20 March 2020 - Issue 10
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Head’s Introduction
Thank you to all our community – girls, staff, parents and friends – for your support, commitment, and understanding. These are unprecedented times. As you will already know, due to the current coronavirus pandemic, the UK’s government took the difficult decision to close all schools from today, and to cancel A Level and GCSE examinations this year. This was made known to everyone, including schools, in the Prime Minister’s daily briefing at around 5:00pm on Wednesday. As you will yourselves be dealing with the impact of the outbreak, and with many sudden and difficult challenges, you will understand the difficulties we face. To give this situation some context, the last time that Roedean was in this position was at the start of World War II. From today, Roedean will be providing education online and offsite for all the girls. The process of transitioning to online learning will come with a number of further challenges. We will all need to be responsive, flexible, and adaptable. I have no doubt, at the end of this, that we will be even more committed to the importance of schools and what they provide and achieve on a daily basis. We are developing new content daily, but also looking at different models of online learning to ensure that we can provide a challenging and inspiring curriculum at home.
Hairspray – what a triumph! hand-point-right
The most important message of all from me is that we all need to be as supportive, cooperative, and positive as possible. It is very easy in times of difficulty for each one of us to share frustrations or to move quickly to complain. We are all under pressure and I know many families will be under huge additional pressures. I would urge everyone to take a moment to consider how they can improve each and any situation, by recognising that everyone is doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. We know from experience that encouragement, understanding, and perseverance lead to the best learning experiences, and that is no less true in other areas of life.
materials for all classes, the PE Department has produced podcasts to encourage all to continue to exercise, and we are developing pre-A Level materials and pre-university materials for those in Years 11 and 13. The House Staff have been remarkable in making travel arrangements for large numbers of boarders, and making sure that they are able to return home to their families, sometimes at very short notice. We also realised late on Wednesday that today would be the last day at Roedean for some girls, and I am delighted that at very short notice we were able to have a lovely and poignant Leavers’ Chapel yesterday and Leavers’ Breakfasts today.
I am already incredibly impressed with the positive and mature way the girls have responded to the uncertain situation we find ourselves in – they have been outstandingly resilient, philosophical, and calm. I have been simply astounded by the response of those girls in Years 11 and 13 who will no longer be able to sit their public examinations this summer – they have been shocked and upset, of course, but have been measured and positive, even in the face of a lack of clarity about what exactly will happen with their qualifications and A Level or university places.
In the midst of everything, our brilliant performances of Hairspray for the girls illustrated the wonderful resilience of our community – despite reducing the number of shows, missing cast members, and changing roles, everyone who was involved with the show coped admirably and proved what it takes to ensure that ‘the show must go on’. Congratulations to each and every performer, musician, and member of the back stage team, and to the director and technical crew – you did an amazing job!
I am very grateful for the wonderful messages of support I have received from parents, my colleagues, and the girls. Things have moved very quickly at Roedean: to give a few examples, my colleagues have populated an online platform with
I want to reiterate that these are unprecedented times – on this, the last day in School this term, I am incredibly proud of Roedean. I hope that you all stay healthy and safe, and wish you all well for the coming weeks and months.
Year 13 leavers
Bath Cup in London hand-point-right
Year 12 Art hand-point-right
House Netball hand-point-right