University Offers for Year 13s

It has been fantastic that at the start of January, so many of our Year 13s have received offers of university places, with 106 offers of places through UCAS before the application deadline had arrived. Courses included Archaeology, Photography, Law, Marine Biology, Liberal Arts and Sciences to name a few and came from a diverse range of universities. 

As Oxford University released their decisions, we were delighted to learn that Ella, one of our Sixth Form Brighthelm Scholars, was offered a place to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) and Ottavia, who left last year and reapplied, has been offered a place to study Theology.  

Towards the end of the month, Cambridge University released their decisions, and with four students, Amelia, Euran, Rose, and Tina receiving offers to study there, it is the highest number of Oxbridge offers at Roedean in at least a decade!

House Art    

The House Art competition was ‘Bin Bag Fashion’ and students gathered in their Houses to create, what can only be described as, spectacular fashion designs, using just Sellotape and coloured bin bags!

The creativity on display was fantastic, and the students who took to the stage to show off their creations really were outstanding.

Our judges awarded, House 1 – best (and biggest) train, House 2 – the best sass, House 3- scored highly in ‘fabulosity’, and House 4 – overall winners, and the best creativity.

A special thank you must go to Mr Bond who demonstrated to our models how to walk on the catwalk!

Isle of Sheppey Trip

In early January, during the extreme cold spell that hit the UK, a group of intrepid Sixth Form Literature students, together with three teachers, headed to the Isle of Sheppey and braved the elements for a Creative Writing residential trip.

Students immersed themselves in challenging activities which included writing in the pitch black of night and writing by the heat of a roaring fire.

On the Saturday morning, some fearless students decided to head off on a run in the icy conditions, while others were kindly accompanied back to their accommodation after being exposed to a rather chilling ghost story.

The anthology of the students writing will be available soon, and we encourage you to look out for it.

Silver for Lucy at the British Ice-Skating Championships

Congratulations to Lucy (Yr 11) who has competed at the British Ice-Skating Championships.    

‘On Sunday 14 January, I competed with my team at the British Championships of synchronised ice skating  in Nottingham. This competition, titled the Britannia Cup, is one of the major competitions of the season, and we had been preparing this since our last competition in November, when we won gold. Every Sunday, I go training from 9.30 to 12.30 in London, doing a mixture of both on ice training and off ice stretching and warmups. After travelling down on the Saturday morning, we competed in the Intermediate category on the Sunday. After a long competition day, my team of 16 were all delighted to celebrate our accomplishment in securing second place out of a category with nine other teams. We also were very pleased to have achieved a personal best of 37 points, compared to our PB from the last competition, in which we got 36 points. We have now started training again to prepare for the Steel City Cup in Sheffield in a month’s time.’  

- Lucy (Yr11)

U15A in the Lingfield Netball Tournament

On a cold Winter’s day in January, our U15A Netball team headed to the Lingfield Netball Tournament. The weather meant we started our game a little rusty, but as we warmed up, so did our play and we managed to beat Benenden 12-10.

Our second game saw us come up against Sackville, trying a few variations we secured a 19-6 win which helped prepare us for the semifinals against Guilford High School. As we went into this game, we were only leading by 1 goal at the start, and it was definitely a tougher challenge. We dug deep, tightening our defence and balanced our attacking players across the court, leaving with a comfortable 13-7 win.

Before the final against Royal Russel, we managed to use a few gaps watching their team to see what we needed to bring to the court. The first half was quite even, but once we got a lead in the score, we settled in nicely to the flow of how we like to play. The team worked extremely hard and a result of 13-5 to Roedean meant we got to bring home the shield for a second year in a row – well done everyone.

Boarding Round-up

Although the weather this month has been rather chilly, the boarding Houses, as always, have felt warm and  full  of cheer.  Welcoming everyone back after the Christmas break was lovely - they had clearly missed one another and hearing them share their holiday adventures was wonderful.

The start of term brought a sprinkling of snow, and the students relished the opportunity to head outside to experience it firsthand. In true boarding style they were easily warmed up after their experience by creating delicious hot chocolates with whipped cream and marshmallows!

Other exciting activities have included, learning how to do Dutch braids, meeting the new House 3 dog, a shopping trip, and an array of baking which even included a ‘Good Luck’ cake baked for those students who were taking mock exams.