Head’s Weekly Review, Autumn Term, 28th November 2014, Issue 7

ROCKS!

ON THE THEATRE STAGE:

* Elvis * The Who * Michael Jackson *

*Jimi Hendrix * Elton John * Adele *

* The Beatles * Led Zeppelin * Queen *

Roedean Rocks NOT A TICKET IN SIGHT!

Friday night, the theatre had been sold out for over a week and it was packed, adding to the atmosphere and anticipation. The call to dress up had been heeded by some, and the per-formers were especially well turned out in leather jackets and rock paraphernalia. They looked fierce and ready to play.

MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS

The concert was a delight from the opening Rock ‘n’ Roll beats of Elvis Presley to the closing rock anthems of Queen. And in

between, a spirited and highly energetic musical tour through the rock highlights of the last sixty years, from The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to Elton John and Adele.

The choir sang sublimely, the orchestra was as impressive as ever and it was great to see our

new Roedean Band perform so well in their first concert.

THANK YOU!

Congratulations to all our per-formers, conductors, fantastic soloists and the backstage and front-of-house teams who all helped ensure this occasion was thoroughly enjoyed.

Well done to all the girls and the Music Department for their dedi-cation and hard work: you enter-tained everyone so well. Thank you also to all the parents, staff, girls and former girls and staff who came to enjoy the evening.

Below left to right: Orchestra Leader, Hannah Falcone; Head of Music, Veronica Fewkes and our performers

RO

CK

S

Winning the Mid Sussex

Music Festival

Congratulations to Berniya Hamie for

winning first place in the Junior Sonata

class (U14) and the Joseph Tyrrell Cup

with ‘Outstanding’ marks for deliver-

ing an exceptional performance.

Berniya was invite to perform at the

Festival Showcase Concert.

Having already won the 1st place and 3

cups at the Springboard Music and

Drama Festival this year, Berniya has

demonstrated her talents on the piano

to audiences far and wide, and we

hope she is very proud of her musical

achievements. Well done.

In honour of St Cecilia’s Day (the

patron saint of music), Francesca

Amewudah-Rivers and Hannah

Falcone led the morning Chapel

service and presented us with a

thoughtful and creative account of

how music affects our society. We

listened to a reading of an extract

from John Dryden’s poem ‘A song

for St Cecilia’s Day’. The end of the

extract encouraged one to think

about what music can achieve that

the human voice cannot, and Fran-

cesca and Hannah then directly

asked their audience to reflect on

what music means to them.

This was food for thought whilst we

listened to Berniya Hamie play a

beautiful rendition of a Sonata

movement by Mozart. After a well-

deserved round of applause, some

more of the girls came up to share

some interesting facts they had

learned about music. For example,

did you know that flowers can grow

faster if they listen to music?

Following these facts, Francesca

acknowledged how music has

changed over the years: ‘from Mo-

zart to Michael Jackson and from

Beethoven to Beyonce’. This obser-

vation was demonstrated by a fan-

tastic video by a vocal group called

the ‘Pentatonix’ who performed

their ‘Evolution of Music’ - from

Gregorian Chant to the 21st centu-

ry.

Our service concluded with the

Musician’s Prayer and everybody left

the chapel to continue with another

busy day at Roedean, hopefully with

a little more awareness of how much

music penetrates our days and

shapes our lives.

Thank you to Fran, Hannah and all

who contributed.

Head Girl’s Chapel Service

Chapel

Concert This has been a week filled with

musical performances with

lunchtime concerts performed in

Chapel to appreciative audiences not

quite used to such an inspiring musi-

cal interlude in a busy day.

Thank you to Lucy Brown whose

mellow tone in The Skye Boat Song

was impressive for someone who is

about to take Grade 2 Trumpet.

Dalel Balapanova's piano rendition

of Autumn by Tchaikovsky trans-

ported us into a world of Russian

melancholy and nostalgia.

Georgia Zhang took the opportunity

to trial two of her Grade 3 classical

guitar pieces before the examination

next week and Tammy Ho's account

of Tournier's Prelude was impressive

in its range of colour and dynamics.

Good luck with your Grade 6 harp

examination next week Tammy!

We were especially grateful to Hindy

Lai, a 6.2 music scholar, for stepping

in at a moment's notice to try out her

Ravel Minuet before her A Level

piano performance and her Cam-

bridge interview next week.

Aamna Manzoor, U3, sang In my

own little corner by Rodgers and

Hammerstein with clear diction and

good intonation. Katherine Mao,

another music scholar from 6.1,

performed the melancholic Waltz in

A Minor by Chopin, bringing out the

melody in a beautiful performance

on piano.

Finally Tillie Ng in 6.1 sang the co-

quettish aria from Mozart's Cosi fan

tutte entitled Una donna a quindici

anni. Tillie captured the wily

humour, delicacy and power of the

song to perfection, putting in a pow-

erful accelerando in the final bars as

she ran off stage triumphantly.

A Celebration of Music

Incoming News

update… As I write Camilla Batmanghelidjh is arranging a personal visit for over 40 of our girls next week to hand-deliver the gifts to Kids Company.

Details are still to be confirmed but please could everyone planning to buy a gift for Kids Company, please deliver it to your House by:

Thursday 5th December!

The girls will be wrapping presents, learning about the ways in which charities like Kids Com-pany work and also using their artistic skills to help make Christmas decorations.

Thank you for all the generous gifts delivered that will make a real difference to a child’s Christmas.

Please keep donating presents. All presents go to disadvantaged children on Christmas Day.

P h o t o H e a d i n g

The winning team: Emily,

Victoria, Flynn and Saoirse

School’s

Challenge

2014 Battle of the Brains...

November 20th 2014

Roedean hosted a first round heat of the national Schools’ Challenge Competition. This school level version of the University Chal-lenge concept is a fantastic op-portunity for students to pit their wits against each other and flex their mental muscles for thirty tense minutes of Q & A.

Drawn against Hurst (who beat us in the regional semi two years ago) the Roedean team was un-derstandably nervous as they

faced their opponents. Hurst got off to a strong start and were leading by a fair margin until a question on the United States allowed Flynn Melendy Collier to draw on her native knowledge. This set the girls off on a winning streak. Halfway through, the teams were neck and neck with the Roedean girls gathering momentum, boosted by some fantastic Physics knowledge from Emily Love. Saoirse McGilli-gan's encyclopaedic knowledge

spanning theology to mythology with a good smattering of Sport thrown in propelled us into the lead and Victoria Mathan Maister clinched the final question with her knowledge of drachmas as the pre- Euro unit of currency in Greece.

It was a great display of general knowledge and an atmosphere of friendly but intense academic rivalry prevailed. Both teams should be congratulated for some excellent answers and we look forward to finding out who we will face in the next round.

Congratulations to the team.

Kids Company Christmas Campaign

Victory in

Schools’

Challenge

What a child doesn't receive

she can seldom later give.

P. D. James

New

Designs

for the

Uniform

Throughout the term, our Senior Tutors have been working with me to source some new designs for the uniform. This has been mentioned since the Summer Term and we have been showing and discussing a variety of looks with girls, staff and parents.

As you can imagine, finding a uniform that is practical, smart, distinctive and liked by 420 differ-ent girls is probably something unachievable. However, we do aim to find something practical, smart, distinctive and high quali-ty that is liked by the majority of girls.

This week, the final few designs which have been picked out from a great number of looks were showcased in the Main School lobby. The reactions were inter-

esting and mixed, as we would expect in a school of discerning, self-confident and opinionated students. We welcomed all views.

Our aim is to achieve an evolution of our look by adding a touch of distinction and quality while re-taining much of the current uni-form. We also hope to offer some differences to the uniform as the girls pass from one key stage to another.

I hope you will enjoy looking at these photographs. More details and some opportunities to see the uniform at school will be advertised in due course.

Thank you to all of our very helpful models for the day

UNBELIEVEABLE AND UNDERWATER

Roedean Scuba Club is now in full flow and the girls are enjoy-ing it as these pictures show.

There have been 16 girls who have passed their PADI Discover Scuba Diving intro-duction with another 32 girls signed up to complete theirs over the coming weeks.

ROEDEAN POOL

The introduction takes place in Roedean swimming pool where the girls have learnt the basics of diving. This includes

hand signalling underwater and effective use of the BCD device as well as learning how to clear their masks should they fill up with water.

The club runs on Friday after-noons between 4:30 and 6:30pm.

Scuba Diving is an exciting sport which can be undertaken just for the experience or as a starting point to enjoying div-ing in open water.

If you are interested in having a go please email Ms Robins dro@roedean.co.uk to book your place.

Customer or Industry Quote.

Watching white stallions per-forming dressage as part of the world famous and oldest Spanish riding school in Vienna, girls and staff were mesmerised by the perfect balance and harmony achieved by these beautiful white Lipizzaner stallions.

The riding school is the only

institution in the world which has practised for nearly 450 years, studying the ways that horses move naturally and cultivating the highest levels of elegance that a horse is capable of.

Girls and staff said the day was brilliant in every way.

Alice U3, House 2 said

‘It was a fun day and the horses were wonderful.’

SPANISH

RIDING SCHOOL

OF VIENNA

SCUBA DIVING AT ROEDEAN

HOUSE 3

BOWLING & MOVIE NIGHT Friday evening 21st November was the bowling and sleepover event in House 3. It was brilliant as the girls were so excited about the event.

They all went to supper first and then went to the bowlplex in the Marina for tenpin bowling. This was a time of lots of fun and laughter with some dancing to the music in between taking turns to bowl.

“We had the best time and hope we can do it again”

They all then returned to House 3 to put on pyjamas and get com-fortable in the GDR for the DVD with popcorn and drinks for all to enjoy while the film was on…

“Bowling was fun. I had a laugh with my friends during the night”

It was great to have all the years, (and day, flexi, weekly and full boarders) all enjoying themselves together and singing along.

Finally, at the end of the evening the girls sorted out their sleeping bags (some easier than others as some zips could be challenging but we got there in the end) and got ready for the sleepover..

“On behalf of my daughter can I just say thank you to all the house staff for yesterday's sleepover. She had great fun!”

Breakfast on Saturday was great. Tina from Catering came over to cook eggs for the girls. Surpris-ingly the U3 day girls that had stayed over were the first up for breakfast and full of energy.

The breakfast was really good too. Everyone was talking and saying they had such a good time the evening before. Thanks to everyone for this great fun event.

Did you know that th e House 3 motto is: G squared D, Number 3, which stands for Grit, Guts & Determination?

HOUSE 3

SLEEPOVER

(G 2 D needed)

BFI French

Cinema Trip

The AS and A2 French group

attended a French cinema

study day at the British Film

Institute at the Southbank. to

enhance their understanding

and appreciation of French

cinema.

The morning introduced stu-

dents to the first creations by

the Lumière brothers, La

Nouvelle Vague ‘Auteur’ films

by Chabrol, Malle and Truffaut,

alongside Jacques Tati’s time-

less comedies and Jacques

Demi’s musical comedies, as

well as modern classics like

Jeunet’s 'Amélie’ and Kassovi-

tz’s ‘La Haine’.

In the afternoon students

watched a screening of the

French feature film ‘Paris’ and

went on to discuss the main

themes and its links to New

Wave cinema. An enjoyable day

was had by all.

KIDS COMPANY CHRISTMAS

Keswick House Craft Fayre

Saturday 6th December 12:30-6pm

Winter School Play

8-10th December

Your Fair Needs You!

We are planning a cake sale and would really

appreciate any cakes that can be donated to

help raise money on the day. If you are able to

donate cakes, or make any donations of raffle

prizes, please contact Hannah Smith.

Tickets are going fast! Please contact:

tickets@roedean.co.uk

We will be helping to raise money for

disability programmes at Albion in the

Community with a huge variety of stalls.

Please keep donating. Every single

present will make a real difference. So

please help to make Christmas a special

day for children who don’t have much to

look forward to.

Presents can be left in the Houses.

Donations can be left at the School Office.

Netball Schools’ Tournament

Roedean hosted the Sussex round of the National Schools’ Netball Tournament on Saturday, welcoming 11 schools and 26 teams.

Our U19 team worked tirelessly in defence, making a high number of turnovers . The L5 team were playing up a year in and were delighted with their performance.

Our U14 team were our most successful team of the day and they played brilliantly, only narrowly missing out on a top 2 place. Every one of the players was exceptional. The U14 team came 4th in their pool. Well done to all three teams.

Tennis Achievement for Bella The U12 County girls’ tennis team won the Young Team of the Year Award at the Sussex Sports Awards on Friday evening! Bella Swann (L4) had a great evening. The team was presented the award by swimmer Mark Foster and the girls were interviewed by Radio Sussex. Many congratulations to Bella, her team and coaches!

Sussex Table Tennis Success

In the U16 Sussex Schools Table Tennis competition our team of Liza Boika, Kristina Krylova , Miranda Liu and Vivian Lun came a fantastic third.

The girls performed with ambition and aggression against well drilled, regional level opposition. Their determination demonstrated that anything but a victory simply will not do. Miss Robins and Mr Blackwell were delighted with the girls’ attitudes, especially Miranda, who dropped everything at the last minute to represent Roedean. Well done to the whole team.

County Hockey Success

Following the recent JDC Hockey trials for Sussex, twin sisters Ami and Yelena Finnegan (U3/House 3) were both selected for the U13 JAC County Hockey while still U12.

Congratulations on a fantastic achievement for both girls.