Roedean’s Artist in Residence

This half term, our students have had the wonderful opportunity to work with our inspiring artist in residence, Brighton-based painter Sara Reeve. Sara, who specialises in portraying women, is known for captivating portraiture with her bold use of colour, striking shapes and emotional depth.

Throughout her residency, she has guided students during lessons helping them to learn the complexities of portraiture and composition. Her focus on various themes has been fascinating and sparked great conversations in class.

As well has holding a twilight life-drawing session for students, Sara also spent time drawing the girls at work in the Art Studio. Inspired by the tiles depicting life at Roedean which were designed by students from the 30’s and 40’s, she produced quick sketches of current students hard at work. She has been such an inspiration, encouraging students to explore new ideas and techniques while allowing them to observe and learn from her creative process.

ESAA Cross-Country   

This month we joined numerous schools as we competed in the ESAA Cross Country competition with both Junior and Intermediate teams. It was a rainy Monday morning which meant an extremely muddy warm up before the races began.

First up were the Juniors who ran their 2.5-kilometre course brilliantly, all finishing in the top 20. The Intermediates tackled a 3-kilometre course which included fields, hills and a slippery finish, but that didn’t stop Katherine, who placed first in the entire race followed by Kayla and Genevive – well done!

Clara’s Charity River Swim

Congratulations to Clara in Year 12 who recently took on the incredible River Arun Swim for charity.

'On Sunday, I took part in an annual River Arun swim for the charity Aspire, which does amazing work helping people with spinal cord injuries. The swim was just over 6.5km upstream. Luckily the tide was coming in, so we were helped along a little. Out of the 11 swimmers there, only two of us were in only skins (non-wetsuits); the other swimmer was Scottish and swam in lochs! It was a really nice swim with very pretty views, and it was great to raise money for an important charity.' Clara (Year 12)

Samba at Roedean 

Year 7 students, along with a year 6 class from St Mark’s, took part in an exciting Samba workshop learning Samba rhythms from Ollie, the founder of the Beat Goes On.

Each tutor-group had a brilliant time in the workshop during the day before showcasing what they had learnt to parents in a concert. The concert was a great success and gave the parents the opportunity to have an informal chat with their daughter’s tutor while also meeting other parents.

Author Visit – Elle McNicoll

Ahead of Book Week, we were delighted to welcome best-selling and award-winning author Elle McNicoll to Roedean. Elle advocates for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing and her debut novel, A Kind of Spark, has won numerous awards including the Blue Peter Book Award, the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and Blackwell’s Book of 2020.

Elle spoke to students about her experience as an author, the challenges she faced, and how important it is to follow your passion without letting the negativity of others get in your way.

She was incredibly inspiring and ended the session discussing her most recent book Some Like it Cold, before holding a fascinating Q&A session – the students asked some brilliant questions and thoroughly enjoyed being able to ask advice from such a successful writer.

Boarding Round-Up – International Boarding Day

October 5th was International Boarding Day and to mark the occasion we held an ‘around the world’ adventure through the  Houses to celebrate some of the cultures that are involved in Roedean. The students took part in various activities and had miniature passports to travel to each House, collecting a stamp for each country they learnt about.

House 1 split the ODR in two to celebrate Japan and Nigeria. In the Japanese half, there were beautiful paper model blossom trees and traditional origami decorations with guests being offered delicious flavoured mochi, sushi, matcha milk and fruits sandwiches. As you stepped into Nigeria, there were trees lining the wall, a waterfall, and even a mini-Nigerian football pitch. Culinary delights included freshly cooked jollof rice and fried plantain.

Sweden and Belgium took over House 2 with the students decorating the walls with colourful bunting with the countries' flags and iconic features such as IKEA and ABBA for Sweden! The air was filled with the smell of warm cinnamon rolls, Belgium fries and of course waffles with a huge array of toppings.  

House 3 was covered with red and yellow flags as they represented China and Spain. The menu included Spanish churros accompanied by non-alcoholic sangria and Chinese dumplings complimented by lemon tea. It was great to hear the sound of traditional Spanish music as the students played games of Chinese Mahjong.

American hotdogs, breakfast waffles and NYC cookies were on offer in House 4 as they celebrated a night in Hollywood. The photobooth proved extremely popular as the girls queued to get their photos taken with a backdrop of streamers and balloons – there was even a giant sparkly Oscar award!

Keswick and Lawrence transported the girls to South Korea, India and Thailand and there was certainly plenty of colourful and delicious culinary treats for everyone to try. From South Korean Hwachae to Kimchi pancakes and Indian Nimbu Pani drink to Thai tea!