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11th November 2016Issue 4

Senior SchoolnewsDear Parents

There is a link between a few questions that I’ve been asked recently:

What do I notice is different about this school compared to previous schools I’ve worked in?What do I want to ensure that we don’t lose from the ethos of the school as we turn co-ed?What do I wish I had more time for now I’m a Head?

The answer to all of these questions is, at least in part, all linked to the concept of ‘reading for pleasure’. I’m sure that many of us would echo the sentiment that we would love to have more time to read, which is why I believe that it is so important to instil good habits from a young age. There are plenty of examples of research pointing to the importance of this, and here is one such example:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10035473/The-importance-of-instilling-a-need-to-read.html

It has been great to see so many of our students involved with the ‘Readathon’ here at the Senior School (and it is not too late to get involved!) and also to see staff sharing what they are reading via posters around the school (I’ve been reading Matthew Syed’s latest). As the article above states, it is so difficult to encourage reading without resorting to a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. Thankfully we are lucky to be in a school where it seems ingrained in the culture, helped by the structures in place such as the Reading Week before Half Term.

As part of Reading Week we held a book review competition and the winning entry by Gao Qu of 9H can be read here. As a fan of Les Miserables it has certainly inspired me to read the book! Thank you to all parents who have encouraged reading over the years - we appreciate it, and it is incredibly valuable.

Alongside reading, there are plenty of other things going on here at the moment, and I hope this newsletter gives you a taste for them. As I write this, I can hear our students rehearsing ‘Cats’ and I can honestly say that it is sounding fabulous. If you can make one of the shows, I’m sure you will love it and I hope to see you there.

With warm wishes,

David Walker

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News

From Friday 21st October - Tuesday 25th, 33 students from years 11-13 accompanied Mr Pompeo, Mr Keeble and Miss Cresswell on an Italian and Visual Arts trip to Florence. Despite the early start [3.30am!] students were raring to go as the first stop on our action packed itinerary was the Gucci Museum in the piazza della Signoria, and a three hour Italian language lesson in central Florence. Despite some technical difficulties with an Italian baggage handler’s strike which resulted in an eight hour delay of our luggage, Mrs Cresswell’s heroics enabled the tour to begin according to schedule, earning her the sainthood “Santa Louisa Del Bagagli”. Other highlights included visiting the Ai Weiwei retrospective exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi, a whole afternoon in the world famous Uffizi gallery, numerous important churches including Santa Croce, the resting place of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, and a day trip to Siena and the marvellous cathedral and piazza del Campo. Students also packed in study of the statue of David in the Galleria dell’ Accademia,and a chance visit to the Baroque church of Santissima dell’annunziata.

To find out more follow the trip on twitter via @spfvisualart: https://mobile.twitter.com/spfvisualart

You can also see a video made by one of our Y11 Art Scholars here: school version florence final mpeg4.mp4

and: https://youtu.be/fpXnNqTMrjo

Florence Trip

Whilst the Florence trip did not get off to the best of starts (thanks to our luggage being stranded for eight hours), that didn’t set the tone for the rest of the trip. The amount of confidence I gained through the nine hours’ worth of lessons over three days was invaluable - and this was greatly aided by the fact our teacher spoke very little English at all. However, the real highlight was the amazing architecture and art that we got to see: from the Uffizi gallery to the Duomo di Siena. Siena was a particular highlight, especially upon realising that we were incredibly lucky to visit during one of the brief periods when the cathedral’s stunning floor is uncovered. All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and I would like to thank Mr Pompeo, Mr and Mrs Keeble and Miss Cresswell for making it all possible.

Alastair Walker

Italian trip students share their experiences...

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“The trip to Florence and Siena in Italy was honestly one of the best school trips I have been on. Whilst I went as an Italian student for the language lessons, I found myself transported into the artistic and historical nature of the beautiful city of Florence. I learnt about the importance of perspective in art pieces and how this was developed during the renaissance period during our visit to the Uffizi Museum. I found particular resonance with the art on the seven virtues because of the way in which they were portrayed as seven women with certain characteristics. The church crawl was one of my favourite parts of the trip because of their immense beauty and presence within the city. I was very interested in the clash between modern ideologies for example, Galileo’s science and how that impacted his relationship with the Church. The evenings were always a lot of fun, whether we were walking through the town or eating at the local restaurant, being together and teaching each other Italian phrases made the trip very enjoyable. The best part was the ice cream at midnight - there’s something so relaxing and calming about being away and immersing yourself in an entirely different culture. It made a welcome change from the hectic life of an IB student and I’ll never forget the intense Italian lessons that were given making you think and speak on the spot!”

Khadijah Aqeel

Italian trip students share their experiences... (continued)

Firenze!

“The town of the infamous Medici family, world renowned Uffizi Art Gallery and Nazi-defying Ponte Vecchio. Although the beginning of our trip was not perfect, thanks to the well-timed Italian air-strike - our baggage was hostage in Pisa for about eight hours. Our first day ended with the ultimate reunion of our bags along with the sainthood of Miss Cresswell; who had fought long and hard for our precious belongings! Our next three days was packed full with excursions including church crawls, intense Italian lessons, museum visits and many, many gelato breaks. An all-round favourite was the Gucci Museum which contained fabulous shoes, dresses and of course, refreshments in our main rendezvous on the Piazza della Signoria. The Basilica di Santa-Croce amazed each and every one of us as we went from tomb to tomb gazing upon the final resting places of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Rossini and many more impressive names.

Our artistic sides were all brought out and refined by the awe-inspiring visit to Michelangelo’s 17ft David. As we sat around him, sketching the 500 year old symbol of Florence in wonder, we knew our trip was a unique experi-ence; spending four days in a country as rich with culture as Italy is always a beautiful experience. Our final day in Italy was spent wondering through the picturesque alleyways of Sienna, and visiting one last church : the Duomo of Sienna. Is there any better way to spend our last day absorbing Italian architecture, art, culture, sun and gelato?

All in all, thank you to all the teachers that came with us; Mr Pompeo for providing us with Latin translations when we were lost in the church, Mr Keeble for being an all-round hub of knowledge on anything concerning art, no matter how tenuous the link! Thank you Mrs Keeble for always having nuggets of information at the ready, and of course - (Saint) Cresswell for saving our luggage!”

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On Friday October 21 (at a shockingly early 3am!), 40 students from years 11-13 accompanied Mr Connor, Mrs Wren, Mrs Stanley and Mrs Sefton on a packed three day trip to Berlin. In the first day alone we visited the Olympic Museum, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. Over the next two days we visited a wide variety of sites across Berlin related to World War Two and the Cold War.

The three days we spent in Berlin were filled with history, and reflection on the impact of the various sites we visited. Among the sites included Topography of Terror, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, the Stasi Prison, and the stunning Jewish Museum. To finish our whirlwind trip, we visited Checkpoint Charlie and truly delicious Ritter Sport world!

Berlin Trip

The Stephen Perse Foundation has been supporting Barnardo’s, a national charity which aims to transform the lives of the country’s most vulnerable children, since 1947 and has so far raised £65,000.

Barnardo’s Charity Event

Barnardo’s Day saw the Senior School taken over by student fundraisers and decked out in themes ranging from space to St Trinians, celebrities to festivals, and Halloween to Christmas. Hippies lined the halls singing Kumbaya, Disney princesses held a dance party and rollerskating waitresses were on hand to sell people delicious homemade cakes, all raising money for Barnardo’s.To read more about the success of the Barnado’s event please visit the Stephen Perse Foundation school website.

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We are delighted that Christina Stuart (Y11) has successfully auditioned for a place in the cello section of the National Youth Orchestra. This is a fantastic achievement; over 700 students applied this year, including around 100 cellists. The National Youth Orchestra is the country’s leading orchestra for school-age students, and Christina can look forward to some prestigious events, including a performance at the BBC Proms!

National Youth Orchestra Success

The Stephen Perse Foundation has maintained its winning streak with another set of decisive victories in the Cambridge Classical Association Senior Reading Competition. 12 of our pupils arrived at the Classics Faculty at 4.30pm on Tuesday 8th November, ready to bring the past to life with the sounds of Latin and Greek prose and verse. The girls read extracts from Virgil, Tacitus and Homer, and are all to be congratulated for the precision and dramatic energy within their performances. The overall standard among the 6 schools competing was high: the judge - Dr Chris Whitton, Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge - praised the diversity within the performances and the individual spin that different competitors had added. Particular praise is due to Elena Rowe, who stepped in to the competition at the eleventh hour and who performed outstandingly well: her reading of the Intermediate Latin Prose piece was controlled in its pacing and perfect in the accuracy of her pronunciation. Agatha Pethers, winner of the Intermediate Greek Verse category, described the atmosphere as ‘fervent’ and Imogen Stow said the experience was ‘brilliant’.

The results were as follows:

Senior Greek verse

Juliette Fairhurst - Highly Commended

Senior Latin prose

Nina Hurst 2nd prize

Senior Latin verse

D’Arcy Seamon 1st prize

Intermediate Greek Verse

Agatha Pethers - 1st prize

Imogen Stow - Highly commended

Intermediate Latin Verse

Priyanka Narayam- 1st place

Mila Rundic - Highly commended

Intermediate Latin Prose

Laura Holliger - Highly commended

Cambridge Classical Association Senior Reading Competition

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Creativity in ClassicsThe creativity of the Classical World has been inspiring KS3 and KS4 girls to creativity during the school day, and this term has seen some fantastic work coming through beyond the confines of formal Latin lessons.

The KS3 Classics Club has been focussing on the world of myth, and have been using the powerful stories of the past to generate enthusiasm for their own retellings in a range of different media. The story of Medusa has been re-captured via snaky head-dresses and ghoulishly delicious baking.

The Classics Club is now exploring the story of Pygmalion; the girls have been treated to a movie version, and they are now working on their own play dough versions of statues!

The Y8 Global Outlook course has also given opportunities for the girls to reflect on the distance and connection between the ancient world and ours. Given the brief to explore the history behind an archeological site or to chose famous artefacts to put into a museum of their own, the girls produced a fantastic range of projects. These included a paper re-construction of the Northern entrance to the Palace of Knossos and the Parthenon, a model clay museum with a walk-through video tour, and presentations on sites such as Hadrian’s Wall, the Antikythera Wreck and Pompeii.

Meanwhile, girls in Mr Lord’s Y10 Latin set have taken their inspiration from the bards of the past and decided that oral poetry is the best way now to remember their Latin case endings; the set has been much entertained by Charlotte Helliar’s Latin Cases Rap.

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Recent Theatre Trip‘In Our Hands’, Mumford Theatre, Cambridge

Our Year 11 IGCSE Drama group were joined by sixth form and Year 10 scholars to watch ‘In Our Hands’ performed by Smoking Apples at the Mumford Theatre, Cambridge. Incorporating pupeetry and visual theatre techniques, this show gave us an insight into the life of a Cornish fisherman, struggling to make a decent living. This charming piece also explored some very complex themes, including bereavement, the impact of big industries on small communities and the breakdown of family relationships.

Year 8 student Maanya took part in a celebration in Cambourne at the weekend for Diwali.

More than 190 people gathered at Cambourne Village College on Saturday to celebrate the Indian festival of Diwali. Maanya danced as part of the celebration.

Diwali

http://smokingapplestheatre.com/show/in-our-hands/

The Autumn Concert

The second major concert of the year involved all of our major groups in a celebration of music from Years 7 to 13. Grace Valentine and Hope Codrington Fernandez (both 7A) made debuts as soloists and we heard from the Big Band, Concert Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Year 7 Choir and the Middle School Choir alongside a number of other soloists. There was an eclectic mix of performances ranging from the ‘Abegg’ variations by Schumann to Hakuna Matata from the Lion King.