30th January 2015 - Issue 11

Head’s IntroductionThe last week in January has seen a great deal going on at Roedean, although this always seems to be the case. The week started with an excellent Assembly, led by our youngest girls, who told us why Stephen Hawking is their inspiration; they challenged us all to think about what can be achieved despite sometimes inconceivable difficulties and obstacles, if there is the will and determination. It was wonderful to begin the week with its key message of always striving to push ourselves and achieve, whatever the odds, in the back of our minds.

The trial examinations have finished this week, and I am sure that the girls will be delighted to be back in the classroom, rather than behind exam desks. The staff and students in the public examination years will be undertaking forensic analysis of what went well under exam conditions, and what needs additional work and improvement. This process is vital so that the girls can engage with targeted revision before the summer. The two parents’ evenings over the last week, for U4 and U5, are particularly important; current progress and achievement are the focus, but the girls are also making important decisions about which subjects they will choose to study at GCSE and for their A Levels respectively.

There has been a great deal of sport going on this week, as always; it is wonderful to hear about so many girls being involved in matches and representing the school. These team successes have been matched by individual achievement, as you will read in this issue, by girls throughout the school from the youngest to the oldest.

As we move towards half-term, there is lots happening in school, including a charity concert this week, as advertised in Issue 10, and the girls in the Drama Scholars’ Plays are rehearsing very hard for their performances in ten days’ time. I wish everybody well for the coming week, and look forward to hearing about your achievements, and perhaps what the U3 Assembly inspired you to do.

An inspirational assemblyA different tutor group presents their ideas in Assembly each week about what inspires them, and this week we had a treat from U3-SDA who chose a personality as their inspiration:

This living personality has had the following said about him: “Bold and naïve”, “Determined and obstinate”, and he himself has admitted, “I am just a child who has never grown up… I keep asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Occasionally, I find answers.”

So who is it? And why’s he an inspiration? He’s original, a pioneer, an explorer, an expert, amazing, unorthodox, bold, defiant, a fighter and a slow writer!

A slow writer? We have chosen to speak about Stephen Hawking, the English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and a Director of Research at Cambridge University.

An academic and a slow writer?! Yes, Hawking suffers from a rare, slow-progressing form of ALS or motor neurone disease that has gradually paralysed him over the decades. He currently communicates by using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device. However, as he lost the ability to write, he has

developed other visual methods including seeing equations in terms of geometry. This has been compared to someone like Mozart composing an entire symphony in his head.

Hawking is also a fighter, fiercely independent: unwilling to make any allowances for his disabilities. In the 1960s, he required a lot of persuasion to accept the use of a wheelchair, but then became notorious for the wildness in which he drove it!

When Hawking was diagnosed with ALS back in 1963, he was given only two and a half years to live. And yet Hawking lives: at 72, he is only a few years away from the average life expectancy for a British male. Not only has his body exceeded the expectations of medical science, but his mind has flourished. Hawking is the world’s most celebrated living scientist.

Hawking has been sustained, by the incredible effort of his family, friends, colleagues, healthcare professionals, computer and medical science. His contributions to science – formidable as they certainly are – are themselves part of a vast collective endeavour. We hope and are certain you will endeavour and achieve in your life. Who knows? You may, one day, be someone’s inspiration.

Broadening horizons and opening mindsSince 2001, as the Academic Director for Princes Teaching Institute, I have designed and run professional development courses for teachers and Headteachers from the state sector. The aim of this charity has always been to develop teachers’ subject knowledge, as this not only re-engages teachers with their passion for their subject, making them better teachers, but it is one of the most important qualities of the best teachers.

In a recent My Education survey of eight thousand school children, nine out of ten reported that the key qualities a teacher needed to have was ‘passion for their subject and enjoyment of teaching’. A more recent Sutton Trust survey noted that the attribute that provided the strongest evidence of impact on student outcomes was ‘deep knowledge of the subjects they teach’. The same respect for subject knowledge is found at Roedean, where the girls are keen to be challenged and inspired by their teachers and value their depth of knowledge and understanding.

Earlier this week, I was in Cambridge running a leadership course for Headteachers. We asked the Heads to reflect on the difference between leadership and management. Whereas management could be described as the application of known solutions to known

problems, leadership is about harnessing people’s potential, focusing many minds onto a shared objective and keeping our underlying beliefs close to heart.

At this time of year, with trials coming to an end, it is timely to think about the primacy of subject knowledge and the importance of leadership. We must remember, as examinations and assessment dominate, that keeping ourselves alive to the fascination and wonder of our subjects, and ensuring that the girls remain engaged and passionate about what they study is as important as determination and hard work. We need to let our minds know what is important as well as what is urgent. And we need to lead ourselves as well as others. For the girls, that means reminding themselves of their limitless potential and of the real purpose of education, which is to broaden horizons and open minds.

With this in mind, I turn to a quotation by Edmund Burke (1729-1797) who reminds us that all we have to do is the little things that will, in time, make the great things happen:

‘No man can make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he himself could only do a little.’ Oliver Blond

America for the summerImogen Davies (6.2), one of our Deputy Head Girls, has been accepted by Camp America for a placement this summer, and in addition they have offered her a place on their international youth leadership programme.

This is a wonderful opportunity, and Imogen will be flying to New York at the end of June for a placement in Buffalo at an all-girls scout camp for nine weeks. It will not only be an excellent experience for her to live and work in America, but the skills she will learn and use will be really valuable in the future. Congratulations!

Valerie’s poetry by heartOn Thursday morning, Valerie Lau (U5) was fortunate enough to be invited to speak live on the BBC Sussex radio channel for a poetry recital. Although she only spoke for a few minutes, she was really excited by the idea of being heard nation-wide!

She said, “It was not only a great experience, but it also allowed me to have a final rehearsal before I raced off to compete in Poetry by Heart in the evening”.

The English Faculty accompanied Valerie to Brighton’s Jubilee Library in the evening for the regional heats of the Poetry by Heart competition. We were greeted by an excited buzz of people of all ages, linked by their enthusiasm for the written word, spoken aloud.

The standard of recital was impressively high, with students from around Brighton sharing poetic offerings spanning almost 800 years. Valerie reprised ‘You Are Old, Father William’ and ‘Train’, adding ‘Dusting the Phone’ to her selection.

Her performances were superb, evoking laughter, love and sadness. Her recital of Helen McKay’s ‘Train’, in particular, was remarked by a couple of the judges as being the performance of the night, indeed, she held the audience in the palm of her hand and it was genuinely moving.

However, despite a superb performance from Valerie, the heat was won by another student, who was praised for inhabiting her poems completely, an impressive feat given she recited ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ and ‘Josephine Baker Finds Herself’. Congratulations to Valerie on her second place, an excellent achievement in itself.

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What’s it like to be a medic?Last week, some of our in the Sixth Form were lucky enough to gain an insight into what it is like to be a medical student. Six current medical students from Brighton & Sussex Medical School ran a session for those potential medics in 6.1 and 6.2. To give our girls an insight into the course, the students described what they had studied at A Level and their experience prior to the course, and then answered the many questions put to them by the audience; they gave a humorous and entertaining account of what it is really like to be medical student. This was followed by a session of mock interviews for the 6.2 students.

Sunday trading in Churchill SquareOn Sunday morning, team members from BBright, Bambi, and Guns & Roses woke up bright and early to set off to Brighton, where we were to embark on our first day of public trading as part of our Young Enterprise companies. We had nearly an hour to set up, but we didn’t have to wait nervously for long before customers to start arriving for their day of shopping; the only disappointment was that we had to wait until 11am to actually start selling! Luckily, things picked up as the footfall increased throughout the day, and shoppers became keener to take home some purchases after their busy day of shopping! The cute stationary at Guns & Roses was in high demand, and the Chinese sweets and jewellery that team Bambi were selling were also popular. BBright have produced an amazing variety of customised bags and T-shirts, and even offer to customise new ones upon request. By 5pm, when it was finally time to pack up, we were all completely exhausted! Despite being tired, everyone really enjoyed the day; it was a great experience and, most importantly, profitable! We are all already looking forward to next week, when we will be attempting to make some more sales in Shoreham, and can make a few changes based on our reviews of how well we did on Sunday.

Holocaust Day 2015 – 70 years after AuschwitzOn Wednesday, the 6.2 Historians attended a fascinating series of lectures at Sussex University as part of the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Holocaust Day Commemoration.

The highlights of the day were two talks, one given by the journalist Thomas Harding, author of the best-selling book ‘Hanns and Rudolf’, in which he tells the gripping story of how his great-uncle Hanns (a German/Jewish refugee from the Nazis) had fled to Britain and, as Thomas only discovered a few years ago, become the British army officer who had tracked down and arrested the notorious commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess. The story of the parallel lives of the ‘Hanns and Rudolf’ of the title was riveting.

This was followed by a very moving talk by Holocaust survivor Zahava Kohn, who, with the aid of her daughter Hephzibah, told the story

of her incarceration in Westerbork concentration camp and Bergen-Belsen, her separation from her younger brother Jehudi, who was hidden on a farm by the Dutch Resistance during the War, the eventual reunification of her family in 1945, and their subsequent life in Switzerland and Britain. Zahava is the author of the book ‘Surviving the Holocaust’.

Marisa Abela (6.2) found the day very moving, and said, “on top of the knowledge we gained and the sympathy we felt for the speakers at the holocaust memorial day yesterday, the overwhelming feeling that we all left with was that we must never allow the evil of the holocaust to be forgotten.”

At a time of growing anti-semitism in Europe, and in view of the fact that the Holocaust survivors are now in their late eighties or nineties, these commemorative events have taken on an added urgency and significance.

Code-breaking at Bletchley ParkU4 have been on an ICT trip to Bletchley Park this week, where they saw computers from World War II, and discovered how they were used to break the German codes. Grace Jones described the day: “We had a lecture on the importance of the breaking of ciphers and codes in the war, and how they are used in modern life. Then we saw ‘the oldest original functioning electronic program computer in the world’, known as the ‘WITCH’ (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computing) that was created in 1951. We also saw the Colossus computer which was released in 1943 to break the ciphers of the German Enigma machine. To complete the day we looked at old technology including the first iPhone, arcade games and laptops and then attempted to code a simple game on a BBC programme. This was my favourite part of the day.” There is only one last question to ask: what will the technology be like in another 50 years?

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Roedean hosts Kids Company

This weekend saw the return to Roedean of fifteen enthusiastic 8-13 year-old children from Kids Company. One group made both hot air balloons and rockets that could all be launched at the end of the day – there were some beautiful designs and fantastic colours being used, and everybody involved couldn’t wait to see how they flew later in the day. The second group went to the Art room to begin work on the T-shirts that they were going to tie-dye, and there were some fantastic patterns being sculpted with numerous rubber bands before the T-shirts were plunged into buckets of blue, orange, grey, red, and yellow dye. The T-shirts were then put into plastic bags with instructions of what to do next once they had returned home. Once these sessions had finished, both groups returned to the dining hall where they were met by our head chef to decorate some cupcakes. They used a variety of toppings to do this, such as butter icing, edible decorating paint, and chocolate-covered popping candy! After lunch, trampolining, table-tennis, football, and basketball were all on offer, with Roedean girls coaching and getting involved.

The day ended with a final launch of rockets and hot air balloons, and one balloon even reached the sea!

Too young for football?Congratulations to Loretta Sargeant (L5) who was selected to be in the South East England Football team. Unfortunately, she is too young to play this year, but she definitely looking forward to getting involved next year, and let’s see whether she can “bend it like Beckham”!

The week ahead at a glanceJJ WEEK 2 TIMETABLE

Year 11 GCSE French Division 1 Speaking & Division 2 Writing Controlled Assessments.

Monday 2 February

15:00 – 18:00 Classics & Latin students’ UCL University Lecture: Whitehawk Neolithic Camp

17:15 – 18:15 Swimming Gala v Brighton Swim Club (H)

Tuesday 3 February

10:45 – 18:00 Netball U14 Tournament at King’s Canterbury

18:45 – 21:45 Netball U18 BMW League v Exeter Street at Falmer

19:00 – 21:00 Badminton v ESJ Badminton Club (H)

Wednesday 4 February

08:00 – 18:00 Year 11 GCSE PE student conference in London

09:00 – 17:00 Food Safety Course for Years 12 & 13 Leiths Cookery students

09:30 – 16:30 England Netball Sasha Corbin masterclasses for Year 7 and invited Prep Schools

16:30 – 23:30 Years 10-13 Theatre Studies trip to the Gielgud Theatre, London

Thursday 5 February

Throughout Intermediate Maths Challenge (mainly during Maths lessons)

08:30 – 18:00 Years 12 & 13 Religion & Philosophy Candle Conference (Vardy), London

10:00 – 17:00 Year 9 History trip to Newhaven Fort

19:00 Informal Concert Love Songs: Bliss & Tragedy by Dr Ross Barrand. Contact Helen Denman, Performing Arts Secretary, to reserve a place: hde@roedean.co.uk

Saturday 7 February

09:30 – 11:30 Netball 2nd, U15A&B & U14A v Bedes (H)

14:00 – 16:00 Netball U13A,B&C & U12A, B&C v Christ’s Hospital (H)

14:00 – 18:00 Drama Scholars’ Production, White Out, technical rehearsal

Sunday 8 February

13:30 – 15:30 Owl Experience, at Roedean

14:00 – 18:00 Drama Scholars’ Production, White Out, dress rehearsal

Staff vs Girls Netball

Tuesday evening saw a team of eleven Roedean staff members take on the 1st Netball team in a 40-minute match. The girls were keen to avenge their defeat in the hockey match against the staff at the end of last term, and the first quarter was close, with the staff only up 7-4 at quarter time. The second quarter saw the staff storm ahead with Miss Batty and Mr Blackwell making an excellent team in the goal circle, finishing the quarter with 17-9. Some interesting staff changes in the third quarter, particularly putting Ms Walker in the goal circle, allowed the Roedean 1st team defenders to use height to their advantage, resulting in a nail-biting score of 19-18, to the staff, at three-quarter time. The girls came out confident in the final quarter, making a number of changes in key positions, however it was not enough to stop the Roedean staff from racing ahead to win 28-21. The match was played in excellent heart, and all the staff and 1st team players had a great time – thank you to all those who came to support!

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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: news@roedean.co.uk