Issue 4 October 2012 1

Issue 4 October 2012

HEADITORIAL Dear Parents and Students, As our Book Week draws to a

close, I have to say a huge

thank you to Mrs Ashdown and

the English Department for their

hard work and commitment

and for organising such a fun-

packed, engaging series of

events. This culminated in

today’s ‘dressing up as a

literary character’ parade

(breathtakingly outrageous!)

but the events all week have

been testament to the fact that

reading is alive and well at

BHHS. Anyone who claims that

teenagers don’t read anymore

ought to have seen the girls in

action on Tuesday at Book Quiz

where, with Mr Sherwood as

quizmaster, the House teams

battled it out demonstrating

their impressive literary

knowledge.

On Wednesday I visited the

Junior School and really

enjoyed having lunch with the

Y5 parents. We had a very

interesting post-lunch discussion

about the merits of girls-only

education and I was pleased

to hear how positive parents

are about their daughters’

experiences at the school

We were also visited at the

Senior School this week by the

GDST’s new Deputy Director of

Education, Libby Nicholas. She

saw lots of lessons and was very

impressed by the girls and staff.

She spoke enthusiastically

about the innovative

approaches to teaching that

she’d seen in lessons and

commented particularly on

Early in the morning of Friday 21st September, the head girl team all woke up excited and ready for a weekend in Bath for the annual Young Leaders’ Conference. Every student leader from across the GDST Sixth Form Colleges is invited to attend the event which took place from Friday to Sunday. As a team we were all incredibly nervous: we didn’t really know what to expect apart from that we would both have our leadership skills tested and be encouraged to get to know our peers from all over the country. We were completely thrown in at the deep end, with Friday lunch starting with awe-inspiring On Wednesday 26th we were delighted to host the Young Enterprise Launch for the Brighton and Hove Area. Board member and business advisors (all volunteers) met in the library to prepare themselves to welcome a new generation of young people. All were wondering what exciting ideas the enterprising entrepreneurs of the future were going to want to build a company around.

speeches on leadership from the founder and director of Kids Company Camila Batmanghelidjh and record-breaking polar explorer Ann Daniels. Immediately after that, with only a short pause to stock up on flapjacks and coffee, we were all taken to hear about the task we would be working on over the next three days. After discovering that we had to design a fundraising event for a charity, we were allocated our separate groups and instructed to get to work! I have to admit, the whole weekend was completely exhausting. We worked until 10pm both nights and breakfast DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES Christmas Fair on Saturday 1st December – Come and support our three companies and enjoy the fair. January We will be in Churchill Square and the Holmbush

was at 7:30 each morning; on Sunday,we had to be up and ready to pitch our ideas to the other teams and judges at 9! However, I know we were all very glad we attended. Firstly, we came away from the experience with an increased awareness of how to work in a large team, how to present professionally and how to express creative ideas. But perhaps just as important is the fact that we all learned a lot about our counterparts in other schools and even made friends that we will remain in contact with long after we have left the GDST.

Ellie Thompson, Year 13 Centre in Shoreham. Tuesday 30th April Area Final Our companies will be competing for the chance to progress to the Sussex Final in May. More details to follow nearer the time.

Issue 4 October 2012 2

how proud the girls seemed to

be of BHHS.

This pride has been borne out

by the large numbers of girls

who are willing to give up their

time this Saturday morning to

be ambassadors for the school

at our Open Day. My sincere

thanks in advance to all the

girls for their help and of course

to all the parents who will be

getting them out of bed!

Have a good weekend.

Jennifer Smith

Sixth Form Art Trip On Wednesday despite the adverse weather conditions the Yr12 and Yr13 AS and A2 art students visited Goodwood Sculpture Park. Nestled in woodland near to Goodwood House there is an amazing collection of contemporary sculpture, in fact a display of over 80 large-scale pieces placed amongst the trees. The object of the day was to draw and photograph the sculptures to give the students a better understanding of this particular art form and to give them ideas for their own art practice. The girls produced excellent work and found the sculpture (some of which are huge and cost over a million pounds each) very inspiring. All of the sculptures are for sale with the proceeds shared between the artists and new commissions. The sculpture park was founded by Wilfred and Jeanette Cass. It was a really interesting and useful day and definitely a place to recommend.

Mrs Croydon, Head of Art

ENGLISH CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT - YEAR 10 ADVANCED WARNING All of year 10 will be off-timetable on Tuesday 16 October from 8.50-10.20 and again on Tuesday 27 November for English Language controlled assessment. This is a module of their GCSE examination and we ask for parents’ support in ensuring full attendance and punctuality.

Mrs K. Ashdown

CULTURE VULTURES Our second meeting of the term takes place on Tuesday 9 October at 4pm in Library 2. We are delighted that Professor Cedric Watts will be in school talking about Graham Greene and ‘Brighton Rock’. It will be a real privilege to hear such a prestigious speaker talk passionately about one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.

PE NEWS Congratulations to the Under 13 Netball team who beat the Towers last night 25 – 0. Congratulations to the Under 12’s who had a 20 – 20 Draw both teams played exceptionally well. Well played! Congratulations to the Year 8 Netball team. In the Brighton Schools Netball league our Year 8 A team played Cardinal Newman’s Year 9’s And B’s. We had a 6-6 Draw with their A team and we beat their B team 12 – 2 Congratulations to the Under 13 Netball team who beat Brighton College 20 -14.

Ms Osborne English Schools Cross Country Cup On Wednesday the Junior and Intermediate Cross Country teams competed for the first time in the English Schools Cross Country Cup. The county round was held at Bishop Luffa School at Chichester and involved 17 schools from Sussex and Hampshire. Almi Nerurkar (Yr 7) ran an outstanding race to win the Junior girl’s event by 100 yards from the next runner. The whole team scored well and we missed out on an automatic place in the regional round by 1 point! Although there is still a chance we might go through. In the Intermediate race our first runner home was Ella Witt, who ran a very steady race to finish 13th, and all this team ran creditable races to finish as a team in 7th place. Teams as follows: - Junior – Almi Nerurkar, Josie Grumitt, Abi Roach-Penn, Carmen Adjare, Eve Hull and Faye Hannaford. Inters:- Ella Witt, Abi Broome, Farhanna Badruzaman, Molly Miller, Tallulah Maidment, Ray Adams Farr-Row Well done to all the team1

Mrs Thomas

Upcoming events: Tuesday 9th October: Y9 trip to Fishbourne Palace 4pm Culture Vultures Wednesday 10th October: Y11 PSHE day Y11 Futurewise interviews GDST Hockey and Swimming rally (moved from 18 Oct) Thursday 11th October: Open Doors (9:30 – 11:30am) Friday 12th October: Y7 & Y8 House netball (p4&5) Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October: Y11 Duke of Edinburgh Assessment (Group 2)

Book Week The English Department’s competitions were an outlet for extraordinary talent and imagination. The winners of the year 7 postcard competition were Nafisa Miah of Grey, Mia Heasman of Lyttelton and Phoebe Munro of Grey. Our year 8 lost consonant competition – reinforcing the importance of accurate spelling in a humorous way – was won by Alicia Phillips of Grey, Charlotte Woods of Stanley and Mia Roach Penn of Stanley. The year 9 semantic field competition was won by Josie Lee of Lyttelton, Katie Higgins of Grey and Maisie Jackson of Gurney. Our challenging, whole school villanelle competition was won impressively by Tia Pavlides of Stanley – Mrs Foss (of Grey) was runner up!

Issue 4 October 2012 3

JUNIOR EDITORIAL

Dear Parents,

I am very grateful to

pupils and parents for

taking time out of their

weekends to help us out

with Open Afternoon on

Saturday. I hope that

everyone will have fun

and for us it is invaluable

in helping to promote the

school.

On a more practical

note, we are having a

real ‘crackdown’ on

table manners,

particularly using cutlery

properly, eating with

mouths open etc., and

as always we would

appreciate your support

at home.

Best Wishes

Sian Cattaneo

Year 1

All the girls in year 1 were very

excited on Tuesday when they

discovered an old trunk in our

willow tunnel. Mrs James was

given a very strange message

about something interesting in

the school grounds so year 1

put on their coats and went off

to explore....... After quite a lot

of searching, Florence spotted

the trunk through the trees.

Now we are trying to find out

more about the trunk and the

objects inside and find out

more about who it belongs to.

Year 2

Year 2 had a very exciting

Wednesday morning as they

were visited by the fire-fighters

of Hove Watch. They were

able to go inside the fire engine

and look at the equipment that

it holds. They were talked

through the uniform of a fire-

fighter and were able to ask

many of their burning questions!

The highlight of the session was

when Leanne and Jamie

allowed the girls to all have a

go at using the fire hose, which

they were all absolutely thrilled

with. The fire-fighters were

amazed by the incredibly

thoughtful questions and

fantastic behaviour of the girls.

Well done Year 2!

Sports Results

Hockey v Hurstpierpont U11’s

Won 2 - 1, Under 10s Lost 7 - 1

Netball v Farlington U10 ‘A’s

Drew: 3 – 3 ‘B’s Lost 13 – 2 U 9s

Won 9 – 4

Well done to Bonnie White and

Ella Littlewood who received a

special mention from the

Umpire for their excellent play.

UGANDA UNIFORM

The response has been

amazing and the date for last

collection has been extended

to 12th October. The next

shipment of uniform will be At

Christmas, with the remainder

going in March. Can we

politely remind parents that the

uniform should be clean. It is

unfortunate that coats,

mackintoshes, duffle coats and

schoolbags will not be

acceptable.

Any given so far

will be taken to

the British Heart

Foundation

Charity Shop.

NATIONAL POETRY DAY

The girls were informed of a

poetry challenge in last

Wednesday’s assembly. In

recognition of National Poetry

Day they can enter a

competition by writing a poem

on the theme of ‘STARS’. All

entries will receive a house

point and winning entries from

three age categories will win a

prize. The poems will be judged

by Sixth Form English Officers –

Niamh Jones and Amy

Eddisford-Kidd. We have

already had many entries from

budding poets but there is still

time to enter! The closing date

is Monday 8th October.

NOTES FOR PARENTS

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARIES: The ‘Travelling Book Fair’ will be in

school on the 12th, 13th and 14th November 2012- a great

opportunity to buy some early Christmas presents! Details and

location to follow.

BLOCKED DRIVEWAYS: We have had complaints from local

Residents about parents parking and blocking driveways at

school pick-up times. Could we ask you to be ever vigilant in

this respect please.

HAIR AND UNIFORM: Please ensure your daughter’s hair is

completely tied back, that trainer socks are not to be worn to

school, earring studs are the correct uniform (and not fashion

earrings), and last but not least, please ENSURE all uniform is

CLEARLY LABELLED.

RECEPETION DOOR: Can we ask parents not to encourage your

daughters to PRESS the FRONT RECEPTION RELEASE BUTTON just

inside Reception. The girls are constantly reminded they should

not be touching this button and conflicting instructions from

parents is causing some confusion.

Junior School week at a glance Sat 6

th Oct.: Open Afternoon. 1.00 – 3.00

Mon 8st

Oct: Open Sessions, Year 5 & 6 8.30-9.15 Individual School Photographs Year 4 Trip to Booth Museum

Tues 9th

Oct: Yr 3 Visit to All Saints Church Wed 10

th Oct: U11 ‘A’ & ‘B’ Netball Away, Farlington 2.15 U10 ‘B’ Hockey Home v HPPC 2.30

Year 6 Parents, Normandy Presentation 3.30 School Hall Thurs 11

th Oct: Open Day for Prospective Parents Special Blackland farm page 4

Blacklands Farm is a popular activity centre near East Grinstead and last week Year 4 enjoyed a fantastic overnight stay. We settled into our accommodation, Weaver’s Lodge, and quietly but excitedly set off for the Archery and the Crate challenge. After a lovely supper (cooked by the staff!) the girls tackled a number of indoor climbing walls. It was wonderful to see their fearlessness and confidence. Next day the group took part in the abseiling activity which for many was really challenging. We were so very proud of them, encouraging each other and in a number of cases, overcoming real fear. It was a brilliant trip and one I hope the girls will remember for many years to come.

Issue 4 October 2012 5

This year Louise Rennison opened Book Week in dramatic and energetic fashion, with Irish dancing, disco for the classroom and story after story which had the audience giggling uncontrollably. Well done to our three interviewers – Theodora Vamvas, Mina-Mae Alexander and Megan-Rose Phillips – who facilitated such a fun-packed hour.

We are proudest, though, of the magnificent fundraising which the girls threw themselves into with gusto this year. In only 30 minutes we raised over £155 at Wednesday’s Book Auction and, as this newsletter goes to press, the dressing up day money is still being counted. All this money will go to support the important work of Afghan Connection and our twinned school in Afghanistan.

The Book Quiz was hotly contested but won by a Stanley team in impressive form. Congratulations to Niamh Jones, Layla Mostaghimi, Anna Rubenstein and Amber Tregoning.

Thank you to everyone involved in our fantastic Book Week for 2012! Every year it seems to get bigger and better!

Creative writing talent was also much in evidence this week with year 11 and sixth formers enjoying a workshop run by Rachel Cusk on Wednesday and our year 9 celebrating National Poetry Day in style with workshops run by Catherine Smith, Sasha Dugdale and Mark Peterson.