home > news and current information > news > archive: 2004

News and Current Information

Latest News

2 Dec: Classical Reading Competition Success

We are delighted to report that Sian Clarke, year 10, won the Latin Prose section in the Cambridge Classical Association Senior Classical Reading Competition held at the Perse Girls School on Tuesday 30th November. Sian gave a superb reading of a passage from Livy, Book IX, and was placed second in the Verse section with a reading from Ovid. This was an outstanding achievement against stiff competition from Cambridge Schools! Our congratulations to Sian and to Dr Charlotte Goddard who trained her.

1 Dec: Holland Hockey Trip 2004

Congratulations to the Under 15 and Under 14 Holland hockey teams. Both teams won their respective tournaments whilst training in Holland over half–term. The Under 14 team steamed ahead scoring goal after goal and were the undisputed leaders in their age group. The Under 15 tournament finished with an exciting penalty–flick play–off. All of the girls worked incredibly hard throughout the week and the PE staff were especially delighted with the girls’ achievement as winning a tournament in Holland was a first for St Mary’s.

17 Nov: Sports News

Congratulations to the Under 16 Netball Team who competed at the County round of the National Schools Championships last week: by drawing one and winning seven out of the remaining eight matches they are now the COUNTY CHAMPIONS! The girls have demonstrated dedication and commitment to training over the past year and fully deserve this accolade. They will now represent Cambridgeshire at the Anglian Championships in January.
The Under 16 Team:
Sophie Davidson (Captain), Naomi Miles, Pippi Brereton, Ellie Herbert, Philippa Markley, Harriet Arbuckle, Caroline Haines, Abi Erian and Cathy Oates.

10 Nov: Autumn Term 2005

Please note that the Autumn Term will start one day later than previously published.

10 Nov: Web Site Updates

Various pages have been updated today including Art Links and the ‘getting to school’ links have been updated on the location of school page.

3 Nov: Web Site Updates

The Alumnae area of the web site has been completely revamped this week.

18 Oct: Sports News

Congratulations to the following girls:

• Philippa Markley has been selected for the Under 16 County Hockey Squad
• Sara Horrell and Kate McDonald have been selected for the Under 14 County Netball Squad
• Lydia Allen, Charlotte Dexter, Rachel Pope and Mimi Wadham have been selected for the Under 14 County Netball Development Squad

7 Oct: Under 16 County Netball

Congratulations to Harriet Arbuckle, Sophie Davidson, Caroline Haines and Philippa Markley who have been selected for the Under 16 County Netball Squad!

4 Oct: We raised over £14,500 for charity last year!

As usual, we had a lot of fun with our fundraising and broke all previous records. Our fundraising report for 2003–4 showing which charities have been supported has just been published. We also encourage you to give online by clicking through the links provided or by visiting our help online page.

29 Sept: Hard Spell!

Fiona Blower was the winner of the school round of the BBC sponsored Hard Spell spelling competition. She and Marcella Lupski, who came second, go forward to represent the school at the regional heats this Sunday, October 3, at the West Road Concert Hall. In school the competition was open to Years 7–9.

27 Sept: September Letter published

Note to parents and guardians: you can now read the Headmistress’s letter to parents and guardians online as well as in your mailing.

24 Sept: Netball Success!

Congratulations to Sophie Davidson, Abi Erian, Caroline Haines, Harriet Arbuckle, Philippa Markley and Ellie Herbert for successfully competing in the ‘Adult’ division of the Cambridge and District Summer Netball League. Along with 2 team–mates from The Perse they won all of their matches by a very wide margin of a total of 177 goals for with 99 against.

22 Sept: Day Trip to Lille

The French Department writes: “28 Year 11 girls studying French GCSE and 2 Upper 6 girls went to spend the day in Lille on Monday 20^th September. We took the Eurostar and visited Le Musée des Beaux–Arts, viewing works by Rubens, Monet, Rodin, Camille Claudel amongst many. We then walked around Le Vieux Lille on a guided tour in French. We shopped in a huge shopping centre (120 boutiques, restaurants and cafes). Although the day was long and tiring (departure from school at 5.30 am!) we all thoroughly enjoyed it and found it most rewarding.”

20 Sept: Chariots of Fire 2004

A lively 6^th form and staff team took part in the annual Chariots of Fire race in Cambridge yesterday, joining 2,400 other runners from around the area. This year’s event was raising money for the world–famous Papworth Hospital. How did our team fare? Well, they came a most respectable 153^rd out of 392 teams — so, well done to Lizzie Tuley, Cecilia Allen, Helen Mather, Mrs Susan Brown, Mr Joe McWilliams and Mr Roy Peachey! If you would like to contribute to this worthy cause, please contact Fiona Cooper, Fundraising Director at Papworth Hospital. We are also very proud of the fact that Fiona is one of our ‘old girls’!

20 Sept: Sutton Hoo

For their first educational visit at St Mary’s, Year 7 will be visiting Sutton Hoo on Wednesday 22 Sept. They will be investigating the ancient burial site of the Anglo Saxon kings of East Anglia with a chance to do some hands–on archaeology. Special note to Year 7: go to our History links page, scroll down a bit, and you will find some useful sites in preparation for your trip.

20 Sept: Jubilee Cup

Belated congratulations to our Year 7 athletics team who came 3^rd out of all schools in the Cambridge area in the Jubilee Cup at the end of the summer term: Jessica Lupson, Catherine Mannu, Abigail Oliver, Marie McHugh, Emilie Foster, Rosie Pickford, Sara Horrell, Beth Osmond and Captain Milly Moore.

20 Sept: Web site updates

Several pages have been updated today, including geography and EFL links. A links page for debating has also been created.

19 Sept: Web site updates

The government and politics links page has been updated.

15 Sept: Web site updates

The boarders’ weekend exeat dates have now been published and several other pages have been updated, including Spanish links and 6^th Form Society events for this term.

13 Sept: web site updates

Several pages have been updated over the past week, including term dates, the termly calendar, extra–curricular activities and ICT links.

8 July: Inter–schools Dressage Competition

Well done to Sara Horrell and Harriet Sharp who finished in 1^st place in the Junior team and to Abigail Erian and Caroline Haines who finished in 2^nd place in the Senior team.

7 July: Hard Spell Competition

Calling all girls in Years 7–9: Do you want fame? Do you want to be on TV? Do you want to improve your spelling? If so, you are invited to spend a few minutes each day this summer holiday preparing for the BBC Hard Spell competition! You can read more about it in the BBC press releases of April and May. For your convenience, you can download a complete copy of the spelling list as a Word document (431KB) or a .pdf file (205KB). Good luck! Meanwhile, do watch the trailers from the US version — enjoy!

For those of you who are interested, you may like to know that the idea behind the competition was inspired by the Oscar–nominated and prize–winning US Documentary Spellbound about the US National Spelling Bee. The documentary is available in the UK and you can read more about it at Spellbound (official site), MovieMail, Internet Movie Database, Movie Gazette and Documentary Films.

7 July: What to do when your A Level Results are Published

Mr Peachey has written a useful guide on this topic (Word document 38KB).

7 July: web site updates

Several pages have been updated today, including 6th Form, Careers and University links pages.

7 July: Anglian Champions!

Congratulations to both Abigail Cone and Philippa Markley who represented the county at the Anglian Athletics Championships last weekend. Abi finished in second place in the relay and also achieved a new personal best time of 12.9s in the 80 meter hurdles. Philippa also performed extremely well. In discus she finished in 2nd place and in shot she finished in 3rd place. She also achieved a new personal best distance of 10.08 meters in the shot. We are delighted to hear that Philippa has been selected to represent Cambridgeshire at the National Schools Athletics Championships in Gateshead on the 9^th & 10^th July.

7 July: Junior Sports Leaders

Many congratulations to a group of our Year 11 students who have successfully completed the Junior Sports Leaders Award Course! This award develops organisation, communication and leadership skills through sporting activities and it culminated in the candidates leading groups of St Catherine’s girls in a range of activities. It was fantastic to see how confidently and efficiently our girls took charge and to share in their sense of achievement. The St Catherine’s girls certainly had fun and enjoyed these sessions. The successful candidates were Georgina Brereton, Tabitha Cassels, Aisling Crapnell, Antonia Charles, Heidi Cone, Claire Davis, Rewin Heung, Rebecca Johnson, Aya McLellan, Harriet Smith and Rachel Steen.

17 June: web site updates

The downloads page has been updated: all links have been checked and additional links added.

27 May: legacy brochure

We recently launched our legacy brochure: “We are asking our friends to consider making a gift to St Mary’s School in their wills and continue the legacy of Mary Ward to women’s education here in Cambridge. A key part of our fund–raising strategy is to increase the number of scholarships and bursaries that we can offer. We also seek funds to improve our buildings and facilities.” You can download the full Legacy Brochure (222KB .pdf) and Form (151KB .pdf). In order to access these files, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

27 May: access your school e–mail at home

Teachers and students can now access their school e–mail at home and a link to this has been created on the home page and elsewhere on the site. When you log in, you should use your school user name and password. If you are using Internet Explorer, you will also be prompted for the domain name: SMC.

27 May: are you going to Kentwell this year?

If you are going to Kentwell this year, then it’s time to get sewing your costume etc. Check out our special Kentwell links on the History hot links page (scroll down to near the bottom of the page) and you will find plenty to interest and inspire you!

27 May: lower school scholarships and bursaries

New arrangements are now in place for lower school scholarships and bursaries. Scholarships are worth 10% of the fees and Mary Ward Bursaries are available for up to 95% of the fees. Sixth form scholarships are currently under review and information will be posted here as soon as the new details have been finalised.

20 May: Success for Zephyr!

Zephyr won two awards at the Young Enterprise Cambridgeshire County Finals: Best Company and Young Businesswoman of the Year (Charlotte Pindar). They now go forward to the East Anglian Regional Finals.

20 May: web site updates

Several pages have been updated today, including St Mary’s school fees from September 2004 and a list of our new 6^th form team.

6 May: web site updates

This term’s extra–curricular activities have now been posted.

1 May: Zephyr

We are delighted to announce that Zephyr, this year’s Young Enterprise company, has reached the finals!

22 Apr: web site updates

Over 60 pages have been updated this week, including the alumnae pages, term dates, the calendar for this term and the listing of Mary Ward schools. In addition, all current references to the IBVM (though not historical ones) have been changed to the new name: CJ. Details of this term’s extra–curricular activities will be posted as soon as they have been finalised.

24 Mar: Arcadia web site

This year’s senior school play is Arcadia by Tom Stoppard and members of the Lower Sixth have created a web site to promote their production: Arcadia At St Mary’s. They introduce the site as follows:

The reason our Lower Sixth Theatre Studies students have written this website is because the play makes demands on the audience. The audience, you may or may not be glad to know, has some hard thinking to do while watching this play. Stoppard will be asking you to come to terms with Chaos Theory and Romanticism, Fermat’s Last Theorem and Garden History, love and madness.

But don’t panic: it is worth it! You don’t need a PhD to understand the humour (and there is plenty of humour in the play) and what you could do with knowing is all here in our website.

16 Mar: Zephyr launches web site

Zephyr, this year’s Young Enterprise company, has just announced the launch of the company web site at www.zephyr-ye.com. You are invited to visit and place your orders now!

15 Mar: Zephyr Success!

Many congratulations to Zephyr, this year’s Young Enterprise company — they won the award for Best Customer Service at the Grafton Centre on Saturday!

14 Mar: web site updates

New links have been added to the Geography, Biology and Science pages.

10 Mar: Congratulations to Harriet!

Many congratulations to Harriet Arbuckle who has been selected to compete at the National Cross–country Championships.

4 Mar: web site updates

The external links on our Hot Links pages have all been checked, corrected and updated in recent weeks. More links will be added in due course. Meanwhile, we are starting work on a new and improved site. This is a major project — but watch this space!

26 Feb: web site updates

6^th Form news and events

11 Feb: web site updates

12 links pages have been updated today, including:
Reference links
Religious Studies links
Teachers links

5 Feb: web site updates

Over a dozen links pages have been updated or added this week, including languages and:
Government and Politics links
PSCHE links *new*

28 Jan: web site updates

Various pages have been updated today, including:
Job opportunities
Uniform and Equipment
Chemistry links
Classics links
English links
Gap Year Opportunities links

22 Jan: web site updates

The following pages have been updated or added today:
Clip Art and Photos links
Ask a Question links *new*
Biology links
Physics links
Cool links
Art links
History links

21 Jan: web site updates

Web site updates include:
Calendar: Spring Term 2004
Extra–curricular Activities: Spring Term 2004
Universities and Colleges links
News links
Science links

Calling all current pupils, teachers, parent and governors:

Please keep the informed of any newsworthy items - thank you!