E-weekly Issue 205

Message from Miss Beary

As the nation marks the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the new King Charles III taking up his royal responsibilities, I think many people are surprised by the emotion they have felt over the past week. This is a momentous event and heralds a time of great change. Even amidst a sense of our common loss, I think it is important to celebrate the life of the late Queen: a life given in service and commitment to others; one in which the wisdom of years was gained from listening and learning from others, rather than imposing her views. I have been struck by how she, especially as a young woman, stood out in an Empire, and indeed a world dominated by men, with her air of quietly confident authority. I was heartened too by the way in which the media have reflected on  the importance of her faith.  I was particularly struck by her words re-broadcast on Sunday morning: ‘I know just how much I rely on my own faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings and to put my trust in God.’  Even her funeral has brought people together in a way that gives us hope for the future.

In this week of national mourning, our community has also been touched by a grief closer to home. I ask your prayers again for the repose of the soul of our beloved Lily and especially for her family and all those who are grieving for her. We will be holding a service of remembrance for her in School, details of which will be shared in due course.

If you are travelling to London on Monday to be involved in the funeral, or simpy to experience and be part of this key moment in history, please take care, but do share your experiences; I would love to hear...

Year 7 Teambuilding trip

On Saturday, the Year 7 girls attended a teambuilding afternoon at Broadstone Warren. They worked in their form groups and enjoyed a range of activities together. Harnesses and hard hats at the ready, our newest cohort of Cornelians braved the heights and seized the opportunity to come together as a community. Many thanks to Mrs Baker, Mrs Fletcher, Miss Keoghan and Mr Walser for accompanying the girls.

“Broadstone Warren was such a fun trip! My favourite activity was the stacking crates – I went quite high and, although I was shocked when the crates came out from under me, we were all laughing together about it.” – Tabatha, Year 7

Mr Dan Smith, Deputy Head of Lower School

International Dinner

On the first Friday of term, around eighty International English pupils participated in an International Dinner held to welcome new overseas girls to Mayfield. It was a great opportunity for pupils of all different nationalities across the year groups, both old and new to get together. After completing a ‘Find Someone Who’ activity, they played a spelling game that incorporated the Cornelian principles, an interhouse ‘pass the hoola hoop challenge’, during which two hoops got broken in all the excitement, followed by a quiz about the UK. Despite the sad death of the Queen the previous day, we felt that as the leader of the Commonwealth and the most travelled UK monarch in history, she would have supported our celebrations and enjoyed them as much as we did. 

One guardian reported, ‘The dinner was apparently brilliant! What a great event to arrange for the international girls.’  Everyone certainly seems to be feeling a little less homesick this week and looking forward to the year ahead!

Mrs Kasia Kilvington, Head of International English

Congratulations to Write on Art Prize Winner!

Many congratulations to History of Art student Yueshi in Year 13 who has been awarded the runner-up prize of £100 in the prestigious 2022 WRITE ON ART national essay competition, sponsored by Art UK and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. On Saturday 10 September Yueshi attended the awards ceremony at the Paul Mellon Centre in Bedford Square, London and received the prize for her fascinating essay on John Hoppner’s ‘Lady Staunton with her son George Thomas Staunton and a Chinese Servant’, 1794. This year’s judges were Director of the Ingram Collection, Jo Baring, artist Sutapa Biswas, and curator Arike Oke. Yueshi’s essay will be published on the Art UK website.

The competition is open to Years 10-12; advice available from Dr Weddell, Head of History of Art. 

How to apply for Write on Art competition

John Hoppner, ‘Lady Staunton with Her Son George Thomas Staunton, and a Chinese Servant’, 1794, oil on canvas, 145.5 x 163.5cm, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Lady Staunton with Her Son George Thomas Staunton and a Chinese Servant | Art UK 

Dr Joanna Weddell, Head of History of Art

Year 9 Library Lesson

For the first library lesson in the main school library,  Year 9 practised their literary criticism skills with a selection of picture books. They were asked to consider the whole narrative, how it developed, characterisation, language use, how the setting was created and relationship between text and illustration.

The girls embraced this exercise with great enthusiasm, reading aloud to each other, creating voices for characters and responding to the illustrations and text. Some keen observations were made as the girls articulated their emotional responses to the very different themes and issues in the story arcs.

Thank you for making the lesson so much fun and for your insightful comments.

Ms Jan Blagden, Librarian

Mayfield PE ‘150 push pass’ challenge

“First to bear adversities with endurance—then with willingness—then with joy” Cornelia Connelly. 

It was 150 years ago in 1872 that young girls from St Leonards were brought over to be the first pupils at the Mayfield School site. So this year sees a year-long celebration of our founder Cornelia Connelly and our school. 

To celebrate our 150^th Anniversary year the Sports Department are setting sports focused exercise tasks, challenges and activities over the course of the year, all linked to the number 150! Keep an eye out for the different challenges as some will be shared and involve our wider school and local community!  

The week started with the 150 Hockey Push-Pass challenge. Pupils in pairs need to complete 150 push passes (over 5m) as quickly as possible. All years were able to get involved this week and lots of fun was had! 

Congratulations to the overall fastest 150 push passes: Tilly,  our 1^st XI Hockey Captain, and her teammate Grace, both in Year 13, claimed their at the top of the leaderboard with an impressive time of 2 minutes and 25 seconds! 

A big well done to the Year-Group winners: 
Year 7: Paz and Gigi 
Year 8: Erin and Emma 
Year 9: Maggie and Hope 
Year 10: Jess and Mia 
Year 11: Zara and Darcy 
Year 12: Sophie and Erin 
Year 13: Tilly and Grace 

The Hockey Season gets underway with matches this weekend against Kent College, Pembury. The 1^st and 2^nd XI are at home whilst the U15 teams are away at Kent College. 

Georgina Fletcher 

Chloe reaches new Rugby heights

Chloe in Year 11 has been selected for the girls Under 16, Kent and England rugby developing player programme. She starts her 12 training sessions this month, running through to the end of March. Good luck Chloe!

Fun and Games for the boarders

Last Saturday we held inter-house games for all the boarders. Each boarding house had several teams competing against other houses’ teams. The games were: ‘the mummy’, ‘sponges and buckets’, ‘the orange game’ and ‘dress-up game’. A great time was had by all!

Miss Josefina Ruival, St Dunstan's Housemistress

Message from Ronan

This week, during our liturgy time in the Chapel, I spoke to the girls about the benefits of prayer in our lives. Studies have shown a clear relationship between regular prayer in young people, and a reduction in levels of isolation, anxiety, depression and fear. A Harvard study, using sample sizes of 5,700-7,500, followed up over 8-14 years, demonstrated that young adults who prayed daily tended to have fewer depressive symptoms, and higher levels of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and positive disposition, in comparison to those who never prayed.

When we pray for others, we learn compassion.
When we pray for ourselves, we learn humility.
When we pray in thanksgiving, we learn gratitude.
When we pray together, we learn community.
And when we place ourselves in God’s hands, we learn peace.

This week you might choose to say the famous Serenity Prayer:

God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
The courage to change the things we can,
and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen

Please remember, families of our students are, once again, welcome to join us for Sunday Mass in the school chapel. Mass this Sunday will be at 11:30am.

Mr Ronan Lavery, Lay Chaplain

Michaelmas Fair – Sat 1 Oct 

The Michaelmas Fair will be taking place on Saturday 1 October from 10.00am – 3.00pm. We invite parents and girls to come to School to visit the variety of stalls.

If you would like to volunteer to help out on the day, or if you are interested in running a stall, please contact Susie Pepper on susiepepper10@gmail.com

From The School Shop 

Welcome back to a new term and to all of our new students that have joined us.

About the Shop
We carry a large range of toiletries and stationery as well as the school uniform and a small range of Mayfield gifts. Items purchased can be put on your account and your parents / bill payers will receive the bill at the end of each term. Please remember to HAVE THE BILL PAYER’S PERMISSION to put items on the account, this is done on a trust basis so it is assumed you have permission. If you prefer to shop using a card or cash you can do this as well.

We welcome ideas for the school shop – please feel free to email me at sbowles@mayfieldgirls.org with suggestions.

Sustainability
We try to be sustainable as well, though this is a work in progress and has to be weighed against longevity of a product and costs as some environmentally sound items come with a large premium to them, and we are conscious of the ever increasing costs of living and goods.

Some examples are:
-We offer refillable shampoo, conditioner and body wash and encourage you to bring in your own empty bottles to refill (the top needs to be removable to do this). We give you environmental house points if you either purchase the products or just bring in empty bottles I can re-use in the school shop.
-The pre-loved (second hand) is run from the school shop - when bringing back items for re-sale, please make sure they are cleaner and ironed and in good condition. Items we cannot take back are donated to the women’s refuge where they either use the items for cloth / craft projects or re-sell for ‘rag’.
-We do not carry aerosol deodorants as these are harmful to the environment and try and offer alternatives such as 100% paper cotton buds, shampoo/conditioner bars rather than liquid forms and all mugs/ water bottles are 80% or more aluminium rather than plastic or 100% porcelain.
-Our suppliers are asked to send uniform to us without plastic outers where possible – for example the kilts come as they are - we no longer receive them on hangers or in individual poly bags.
-Paper bags are offered for carrying things when needed from the shop rather than plastic and the few plastic bags we have for larger items of uniform are bio degradable.
-Paper products we try to source only with the FSC logo so we know they are from sustainable sources.

If girls can source items from the school shop rather than Amazon or a trip to Tunbridge Wells this cuts the carbon footprint considerably.

Lost property
If items of clothing or personal items turn up that are named I will email you to collect those from the school shop – please do so as soon as possible. We urge you to make sure ALL items, both uniform and personal items, are named. 

Please see below personal items that have turned up in lost property either at the end of last term or during the Summer holidays – please come to the school shop to collect if anything is yours.

Mrs Susan Bowles, School Shop Manager