E-weekly Issue 250 - 8 December 2023

Welcome

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at Mayfield. This week has seen Christmas Hockey, the Christmas Music Concert, lots of festive baking, and the final preparations for Live Crib. We’re looking forward to welcoming pupils, parents and guardians on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday next week for Live Crib. The processions starts in the High Street at 6.30pm, with the service in the Chapel from 6.45pm. We hope to see you there.

Finally, a special mention to Annabel in Year 13, who was today announced as Young Geographer of the Year (Key Stage 5) by the Royal Geographical Society. This is a tremendous achievement and thoroughly deserved!

Have a lovely weekend.

With very best wishes,
Jonathan Forster

Live Crib

Update from Deborah Bligh

Cornelian Quote of the Week
“Actions Not Words”

Surely there is no better Cornelia Connelly quote for this time of year. We will see this in the beautiful way our girls will remember the first Christmas - through live crib.

There are also two opportunities to put faith into action this coming week:

Christmas Jumper Day
Please wear a Christmas Jumper to School on Thursday (£2 voluntary contribution to the Lourdes Fund).

Reverse Advent Calendar
A great idea by Alex, Honor, Cece, Anna and Alice in Year 10 to help us find the real meaning of Christmas.

I really hope we can all support them in their endeavours. Nourish wrote back to say that their idea was so uplifting particularly because they are currently struggling to meet the demand of those who desperately need help this Christmas.

Recent Parent Survey
Thank you to those who filled out the recent parent survey, which closed this week. Mrs Bunce and I are busy working through the responses and using parental voice to inform change. We were delighted to receive so many kind and affirming comments about Mayfield from the survey and are sharing this with the staff.

Our immediate response to your suggestions is:

We will introduce hybrid parents’ evenings from next term to accommodate both online and face to face appointments. So we can gauge the approximate number of each type of appointment that will be needed, Mr Warren will be sending a very short Forms survey asking for preferences in each year group so we can plan the evenings accordingly.

Communication
Whilst we have a coherent strategy in place for September 2024 linked to changing our School Information Management Software (more information to follow later next term) we want to have something to bridge the gap until this change can be implemented. From January you will find a letter section on the parent portal on the website. This will store all the letters that are sent out from school - so if you miss one, or to save you searching back through email inboxes, you can go to a central space to find it.

Private Instagram pages for parents of boarding students are being set up over Christmas. This is to give quick and regular snapshots of boarding activities throughout the year. Parents of the four boarding houses will receive information on how they can join this in January. It will be a private group for parents of that boarding house only and hopefully a really lovely way to see regular pictures of your daughters enjoying all boarding at Mayfield has to offer.

Further response to your helpful ideas and comments will come in the New Year.

Annabel Wins Young Geographer of the Year Award

Annabel in Year 13 has won the Royal Geographical Society's Young Geographer of the Year Award for the Key Stage 5 age group. She received the award today, at a presentation at the society’s headquarters in London. Annabel has developed a love for Physical Geography and this led her to consider the impacts that we have had on peatlands and how protecting or regenerating them can have a positive impact on various earth systems, including climate.

Read Annabel’s winning entry

Christopher Adams, Head of Geography

MUN Conference at Benenden

On Monday, 14 girls from Mayfield's MUN Club attended Benenden's 16th Annual Conference along with around 200 pupils from other schools in the area, to represent Albania and Afghanistan on a wide range of committees and issues. The use of AI was prominent across these and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict was topical to say the least for the Security Council. Angela in Year 12 was awarded Best Delegate for her work on the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women while Honor in Year 10 was commended for her role as delegate for Afghanistan on the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee.

For the first time, two of our girls, Katie in Year 13 and Iulia in Year 12, also co-chaired committees alongside students from Benenden. This is a huge privilege and responsibility, which the girls responded to superbly , receiving praise and gratitude from Mr Loy, Director of BMUN for their participation.  Our MUN Ambassadors both had Oxbridge interviews on the day so were sadly unable to attend but we hope that their MUN training helped them!

Kasia Kilvington, Director of Scholars

Hazard Conference

Last Friday, Year 13 Geographers travelled to the Emmanuel Centre in London for the Hazard Conference. We particularly enjoyed the presentation from Cameron Dunn on tsunamis, where we learnt about the Indonesia Sulawesi earthquake in 2018 and tsunami engineering techniques in Japan. It was a valuable experience which allows us to have additional case study materials for our exams. We also had the chance to meet Dr Martin Degg, who created Degg’s model!

Zoe Kwan, Geography Ambassador

Ice Skating Social

Last Friday, Year 10 and 11 braved the cold spell to join Tonbridge School for an ice-skating social. They were the first skaters on the Calverley Park ice rink this year. Judging by the laughter and animated conversations a great evening was had by all. Many thanks to Sammi-Ann for taking the fantastic action pictures despite her cold fingers.

Eva Garcia Claramonte, Head of Year 10

Carol Singing

Last Friday, our Lower School Choir headed to Mayfield Village for the annual Christmas Lights switch on. Joined by the Mayfield Band, the choir, adorned in their festive head gear, sang some of the more well known Christmas carols after the lights had been switched on! Despite the chilly temperature, lots of fun was had and it was a fantastic opportunity for our school to join with the village community to share in the seasonal joy!

Georgina Fletcher, Director of Partnerships and Outreach

Sports News

Hockey
What an exciting week for Mayfield Sport and a great end to the Hockey Term.

U14 v Lingfield 2-0 Loss
Tuesday saw the U14 team in action against Lingfield, and whilst they did not get the win, they played some great Hockey. They were calm on the ball, made smart choices and implemented everything that they had been working on in training. A very pleasing performance.

U13 & U12 v Radnor House
A positive first Lower School block fixture against Radnor House. Mayfield came away with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.

The U13s managed to score a whopping 8 goals between the two teams with the U13A team scoring 3 and the U13B team scoring 5. Huge congratulations to all those who played and to Flo Y (U13A Captain) and Ari D for being the opposition's players’ player of the match.

The U12 fixtures saw the U12A team narrowly miss out on the win, whilst the U12B team played a thrilling, yet ultimately goalless, draw.  

Senior Christmas Hockey
Well, what can we say! The inflatable Gingerbread, Turkey and Pig in Blanket were certainly a first-time feature at a Mayfield Christmas Hockey session, nevertheless, these must not cast a shadow over our Carrots, Parsnips, Peas, Champagne Magnum, Christmas Puddings, Candy Canes and Reindeer!

Year 13 Senior Hockey players have certainly left big ‘Santa boots’ to fill regarding Christmas Hockey creativity. Mrs Fletcher and Mrs Nixon would like to congratulate the Year 13s on not only their dedication to their Christmas Hockey fun but also the athleticism they showed in what some may describe as restricting outfits.

Lower School and Middle School...over to you!

St Dunstan’s House Christmas Party

Last weekend in St Dunstan's, we held our annual House Christmas party. We had a traditional Christmas roast with turkey and all the trimmings, followed by brownies with ice-cream and chocolate sauce for dessert. After dinner, we had a Christmas-themed quiz and sang along to Christmas songs. A fun evening was had by all!

We also enjoyed decorating some gingerbread houses and figurines this week, continuing the festive activities in house. The girls produced some delicious treats!

Josefina Ruival, Housemistress

Christingles

The Year 9 and 10 boarders had fun making Christingles and piñatas last weekend. The Christingles are made out of oranges, candles, red ribbons and sweets. As we worked, we talked about the symbolism of the Christingle (the name means 'Christ-child') and reflected that at Christmas we remember the birth of Jesus, the light of the world. We then went to the chapel to light our candles and sing a carol, before eating our sweets.

The girls had lots of fun and although the activity was very sticky they all created fine Piñatas out of papier mâché around a balloon. They will fill them with sweets and forfeits and use them as part of their House Christmas party this weekend.

Julia Jones, Director of Staff & Student Operations

Festive Food

There was lots of festive baking in Food & Nut this week!

Boarders made savoury puff pastry trees on Saturday morning and Leeds girls made melted snowmen cupcakes in the afternoon.

Culinary Skills students made chicken and mushroom pithiviers using homemade puff pastry. Some fantastic, laminated pastry! 

And finally a snippet for the Year 11 practical mock. The girls needed to prepare, make and present three dishes, plus accompaniments and complete their tidying up! I expect many adults would struggle to complete so much in the allocated 3 hours! Looking very promising for their final assessment in March next year. Well done girls. 

Sue Smeaton, Head of Food & Nutrition

Ronan’s Reflection

Today is the 8th December, and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (or ‘Solemnity’, to be precise. 10 House Points to the first girl to point out the difference to me!). I always feel a bit nervous writing about the Immaculate Conception, and Mary in general, as I always feel a bit defensive. I always have to begin by saying ‘Catholics don’t worship Mary!!!’, and so that’s what I’ll do here: Catholics do not worship Mary.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a quick look at what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaches us. Mary was born without the stain of Original Sin, the first human since the Fall to be so blessed. It is this absence of Original Sin that made her worthy to carry Jesus in her womb, and we are reminded of her perfection every time we pray the Hail Mary - we echo the familiar greeting of the Angel Gabriel: ‘Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you.’ And the greeting of her cousin Elizabeth, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’

None of us are perfect. I don’t believe that will come as a difficult revelation to any of us. Not even I am perfect! I can occasionally be grumpy, I’m told I have a tendency to be untidy, and I have a terrible habit of hitting the snooze button too many times in the morning. Drives Helen crazy…

But Mary, the Mother of God, was born perfect, and she lived a perfect life. She is the perfect human being, unstained by pride, or selfishness, or greed, and as such, is an example for each and every one of us. Though we will never achieve her perfection, her life is what we should strive towards. And in particular, her selfless, and immediate ‘Yes!’ to what God was asking of her, is what we should strive towards. We remember with humility, her reply to Gabriel, ‘I am the servant of the Lord, may it be as you have said.’

Catholics have, for generations, been accused of idolising Mary, even putting her above God. We don’t. We worship only God. We do, however, look up to Mary, as the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus. When we pray to and through her, we call to mind the great mysteries of our faith - the Incarnation (or the birth of Jesus Christ), the Redemption offered by Him through the Mysteries of the Rosary, and we ask her to pray for us - think of words of the second half of the Hail Mary. ‘Pray for us sinners…’ That is not about treating Mary as a vending machine, but is about asking for her help in discerning the will of God in our lives.

Mary is the first, and the most perfect disciple. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception we try - because we can only try - to surrender our pride, our selfishness, our belief that we need no God and that we alone are sufficient, and we ask Mary to show us the way to the manger, to an encounter with Jesus Christ, and to give us the strength and courage to say ‘Yes - I am the servant of the Lord’.

Ronan Lavery, Chaplain

Library Holiday Reading Photo Competition

Where do you like to read? Cosy in a blanket on the sofa? On the terrace with a hot chocolate aprés ski? In front of the fire with your dog listening to the story?

‘Get Caught Reading’ is our holiday photo competition, open to students and staff. There will be prizes! All you need to do is take a picture of yourself (or ask someone else to) reading a book during the Christmas holiday. Enter your photo into the competition by uploading it to the link on Forms – see below.

You can choose from one of three categories: ‘In a festive setting’; ‘With a Pet’; and ‘With family/friends’. You can be as creative and inventive as you like, just follow a few simple guidelines;

• Please make sure that you have your parents/guardians permission to take part and that they confirm this on the relevant section of the Form.
• Please make sure you have the permission and consent to use images of anyone else in your photo.
• Please ensure that you and anyone posing in your photo is in a safe environment and unharmed, especially animals.
• Photos without being enhanced, please.

Entries will be printed and displayed in both libraries to celebrate reading.

Enter your photo

Closing date for entry is January 4th 2024. Winners will be announced on January 15th 2024.

Have a very Merry Christmas.

Jan Blagden, Librarian

Online Booking Now Open!

Book ticketsNOTE: Please use the code 'mayfield24' to book

From the School Shop

Billing
Please note that the bills you will receive for school shop purchases put on account are from the 01^st September to the 30^th November 2023 only. Any purchases made in December 2023 by your daughters / wards will appear on your bills at the end of the Spring Term 2024. This is to enable us to get the invoices out in a timely fashion.

INFORMACIÓN IMPORTANTE SOBRE LA FACTURACIÓN
Tenga en cuenta que las facturas que recibirá por las compras en la tienda de la escuela puestas a cuenta son solo del 01 de septiembre al 30 de Novembre de 2023. Cualquier compra realizada en Decembre de 2023 por sus hijas/pupilas aparecerá en sus facturas al final del trimestre de primavera de 2024. Esto es para permitirnos enviar las facturas de manera oportuna.

有关计费的重要信息
请注意，您收到的学校商店购买账单仅在 2023 年 9 月 1 日至 11 月 30 日期间。您的女儿/病房在 2023 年 12 月购买的任何商品都将在 2024 年春季学期结束时出现在您的账单上。这是为了使我们能够及时开具发票。

Lost Property
Please see below pictures of lost property. If you think an item is yours, please come to the school shop to get it. Items left by the end of term will be disposed of or sent to charity.

Thank you all for your empty jars – please keep them coming. Please bring them into the school shop and we will ensure they get to Sister Jean.

Mrs Susan Bowles, School Shop Manager

Next Week's Menu

Menu w/c 11^th Dec