St Swithun's summer 2021 term newsletter

THE NEWS

SENIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2021

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The media is full of tales of learning loss and suggestions that schools should organise extra lessons to make up for lost time, but I don’t see this academic year in terms of which bits of the syllabus have not have been covered. On the contrary, my view is that many young people, in a strange, possibly counter-intuitive way, have actually learnt a great deal from this pandemic. They have had to deal with uncertainty and to cope with tough times, to use their initiative when the usual ways of doing things aren’t available to them and to find laughter in all sorts of unusual situations.

At St Swithun’s this term we benefitted from the relaxation of some of the Covid restrictions by embarking on our first sports fixtures for over a year, culminating in some exciting cricket matches and athletics championships. We were also able to give our musicians the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience albeit a small, socially-distanced one.

Sadly, we couldn’t invite parents to sports day, but our students enjoyed a hotly contested event including a surprise, pop-up relay race featuring U5. At the end of term, we were able to bid farewell to our upper sixth as usual with speeches in the marquee followed by the Valedictory Service in the cathedral. Our guest speaker, Jaime Thurston the founder of 52 Lives, reminded us how lives can be changed by small gestures and how career paths do not have to be linear.

More broadly this term, one of our principal aims has been to keep the ‘fun-ometer’ high as we have all felt weary after a year of Covid. Amongst other things, Rev Wallington organised a TaskMaster challenge for L4, ably assisted by the lower sixth; Mrs Crookes, our archivist, challenged us all to imitate old photos from our school’s history; the staff put together a lip sync video to entertain the students and on the last day of term everyone bar the upper sixth enjoyed sessions of old style sports day, bouldering, crazy golf, nerf wars, archery or the inflatable obstacle course.

We plan to continue to provide a blend of academic rigour and light-hearted tomfoolery in September in addition to support for any students who have found the last year particularly challenging.

Jane Gandee MA (Cantab) Headmistress

End of term activity day 1 Archery 2 Croquet 3 Cricket 4 Nerf gun wars 5 Giant Jenga 6 Bouldering 7 Crazy golf

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SCHOOL LIFE

SCHOOL LIFE

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Early in May our Greenpower team took two of their three electric cars – Rubidium and Neon - to Goodwood Motor Circuit for the latest Education Trust event. After they carefully worked on and tweaked the cars’ performance the team achieved a 19th place finish for Rubidium and 11th for Neon out of 34 vehicles in the competition. Our girls were also very proud to win the award for Best Presented Team for their excellent behaviour, manners and conduct on the day.

Biology club surveying lichen

LIFE ON THE CONSERVATION FRONT LINE Sustainable fashion and upcycling

L5 made amplifiers in technology

U5 gala dinner

U6 English trip to Chawton House

National Geographic Explorer Dr Niall McCann enthralled the school with his talk about life on the conservation front line. The adventurerbiologist described his often-dangerous work researching, filming and protecting endangered species in remote and challenging environments.

He discussed bridging the gap between science and policy and how his work in human-wildlife conflict led him to a career in anti-poaching, wildlife film making and international conservation. We were particularly taken by his stories of moving crocodiles to nature reserves in Africa and his love for tapirs.

STUDENT EMBARKS ON WORLD RECORD FLIGHT ATTEMPT Zara Rutherford, who has just completed her A’ levels at St Swithun’s, has embarked on a world record attempt to become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world. Travelling in a Shark ultralight aircraft, Zara’s route will take her through 52 countries over two or three months depending on the weather.

U4 trip to Kew Gardens

U6 leavers’ ball

Zara qualified as a pilot last year and hopes her world record attempt will inspire other girls and young women to pursue their dreams. She particularly hopes to encourage more females to take up flying or enter STEM-related careers. If she successfully completes her journey, she will also become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the world in a microlight aircraft.

SCHOOL LIFE

SCHOOL LIFE

GREENPOWER

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The M5 design and technology group made plaques for trees that have been planted in memory of loved ones in the Garden of Healing at Holy Church, Newtown in the Meon Valley. The idea came when a member of staff, who lives in Newtown, observed the memorial plaques in our High House Garden. The manufacture of the plaques involved using a number of different skills which support the GCSE technology course.

This gesture of community outreach has been much appreciated by the church community of Newtown.

Throughout the term our U4 students have been working on academic research posters within their form groups before presenting the finished products to guest judge Dr Henrik Sherling. He was hugely impressed with the entries and spoke about the quality of all the posters. Subjects of the posters included: the benefits and disadvantages of online learning; how far is too far for plastic surgery; whether to punish or help people who take illegal drugs; and whether social media makes people less socially active.

FILM SCHOOL FOR U5 U5 students took part in a one day course where they learned all about filmmaking. They studied fight choreography, film history, screenwriting, editing and cinematography before premiering their short films to win the ultimate prize – the Best Picture Oscar.

EARTHSHOT St Swithun’s students launched their own initiative to find solutions to one of the five Earthshot challenges; building a waste-free world.

Teams of pupils developed ideas to eliminate waste on the school campus and used audio visual presentations to submit their entries into a whole-school competition. The best ideas and solutions included upcycling old school uniform, using unbleached white paper and litter picking parties.

Sustainability is high on the agenda for our students. There has been a sustainability club run by sixth form girls for a number of years and a sustainable fashion group was formed in 2021. The eco-committee made up of students from a number of year groups has embarked on the Eco-Schools programme to reduce the school’s environmental impact and work towards achievable and sustainable goals. In addition, produce from the student-managed school allotment finds its way into school meals.

Our competition was based on the Earthshot prize for global environmental change which was launched

by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2020.

SCHOOL LIFE

SCHOOL LIFE

MEMORIAL PLAQUE MAKING

ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT POSTERS: ACADEMIC RESEARCH SKILLS

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BOARDING LIFE

BOARDING LIFE Hyde Abbey baking cookies

Hyde Abbey U5 preparing outfits for final day high jinks Le Roy jumping their virtual way across Africa

Working with clay in Earlsdown

High House dinner party

Hillcroft smores reunion

Making peppermint creams in Hillcroft

Le Roy birthday celebrations

Silent disco Hillcroft Mad Hatter’s unbirthday party

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THE ARTS

This term’s music scholars and exhibitioners’ concert heralded the return of in-person live music to St Swithun’s with performances from award holders across the year groups. It was heartening to hear how the girls have developed their playing over the course of lockdown and continued their music making despite the challenges of the past year.

Lucy B L6 gave a beautiful performance of Pratt’s Souvenir d’Ispahan, accurately capturing the two contrasting moods within the clarinet part whilst Louisa P M5 played Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro for violin and piano with great energy and intensity. The evening concluded with final performances from this year’s U6 who performed music by Beethoven, Mozart, Ginastera and Weber.

Written by Pernille F U6

SUMMER CONCERT

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

At the end of June we were delighted to be able to play in our annual summer concert. We enjoyed performances from a range of ensembles including all three of our rock bands, and the winners of the school music competition performed solos. It was a great way to end what has been a very challenging year.

Members of our L5 Drama Club performed a showcase of their work. This year the club has focused on scripts and the way to adapt them using different styles. In the autumn term they worked in a physical way, but with naturalistic dialogue, on a script written by Noelle L L5 during lockdown. During the summer term the club experimented with a version of Beauty and the Beast by Ted Hughes. They used commedia dell’arte (an Italian theatre style) to create the characters and then used recorded voices, sound effects and lighting to create atmosphere.

By Bea W L6

The girls enjoyed learning how to act behind a mask and project their voices as a substitute for facial expressions as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the stories they were acting.

Photo credit: Jay Rowden, Esta Charkham Associates

THE ARTS

MUSIC SCHOLARS AND EXHIBITIONERS’ CONCERT

BUDDING PERFORMER SELECTED FOR PRESTIGIOUS CHOIR Sophia V M5 has been selected as a choral scholar at the prestigious St Mary’s in Barnes. She will start her role officially in September but has already participated in their scholars’ concert, performing Come Sing and Dance by Howells and Nuits d’Etoiles by Debussy.

The talented singer has performed with the MX Masterclass choir at London’s Royal Albert Hall multiple times this term alongside stars such as Ruthie Henshall and Ben Forster as part of the Best of the West End production. She was also selected by the Rodolfus Foundation to receive top vocal coaching this summer and been picked up by Esta Charkham Associates agency for film and television work.

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The Bramston Bursary Foundation was thrilled to have so much support for its online auction this term. The whole St Swithun’s community was behind the initiative with parents, Old Girls, teachers and support staff donating and bidding for the prizes.

There were 51 lots to bid for including a sailing trip, holidays on the Isle of Wight, in Courchevel and Provence, a gin distillery tour, sports memorabilia and clothing, drone photography and a tour of Harrods which involved exploring secret tunnels, seven underground floors and going onto the roof helipad.

The auction raised a wonderful £12,902 which will be used to support the BBF’s mission to transform the lives of girls in or on the edge of care by offering fully funded boarding places at St Swithun’s.

COMMUNITY SERVICE WEEK

Paintings above: L4 architecture Drawings below: U4 natural form drawings

During U5’s community service week we volunteered to help build a forest school, read with children and do some weeding at local primary schools. We also managed to fit in a lot of painting around St Swithun’s, including many sheds and outdoor storage units, and although our arms ached at the end we certainly gave the sheds a new lease of life.

Some of the highlights were helping to make the new mud kitchen in the prep school, reading with the children at Oliver’s Battery Primary School and gardening. By the end of the week we were able to differentiate between the weeds and vegetables! It was so rewarding to see our efforts being enjoyed by pupils at each of the schools we worked at and we all came away smiling.

By Celeste A U5

COMMUNITY

THE ARTS

AUCTION RAISES THOUSANDS FOR BBF

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SPORT

SPORT A selection of pictures from sports day

St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, SO21 1HA 01962 835700 office@stswithuns.com www.stswithuns.com Registered Charity Number 307335