Issue 1 September 2012 1

Issue 1 September 2012

HEADITORIAL Dear Parents and Students, Welcome to the first newsletter of the school year. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the girls and staff at Brighton and Hove for being so welcoming (and tolerant of my idiotic questions!) during my first fortnight at the school. It has also been a pleasure to meet, and chat with, so many parents at the various receptions we’ve had this week. Last night I attended my first Parents’ Association committee meeting at the school. I genuinely admire the commitment and enthusiasm of all the Junior and Senior School parents who have volunteered to be class reps and who are so willing to give up their time and energy to raise money and run events that enrich the experience of all the girls in the school. The Association will always welcome help and support of any kind from parents at the school. Their new web page is currently being developed and I would urge everyone to keep a look out for it on our site and to get involved in the many events and activities that the PA run throughout the year.

B-RIGHT-ON – our portal challenge page.

We are delighted that so many of your daughters took up the challenge of the weekly brain ticker even over the summer holidays! Now a new school year is upon us, the first of our fortnightly challenges goes ‘live’ on Friday 14 September. Do encourage your daughter to test her imagination, creativity and problem-solving skills in the various challenges the wonderful B-RIGHT-ON page provides. House points are available! This fortnight we have a guest challenge-setter: Sherlock Holmes.

Kate Ashdown Year 7 Geography This week the Year 7’s made the most of the sunshine, going around the school grounds in their Geography lessons to orientate themselves, and produce a land use map of the site. Their powers of observation and map reading are much improved as a result!

Mrs Howell

BOOK WEEK 1– 5/10 We are very much looking forward to a fantastic week! We have some amazing opportunities lined up for your daughters – please encourage them to get involved as much as possible. All our fundraising goes to support the marvellous work of Afghan Connection. We are extremely proud of our involvement with our twinned school for girls, supporting girls’ education in Afghanistan. www.afghanconnection.org/

Our events include:

Monday 1st October: Louise Rennison, author of the phenomenally popular ‘Confessions of Georgia Nicolson’ series and BHHS favourite, will be in school talking to years 7, 8 and 9. City Books will be in school running a book stall should your daughter wish to buy (and have signed!) a Louise Rennison book.

Tuesday 2nd October: Inter-House Book Quiz – won last year by Lyttelton.

CULTURE VULTURES We have some fantastic Culture Vultures events planned for your daughter this year and hope you have had time to review the full schedule sent home by school comms earlier this week. If you would like your daughter to take part in our first wonderful event – our Brunswick Walk on Tuesday 18 September – places are going fast! Here are the details: Culture Vultures begins with the ‘Brunswick walk’ on Tuesday 18 September. We will be leaving from school directly at 3.45pm and follow a route laid out by local historian and Blue Badge tour guide, Glenda Clarke, which incorporates a number

Wednesday 3rd October: Book Auction – raising funds for Afghan Connection.

Thursday 4th October: National Poetry Day - Year 9 poetry workshops, lessons 1-3; A Level English Literature students lunch with our poets. This year we are delighted that our workshops will be run by Sasha Dugdale, Catherine Smith and Mark Peterson.

Friday 5th October: dress up as your favourite character from a book - £1.

Each year group in KS3 will have their own special Book Week Competition to enter run by the English Department.

Competitions for everyone….parents included! Full details on the portal.

A letter went home earlier in the week by school comms should you need any more details.

Kate Ashdown, Head of English

of historical sites, well-known and otherwise, in the surrounding streets of Hove. The girls will learn about the Regency ladies and gentlemen who lived in the fabulous mansions of Brunswick, as well as some of the residents of the less luxurious back streets and even a renowned ghost or two! We will finish off at 4.45pm on the seafront at Marrocco’s cafe where the girls can enjoy some of their locally celebrated ice-cream. The girls may make their own way home from here or if a collection from school is preferable we will be returning on foot and should be back no later than 5.15pm.

The English Department

Issue 1 September 2012 2

Finally, I think everyone is agreed that the girls look great in the new uniform. The changeover, however, has meant that there are large amounts of old uniform around, much of it still in good condition. We are very grateful, therefore, to Mrs Jeyes, whose daughters attend the Junior school, for establishing contact with a Ugandan school who can make good use of our unwanted uniforms. Details of how to make donations are being sent out by School Comms letters this week. Have a good weekend.

Jen Smith

6th Form News The Sixth Form have had a very busy start to the term. As part of their Freshers’ Week, the Year 12 had a Bonding Day and spent the day working in teams on a variety of outward bound tasks. This was followed by an evening of pizza and Italian food at Donatello’s. All the Year 12 and 13 and sixth form tutors had a fun and very filling evening. Yesterday, it was delightful to welcome back a whole host of old girls who are just about to start their second year at university. As well as sharing their experiences with the sixth form, there was a chance for questions and networking and the sixth form found out lots of useful advice about UCAS and what university life is like.

Miss Fox

SPORTS’ NEWS Year 7’s will play their first Netball match on Wednesday 19th September at home v Burgess hill 4.30 start.

TEMPLE PROJECT QUALIFICATION

Just a reminder that the final deadline for completion of the TPQ is Friday 28 September 2012. As you know, the idea behind this is to stretch and challenge, encourage independent learning and research. Your daughter should have a review meeting with her teacher-supervisor in the next few days which will check that she is moving rapidly towards completion. We have already seen some amazing work and the energy, commitment and imagination of your daughters is inspiring. Mrs Ashdown & Mr Sherwood

INDIVIDUAL SUCCESSES National Athletics Success for BHHS On Monday, 2nd July, Almi Nerurkar travelled to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham (the venue for the Olympic trials for Team GB), to take part in the National Prep School Athletics Championships. At the Sussex trials Almi won the 1500 metres and triple jump. Megan Rose Phillips of 8U recently competed in Cologne, Germany at an ISTD Ballroom and Latin Medallist Festival. She went as part of a team from East Sussex Dance School. She did extremely well, winning 3 gold medals and 1 bronze. Attached is a picture of her with her dance teacher, Alex Skinner, Principal of the school and coincidentally also an Old Girl from BHHS Charlie Barrey in 10H made it into the top 100 National Players last season for her age group. This is an amazing achievement and as such has been accepted into the National Performance Players Programme. She now has strength and conditioning coach as well as a tennis coach. These are also supported by her sports physio at Falmer.

Upcoming Events Saturday 6th October: Open Morning @ Senior School 9-12pm Open Afternoon @ Junior School 1-3pm Thursday 11th October: Open Doors - Junior & Senior School 9.30-11.30am Tuesday 16th October: 6th Form Open Evening 6.30 - 8.30pm

CALENDAR

Tuesday 18 September: Culture Vultures in 604 4pm Wednesday 19 September: School Council in 604 12:35pm 6pm Spanish Exchange Information evening in Lib 2 6pm French Exchange Information evening in the Hall 6pm Friday 21 September: Young Leaders’ Conference at Royal High School Bath

Issue 1 September 2012 2

JUNIOR EDITORIAL Dear Parents, By the time you read this editorial, we will be on our way back from what I know will be a fantastic trip with Year 5 to Marchants Hill, the PGL Activity Centre. Opportunities like these are very special and I am sure the girls not only will have benefitted from bonding as a group, but will have gained valuable experience linked to facing personal challenges. I hope you have received a flyer about our forthcoming Open days this week. If you know anybody who might be interested in coming along to visit the school, please do pass our leaflet on to them. Next week we will be emailing you a copy of the Junior School calendar for the Autumn Term. If you would like a hard copy please contact the office. Best Wishes

Sian Cattaneo

Junior School week at a glance

Wednesday 19th Year 6,1 Parent Lunch U11B Netball v The Towers

SUPPORTING TEAM GB On Wednesday last week the four lucky Paralympic ticket winners made their way up to London with Miss Wade and Mrs Thomas. After the chilly morning start and a few tired eyes, the sun came out as we reached London to enjoy an amazing day. The girls had the opportunity to visit the Olympic Stadium where we saw David Weir win his 800m heat and receive his Gold medal for team GB. Having spent the morning in the Stadium the girls had an opportunity to walk around the Olympic Park where we saw a number of the other sporting venues, had an opportunity to buy some team GB memorabilia, and have a well deserved ice-cream! The girls were a delight to take up to London and everyone enjoyed what will be a day to remember!

1st NETBALL MATCH RESULT A wonderful start to our Netball season with the U11 team beating Shoreham College 7-1 on Wednesday. Congratulations to Sophia Murtagh who was voted ‘Player of the Match’ by Shoreham College.

HARVEST FESTIVAL We are holding our Harvest Festival Assembly on Tuesday 25th September, from 8.45-9.15am in the School Hall. The assembly will be led by Father Felix. A representative from City Mission will also be there to speak to the girls about the “Basics Bank”. Any parents who would like to attend our assembly are most welcome And we are looking for donations! City Missions Basics Bank provides food parcels to those in our local area who are “in crisis”. They will collect your donations from the school and distribute them appropriately, so we know that these donations are very much appreciated. City Mission has provided us with a list of items which are needed. If you do decide to donate, we would be grateful if you would choose from the following list: Tinned Goods All meat, fish, vegetables, spaghetti, baked beans, tomatoes, fruit and desserts. Packets Sugar, cereals, sweet biscuits, packet sauces, instant mash, rice, noodles, tea, coffee, drinking chocolate, stock cubes, gravy. Jars & Bottles Pasta or curry sauce, jam, marmalade, chocolate spread, honey, marmite, peanut butter, fruit juice, squash, long-life milk. Toiletries (male & female)

Shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorants, toilet rolls.

LITTLE KICKERS We thought you may be interested to know that these F.A. Approved Football classes for children aged 18 months to 7 are being held at the Junior School on Saturdays from 30th September. Further details can be obtained by emailing pbanister@littlekickers.co.uk

Class Teacher Nursery – Mrs Cardownie Clare Reception – Miss Wade 1 1 – Miss Lyons 1 A – Mrs James 2 1 – Miss Dev 2 A – Mrs King 3 1 – Mrs Baker 3 A – Mrs Donley, Miss De Masi 4 1 – Mrs Rose 4 A – Mr Stacey 5 1 – Miss Berlin 5 A – Mr Baynes Junior 6th Form (6 1 & 6 A) – Miss Parker

Mrs Donley

Miss De Masi

PARENT LUNCH FOR YEAR 6A, Wednesday 19th September at 12.00pm. Don’t forget to return your form to book your place. PARENT VOLUNTEERS: If you think you would like to be involved in helping our staff with school fixtures please can you contact Mrs Somers in the school office. GREEN CONTACT SHEETS & sports/educational consent forms. We are sure many of you have returned to the school office the green sheets with your contact details on and the official Consent forms but if you haven’t please send them in as soon as you can so that our pupil records are up-to-date. If you have mislaid your copies, please ask the Office for duplicates.

Outstanding music exam results! Evelyn Harrison, our saxophone/clarinet teacher, is extremely proud of her students who achieved excellent marks in their saxophone and clarinet exams. Results: Gabriella Kaye - Distinction (clarinet) Lottie Mackechnie - Merit (clarinet) Nancy Keegan - Pass (saxophone) Lucy Evans - Distinction (saxophone) Isobel Stoner - Pass (clarinet) Charlotte Hausdoërfer - Merit (Clarinet) Mya Roberts - Merit (alto saxophone) Special mention should be given to Lucy Evans who was awarded an exceptional score of 144 out of 150. Well done to all the girls!

TTHHEE SSOOUUNNDD OOFF MMUUSSIICC The school hall was alive with the sound of music last Wednesday after school as instruments of all sizes and shapes were tested out by children and adults. Many of our peripatetic music teachers were there, supported by ‘Ackerman Music’, demonstrating their range of talents and guiding the curious through the business of making beautiful sounds. We were delighted to see so many girls interested in taking instrumental or vocal lessons and look forward to hearing their first performance at school.

Mrs Roberts

On the 5th September we woke up early and got on the train to the Olympic park. The Olympic Stadium was spectacular and it was amazing to see the variety of athletic events. The athletes were inspiring in the way they had overcome their disability and were able to participate. We especially enjoyed watching David Weir receiving his gold medal for the 1500m wheelchair event and singing the National Anthem. We were also fortunate enough to see David Weir qualify for the 800m wheelchair race. After the athletics we strolled around the Olympic Park and took memorable photos. We finished the day with an ice cream and left for the train in high spirits.

Carla Boaks, Year 12 Olivia Heal Year 6, Almi Nerurkar Year 7, Izzy Bolingbroke Year 11

Miss Wade and Mrs Thomas