Issue 3 September 2012 1

Issue 3 September 2012

HEADITORIAL

Dear Parents and Students, I would particularly like to congratulate the girls this week for their stoicism and good humour in carrying out activities in extremely wet weather conditions. Let’s hope the Year 12 Geographers have some sunshine this weekend on their AS field trip! Please remember that the Senior School will be closing at 2.30pm on Friday so that we can prepare for Open Morning on Saturday. Best wishes,

Jen Smith

Yr 8 Geography Field Trip

When we arrived at Seven

Sisters Country Park the day

ahead looked good as no one

was complaining when we

stopped for the first activity. But

then they told us to draw…

Eruptions of “I can’t draw!!!”

Followed by an outburst of

cold, wet rain drove us to

stomp off to the second

activity, measuring the land

including a storm ridge. A

group of foreign students in

front of us had already set up

camp on the shingle and we

had begun our task. Suddenly,

a massive avalanche of

freezing rain had left the whole

year drenched to the bone.

After one more fruitless effort to

carry on working (plus another

soaking!) the teachers gave up

and announced that, after

taking a rapid walk on the

storm ridge, we would have to

admit defeat. The walk back

was definitely shorter as we had

to focus on our aching feet,

taking one step at the time to

the coach – where the sun

shone while we ate our lunch!

Some people even bought ice

cream. We drove back grateful

to be warm and dry in a Maths

lesson.

Clara Browne-Amorim & Co

Wakehurst Place Trip

On a very wet Wednesday the

AS and A2 Biology students

visited Wakehurst Place to

study certain aspects of their

course. In the morning the AS

students escaped the rain with

a visit to the Millenium Seed

Bank where they learned all

about the importance of

maintaining biodiversity and ex

situ conservation methods. The

A2 students had to brave the

morning rain while they took

belt transects using point

quadrats in the meadow of the

Loder Valley Nature Reserve.

Both groups learned valuable

techniques relevant to their

studies. In the afternoon we

were all outside to do random

sampling using quadrats to

compare the effects of

coppicing on biodiversity. The

A2 students also applied what

they learned to aspects of

Woodland Management which

is in their A2 course. It was a

very informative day in what is

a most beautiful environment.

Ms Parsons

BOOK WEEK AND

CREATIVE WRITING

We are delighted with the

inventive and intelligent entries

to all our Book Week

competitions – and now just

have the tough job of choosing

the winners! There is still time to

enter the villanelle

competition.... and to email

Shakespeare:

shakespeare@bhhs.gdst.net

of course! Full details available

on the portal.

Mrs Ashdown, Head of English

INDIVIDUAL SUCCESSES

On Monday Nancy Keating,

11S, will be representing BHHS in the

regional heat of ‘The GDST

Bake Off’. This is part of the

GDST’s 140th Anniversary

Celebrations. Nancy will be baking

a specially commissioned Lemon

Victoria Sandwich recipe by Mary

Berry, a GDST alumna. A copy of this

recipe will be sent home shortly.

Good Luck, Nancy.

On 4th August Katja Ward

competed in the regional finals of

the Honda RYA Youth RIB Challenge

13-16 year age group at Bewl Valley

Sailing Club, having won the local

heats at Newhaven and Seaford

Sailing Club. The competition

involves driving a RIB power boat as

fast as possible around a course

that includes slalom, reversing 360

around a mark and “man

overboard” drill. Despite being the

youngest in her class and the only

female competitor, Katja was

awarded the Bronze medal.

Following on from this her club

sponsored her to undertake the RYA

Power Boat Level 2 qualification

which she has now successfully

completed. This means that she is

competent to skipper power boats

including skippering safety boats

and their crew covering coastal

races. Katja is also a very talented

athlete and recently received a

certificate for representing Brighton

and Hove Schools in the District

finals. She is also a most valuable

member of the School Netball team

Well done, Katja.

Issue 3 September 2012 2

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OPEN DAY

Saturday 6th

September

SENIOR SCHOOL 9-12

JUNIOR SCHOOL

1-3 We are looking forward to showing off our senior and junior schools to younger pupils, to friends and family and to girls from other schools who are considering BHHS for next year. Thank you to all the current BHHS girls who have volunteered to help on Saturday; I'm sure that our visitors will be impressed with all that they see. ------------------------------------

Harvest Assembly Last Friday the senior school celebrated harvest festival with a special assembly taken by Father Ritichie. We learnt a little more about his pizza making skills! Father Ritchie demonstrated with the help of two pupils how to make a pizza, the main point of his talk was to get the pupils to think about how far their food travels and whether we should be supporting local shops. The pupils brought in many different items of food and a number of luxury goods to be delivered to the City Mission in Brighton. The City Mission is a local organisation set up to help the homeless, and families who might be living in poverty. A big thank you to everybody who contributed to making this a success. Miss Davies If you want to help visit: brightonandhovecitymission.org.uk

BOOK WEEK AND AFGHAN CONNECTION We are proud to use Book Week to fundraise for Afghan Connection – a charity devoted to building schools in Afghanistan. Supporting our twinned school, contributing to the education of young women in almost impossible and certainly dangerous circumstances, is something of which every member of our school community can be proud. We hope your daughter will enjoy dressing up on Friday all the more because the pound it costs her will support such important work in Afghanistan. Please encourage your daughter to support our Book Auction on Wednesday 3rd October – both by donating books and by grabbing a bargain.

Mrs Ashdown, Head of English

OUR BOOK WEEK GUEST

It starts on Monday 1st October with a visit by perennially popular and charismatic author Louise Rennison. City Books will be in school should girls wish to buy a book to get signed. Most of her books cost £6.99. Louise has kindly agreed to be interviewed by a panel of BHHS girls. The girls entered a competition to win a place on this panel and the winners are: Theo Vamvas, Megan Phillips and Mina-Mae Alexander.

Rachel Cusk will be running a creative workshop for our

year 11 and sixth form on Wednesday from 4-5.30pm in library 2. Rachel has

generously agreed to look at girls creative writing ahead of the workshop on Wednesday – this is an un-missable opportunity and I know girls will seize the chance to have such a successful and serious writer take the time to review and criticise their own work. We've got 3 other great writers in school this Book Week as well - all high profile and newsworthy. Sasha Dugdale, Catherine Smith & Mark Peterson - you'll know him better as Richard Bingham (Mrs Hawkes’ maternity cover) but to the reading public he is the new Peter James!

Mrs Ashdown, Head of English

Our 6th form trip to Goodwood sculpture park has had to be moved from

Tues 2nd October to Wednesday 3rd October

Trip to Tate Modern On Wednesday, all the Year 11 GCSE artists went on a study day at Tate Modern in London. The idea behind the day is that students draw directly from works of art on display and that they choose which ones interest them most. So armed with their A3 black sketchbooks, graphite and pencil (not put off by the terrible weather) the girls hit the turbine hall ready to start. This extraordinary space was made even stranger by a gang of about 70 performance artists, who rather disconcertingly gathered around us! Anyway – once everyone started drawing the day was a great success and fantastic drawings were produced. All the students were perfect in every way.

Mrs Croydon

Record Shattering Nylon at BHHS! On Wednesday, the U6 chemists made some nylon by mixing 2 chemicals in a small beaker. Usually, we can get strands of nylon anywhere between 2 and 10 inches. The record at BHHS was a huge strand 4 feet 10 inches in length, by Natasha Coventy-Brooker. However, that record has now been decimated by Charlotte Redstone, 13M. Charlotte managed to pull a strand of nylon from the mixture that was 7 feet 6 inches long!!! Charlotte is next in line to play Spider-Woman in a major film!

Mr Marsh

UNIFORM SHOP OPEN Saturday 6th October The shop will be open from 10-12am on our Open Day. The Shop has been really busy since it opened in June, and seems to be very well received. We will be contacting parents after half term to gather feedback on this facility including, opening times.

Issue 3 September 2012 3

JUNIOR EDITORIAL

Dear Parents,

Despite the weather,

activities at the Junior

School have been in full

swing this week.

It was wonderful to enjoy

the Harvest celebration

on Tuesday and our

thanks to Father Felix

from the Church of the

Good Shepherd for

leading us and to Mervyn

from the City Mission who

spoke about how our

food donations will be

used. Many thanks to

parents for their kind

donations.

The response to our

Uniform plea has been

overwhelming and the

African Village Support

charity are ‘over the

moon’ with the

donations. Thank you to

all parents for their

generosity. The last date

for depositing old uniform

at the Junior School will

be Friday 5th October.

I was particularly

delighted to see so many

girls representing the

school this week in our

fixtures against Brighton

College. Mrs Mostran

was particularly pleased

with the standard of

play. It is our intention to

develop our fixtures and

offer opportunities to

more girls during the

year.

Best Wishes

Sian Cattaneo

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Donations came flooding in on

Monday and Tuesday for our

Harvest Festival, arranged

across the stage by an

industrious team of year 6 girls.

Mervyn, a representative from

“City Mission”, came to talk to

the girls about the wonderful

work this organisation does for

those in need in our local

community through the “Basics

Bank” scheme and was very

pleased to be able to take

away such a significant

contribution to this worthwhile

cause. Father Felix, always

popular with the girls,

presented a lovely Harvest

Assembly. Four lucky girls went

away with some of his home-

grown vegetables after playing

his “guess the vegetable”

game. We were very pleased

to welcome parents to this

event and would like to thank

everyone who was able to

contribute something. It was all

very much appreciated.

Harvest Festival

Parents’ Association

Coffee Morning

NETBALL MATCH RESULT

We hosted a fantastic Netball

fixture on Wednesday against

Brighton College, with a mix of

results. The A team lost, but put

up a very determined fight and

played well as a team. For 3 of

the four quarters there was just

1 goal separating the two

teams. The B team took a

convincing 7-3 victory and the

C team narrowly lost 2-1. Girls

of the games were awarded to

Olivia Heal, Clemmie Copeland

and Ernestine Bradley.

Mrs Mostran

We are going to hold a ‘Big Fair Trade Bake Sale’

When: Friday 5th

October at morning break

Where: the junior school hall

Who: we would like to ask girls in KS2 to have a go at baking some cakes using Fair Trade Ingredients. Bring your cake or cakes into school on Friday 5

th October when we will have a

Fair trade Bake Sale at break time which will be open to the whole school.

Where will the money go?

The Fair-trade Innovation Fund brings Fair-trade to more farmers, workers and their families in the developing world. This guarantees them a fair price for their work, safety from exploitation, and a little bit extra - the Fair-trade Premium - spent on vital community projects such as schools, hospitals and clean drinking water.

Things to remember:

Not every ingredient has to be Fair Trade NO Nuts please! Take a photo of you with your cakes and Fair-trade ingredients.

For more information and to get some recipe inspiration have a look at the Fair-trade website: http://step.fairtrade.org.uk/get-involved/campaign/the-big-fair-bake/855

More information will be sent out early next week.

Miss Lyons

Junior School week at a glance Mon 1st Oct: Year 1 & 2 Open Sessions 8.30 – 9.15am Tues 2nd: Year 3& 4 Open Sessions 8.30 – 9.15am

Wed 3rd: Year 5, 1 Parent Lunch 12.00pm U10 ‘A’ & ‘B’ & U9 ‘A’ Netball v Farlington away 2.15pm U11 ‘A’ & ‘B’ Hockey, v HPPC Home 2.30pm

Thurs 4th: Swimming Event v HPPC 5.15pm

Sat 6th: U 11 Netball Tournament v Burgess Hill 9.00am. Open Afternoon for Prospective Parents 1.00 – 3.00pm