BOARDINGupdate


ST DUNSTAN'SHouse B


oarders at St Dunstan's House have had another very busy term. The last round of


January AS/A2 modules were taken at the start of the year and the results have recently been released. Some excellent grades were achieved. Apart from work, the girls have also enjoyed some fun times. On Monday 4th March our Year 13 boarders prepared a special evening of food and entertainment to celebrate Chinese New Year and raise some money for charity.


•Fun at Chinese New Year


We said goodbye to Christine Ramsauer, Year 12, at the end of term. She is from Germany and has been with us for two terms to improve her English. She will be missed by us all.


Claire Davies St Dunstan's Housemistress


CONNELLYHouse T


•Visiting I M Pei's Pyramid at The Louvre


From the Paris Opera to the Pompidou Centre


History of Art trip to Paris accompanied A


his term has been another busy time for Connelly girls. Our weekends have been


taken up with trips out and in-house activities. Charity events have included a Contact Tea with the Elderly(see page 3) and a spontaneous Red Nose Daycollection (see page 5).


This term we also launched the Boarding Skills Award. This is a national certificate award run by the Boarding Schools Association. It recognises those skills learned in boarding which are essential in future life, such as organisational skills, independence, resilience, and the ability to live in a community. Those who complete the whole programme can gain UCAS points (for more information, see www.boarding.org.uk).


The Easter Holidays saw the final push to complete the renovation of Connelly’s common-room areas and dorms. It all looks fabulous, with new curtains, carpets and paint. Please do pop in to see how wonderful Connelly now looks.


Jo Roberts Connelly Housemistress


LEEDSHouse T


his term in Leeds House we went shopping, bowling,


swimming at a leisure centre, had a canoeing taster session in the school pool and a trip to the cinema. Of course we enjoyed the snow when we were treated to it on several occasions. Lots of fun has been had by all, especially at weekends. Let’s hope the Summer Term brings us lots of sunshine!


Julie Pirlot de Corbion Leeds Housemistress


The Sixth Form Cookery Club


by Joanna Weddell, Head of History of Art and Debora Downing, Head of Classics. They saw a variety of art, from Renaissanceto Modern, in a range of settings, from the bustling Pompidou Centre to the grand galleries of the Louvre.


The group went by minibus to Ashford and travelled by Eurostar to their hotel in the Marais district to drop off bags. They managed a brief stop for shopping, with the food halls of Galeries Lafayette popular for gifts, before visiting the Paris Opera. They had previously studied Charles Garnier’s splendid Opera Housefor the way that its architecture and decoration demonstrate its function, so it was fascinating to see this in detail. Next they visited Piano and Rogers’ 1977 Pompidou Centre, which the Art students study for its use of materials as part of the Hi-Tech movement in architecture. The moving escalator on the outside of the building gave views across the Paris rooftops towards the Eiffel Tower, while the galleries showed masterpieces of 20th-century art and contemporary art installations. Afterwards, the group walked around the corner for a typically French supper of crêpes and took a (long!) walk back to the hotel passing wonderful fruit, fish and patisserie shops, all open late.


On their second day they visited the Louvre, entering through the magnificent Renaissance Cour Carrée, where the girls could practise analysis of the classical orders of architecture. In the museum they were able to study the great masterpieces of the Renaissance (yes, the Mona Lisa!) as well as huge-scale French works from the early part of the 19th Century. The Classics pupils enjoyed the Greek galleries where they found nine of the red-figure- vase artists studied at A Level. After lunch, the girls toured the Musée des Arts Decoratifs-- where there was a special display of costume, the dramatically lit jewellery galleries and, of course, evocative historic room settings. A special exhibition on contemporary Swiss ceramicist Phillippe Barde, with videos showing his working process, was of great interest to Ceramics pupils. The students and teachers returned to the hotel to rest weary feet and then had supper at an excellent local pizza restaurant.


•The Sixth Form Cookery Club had a very enjoyable session just before Easter, in which a variety of lovely Easter cakes were decorated.


On the last day, they started by the River Seine at the Musée d’Orsay, viewing many of the 19th-century works studied in class, for example by van Gogh and Manet. The girls also enjoyed the newly refurbished Impressionist galleries. They closed the trip by lunching in the spring sunshine outside a café on Boulevard St Germain – only to return by Eurostar to snow!


‘These trips,’ says Joanna Weddell, ‘are invaluable for the vital experience of viewing art at first hand.’


7


t the start of the Easter holidays, nine girls went on a three-day


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