Year 13 Ceramics students hone their skills in Portugal


•The Hub was "christened" as a social venue for boarders on Saturday 10 November, with a Quiz Night. Much hilarity ensued from the ‘Name that Tune’ round, ably ‘gargled’ by Mrs Roberts! The round most enjoyed by all was Mrs Ryan's selection of teachers’ photos, turned into Lego images, to be identified.


•Tabitha Sternberg-Allen had a very successful season of showing, culminating in a series of wins at the British Reining Championships in October.


D


uring October half term, a group of Year 13 Ceramics students set off for Portugal to visit the studios of


world-renowned potter, Rob Sollis, and spend a week learning from him in the beautiful and dramatic Alentejo countryside.


Together with Mr Rees-Moorlah, Head of Ceramics at Mayfield, Mr Sollis has spent six years planning and developing a ceramics course where pupils can hone their skills and learn new ones, while they witness new sights and sample the Portuguese way of life. Six devoted Ceramics students from Year 13 had decided to join the inaugural Portugal pottery course with the aim of developing their throwing, a difficult and time- consuming skill to master.


Each morning was devoted to a different aspect of wheel- thrown pottery, starting with the rudiments of throwing. This is the ability to centre a rapidly rotating ball of clay on the wheel, open the centred clay with steady hands and lift the walls to create the basic form. The next lesson was how to ‘turn’. Pots from the previous day were inverted, centred on the spinning wheel and held in place while thicker areas were pared back. The pots were then left to dry for two days, before being fired to 10000


C to ‘bisque’ fire them. Once


cooled, the pots were glazed and Raku fired again at extremely high temperatures, then rapidly cooled, before being laboriously scrubbed with wire wool to reveal brilliant hues of silvers, coppers, and deep blues and greens. The results were quite astounding and Mr Sollis exclaimed that he would be using a few of the glaze results that the girls had developed during the course!


The afternoons were spent visiting local attractions such as Marvao, Valencia de Alacantara, Castello de Videand Portalegrewhich provided an insight into the peaceful way of life of the Alentejano people, as well as some outstanding photo opportunities!


•Paralympic Team GB Table Tennis player, Will Bayley, visited Mayfield in October and challenged girls and staff to a game!


GALLERY


•Year 12 ESOL students hosted a very successful international dinner for several guests in November. We were very impressed by the varied menu, which included dishes from Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Malaysia and Germany.


•As usual the Lower School Christmas Party was a lot of fun!


•Bindi Vereker, Year 7


•The Live Crib was, as always, a magical spectacle which heralded the start of the Christmas season.


, was one of


just 10 children from across the country to qualify to race in the legendary Shetland Grand National at Olympia in the week leading up to Christmas.


•A number of former staff and Old Girls returned to Mayfield for a coffee morning in November to welcome Sr Jean Sinclair and Sr Teresa-Joseph Barret back to Mayfield.


7


Crmc


ea is


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8