24 January 2020 - Issue 3
Deepdene Little Farmers
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Head’s Introduction
Steel drums, the Roedean Academy, House Swimming, Higher Education Evening, a visit from our STEM Ambassador, Staff-Student Football, and more... this has been a busy and varied week, and a perfect illustration of Roedean’s all-round education. It was my pleasure to welcome over 50 students from schools in the local area to join some of our Year 10 students for the Roedean Academy this week. The aim of the Academy is to bring like-minded students from the surrounding area together for a programme of challenging academic enrichment - it was certainly clear from the discussion generated by some ethical problems they were presented with at the launch event that, as a group, they are looking forward to pushing themselves to challenge their thinking and broaden their perspectives. I would like to thank my colleagues who will be teaching modules on this 8-week programme, which I am sure will be very rewarding for both staff and students. It was wonderful that Dr Suzie Imber, Roedean’s STEM Ambassador, was able to spend some time at School this week. She sat in on 14 lessons, had lunch with girls in Year 10, fed the goats with the Deepdene Little Farmers, spoke at the Higher Education Evening and at the Academy launch, and toured around the School with Year 13 scientists. She really enjoyed her visit, and was impressed by the girls’ openness and relaxed manner, and by the wide interests and talents of many of those she met.
Chinese Writing Winners in the Worldwide Competition!
The overall winner is Yoyo (Yr9) with her essay on the philosopher, Confucius, and, the winner of the 2nd prize is Lareina (Yr10). These girls’ achievement is all the more impressive, because about 5 million Chinese students in 34 countries, including
Yoyo
I wish you all well for a lovely exeat weekend, and good luck for the week ahead!
We are also delighted that Mrs Lin Wu, who teaches Chinese at Roedean and prepared the girls for this competition, has also been honoured with the title of one of the best Chinese writing teachers in the world – congratulations! RB
Lareina
The goats enjoying a walk in the Quad
On Monday, it will be Holocaust Memorial Day, this year marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz from the Nazis. Ahead of this, Miss Keller and Ms Boobis have led two very poignant Chapel services this week, including very personal stories which must have been difficult to share, but they reminded us that we must stand together, sharing pride in our differences, in order to avoid division in our communities. I must congratulate our musicians: Alma sang a stunningly beautiful prayer in Hebrew, and Ananya, Katarina, and Mr Rous performed the powerful theme to the remarkable film Schindler’s List, which Katarina had arranged for violin, cello, and piano. Chinese New Year begins tomorrow, and I am looking forward to our annual firework display on a Wednesday! This is clearly an auspicious time, as we have just heard that Yoyo and Lareina have taken the top two places in the World Chinese Writing Competition – congratulations on this outstanding achievement!
China, participated the competition – Roedean is incredibly proud of the girls.
Fantastic congratulations to two Roedean girls who have been placed first and second in the 20th World Chinese Essay Writing Competition.
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Roedean Aca demy Please see page 9
Mollie’s Swimming Success
Year 9 in fabu lous Steel Band showca se
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