E-weekly Issue 265 - 10 May 2024

Welcome

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a tea party for our House Point award winners. House points are awarded to girls who demonstrate the school’s values of joy, compassion, integrity, generosity, gratitude, respect and courage. Congratulations to Janie, Katya, Aurelie, Mckinley, Helena, and Isla in Year 7 and Leyla in Year 9, who had all amassed over 200 House Points before Easter. I know we have had a good number more reach 200 points since then and I look forward to welcoming them at the next celebration.

On Tuesday, we welcomed former England Women’s Rugby captain, Sarah Hunter CBE, for our annual Sports Dinner. It was a wonderful celebration and Sarah reflected afterwards that she had never before seen a school event so warm and where the students built each other up so much. Heartening to hear.

The exam season is upon us and our Year 11 and Year 13 girls are very much in our thoughts and prayers. All our day girls are welcome to come in anytime if they need support and in the interests of maintaining a healthy mind, our extra curricular clubs are available during A1 and A2 in the week, along with our sports facilities. We would love to see the girls in at any point if that would help.

Warm wishes,

Deborah Bligh, Headmistress

In the News This Week...

Year 11 Celebration

Year 8 Visit National Maritime Museum

Sports Dinner

Year 12 Drama Trip - 'Machinal'

Inter-House Cooking

Lunchtime Concert

Year 12 Career Guidance Appointments

'Zones of Regulation' - News from Learning Support

Cornelian Lecture - Medieval Theatre

Ascension Day Celebrations

From the Geography Department

Sports News

Mass on Sunday

Oxbridge Discussion Club

The Wellbeing Hub - What's On This Week

Magic of Mayfield - Book Your Free Tickets

A Date for Your Diary

Year 11 Celebration

On Friday 3^rd May we celebrated with our Year 11 girls as they prepare to start their GCSE examinations. Ronan led a liturgy preparing the girls to reach out and achieve their full potential in all that they do. They then watched a video reflecting on their time here at Mayfield before a celebratory afternoon tea, during which the Year 11 tutor team shared some of their experiences and funny stories they had with the girls. The girls also received their 2024 hoodies and have since been proudly wearing them around school.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the girls every success in their GCSE examinations and remind them of the saying, “believe you can, and you’re halfway there!”, if the girls need any support during this time they are welcome to visit me or reach out to find time to talk.

Lord, thank you that you are with me right now
Your love surpasses all fear
I give you the anxiety I feel
I surrender all my worries to you
Clear my mind
Calm my heart
Still my Spirit
Relax my being
That I may always glorify you
In everything I write, speak and do.

Remember girls, you've got this!

Mrs Le Riche, Head of Year 11; Mrs Jodi Stone, Head of Middle School; Ronan Lavery, Lay Chaplain; Year 11 Tutors

Year 8 Visit National Maritime Museum

On Tuesday, 41 Year 8 students travelled to London to visit the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The day started with an introductory talk on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the role of the museum in preserving historical documents. The girls then took part in three interactive workshops where they were able to handle historical artefacts linked to the slave trade, investigate the accuracy - and reliability - of primary sources from the 1800s and assess the impact of the slave trade on West African society. Towards the end of the day, History of Art teacher Mrs Weddell gave the girls an excellent tour of the grounds and explained the historical development and architectural significance of Greenwich as an important naval hospital and school for the sons of sailors. 

Sports Dinner

It was a proud moment on Tuesday as we held our annual Sports Dinner, where we welcomed over 240 parents and students to celebrate the year of sport at Mayfield. We had the honour of welcoming Sarah Hunter CBE as our guest speaker. Sarah is the most capped English rugby player, across both male and female players, and captained England for over 10 years. Sarah delivered an inspirational talk on resilience and leadership, which really inspired our athletes and we are still hearing them talk about it days after. This evening also gave us the opportunity to celebrate and say goodbye to our Year 13 leavers. We have been so lucky to have had your sporting talents, work ethic and passion for the last seven years, we will all miss you and wish you the best in the next chapter of your lives. Thank you all who joined us and we look forward to celebrating again next year! 

Year 12 Drama Trip - 'Machinal'

Alice, Breanna, Leni and Tabby were fortunate enough to see a magnetic revival of their set text play 'Machinal' by Sophie Treadwell at the Old Vic Theatre in London. This stark production draws on the play’s 1930s expressionist roots yet also renders it chillingly modern in showing how female criminality is still often depicted. Immaculately directed, designed and performed; it was a shocking and engaging experience. 

Ms Victoria Nash, Director of Drama and Media

Inter-House Cooking

On Wednesday the annual Inter-House Cooking competition took place. This year the girls were asked to complete a "Ready, Steady, Cook" Challenge. They were given notification of the ingredients in their "bag" and a list of store cupboard ingredients they could use.  In a team of mixed year groups, the girls needed to plan (in advance) and produce one savoury dish and one sweet dish, and present both dishes within one hour. 

It was really lovely to see the mixed groups working together, advising and encouraging each other. Our Judge, Chet, one of our amazing school chefs was very impressed with their creations and presentation of the final dishes.  Well done girls for your hard work and positivity. The winners will be announced next week. 

Mrs Sue Smeaton, Head of Food and Nutrition

Lunchtime Concert

On Wednesday 8^th May our girls performed as part of the Mayfield Festival in a Lunchtime Concert.

Audrey, Year 10, started the concert playing guitar, with a lovely arrangement of ‘Sensual’ by Piazzolla. This was followed by two of our Year 11 girls Charmeine and Trinity playing a beautiful Brahms trio, accompanied by Dr Ward.

Tabatha, Year 12, brought a sparkle of Musical Theatre to the concert, performing ‘She Used to be Mine’ from Waitress: The Musical. Harriet and Clare in Year 13 performed pieces by Handel and Strauss, showcasing their musical prowess with the pieces performed for their A Level recitals.

Other performers included: Elsie (Year 9) on Cello, Maddie (Year 12) on vocals, Greta (Year 12) on violin and Nicole (Year 12) on piano. Frances (Year 9) concluded the concert with a fabulous performance on violin of Schubert’s ‘Sonatine’.

It was a lovely afternoon hearing the girls perform and a wonderful opportunity for them to be part of the Mayfield Festival. Thank you to all involved and to those who came to listen.

Year 12 Career Guidance Appointments

Last week, our Year 12 students each had a 1-to-1 careers guidance appointment with an independent Level 6 qualified careers adviser.

During each appointment, the career adviser helped the students to start making decisions about their future, using lots of techniques to help them consider their options. This included listening to the careers that each student was interested in and providing information about different pathways to these careers, such as universities and degree apprenticeships, as well as asking a series of questions to help students identify their skills and interests, linking them to thoughts about their potential choices.

By the end of the appointment, each student had a personalised action plan to help guide them to achieve their goals. They have all been invited to book a follow up meeting with Mrs Saunders, Head of Careers.

"I found the careers guidance appointment very informative. It was very helpful to have someone support me in mapping out my next steps in my university application." - Francesca

'Zones of Regulation' - News from Learning Support

Zones of Regulation is a new self-regulation approach that has been introduced to our Mayfield girls. One of our pupils, Maisie, has written some context about what the zones of regulation are and how this can be implemented into our school environment to help us learn in the best way: 

"The zones of regulation are an amazing tool that we can use to express and communicate our emotions. There are four different colours that help us to navigate which zone we are in and what emotions we are feeling.
The first zone is the red zone, this is a state of intense and overwhelming emotions. The red zone can display in different way such as angry outbursts or being completely silent and withdrawn.
The next zone is the blue zone, in this zone you may feel sad, tired, sick and even bored.
The next zone is the yellow zone, if you are in this zone, you might feel nervous or worried, but you could also feel excited or silly.
The last zone is the green zone, this describes a state of calm, in this zone you will feel happy and focused.
The most important thing to remember is that every single zone is ok to be in and it is also very normal to feel in more than one zone, but you must make sure you don’t stay in the intense ones for too long, such as the red zone, as it is difficult to regulate oneself.
At school the zones of regulation are slowly being introduced, some ways that we are making people more aware of them is by putting on assemblies to help people understand the zones better and feel able to use them. We also made a display board with each zone and emotion inside so when people walk past, they can look at it and think about these emotions more and maybe identify which zone they are in. I think that the zones can be beneficial to students because they are a really good way to self-regulate and give them a better understanding of their emotions and the way they feel."

If you feel that your child/pupil would benefit from taking part in zones of regulation activity please get in contact with either Leah Isaac (lisaac@mayfieldgirls.org) or Emma Martin SENCO (emartin@mayfieldgirls.org).

Miss Isaac & Mrs Martin

Cornelian Lecture - Medieval Theatre

Ascension Day Celebrations

On Thursday we celebrated Ascension Day.  40 days after Easter, Jesus met one last time in person with his disciples. After instructing them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come to them in fulfilment of the Father’s promise and assuring them that they would be his witness to people in all the ends of the earth, he was taken up to Heaven before their eyes on a cloud. The disciples returned to Jerusalem as instructed and nine days later, on the Feast of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did indeed descend upon them, and the church was born. 

We marked the day as a whole school community, with Mass in the morning, followed by a picnic-style lunch.

Some of the options on our menu were sausage meat wellington, roast broccoli, asparagus and Applewood cheese quiche, honey mustard cocktail sausages, new potato and spring onion salad, rainbow slaw, and scotch eggs and pork pies, finishing with a milk and dark chocolate mousse with bird shaped shortbread biscuits. 

“And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.” -Mark 16:20

Happy Ascension Day to all our Mayfield Community!

From the Geography Department

There are lots of Geographical competitions that have been launched recently that we would encourage the girls to enter. You don't have to be studying Geography to enter! If you do enter any of these, please contact me so that we can celebrate your entries in school.

Royal Geographical Society Young Geographer of the Year
We had the overall winner for the Y12/13 category last year so it would be great to see some of the girls following in her footsteps. They encourage us to hold a school competition first if there's expected to be a lot of entries so please tell me if you plan to enter. Open to all years.

Royal Geographical Society/Financial Times School Essay Competition
Open to Sixth Form students.

Geographical Association Physical Geography Student Photo Competition
Perfect for those who like to get out and take photos. This year's theme is 'The Power of Physical Geography'.

Geographical Association Model Making Competition
For Years 7-9 (and primary age). 

Mayfield Climate Action Schools Competition
Local environment group. Last year one of our sixth form students won the cash prize.

University of Warwick Global Sustainability Competition
For Year 11 and 12 students; the deadline is at the end of this month.

Young Darwin Scholarship
This isn't a competition, it's a scheme run by the Field Studies Council for students aged 16-25. Great for those who are interested in Ecology and the environment with an interest in field studies.

Mr Christopher Adams, Head of Geography

Sports News

Cricket v Lingfield
U13C
Mayfield faced Lingfield in what turned out to be a game decided by one wicket! After winning the toss, Lingfield chose to field and Mayfield batted very nicely and scored quickly, but just lost too many wickets. Lucia top-scored as the girls finished on 75. 

Lingfield made a very positive start to the run chase, however some committed fielding and tight bowling restricted the opposition. Lingfield required three from the last two overs; however, with pairs cricket, it is never over due to the five runs for a wicket rule. Rose bowled an incredible penultimate over and only went for one run. Brianna was trusted with the final over and despite a couple of wides, she was able to get the all-important wicket. A three-run victory for Mayfield! Batter of the game - Lucia; Bowler of the game - Brianna R.

U13D
The U13D team played a competitive game against Lingfield on Wednesday. Building on their previous performance it was great to see all the girls having the confidence to bowl, and they worked well as a team in the field. They backed each other up well and chased the ball in twos or threes. The bowling was definitely better and it showed in the bowling out of three Lingfield players! 

With the bat, there was a common theme - start reservedly then go for it in the final over! Each pair was able to strike the ball well, building the confidence to run singles and Ari and Mencia scored plenty of fours!

Sadly, the win went to Lingfield in the end but so much progress made by the whole team and we look forward to coming matches! Well played girls!

Tennis
A fantastic afternoon for our first tennis fixture of the year. We hosted Roedean, where our U15s played in their first Aegon match, whilst the U18s enjoyed some friendly doubles games. It was great to see the girls back in action, and to see some familiar faces visiting from Roedean! The U15s lost but played extremely well against some top opposition. Our U18s won in straight sets. We are looking forward to more tennis after the half term break.

Athletics
14 of our athletes attended the Sussex Independent Schools Diamond league competition at Hurst on Thursday. On a glorious afternoon our students competed across the range of events to produce another excellent set of results. Strong performances by Deborah and Lily in the sprints as well as notable performances from Emily, Year 7, who won the Junior (Year 9 and below) 1500m, Emilia who came 3^rd in Junior High Jump and Anna who came 3^rd in the Inter 800m. It was great to have Florence, Betsy and Sara (Year 9) join us for the first time in this event and in preparation for the English Schools Athletics Competition at Crawley next week.

Football Information
Wadhurst are starting Girls Football sessions from this Sunday. It will be running from 10-11am at Sparrows Green Recreation Ground in Wadhurst. It is an open session for anyone in Year 7 upwards and if the interest is there, there is a view to run more regular training sessions and potentially enter leagues. If you have any questions or would like to register interest, either turn up on Sunday or please contact Mr Walser.

Upcoming Fixtures
Saturday 11^th May - Cricket U14 v U15 internal fixture (Home)
Saturday 11^th May - Cricket KC block U13 & U12
Tuesday 14^th May - Athletics English schools
Wednesday 15^th May - Cricket Mayfield v Sevenoaks (Home & away) 

Oxbridge Discussion Club

The Wellbeing Hub - What's On This Week

Magic of Mayfield - Book Your Free Tickets

Get ready for an entertaining evening as Mayfield School presents 'Magic Of Mayfield', showcasing the talents of students from across the school. From captivating singing performances to sensational dance routines, and even a sprinkle of magic, this event promises to dazzle and delight. Mark your calendars for Thursday 16^th May, and join us in supporting the whole school charity Maggie’s. Don't miss out on this unforgettable night of entertainment! 

Book your free tickets