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About St Mary’s

Headmistress’s Letter: February 2006

Dear Parents,

We have had a full and exciting half term to date. I have been very busy seeing prospective parents for St Mary’s Junior School and meeting their daughters. It has been very encouraging to see how delighted so many people are by this new initiative for St Mary’s. I have also met every member of year 11 to discuss their sixth form options. I have loved the contrast between meeting our charming, articulate year 11 students and the very shy young girls wanting to join the junior school. As you will read from the paragraphs that follow, the students and staff have been extremely busy.

Zum Kino

On Friday 27th February the Sixth Form German students and staff visited the Arts Picture House to see Sophie Scholl, a film based on real events surrounding the passive resistance by Munich University students attempting to overthrow the Nazi regime. Although there were subtitles, the German was readily understood. Based on transcripts of the interrogation and witness interviews this tense and illuminating account of courageous German resistance was a great education and unforgettable.

Industry Day

On 2nd February, St Mary’s welcomed the ExSCIte team from Setpoint in Cambridge to deliver a morning of engineering problems for year 9 on their Industry Day. Students designed a jitterbug and mastered a computer program to build a bridge across a gorge, using a safe and economical design. In the afternoon students formed companies and became manufacturers of compact disk covers. These had to be sold to visiting buyers with exacting requirements and the company accounts were scrutinised. The afternoon ended with presentation of prizes for the most profitable company and the best design. We are very grateful to representatives from business who gave their time to make the day so successful.

Ethics

Last Friday the Lower Sixth theologians went to a lecture on Ethics to hear Dr Peter Vardy of Heythrop College speak. A commanding and vibrant speaker, he enabled the girls to have a greater understanding of some of the topics we cover on the Ethics course. Issues such as Monotheism and Virtue Ethics, Globalisation, The Status of the Embryo and the work and theories of Immanuel Kant. It was a great opportunity to hear one of the UK’s leading theologians lecture whilst surrounded by hundreds of other young theologians from the area.

Natural History

Early in January the whole of Year 8 set off in two coaches to London; destination the Natural History Museum. Divided into two groups girls worked in different parts of the Earth Galleries, enjoying the eerie escalator ride into the interior of the Earth and the earthquake simulator. The rocks were fascinating and being able to touch them, even lifting the massive block of pumice made the experience more memorable. The most up to date electronic wall chart plotted the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of the past week making us all feel grateful that the UK is not located on an active plate boundary. The museum shop offered many interesting rocks, minerals and gemstones which girls selected to start their own collections. Everyone worked hard and benefited from the trip; all agreed that museums are ‘wicked’ places quite different from the dusty images we might have held from the past and that they are great places to investigate the future.

Boarding Matters

We were very proud of Joanne Hong in the L6th who won the Hobson’s Boarder of the Year Award. She was chosen from a strong field on account of her contribution to school life and huge range of extra-curricular activity.

In spite of bad weather and dark evenings, lots of exciting things have happened in boarding this term. We started by welcoming two new staff, Miss Charlotte Clark from Brentwood in Essex, our boarding assistant, and Pip Corcoran from Sydney, our new GAP student. Both have settled in well and are proving popular with the girls. All boarders celebrated Chinese New Year in style with a three course Chinese meal cooked by our kitchen staff. The dress code was either traditional costume or something red. Several staff attended and all agreed that it was an excellent evening. Inevitably, trips are limited due to short days and bad weather but this term boarders have seen Chronicles of Narnia and have been to Norwich and to the ice–skating disco in Peterborough. The next highlight will be the Boarders’ Concert which is being arranged by Sidney and Aliya, the Head Boarders. This will take place at the beginning of March and artwork will be displayed at the same time.

Year of the Dog

Staff and students throughout the school contribute to the various daily assemblies — form, year group, upper school, lower school and whole school assemblies. Spiritual, contemplative, informative and entertaining, these assemblies rarely fail to impress me with their high calibre of presentation, ingenuity and thought provoking messages. The 29th January saw in the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dog, providing an opportunity to learn about the customs and culture overseas. A fascinating assembly delivered by Anita Lee and Christine Kwan explained how the event is celebrated, with fresh flowers decorating homes and the Chinese symbol for ‘Luck’ pinned upside down on doors to suggest that luck is coming. Young people visit elders as a mark of respect and visitors are offered rice, radish cakes and candy. Anita and Christine displayed traditional costumes and presented everyone with the customary red envelopes, which were much appreciated.

News from Performing Arts

This term’s Speech and Drama Showcase largely featured our new intake of students to Speech and Drama in year seven. Performing to a small, informal gathering of parents and friends, the girls demonstrated their growing confidence and expertise in the spoken word with enthusiasm. Their duologues and individual Verse and Prose pieces were then performed again for the LAMDA examinations the following day. We await the results next half term with anticipation!

Mr Mc Williams organised a theatre trip to see Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream as part of the A Level theatre studies course. The play was filled with special, magical effects that complemented the strong performances of the Royal Shakespearean actors. A favourite was the use of dolls as the fairies and the mossy bank being made of junk! we were also treated to visit to a vegetarian cafe in Covent Garden. A special experience.

The Lower Sixth Theatre Studies students performed their production of The Donahue Sisters on January 31st to a stunned and attentive audience. The content of the play is shocking and challenging and caught the audience attention immediately. You may wish to see this production when it is performed for the AS examination on May 11th. Year 9 had an exciting Drama Focus day on Tuesday 24th. the day had three workshops that fed into their curriculum work on Commedia masking, puppet work and technical theatre. The lighting workshop came complete with a working model of a stage and lights that the students could experiment with. Educational and fun! Twenty two Arts Awards students have started working on their award tasks for this, our first year of the award as a nationally recognized scheme. The skills being developed vary from creating a film and an art installation, to writing a piece of theatre for others to act out, to working with younger students in a choir. Much more on this scheme as it develops.

Next half term we are looking forwards to the Dance Showcase on March 8th, Jane Eyre Theatre Visit and workshop, the whole school Music Concert on March 16th and five GCSE Drama plays on 28th March. A busy Performing Arts half term!

Sporting Achievements Spring term 2006

Netball

The Under 14 Netball Squad represented Cambridgeshire in the Eastern Counties round of The Daily Telegraph National Schools Championship. The team: Millie Moore, Jessica Lupson, Emilie Foster, Charlotte Henderson, Zahra Malik, Rose Tiller, Emma Pope, Sarah Johnson and captain Sara Horrell.

Gym and Dance Display

The Girls School Association Annual Gym and Dance Display, was as usual, hosted by St Mary’s. The evening was a great success with girls from The Perse, Peterborough High, and Stamford High joining the St Mary’s team. The quality of the performances by all schools was very high and reflected the commitment and dedication of both the girls and their teachers. The evening was enjoyed by both girls and guests.

County Cross Country Championships

On Saturday 4th February Sarah Bibby, Troi Baxter and Amelia Vevers represented Cambridge and District Schools in the County Cross Country Championship. Anna McHugh, Marie McHugh and Harriet Arbuckle all qualified but were unable to run due to injury or illness. All ran very well, Sarah finished 7th, Troi 15th and Amelia 27th.

Inter–Schools Show Jumping

The team Abi Erian, Sara Horrell and Molly Smith finished in fourth place. It was a successful morning with 8 clear rounds, a special congratulation must go to Abi who performed brilliantly and took some big risks in the jump off with her trusted horse Prince.

Eastern Schools Modern Biathlon Championships

Emilie Foster, Sara Horrell, Marie McHugh and Anna McHugh all took part in the Championships. All of the girls ran and swam really well. Medals were presented to Marie McHugh who achieved 5th place in the year 9 girls competition and to Anna McHugh who was placed 6th in year 8. Mr Mitchell entered the teachers’ race and won the competition!

Hockey

Congratulations to the year 7 hockey team. They competed at the district tournament and beat all the opposing teams to qualify for the final. Unfortunately they had to settle for runner–up position after a nail biting final. The team can only be proud of their performance, particularly as they scored the most goals overall: well done. The team: Becky Graves (Captain), Jenny Watts, Sarah Bibby, Sara Rand, Madeleine Yeoman, Emily Roberts and Sophie Flynn.

Martial Arts

Clare Morgan represented Cambridge Academy of Martial Arts competing against France, Germany, Reunion Islands, Madagascar and Mauritius in The Reunion Islands.

Swimming

Congratulations to Carmen Hodgkiss who competed in the Cambridge Swimming Club Championships. She swam in the 50m and 100m Front Crawl, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly, and got Personal Best times in all of the events.

Many congratulations to all the girls.

With best wishes for a restful half term,

Yours sincerely,

Jayne Triffitt
Headmistress