Even though the nights and mornings are often long and dark in January, the sky across the sea sometimes in the early evening makes Roedean a special place.

Sport burst back onto the scene after the break, with every girl in U3 and L4 playing netball for the school against Hurst on Wednesday. In L4, we fielded four teams, and the U12s braved the weather to play with skill and determination, winning two of the four games.

9th January 2015 - Issue 8

Welcome to 2015A Happy New Year to all and a warm welcome back to all our girls and staff. It has been wonderful to see the school suddenly full again, and to hear the lively buzz of girls and staff catching up with each other after the break. I do hope your holidays were full of rest and enjoyment, although I know that many of you will have been managing work and revision, alongside much valued time with family and friends.

We also welcome new members of staff and new girls, who have moved life and family to Roedean, and are keen to get to know as many new people as possible.

We ended last term with a vibrant final Chapel which included a 6.2 festive flash mob, a staff carol, and the whole school singing the Twelve Days of Christmas. It felt like a school in great voice, even at the end of another busy term and that’s a wonderful thing.

We start the New Year looking forward and plans in our minds. While all our older girls are thinking about trials and summer exams, our

Upper 4s will be considering GCSE choices, our Upper 5s will be thinking about A-level options, and our 6.2s about university offers and life beyond Roedean.

Thinking ahead is both exciting and challenging. We know that there will be much to celebrate this year for individuals and the school, but we must also accept that we will face disappointments. Earlier this year, I suggested that we can change our whole perspective on life, and with it our chance of success, by taking an open, proactive and positive attitude towards the things that lie ahead.

I want to reiterate that now, as many of our girls face forward with exciting but difficult challenges. We can affect our futures positively by working in the right way, with the right attitude, little by little, day by day. We can make a difference by seeking support and advice, and by acting on it positively and proactively.

Every year, I am more convinced that the single most important factor in meeting our own high aspirations is our attitude. When we find things

difficult, we often think that it is something to do with our talents, skills, and knowledge, but these things only grow and improve by persistent, determined, and conscientious effort. It is, in my view, not talent that leads to success, but the strength of character to overcome whatever small obstacles each of us face, at whatever level we operate.

At the start of this New Year, I want to say that we should also tilt our wings in the same way towards the past and our own accomplishments, by noticing and acknowledging the positives, marking our progress, however large or small, and seeing how far we’ve come.

I want that for all our girls this year, so that they can step forward with confidence, self-possession, awareness of their strengths, and an ability to silence that inner doubt when it seeks to divert them from their chosen paths. If they can do that, they will be both surprised and proud at just how far they have travelled. I wish you all a happy and fulfilling 2015. OB

Welcome to seven new girls joining the school this term:Soha El Faghloumi (U3)

Ji Tong (Molly) Liang (L4)

Katrina Walsh (L4)

Anna Shirstova (U4)

Maria Shirstova (U4)

Yaqi Yu (U4)

Elen Manukyan (6.1)

SSBA The Southern Schools Book Awards (SSBA) presentation evening will again be hosted by Roedean this year. The SSBA is an annual reading project which involves many students in Sussex and Kent.

The aim of the award is to strengthen the “reading for pleasure” habit among students aged 13+, and alert them to recently published teenage books that are well worth reading.About two hundred and fifty students from thirty-four schools will be eagerly awaiting the results of the voting and the winner will be announced by Carnegie Medal winner, Kevin Brooks. All the authors of the five books on the shortlist have been invited to attend and there is always a tremendous buzz in the Theatre during the evening. The Roedean girls taking part, all from U4, are Ishika Ali, Amber Anning, Loren Bennett, Lucy Brown, Rhiannon Burgess, Teddy Chambers, Zarbanu Malekshahi, Ella Ranson, Freya Stewart, and Maia Walker.

Here are some quotations from the Roedean SSBA reading group:

Lucy – “I have really enjoyed taking part in the SSBA over the past two years and am particularly looking forward to the award ceremony; I can’t wait to meet the authors”;

Ishika – “It’s been really interesting and enjoyable to read different authors”;

Amber – “It has broadened the range of authors that I read and I have enjoyed a range of different styles of writing”.

The term begins, as always with Hand-shaking – the staff and girls greeting and shaking hands with every member of the school on the first day of term sets the tone from the start and reinforces the feeling that we are a close-knit community.

Farewell after 13 yearsRoedean bids farewell this week to Kim Lee-Falcon, who has worked in the Bursary for thirteen years – we thank her, and wish her very well for the future.

New Staff

JJ NEIL ROSCOE Neil has a BSc in Human Biology and qualified to teach at the University of Sussex. He has worked in a number of state and independent schools throughout London and the South-East, and, before coming to Roedean, he was the Head of Education at the Institute of Biology in London. Neil has been a coursework moderator for OCR, an external examiner at UCL, and is currently a School Governor. Outside of work, Neil enjoys travel and flying – he holds a private pilot’s licence.

JJ OLIVIA WALLEROlivia Waller is Housemistress of House 3 and a teacher of Religion and Philosophy. She studied Theology and Italian at the University of Manchester and the Universita di Perugia. She has been Deputy Housemistress at St Edward’s, Oxford and Dulwich College. She loves Italy, skiing, interior design, and music.

JJ KIERAN CAMBURNKieran grew up in Arundel, read Economics and completed his PGCE at Sussex University. He previously taught at Christ’s Hospital. He enjoys climbing, yoga, surfing, and cruising along the Brighton sea-front on his bike. “During my holidays, I work on an oak cottage I’ve been building, travel in Asia, or guard Brighton’s beaches. I particularly enjoy working on the beach as I love the sea, and people-watching in Brighton is never dull.”

JJ FRAN THOMPSON Fran studied Psychology at Durham University, and has been Head of Psychology at Sussex Downs College in Eastbourne for the last ten years. “I am a life-long vegetarian and love experimental cooking, and I am currently learning to use DJ software.”

JJ KATE BALNAVES Kate is the new Head of Philosophy and Religious Studies. She studied for a Joint Honours degree in East Mediterranean History & Theology at the University of Birmingham, and then did a Masters in Balkan History at the School of Slavonic and east European Studies (UCL). She has previously taught at Manchester Grammar, King Edward’s, Edgbaston, Monmouth Boys, and Merchant Taylors’ Northwood. She is a keen cyclist and oenophile, most often found cycling between vineyards.

JJ PETER EMMSPeter has joined Roedean to teach French and Spanish. Having studied Modern Languages at Exeter University, he has taught at a number of schools, but spent most of his career at Magdalen College School, Oxford, where he was a Housemaster as well as teaching languages. He has a passion for sailing, and ran this activity at MCS, which, under his guidance, became the best school in the country for the sport. His primary interests outside school are literature and travel.

9th January 2015 - Issue 8HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Page 2

Over the Christmas holidays, the stonework of the steps has been cleaned and the wooden floorboards in Reception have been exposed, continuing the refurbishment of the central stairwell in Main School.

Kids Company has touched our hearts at Roedean – we donated 912 gifts

Refurbishment

I am delighted that the Roedean community rose to the challenge of donating over 700 gifts to Kids Company to help to transform the Christmas experience for many under-privileged children in the UK.

Forty-five girls and four members of staff went up to the Kids Company Headquarters in London on 5th December to deliver our donated gifts and to wrap many more. By the end of term Chapel Service on the last day, a week later, the total number was 912, meaning that an additional 249 gifts had been donated in the last week of term! On 19th December, after we had broken up for the Christmas holidays, nine students and two members of staff went up again to London, to take the extra presents – and Zarbanu arrived at the coach with one more gift, making it a nice round 250!

Our work with Kids Company continues on 24th January, when about twenty-five children, aged between 7 and 10, will be arriving at Roedean for a day of making pizza and decorating cupcakes, trampolining, “hot air ballooning” in DT, and glamorising T-shirts. This will be the second time children have come to school – those who came in October had an excellent time. The children will be from deprived areas of London, and coming to Roedean will be a great way for them to gain some new experiences in a setting out of the capital.

Alex Kelly

Alya Mohamed Fauzi

Amber Anning

Amelia Balthazor

Amelie Samarasinghe

Amy Jiang

Anastasia Romanova

Angel Izunaso

Ariel Jin

Atlanta Lily Shelmerdine

Berta Abello

Briana Kelly

Cassandra Adegbe

Cherry Tenquist

Consuella Zhao

Darcey Walker

Eleanor Wade

Eunice Yuen

Florence Hersey

Gabby Wickham

Georgia Arnold

Georgia Zhang

Hana Wali

Hermione Cossey Hine

Holly Harland

Isabel Rudd de Oliveria

Jasmine Haddaway

Kele Mabe

Lili Banks

Lucia Torrecillas Martinez

Lucy Brown

Lulu Moi

Mackenzie Waller

Matilda Campbell-Squires

Miss Frances Holliday

Miss Jessica Beck

Miss Mary Triddon

Mrs Jane Chandler

Mrs Julie Williams

Natalie Tang

Nicole Lee

Poppy Arnold

Rachel Egny

Reke Jarikre

Rhiannon Burgess

Serena Serafimov

Seyi Adebutu

Sofia Dittborn

Tallula Reece

Taria Sylva

Teddy Chambers

Victoria Nathan-Maister

Vivien Lun

Zarbanu Malekshahi

9th January 2015 - Issue 8HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Page 3

Music Music at Roedean continues to be impressive, with eight students, a third of all the entrants last term, being awarded distinctions in Associated Board examinations:

J■ Lucy Brown (U4) – Grade 2 TrumpetJ■ Zarbanu Malekshahi (U4) – Grade 2

TrumpetJ■ Freya Stewart (U4) – Grade 2 TrumpetJ■ Maia Walker (U4) – Grade 2 TrumpetJ■ Valerie Lau (U5) – Grade 3 SingingJ■ Tammy Ho (6.2) – Grade 6 HarpJ■ Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (6.2) –

Grade 8 SingingJ■ Theodora Goode (L5) – Grade 8 Cello

Also very impressive is that six girls in U4 took Grade 2 Trumpet and were all awarded either merits or distinctions. When they were in U3, all girls in the year learnt to play the trumpet as part of their curriculum music, and these

six are those who are continuing to play. This year, the U3 girls are all learning to play Clarinet and Violin.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, the Head Girl, has been awarded an exceptionally high distinction at Grade 8 Singing, with a score

of 140/150. This is an excellent achievement in itself, but it is truly remarkable when seen in the context that she already has Grade 8 Distinction on Bassoon, is taking Grade 8 Piano this term, is a member of the National Youth Theatre, and is a regional-level netballer – congratulations!

Two Ambers turn to Gold

Over the Christmas holidays, Amber Anning (U4) and Amber Pennington (U4) have been excelling in their chosen sports.

In December, Amber Pennington represented Sussex in an inter-county Water Polo event at Whitgift School, and Sussex were placed second.

She has also been selected to be part of the South-East regional Water Polo squad, and she received an invitation from British Water Polo to attend a trial at the Great Britain talent training camp in January – these are excellent achievements.

Another star is Amber Anning, who has continued her winning streak in Athletics.

On 21st December, she won the South of England U15 indoor Combined Events’ title.

To do so, she completed a pentathlon (60m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put, Long Jump, and 800m), achieving personal bests in four of the events and breaking the 3000 points barrier, which gives her the sixth best score in her age-group in the UK in 2014.

In her first year in the U15 age-group, she has done exceptionally well to end the year ranked

No.1 for Triple Jump, no.4 for 300m, and no.6 for Indoor Pentathlon.

This Saturday, she will try to retain her 300m title at the South of England Championships, and she is completing in the U17 Triple Jump. These two girls are certainly ones to watch for the future, and Roedean is very proud of them.

Amber Pennington (throwing the ball)

Amber Anning

9th January 2015 - Issue 8HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Page 4

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: news@roedean.co.uk