head's weekly review 27th march 2015

Head’s IntroductionEaster is upon us, and it has been an extremely busy term. When I look back through this term’s Reviews, I am amazed at the sheer variety of activities going at Roedean; I am delighted at this because it means that every girl has an opportunity to try out and experience different things, in order to find her talents and her niche. This week is a perfect example; just because it is the end of term, there has been no slowing down at Roedean, and you will read in this Review about Drama, Music, and Dance performances, sporting success, as well as Business networking and academic challenge.

It is wonderful that the girls are themselves organising and running so many events at Roedean, and last weekend gave us a perfect example of this. One of the 6.1 CAP projects has been to organise a TedX Conference of academic presentations; as a dry-run for this, Carmen Zhang, Davis Lee, and Katherine Mao planned the Flash Conference, which saw members of staff, students, and one parent giving presentations on academic topics.

The opportunity to speak for six minutes about a personal passion is a gift, and all of the speakers grabbed it with both hands. Mrs McGregor opened the conference with a talk on how Physics can predict the future, Michelle Dyonisius (6.1) talked about decision-making, Isabel Frame (U3) spoke passionately about education and equality, Susannah Esiri-Bloom and Valerie Lau talked about individuality, Mr Serafimov (parent) presented about Big Data,

Tillie Hunter (6.1) spoke about North Korea, Mr Smith talked about the internet and technology, Matilda Campbell-Squires (L5) about feminism, and Mrs Del Federico spoke about the future of studying literature. Well done to all who took part, and the organising girls should be congratulated on the event, which was slick and seamless throughout.

The girls in 6.1 are extremely talented and bright, and prefect selection this year was difficult, as it always is. Eight Prefects have been chosen with specific responsibilities for a certain area of school life, and there are seven Senior Prefects. All were introduced to the school in Final Assembly, but I am very pleased to announce the Senior Prefects for the coming year: Saoirse McGilligan (Head Girl), Tillie Hunter and Kelly HT Chan (Deputy Head Girls), Lily Iravanian (Senior Prefect – Academic), Luchia Leigh (Captain of Games), Anastasia Romanova (Senior Prefect – Pastoral), and TingTing Zhuo (Senior Prefect – Co-Curricular). I wish to congratulate them all, and look forward to working closely with them from next term.

Clearly, for the more senior girls, their Easter holidays will be dedicated for a large part to academic work in preparation for their public examinations next term, but I hope that everyone has the opportunity for a well-earned break.

The St. Mark’s “Dream”St. Mark’s School is a local primary that has established links with Roedean in PE and the Arts during this academic year. On Friday 20 March, nineteen Year 5 students came to the Theatre at Roedean in order to perform the opening scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to our U4 girls. The St. Mark’s children had been working with the Drama department from Tuesday of last week in order to prepare their production. They were excited, keen and possessed an infectious sense of fun.

The performance was preceded by two versions of Macbeth presented by the U4s, with some excellent witches, kings, and gruesome stabbing scenes, cleverly assisted by some onstage sound effects. The St. Mark’s class thoroughly enjoyed the two plays and followed them closely: a testament to good story-telling. St. Mark’s then performed their chorus version of Act I Scene I from ‘The Dream’. This culminated with a flurry of chickens dancing and clucking away to ‘In The Mood’, a lovely comic ending to the afternoon.

Clare Kelly, the Deputy Head at St. Mark’s wrote to Roedean after the event: “For us, it was lovely to see the children so inspired to try something different and to work together to produce something. The class really enjoyed performing on your stage, and have been telling me all about it all week.” This was the first time St. Mark’s have visited Roedean, but, now the channel of communication is open, it will not be the last.

Solar Eclipse at Roedean‘Students and staff gathered around various parts of the school grounds last Friday morning to witness the partial solar eclipse. Overcast weather threatened to obscure the scientific phenomenon, but fortunately the clouds parted at approximately 9:36am (just as The Argus predicted!) to reveal a sharp, bright crescent of light. Whoops of surprise, followed by silence, were heard from excited and awed observers. In spite of the cold weather, it was clear that everyone was glad to have witnessed this spectacular event as they slowly made their way back to their offices and classrooms.

27th March 2015 - Issue 18

Dance Showcase 2015This year’s Dance Showcase had the theme ‘Props’, and it very quickly became evident that the challenge was not to drop your prop on stage! The pupils worked hard during the week, with numerous late night rehearsals to produce an outstanding show, involving a record-breaking 125 pupils in eight different dance numbers. Every year group was represented and all pupils worked hard together, supporting, encouraging, and celebrating each other’s efforts. The props used included balloons, pompoms, scarves, cups, brooms, drum sticks, wands, umbrellas, masks, chairs, dog leads and newspapers. The aim was to see how imaginative we could be in using

these various items. The students found this both challenging and interesting, seeing how, by having a prop, this could change the movement potential. They worked hard, and were dedicated and committed in producing a show that was slick, professional, and entertaining. They should be congratulated as this was something they certainly achieved. There was an array of dance styles, including Classical, Tap, Jazz and Musical theatre. The show started with a slow lyrical number by the U3s, then moved onto a modern Jazz piece, with angular lines and sculptural positions. There was also a lively upbeat number which helped to demonstrate the diversity within the dance department, with seven girls using cups, the youngest being a pupil from Upper 3 and the eldest a 6.2 girl. A fun Tap number followed, lifting the audience with its energy and enthusiasm. This was followed by the U3s dancing to ‘Mickey’ as Cheer Leaders and then followed by a ballet using masks which showed lovely lines. The U4s performed a strong Jazz number, and the striking red dresses in the Tango showed the senior ballet girls at their best. A Jazz number ‘Firestone’, using orange scarves against the navy blue costumes, gave the next piece a lovely appearance. As the lights came up for the finale there was a gasp from the audience as the senior pupils took to the stage to perform a ‘Charleston’ followed by ‘All that Jazz’ – this was a strong presentation, which showed how well the senior pupils can perform, showing clarity of movement and professionalism. It was lovely to see so many students on stage, with all having the opportunity to perform and enjoying their dancing.

Rambert Dance Co in BrightonOn 25th March, Ms Stidston and Mrs Ellis took twelve girls from L4 to 6.2 to watch Rambert Dance Company, performing ‘Rooster’ in the Theatre Royal Brighton. The show started with a new production called ‘Frames’ where the dancers danced with metal struts and hand held lights, transforming the metal poles into different constructions and shapes, and using the lights to give varying effects on the stage. The second dance, ‘The Strange Charm of Mother Nature’ with the dancers dressed in sharp yellow costumes and a stream of bright red light projected at the back of the stage,

represented the gamma rays discovered in the 1960s. This dance mainly focused on dancers’ collisions, jumps and turns, which were choreographed to mimic the random movements of particles in the atmosphere. In ‘Rooster’, the final dance, the choreographer cleverly linked the movements with themes present in the Rolling Stones’ lyrics of the accompanying music. Everyone had a very amusing evening, and huge thanks to Ms Stidston and Mrs Ellis for arranging such a memorable event. Charlotte Wong 6.1

Business Lunch

Sixth Formers from the Young Enterprise and CAP programmes gave presentations to representatives from some of Brighton’s top businesses at a lunch last Friday. Around forty members of the Sussex Business Lunch Club descended upon Horizon’s Café to network over a delicious meal. In place of a guest speaker, the Managing Directors of the four Young Enterprise groups, and the members of the Albion in the Community CAP group, were both invited to give presentations.

The Young Enterprise Managing Directors spoke first, between the main course and dessert. Dalel Balapanova of Bbright, Carmen Zhang of Guns & Roses, Hayley Hung of Bambi, and Alex Turck of Moonstone each addressed the audience in turn. They spoke about their businesses, explaining about the products they sold, profit made, and the lessons they have learnt during their time as Managing Directors. All were very positive about the experience and were grateful for the opportunity they had been given to take part in the scheme.

After pudding it was the turn of the Albion in the Community CAP group, Emily Love, Monica Phillips, Lea Donovan, Jennifer Ge, Freya Bashford, and Alex Turck. They had prepared a PowerPoint presentation to accompany their talk, which focused on their journey from visiting the AmEx stadium, through to deciding which fundraising event to put on and their cheque presentation to the Albion for the money they had raised.

Following the presentations the girls joined the businessmen on their tables, to network over coffee and mini desserts. As the guests left to go on their tour of the school, they were very complimentary of the event, with many commenting on how they were impressed by the business acumen and public speaking ability of the Sixth Formers. It was clear that they had enjoyed their time at Roedean. The school looks forward to continue similar events in the future to promote and maintain a beneficial relationship between the school and wider business community.

27th March 2015 - Issue 18HEAD’S WEEKLY REVIEW

Roedean Music Scholars at St Laurence Church, FalmerThe idyllic setting of St Laurence Church, nestling on the edge of the South Downs at Falmer, was the perfect venue for the afternoon recital given by our Music Scholars on Saturday 21 March. The musicians, from youngest to oldest demonstrated their dedication and depth of engagement with musical study through accomplished performances. Three U3 scholars opened the programme with some lovely debut solo performances: Scarlett Joyce played two reflective pieces on the violin, then Kamali Maidment presented En Bateau by Debussy and the John Field Nocturne in D minor on the piano, followed by Katarina Henderson upping the tempo with a very energetic Perpetuo Mobile on the violin by Karl Bohm. Also representing Key Stage 3, Berniya Hamie (Piano) gave a highly sensitive and musically assured performance of one of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words. Representing the middle school scholars were, Charlotte Burrows (Harp) with an evocative Improvisation by Mathias, and Dora Goode (Cello) performing a highly spirited performance of the Tarantella by W H Squires. Featuring twice in the programme, Dora and Berniya

were joined by Freya Stewart (Violin) to perform very confidently in a piano trio arrangement of the Ravel Pavane. Sixth Form scholars contributed some excellent performances of keenly contrasting Romantic repertoire. In reflective mood, Kelly HT Chan (Piano) played Tchaikovsky’s October and Hannah Falcone performed Massenet’s Méditation on the violin, both playing with stylish musical sensitivity. Kelly WK Chan (Violin) changed the mood and whipped up the atmosphere with an energetic rendition of Schumann’s The Bee. Two performances in particular took the audience’s breath away. The Allegro molto agitato of the D minor Piano Trio by Mendelssohn, performed by Hannah Falcone (Violin), Aanya Hirdaramani (Cello) and Hindy Lai (Piano), had the audience on the edges of their seats. This senior trio skilfully juxtaposed the expressive moody gloom of the melodic lines with the dazzling brilliance of the exacting piano part. Tillie Ng was the sole singer in the programme, and she gave a stunning performance of Glitter and be Gay from Bernstein’s Candide. The song is full of exuberant coloratura passages

and Tillie certainly hit some very high notes indeed. Overall, it was a wonderful event – congratulations to all involved.

L5 SocialLast Thursday evening, Lower Five had their first social event of the year. The evening started with Roedean girls meeting their guests at the main reception, and then taking them to the Theatre, where they enjoyed a presentation by Jimmy Beale, Managing Director of The English Manner, a unique British company which gives tuition in etiquette, communication, and social skills. The Lower Five girls and their guests learnt skills that will set them up for life, such as how to present yourself through body language in situations like

interviews and social dinners, and simply how to engage in small talk with someone who has been newly introduced. As the presentation came to end, everyone walked over to Keswick Hall for pre-dinner drinks, while the girls and boys tested out their new skills. A delicious meal was then served, and conversation flowed until the end of the evening. Thank you very much to Jimmy Beale for the wonderful presentation, and to Mrs. Ellis and the catering staff for organising everything. It was certainly an evening to remember!

Problem DriveOn Tuesday 24th March, a Problem Drive for students in 6.1 was held in Keswick House Hall. Girls and boys from Lancing College and Bishop Luffa were also present for an evening of team work trying to crack problems set by Paul Harris of the Sussex Branch of the Mathematical Association. There were 5 rounds of problems, and for each round all of the participants found themselves working with a different group of three or four other students. Each round is against the clock and, with all members of each group being awarded the points gained by the whole group, the students have to quickly work out their strengths, divide up the questions accordingly, and set about working together.

The traditional prizes of giant Toblerone bars were awarded to the five students having accrued the top five aggregate scores, rewarding a mixture of team work and individual prowess. Roedean was successful, with TingTing Zhuo coming 5th, and Anantaya Tantipiriyakij coming

3rd, and we had the overall winner, Tillie Ng. Congratulations to them and the other prize winners, and well done to all the 6.2 participants.

Here are a couple of problems for you to try:

1: Two planets orbit a star. It takes the inner planet 200 days to complete a single orbit of the star and the outer planet 300 days to complete a single orbit of the star. Today the star and both planets are in perfect alignment on a straight line. When will they next be in alignment on a straight line?

2: A wooden cube with edges of length n units (where n is an integer greater than 2) is painted blue all over. By slicing parallel to each of its faces, the cube is cut into n3 smaller cubes of length 1 unit. If the number of smaller cubes with just one face painted blue is equal to the number of smaller cubes with no painted faces, what is the value of n.


Netball at BenendenOn Saturday, a combined team of 1st and 2nd players took part in the netball festival at Benenden. With only 5 minutes to warm up before their first game, the team did extremely well to lose only by 3 goals. This was their only loss of the day. Their next match, against Benenden Cs was won and their third match against Benenden Bs was a 7-7 draw. The fourth match against Sevenoaks B team was tough, but Roedean kept fighting and won this game. The team’s final and best match was against Sevenoaks C team. It was an easy win for the team with a score of 22 goals to 1. Shooter

Reihaanah Mamdouh and Saoirse McGilligan did extremely well, despite the windy conditions.

For four of the players, Fran Amewudah-Rivers, Ivy Robin, Sophie Sheaf, and Reihaanah Mamdouh, it was their last time representing Roedean in a sport, as they are in their final year at school. By winning 3, drawing 1 and losing 1 game, it was a brilliant end to the season for them and all the other players. Overall it was a fun and exciting day, with lots of goals and teamwork!

Cross Country JJ SATURDAY 21 MARCH

Gracie Bernard came 19th last Thursday in her Cross Country race, qualifying for the Year 7 & 8 South East Counties’ Cross Country championships, being held in Tonbridge on Saturday March 20th – well done to her!

Swimming at Roedean

The swimming team finished off a successful season on Wednesday by retaining the Brighton Schools’ swimming championship trophy for the third year on the trot. Liv Henderson set the pace from the beginning in her 50m backstroke race by taking second place by only a fingertip. This spurred the girls on and we kept our eyes closely on the scoreboard throughout. We were tied on points with Dorothy Stringer for most of the evening, but the takeover practice on the relays worked well and the girls took first place in all of the freestyle races, which meant that we forged ahead on points.

The final race of the evening saw Lea Donovan - our swimmer of the season - take first place and cement the team’s win! The Freestyle Challenge Trophy was the most exciting race, as all of the schools had to provide 1 boy and 1 girl from every year group. Unfortunately we could not swim in the main competition and had to race

separately against Brighton and Hove High School, which we won by almost a length, but the stopwatch showed that we would have beaten the winning mixed school. The girls were delighted!

Overall, it was a fantastic end to a fabulous season. Thank you to Nigel Currican for coaching the girls, and well done to all of the swimmers who competed for Roedean this year. We have won all except one gala.

Roedean Concert at Brighton Fringe Festival On Saturday 2 May, at 4.00pm in Roedean Chapel, the school’s musicians will be joined by parents, staff, and local musicians, to perform our annual community concert in the Brighton Festival Fringe Concert – you are very welcome to join us.

Orff: Carmina Burana

Monti: Czardas Hannah Falcone (Violin)

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor Hindy Lai (Piano)

Weber: Andante and Rondo Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (Bassoon)

Fauré: Elégie Aanya Hirdaramani (Cello)

Canteloube: Chants d’Auvergne (selection) Constance Lee (Soprano)

£20 Adults£10 Students

Roedean Golf Day May 2


We welcome contributions from all parts of the Roedean community. If you have something you would like featured in the Headmaster’s Weekly Review,

please email: [email protected] Follow us on Twitter

head's weekly review 27th march 2015

Documents