E-weekly Issue 154

Happy Half Term!

We hope you all have an enjoyable and restful Half Term. Below are our Top Tips for looking after your wellbeing in lockdown:

1.     It is very important that you continue to connect with family and friends: it is good to talk about how you feel.
2.     Keep to a routine - it will make you feel safe and give you some sort of certainty in your day.
3.     Make sure that you are spending time offline: the PE Department has organised a plethora of physical activities to try. You should ideally be active for at least 60 minutes per day.
4.     Stick to regular meal times and eat healthily.
5.     If you experience grief or bereavement during this time, we are here for you. Please do contact us. Ronan, our Chaplain, continues to be available for you and your family.
6.     Everyone deserves to be safe wherever they are – including online and at home. We should all be doing our part to spread kindness and support each other in this time.

Mrs Niamh Green, Deputy Head 

The Intermediate Mathematical Challenge

Last week, students from Years 9, 10 and 11 took part in the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge. This is a 60-minute, multiple-choice competition that encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems.

The problems in the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge are designed to make students think. Most are accessible, yet still challenge those with more experience. Here are the first five questions from this year’s challenge:

A big ‘well done’ to all the girls who took part! We are looking forward to getting the results in March.

Mrs Sally Howie, Teacher of Maths

Cornelian Lecture: Professor Georgina Ellison-Hughes

As promised, please find here the recording of Georgina’s lecture last week.

Mr John Doy, Head of Sixth Form

Mayfield Theatre Company

Mayfield Theatre Company Juniors have been busy making props for the forthcoming production of ‘The Witches’ by Roald Dahl. Whilst they have been unable to fully rehearse, they have turned their skills to creating diverse items for the set. So far, we have received a witch's broom stick from Mabel, a bottle of 'formula 86' from Claudia, scars and warts for use in the make-up department from Alexia, and an embroidered handkerchief for ‘Grandma’ from Ava.

We are delighted by the range of props the girls have created and have awarded House Points to those that have contributed. This is not the end though, as Mr Smith and I are more than happy for the group to continue to make props for the production!

Mrs Sally Gerstmeyer, Head of Drama

Safer Internet Day

Wednesday was Safer Internet Day and this year's theme was 'An internet we trust - exploring reliability in an online world'. The girls looked at a range of resources to help them learn how to identify misinformation and 'fake news' online, and then took part in a fun online quiz with prizes for the winners in each year group.

Mrs Lucy Bartlett, Key Stage 3 & 4 Digital Literacy and Technology Coordinator

Request from the Careers Department

One of our very lovely, hard-working and enthusiastic Sixth Form students is looking for work experience in a leading law firm and we are wondering whether you might be able to help please? If you think you could help, please email: aglubb@mayfieldgirls.org

Thank you very much indeed!

Mrs Amanda Glubb, Head of Careers and Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme Manager

Mayfield Radio

Episode 3 of Mayfield Radio (available here) has been recorded all over the country, and includes discussions about what you can do to help relax and improve your mindfulness, hero animals, and a reminder of our logo competition.

Is there something you would love to hear on the show? Please let us know at mayfieldgirlsradio@mayfieldgirls.org

Mrs Lynette Le Riche, Teacher of Music and Director of SPARK Camps

Year 8 Spanish Competition

Last week was competition time for Mrs Fernández’s Year 8 girls! They were given an assignment called ‘¿Qué puedo ver desde mi ventana?’ (‘What can I see from my window?’) in which they had to research a Spanish landmark and reproduce it in an artistic way.

Mrs Fernández had a tremendous amount of joy looking at the projects and reading the descriptions in Spanish. The entries were fantastic and the overall winner was Mabel for her dreamy presentation of La Sagrada Familia. Well done girls!

Mrs Ana Fernández, Teacher of Spanish

Budding Biologists

Year 10 Biologists have been studying photosynthesis this term, and part of the GCSE specification requires them to consider the costs of increasing yield versus profit. They were tasked with designing a greenhouse and explaining the biological concepts behind their choices of additional extras.

The girls were able to use the collaborative area in Teams to work in groups together and show off their creativity.

Mrs Rachel Davies, Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Teacher of Biology and STEM Coordinator

Write On Art Competition

ARTiculation Challenge 2021
 

Chinese New Year Celebrations

The Leeds Lockdown boarders had a wonderful time celebrating Chinese New Year early last weekend with a feast of food, music recitals, fun and games. Happy New Year of the Ox everyone!

Mrs Charmaine Smith, Head of Sixth Form Boarding

Food and Nutrition

The Food and Nutrition Department would like to showcase some of the design work from girls not cooking in lessons this week. Design sketches are an important aspect in planning a recipe and considering the presentation and sensory attributes of the final product.

Here are some beautiful sketches by Year 8s designing pizza and Year 9s designing a Swiss Roll or decorated gateau.

Miss Emily Theobald, Head of Food and Nutrition

News from the Chaplaincy 

This Sunday’s Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

Gospel Reflection:
Have you ever received news so good that you just couldn’t keep quiet about? Have you ever experienced something so life-changing and uplifting that you wanted to tell everybody, even strangers in the street? When my wife and I got engaged, I remember blurting it out to the waitress at dinner. No context - I just had to tell someone! When each of my daughters was born, I became one of ‘those’ Dads - it’s amazing how many conversations with acquaintances or strangers quickly became about how talented my babies were (And cute. And more advanced than any other baby their age!), and what a trooper my wife was, and how many nappies I’d changed so far that day… (To be honest, I think I’m still one of those Dads, but I’ve made my peace with that.)

So it was with the leper in today’s story. He had just experienced something so life changing, received such an awesome gift, that he physically couldn’t stop himself from telling everybody he met. Jesus had just given him his life back. And while I’m sure he fully intended to stay quiet, his joy was just too great. He couldn’t not talk about what had happened to him. “He went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word.”

Maybe we should take our cue from the leper this week. Maybe we could fill our lives, and the lives of people around us, with Good News and gratitude. Let’s make an effort to be joyful, to sing, to praise the people in our lives, and our loved ones. Let’s share the Good News of the Gospel - that we are each loved completely and wholly, by the God who created us, who died on the Cross for us, and who conquered Death for us. And we are loved unequivocally, no ifs or buts, no conditions or qualifications - we are simply loved. That’s something to be joyful about this week.

Mr Ronan Lavery, Lay Chaplain

Remote PE

Throughout this term, all year groups have been taking part in a variety of lessons. These have included live HIIT training sessions such as ‘Playing Card Work-Outs’, small training group sessions and whole year work-outs. Many of the girls have also undertaken a ‘Mindfulness Lesson’ where they have been given options including podcasts to listen to while walking or doing Yoga, Pilates and Meditation. They have also had a weekly Netball Theory lesson provided by Miss Jones in Lower School, and Miss Auer in the Middle School and Sixth Form. Alongside these, Miss Starr has been running competitive weekly challenges. Watch this space for a ‘Beat The Teacher' series coming soon! 

The girls in Lower School have been fabulous, taking part in weekly challenges and live workouts on a Wednesday afternoon. They chose the exercises for this week's circuit, including the repetitions and timings, demonstrating all they have learnt this term about building a circuit. While it has been very tricky to choose individuals to single out for their enthusiasm and engagement (as they have all been brilliant), Miss Jones and Miss Starr would like to give the following girls a special mention for their efforts: 
Year 7 - Ava, Isabel and Alice 
Year 8 - Mia, Millie and Sarah

In Middle School, the Year 9 girls have been pushing themselves in their live work-outs with Miss Auer and Miss Nixon, which culminated in them designing and leading their own lessons this week, complete with coaches and time-keepers. A special mention must go to Tabatha C, who has been like a third teacher during Year 9 live sessions, for her brilliant effort and camera presence! 

The Year 10s are really starting to develop their understanding of the officiating role in Netball, with some impressive end of unit test results, and we have a number of runners who are managing to stay motivated and rack up the kilometres each week including: 
Year 10 Lizzie (who started by running 3km and is now training to run 10km)
Year 9 Scarlett (who is training to run 5km)

The PE Department would also like to congratulate Lucia for her continued dedication to her GB Fencing training - this is fantastic work, keep it up! 

Mrs Fletcher would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Year 11 who have been great at completing their logs and staying active in a variety of ways. ‘Well done’ to Isabelle whose activity log is amazing, showing links to everything she does! And finally, ‘well done’ to all the girls for all their efforts in PE this term, we love seeing you in our lessons and hearing about all the different ways you have managed to stay active. We hope as many as of you as possible give the ‘7for7for7 Challenge’ (7 exercises for 7 minutes for 7 days) a go over Half Term and look forward to seeing you after the holiday. 

Miss Emily Nixon, Miss Emily Starr and Miss Imogen Jones, Teachers of PE