E-weekly Issue 257 - 23 February 2024

Welcome

A warm welcome back to everyone in the Mayfield Community.

It is a privilege to have been appointed Headmistress to this very special School.  Our Catholic ethos of inclusivity and care along with our Cornelian values of joy, compassion, courage and integrity will shape my leadership. Each Mayfield student is of equal and precious value and I am taking to heart the words of our foundress, Cornelia Connelly; I will work with determination to ensure our girls and young women are 'ready to meet the needs of the age' whilst enjoying a joyful and fulfilling School experience.

This week has seen a dramatic performance of Romeo and Juliet by Box Clever theatre for our Year 11 students and a cross-curricular day based around the theme of sustainability for our Year 9s. The ‘make a wormery’ activity was especially popular, generating lots of excitement amongst the girls! Meanwhile, our Year 13s have been busy with their mock exams and tonight, we look forward to hosting our Year 8 Parents' Evening, with both in person and virtual appointments.

Just for your information, I wanted to share that we are currently trialling the lockdown alarm and messaging system across the school, so all pupils and staff have the opportunity to hear the alarm and understand its meaning. During assembly next week, we will be giving the girls age appropriate advice about the steps they need to take to keep themselves safe in the unlikely event of a need to lockdown the school site.

I would also like to share a couple of dates for your diary for next week. On Tuesday evening, we are delighted to be welcoming OC Danielle Mulder (1988), Group Sustainability Director at the BBC, for our next Cornelian Lecture. On Thursday, we are hosting our annual Careers Evening – please do ensure your daughter does not miss out on this fantastic opportunity to hear about a diverse range of career options. Sign up is via SOCS.

Finally, parental views and ideas are incredibly important to me so please do not hesitate to get in touch if there is something you would like to raise or an idea you would like to share. I would always be happy to hear from you.

Have a lovely weekend.

With very best wishes,
Deborah Bligh

Year 9 Cross-Curricular Day

Year 9 spent Thursday participating in their Food and Sustainability Cross-Curricular day. They took part in a range of activities, learning about food production and how it can be made more sustainable. The day was set up to be practical and they should have many ideas for the future. 

We kicked off with two local outside speakers, organised by Mrs Lewis, who work in the fields of farming and fisheries. They enlightened the girls about how dairy farms worked, the need for diversification, sustainable care for the fields, and the link between food and the UN sustainability goals. 

The girls then moved between four different activities. Miss Wolmarans (with help from Mrs Lewis) helped the girls make wormeries, getting their hands a little dirty in this quest to transform plastic containers into small-scale vermicultures. The single-use plastic was prodded, pruned, pasted, and prepped into productive wormeries, packed with peat-free coco-coir soil and lavishly decorated (in many cases) with sand, gravel, newspaper, egg cartons, and apple shavings before a plethora of wriggly denizens were introduced to their new homes. Worm farms are a wonderfully sustainable way of converting fresh-produce and garden waste into fertile compost and liquid fertiliser. In the famous words of Simba - slimy yet satisfying! (The Lion King (1994).  

Mrs Maimi and Mrs Sivyour ran the Planet-Friendly Mayfield Menu Competition. The girls had fun working in small teams to research locally produced ingredients and come up with different recipes in four categories. The menus will be judged by our Head Chef and Head of Catering, who will take into account the sustainability of the dishes, how economical and how easily mass-produced they are, as well as popularity with the pupils. The aim is for the winning recipes to be cooked by our kitchens for the whole school in the Autumn Term. The girls had to think creatively about what produce could realistically be found locally, and it really made them think about how far their food has to travel. In the main course category, the ingredients used included locally sourced sausages and meatballs or pulled local beef. For the vegetarian dish, our Year 9 chefs proposed a leek and potato pie, or Sussex-made halloumi burgers. Entries for the salad bar included coleslaw made with locally produced cabbage and carrots, or a courgette salad. The suggested desserts included various types of apple crumble, apple and honey flapjacks, as well as pear cake with berry sorbet. 

Watch this space to find out who came up with the winning menus! 

In the school greenhouses, Mrs Morris, Mr Adams and Mrs Jones led the girls on an investigation into how to propagate plants. The girls learnt about the importance of soil and various environmental factors before being shown how to take a cutting, including how a bunch of roses can be turned into a fully grown rose bush! They then found out the importance of companion planting as a natural way of reducing the impact of pests and encouraging pollination, before they were given the opportunity to put what they had learnt into practice by sowing a range of seeds in pots. They will be able to take these home later in the spring should they wish, but many of the girls are excited to learn that people could have the chance to buy the remaining plants at Mayfield Day in the charity plant sale. More news about that from Mrs Morris in the future. 

Mrs Vardon and Miss Thackray led an activity where the girls investigated where some of their favourite foods came from and how many miles they have to travel to get to the UK.  They researched information about the food and the country it came from and then used their creativity, IT and design skills to produce PowerPoint presentations with key information. 

At the end of the day, it was great to hear about everything that the girls got out of the day. We’re hoping that you will see some evidence of this at home, whether it is them badgering you for locally produced cheese, a vegetable patch in the garden or a sudden interest in becoming a farmer!

Christopher Adams, Head of Geography 

Romeo and Juliet

On Tuesday we welcomed Box Clever theatre to perform 'Romeo and Juliet' for us, and they gave us a brilliantly energetic performance of Shakespeare's classic. Not only was it excellent revision, it also gave us some exciting new perspectives. Here are some of the Year 11s' own reviews:

Dominique - "The performance highlighted the dramatic and intense pace of the play seen through the sharp unfolding events and whirlwind romance between Romeo and Juliet."
Cara - "…it was so beneficial to my knowledge because I could visually experience the tone and emotion and atmosphere which is hard to when reading." 
Mia - "A different and enjoyable way to experience Shakespeare."
Cordie - "I loved the interactive element!" 
Izzy - "It showed that there are two ways of seeing nearly every scene - either a romantic ideal, or something crazy and rushed."
Erin - "Lots of emphasis on how they are just kids who don't know what true love is, but as the play goes on you realise perhaps, they have discovered it - especially in the suicide at the end."

Joanna Staunton, Head of English

Mayfield Festival of Ideas 2024

Next week sees the return of Mayfield Festival of Ideas, with scholars from Years 9-13 presenting a range of interactive workshops over the course of the week to girls in Years 7-8. 

Careers Information Evening

Mayfield School are very pleased to announce that we will be running our annual Mayfield Careers Information event next Thursday evening. There will be a wide range of speakers, representing career sectors such as the army, charities, civil service, engineering, HR, law, management consultancy and financial services, media apprenticeships, police, psychotherapy, RAF, surveying and property, travel consultancy, and UX (‘user experience’) research.

This event is aimed at students in Years 10, 11 and 12, and is optional for Years 9 and 13. Students can sign up to three speaker sessions on SOCS. Please sign up by break-time next Wednesday. Places are limited to 15 girls per session. If your daughter's choices are fully booked, please ask her to email me and I will do my best to fit you in.

3 tips for choosing career talks:

• Take advantage of this opportunity to really find out what different careers are all about – how to get in, how to get on, and what the job is like day to day.
• Try not to be influenced by what your friends are doing – it’s your future and your choice.
• If you have no definite career ideas, be bold and just choose three that take your fancy or ones that you know nothing about. Try to get as broad a range as possible. 

Mrs Mary Saunders, Head of Careers

Sports News

Netball
On Monday the U12 A & B teams played TWGGS at home. It was a closely contested affair, with the As losing by 4 goals in the end. Both teams were able to demonstrate the key principles that we've been working on in training and it was lovely to see their confidence grow. Sadly the U14A & B fixture was rained off. 

U12 A Players' Player: Annabel
U12 A Coaches' Player: Amelie
U12B Players' Player: Manuela
U12B Coaches' Player: Christina

Please see SOCS for full match reports.

Inter-House Football

Wednesday saw a large amount of our Lower School girls brave the weather and compete in Inter-House Football. Despite the wind and the rain, there was some good football on show which was extremely pleasing to see. Results will be released once all year groups have completed their competition.

Sports Scholar Talk
On Monday, we were delighted to welcome Sarah Murray, a Sports Psychologist who has worked in professional sport for the past 13 years. She has worked at Brighton FC, within the ECB, England Athletics AASE programmes, England Lacrosse and Sports Coach UK as well as working with individual golfers and a wide range of athletes. Sarah came and delivered a very engaging talk to our Sports Scholars about resilience, both in sport and everyday life, as well as how to deal with feedback.

Here are some reflections from a couple of our Scholars:
Emilia (Year 9) – "She talked us through her journey to the top and the highs and lows along the way. We learnt about the importance of resilience throughout all aspects of sports and how to train our minds to take feedback positively to then reflect and learn from it. Overall, it was a very beneficial talk, with lots of points to take away and think about."

Alice (Year 12) - "I found the different mindset frames really interesting; the way you can change the way you view things and how you come back from them was really useful as well."

We would like to thank Sarah for an inspiring evening, our Scholars definitely benefitted greatly from her visit.

Upcoming Fixtures and Events
Saturday 24^th February -  U18A & B, U15A & B Netball vs Kent College Pembury
Monday 26^th February - Badminton 1^st Team vs Roedean
Monday 26^th February - Swim Gala, U13, U15, U18 vs Roedean
Tuesday 27^th February - Sussex Schools Cross Country U13A
Wednesday 28^th February - U12 & U13 SISNA
Thursday 29^th February - U14A & U15A SISNA

Ronan's Reflection

Today our school community gathered in the Chapel to commemorate the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, and to pray for all those who hunger and thirst for what is right, and for those who have given their lives in the pursuit of righteousness.

This weekend, let us pray for, above all, peace. Let us pray for truth, for love, and for righteousness.

And for all those who have lost their lives in Ukraine over the past two years, we pray: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. May they rest in peace. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Mass on Sunday is at 11:30am, Tuesday at 6pm, and Wednesday at 1:45pm. All are welcome.

Mr Ronan Lavery, Chaplain

News from the Library

March is a busy month in the library as we celebrate various upcoming events, starting with World Book Day on Thursday 7^th.

In preparation for International Women's Day on Friday 8^th March and British Science Week on  8^th - 17^th March, the main school librarians have been gathering some great books for you to borrow and be inspired by. 

More information for both events can be found on the links below.

International Women's Day 2024

British Science Week
Jan Blagden, Librarian

From the Friends

Year 7
Saturday 2nd March - Drinks at The Rose & Crown, Mayfield - from 6:30pm
Friday 19th April - Coffee & Cake at Juliet’s, Tunbridge Wells - 9am

Year 13
Thursday 29th February - Coffee at The House Cafe, Mayfield - from 8:30am 
Monday 18th March - The Sussex Gardener - 9am 

Year 8
Friday 8th March - Coffee Morning  at The Sussex Gardener - 9am

Next Week's Menu

Menu w/c 26th Feb