E-weekly Issue 246 - 10 November 2023

Welcome

Remembrance Day

Today, as a full school community, we marked Remembrance Day. This began with a reflection for all tutor groups in the morning, followed by a think point starter to every lesson providing a real opportunity to pause, reflect and honour the fallen throughout the day.  A two minute silence was also observed by the whole school. Our boarders will continue to reflect over the weekend and will observe Sunday's two minute silence. Representatives from all boarding houses will gather at the war memorial in Mayfield Village to lay a School wreath during Sunday morning's service in the village. 

Classics & Geography trip to Sicily

Over half term 25 girls spent five wonderful days exploring the world class Classical and fascinating geological wonders of the Bay of Naples and Sicily. The trip was action packed. Flying into a very wet Naples we first explored the subterranean ancient Greek quarries, later used as a Roman aqueduct and as air raid shelters in WW2. Our guided visits to Herculaneum and Pompeii allowed those studying Classics to come face to face with Roman domestic life, visit houses, baths, shops and businesses and to appreciate ancient city life in the shadow of Vesuvius. We reached its summit in heavy fog but when it lifted it gave excellent views of the Bay of Naples and down into the crater.

After flying to Sicily our next challenge was the summit of Mount Etna – this was a totally different experience. Cable cars and 4x4 buses took us close to the top and a final trek over ash and cinders brought us to the crater of the world’s second most active volcano. The black, barren and eerie landscape of cooled lava contrasted strongly with our visit to the beautiful town of Taormina where we toured the very well preserved Roman theatre before enjoying the atmosphere of modern Sicilian life. A boat trip the next day took us to the Aeolian islands of Lipari and Vulcano. Everybody will remember the ascent of Vulcano on a wonderfully hot day. Clearly active, we could see plumes of water vapour escaping and see the sulphur deposits all round the edge. The final day gave an opportunity to visit the town of Giardini Naxos where we were staying before taking in the mythological coastline on the way back to the airport. This was a really wonderful trip and the opportunity to see so many fascinating aspects of both subjects.

Mrs Elizabeth Aherne

Year 10-13 History Trip to Berlin

During the half term break, 28 girls from Years 10-13 set off to Berlin, the bustling German capital, for a deeper exploration of the city and nation’s turbulent history. With a strong focus on the impact of National Socialism during the 1930s and 1940s, girls spent time reflecting on the consequences of intolerance at the powerful Holocaust Memorial and Jewish Museum. For many, the most memorable aspect of the trip was the tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, which proved to be immensely moving, with a number of the girls pondering the need, but very real challenges, of preventing similar from happening again, and what role they could play in this.

The other focus of the trip was on the Cold War, and through visits to the Berlin Wall and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum we learnt more about the political background before enjoying the interactive DDR museum to find out how this period affected daily life in East Germany. In a very full itinerary we also had time to take in some of Berlin’s other main points of interest, including a night-time visit to the Reichstag and its modern dome, and enjoyed free time around Alexanderplatz, Potsdamer Platz and Hakescher Markt. We even made time for some neon mini-golf for a bit of light relief!

The girls’ behaviour was outstanding and several of the tour guides commented how fantastically engaged the girls were in discussions and in asking thoughtful questions. They certainly did the School proud!

Alice (Year 10) had the following to say about the trip: "Even though we remained in one city, we still managed to do more steps than I have done in the previous month! Mr Warren was an incredible guide and ensured that we made the best use of our time in this fantastic city. There were moments for deep reflection and experiences that we will all remember for many years to come. In addition, there was still plenty of time to explore the city, enjoy a beautiful boat ride and do some shopping! Thank you to Mr Warren, Mr Ferguson, Mrs Turner and Mrs Cox for taking us."

Oak Knoll School Exchange

Angela, Ayo, Darcy and Julia went on a highly successful exchange with a sister Holy Child School in Summit, New Jersey.  We were welcomed by 4 amazing host families who had gone to great lengths to make the girls feel at home. While we were there the girls had the chance to experience lessons (albeit from a year below them), life in a day school, (including using the yellow US school buses), a homecoming American football game, a service day (when the entire school goes out to help in the community – living ‘Actions not Words’), a staff v student soccer match, a trip to New York City (by train), the school play (an entertaining ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’), the entire Halloween experience (from dressing up to trick and trunk a treating) and several shopping trips. The sun shone on the second Saturday, giving us one last fling of summer. The girls did Mayfield proud with numerous presentations on Mayfield, British food, British traditions and even politics! They also had fun helping the 2^nd Graders decorate their pumpkins.

We also could not have been in a better place to receive the tragic news about Miss Beary. Jen Landis (Head of School) was a good friend of Antonia’s and she ensured that we were able to have time to ourselves, and then allowed us to pray in the Service Day Assembly. That day was rounded off by a recording (with us singing) of ‘Be Thou my Vision' and I brought back to the Mayfield Community 67 condolence cards from the senior year at Oak Knoll. The girls also paid tribute when they did a presentation to the entire Lower School (Kindergarten through to Year 7) on Mayfield, its history and traditions.

Friendships were made and cemented and we look forward to the return visit from our girls’ ‘sisters’ in March. We also look forward to forging other links with the school.

Mrs Lucinda Misiewicz

DofE expedition to the Peak District

The beginning of half term saw six of our Mayfield girls complete their Gold Practice Duke of Edinburgh Award Expedition. The expedition took place in the Hope Valley area of The Peak District.  The team walked for three days and camped for three nights. This area provided the team with good challenges in navigation - open, rural countryside with lots of hilly terrain thrown in as well. Some of the walking conditions were pretty tricky (due to the very recent heavy rain) but they covered many miles and their endless energy and enthusiasm meant they handled it all superbly. They worked together brilliantly as a team, supported each other through a range of challenges and really did themselves, the school and the DofE Team proud. As you can see from the photos, they had great fun too!

Mrs Mary Saunders, DofE Manager

DofE news from OC Maddie

One of my many favourite moments running the DofE Award Programme at Mayfield, aside from running DofE training sessions, sampling brownies made by the girls, and camping, is signing off the girls' DofE Awards.  Signing off a 'Gold DofE Award', ready for it to be approved by the DofE HQ, is always particularly special as I know how many hours it takes in each section to complete the Award. So it was lovely to receive this email and photo recently from OC Maddie Bowles.

Riding Update

After a busy weekend, we are East Sussex County Show Jumping Champions once again! The mini team, featuring Amya, Ava, Isla & Issie (also individual champion) won, as did the Intermediate team, featuring Cordie, Fleur, Emilia & Sophia. Hope was also crowned 1.10m East Sussex Champion.

We also won two titles at the National Championships at the start of half term - over 850 riders took part, from all over the country.  Congrats to Cordi, Flo, Emilia & Polina, who won the Combined Training Team Championship. Flo also won the Novice Dressage Championship.

Codes Day

The first cross-curricular day of the year for Year 8s took place on Thursday and was based on the theme of Codes. After an initial introduction to why we need codes and how we use them in our everyday lives, the girls took part in a carousel of activities. These included British Sign Language (BSL), Braille, Semaphore, Codes in Chemistry and Musical codes. The BSL session, which always proves to be extremely popular, was run by Marcel Hirshman along with his interpreter Emma, who gave the girls an introduction to sign language. They were both impressed by the insightful questions asked by the girls in the Q&A session at the end. During the Braille class, the girls were shown how the alphabet is represented in Braille, and practised using Braille cards to spell out words to their partners. In the Musical Codes session, the girls learnt about how Morse Code was developed and why it was an important method of communication over long distances. They then learnt to spell the names of animals, before performing their own names to a backing track.

The day culminated in an exciting Escape Room activity which all the girls enjoyed tremendously. The girls used the skills and knowledge that they had learned about in earlier sessions to unravel clues and questions leading to keywords. They entered into the spirit of the game with great enthusiasm and a lot of collaborative working. Once the keywords were all decoded and the code was cracked, these apprentice undercover agents had to tell the secret word to their Spymaster trainer (thank you to Mrs Le Riche, Mr Cowan and Miss Kotesovska), obtain their key, unlock a padlocked box and enjoy the surprise inside. 

Mrs Rachel Testa

Avila House Feast Day

On Wednesday, Avila House celebrated our first ever Feast Day. We began the day with a Liturgy, in which Ronan talked to us about St. Teresa of Avila's life and encouraged us to reflect on the similarities between the lives of Saint Teresa, Miss Beary and Cornelia Connelly - all of whom teach us so much about the importance of faith, joy and love.

We gathered together for cookies and hot chocolate at breaktime, and then treated the rest of the school to some of our homemade bakes at our lunchtime cake sale. Unfortunately we don't have many photos of the cakes as they sold out so quickly! We raised over £170, which will be donated to our whole school charity, Maggie's.

Thank you to Ronan, Miss Baker, the Catering Department, and of course the wonderful Avila girls for making the day so special!

The Mathematical Olympiad for Girls

The Mathematical Olympiad for Girls is a 2.5-hour competition consisting of five challenging problems aimed at girls and young women across the UK. Each problem requires a full, written solution.

The competition encourages girls to tackle advanced mathematical problems and only girls who have been successful in previous challenges are entered. To recognise the highest performers in the competition, the top scorers are awarded a Certificate of Distinction.

This year six girls from Years 12 and 13 took part in the Olympiad. I am delighted that all the girls achieved high scores and each gained a certificate.

Certificate of Distinction: Elizabeth vH, Katherine C 
Certificate of Merit: Isabella D, Abigail R, Angela I, Helen J 

Congratulations.

Mrs Sally Howie, Deputy Head of Mathematics

Alicia Drummond Talk

“I always enjoy these workshops and come away having learned something new. The tools Alicia shares are powerful and practical and I really appreciate that we, as parents, can come together and share struggles and strategies to help our girls thrive.”

Alicia will be joining us again for another three workshops this year.  The next workshop is on Wednesday 24th January and is titled “How to help your daughter to have healthy friendships”.  Details to follow.

Mrs J Stone, Head of Middle School

Sports News

Hockey Update
The 1XI dusted off the half term cobwebs at the England Hockey Tier 4 competition on Monday. The first match against a very well drilled Seaford 1XI was a tough game.  Although the result went Seaford's way, the girls showed improvement as the game progressed. The second game was against Hurst, and despite the girls working better as a unit, they lost narrowly (1-0). A performance that we can use as a springboard for the rest of the term.

U18s progress in Netball competition
Congratulations to the U18A Netball team, who knocked out a strong team from Howard of Effingham to progress through to the 3rd round of the Sisters n Sport Shield competition. This win sees them take on The Canterbury Academy next week. For the full match report please refer to SOCS.

Oppositions Player of the Match- Maria U (Captain)
Coaches Player(s) of the Match- Maria U and Maddie W

XC News
The Junior Girls' team travelled to Tonbridge for the South East Regional round of the English School Cross Country Cup. On a wet and windy day, the team ran their socks off, so to speak!  All the Mayfield team finished in the middle of the pack, with commendable times over the 2.3km distance, the fastest being Emily in Year 7.

Mayfield Skiers Selected for National Training Squad
We are to delighted to announce that Darcy C (Year 12) & Emelia P (Year 8) have been selected to participate in the upcoming English Schools’ Ski Association training camps to be part of the National Training Squad!

The selection process was based on several criteria, including outstanding performance in recent ESSKIA championships, as well as achievements in other race events. We are very proud of both girls, who have represented the school at ESSKIA events this term, securing some noteworthy results for Mayfield. The training camp takes place in Norway in February, where they will be joined by the top-performing skiers across the country for their respective age groups.

A fantastic achievement!

MESSy Notice

As of this week, we have set up a book collection scheme. These books will be collected and donated to people in Africa. There are many collection points around the school, they are in: Reception, the Lower School Foyer and the Sixth Form Foyer.

All of the collected books will be processed and refurbished and then will be delivered to students and teachers across Africa. We are asking for any books, new or used, they just need to be legible.

The charity we will be working with is Books2Africa. They want to promote the culture of ‘readcycling’ and improve the quality of education in Africa. If you can give any books, whether they are children’s books, textbooks or general fiction books they would be invaluable to the children and teachers in Africa.

More information

Imogen Husey, Year 13

Welly Walkers

Alice won the largest leaf competition 🍂🍁 on our welly walk on Tuesday, where we gathered leaves from the Sycamore, Beech, Fern, Elm and Oak trees.

Everyone felt invigorated after a lovely autumnal walk in the woods.

Mrs Turner, International English teacher

Library News

The Lower School librarians have embraced Non Fiction November by promoting some of our wonderful non-fiction titles. They have found fascinating facts from some of our books and chosen titles to display around the library. If you need a great non fiction book for your Champion Read card then have a look at the books on display. 

Culinary Skills

This week Culinary Skills girls made spiced poached pears with chocolate sauce and sable biscuits.

Lower School Cookery Club made and decorated sugar biscuits.

We still have some Mayfield Recipe Books available for £5 - great stocking fillers! Please email ssmeaton@mayfieldgirls.org.uk if you would like one. Don't wait too long though, or you might be disappointed if we run out!

Trip to the Theatre

 On Tuesday night, our GCSE and A Level Drama pupils and a number of our Drama scholars saw 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' at London's Noël Coward Theatre. The technical elements of this production enchanted the girls and they effused about them at the interval. Theatrical literacy is a crucial skill for both the practical and written Drama examinations so this experience was incredibly worthwhile. Many thanks to Ms Nash, Mrs Santo and Dr Turner for accompanying the girls.

"The production was a mesmerizing blend of fantasy and reality, and I found the actors’ performances extremely captivating. I’d definitely say that my favourite aspect of the play was the intricate set design and breath-taking special effects which caught the entire audience by surprise! We were all particularly appreciative of the beautiful storytelling and the way every element of the performance came together to create a truly immersive and unforgettable experience." - Mabel (Year 11)

Mr Dan Smith, Teacher of Drama

Information Regarding Upcoming 'Brain Day' Lecture

The Year 12 Psychology students and Year 13 Psychology and Biology students are looking forward to the upcoming Brain Day lectures on Tuesday 21st November. Dr Guy Sutton will also be presenting his lecture on 'Inside the Teenage Brain' at 4:45pm in the Sixth Form Lecture Room. All Mayfield parents, guardians and staff are invited to attend what promises to be a very insightful talk. If you have not already done so, please click on the link below to confirm your attendance.

RSVP - Brain Day Lecture

We look forward to seeing you there!

Miss Charmaine Noyes, Head of Psychology

Cornelian Lecture

On Monday, 13th November we will have the second of our Cornelian Lectures for 2023/24 with Aidan Cottrell Boyce joining us at 7pm in Gresham for what I am sure will be a fascinating talk about his debut novel 'The End of Night Work', and his work looking at the intersection between environmentalism and theology.

Aidan was born in Liverpool in 1987. He completed his PhD at the Divinity Faculty of the University of Cambridge in 2018. During his doctoral studies he ran as a Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party. He is the author of two academic books: 'Jewish Christians in Puritan England' (2020) and 'Israelism in Modern Britain' (2021). His short fiction has appeared in The White Review. He currently works as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at St Mary's University in London. His first novel, 'The End of Nightwork', was published by Granta in January 2023 and he was chosen as one of the Observer's best debut novelists of 2023.

We hope to see you there.

Mr John Doy, Head of Sixth Form

Charity Sleep Out

Tonight, a group of Mayfield girls are going to sleep outside with no tents to experience a glimpse of the collective reality of the approximately 271,000 homeless people in the UK today. Without phones, access to creature comforts or the general privileges of our daily lives, we hope to create an experience that is as authentic as possible.

We are hoping to raise money for the Cardinal Hume Centre, a charity that supports homeless people in London. Please support us if you can at our JustGiving page, thank you. 

Our JustGiving page
Katie, Alexa, and Sophie 

From the School Shop

Welcome back, we hope that you had a good half term.

Christmas Shop
The Christmas Shop is now open. The items are all pocket money prices or less (95% are under £5) so you can shop for family and friends. In addition, we offer a wrap service for 30p, where you can leave your purchase to be wrapped and collect at the next break – it includes a bow, tag and the wrapping paper of your choice. There are also Christmas cards, both packs and handmade individual ones. If you prefer to do your own wrapping we have gift bags and wrap sets. We also carry some decorations for you to ‘Christmas up' your rooms with.

Please remember to have the bill payer's permission to place anything on the bill. If you prefer, we can take cash and cards as well.

Sister Jean's Marmalade
Sister Jean’s homemade marmalade has been re-stocked and is ready to go. All proceeds go to Mary’s Meals. Why not wrap some up in a hamper for Christmas ? They are £2.50 each – cash only please as we give this straight to Sister Jean.

If you have any empty jars to donate, please bring them into the school shop and we will ensure they get to Sister Jean.

Billing from the School Shop
A reminder to parents and guardians that the bill you will receive at the end of term from the school shop will only have purchases on it up to the 30th November. Any purchases made from 1st December will appear on your April 2024 (Spring Term) billing. This has been done in order to get the bills out to you in a timely fashion over Christmas.

Lost Property
Please see below pictures of lost property in the school shop. These pictures were sent to all staff and students on 6th November. Any items not collected by the end of next week will be disposed of or sold for charity.

Mrs Susan Bowles, School Shop Manager

Next Week's Menu

Menu w/c 13th Nov