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The Christmas Party is fast approaching - Friday 9 December.  Please make sure that your daughter has handed in her permission slip to join in the fun, as well as her ‘Secret Santa’ present.  The party starts at 16:30 giving the girls plenty of time to put on their fancy dress outfits.  Please collect your daughter from the Lower School foyer at 18:45.  The Year 7s and 8s are very much looking forward to some crazy party games and the traditional visit from Father Christmas!

Mrs Pippa Whitby
Year 8 Senior Tutor

2^ndSunday of Advent Year B

Celebrant: Fr Kevin Griffin

Sunday’s Gospel: Mark 13:33-37 – Prepare a way for the Lord

Feast Days
Thursday 8 December: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Praying Advent

To help your journey through advent, the Creighton University online Ministries have some wonderful resources for the whole family, including prayers for each day, as well as articles and resources that can be used to enhance your preparation for Christmas.
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent/

Your early provision in writing of flight details and any other requests for transport is essential.  In general, flights are released by the airlines months in advance.  You should, therefore, consider booking flights for Christmas 2012, as early as February. 

Parents are expected to make all flight bookings to coincide with the School’s academic term dates, details of which can be found here or via our website www.mayfieldgirls.org.  In exceptional circumstances only, requests for authorised absence should be made in advance and in writing to the Headmistress.

A wonderful 40 year old tradition of a Nativity re-enactment with a procession through Mayfield High Street into the School Chapel, with a real donkey and baby!
For more information click here.

*Monday is School Community only

Christmas is coming, time to get cooking?  The Mayfield Cookery Book (with all proceeds going to support The Hospice in the Weald)  will be sold by two Sixth Form ‘elves’ in the car park on Friday 2 December at 16:00.  It costs £4.99 and is jam-packed with favourite recipes of parents and also features a section by our wonderful School Chef, Martin Spicer.

Please support the Hospice and make a dent in your Christmas present list with one easy purchase!

Thank you.

Sixth Form C6NE

Form C6EM became cupcake masters last week, and raised almost £80 for Breast Cancer at the same time. On Thursday, 24th November, a number of girls from C6EM and a few additional volunteers joined Mrs Margrett in the Food and Nutrition room after school to learn how to make and ice over 150 pink cupcakes. Their pink creations were a sight to behold with two tone icing and sugar paste decorations. They were then sold at lunchtime the following day for charity.

Many thanks and well done to all girls who took part.

Please can girls ensure they are coming to school smartly dressed and conforming to the uniform or Sixth Form dress code.

A few key reminders:

Years 7-11

• Kilts should be no shorter than two inches above the knee.  Girls who have outgrown their kilts may need replacements.  The school shop has a selection of second hand as well as new kilts available.
• Shoes need to be black and of a smart and safe style.  They should be properly fitted to the foot; ‘ballet pump’ style shoes that slip off are a potential hazard.
• Whilst anyone can occasionally end up with a small hole in their tights, girls should not come into school with large holes or ladders in their tights.  If there is a problem during the day, tights can be obtained from the school shop or, when this is closed, from the School Office.
• The only jewellery permitted for girls in school uniform is a cross and chain and a pair of stud earring (one in each earlobe).  Bracelets and other jewellery may not be worn.
• Hair should be neatly tied back with plain accessories in blue, black or neutral colours (Yr11 may wear their hair down, as long as it is tidy and unless they are taking part in a activity, such as sport, which requires it to be tied back ).
• Nail varnish is not permitted

Years 12 and 13

• Trousers must be tailored and smart, and not of stretch or jersey material.  A large number of girls have been wearing jeans and trousers that are too tight fitting.  To avoid jeans style trousers, girls should not be wearing canvas or denim fabric trousers with rivets and double stitching, in any colour.
• Skirts should not be more than three inches above the knee and should not be of stretch fabric.
• Girls should be wearing their jackets at all times around school (although they can take them off in lessons with the teacher’s permission).
• Hooded tops and Ugg style boots are not to be worn in school.
• Jewellery and make up should be discreet and not excessive.

Mrs Sarah Ryan
Deputy Head Pastoral

The Society of Biology has announced it will be running two on-line competitions for students of Biology in February 2012, the Biology Challenge (for students in Years 9 and 10) and the British Biology Olympiad (post 16 students).  The Biology Department would like to invite girls from Years 9-10, and Years 12-13 to enter these competitions.

Biology Challenge – Open to all students in Years 9 and 10

This competition consists of two 30 minute papers which are completed on-line.The aim of the competition is to encourage an interest in Biology beyond the school curriculum.  Girls will have the opportunity to win Bronze, Silver or Gold certificates.  Top scoring students from across the country will be presented with prizes at an awards ceremony at the Royal Society in London.

It is anticipated that the papers will be completed during after-school sessions during February 2012.

All girls in Years 9 and 10 are warmly invited to participate.  Please see Dr Shah-Smith to enter the competition or for more details.  
Closing date for entry is Tuesday 6 December 2011.

British Biology Olympiad – Open to all 16+ students

The first round of the 2012 British Biology Olympiad will take place at the beginning of February and will consist of a multiple choice paper taken online at school.  The paper will test the majority of UK specifications and contain a few questions on topics beyond.

One hundred top scoring students will then be chosen to take part in a second round which will consist of a written paper, again taken in school.  The top sixteen will be invited to take part in the finals at the University of Birmingham, with the top four students going on to represent the UK at the International Biology Olympiad in Singapore in July 2012.

All Year 12 and Year 13 girls are invited to take part.  Please see Dr Shah-Smith to enter the competition or for more details.  Closing date for entry is Tuesday 6 December 2011.

Dr Deborah Shah-Smith
Head of Biology

Various higher education and careers-related courses are being advertised at the moment, some of which may be of interest.

Workshop Conferences, based at Nottingham University, are running a number of courses for students who may wish to find out more about studying certain subjects at university and/or working in related professions.  These will be taking place in April and July next year.  Titles include Law, Exploring Psychology, Exploring Journalism, Physics, Medisix (in their own words ‘an excellent preparation for medical school’), Vet-Medlink, Nursing, Medsim and Vetsim (these both offer experience of working under supervision with real patients/real animals respectively).
Full details can be found at www.workshop-uk.net. The most well-known of their courses is MedLink, which takes place in mid-December – usually just after the end of term – each year.

The Debate Chamber offer weekend courses and masterclasses on a range of topics.Forthcoming events include: Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) Weekend (4^th-5^th Feb 2012), Law
Masterclasses (3^rd-4^th December – so urgent action needed for this one if you are interested) and
Medicine Weekends (14^th/15^th January 2012 and 4^th/5^th February 2012; each course covers different
areas of medical practice plus issues in Medical Ethics).  Full details of these and other courses at
www.debatechamber.com

A more local introduction to the Medical profession is offered by Medicourses 2012, which runs at the University of Kent, Canterbury from 13-15 April 2012. Details at www.medicourses.co.uk.

Plenty of prospectuses and other types of information about careers and higher education come into the Careers Library all the time. Girls should be encouraged to pay a visit and take a look!  An interesting book came in this week: entitled What do Graduates do?, it presents a statistical breakdown of the career choices/types of work taken up by graduates in a very full range of degree subjects. It also reveals the percentages of people from each degree subject who, six months after graduating, were in full-time employment, continuing on to a higher degree, unemployed, etc.  (It is worth noting that this information is also available at a university-specific level – so that you can find out how many people who studied, for example, Chemistry at Durham, were in full-time employment after six months – on university websites; it is also available, in various different forms, on league tables such as www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk or www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide).

Mr John Filkin
Head of Sixth Form