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30 Nov: Dressage Success

Congratulations to Sara Horrell, Molly Smith and Olivia Wilkinson. They competed at the Inter–Schools Dressage competition at the weekend beating 14 other schools to be this year’s champions — well done!

21 Nov: Latin Reading Success

St Mary’s enjoyed resounding success in the The Classical Association’s Autumn Reading Competition at the Perse School for Girls on 16th November. In the Intermediate age group, Alessia Lee and Zahra Malik, both year 9, won first and second prizes for Latin verse, and Becky Shercliff (year 10) and Emilie Foster (year 9) came first and second in the prose; in the Senior age group, Sian Clark (year 11) won second prize for Latin verse speaking. Well done, all!

18 Nov: Biathlon

On 13th November, Emilie Foster, Sara Horrell, Marie McHugh and Anna McHugh took part in the Eastern Schools’ Modern Biathlon Championships at Thetford. All of the girls ran and swam really well. Medals are 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. He receives one medal for this and another presentation medal for taking first place in the run.

2 Nov: Web Site Updates

The new option blocks for AS Level 2006–7 have now been published.

31 Oct: Web Site Updates

All learning links have been verified, and updated where necessary. Please let the webmaster know of any problems. Special note to teaching staff: if you would like links added for your subject, please e–mail the full URL (web site address to me), preferably with a comment attached — thanks!

12 Oct: Recent Sports Successes

Horse–riding: Isabel Edmundson has been selected to represent the Under 18 Eastern Counties Team at the British Three Day Event. Also, congratulations to Sara Horrell and her pony club team for winning the National Combined Training Championships (Novice section) in the summer holidays.

Netball: Sara Horrell has been selected for the Under 14 County Netball Squad and Harriet Arbuckle, Abigail Erian, Caroline Haines, Philippa Markley and Kate McDonald have been selected for the Under 16 County Netball Squad.

Cycling: Well done to Anna McHugh for taking part in the London to Cambridge sponsored bike ride in aid of Breast Cancer.

Archery: Kathryn Gilbert has won the Junior Girls’ Recurve Bow Kestrels Archers Tournament.

Diving: Congratulations to Hannah Tucker. She represented Cambridge Dive Centre at the National White Rose Championships held in the Leeds International Pool last weekend.

27 Sept: Congratulations, Mimi!

We have just heard the exciting news that Mimi Wadham has qualified for the National Pony Club Show–Jumping Championships.

24 Sept: Well done, Alexa!

Congratulations to Alexa Smit who has been selected for the Under 15 County Hockey Squad.

22 Aug: A Level results

We are delighted with another excellent set of A Level results this year. Special congratulations to the nine girls who achieved straight A passes in three or more subjects. We have girls going to university at, among other places, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bristol, Bath, Imperial, UCL, St Andrew’s, Manchester and Leeds.

22 June: Well done, Harriet!

Many congratulations to Harriet Arbuckle: she will be representing Cambridgeshire in the 1500m race at the National Track and Field Athletics Championships this July. To be selected she had to achieve the national qualifying time. Harriet beat it by finishing her race in 4 minutes and 45 secs — a personal best time and a new school record.

6 June: Hobsons’ Scholarships

Hobsons are awarding scholarships for international students. If you wish to apply, you should visit their site and follow the instructions there. Please note that the application deadline is 17th June.

23 May: Latest sports achievements

Many congratulations to all of the following:

• Jackie Gregg (Head of PE) — County Golf Champion for the 2nd consecutive year!
• Amelia Hamilton–Kennaway who achieved Gold medal in the Junior Womens Javelin at the Air Training Corps Beds & Cambs Wing Athletics Championships.
• Charlotte Haines who finished in 3rd place in the 1500 metre front crawl race at the Regional Championships. This also means that Charlotte is now the 3rd fastest in the country in her age group.
• Harriet Arbuckle, Charlotte Haines, Ellie Herbert, Philippa Markley and Marie McHugh who have been selected to represent the Cambridge Schools Team at the County Athletic Track and Field Championships in June.

9 May: Year 7 History Trip links

Year 7 will be going on a History Trip on 14th June. Some useful links have now been added to the History links page (scroll down to the Medieval section).

6 May: Election Result Announcement

The Returning Officer at St Mary’s has just announced the result of yesterday’s Mock Election:
1st: Liberal Democrat (Clara Spera)
2nd: Conservative (Quinta Chapman)
3rd: The Green Party (Natasha Pesaran)
There were 6 candidates in all. The turnout was 76% and 423 votes were cast. The winning margin was 66 votes.

25 Apr: Well done, Joy!

Many congratulations to Joy Christodoulides who achieved an Honours award in the Amateur Swimming Association Swimming Challenge.

18 Apr: Summer Term Calendar

This term’s calendar is now online.

27 Mar: Religious Studies links

The religious studies links page has been updated.

24 Mar: Lourdes Fundraising

Over £2,600 has been raised so far!

23 Mar: Gym Club video

Watch a short video produced by Louise Martin (UVI student) of the Gym and Dance Club Display 2005! [.mpg file | 2.4MB]

23 Mar: Accolade

The Spring edition of Accolade has just been published and extracts are included here.

23 Mar: Latest Sports Successes

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. Well done to Abigail Erian, Caroline Haines, Sara Horrell and Amy Lawes who finished in 2nd place in the Inter–schools One Day Event, to Abigail Erian and Caroline Haines who finished in 2nd place in the ‘Senior’ teams Inter–schools Dressage Competition and to Sarah Barlow, Emily Bayman, Claire Hickling and Julia Reacher who achieved 2nd place in the Cambridge Schools Indoor Rowing Competition.

21 Mar: 40 Years at St Mary’s!

On Friday, Agnes Heron presented another concert featuring her many piano pupils at St Mary’s. As always, they displayed attention to detail and particularly beautiful tone especially in their quieter playing. It is always a delight to see and hear her pupils play music together, not just piano duets, but trios with six hands at the piano. To celebrate her 40th year of teaching at St Mary’s, Quintus Benziger presented her with a piece he had composed especially for Agnes. Entitled Forte–piano, it is for forty fingers (four pupils) and the tune has exactly forty notes. We hope to hear a performance of it at her next pupils’ concert.

18 Mar: Latin Play Success

St Mary’s hosted the Cambridge branch of the Classical Association’s Junior reading competition on March 16th. The competition has sections for reading Latin and Greek prose, and acting a play, Asterix and Cleopatra, in Latin. St Mary’s won the play section with a cast of girls from years 7 and 8. Leading roles were performed by Alessia Lee (Cleopatra), Sarah Gashi (Panoramix) and Megan Lee (Asterix).

16 Mar: National Cross Country Championship

On Saturday 12th March, Harriet Arbuckle ran (for the second year running) in the National Cross Country Championship which was held in Norwich. She 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. Congratulations Harriet!

15 Mar: International Song Book launched

Our International Song Book was launched at the school concert this evening. Compiled by the Director of Music, Quintus Benziger, it contains a charming selection of folksongs contributed by pupils and staff at the school. He writes: “My purpose was to reflect, through music, the wide range of nationalities that we are lucky to have at the school. I wanted to bring together a variety of songs that would be enjoyable to sing, and to include one from as many countries as possible.” The cost of the book is £5 and all profits will go towards St Mary’s Lourdes Appeal.

13 Mar: Links updated

The Government and Politics links page has been updated. Anyone interested in a Mock Election?

11 Mar: International Songbook

Quintus Benziger, Director of Music at St Mary’s, will be launching an international songbook at the school concert on Tuesday 15th March. Quintus has compiled the songbook of traditional folk songs from 25 countries including Brazil, Greece, Mexico, Poland, Russia, China, Zimbabwe and the USA. He says: “I wanted to reflect, through music, the wide range of nationalities that we are lucky to have at the school. I asked pupils and staff from all the different countries to choose a song they knew well from their country. The songs have been printed in their original language and I have added translations of my own.” Allegro, one of St Mary’s 3 choirs, will be singing some of the songs at the concert.

9 Feb: Well done, Claire!

Congratulations to Claire McCarthy. She has been awarded a British Junior Carriage Driving Scholarship for 2004/5. The presentation of this award took place at the Horse of the Year Show at the NEC in October.

7 Feb: Anglian Cross Country Championship 2005

On Saturday 5^th February Anna McHugh, Harriet Arbuckle and Helen Mather represented Cambridgeshire at the Anglian Cross Country Championship which was held at Hinchingbrooke Park. The girls ran very well indeed and are to be congratulated on their efforts and achievements. Harriet Arbuckle ran particularly well. She came in 10^th place in her race and has been selected to run at the National Cross Country Championship.

19 Jan: Spring Term Activities

This term’s programmes of extra–curricular activities and boarders’ weekend activities have now been published.

17 Jan: Spring Term Calendar

The calendar for this term has now been published.

12 Jan: Oxbridge Success!

We are delighted to report that three of our Sixth Formers have been awarded places at Oxbridge — many congratulations to the following girls:

• Mary Boyle, who has won a place at Worcester College, Oxford to read German
• Claire Hickling, who has won a place at Lincoln College, Oxford to read Chemistry
• Lin Shao, who has won a place at Churchill College, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences

Calling all current pupils, teachers, parent and governors:

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