This half term has raced by, and it is difficult to believe we only have a week left until half term. As ever this week has been exceptionally busy with trips to Poetry Live for Year 11, the Intermediate Maths Challenge, the Mock Trial competition, Year 7 Parents’ Evening, Year 11 pathway interviews, before and after school intervention, county and district netball tournaments, and the arrival of 25 Taiwanese guests who are sharing lessons with their buddies whilst also experiencing English history and culture for the first time.  

I have the privilege of having an office opposite the Hall and it has been a delight to see and hear an excerpt of Sister Act performed brilliantly by the cast to each year group in assembly. They are rehearsing day, night, and at the weekend, and I urge you to take a look at their trailer for the show which you will find below, and to buy tickets for next week’s performance whilst there are still some left. We are very proud of the cast of over 130 students who are working so hard and sincere thanks to Mrs Dever, Mr Holloway, Miss McCall, Mrs Mariner, Mrs House-Lee, Mr Waight and Miss Elms, for putting so much time and effort into these rehearsals. It promises to be a great show! 

It was a pleasure to welcome governors to visit our school on Wednesday morning. They visited tutor time and lessons, met senior and middle leaders, and staff who lead the Hive and Rosebery Respite, and they toured the school with our impressive senior prefect team. They very much enjoyed seeing the school in action and we were able to bring to life so many of the things that we discuss in our frequent meetings. We do have a vacancy for another member of our School Standards Board. At present we are at our quota for parent representatives, but if you know of anyone from the local community who would like to get involved, who is not a parent of a Rosebery student, please encourage them to get in touch with our Clerk to the governors,  Collette Mathias, clerk@roseberyschool.co.uk. You will find more information regarding the post later in this issue.

It was announced this week that the government intends to ban disposable vapes ‘as soon as possible’. Research suggests that up to 1 in 5 15-year-old girls vape regularly, and the number of children vaping has tripled in the last three years. This is not a harmless activity; vapes contain solvents, heavy metals and nicotine, meaning that they can be detrimental to brain development and cause long term addiction and we welcome the government plans to make it more difficult for children to purchase them. We are making sure that the dangers of vaping are discussed in our PDC lessons and parents and carers may wish to refer to this summary from the National College when discussing this issue with your daughter. To view this summary, please go to the Hive section of this issue.

Swimming Gala Success

Congratulations to Caitlan H 9MX, Erica F 8CX, Naomi F 7CX and Rebecca D 9MY, who competed in a swimming gala in Woking last December. Between them, the girls managed to collect 4 gold medals, 3 silver medals, 4 bronze medals and 2 reindeer awards (heat winners). Well done girls!

Guildford Spectrum Swimming Competition

Rosebery girls took part in a swimming competition at Guildford Spectrum on Saturday afternoon and represented the school fantastically. A big thank you to the girls' mums who volunteered at the event and organised the girls into their races. Here are a few photos of the event. A special congratulations goes to Freya B who got a bronze medal in the intermediate 100m freestyle. 

Mrs Dever - Head of Drama

Please find our Spring Term Extra-curricular Timetables linked HERE.

Please click HERE to find out more information about the InvestIN Career Quiz, which will help to equip students with relevant and insightful resources to navigate their futures with confidence.

Mrs Keaveney - Student Careers, Guidance and Health Mentor

The Rolling Read continues on Monday 5 February for Years 7 & 8 only. Students will have 15 minutes at the start of every period 5 lesson next week to read their own book for pleasure. 

Thank you for your support!

Miss Hoban - English Teacher & Literacy Lead

Help needed

Can you spare an hour or two to help us serve refreshments at school events? We need more help at the Drama productions on 8 and 9 February. To sign up and see the full list of dates, please click HERE.

Match Funding

Huge thanks to the kind parents who have arranged match funding/donations to the PSA through their employers. If you think your employer can help us, please do get in touch at roseberypsa@hotmail.co.uk .

PSA Mufti-Day

Our next Mufti-Day will take place on Friday 9 February 2024. £2 donations can be made via ParentPay. All money raised will go towards making school improvements.

On Friday 26 January, a group of Year 11 GCSE musicians and one A Level musician returned to the Yehudi Menuhin School for their second visit. Our students took their “mostly-finished-but-not-quite” compositions with them and each had 20 minutes listening to Yehudi students play their pieces for the first time, bringing them to life. The Yehudi staff gave our students lots of valuable feedback as to how to improve their pieces, add more contrast, which techniques would work well for string instruments, etc. A special thanks goes to Jasmine L 7EY, who came with us and played her French horn beautifully in order to help one of our student’s compositions.

We will return to the school on Tuesday 19 March for our final visit, which will be a recording session where our students will be able to hear their final pieces and will get a professional recording of their work. Well done to the Year 11 GCSE musicians for all their hard work so far.

Mr Holloway - Head of Music

Mrs Hart-McKee - PE Teacher

What a fantastic performance from the Year 8 Football team last week, where students attended a tournament hosted by Epsom & Ewell School. The girls were incredibly determined throughout their 5 games, with the majority of time spent in possession of the ball and on the front foot. The team were unbeaten with 3 wins and a draw. A big well done must go to Isabelle L 8PX, who kept any ball from making it to the back of the goal. Francesca B 8MY also got a number of goals to her name along with Matilda D 8PX, Niamh P 8CY and Rhianna S 8MX. 

However, my Player of the Tournament goes to Amelia M 8CY for her strength in the back row and her confidence when dropping forward to support with attacking play.

Miss Croft - Head of PE

Year 8

Year 11

It has been an absolute joy to watch Years 7, 8 and 9 collaborating and demonstrating great sportsmanship, with some competitive house spirit and teams giving it their all. Our students demonstrated great integrity throughout, making sure everyone was included and had the opportunity to play in their preferred position with determination and resilience. 

The games kicked off on Monday, with Year 9 showcasing their talent, skills and teamwork, with the girls passing the ball with precision as well as making some amazing shots. The scores were close throughout, adding to the suspense. All the teams fought hard and made some impressive comebacks. 

On Tuesday, it was Year 8's turn and the team spirit was second to none. Every single student was smiling, having fun and being kind to one another! The competition was tight throughout, with all our teams playing for victory. The players on the court were fantastic (and so were the students supporting from the side lines) - the atmosphere was certainly exciting. Well done Year 8.

Finally on Thursday, we ran some joint Year 7 House Games of netball and football, due to the rain calling it off last term. It was lovely to see every single Year 7 taking part in an afternoon of sport. 

House Games - Year 7 Netball

It was so impressive to see how Year 7 students worked together with such kindness and teamwork. They communicated well on the court, made quick passes and set up some fantastic scoring opportunities. As the games went on, the scores were getting closer and closer and the excitement was unbearable. Students cheered and celebrated as a team. Every single Year 7 should be proud of their efforts.

House Games - Year 7 Football

What an amazingly competitive football House Games for Year 7. All teams were excited and ready to showcase their talents. The dribbling, passing and shooting was so impressive. There were lots of moments of joy, cheering and supportive sportsmanship. The quality of the games was fantastic. All our players did some amazing goal-stopping tackles, and their agility and ability to dribble around defenders was fantastic. Well done Year 7 footballers, you were amazing. 

Last Thursday, we took two Year 8 teams to our annual District Netball competition at St Teresa's, Effingham. Despite the wind and cold weather, both teams gave it their all. The teams played 5 matches each against other local schools, which were all very intense! The girls faced some tough opponents but they didn't back down. There was some lovely shooting from Millie D 8PY, Fearne L 8EX, India R 8CY, Katie S 8CY and Grace D 8CY. Well done to everyone who took part and I look forward to seeing you all progress in your future matches and in training.  

Miss Elms - PE Teacher

Year 7: Lily S 7CY

Year 8: Izzie M 8PX

Year 9: Tiana W 9PX

Year 10: Emily A 10EX

Year 11: Cara H 11E

Sara V 10EX and Lauren L 11CY 

Miss Watson - Maths Teacher 

Surrey Family Learning offer free courses and workshops to help you create a better family life. Please click HERE to view their flyer for more information. 

The National College have produced a useful guide (click HERE to view) for parents and carers on the dangers of vaping.

Mrs Jenns - Hive Manager

I am delighted to recognise the achievements of the nominated students below:  

Mock Trial Competition 

Miss Allen has nominated the following students for their outstanding efforts in the Young Citizens Bar Mock Trial Competition today; they were highly impressive and articulate in making their cases today: Melody M 12A, Noreen I 12E, Jasmine K 11PX, Iris A 10CX, Sresta T 10EX, Diana J and Sushritha T 10PY, Isabella G and Ayushi S 10MY, Megan G, Fatima R, Lucy S, Yashita S, Alice S and Isabella G 10EY. 

Year 7 

Miss McCall has nominated Isla L 7MY for demonstrating great kindness and Morgan W 7MY for always challenging herself in Music lessons, Mr Holloway has nominated Jasmine L 7EY for coming to the Yehudi Menuhin School to play and helping a Year 11 student with her composition, Miss Elms has nominated the following students for their efforts at the Indoor Athletics event last night. These students were extremely brave, courageous and determined in their events. They also had lovely manners in thanking staff who organised the event: Amelia R and Saanvi M 7EY, Polly H and Machaela L 7EX, Sofia L 7MX, Izzy C, Mimi B and Lucy C 7MY, Mrs Saber has nominated following students on maintaining an excellent effort and standard of work in Geography Isla C, Poppy D, Elise M, Eva P and Dulcie S 7EX and Hana A, Sophie B, Sophia F, Iona H, Jasmine L, Sophia P, Lauren R, Amelia R and Chloe R 7EY and Miss Elms has nominated Naomi F 7CX for achieving 1x Gold and 1x Bronze medal and for her hard work competing in the Woking Swimming Gala. Well done!  

Year 8 

Miss Canessa has nominated the following students for always doing the right thing without fail. They arrive to every lesson ready to learn, are inquisitive, polite and incredibly hard working: Rosie E, Francesca B and Aoife C 8MY, Miss McCall has nominated Rosie C 8PY for rehearsing diligently for her solo performance in and out of lessons and Mr Caines has nominated Olivia L, Eva L and Maya K 8EY for consistently working as hard as they can, Miss Baker has nominated Cleide M 8MX, Ophelia G 8CY, Ruby D 8PY, Maisie B 8EY, Bethany C, Sienna L and Sofja P 8CX for always demonstrating integrity in their Maths classes and Miss Elms has nominated Erica F 8CX for achieving 1x Gold and 1x Silver  Bonze and for her hard work competing in the Woking Swimming Gala. Well done!  

Year 9 

Miss McCall has nominated Lucy S, Rosie W, Daisy H, Aaliyah-Zaina R and Ella S 9EY for consistently demonstrating such integrity both in and out of form time, Mr Lowde has nominated Nia D and Mia H-E 9MY, Hailey C and Lucy S 9EY for consistently working hard and engaging with Physics lessons, always completing work to the best of their ability. Miss Robbins has nominated Emily F 9MX for working incredibly hard on a very powerful speech about neurodiversity in English and Sindy N 9PX for her determination in English and her hard work this week during the 200 word challenge and Miss Elms has nominated both Rebecca D 9MY and Caitlan H 9MX for achieving 2x Gold, 2x Silver and 3x Bronze and for their hard work competing in the Woking Swimming Gala.  Well done! 

Year 10 

Miss McCall has nominated Nina K 10PX for rehearsing diligently for her ensemble performance and Lili W 10CX for her kindness in helping another student with their ensemble performance, Mrs Goatham  has nominated Amy H and Mia L 10PY, Georgina M 10MY, Jess B 10CY, Lucy S and Isabella G 10EY for their diligence and determination in Spanish this term, Miss Reilly has nominated Grace B and Alice S 10MX, Kristy G 10EY, Amy F 10PX, Lilia H and Tilly H 10EX for their excellent independent work in preparation for their assessments and for always being polite, focused and engaged in their Maths lessons, Mrs Dever has nominated Imogen R 10EY, Georgia P 10CX, Ida S 10MY and Emily C 10MX for always showing integrity, working hard, and consistently contributing to lessons and Rosie R 10PY, Betsy S 10EX, Iona P and Issy G 10MY for creating a hugely impactful and powerful scene as part of their devised drama - it blew me away! Mrs Browne has nominated Lilia H 10EX for striving for excellence in Chemistry this half term and Eliza S 10PY for her excellent improvement in effort in Chemistry this half term and Miss Canessa has nominated Niamh K 10PY, Tilly H 10EX and Eloise B G 10CX for always doing the right thing without fail. They arrive to every lesson ready to learn, are inquisitive, polite and incredibly hard working.   

Year 11 

Mr Caines has nominated Lucy F 11MX for her excellent insight and application of knowledge in Physics, Mrs Browne has nominated Lauren D 11CX, Lily C and Diandra N 11PX for their fantastic effort in Chemistry and Mr Chamberlain has nominated Holly S and Evie A 11EY, Camille C 11EX, Nancy G 11PX, Ella J 11MX, Abi Y 11MY, Maia Y 11CY, Daisy M, Mubeen B and Seema S 11PY for their excellent independent work on exam questions and Nancy L T 11MY for the initiative and determination she has shown in her work.  

Sixth Form 

Mr Sharp has nominated Sophie K 13D, Becca J 13E and Alexandra M G 13C for their outstanding effort and determination in lesson and Mrs Royall has nominated the following for their consistently excellent effort on their integration homeworks: Nicole H and Ysabel C 13B, Ilana A 13D, Alana S and Jessica W 13A.