharp was forced to remain at the university, as it was thought to be bad luck to have a woman on board a boat. While she processed the endless depth measurements into a detailed profile of the ocean floor, she discovered that instead of the sea floor being flat as conventional thinking believed, it actually had an array of different, complex, geographical features. Her work provided evidence for Alfred Wegner’s radical tectonic theory that the continents were not stagnant, but constantly moving. Unfortunately, her discovery was labelled as “girl talk” and something to be ignored. However, Tharp then noticed that where there were valleys and ridges on the seabed there was also a high concentration of earthquakes. These findings managed to convince the whole scientific community that
continental drift was true and she has changed the way in which we understand plate tectonics today.'
Rukhshona, Irina, and Amber: 'One person that has inspired us is Jamie Dimon – a really successful Economist and business leader, who not only showed great understanding of how the banking system and economy worked, but also showed amazing determination to care for the people around him and stick to his values of honesty, clear communication, and relentless commitment.
Jamie always tried to avoid risky decisions and instead would focus on long-term goals that would be beneficial both for his bank and customers. For example, during the 2008 Financial Crisis, he was the CEO of JP Morgan, the BIGGEST investment bank in the world, with $5 trillion dollars of assets. Unlike other banks, he avoided the high-risk investments, such as ‘sub-prime mortgages’, which were lent to lowincome people who would be unlikely to pay them back.
Instead Jamie focused on cutting costs, improving communication, and making the bank more secure. It is said that, at one point, he had to do 6 months of work in 2 days to protect his workers and customers, and he also repeatedly refused to fire any of his workers despite the crisis. Whilst some other banks went bankrupt, his bank survived and, after the Crash, he then went on to form another new major bank the Citi group.
In one of his speeches Jamie said that the key characteristics of a great Economics and Business leader are 'heart, care, and curiosity. Jamie is just one of many examples of people who show how good economic decision-making is vital for all of our lives. These decisions need to based on detailed, accurate understanding of how everything in the outside world works; on long-run objectives that focus on maximising the welfare of everyone but also always respecting choice and minimising harm; and on human values such as honesty, commitment and care – just as Jamie Dimon showed.'
Mr Megahey: 'If you were to visit the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece in the 4th century BCE, you would see inscribed on the walls the phrase: Γνῶθι
. Variously attributed to different philosophers and sages, it means simply, ‘know thyself’. As we reflect on the inspiring figures we’ve heard about today and on their contributions to society, I encourage you to always attempt to know yourself as you forge your own destiny and consider the impressions you wish to leave upon the world.'
Roedean Celebrates Pride
Thursday's Tea was rainbow-themed in honour of World Pride Month. Students were delighted to discover an amazing array of rainbow sponge cake (courtesy of the fantastic Ruth), rainbow fruit skewers, and even a basket full of (packets of) Skittles!
World Pride Month is a brilliant opportunity for communities to celebrate a diverse range of identities and definitions of 'love'. At Roedean, we are enormously proud of our students' kindness and inclusion of each other. And what better way to celebrate that than with cake?! Happy Pride Month!
Ms Boobis
Inter Girls Win the Brighton Hove and Portslade Athletics Championships
On Monday, our Junior and Inter Athletics squads competed against all schools in Brighton & Hove at Withdean.
It was a fantastic day, with a new PB for Georgia (Yr9) in Long Jump and a SB for Poppy (Yr10) in Long jump. Overall, we performed extremely well:
■ 2nd in the Girls' Jumps Cup
■ 2nd in the Girls' Throws Cup
■ 3rd in the Girls' Relay Cup
■ 2nd overall in the Junior Girls' competition
■ 1st overall in the Inter Girls competition
A huge well done to all who competed. We are particularly grateful to Megs and Romey in Year 11, who came straight from their GCSE exam to compete!
We have one final Athletics meet remaining, the regional round of the Track & Field Cup. Best of luck to all those competing!
Mrs Hammond
U15B Cricket vs Ardingly U12A Cricket vs Hurstpierpoint
The U15B Cricket Team took on Ardingly for the second time this season, hoping to change their fortunes on this reverse fixture. Roedean lost the toss and were put in to bat and were immediately under pressure with a few wickets in the first few overs. Kat and Molly steadied the ship slightly and then Lily at the end remained resolute for a while to get us to a total of 78. Kat the pick of the batters with 9 runs.
It was down to the bowlers now to restrict and take some wickets to put Ardingly under pressure. The Roedean bowlers spun their webs and had Ardingly 36 for 0 after 10 overs, bowling tight lines and not allowing for too many extras. The only issue was the wicket column as we still didn't have one and needed to get these two set batters out. Ardingly let their foot go off the brake and started to score quickly and passes our total with a couple overs to go.
Mr Campleman
U15A Cricket –Back to Back Wins
The U15As have continued their progress this half term through the Sussex league, with matches against Mayfield and Bede’s. The two days had very different sets of conditions; one day was the windiest the cricket pitch had experienced this year, accompanied by drizzle, and the second was beautifully sunny. Against Mayfield, we lost the toss and were put into bat. Strong batting from Flo (46*) and Sorrel (47*), and some quick runs from Amelie, saw a total of 162 scored off the 15 overs. Mayfield had a decent opening batter, but Izzy managed to dismiss her after just 17 balls with some great bowling and an excellent catch at point by Amelie. The bowler of the day was Imi, who, despite a rocky start, managed to take 2-13. This left Mayfield 66 runs short at the end of 15 overs.
The next match was against Bede’s, and a win away from home would take the team one step closer to winning the league. Winning the toss and opting to bowl, Flo got the team underway with a wicket off her first ball. The girls bowled extremely well, and wickets were shared amongst the 5 bowlers. Bede’s managed just 88 off their 16 overs, and our open batting pair made light work of knocking them off, achieving the total in just 10 overs. MVP goes to Bethany for bowling figures of 2-14 off 3 overs and 25* with the bat.
Miss Kirby-Jones
The U12A Cricket XI played against Hurstpierpoint on a sunny day in Sussex. Roedean won the toss and chose to bowl first. Maisie took two wickets in her first over to get the girls off to a good start. We managed to restrict the Hurst batters to 10, 17 and 17 in the first three pairs. The Roedean bowlers bowling tight and fielders backing them up with good stops and a couple catches too. Roedean had Hurst 272 before the final pair, with anything under 300 a definite chasable total for the girls. Hurst final pair managed to put on 38 in their final 3 overs making the game very interesting. Maisie the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets from her two overs.
Tilly and Chloe opened the batting and got Roedean off to the flier with 30 runs from their 3 overs. Harrie and Lara followed suit not losing a wicket and kept the scoreboard ticking. Maisie and Ze continued in this trend with Roedean 261 at the midway stage and on track to get the win. Hurst bowlers got their targeting systems right toward the end and with the runs drying up, our final few pairs struggled to hit the ball around and losing some wickets was always going to be tough to maintain our paired targets of 20 runs. The girls falling 22 runs short at the end with some really promising performances and some definite areas to tighten up and improve before next weeks final match against Great Walstead. Pick of the batters was Tilly with 13 runs.
We welcome contributions from all parts of the Roedean community. If you have something you would like featured in the Head’s Weekly Review, please email: aws@roedean.co.uk
Mr Campleman