Head's Weekly Review (26) 29 04 16

29th April 2016 - Issue 3

HEAD’S

WEEKLY REVIEW

Head’s Introduction

This week, the new Prefect team has been appointed, and their excitement and pride in being a Roedean Prefect is palpable. I am also excited to see what their enthusiasm and dedication will achieve over the coming year.

Congratulations to each of them, to our new Head Girl, Isabella Mason, and our Deputy Head Girls Natasha Spinks and Maya ContehMcKay. I know that they have lots of ideas and are keen to throw themselves into their roles.

The Dance Showcase last Friday night was an absolute joy, with 135 girls across all years showcasing their talents and their love of dance. The girls demonstrated their ambition and skill in a large number of completely different genres and eras of dance. It is amazing to me that the girls have mastered such complex and completely different styles so well. Congratulations to Miss Stidston and her Dance teachers on creating a spectacular display, and I am also very aware of all the work with hair, make-up, lighting and costumes which goes on behind the scenes before the girls make it onto stage. Well done to all involved.

Close on the heels of the Dance Showcase, Music is playing a prominent role in the school at the moment, with concerts at the weekend and on Monday. On Saturday, the girls performed in a wonderful and highly accomplished recital at Falmer Church to a very appreciative local audience. On Monday, Ms Kazem and Dr Barrand’s charity concert was an evening of beautiful operatic arias and a range of upbeat modern songs; several hundred pounds have been donated to the two charities they are supporting, and money is still coming in. Preparations for our Brighton Fringe Festival

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Congratulations to the new Prefect Team concert next weekend have moved up a gear this week – we are all eagerly anticipating seeing so many of our girls singing and playing in front of a public audience. It will make everyone very proud to be a part of Roedean.

I also want to congratulate our brave Duke of Edinburgh adventurers who endured a cold night of camping in good spirits.

The first public examinations have taken place this week, and I hope that they have gone well. Good luck to all those revising hard with exams coming up soon. This will, of course, be a stressful time, but each of you must remain calm and have faith that your hard work and preparation now will see you through.

Congratulations to the new Prefect body, which has been appointed following a rigorous selection process, involving the girls and staff voting, interviews, and an observed task.

We are delighted with the group, and are confident that they will make their mark on the school in due course.

Head Girl

Bella Mason

Deputy Head Girl

Tasha Spinks

Deputy Head Girl

Maya Conteh-McKay

SENIOR PREFECTS Senior Pastoral Prefect

Lili Banks

Senior Academic Prefect

Consuella Zhao

Events Prefect

Miranda Liu

I hope that the House 2 sleepover goes well tonight – I can picture the excitement of the girls already. After the weekend, we are expecting over 100 families to visit our Open Day on Bank Holiday Monday. Given the important classes taking place at this time of year, the day will run as a normal school day as much as possible for exam year-groups, and our visitors will be welcomed to Roedean by the younger girls, who will also be performing for them in the Theatre.

Charity Prefect

Eunice Yuen

Co-curricular Prefect

Honor Patching

Games Captain

Amelia Balthazor

I wish you all a restful weekend and good luck for the week ahead.

WHAT’S COMING UP IN THE WEEK AHEAD?

Monday 2 May

OPEN DAY

Tuesday 3 May

U4 Bushcraft residential trip, Cornbury L4 residential trip, Derbyshire

Wednesday 4 May

Beach Volleyball v Burgess Hill & Farlington

Friday 6 May

L5, 6.1 & 6.2 social event

Saturday 7 May

Brighton Fringe Festival

PREFECTS Academic Prefect

Ella South

Academic Prefect

Phoebe Blencowe

Academic Prefect

Yousra Laachir

Academic Prefect

Georgina King

Academic Prefect

Harriet CliftonSprigg

Academic Prefect

Alex Turck

Academic Prefect

Tara McMaster

Academic Prefect

Natalie Tang

Pastoral – Sixth Form Prefect

Grace Robertson

Pastoral – Key Stage 4

Nicole Lee

Pastoral – Key Stage 3

Jenna Baharie

Library Prefect

Natasha Tan

29th April 2016 - Issue 3

HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

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.

Distinctions all round for our musicians Amelia Balthazor (6.1) for helping a struggling visitor unload their car and carry their things [DGR]

Gabby Wickham (U5) for a vast improvement in her Chemistry result [KHB]

Karen Siao (6.1) for her excellent essays on Elizabeth I [RCH]

The Music department is pleased to announce another very good set of Distinctions in the Graded Examinations for instruments and singing, with no fewer than ten girls attaining this level. This number of examinations being awarded marks at the highest level is testament to our outstanding Music Department and its teachers, as well as to the girls’ dedication and talent.

From L to R in the photo are Bonnie White (Grade 4 Singing), Tiffany Lam (Grade 7 Double Bass), Alya Mohamed Fauzi (Grade 1 Alto Saxophone), Florence Gordon (Grade 3 Singing), Amelie Samarasinghe (Grade 4 Singing), and Zarbanu Malekshahi (Grade 5 Singing).

The following girls also obtained distinctions but were not photographed: Abby Ning (Grade 2 Trumpet), Julia Hinton (Grade 2 Trumpet), Jemma Neill-Gordon Spicer (Grade 3 Flute), and Kelly Long (Grade 6 Piano). Congratulations to all!

Martha Nicholas (U5) for being extremely helpful to her peers in GCSE PE [KAN]

Emily Townsend and Loretta Sargeant (U5) for reporting a leaking drain – you helped us to catch what could have been a much more serious problem [GHA]

Dramatic success on an international level for Fran Following soon after her wonderful performance at Glyndebourne last term, which was seen by many of her peers, to their great excitement, Francesca Seaborne has just won a place in the Youth Music Theatre UK’s new musical production this summer. Over a thousand young people from all over the UK and Ireland auditioned to be part of this exciting project, so this is an absolutely stunning achievement.

The project will run for two weeks in July, before the performances at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The piece is a new musical, called The Frenzy of Sweeney, written by the Northern Irish composer, Garth McConaghie, who will be running the project himself. This will be another wonderful experience for Fran, all of which are building a strong portfolio which will stand her in great stead in the future. We cannot wait to hear all about it!

Tuck Shop Jess Kay, Amelia Jeyes and Gracie Bernard were the masterminds behind this week’s pop-up tuck shop, raising money for Cancer Research in memory of Mr Smith. Gracie collected money from the other girls to buy the sweets, and made cakes too. Jess and Amelia sourced and packaged bags of sweets with the help of Amelia’s mum’s discount cash and carry card! They organised the table, posters, and float from the charity rep all by themselves. Then they ran it with the help of Soha El Faghloumi and Demi Adeyemi, among a few others.

Miss Taylor and I are more than impressed with their spirit of enterprise and organisational skills, plus their true spirit of wanting to work together to make a difference – they have raised about £150. #reallyproudtutors RMI

Sublime performances at St Laurence Church, Falmer Clara Hollowood (u4) for looking after a team member on her D of E expedition and offering to carry her bag [DGR]

Harriet Clifton-Sprigg (6.1) for being so cheerful, helpful and supportive [SEL]

The idyllic setting of St Laurence Church, nestling on the edge of the South Downs at Falmer, was the perfect venue for the evening recital given by some of our Music Scholars and senior musicians on Saturday 23 April. The audience were treated to pieces

by Vivaldi, Mozart and Beethoven among others. All the musicians, from youngest to oldest, demonstrated their dedication and depth of engagement with musical study through accomplished performances. Well done to all our musicians for their performances in this concert.

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29th April 2016 - Issue 3

HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Dance Showcase

Sports Academy Masterclass

Genres and Styles was the topic of this year’s Dance Showcase, and this certainly became evident in the many contrasting dance routines, with very elaborate costumes helping to demonstrate many different decades through dance.

From the Charleston to more modern Street Dance, the dancers soared through the 20th century. Impressive sequences with adventurous partner work were seen in the Charleston, Swing, Hand Jive, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Disco, and Street dance – these routines were danced by all the Year 7s and 8s, with their youthful energy and enthusiasm shining through.

A New York skyline helped to portray the Rat Pack, while the dancers moved swiftly, hardly pausing for breath to Sing Sing Sing. In contrast to this modern style, the GCSE dancers performed two routines from work created in their classes which demonstrated the contemporary dance style, and showed their skill and natural ability.

Classical ballet, lyrical ballet, modern ballet and demi-character ballet all helped to show how contrast and style can add variety to the oldest genre. This term’s school theme of ‘Working Together’ was certainly evident as 135 dancers took to the stage, moving on and off with professionalism and confidence. What was obvious was the sheer enjoyment of every dancer, faces beaming, big smiles, and total engagement.

Last Friday, the Sports Scholars took part in a Crossfit masterclass run by professional coach Emma Dean from Crossfit Corinthian. Emma owns her own Crossfit box and has been coaching for many years. Crossfit is a combination of strength and conditioning, traditional fitness training and gymnastics. It aims to develop the whole body and create a wellrounded athlete. Emma is a specialist in junior fitness training, helping young adults to increase their fitness, achieve new personal bests, and increase their fitness to excel in their sport. The Scholars took part in a specialist techniques workshop and then put their newly developed skills into action in a bespoke circuit. This included kettle bell swings, wall balls, burpees, squats, press-ups, and drills aimed to help improve fitness and develop good footwork for our games players and sprinters.

The Scholars understand that it is exactly this focused work which will help them to excel, and they worked incredibly hard and listened well to Emma’s feedback on good technique to maximise their workout and prevent injury. Emma was impressed with the effort levels the girls showed and invited us to a follow-up session at her Crossfit box to use the specialist equipment. We will be aiming to visit before the summer holidays.

The Showcase finished with the ‘Macarena’, with many pupils having to stand up the sides of the auditorium as they could not all fit on the stage.

Congratulations to all involved, the dancers, the teachers, helpers with all the 135 heads of hair to be put up and make-up to be applied, and to all the TAs for sewing students into their costumes as they ran on stage! It was a real team effort, showing how well the Roedean community can work well together.

Prizes galore for Roedean at the Young Enterprise Regional Finals All the hard work that the Year 12 Young Enterprise students have put into their companies came together last night at the Brighton and Hove Finals Event at the University of Brighton. The companies who attended the Finals were Rex, KÜ, Jartisan and 91, all of whom have dedicated a lot of time and effort into their businesses.

We were treated to musical entertainment from British and Irish Modern Music Institute students and a delicious buffet. The Mayor of Brighton was in attendance throughout the evening to support the young people involved and was very impressed with their entrepreneurial spirit.

The companies were judged on three aspects: a business report on their progress throughout the year; their trade stands which were set up at the event for the judges to see; and a 4-minute presentation to summarise their journey as a company. After a musical interlude, the winners were announced. It was a very successful evening for our Roedean companies with 7 awards presented to 3 of our companies, including Rex’s Natalie Tang winning ‘Young Achiever of the Year’ and Jartisan winning ‘Best Company of the Year’.

This means that Jartisan have been invited to take part in the Sussex Finals next week.

Congratulations to all involved and we wish Jartisan all the best for next week’s finals!

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Jartisan ■ ■ ■ ■

Best Product or Service Highly commended Marketing Highly commended Trade Stand Best Company – invited to the Sussex finals

KU ■

Best Trade Stand

Rex ■ ■

Best Presentation Young Achiever Award – Natalie Tang

HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

29th April 2016 - Issue 3

Cricket’s back at Roedean – and we won!

In the Roedean archive, we have some wonderful photographs of girls playing cricket in 1928, showing that, of course, girls can play typically male-dominated sports very well. It is normal today to see women’s football, rugby, and cricket teams, but at that time it was very different.

The school’s founders would certainly be proud to see the U13 girls playing their first league cricket match of the summer against Ratton School on Tuesday. Roedean started the game well, with Alice Eltringham

and Zara Ghani getting 2 early wickets each. This led to Roedean restricting Ratton to 59 runs in 12 overs for 4 wickets. Roedean then went into bat and played very sensibly, needing 5 runs an over. Alice Eltringham, Sophia Clyde and Tabitha McCulloch played some fantastic attacking shots to put Roedean in a winning position. We finished on 69 runs in 12 overs for 2 wickets. It was a superb start to the cricket season, and we look forward to hearing about their continued success.

Roedean’s rounders is far too strong for Christ’s Hospital The junior rounders teams are showing great consistency this season, and they are learning more every match – steady improvements in catching and throwing, coupled with their belief in the strength of their teamwork are really paying off.

On Saturday, the U13A team continued to improve and progress as a team, helping them to beat Christ’s Hospital by 20½ to 13.

Roedean took some excellent catches and got seven out of their nine players out in the first

innings. Strong and accurate throwing to and between bases allowed us to limit their score and also to get some of their players out when they were running. The girls’ consistency when both batting and fielding continues to improve.

Well done to all the girls involved; the players’ players were Yelena and Ami Finnegan and coach’s player was Hana Al-Arari.

The U12A team also travelled to Christ’s Hospital, where the girls batted first and did very well, scoring 6 rounders in the first innings.

The girls then fielded well and stopped Christ’s Hospital with 3½ rounders after their first innings. Batting again, Roedean scored 7½ rounders to Christ’s Hospital’s 3. Roedean won with a final score of 13½ rounders to 6½ rounders. All the girls should be congratulated for their efforts, especially Bonnie White with some great hits and Scarlett Riley for her consistent bowling.

Semi-finalists in the Bede’s Tournament Congratulations to the U13A rounders team who were semi-finalists and finished 3rd out of 13 schools at the annual Bede’s tournament last week. They played exceptionally well, and performed to the highest standard throughout. Some excellent wins, including defeating Brighton College Prep School, Moira House, and St Christopher’s, allowed them to reach the semi-finals – they worked tirelessly and performed well, but unfortunately missed out on a place in the finals. The girls really should be commended on their teamwork, implementation of tactics, communication, perseverance, and skills. Their fielding was impeccable and they scored very well. The coach’s player is the entire team, as each girl had at least one brilliant moment in the afternoon. Well done to all.

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