Congratulations to Venetia (Yr13), who entered the Newnham Essay Competition just before lockdown in March, and her essay was Highly Commended, which is an excellent achievement. This competition, with essays in eleven categories, is run by Newnham College, Cambridge, with which Roedean has strong historical connections.

Venetia will soon be applying to read for a Modern Languages degree at top universities, and writing this essay required her to think laterally, and draw on her experience and knowledge in a variety of fields, because the essays usually require inter-disciplinary research and analysis – the title for the essay she undertook was ‘The study of texts written in other times and in other languages shows how the arts and humanities have a vital role to play in the context of today’s climate crisis, where there must be a fundamental and urgent change in the relationship between people and nature. Discuss.’ Venetia wrote about Lev Tolstoy’s passionate advocacy of the interrelationship between humanity and the natural world in the late nineteenth century, and how his views remain relevant today, and also about how Chinese Daoist thought maintains that we can, by making small changes, help to restore the natural balance in the world.

Working at this level will stand her in good stead for undergraduate study in the future, and we would like to congratulate her on this success.