Leadership Likes: Mrs Webb
This week instead of writing, Mrs Webb has made us our first Leadership Likes video with a focus on Benjamin Wolfe's statement "The future of working is creative collaboration."
Read MoreWeekly News
Find out what is happening at Croydon High this week.
Head Girl Sarena has been awarded the prestigious GDST Minerva Prize.
Read MoreWe were absolutely thrilled this week to hear that our out-going Head Girl, Sarena, has been awarded the prestigious GDST Minerva Prize.
The Girls’ Day School Trust awards a number of high profile prizes and scholarships each year, including poetry, creative writing, public speaking, travel, classics and more. The highest accolade, in terms of prestige, is the Minerva Prize, which is awarded for overall achievement, to an Upper Sixth student who embodies the true GDST spirit and ethos, exhibiting qualities such as creativity, innovation, perseverance, resilience, kindness and empathy.
Nominations for the Minerva are made by the individual schools, with nominees completing a comprehensive application and then an interview with a panel of judges, including the GDST’s Chair of Trustees, Juliet Humphries, who said
“As ever the standard of the shortlisted candidates for the Minerva Prize was extremely high and identifying an overall winner was difficult. The panel thoroughly enjoyed meeting Sarena and were extremely impressed with her many achievements, especially as they encompassed so many different and varied spheres.”
For her peers and teachers at Croydon High, there could be no more worthy recipient of the award than Sarena who has been at the school since Nursery. Throughout her time here, she has consistently represented Croydon High with grace and has been an inspirational role model to us all. Over the last two years she has managed her studies and then her many and varied commitments as Head Girl with energy and enthusiasm, still finding time to excel academically and, we believe, stay on course to cap off her school career with a suitably excellent set of well-deserved grades. Her commitment to the co-curricular life of the school has been outstanding. For example in 2020, after Sarena was awarded the GDST Chrystall Carter public speaking prize for her speech on the topic of Racial Diversity, she decided to set up a public speaking club to assist others in preparing for the speaking element of their English GCSE. The theme of mentoring and supporting younger pupils is one that has run through Sarena’s time at Croydon High. During lockdown, noticing the impact of isolation on mental health, she took the initiative to set up a forum called ‘Let’s meet’ to allow students in lower years to informally voice any concerns they had.
On hearing the news of her award, Sarena said “ “I was delighted and honoured to have been put forward for the award and I could not quite believe it when I found out I had won. I have no doubt Croydon High has been instrumental in making me the person I am today and so to receive this award on my last day at the school definitely added to the achievement. I hope that I can continue to live up to our school motto… ‘May her character and talents inspire others’.
Congratulations Sarena – making us proud until the very end of your time at Croydon High and, no doubt, beyond.
Mrs Cook
Director of Philanthropy and External Relations
Croydon High's Ivy Players' performance of When This is Over review.
Read MoreOn Wednesday 4th of May, Croydon High School’s Drama Scholars performed a devised play titled “When This is Over”. It was about each of the performers’ lives; their past, futures, lives in lockdown and their deaths. The performance started with a video that contained pictures of different events, future career paths and dreams and activities from different time periods that we later learnt were symbolic of the facts and information the performers gave about themselves throughout the show.
The piece was split into different sections, the first section being the past. In this section, some of the performers told stories about their parents, grandparents, great grandparents and events in their own lives which have all happened and led them to where they are now.
The second section was about their futures, hopes and dreams. They performed the area in small groups and used one or two lines and a frozen image to show what careers they wanted to achieve in the future. This segment also contained an imaginary ‘Oscars’ ceremony. Some of the performers won awards and gave their thank you speeches as they hope they will actually do someday in the future.
The third section was about lockdown and the consequences and effects that Covid 19 had on them and their families. At this moment, the performers lined up across the stage, and each said something that had affected and changed them because of Covid; for example, one group showed a teacher setting work on a zoom call and it buffering so the students could not hear what the teacher was saying. This section also contained a video with several clips of the performers filming themselves during lockdown and updating the audience on how their lifestyles had changed over that period.
The fourth and final section was based on death and was performed as a monologue, which told the story of one of the performer’s death and funeral. It reminded the audience that death is not something to be feared or cause sadness but instead reminds us to cherish the good times and happy memories made throughout our lives. The performers then explained what happens after we die and how our bodies disintegrate into the earth and become part of the world around us. This moment was extremely thought-provoking and allowed the show to end with the audience reflecting on their own past and devising new hopes for their future.
Written by Darcey – Lower Sixth
Year 2 visited The Tower of London as part of their studies about The Great Fire of London.
Read MoreWe were taken back in time by ‘Martha’ to the time of Samuel Pepy’s. Standing in a room in the White Tower, the girls re-enacted the events of The Great Fire through the eyes of Samuel Pepy’s maid. After lunch, they enjoyed talking to a Yeoman of the Guard and learning about some of the history and traditions of The Tower. We saw the ravens and explored the battlements. A highlight was seeing the Crown Jewels, as well as a film of the Queen’s coronation, which was particularly relevant as we approach the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Mrs Male
Year 2 Class Teacher | Humanities Coordinator
Year 5 used Micro:bit to program their wearable tech and did an amazing job with their product design, program and presentation.
Read MoreYear 5 had an enjoyable afternoon on Wednesday presenting their wearable technology ideas and products to the competition judges, Mrs Raja, Miss Threadgold, Mrs Crossfield, Mr Johnston and Mr Murphy. They used the BBC Micro:bit to program their wearable tech and did an amazing job with their product design, program and presentation.
The winners from 5W were Ivy, Samaira, Angelina and Paige for their design of ‘Bob the Band bot’, a wristband that is packed with features including a step counter, a countdown timer, a game of rock, paper and scissors to name a few.
The winners from 5B were Ella W, Wren, Poppy and Naomi for their design of ‘Handy-bit’, a handbag made out of recycled fabric and programmed to have a range of features as outlined in their poster below.
Mrs Krishnamurthy
Enterprise Technology Teacher
It is time to start thinking about nominations for Alumna of the Year 2022 and with plenty of inspirational Alumnae, we would love for you to all get involved.
Read MoreWe are now looking for nominations for the GDST Alumna of the Year 2022. The competition was launched over ten years ago to recognise and reward the many varied achievements of our alumnae.
If the person you nominate has succeeded in any of the following, they will have a good chance of making the
shortlist:
Click here to nominate – closes Friday 20 May.
Episode #19 – This week on the podcast, we talk to Clinical Psychologist Dr Tara Porter. Dr Porter has been working with young people for 25 years. Her clients have primarily been the girls and adolescents she has treated through the NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and she joins us on Raise Her Up to share with us the insights and experiences which she has documented in her recently published book, You Don’t Understand Me: A Young Woman’s Guide To Life. Covering friendships, family, experimentation, conflict, feminism, self-image and much more – this is an episode for parents and daughters alike.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.
Our School Minibus service offers an efficient and flexible option designed to help families with journeys to and from school. Minibus travel is offered to pupils in Year 3 and up.
The service is managed on our behalf by Vectare, a specialist school transport management company. All bookings for our school bus routes are made via our online booking system, which can be accessed at croydonhigh.vectare.co.uk.
The website allows you to book travel 24/7 from anywhere, meaning that if you need to leave early for work one morning or are running late and you would like one of our students to travel on a school bus as a one off, you can make a booking right up until the route is due to depart. Payment for the school bus service is made at the time of booking, so there is no need for pupils to carry cash.