It has been wonderful to see Croydon High School bathed in sunlight and alive with the laughter of the pupils over the course of the last half term. As spring seems to have properly sprung and even summer is peeking around the corner, we are seeing the campus at its very best. Our green space is a luxury we do not take for granted and one which adds so much value to the experience our pupils have on a daily basis. And whilst this obviously true, it is also interesting to think about this the other way around – the value our vibrant community adds to our campus both now and over the previous decades. 

Since I joined Croydon High, I have been amazed at the support, kindness and connectedness of our community. Croydon High has a soul which seems to have been etched on us over the past 149 years. It runs deep and the pride both our current pupil body and our Ivy Link alumnae network feel seems to be incredibly similar. During our Coronation assembly, we showed our pupils the Heads of Croydon High who have led the school since 1874. Twelve Heads have led Croydon High under seven monarchs and in this time so much has happened: there have been two world wars, the first buses were on the roads and the first aeroplanes took to the sky as well as the establishment of the NHS and the BBC.

Croydon High moved from Wellesley Road in 1966, to its current home in Selsdon and the site has developed and expanded over this time. The school has seen a lot of change over its 149 years but it is the soul of Croydon High, reflected in the pupils, staff, parents and friends who have crossed the threshold over this time, that remains constant. Each member of our community has made an impact and has added their piece to the intricate puzzle that makes up our fantastic community and history. 

So, much as I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy our beautiful site every day, it is that connected spirit of our community, past and present, that makes us who we are. It makes us unique and I am incredibly proud to see this around me on a daily basis. 

As we head into the final half term of the academic year, I hope you are all able to take a moment to remember how much you all add to Croydon High School, each and every day, and the important part you are playing in our story. 

Ms Annabel Davies 
Head

Esther Leong, Class of 1989 

After leaving Croydon High, Esther went on to study a BA (Hons) in Modern History and Politics with Economics at the University of Southampton, International Relations and Affairs at Sorbonne Université and more recently, China CEO Program, Business/Commerce at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

Esther is an intrapreneur turned entrepreneur, a resourceful, energetic, and passionate leader. She founded New Chapters, a luxury lifestyle company that partnered with British heritage brands to provide exclusive, insider experiences for affluent Chinese individuals, particularly those who wished to educate their children on Western culture. The company’s trips carried themes such as “Aristocratic Britain” (training included etiquette and shooting). Over time the product offering developed to be more academically orientated, and the company worked with organisations such as the RSC, Natural History Museum and Louvre to deliver experiential learning travel programmes from “Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Europe”to Shakespeare and Communication.

Pre-Covid, New Chapters specialised in experiential learning programmes for outward-looking, internationally minded Chinese families. These parents recognised the opportunity to inspire their children outside of the classroom. They understood that success in today’s international world comes as much from life skills, such as leadership and creative thinking, as academic results.

The company has been described by historian Andrew Roberts as a “trailblazer” in its approach to educational travel. It is now turning its attention to online learning and is excited to be working on an equally trailblazing and innovative approach to e-learning.

Esther is embarking on a new start-up (currently “Untitled”), inspired by her old educational travel business, which essentially was about experiential learning. “Covid put a big halt to it, so we racked our brains as to how to deliver the essence and benefits of it online, and… Untitled was born. Untitled’s ambition is to inspire and engage students to learn through game-based learning, strongly melding entertainment and education.”

We asked Esther what aspects of Croydon High School she enjoyed most and found most rewarding. “I loved the playing fields. I thought the sports facilities and resources, generally, were great. I liked that it was open to new ideas if we had the get-up-and-go to make it happen; I’m thinking about the Fashion Show we staged and the founding of the Debating Society. The school emitted girl power way before the Spice Girls came on the scene. I don’t know whether it was my age, the time or what… but anything seemed possible.”

And in her spare time? “Hmmm… I don’t have that much spare time with a young child and with trying to get the new venture going, but I’m enjoying making the most of the wonderful weather and rediscovering tennis. My passions were always and still are fashion, food and art, but I haven’t indulged in many of those recently!”

Esther would tell her 15-year-old self to follow her heart more and that it’s never too late…

Finally, Esther’s aspirations for the future. “To have a happy family, fulfilled life and obviously for Untitled to be a smashing success!”

Mrs Karen Roe
Alumnae Relations Manager

We arrived on Monday 15 May where we were introduced to the members of staff at the centre who were going to be leading our activities. First, the girls took part in some team-building games before learning who they were sharing a room with. Tuesday involved conducting a river study as we hiked along the hills of Carding Mill Valley, and later on, created a parachute that could contain an egg and protect it when falling to the floor from a height. On Wednesday, the girls visited Blists Hill where they took part in an activity known as ‘Intaglio Printing’ and enjoyed wandering around the town and interacting with some Victorians. Thursday consisted of walking 7.5km along the Stiperstones hills before enjoying a campfire with marshmallows in the evening. Although the girls were feeling very tired by the end of the week, they had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

Mr Alex Wilks
Year 5 Form Teacher

This week, Astrogazers were joined by two young budding Astrogazers from Junior school, Ava and Arya. They carried out a function test of the datalogger to check the readings from the GPS antenna and Sensor board. We went outside for the GPS antenna to establish a connection with the GPS satellite which took a while.

The datalogger will be an important device that will go onboard the weather balloon as it will be taking measurements of speed over ground, flight altitude, temperature, humidity, air pressure, light intensity, IR, UV radiation and many more.

Next week, we will be building the payload in preparation for our mock launch later on this term.  We are all looking forward to it very much as it is the start of all of our hard efforts becoming a possibility and cannot wait to see it all come together!

Follow us on Instagram and YouTube to get all the updates!

Anaiya S
Year 8
Astrogazers Deputy Marketing Officer

On Wednesday 17 May, Year 7 and 8 took part in Croydon High’s first ever Resilience Day. Resilience has been identified as a key area of development for these year groups and a core area of focus over this last half term. Both year groups were off timetable for the day and partook in a variety of sessions aimed at developing and building their overall resilience, particularly when dealing with friendships and conflict. The pupils took part in team games, orienteering, overcoming obstacles in history and even had the opportunity to act out different scenarios in the drama workshop ‘Whats App Wars!’ In true Croydon High fashion, the day would not have been complete without a healthy dose of competition, with students tasked with working in their Houses together and completing their resilience passports over the course of the day. 

The day was a huge success and we hope it will be impactful for all involved. Although all Houses rose to the occasion it was Garrett who emerged victorious much to the delight of Mr Flower, Head of House!  

Below are some of the reflections from the students themselves – 

On Wednesday Year 7 and 8 had a day themed about resilience. The definition of resilience: the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. We completed a variety of activities in our Houses to learn about why resilience is important.
Sophia, Year 8

For one of our activities we did drama! We learnt about WhatsApp Wars and how to deal with conflict online. We were told to create 6 freeze frames about how the characters must have been feeling during a certain Whatsapp War. We then acted out our pieces and we moved forward to resolving and avoiding the conflict. This helped us understand resilience and how it could help us with what to do if we are ever involved in a Whatsapp War ourselves. We had only 5 minutes for each of these tasks and had to perform them to everyone in our House. Ms Krause and Ms Sigush then decided which one was the winner.
Maha, Year 7

Another thing we did on resilience day was History! We were tasked by our History teacher to make a poster on how our House leaders achieved the place and how they managed to get through it. Most of this included lots of glitter and paper scraps and I’m sure the cleaners weren’t very happy! Overall, all of the posters on Marie Curie, Mary Seacole, Mary Ann Evans (or George Eliot) and Elizabeth Garett were beautiful and made up for all the mess we made! During this session I learnt all about my House and even the small things I didn’t know really widened my mind and really made me more confident as a person.
Mariyah, Year 8

For PE, we had a competitive but fun orienteering task. We were split into groups of three with people we don’t usually talk to, which was a good opportunity to speak to others in different years or different forms. Our groups were running up and down the field looking for numbers scattered around. Everyone competed and it was great fun!
Emma, Year 8

We all had a chance to show off our beautiful artsy skills. There were pools of glitter, buckets of newspaper and bins full of felt. Art was amazing and it really gave every Year 7 and 8 student the chance to collaborate and to have resilience with the time given. It was the best opportunity to make new friends and have fun. Evans created a whole book about resilience, Secole created their dragon mascot, Curie created an acrostic poem for resilience and Garrett made posters for each letter of the word resilience. Being in Evans, I personally think Evans ruled the art competition. During this task, I really shared my opinions and I think other people got stronger at that too.
Mal, Year 7

We later did a workshop where we looked at what resilience is. We started by each writing our own definition of what we thought resilience meant – everyone competed.
Emily, Year 8

We ended off our day with an assembly to share our experiences, and what we learnt about resilience. We started off with a debrief from each of our House spokespeople. In Curie we had Livia and Anaya, in Evans we had Lula, Anna, Lovleen and Nadia, for Garrett Jessie and Zoey, and then finally for Seacole was Flo K and Amariah. All of us spoke about how we overcame issues, and how we became a Year 7 and 8 community, in front of the Head Girls and the House Captains.
Liv, Year 8

Quotes from students for Year 7:

What does resilience mean to you?

I think that resilience means that you have that perseverance and to try and try again.
Bonnie

I think it means just to keep going and not give up and even when you face hard times and difficulties, don’t let that stop you.
Emelia 

What was your favourite part of the day?

I really enjoyed that there were no lessons, and the Play Doh during the workshop with Ms Krause was super fun. Plus I got to draw a dragon with my friends!
Alessia

It was super fun making a poster, and then carrying it down the stairs with my friends to the Junior School Holt Hall!    Eleanor

Ms Caroline Krause
Head of PSHE

Year 3 enjoyed a magical day at Harry Potter World on Tuesday this week. In the morning, we took part in an English workshop where we were lucky enough to be able to handle original props used in the films. Iyla and Deniz were even able to model Hagrid’s trousers!  After lunch we began our tour of the studios. Everyone was amazed as the doors opened and we found ourselves in the Great Hall at Hogwarts! The girls were busy collecting their stamps and searching for golden snitches as we made our way through the Forbidden Forest, onto Platform 9 and ¾ and along Diagon Alley. Meeting a fire breathing dragon in Gringotts Bank was a bit of a shock but we all survived!

When we reached the wand room at the end of the tour, everyone was excited to learn that one of the wand boxes is actually labelled with Mrs Kirkby’s name! Mrs Kirkby was one of the teachers on set during the making of the films! Everyone had a great day, and it was a fantastic way to round off our Harry Potter topic for this half term.

Mrs Anna Johnson
Year 3 Class Teacher

In autumn 2023, Croydon Stands Tall will unveil one of the largest art trails seen in recent years. The trail will raise funds for their charity partner Crisis. There will be 30 eight foot giraffes and 60 four foot baby giraffe sculptures for all that live, work and visit Croydon to enjoy. Croydon High have the exciting opportunity to design and paint one of these four foot baby giraffe’s.

The Art Scholars have worked together brilliantly to design and paint Gloria our Giraffe – she has had a complete ‘Glow up’. Her coloured hooves represent all of the four Houses (Seacole, Evans, Curie and Garrett) that underpin our school and around the bottom we have our mantra ‘Every girl, every day’. Gloria has different cultural patterns decorating her to represent all the cultures that make Croydon High special. She also has maps of different countries and a painting of the world. The Scholars also chose to paint bright shapes to pay tribute to Lettie, who loved playing noughts and crosses and Connect 4. Ella’s amazing ‘Embrace Equity’ logo that she designed for International Women’s Day is also featured. Amber has drawn attention to our Period Project, as something that Mrs Pattison established at Croydon High. And of course, there is plenty of beautiful ivy to show Gloria off in all her Glory. Gloria is now Glorious.

Mrs Elizabeth Smith
Head of Art & 3D Design

Year 5 and 6 Speech and Drama pupils have been excitedly awaiting their results from their examinations at the end of the Spring Term. Ms Bradley is hugely proud to announce that Year 5 and 6, taking Speaking Verse and Prose Grades 2 and 3 respectively, have achieved an astonishing 100% Merit and Distinction in their results, with over 70% of pupils achieving Distinction. In their exams, the girls presented their readings of a poetry selection and prose extract from memory, exploring how to use tone, pitch and pace to bring their readings to life and share meaning with their audience. They have worked incredibly hard throughout the year and their wonderful results are so well deserved.

Ms Rachel Bradley
Teacher of LAMDA, English and Drama

As part of our fundraising for the forthcoming netball and hockey tour to South Africa later this year, the Tour Party are organising a Colour Run on Friday 7 July.

Two years ago, we ran the event for some Junior and Senior pupils which proved to be very successful and popular even though it got rather messy!

We would like to open this up to pupils in Year 5 and above. There will be a number of different races depending on age groups (Year 5 and 6, Year 7 and 8, Year 9 and 10, and Lower Sixth and staff). Pupils will be required to run/walk for a set period of time whilst having paint thrown at them. Those wishing to enter need to pay an entry fee of £10.00 by May half-term. This fee will provide them with a white T-Shirt to wear during the event and keep afterwards, plus colourful powder paint (the colour powder is non-toxic, made using natural ingredients) which they can throw whilst spectating the other categories.

To secure your child’s place, payment will need to be made via your ParentPay account. Upon receipt, you will receive acknowledgement plus a link to a Google Form which needs to be filled out, giving permission and selecting your child’s t-shirt size.

Both of these (Google Form and payment) need to be made by Friday 26 May. Any entries made after this date will not be accepted and unfortunately t-shirts will not be available for your child.

We are hoping that as many students as possible will take part and enjoy this event.

Mrs Sue Beck
Teacher of PE & Head of Community

As part of our fundraising for the forthcoming netball and hockey tour to South Africa later this year, we are running a number of events to help raise money for the trip.

I am delighted to announce a highly desirable item for all those golfing fans out there! We have received a generous donation of a 4 ball at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Course in Deal, Kent, one of the top golf courses in the country (to play this course currently, green fees are £210 per person per round).

Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club

As two time host of The Open Championship in 1909 and 1920, Royal Cinque Ports is a truly magical golfing destination on the Kent coastline.

Tall dunes, pot bunkers and a strong crosswind all contribute to the challenge that awaits as you make your way round.

The course

“I consider the last four holes at Deal to be without doubt, the finest four consecutive holes on any course in the world.”
GARY PLAYER
Open Champion 1959, 1968, 1974

“One of my favourite links courses. Straight out and straight back, the inward nine, especially if there is a wind against, is perhaps as formidable as anything in British golf.”
PETER ALLISS
Ryder Cup Player, Television Presenter & Honorary Member

Auction details

If you would like to bid for this amazing item, please complete this form by Friday 26 May at 4pm.

Please note there are some conditions, stated below associated with this auction item.

Winning bid – after the deadline on Friday 26 May at 4pm and as long as the reserve has been made, I will contact the winning bidder with further details on this auction item and how to book the 4 ball.

Start your bidding form here

Conditions

• The four ball cannot be split into two lots of 2 balls.
• Four balls play is permitted on Mondays and Thursdays ONLY
• Valid and in date World Handicap System (WHS) certificates required for all playing golfers.
• Voucher valid until May 2024
• There is reserve on this auction item.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the family who have made this generous donation and I wish you all the best of luck in your bids!

Mrs Sue Beck
Teacher of PE & Head of Community

We are so pleased and grateful to Jemca Toyota Croydon for sponsoring our Netball and Hockey Tour of South Africa later this year.