Monday November 12th
Overall it was a quiet week with a few highlights. A large number of 6th form Art students travelled to London to view exhibitions. They had a good day noting observations in their sketch books. On Thursday evening U6th Students practiced their interview techniques undertaking mock interviews with parents and friends of the school. They all found it a useful and confidence building experience. Friday saw the school raising money for Children in Need with an ‘Own clothes day’.

Sport Fixtures: It was an exciting week for Hockey with Lisa Kuhmann playing for the U16 County Indoor Hockey Finals and Laura Brunning and Julie Adler playing in the U18 Midland Tournament. Both teams played extremely well but unfortunately neither won their competitions. Saturday fixtures were against Marlborough, players were: 1stXI Julie Adler, Laura Brunning. 3rd XI Jenny Robinson, Lizzie Ridout, Mandy Shum and Cat Allan, U15As Devon Burley and Emma Smith U15Bs Vicky Goodwin and Eui Lam, U14Bs Beth Mercer and Kirstie Friend. In addition Juliet Burch and Cat Allan played netball against Hereford 6th Form on Wednesday.

Thank you to Mandy Shum who guided this week. Congratulations also go to the following for gaining commendations: Rachel Wiffen x 3, Danii Crow, Catherine Ng, Emma Smith x 2, Kate Akatyeva and Kristina Lyapshina

Monday November 5th

The girls returned on Sunday evening after a restful half term. The Star chart totals for last half term were added up and Tereshkova was the clear winner with 56 stars. They celebrated with Pizza and Ice Cream on Thursday evening. Devon Burley won the individual award with Kristina Lyapshina coming a close second.

Parents evening for the U6 and U4 was on Tuesday evening. Many thanks to Devon Burley and Emma Smith who did a great job of welcoming parents and helping with the administration of the evening. 

On Wednesday Vicky Goodwin and Kirstie Friend competed in the Inter-House debating competition proposing the motion ‘This house would go by bicycle’. They perform well and eagerly await the results to see if they are through to the next round.

Charlie Williams started fundraising for the 2009 Madagascar Outlook trip in earnest, with a very successful cake sale. She plans on producing more delectable cakes and cookies to keep the funds flowing in!

The weekend started with Dasha Novikova, Dilyara Valiuilina and Audrey Shen taking part in a trip to the Birmingham Rag Market. On Saturday evening there was a sixth form dining in event with girls enjoying a relaxed evening with their friends.

Sunday was a more sombre day with the whole school attending Remembrance Services. The new 4th form CCF recruits Devon Burley and Emma Smith attended the service of remembrance in their uniform as a mark of respect. Miss Fletcher, Kate Akatyeva, Lorraine Kwong, Polly Heung, Kimmy Chak, Mandy Shum, Eui Lam, Alma Wong and Holly Yip all sang very movingly in the Choir. It is great that Mary Windsor House have such a strong representation.

Fixtures this week were against Oundle: 1stXI Julie Adler, Lisa Kuhmann, Laura Brunning. 3rd XI Jenny Robinson and Cat Allan, U15As Devon Burley and Emma Smith U15Bs Vicky Goodwin and Eui Lam, U14Bs Beth Mercer and Kirstie Friend. In addition Devon Burley played for the U16 Netball team who made it through to the Midland Finals. This is a superb achievement to be playing up an age group and at such a high level. Many congratulations.

Commendations were awarded to: Dasha Mokrova, Catherine Ng x 2, Winnie Tam, Vicky Goodwin x 2, Kimmy Chak, Juliet Burch and Emma Friend. Well done also to Juliet Burch, Danii Crow and Rachel Dolan who all guided this week.

Monday October 15th

The week started with final tense rehearsals for the Unison House Song Competition culminating with the competition itself on Wednesday. The house performed superbly and was slick and very tuneful! The U6 had put together an accompanying dance which completed the ensemble. The competition was stiff with some very entertaining performances from the boys’ houses and some strong girls’ houses. Overall however we were delighted to come second out of the girls’ houses.

On Monday the junior girls competed in the House Hockey Plate competition. The girls played brilliantly scoring goal after goal, with some exceptional performances from Devon Burley and Emma Smith up front. There was fantastic team spirit and great defence meaning that Mary Windsor stormed to victory! The team celebrated on Tuesday evening with large quantities of special homemade Sticky Toffee Pudding. The team consisted of: Polly Heung, Eui Lam, Kimmy Chak, Vicky Goodwin, Kristina Lyapshina, Sophie Been, Rachel Wiffen, Kirstie Friend, Catherine Ng, Polina Georgieva, Emma Smith and Devon Burley.

Following on from our success in the House Song the whole house participated in a Halloween Party. Many turned up in fancy dress with costumes such as a ‘dead bunny and hunter’and a pumpkin as well as the usual witches. The monitors decorated the house and organised a pumpkin carving competition followed by apple bobbing, team games and the disgusting ‘what’s in the box’ game with suitably slimy contents.

Thursday was the Lower 4th form Cross Country event. Beth Mercer, Sophie Been, Winnie Tam, Polly Heung, Kimmy Chak and Kirstie Friend all ran. Beth and Winnie performed particularly well getting fast times. Well done to all.

The half term holiday started on Friday with a number of girls departing on the Biology and Geography Field trips.

Academic Commendations: Catherine Ng x 2, Emma Smith, Helen Lee and Rachel Chan

Monday October 8th

The week began with a House Song rehearsal in Routh Hall. The big event is next week!

On Thursday Juliet Burch read a poem at the Words and Music evening. Mean while over 15 girls were at Worcester Rugby club supporting the 1st XV match against a visiting Australian side. They had a great evening and were pleased to see Bromsgrove win.

Aileen Latheef and Mrs Bentall organised a cake sale in aid of Aqua Box; a project to send aid and water purification boxes to people in crisis.

On Tuesday the U6 were invited to Miss Chamberlain and Mr Johnson’s house for food and drinks as well as some ferocious competition on the Nintendo Wii!

Saturday morning was the Prep School Open Day. Thank you to all those who guided: Devon Burley, Emma Smith, Kristina Lyapshina, Danii Crow, Sarah Barton, Rachel Chan, Helen Lee, Dasha Mokrova, Aileen Latheef and Vicky Goodwin. Also on Saturday members of the Choir set off to Llanwrtyd Wells to take part in the ceremony to give Bromsgrove School the freedom of the town. They returned having had a moving and interesting weekend. The service and concert both went extremely well.

On Sunday Danii Crow took part in the CCF orienteering competition the team put in a good performance and returned exhausted.

Sport Fixtures: Hayley Johnson swam for the school against Cheltenham College on Thursday, whilst fixtures on Saturday were against Uppingham, players were: 1stXI Julie Adler, Lisa Kuhmann, Laura Brunning. 3rd XI Jenny Robinson and Cat Allan, U15As Devon Burley and U14Bs Beth Mercer and Kirstie Friend.

Academic Commendations: Devon Burley, Lisa Maier x 3, Polly Heung x 3, Kimmy Chak

Monday October 1st
The week started with the Harvest Festival Service. The Chapel was beautifully decorated by Aileen Latheef, Sarah Barton, Jenny Robinson and Mandy Shum. The Choir sang very well with a strong representation from Mary Windsor including Miss Fletcher, Mandy Shum, Eui Lam, Wendy Wang, Lorraine Kwong, Kimmy Chak, Polly Heung, Kate Akatyeva, Alma Wong and Holly Yip.

Monday also saw the arrival of a pair of Ofsted Boarding Inspectors. They were ably guided by a huge number of girls and conducted a number of discussion groups to gauge views on Boarding at Bromsgrove. Laura Brunning had a big role to play as Senior Boarder and I know that Mr Bowen, in particular, was very grateful for her support.

The Lower Fourths enjoyed the annual field day on the Malverns. Kimmy Chak, Polly Heung, Beth Mercer, Polina Georgieva, Kirstie Friend, Winnie Tam and Sophie Been had a great day which remained more or less dry! Miss Fletcher, Miss Bentall, Mr Wilkinson and Mr Johnson offered their support from various points along the route.

On Thursday Mr Bowen delivered the second part of his History of the School. The choir sang two pieces and Holly Yip amazed us all with her Cello playing. Well done to all involved.

Thank you to Dilyara Valiullina, Danii Crow and Kristina Lyapshina who guided at the Senior School open morning. I am sure that they were excellent ambassadors.

One of the highlights of the week was the Senior House Hockey first round of matches. It was a glorious warm autumn day and Mary Windsor played some fantastic hockey. We won the first match easily against Housman Hall then went on to draw against Hazeldene, a win against Oakley followed, before a narrow defeat against Thomas Cookes. We came 2nd equal and eagerly await the final round in the second half of term. The team consisted of: Cat Allan, Laura Brunning, Julie Adler, Jenny Robinson, Lisa Kuhmann, Louisa Whittaker, Emma Friend, Hayley Johnson, Rachel Dolan, Mandy Shum, Charlie Williams, Ailin Huang, Lizzie Ridout and Juliet Burch.

Sport Fixtures: It was a really big week for sport, starting with Juliet Burch and Cat Allan playing Netball Vs The Old Bromsgrovians. It was also the U18 County Hockey Finals which we won! Saturday matches were against Wrekin: 1st XI players were Julie Adler, Laura Brunning and Lisa Kuhmann; U15A Emma Smith and Devon Burley.

The 1st set of grades for the year were published this week. We had some strong sets of grades in the house. The following all gained grade averages of less than 2.0 and are therefore commended: Laura Brunning, Catherine  Ng, Esther Cheung, Vanessa Tse, Eui Lam, Helen Lee, Vivien Lin, Megan Lu. Laura Brunning and Esther Cheung gained Head Master’s Commendations for gaining the best grades in the house. Other academic commendations were awarded to: Catherine Ng x 2, Winnie Tam x 2, Devon Burley, Emma Smith and Stella Wang.

Monday September 24th
Devon Burley, Eui Lam, and Emma Smith went out with the CCF on Sunday morning to complete their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh final expedition, with Vicky Goodwin and Catherine Ng heading out on the civilian Duke of Edinburgh expedition. Laura Brunning was enlisted to help with the civilian side as part of her A-level PE work and later on Sunday afternoon Lizzie Ridout and Danii Crow went to take part in the CCF overnight exercise involving a dramatic night ambush and camping out in ‘bashers’ which they constructed from tarpaulins. The weather was rather wet for all but fortunately cleared up on Monday morning as Kate Akatyeva, Rachel Dolan, Hayley Johnson, Dasha Novikova, Seri Park, Mandy Shum and Beth Wright went out to join the others for a day of military activities. They enjoyed getting camouflaged up to take part in stalking exercises, as well as section and attack drills and command tasks; helping their team building skills.

Trips this week included Worcester Porcelain Museum for Meryl Johnson, Hayley Johnson, Dilyara Valiullina, Audrey Shen and Emma Smith and Alma Wong visited the Birmingham Sea life centre for Art.

Thursday evening saw a hive of activity in the kitchen with  Mrs Bentall masterminding baking of cakes and biscuits to be sold at the Macmillan coffee morning. Danii Crow, Kristina Lyapshina, Polina Georgieva, Kirstie Friend, Polly Heung, Kimmy Chak, Seri Park, Mandy Shum, Eui Lam, and Catherine Ng all made delicious cakes and managed to raise over £17 selling them in Mary Windsor, not to mention donations made by staff.

Louisa Whittaker and her team gave a presentation to parents and staff recounting their World Challenge Trip to Zambia, Botswana and Namibia. They spoke of waking up with a herd of elephants grazing around their tents, trekking through remote wildernesses and helping construction of a fence at an orphanage as well as many other fascinating adventures.

On Sunday Kate Akatyeva, Lisa Maier, Lisa Kuhmann, Dasha Novikova and Dilyara Valiullina hit the shops in London and enjoyed a great day out along with Miss Fletcher.

Sport Fixtures: These were against Cheltenham College. 1st XI players were Julie Adler, Laura Brunning and Lisa Kuhmann; 3rd XI were Jenny Robinson, Mandy Shum, Lizzie Ridout and Cat Allan; 4th XI were Emma Friend and a debut from Ailin Huang, who only took up hockey this term; U15A Emma Smith (as captain!)and Devon Burley; U15B Vicky Goodwin and Eui Lam.

Commendations: Winnie Tam, Emma Smith and Kristina Lyapshina. Congratulations!

Monday September 17th
The week started with Mr Bowen’s visit to the house. He was impressed by the way the girls had settled into the new routine and, although he didn’t hear it at close quarters, I think he enjoyed the house song practice – it is starting to sound quite tuneful!

The L4 had a gruelling week of aptitude testing which they were pleased to get out of the way.

A number of school trips went out this week with Kristina Lyapshina enjoying a visit to the Botanical Gardens on Thursday, Rachel Dolan taking part in the drama trip to Warwick on Friday and also that day Lisa Maier, Vanessa Suen, Vanessa Tse and Ashley Wong travelled to London to see the Design Museum.

The House Monitors took part in a training evening on Thursday. This involved everything from team work exercises building newspaper towers to more serious discussions on bullying, child protection and problem solving

The weekend saw preparations being made for the CCF and Duke of Edinburgh Weekends. With Devon Burley, Eui Lam, and Emma Smith heading out with the CCF and Vicky Goodwin and Catherine Ng with the civilian Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

Sports fixtures: Swimming was against Cheltenham Ladies College with Jackie Tse and Hayley Johnson competing. Hockey was also versus Cheltenham Ladies: 1st XI players were Julie Adler, Laura Brunning and Lisa Kuhmann; 3rd XI were Jenny Robinson, Mandy Shum, Lizzie Ridout and Cat Allan; U15A Emma Smith and Devon Burley; U15B Vicky Goodwin and Eui Lam.

Commendations: Catherine Ng, Gigi Ng, Ekaterina Akatyeva, Kristina Lyapshina and Devon Burley x 2! Well done to all.

Monday September 3rd

The term got off to a great start with 17 new girls, 3 new tutors and a new set of House Parents, not to mention a whole new school week and timetable! Our new international contingent arrived on Thursday 30th August with the International Induction helping them to settle into life at Bromsgrove. Amazingly Lisa Kuhmann had been at the school less than 24hrs before she was recruited to play for the 1st XI hockey team.

Term got underway on Monday morning and the girls quickly adjusted to the new routine. It was the Mary Windsor Chapel week and Juliet Burch, Jenny Robinson, Devon Burley and Dasha Mokrova all read excellently.

The Saturday morning programme got off to a flying start with girls taking part in activities as diverse as Trampolining and Accounting AS. Mary Windsor also had an excellent representation at sports fixtures on Saturday afternoon against Oakham with Julie Adler, Laura Brunning and Lisa Khumann playing for the 1st XI; Mandy Shum, Jenny Robinson, Lizzie Ridout and Cat Allan playing for the 3rd XI; Devon Burley for the U15As; Eui Lam and Vicky Goodwin for the U15Bs; and Kirstie Friend for the U14Bs. Well done to all involved.

Monday September 10th

The week started with the 4th form integration event. The monitors organised a variety of games along with food and drinks. All the girls got involved and enjoyed themselves playing ‘pass the parcel’, ‘musical chairs’ and other team orientated games. Wednesday saw the 5th form and L6th integration event. This took the form of 3 teams competing on physical group tasks which required them to communicate effectively and work together. The highlight was the blindfold maze game where the blindfolds took the form of blacked out diving masks – some great photo opportunities!

On Thursday Laura Brunning and Vanessa Tse took part in the School Monitor Leadership Training, the House Monitors get their turn next week.

Unusually we had our annual House Photo taken on Friday. This will be available to buy soon.

It has been a busy weekend with fixtures against Trent College. 1st XI players were Julie Adler, Laura Brunning and Lisa Khumann; 3rd XI were Jenny Robinson, Mandy Shum, Lizzie Ridout and Cat Allan; U15A Emma Smith; U15B Vicky Goodwin; U14B Kirstie Friend; and U14C Polina Georgieva, Polly Heung and Beth Mercer. In addition, Prep School Parents visited the Senior School for an Open Morning. They were very ably guided by Mandy Shum, Charlie Williams, Rachel Dolan and Emma Smith. Ailin Huang also guided earlier in the week. On Sunday almost half the house headed off to Alton Towers. They returned happy but exhausted!

Well done to Emma Smith and Kristina Lyapshina who both gained Academic Commendations for their Business Studies work.