Welcome to the Easter edition of the STAHS Sixth Form newsletter!

There is a distinct feel of Spring in the air as I write this. This morning at assembly, the Head referred to Larkin’s poem ‘The Trees’ and especially to the concluding line: “begin afresh, afresh, afresh”. The recent buds, which Larkin refers to earlier on in the poem, have certainly started to “relax and spread” and, like heralds of the months ahead, are pointing us toward warmer days to come. “Begin afresh, afresh, afresh” also encapsulates the mood of the High School this morning, with the exciting announcement of our new Head. With Mrs Waite’s arrival this September, STAHS will begin afresh a new chapter in its history.

As we move into the Easter holidays, for the Sixth Form it’s a time closely aligned with revision and exam preparation. For Year 13 students, the focus moving forward is on consolidating knowledge and honing skills so that the A Level examinations looming on the horizon bring the best possible outcomes for them. As well as working hard, they need to ensure that they really look after themselves and I hope that they will take some time during the Easter holidays to rest and re-group before embarking on their work. There are also some lovely Leavers events coming up to look forward to: the Ball at St Michael’s Manor Hotel will be a magical summer highlight, Muck-Up Day a fun finish to mark the end of school days and, of course, Valediction, our formal farewell to our fabulous class of 2019.

For Year 12, the next term will bring summer exams and a more concerted focus on thinking around university applications. The summer exams are – now that AS levels have had their day – an important piece of data that departments will use to decide on a student’s UCAS grades, which they will then use to make their post-18 plans. I encourage our Year 12s to prepare for them thoroughly and to use them for the opportunity they are – to ‘bank’ some solid revision of topics covered so far in their A Levels. We will be writing to parents later in the year to say more about UCAS grades and their relevance to university and course choices but, in the meantime, we’re encouraging students to continue to do their research on what’s available out there to them. Students will also be having conversations with their tutors and teachers about their thoughts on what to do after the High School.

This half term has been, as usual, a hugely busy one. There are some highlights below of notable achievements from our Sixth Formers and of Sixth Form events that have taken place. A particular and ongoing source of excitement is the new build that is now really taking shape on Townsend Avenue – it acquired a first floor last week! – which will, this time next year, be home to our Sixth Form common room, library, wellness room and study rooms. More about that in the next edition of this newsletter.

In the meantime, I wish you and yours a happy, restful Easter break.

With all best wishes,

Tony Oulton

Assistant Head, Director of Sixth Form

Sport

In lacrosse, Violet Cairns in Year 12 has been selected to represent Scotland U19A at Home Internationals and will be going on tour to the USA over Easter. We wish her all the best and congratulate her on her success.

Mrs Greenall, PE teacher writes:

With our largest Senior Lacrosse Squad, we were able to enter three teams for the first time at the Nationals School Lacrosse Championships! It was a fantastic event spread over three days and everyone who took part played superbly. There were some great displays of team work and individual skills against the strongest teams in the country. We want to say an especially big ‘thank you’ to all our Year 13 Leavers and wish them all the best and hope they continue to love playing lacrosse at university and beyond.

Mrs Hepworth, Head of Aesthetics & PE teacher writes:

Our Senior Trampolining Squad made it to the BSGA National Final, which is a first for a STAHS team! The competition was tough and the team were nervous and, after a wobbly start, the team performed some excellent routines. The team finished in 6th place overall, which is a great achievement at National level! They have done themselves, and me, very proud.

Fehinti Soyinka, Y13 writes:

Year 13s participated in their last Inter-house Netball and Lacrosse and once again it proved to be a highlight of many athletes’ sporting year. There were well fought battles between teams and each house had some wins and losses. Well done to all participants! The day culminated with a 1st Team vs Teachers Match. Although the team were nervous due to the height of our opponents and their biggest ever crowd, our seven years of training paid off and we took a convincing 4-19 win! This marks the end of a glorious seven-year career of netball at STAHS for four Year 13 girls and a great end to the netball and lacrosse season!

Careers

Mrs Parton, our Head of Careers, gives us a run-down of Careers events this past half term:

The highlight of this half term was the Sixth Form Careers evening, held on Tuesday 19 March. The evening started with keynote speeches from two of our amazing alumnae, Cinzia Brusini and Emma Roberts. Cinzia reflected on her career development since leaving the High School; after finishing her BA degree in Modern Languages, she worked in industry, managing a range of well-known corporate clients before re-training as a careers professional. To help best identify their next steps, she asked students to look at their future career journeys and to consider:

• The skills they want to use and enjoy

• What they want to get out of work

• What working environment they would enjoy.

Emma gave a wonderfully honest account of her career, starting with her ‘failure’ to get into Oxford and how this has helped to make her a success in her career. Having graduated from the LSE, she took on roles in the corporate world, before setting up a Lean In circle in London, which grew to over 500 members within a year. Emma is a consummate networker and this skill has taken her to become program lead at ‘Lean In’ in Europe. Recently she has been appointed as Senior Lead, Lean In Global Programs at the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation. She is also a global shaper for the London Hub of the Global Shapers Community, a volunteer network of hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities. The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

These inspiring speeches were a prelude to an array of workshops, run by 15 professionals in the recruitment industry, helping students develop their skills in networking, CV writing, interview techniques, digital interviewing, and recognising and selling your skills.

The evening concluded with networking drinks, where students and workshop presenters were joined by parents to discuss the evening and the opportunities it presents.

We are delighted to have been invited to bring a small group of students to the Women of the Future Ambassadors’ reception to be held in the US Embassy in early May. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to practise their networking skills and to meet with some amazing women from a range of backgrounds.

Follow @STAHSCareers for daily updates

Perspectives

Mrs Briggs leads our ‘Perspectives’ programme and outlines some of the sessions students have taken part in this past half term:

On 8 March, Perspectives celebrated International Women’s Day with three guest speakers and plenty of stimulating discussion. We were joined by Louisa Lombardo (Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Chubb), Laura Harding (Senior Entertainment Editor at the Press Association) and Angela Buttolph (Editor-at-Large at Grazia). The discussion was co-chaired by Tasneem Rahman and Olivia Castle, and all three of our guests inspired us with stories and examples from their fields. Tasneem and Olivia then asked the Sixth Form to explore various aspects of feminism and equality through round table discussions and ideas were fed back.

Meanwhile, staff and the School Officers came together for a creative ideas meeting about next year’s programme for Perspectives. We look forward to seeking the Sixth Form’s views on the future plans for what is an absolute lynchpin of our Sixth Form supra-curricular programme.

Year 13 have now finished Perspectives and we wish them well with their revision and final exams. Year 12 continue to engage with the theme of ‘Giving Back’ and are planning some very exciting student-led projects to take place in May. More on those in the next newsletter!

Follow @STAHSPerspectives for regular updates

Higher Education

‘Mrs Monighan outlines the Higher Education viewpoint from this half term:

Year 12 had their first formal introduction to post-18 options with both the Higher Education Evening and the Oxbridge conference this term. These two events – coupled with ‘BridgeU’, a fantastic new resource that we have rolled out to Year 12 this year – have started to give students a huge range of ideas and options as to what their plans might look like. I have also started to see several of them to discuss their thoughts. Their Sixth Form tutors are playing a key and much appreciated role in this process.

Year 13 are almost there with their final university choices and are making decisions on accommodation and applying for finance, both key areas as they embark on post-school study. Well done to all our medics who have secured some fantastic offers from a range of universities. They have all worked extremely hard, having to perform in the UKCAT and/or the BMAT and be subjected to MMIs, whilst keeping on top of their work. MedVet run by Dr Legg prepares them brilliantly for all these requirements, meaning that they head into this process feeling confident they can do it. I wish all of Year 13 every success in their forthcoming examinations. They have been a pleasure to work with. I look forward to seeing some of them as Year 14 next year making their Post Qualification Application!

Farley Fridays

On Friday 8 March, four of our Year 13 musicians delivered a music workshop at one of our partnership schools, Farley Junior School, Luton. Our students had spent time with music staff planning and preparing a roadshow activity aimed at encouraging Key Stage 2 students to develop their knowledge of rhythm and range of sound by using different instruments. The afternoon was spent engaging more than 90 Year 5 students and their teachers with many interactive musical activities. Farley students were excited to learn how to decode rhythms and they all enjoyed putting their skills to work on accompanying some ‘Jungle Book’ classics with Sixth Formers, Saira, Beth, Emily and Amelia!

Drama

This week has seen the Year 13 A Level Performance of ‘The Maids’ by Jean Genet. Based on the true crime story of the murderous Papin sisters, Clare and Solange, it charts the story of their lives and work as maids in a grand house in a French city. When the mistress is out, they play an obsessive game of role-play in which one of the sisters dresses up in the fine clothes belonging to the mistress. Acting out the power structures which define their lives with great theatricality, the sisters expose a complex relationship of violence, submission, tenderness and erotic tension. As the line between make-believe and reality becomes increasingly distorted, it becomes clear that the aim of the game is to murder their mistress. Our A Level students drew on Katie Mitchell’s approach to directing and explored her use of live and symbolic camera work to bring these characters vividly alive for us as an audience.

Congratulations to Hannah Robinson, Alice Croot and Alex Hougie on a stunning performance!