Head's Weekly Review 6th February 2015

6th February 2015 - Issue 12

Neolithic ClassicsNot far behind the school and just up the hill lies an ancient site that pre-dates Stonehenge by over five hundred years. It is difficult to make out the ridges of the Whitehawk causeway and the site is so unprepossessing that many pass by it for years without knowing. What makes Whitehawk causeway so incredibly exciting is that its very existence marks one of the most important moments in history, a time when hunter gatherers began to settle and farm, and started to shape the landscape into the downs in which we live today. Right beside the racecourse on Manor Hill, the remains of two young women were found. One was flung carelessly in a ditch. In a grave surrounded by stones and complete with grave goods, the other woman lies on her side with her new-

born baby and we have a glimpse a private tragedy. More puzzling is the burial of an eight year old child in a post hole, and the ritual burial of a wild roe deer parallel to him. What connected this child of a farming family with a wild deer of the downs? Why was the boy buried around a post? What do the pieces of scratched pottery found on the site mean? One of the girls said, “It was fascinating holding the objects from the site. The connection I felt when I held a spindle that old was amazing – 5000-6000 years ago another woman held it!” The elusive nature of this period is probably one of its greatest attractions. We can see its significance and we cannot always understand it, but pre-history is part of who we are.

Head’s IntroductionRoedean has brushed away the post-Christmas and trial exam-related January blues, and, as the skies get brighter and the days get longer, the school is a hive of activity. Although half-term is approaching, it appears that there is no let up at Roedean.

There have been a huge number of events and activities going on, both in and out of school this week. There have been academic trips for a variety of year groups, including a Sixth Form Ethics conference and a visit to Newhaven Fort for the U4s; these trips not only create another context for what the students are studying, but also reinforce the fact that learning does not only take place in a classroom. There have been exciting Dance and Drama trips in the last ten days, and the drama scholars are preparing for their performances next week of a new play, entitled White Out. The sheer breadth of sporting opportunities has again been highlighted this week, and a huge number of girls have been involved: there have been sporting success in swimming and badminton, the younger girls have enjoyed a masterclass with an England netballer, and a Sports’ Psychologist has helped our sportswomen to analyse how they achieve success in the sporting arena.

Over the last few weeks, the views of students and staff at Roedean have been canvassed about re-branding the school’s wordmark and logo. It is always important to let the girls voice their opinions, and we are very pleased with their positive contributions to this process. The re-branding will be launched across the school in time for the start of the new academic year, coinciding with the production of a new website and school literature.

In the last week, the Sunday Times and Tatler have been to Roedean to look at our exceptional boarding facilities. Both were impressed by the attention to detail and the overall quality of the refurbishment in Houses 1-4, and the girls who met the journalists described how the standard of provision made them feel settled and comfortable in their surroundings. The Sunday Times article is due to be published in the Style section on 15th February, and the Tatler article will appear in March or April.

I am delighted that so much is going on at Roedean, and I have no doubt that next term will be equally busy, but half-term is not that far away and I hope that it affords the girls some time to rest and recharge their batteries.

£6860.56 for charityIn June last year, during the activity week at the end of the summer term, the 6.1 year group worked together to raise nearly £7000 for two charities, The Chailey Heritage Foundation and Sight Savers. As a year group, they took part in a Musikscool event – in one day, between them, they wrote and recorded five original music tracks, arranged the publicity for their event using the media and social media, organised fundraising for the event, and they took photos and created a video of the day. During the day they learned a lot about themselves individually and as a team; they learnt to believe in their own abilities and to face a challenge head-on and with confidence. The whole year group bonded more than ever before in one single day. The girls had a wonderful time,

and achieved a great deal for the benefit of others. The cheques for the money raised were formally presented by the girls in Assembly to a representative from the charity on Tuesday this week – Roedean is hugely proud of their achievements.

THE SCHOLARS PRODUCTION 2015

WHITE OUTa new play

by David JacksonNational Youth Theatre, ITV & BBC Radio 4

10-12 FEBRUARY7.30pm THE ROEDEAN THEATRETICKETS £5 from [email protected] or 01273 667510

Young Enterprise in ShorehamFor the second week in a row, team members from Bbright and Bambi woke up early for the Young Enterprise trade fair. This time we were headed for the Holmbush shopping centre in Shoreham and we were keen to put into practice all we had learned from the previous week. Bbright in particular had worked hard all week to improve the look of their trade stand, making new posters, and altering how they displayed their merchandise. The highlight of our day was meeting both the Mayor of Brighton and Hove and the Chairman of Adur Council. They bought a traditional Chinese zodiac bracelet from Bambi, and Bbright secured the prestigious task of recreating the Mayor’s crest on a notebook!

DV8 Physical DanceLast Thursday, a group of Sixth Form girls went to see ‘JOHN’, a new dance-theatre work by DV8 Physical Theatre in the Brighton Dome. After interviewing more than 50 men about their lives, John was chosen to have his story retold. What emerged was a story that is both extraordinary and touching. Years of crime, drug use, and struggling to survive led John on a search. ‘JOHN’ authentically depicted real-life stories, where movement and the spoken word combine to create an intense, moving and poignant theatrical experience. A stunning set, original dance, and excellent performances helped to provide an evening where the Roedean girls were exposed to real life drama.

White OutDon’t forget to order your tickets for next week’s performances by the Roedean Drama Scholars of White Out. It is a short new play

written by David Jackson, lasting about an hour. The proceeds from the tickets at £5 will go to The British Heart Foundation.

Brighton Museum Archaeology DayMammoths at the marina, hill forts at Hollinbury, and our very own Neolithic site up the road at Whitehawk – Brighton is full of important Neolithic sites. Brighton Museum’s Archaeology Day gave us a much deeper insight into this, and here you can see Poppy holding a hand axe from Hurstpierpoint. It is around 6000 years old and archaeologists estimate that it would have taken around 10 years to make. It was fascinating to watch the fl intknapper reconstructing the axe, but, even with his level of skill and experience of this dying art, he was soon covered in blood and an unfortunate hit split the axe in two and ruined twenty minutes’ work!

The Curious Incident

It was a bitterly cold night on 4th February when forty girls headed up the A23 into London town for a much anticipated trip to see the hit show, The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-time. Brilliant seats in the stalls complemented a simply vivifying evening of grown-up, cutting-edge theatre at The Gielgud Theatre in the West End. With movement by everyone’s favourite post-2000 reference point, Frantic Assembly, and stunning technical design, the show hit the spot for GCSE and A Level Drama students. Haddon’s original novel was brilliantly adapted by @roedeantheatre’s follower and the playwright du jour, Simon Stephens, and we reboarded the coach bound for bed at a reasonable 10:10pm. Then the drama really started. A bumped bollard and a leaking radiator later found us stopped on the hard shoulder of the A3, waiting for the replacement coach from Shoreham…. Spirits were kept up by endless crisps and a terrible pong from the now dying radiator. The replacement coach arrived at half midnight, and we mercifully sailed on without further incident to Roedean at 2am. Girls and staff were tired but splendidly stoic about the whole thing. Now what’s on at Brighton Dome next…?

6th February 2015 - Issue 12HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

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Newhaven FortThe U4 Historians visited Newhaven Fort and were given two interesting talks, one on the First World War and the other on the role of the Royal Observer Corps (delivered by one of their former members, in full service uniform) during the Cold War. This included a visit to a mock-up of one of their nuclear bunkers. During the First World War

talk, girls were given the opportunity to try on uniforms and handle weapons and other equipment. Also impressive were the massive gun emplacements overlooking the coast, some including their artillery still in situ. Rosy Baharie (U4) described the experience as ‘inspiring’.

Ethics Conference

Ten A Level Religious Studies students attended an Ethics conference on Thursday, held at Bloomsbury Baptist Church, London. It was led by Dr. Peter Vardy, an international leader in the field, prolific author, and engaging lecturer. Topics covered during a wide ranging day included God and the Good, The End of Ethics, Euthanasia, Buddhism, and Evolution and Ethics. The girls enjoyed the day, and found it very rewarding.

“Jump into exercise – from intentions to action!”Fed up of making excuses? Well it’s time to take action and jump into exercise by taking part in three exercises that will help you achieve your goals! 32 of Roedean’s finest athletes sat down for a long hard look into the course of their personal, sporting performance. The aim was to develop a greater understanding of the necessity for structured, staged targets, allowing our sportswomen to visualise the progression of their sporting careers. The response was excellent, producing vivid and controlled stages of development. Dr. Karl Stevenson, who specialises in delivering sport and exercise psychology support for budding sporting heroes, led the session; his doctoral research at the University of Brighton is directed at evaluating psychological training environments. Since 2008, Karl has worked closely with Sussex Cricket on numerous projects, and he has been recruited by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to lead research into the best methods of training anticipation and decision-making skills. The girls loved his session, and let’s hope that they can put some of what they learnt into practice on the games field.


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England netballer leads masterclassOn Wednesday, Roedean had a visit from Sasha Corbin to deliver a netball masterclass to the girls from U3 and three local prep schools. Sasha has 46 international caps, has represented England at U19 level, and has also taken part in the Commonwealth Games – she is hoping to gain her 50th cap at the World Cup this August in Sydney. The girls worked hard on drills, and Sasha was able to adapt the drills to push the more talented and help the girls who were new to netball. The session was concluded by a Q&A with Sasha, where the

girls delved into her background and netball career. “Hard work, lots of hard work” was her recipe for success. Medals were handed out to carefully selected students from all schools; we were proud that Ami Finnegan was awarded the special prize of a signed Roedean ball as player of the tournament. Sasha was a real inspiration to the students and they thoroughly enjoyed the day. We are excited to be able to watch Sasha play on television in her super league matches, and also that England has recently secured the bid to host the World Cup in 2019.

Swimming at VinehallU3 and L4 swimmers travelled through snow to Vinehall to compete in their junior gala last week. The girls all swam brilliantly and adapted well to their smaller pool. We came second out of four teams, and particular congratulations go to Sky O’Connoll, who swam in six races, winning most. She captained well, and swam superbly in the breaststroke relay to come from 3rd position to win the race on her final leg.

Badminton at Eastbourne

Twelve girls went to Eastbourne to play in the mid-Sussex Badminton Tournament last Sunday. This was the first game in the whole academic year and we were very lucky to be the Girls’ Doubles’ Plate Winners. It was good to see that our efforts in training and practices are being rewarded. Playing doubles in badminton is a brand new experience for us; it is not just about winning or losing, because playing doubles requires cooperation. The training and competition that we went through together enhanced our confidence, friendship and mutual understanding. The key to success in doubles for badminton is to develop your minds so that they are synchronised. It is very important to trust your partners in doubles, as then you will start to develop a team-spirit. Taking part in the event has given us the opportunity to interact with students from other schools. By challenging ourselves against new opponents, we found our weaknesses and this drives us to practise more in the future to improve our techniques and tactics. To conclude, we would like to share the following quotation from Winston Churchill which reflects the true meaning of sportsmanship: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts”.

Maisy Li & Tiffany Ng (6.1)

Straight sets winsThis Sunday saw the U19 girls’ table tennis team go to Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets to play in the regional finals of the National Schools’ Butterfly tournament. Roedean was the only school representing East Sussex and we were up against opposition from Hertfordshire, West Sussex and South London. All 4 Roedean players fought valiantly, pushing their opponents to play outstanding table tennis. Eva Wang was the exceptional player of the tournament winning all of her matches in straight sets, an achievement no other player could boast from either the boys’ or the girls’ matches – what a fantastic achievement!!

The week ahead at a glanceMonday 9 February 10:00 – 14:15 Chamber Music Day,

Roedean Chapel

19:00 – 21:00 Drama Scholars’ Production Dress Rehearsal

Tuesday 10 February 16.00 – 18:45 Volleyball v Moira House

18:15 – 20:15 Years 10-13 Physics Lecture Mapping the Universe, University of Sussex

19:30 – 20:30 Drama Scholars’ Production White Out

Wednesday 11 February 13.30 – 17:30 Netball U12A,B,C,D and

U13A,B,C v Mayfield


Thursday 12 February 07:45 – 18:00 Years 12 & 13 English

Language Conference, London

16:15 – 17:30 Netball U12A&B v Seaford Club (H)


Friday 13 February 16:15 Half term holiday starts

17:00 – 19:00 Sixth Form (Years 12 & 13) Parents’ Evening.

Saturday 14 February 14:00 – 15:00 Family Fun Swim,

Roedean Pool

JJ ICELAND TRIP

The group leaves Roedean at 11:30 on Saturday 14 February and returns to Luton Airport at 14:35 on Wednesday 18 February.

JJ HALF TERM HOLIDAY

Boarding students should return to school on Sunday 22 February; lessons recommence on Monday 23 February

JJ WEEK 1 TIMETABLE


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We welcome contributions from all parts of the Roedean community. If you have something you would like featured in the Headmaster’s Newsletter, please email: [email protected]

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Head's Weekly Review 6th February 2015