11th March 2016 - Issue 9
HEAD’S
WEEKLY REVIEW
Head’s Introduction
I have been immensely proud of the school and of the entire Roedean community this week. My colleagues and every single girl have worked very hard, firstly for Open Day, and then for the inspection this week, to show our visitors the school at its best, as well as the breadth of opportunities and the excellent teaching and learning which are on offer here. Inspection is an incredibly thorough and demanding process in which every aspect of what we do and every policy and record we keep is inspected, investigated and observed over four days. The girls and staff, however, have been delightful, and their liveliness and good humour is an indication of the strength of the school’s selfconfidence and community spirit. I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed seeing how well everyone has responded to the presence of our inspectors. We welcomed over one hundred families on Open Day, and I am delighted that this coincided with a record-breaking number of acceptances for places in Year 7 in September which is, I strongly believe, down to the quality and personality of the girls and staff that they meet. We have received acceptances from sixty
local and UK girls for Year 7, who will be joining the school next year at a time when we are going from strength to strength. Watching every girl in Year 7 taking part in the Open Day performance, which focused on the arrival of summer, it is strange to think that they were sitting in the audience only a year ago. They have grown in confidence so much in two terms and, as we saw at their Parents’ Evening this week, they are also as happy and energetic as ever. As you will read in this review, Roedean has marked International Women’s Day with a whole series of events over the week, and the girls have really engaged with this theme. The final event of the week was Chapel this morning, at which we were joined by our honorary Chaplain, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, and she spoke briefly about her own struggle for women to be accepted into the clergy. It was a special week in which each and every one of us wore a badge indicating a woman who has inspired us. You will not be surprised to know that many of those badges said ‘mum’.
This term, we have been piloting an Academic Mentoring Programme with girls from every year group, leading to a research project on a topic of their choosing. Three of the youngest girls involved made presentations this week, outlining their projects to the group; I would like to congratulate Maia Hobbs (Childhood), Amelie Samarasinghe (Happiness), and Darcey Priddle (Ai Wei Wei), on how well they presented their projects and on the depth of their research. When we give the girls the freedom and support to follow their own interests and passions, we are always inspired by what they can achieve for themselves. We are in the throes of Prefect selection for next year, and I am pleased that forty girls in Year 12 have put themselves forward for these roles. The students will be voting early next week for those they feel will lead the school the best. The final appointments will be made at the start of next term. I wish everyone a very good final week of term, and, when it comes, a restful break over the Easter holidays.
Musical Masterclass at Roedean On Friday 4th March, Paul Gregory came to Roedean to give a masterclass on the 1st movement of the Clarinet Trio in A minor by Brahms. Paul is renowned as a professional Classical guitarist; what is less well-known is that he was originally a first-study cellist.
Using gentle encouragement and questioning, Paul extended the girls’ understanding of the techniques, compositional devices and, above all, the emotional comprehension of very complex music that is not normally tackled until university or beyond.
Kelly HT Chan (clarinet), Dora Goode (cello) and Annabella Chen (piano) were put through their paces on how to interpret one of the most intellectually demanding pieces of the chamber music repertoire.
We all thank Paul for his help and encouragement, and look forward to the girls’ performance of this piece at the Falmer concert in April.