newsletterIssue No 16 | 2014-15 | Friday 26 June 2015

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Dear Parents,

On Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of welcoming Mr Kenneth Tharp O.B.E. to our Year 10 and 11 Speech Day. Mr Tharp delivered an inspiring speech entitled ‘Serious Fun’. His talk focussed on the idea that we need to challenge ourselves to be the best that we can be, but at the same time be willing, and able to laugh at our failings, and reflect on how we might overcome them. As a professional dancer he has worked with many young people who have had a serious fear of failure and for whom perfectionism is the only acceptable result. This, he has seen, has led to the creation of tremendous anxiety and an ultimate fear of taking risks. We all need to be able to encourage ourselves, and the young people in our care, to reflect thoughtfully and realistically on performances in whichever discipline we are engaged in, and enjoy the process of learning. Learning is ultimately messy, mistakes are always made. The real test is how we interact with the process and how we learn from our mistakes. On Wednesday evening we recognised the Senior School and Sixth Form College’s sporting success. It was wonderful to be able to acknowledge our athletes and their success as individuals and as teams. We have over 65 students who have not only represented the Foundation but also have been selected to represent the county, the region or the country. Congratulations to all our athletes. Last week our Year 7 students spent the week investigating the topic of Freedom during their Integrated Learning Week. The activities encompassed work from across the curriculum and sought to challenge and extend the students’ concept of freedom. At the end of the final presentation on Friday afternoon it was clear that our students had not only had fun, but had begun to understand that freedom is something that we should not take for granted. As the summer term draws to a close, it is amazing to reflect on all of our students’ achievements from the past year. Our students never cease to amaze us with their enthusiasm, courage and dedication to all of their endeavours. I hope that they have a well-deserved summer holiday.

Kind regards,

Mrs Alison WallHead of Senior School

Introduction: Head of Senior School

newsletterIssue No 16 | 2014-15 | Friday 26 June 2015

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On Wednesday morning the Year 10 Italian students set off to take part in a “delicious” educational short trip. Having learnt the vocabulary and the grammar to order food and drinks in Italian during their lessons, they visited a local Sicilian delicatessen to practise the language and to indulge in the real taste of “la dolce vita”.

“I really enjoyed the trip to Aromi. I found it a very interesting experience and at the same had some delicious Italian food”, says Millie Nathan.

The girls interacted brilliantly with the native speaker staff to order their “caffellatte”, “gelato” and “dolce” and enjoyed the invaluable experience of speaking Italian in a real and authentic communicative context.

“I thought the morning was really fun as it allowed us to really try to have conversations in Italian outside of the lesson! Talking in Italian combined with the tasty food made the trip memorable and enjoyable, thank you!” D’Arcy Seamon

Let’s Go Italian!

Year 8 Classics and Maths trip to Verulamium Roman museum & site“After a long coach journey we arrived at Verulamium and visited the site of a Roman amphitheatre. We walked along the paths on the perimeter of the amphitheatre while we filled in a sheet. It was amazing to see how much had remained of something that was built such a long time ago.

And so, after an interesting visit to the amphitheatre, we headed to the museum. But it wasn’t yet time to look at the exhibits, not quite. We headed to a classroom for a hands on session with some authentic Roman objects. There were a wide variety of objects, ranging from cooking pots (in almost perfect condition) to hairpins. You hear a lot about Roman battles and Roman conquests, less about the “everyday life” side of history . It was amazing to feel and experience how the ordinary Romans would have lived.”

Read the full account written by Laura, Annabel and Lauren by clicking here.

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Year 10 visit to Marshall Aerospace & Defence GroupOn Tuesday 23rd June thirteen year 10 students visited Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group as part of the National Women in Engineering Day. We learned about Marshall’s different activities on the ground - creating vehicles and machinery to perform in the “theatre”, including an armored and expandable shipping container which holds a CT scanner and is part of a modular mobile hospital.

We also looked at their work in the air - refitting combat planes, and playing a part in testing of new machinery. This includes a specially adapted plane with 4 engines, where one is substituted for a trial engine which can be tested and compared against the others (with the safety of three trusted engines should anything go wrong in the test).The girls heard from female engineers already at Marshall who described their career paths to this point, and shared their tips for success. They learned from many people that at Marshall the level of entry for an engineer starting their first job is determined by their academic background, but ultimately it is their skill, creativity, and dedication which determines how far they will rise.

The group were surprised by this level of industry so close to leafy Cambridge, and enjoyed seeing practical applica-tions of the techniques they have begun to learn about in DT, Physics, and Maths.

Talk on drug discovery and art workshop by AstraZenecaA group of 19 Year Ten students attended a talk by AstraZeneca in University Technical College, Cambridge on 22nd June. Several scientists with different specialisms, from geneticists, medicinal chemists to doctors, talked to the students on how research teams scan thousands of molecules to search for a potential molecule that can be developed into a new drug to bring to market. The students were surprised to find out the whole process takes 14 years and is very expensive, costing billions of pounds.

Find out more about the workshop by clicking here.

Munich Exchange 2015 - return leg!This coming week Year 10s will be hosting their German partners in Cambridge. The programme includes attending some lessons in school and excursions for the Ger-mans to Cambridge’s beautiful colleges, Ely & London. There will be a group visit to Sandringham and Hunstanton, so that the Bavarians can experience the British seaside with fish and chips on the beach.

We were lucky to have glorious sunshine in Germany, hopefully this will be the same for their return visit next week.

Viel Vergnügen!

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We have had a busy and successful term of fixtures with many cricket matches being played and won, in both pairs and T-20 format. The culmination of this has been for our school to be represented in every age group at the County Cricket Finals for the third year running. The finals take place next Thursday at Clare College and we wish the teams well for that.

In tennis we have had success in the U15 Aegon Championships, with our team winning every one of their matches to confirm their place in the Regional stages. Congratulations to the team members - Amy Farmer, Anavi Prakash, Darcy Tickner and D’Arcy Seamon. At the Jubilee Cup District Athletics Competition, our students were on fine form and particular congratulations should go to Sarah Brunton who came 1st in 1500m, Jemima Carter 1st in 200m and Chanumi 1st in Long Jump. Chanumi is also to be congratulated on her achievements at the recent Inter-national Badminton Tournament in Belgium where she won a Gold medal in the singles category.

We also held our Annual Sports Awards evening this term. There have been so many highlights to the year, both in team events and individually. All students involved in training and matches over the year should be commended for their commitment and effort. They continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

Senior Cricket Award: Lara Neild, Freya WatrasiewiczSingles Senior Tennis: Monica EvansMary Napier Progress in Hockey: Camille RedfernHayley-Jane Cone Excellence in Hockey: Anna Banks6th form Excellence in Hockey 6th: Isobel ShearsNetball cup for progress: Juliet TyndallExcellence in Netball: Lucy Duncan6th form Excellence in Netball: Rhyanna MughalAchievement in Girls Sport: Rhyanna MughalAchievement in Boys Sport: Nick NeildContribution to School Teams: Sophia AbbasiContribution to school sport: Trinity Hales, Rachel Howe

The Team Spirit Award: U16 Netball TeamHelen Turner Rose Bowl for Sporting Excellence: Henri-ette TopelGCSE PE Cup: Sarah BruntonSporting Champion Lower school: Annis WilliamsPerse Girls School Elite (International) Sports: Madeleine Foster Contribution to Senior School Teams: Victoria NeildSports Personality of the Year: Lara NeildOutstanding Contribution: Harriet Lander

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Cambridge to France, Kazakhstan and LondonWe were delighted to see Sushruta at our first SPSFC reunion on Saturday 20 June, and she also visited her former Russian teacher, Tania Churilina to catch up. Her path since she left in 2010 shows the relevance of languages in the context of law.

On completing a Russian and French degree at UCL last spring, Sushruta applied for various internships in order to find her way into law, and was offered a training contract by King and Wood Mallesons, a global law firm headquar-tered in Asia.

KWM were particularly interested in her Russian language skills as they work a lot in Kazakhstan and other former Soviet states, where Russian is either one of the official languages (as in Kazakhstan) or the most common foreign language spoken.

Sushruta recently completed the Graduate Diploma in Law and is spending a month interning in a law firm in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is then going on to China to meet up with a few other alumni of the Stephen Perse Foundation (one of whom - Ruoxi Huang - has been studying Chinese in China for a few months), before returning to London to do another legal course after which she will train with the firm for two years.

This has worked out perfectly for her, because, as Sushruta says “I’ve always loved languages, and always had a career in law in mind, so I’m very happy to have the opportunity to mix the two. Living in Russia and France as part of my degree broadened my perspective and built my confidence to tackle new and different things. I’m very glad I chose to study Russian at school!”

Alumni Reunions 20 June 2015On Saturday we welcomed over 100 alumni back to events at Senior School and, for the first time, a new alumni event at our 6th form college. Guests at the events flew in from France, USA; drove from Newcastle and from all over the country and ranging in age from 3 weeks to 92 years!

The Senior School event was themed around The Copper Beech tree that was diseased and was celebrated with a film, art exhibition, coasters made from the branches and a talk. Guests included a group of 20 alumni who left school 50 years ago, some of whom had not met since leaving school. The group was led by Dr Jane Mackay who gathered many friends, including Professor Christine Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History at Cambridge University, who was our speaker at last year’s event.

Principal, Tricia Kelleher gave an overview of our plans to build on our successful areas of focus: academic excellence, innovation and individuality. Tricia also elaborated on our exciting development plans which will enable us to con-tinue educating for our students’ future.

After a lively formal lunch, guests heard a talk on ‘The Beauty of Trees’ from Richard Todd, Head Gardener at Angle-sey Abbey, from the National Trust, in line with our theme. Bridget Cusack from the charity Rowan, then spoke about production of the the limited edition coasters which were made from branches of the tree. Finally Eve Kerrins from

newsletterIssue No 16 | 2014-15 | Friday 26 June 2015

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the Year 11 Head Girls team, introduced a film about retiring teacher, and Head of Yr 10 and 11, Julia Payne, who has supported the alumni association greatly during her 17 years at the school.

Tours and a visit to the Art exhibition at the Visual Arts centre were led by a brilliant team of Yr 10 and Yr 11 vol-unteers, and topped off by Fitzbillies Chelsea Buns, kindly donated by alumna and parent, Alison Wright, owner of Fitzbillies.

If you are a parent who is an alumna of the school, our alumni association is free and easy to join - please do get in touch with our Alumni Relations Officer, Melissa Santiago-Val on mmsv@stephenperse.com.

Alumni in 6th form with Mr Armitage (left) and Mr Jack (right)

Gathering in the Senior School

Alumna Charlotte Image (at school 1995 to 2003) has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2015, for her work on children’s rights. The winner will be announced on 1 July at Plaisterers’ Hall in London. More information on the finalists can be found here.

After leaving the Foundation, Charlotte obtained her Law degree at University College London in 2007, and completed the Legal Practice Course (Public Services route) at the College of Law with distinction in 2008. Charlotte joined Wainwright and Cummins as a trainee on secondment in April 2010 to complete a seat in Family Law, having previ-ously worked in Criminal Law. She remained in the Family department upon her qualification in August 2010, but still undertakes some Criminal work.

She is passionate about working in Legal Aid and is a committee member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers. She has previ-ously done volunteer and pro bono work with the National Centre for Domestic Violence and the Howard League for Penal Reform’s Citizenship and Crime Project. Charlotte’s cases cover all aspects of Family Law, but she mainly deals with domestic violence cases and care proceedings.

She is also a Duty Solicitor, and is qualified to represent clients both at the Police Station and in the Magistrates’ Courts.

Alumna shortlisted in Legal Aid National Awards

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Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 15th Septem-ber at 8pm (contact Sarah Beeson, 01223 294108). We will discuss ‘‘My Brilliant Friend’ by Elena Ferrante and Alan Johnson’s autobiography ‘This Boy’. We al-ways have a lively discussion and are keen to welcome new members. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Martha Crouch for details(07768311015, marthann.crouch@gmail.com)

PFA Bookclub

Drama productions over the next weeks

We invite you to join us for our Sports DaysDame Bradbury’s Sports Day - Tuesday 30th June

Senior School & Sixth Form Sports Day - Thursday 9th July

SportsDays