E-weekly Issue 268 - 7 June 2024

Welcome

This week, I had the pleasure of visiting the D-Day exhibition in the village, showcasing the work of our very own Historians. It was wonderful to see how our students uncovered war stories that reflect our Cornelian principles, highlighting the incredible contributions of those who endured the hardships of WWII. Their bravery and sacrifices have secured the freedom we cherish today, and for that, we owe them a profound debt of gratitude.

Looking ahead, Mayfield Day is just around the corner! In two weeks, we will celebrate the girls' achievements throughout the year with our whole-school speech and prize-giving ceremony, followed by lunch and inter-house athletics in the afternoon. With 300 guests already confirmed, it promises to be a fantastic day. If you haven't yet reserved your place, please follow the link below.

Reserve your place for Mayfield Day 2024

Warm regards,

Deborah Bligh, Headmistress

In the News This Week...

Students Commemorate D-Day 80th Anniversary

Equestrian Success over Half Term

An Udderly Great Time at the Farm!

Boarders Enjoy Evening Stroll

Chaplaincy News

From the Catering Department

Food & Nutrition Creations

Sports News

STEM Hero - June

Parent Forum - Parent Portal and Communication

Mayfield Summer Production - 'Tuesday'

Mayfield Day Cake Competition

News From the Library

From the School Shop

The Wellbeing Hub - What's On This Week

Next Week's Menu

Students Commemorate D-Day 80^th Anniversary

Thursday 6^th June marked the 80^th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which began the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation during World War Two.  

To commemorate this, girls in the Sixth Form History Society, with some willing Year 8 helpers, have contributed to a D-Day exhibition currently on display in St Dunstan's Church, adjacent to the school. This exhibition brings together work from other local schools, societies and organisations and is well worth a visit.

For the exhibition they chose to research the history of D-Day through the lens of our cornelian principles, and identify individual stories/case-studies that exemplify those values and can serve to inspire us today. This resource was shared with girls on Thursday and they can learn more about D-Day by clicking here.

With special thanks to Sophie, the History Ambassador, for taking the lead on this.

Mr Warren, Head of History

Equestrian Success over Half Term

The Mayfield squad performed brilliantly over May half term at Hickstead, winning two championship titles and taking the runners up spot in two further categories.

Our mini team, comprising Eliza, Ava, Anya & Issie, won the National Inter-County Show Jumping Final, while Flo, riding Kyrion Weering, won the Novice Dressage Championship.

Our intermediate team featuring Mimi, Fleur, Polina & Anya were runners up in the Inter-County Show Jumping Final, as were the Open Team (Issie, Emilia, Cordie & Flo) in the Inter-County Dressage Final.

Hope placed third in the 1.10 Pony Final, our Elite team were 4^th in the 1m Championship with our Restricted Team placing 7th.

Many congratulations to all who took part!

An Udderly Great Time at the Farm!

At Guy's farm this week, the Year 12 Enrichment girls brought the cows in for milking, fed the pigs and had a lesson in Agronomy. Guy explained the impact of the very wet weather on crop farming. Like many farmers around the country, he was not able to plant barley because the land was too wet and some crops failed. The students learned about the economic considerations of planting, checked the oat crop for fungal rust and identified different types of weeds. 

Mrs Rachel Davies, Deputy Head of Sixth Form

Boarders Enjoy Summer Stroll

Gabs' boarders took advantage of a sunny evening and took a stroll around the cross country course in the late evening sun with Mrs Whitby and her dog Kodi on Wednesday evening. 

Chaplaincy News

Actions Not Words
This morning ten of our Year 12 students helped out with the primary school sports day in the park across the road.

Armed with clipboards and stopwatches, the girls ably coordinated the various races and competitions, all while cheering on and encouraging the students they had been working with in classrooms throughout the past year. Miss Warren, headmistress of Mayfield Primary, was incredibly grateful for the girls’ help. I, however, was less than impressed at their unwillingness to take any sort of bribe from dads or chaplains…!

Well done ladies, for being wonderful ambassadors for our school and for our Actions Not Words programme!

Feast of the Sacred Heart

Today, Friday, is recognised in the Church as the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Indeed, the entire month of June is consecrated to the Sacred Heart, so important is this wonderful devotion. The Heart is the symbol of human love. This devotion honours the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, through which was made clear to us God’s eternal love for everyone. “God is Love” (1 John 4:8), and so in honouring the human expression of that Love, especially on the Cross, we honour its Divine Source.

The Sacred Heart reminds us of Christ’s humanity as well as his divinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The prayer of the Church venerates and honours the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for humanity, he allowed to be pierced by our sins.” (CCC 2669)

Pope St. John Paul II said, “The Sacred Heart has given us everything — redemption, salvation, sanctification.” Today, let us pause for a moment and be grateful for all we have been given- freely given. Love pours forth from the heart. Today especially, let us remember the infinite and compassionate love Jesus carries in his heart for each and every one of us. How do we respond to that infinite love?

Mass this weekend is on Saturday evening at 5pm, which is offered for the deceased members of the Cornelian Family. Mass next Tuesday is at 6pm. All are welcome.

Mr Ronan Lavery, Chaplain

From the Catering Department

One of our students suggested a ‘yoghurt bar’ to be available at breakfast, we thought this was a brilliant idea and it was implemented this week.

Alongside the fresh pineapple, watermelon and Greek yoghurt (which is available daily) we served dried banana chips, dried pineapple, raisins, fresh blueberries and goji berries.

Other days we will include dates, sultanas, dried apricots and dried cranberries.

It was received with lots of happy smiles and the girls filled up on bowls of yoghurt topped with all the different options. Many had never heard of goji berries before, and they were directed to one of our nutritional slides on the screen in the dining room to show them the benefits of this great little superfood.

Janet Clarkson-Hope, Catering Manager

Food & Nutrition Creations

This week Year 12 have been making their own choices for their savoury signature dishes, as we approach the end of the year. 

Emma made homemade ravioli, stuffed with ricotta and spinach with sage butter and a fig and rucola salad. 

Nicole made a gourmet pizza with wild mushrooms and prosciutto.

Ellie made a homemade burger, including a homemade brioche bun and slaw. 

We are looking forward to seeing what they create for their desserts next week!

Mrs Sue Smeaton, Head of Food and Nutrition

Sports News

Despite coming into the final half term of the year, the sports department is not calming down yet, with many more fixtures and tournaments still to play in our jam-packed fixture programme!

Tennis
This week the U15 Aegon team played two more matches in their campaign, unfortunately losing both to Hurst and Burgess Hill. They have made such great improvements, which you can clearly see in their close and hard-fought performances each week. A shout out must go to Darcey and Lizzie for playing their first competitive matches for the school. We are hoping they will be back with vengeance at our Mayfield Annual Doubles Tournament which takes place tomorrow. Our U13 teams will also be joining them.

Cricket
Our U13A cricketers travelled to Great Walstead for a 20/20 fixture. It was a fantastic afternoon of cricket in which Mayfield won by 41 runs. Well done to Saskia for getting Player of the Match, getting 38 runs (not out) and taking an impressive 5 wickets!

We also wish our staff members all the best as they take on the parents in tonight’s cricket fixture. We hope it will live up to expectations... May the best team win!

Parent Forum – Parent Portal and Communication

We shall be holding our first Parent Forum on Thursday 27^th June at 11:30am to unveil a preview of our new Parent Portal.

This innovative tool is designed to enhance your experience and engagement with our school community.

At this forum, you will have the opportunity to explore the features of the Parent Portal and provide valuable input on what you believe would be most useful to display. Your insights and suggestions are crucial as we strive to create a resource that meets your needs and helps you stay connected with your child's educational journey, a key focus for us.  It will also provide a forum for us to discuss and to give feedback on how we can improve communication within our school community.

Following the forum, we warmly invite parents to stay for lunch.  This will give a wonderful opportunity to see first hand your daughter's lunch experience and the selection of food we have to offer on a daily basis.   We would be grateful for those staying for lunch, to attend a short feedback session after with our catering department.  We are keen to hear your thoughts and ideas on our catering offer.

We look forward to your participation and ideas in shaping this essential platform.

If you wish to attend the forum, please RSVP using the following link.

Parent Forum invite - Parent portal and Communication

Mayfield Summer Production - 'Tuesday'

Mayfield School is proud to present our next drama production, 'Tuesday' which will be performed by students from Years 7-10, on Tuesday 18^th & Wednesday 19^th June at 7pm in the Concert Hall. The play is taken from the National Theatre Connections series, which are new plays written annually, specifically for youth theatres and explore contemporary and relevant themes. This play is set on a typical Tuesday lunchtime in a typical school, when suddenly a tear in the sky appears and 'The Them' drop through. How do we react when people 'other' to us join our community?....

Tickets for the show are free of charge and are available by clicking on the link below to the booking form.

Reserve your seats

There is a limited capacity in our Concert Hall so please do book early to avoid disappointment!

Ms Victoria Nash, Director of Drama and Media

Mayfield Day Cake Competition

News From the Library

The pupil librarians in both libraries have been busy designing bookmarks to promote 'Empathy Day' which was on Thursday 6^th June.

They gathered fiction titles that encourage the reader to connect with characters and situations that may be different from their own life, in order to understand more fully what another person's challenges and dilemmas may be.

Empathy Day is a nationwide awareness day for schools and families supported by resource packs, activities and a new read for empathy book list created each year.

The benefits of empathy include:

• Stronger relationships:  empathy helps you build a connection based on mutual support and understanding.
• Enhanced communication:  empathy promotes active listening and validation of others’ feelings for clearer, more meaningful communication.
• Conflict resolution skills:  understanding another person’s viewpoints and emotions helps you resolve conflicts peacefully by finding common ground.

More information

Please do pop into the library to explore the books we have to offer. You could discover your new favourite read!

Ms J Blagden, Librarian 

From the School Shop

Shop Hours w/c 10th June
The shop hours will be as follows for the week commencing 10^th June:

Monday 10^th June                      09:00am – 2:30pm
Tuesday 11^th June                      09:00am – 12:00pm
Wednesday 12^th  June              08:00am – 09:00am, and then 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Thursday 13^th June                   SHUT
Friday 14^th June                          SHUT

Normal hours will resume w/c 17^th June. Please note emails will not be monitored during this time.

All girls have been emailed in advance this week so should be aware of the reduced hours.

Year 11 & 13 – Uniform
Now that Year 11 & 13 students are on study leave and have a reduced need for certain parts of your uniform, if you wish to send this back to the school shop for second hand, please do the following:

1. Please make sure you have uniform for prize giving / sports day which is on Saturday 22^nd June – including your house polo.
2. Make sure all the items are washed and ironed. If we must launder them, we will consider the item a donation as we will need to cover the cost of laundering them - this includes ironing them.
3. Please make sure they are the current uniform. We do not take back obsolete uniform or that with the old logo on it.
4. There was a change of house polos at the end of last academic year, we therefore will be unable to credit any house polos with ASTOR, GLENNIE, CURIE or BRONTE on them.
5. We do not take back things like white shirts, swim caps, hockey socks etc.
6. All items must be in good condition, have no holes, rips, broken zips, or stains and not be faded.
7. You may leave the names on them; we can remove these for you.
8. If you are in doubt, send it all in and what we cannot take for second hand we will recycle for you.
9. Items taken in (and not sent for recycling) will be credited to your school shop account straight away. Therefore please make sure all items you wish to sell are with us by the last day of term. After 5^th July, any items received if you are leaving will be considered a donation as your account will be shut. For those in Year 11 going into Year 12, if we receive items after term has ended , we will credit you on the next available bill run.
10. We respectfully ask to remind you that there is no official agreement to take back second hand and the credit we give you is final and non-negotiable. If we deem an item too old or in too poor condition to sell, we will just dispose of it responsibly.
11. For Year 11 - please remember to keep your sport bag and any sport kit you know you will need for next year. If you are unsure of your sport choice yet, please keep all your sport kit and then bring items you will not need to the shop in the Autumn term once you have chosen your sport.

Mrs Susan Bowles, School Shop Manager

The Wellbeing Hub - What's On This Week

Next Week's Menu

Menu w/c 10^th June