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About St Mary’s

Headmistress’s Letter: 24 March 2005

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This very short half term has been packed with activities and fun and we are all more than ready for a restful Easter holiday.

Deputy Head

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Paul Mitchell as our new Deputy Head (Academic) from September 2005. Paul is currently the Head of Mathematics at the Royal High School in Bath. He is also a notable sportsman who captained the British Modern Pentathlon team at the Seoul Olympics.

Recent Trips

The French Exchange and History of Art visits to Paris during half term were both very successful and we are grateful to the staff for giving up their time to accompany the trips.

Lourdes

Lourdes Fund raising fortnight got off to a great start with over £1,000 collected during the first three days. So far we have raised the staggering amount of £2,600. A new innovation this year was the Top Trump Card sets produced by year 10 of the staff. I was very glad to see that I have a fashion factor of 83 and a fear factor of 99! The Dog Show took place in the rain but this did not dim any spirits. There was a lovely full page spread in the Cambridge Evening News yesterday evening.

40 Years at St Mary’s

Agnes Heron, our wonderful piano teacher, celebrated 40 years of teaching at St Mary’s last Friday. At the age of 87, she has been teaching in total for 69 years and still teaches approximately 100 pupils. After a wonderful concert given by her St Mary’s pupils — as part of the Lourdes appeal — Agnes was presented with flowers, a special scroll and a cake. Her achievements were featured on Look East and in the Cambridge Evening News.

Jazz Band at Disneyland

If anyone is planning to be near Paris this Easter holiday, the school Jazz Band will be making its international debut at Disneyland Paris on Thursday 31 March. They will be performing on the Fantasyland stage at 6 p.m. We wish them every success and an enjoyable break.

Easter Trips

Over the Easter break we also have students participating in a silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition to the Peak District, an Italian exchange to Turin, a Classics trip to Greece and a Battlefields visit to the first world war sites in Belgium and France. Once again, my thanks go to all the staff who have given up their holiday to make these trips possible.

Latest News

St Mary’s came first in the Latin Play Competition held at St Mary’s against stiff competition from all Cambridge schools. We also enjoyed an excellent GCSE and A level Music Concert last week when our new International Song Book was launched. Congratulations to Mr Benziger on the production of this book. This week, we have seen six very moving and sometimes challenging GCSE Drama plays. The themes have been as diverse as Witches, the First World War, Anorexia and Sex Education.

We were delighted to be chosen to participate in a pilot Arts Award scheme run by the Arts Council and have recently presented silver certificates to all 9 girls who took part. Congratulations to them all.

Sports News

Congratulations to the following year 11 students who have been awarded the prestigious Roy Burrell Award from the Cambridge Secondary Schools Association in recognition of their contribution to sport: Sophie Davidson — regional swimming, county netball and district tennis; Ruth Horrell — national gymnastics competing in the English championships; Philippa Kent — county swimming and competed in national events in rowing, coxing and sculling.

On Saturday 12 March Harriet Arbuckle ran, for the second year running, in the National Cross Country Championship which was held in Norwich. Harriet ran very well indeed against the best runners in the country and achieved 74th place out of 370 runners. This is a fantastic achievement and an improvement of 58 places on her performance last year.

Sarah Barlow, Emily Bayman, Claire Hickling and Julia Reacher took part in the Cambridge Schools Indoor Rowing Competition on Saturday 12th March and finished second.

Congratulations to Abigail Erian, Caroline Haines, Sara Horrell and Amy Lawes who finished in 2nd place at the Woodbridge Inter–Schools One Day Event. In addition both Sara and Caroline achieved 3rd and 2nd place respectively in the individual competition.

Medical Form

Enclosed with the mailing is a new medical form for completion. Please return these in the first week of term if at all possible.

Oliver

Next term we look forward to the production of the musical Oliver which we hope you will all support. The dates for this production are Monday 25 April, Tuesday 26 April and Wednesday 27 April.

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful Easter.
Yours sincerely,

Jayne Triffitt
Headmistress