When a group of our J6s arrived at school on Sunday morning they were expecting to go canoeing on the River Ure at Aldwark but the recent heavy rain meant that there was a change of plan as the river was moving very fast. Instead, we piled into the minibus and headed to the canal at Ripon where we met our instructors fron Experience Adventure and were soon putting on buoyancy aids and having a dry land paddling lesson.

Tentatively and with a few wobbly moments the girls climbed into their canoes, decided who was paddling on which side and pushed off from the bank. We then made our way down the canal having various collisions with each other and the bank on the way! As the sun came out, we passed two swans and then a duck with five tiny ducklings and tried with varying degrees of success to avoid the narrowboats moored along the bank.

By the time we turned back, the standard of paddling had much improved and we moved along quite quickly. There were a few aching arms as we approached the minibus but everyone had enough energy for a splashing session before we got off the water!

On 16 May, Head of Science Tony Welbrock took six S8 students to the University for the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) Faraday Challenge.

The girls were set an exciting challenge: two towns separated by a range of hills, natural disaster (flood) needed to communicate; limited resources. The task was to make a device to communicate, devise a code and prototype a solution. They also had to keep track of how much money they spent and then present and demonstrate their solution.

A good day had by all. The girls got very involved.

I found the day very challenging, but also really fun! The idea of the day was good, but it would have been nice to know a little more about what we would be doing before we signed up. Overall I loved the day! It was fun and educational. Thank you for taking us! - Celia Edwards

Overall I really enjoyed the day.  I mainly learnt about circuits and Morse code. We all wished that we could have our teacher on our team. It would be really cool because you could help us and it would be a school-team-and-teacher thing. But it was really fun and we had to try and think of something original.  Thank you for taking us! - Courtney Stansfield

Overall I thought the whole idea of it was really creative and made us think A LOT about teamwork, science, maths and DT in an inventive and effective way. I liked the scenario we were put into and it made me think outside the box and - almost! - made me realise how horrific it would be to be actually in that situation.  I enjoyed being the accountant as I liked negotiating with the seller and getting the different components for a lower price!  Thank you very much for taking me as I really enjoyed myself and think it was a great experience!  Also if you can, could you thank Ciara as I thought she ran it in a way that really helped me understand how my team could improve our protocol!  Once again, thank you! - Meredith Armstrong

On Tuesday the Junior School held its first ever Archery Day. Staff from Experience Adventure came and turned the lower section of New into our own archery range and all children from J1 to J6 had an hour long session. After instructions were given it was time to pick up the bows, attach the arrows, pull back the strings, let go and watch the arrows fly....hopefully into the target! Some children were successful straight away and others needed a little more practise to get the arrows to either reach the target or stop whizzing over the top. However, very soon, more arrows were making that satisfying 'thwack' as they hit one of the coloured rings and cheers rang out as balloons were popped. Staff also showed hidden talents as they joined in with their classes.

At the end of the afternoon it was time for parents to come and have a go at this sport that was new to most of them. It was great to see lots of people joining in - they proved to be very competitive and skilful and their cheers were even louder. They were last seen heading off to compare their successes with those of their sons and daughters!

A big thank you to the Mount School Association, our Parent Teacher Association who funded this activity.

"When I popped the balloon it gave me a big shock."  Harriet

"I liked putting the arrow in place on the bow."  Grace

"It was fun to shoot at the target."  Chloe

"Archery was fun, but it was tricky aiming for a balloon."  Beatrice

"Chris and Dave helped us - they were great instructors."   Rashed

Click here for photographs

Last week J5 and J6 girls visited Cranedale for a three day residential. What did they think about the visit?

"Cranedale was really exciting especailly the Survival in the Wild Game." Libby

"I enjoyed rock pooling becuase we found loads of crabs." Emily

"It was very good fun when we went rock pooling becuase I found a big fish." Yeosong

"I loved rock pooling especially when I found a crab." Anna K

"I loved the experience of doing activities with my friends during the last year at The Mount Junior School." Laurena

"I loved  Survival in the Wild because it was just like the Hunger Games." Ella

"I really enjoyed everything especially rockpooling at Flamborough Head!" Durga

"I thought that Cranedale was really fun because we did lots of amazing activities. I esepcially enjoyed Survival in the Wild because it was really exciting and everyone thought I had disappeared."  Cecily

"You learn lots of new things and have fun at the same time." Charlotte

"Cranedale was amazing. I really enjoyed playing Survival in the Wild Game, pond dipping and holding a crab for the very first time".  Lara

"The things I liked most about Cranedale was the staff, the food and the activities. I liked that the centre was eco friendly as well."  Elizabeth

"It was really fun becuase you were never bored, you always had something to do. They had a three course meal and you got to serve yourself." Adele

Click here for photographs

On Monday 13th May the Junior school held their 'Go Green Day'. For a minimum donation of £1 (for school charities) the children came to school dressed in green or an outfit made from recyclable materials. Instead of our usual morning assembly an impromptu fashion show was held in the gym to show off all the wonderful and imaginative outfits that the children had put together. These outfits included dresses and skirts made from plastic bags, tin foil hats and even dresses made from old sweet wrappers! There had clearly been a lot of time and effort gone into making some of them. Everyone had a fantastic time walking up and down the catwalk and there are certainly some potential models in the making!

Later in the day some of the children went on a bug hunt and they recorded how many bugs were found in a particular environment. This information is going to be used for a National online survey of bugs. Large wooden flowers and minibeasts were also painted and these will eventually be put up in our Enchanted Garden. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the day and realised how important it is to be green!

Click here for photographs

The Mount School raised over £2700 for charity at their Family Day last Saturday 11 May.

The amount includes £1820 raised by the School's upper Sixth Form in their Auction of Promises (pictured).

Deputy Principal Victoria Sherwood said "Supporting charitable causes is a vital part of School life at The Mount. This figure represents huge efforts from our students, their families and our staff. It is this proactive spirit of 'giving back' that makes girls from The Mount so very unique. Special mention must go to Deputy Head Girl Tori Ellis for her hard work in bringing together everyone's efforts to make the Auction of Promises such a success."

Tori Ellis, who is in the Quaker girls' school's College II year, said "It's amazing how generous and supportive everyone has been. It just makes all the hard work worthwhile."

The money will go into the School's Charity fund, and at the end of the year will be divided between the Schools' three charities: the Okoraseona Kindergarten in Namibia, Cancer Research UK and Barnardo's.

The Family Afternoon, which also featured craft stalls and activities, was rounded off with the School's annual Summer Concert, which featured a choral rendition of songs from Les Miserables, and 'Last Night of the Proms' classics, Rule Britannia (lead by Principal Julie Lodrick), Jerusalem and Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March.

Last year The Mount and The Mount Junior School raised over £5000 for charity.

Ends

For further information, please contact Vanessa Charters on 01904-667500 x 7802.

See the story on Minster FM's website.

As I was making my way down to do the plant stall today I saw an one of our old Mount scholars who looked as if she was waiting for someone. I asked if I could help and she said she was looking for a girl.

'Any girl ?' I said.

'She must come from Bedroom 4. When I was at school here, in the 1950s an old scholar sought me out, as coming from Bedroom 4, presented me with a box of chocolates, with the proviso that I returned as an old scholar, to pass on the tradition of giving a box of chocolates to Bedroom 4,' came the reply.

I took her up to the boarding house where it turns out that Bedroom 4 is now Ms Gunther's room, so we chose the room nearest to it and found one of its inhabitants.

The student was surprised but very pleased to be awarded with the chocolates, and promised faithfully that she would return to carry on the tradition.

The lady who had given her the chocolates believed that the original old scholar must have been at school around 1910, meaning that this tradition has already spanned a hundred years!

- Jo Soden, Head of EAL

INTERESTING FACT: The Mount holds strong traditional ties with chocolate, dating back to when the School was first founded in 1785 by York's Quaker community as a school for girls. Throughout time many students came from York's Quaker families, many of whom were in the city's flourishing chocolate industry. To this day, the morning break is called 'Choc Lunch', as the school would distribute chocolate given from the local factories of Rowntree, Terrys and Frys. These, plus Cadbury's, are also the names The Mount Junior School Houses. 

Girls and chocolate - what a marvellous tradition!

11 May 2013 - Sixth Form students at The Mount raised £1820 for charity at today's School's Open and Family Day.

Students organised an Auction of Promises, with 22 lots donated from the parents and friends of the school, including a week's hire of an exclusive villa in Spain, and first class return train tickets.

Deputy Head Girl, Tori Ellis in the Quaker girls' school's College II year, said "It's amazing how generous and supportive everyone has been. It just makes all the hard work worthwhile."

The money will go into the School's Charity fund, and at the end of the year will be divided between the Schools' three charities: the Okoraseona Kindergarten in Namibia, Cancer Research UK and Barnardo's.

Head of Charities at The Mount, Linda Moore, said "A big thank you has to go to all who donated prizes, and who supported this afternoon in bidding. A special thanks to our College girls and to Tori, who has been an excellent charity rep and without her perseverance and enthusiasm this would not have been such a success."

The delight of the afternoon was the auctioneer, Flora Carr, also in College II, who did a sterling job of calling the lots and clearly enjoyed herself as much as the bidding audience enjoyed listening to her.

After the auction, the afternoon was rounded off with the School's annual Summer Concert, which featured a choral rendition of songs from Les Miserables, and a 'Last Night of the Proms' classics, Rule Britannia (lead by Principal Julie Lodrick), Jerusalem and Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March.

Pictured: Head of Charities and Religious Studies, Linda Moore, with Tori Ellis with the total figure raised.

Ends

Where in York would Zog the Alien like to visit when he arrives on Earth? This week J1 set out to investigate possible tourist attractions. Their mode of transport? An open top bus!

The children boarded the bus on The Mount and went for a tour around York. They got off the bus at Clifford's Tower and then walked through York, stopping to check out the Viking Museum, The Shambles, The Minster and the Chocolate Museum. During their walk they talked about the attractions and whether Zog would like them. The children also had great fun spotting the cats around York and everyone brought a postcard as a souvenir.

It was a beautiful sunny day - perfect for a picnic and ice cream in the Museum Gardens, before the return journey on the open top bus to school. Back at the school, the children made some mini tourist guides to send to Zog - enjoy your visit Zog.

What did we think about the visit?

"My favourite part of the trip was the open top bus. I was very high and you could see lots of things".

"I liked the cat chasing the pigeon on the roof. It was really funny".

"I think Zog will like the big wheel because he goes very high in his space rocket".

Click here for more photographs

On a bright Wednesday morning, an excited bunch of J3 and J4 girls headed off by coach to Robinwood Activity Centre in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. After a brief pit-stop at the services, they arrived to be met by two very enthusiastic instructors, who escorted them up a short hill to the centre (an old Victorian school). A small amount of shock ensued when the girls discovered they needed to make their own beds before any lunch! This being accomplished, to varying degrees of success, the girls were fed and watered and then split into two groups to start their activities. These included archery, climbing and the 'trapeze': here, the girls had to show high levels of bravery
to climb a wall and then leap dramatically to catch the trapeze, before being encouraged to float like a butterfly as they were lowered down by a winch and harness!

"When I was climbing the trapeze, I was terrified. At first I didn't want to do it, but I jumped and I DID IT!"

"I really had to face my fears on the trapeze!"

Tea was followed by some indoor team-challenges and then hot chocolate and biscuits before bed.

After a shockingly early breakfast the next morning, activities were resumed on what turned out to be a gloriously warm, sunny day.
Highlights included problem-solving and teamwork to escape the 'dungeon of doom' and caving (an indoor manmade structure but very authentic).

"I liked being a leader in the caves because you have some responsibility in your team."

The girls also went canoeing on the canal to play an unusual form of water-polo and built their own rafts in teams to float (hopefully) to the other side. Some excellent teamwork was witnessed, as well as highly advanced boat-building skills! Perhaps, though, everyone's favourite activity was the stream-walk; this involved a long, hot hike up a steep hill to come back down via a refreshingly cooling stream, which even included a short section down a zipwire!

"I really enjoyed tipping a cup of stream water straight on top of Mr Newton's head!"

"I had my own waterfall in my welly boot!"

"My favourite was the stream-walk, even though my hands went as purple as a beetroot!"

All the girls were suitably exhausted after the second day and slept like lambs, much to the delight of Mr Newton and Mrs Govier!

The last morning included 'bouldering' with a scenic walk up another hill to do some fun scrambling over and under what appeared to be a mini version of 'Brimham Rocks'!

"I was a bit scared of meeting the bear that may have escaped from a travelling circus years ago." (From a scary story by an
instructor!)

Finally, the 'piranha pool' proved especially challenging for some, with the group needing to work as a team to solve the puzzles to escape before the 'piranhas' entered the water!!

"I loved swinging across the piranha pool."

"I was scared when I first went in, but in the end it was the BEST thing ever!"

A restful journey home, with much consumption of goodies bought from the tuck shop, concluded a fantastic, rewarding, challenging and
fun 3 days.

"I think Robinwood was great because it helped me face my fears, boost my confidence and it was great fun!" Sophie J4

Click here for more photographs

Our Pre–School 2 children had their second swimming taster session this week. Each child was paired up with a member of J6 who helped them put on arm bands, get into the water, blow bubbles and swim across the pool. It was great to see many of the group have the confidence to then let go of their helper and push a ball through the water to the other side.

They also looked at coloured objects on the bottom of the pool and played some games before another group of J6 took over to help them get changed.

From September 2013 we will be introducing weekly swimming lessons for our Pre School children.

29 April 2013

Dear Ms Lodrick

The Youth Speaks National Final

I had the great pleasure of acting as Master of Ceremonies at the Youth Speaks National Final held in Hull last Sunday.

The standard of the presentations was exceptionally high and all the young people spoke with great confidence, clarity and real verve.

I should be grateful if you would pass on my congratulations to Alice, Holly and Lily. I have judged many a public speaking competition in my time as the President of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama and am aware that adjudicators hold different opinions as to what constitutes a really outstanding speech.

I felt the team of young people from The Mount was quite superb and very deserving of an award.

With best wishes.

Yours sincerely

Professor Gervase Phinn

Growth mindset - a guide for parents

The purpose of this blog

This is not meant to be an academic piece of work and I hope the title has not put you off. Lots of York ISSP teachers are enthusiastic about ideas such as growth mindset, and I have been asked to do a short blog to introduce some of these ideas to parents. Carol Dweck, a developmental psychologist at Stanford University USA, is closely associated with the idea, but I am not about to write a blog with lots of references. If you would like to know more about the research underpinning growth mindset, please do get in touch with us. I am going to summarise here what York ISSP teachers learnt at two training events in York given by leaders in the field. I hope to explain what really good teachers are trying to do and to help you to understand how you can support your child to develop a growth mindset.

What is growth mindset?

For those of us who went to school a while ago this can be quite challenging. Recent research about how the mind works suggests that popular ideas that some people are just born smart and others are not are wrong. Instead, with the right opportunities and support, all of us can get better at learning. The brain, like a sportsperson’s muscles, gets better at something with practice. That doesn’t mean all of us can be Einstein, just as not all of us can be Usain Bolt, but we can all get better at things, and we’ll never know how much better until we try.

The people who stand out at school at age 6, are very often not the same ones who stand out at age 16 and very often not the ones who become the successful adults. We are currently very bad at testing and predicting a person’s adult abilities. So, why not put our energies to where we can make a difference? Yes, brains and talent contribute to ability, but it’s dedication and hard work that develop them. That means that as teachers and parents, we should not be focusing on predicted grades and latest test scores, but on providing the support and opportunities that will motivate young people.  

What does this mean for really good teachers?

It means that they should expect excellence from every student. Their students all need to be faced with tasks with high challenge and which demand high skills.

It means they need to give students feedback which is as immediate and as precise as possible to help students improve.

It means that they always encourage students to be collaborative, to learn in groups and to help each other, but they also support them to take responsibility for as much as possible.

It means that they need to give tough messages that improvement is not easy and dreams may not come true. However, that hard work will get one closer to ones dreams and just turning up and expecting to be taught will not. Education is not something that is done to you. Children have fires to be lit, not buckets to be filled.

It means modelling an endless curiosity for life and a love of learning, so that students know lessons are just the beginning of what you learn.

It means helping students to see the purpose in what they are doing and how it fits into the rest of their life.

It means making sure that all students have the chance to fail a lot and to learn from their failures.

How can you help your child?

As the most important adult in your child’s life it really will help if you:

• Encourage your child to be curious, to experiment, to use their imagination and to be messy.
• Praise their hard work rather than the marks they get.
• Make it clear that being hard-working and intellectually curious is cool.
• Praise them when they think for themselves, work well in teams and change their minds after thinking something through.
• Accept that failure is a really important part of learning.
• Encourage them to do activities such as writing, reading, watching fiction, solving puzzles, exchanging cultural views and debating.
• Talk with teachers about support and opportunities rather than predictions.

INDEPENDENT.  THINKING.

The Thinking Lectures Series, hosted by The Mount School, invite members of the local community to come and listen to the public lecture of persons of interest. People who make one think, and look differently at issues of the day, issues in the world around us.

The inaugural Thinking Lecture was delivered by Paralympian silver and bronze medallist, Karen Darke. The general consensus of the audience? "Inspiring." "Life-changing." "I will never complain about anything in my life, ever again." "I am so glad I came." "What an opportunity, to have heard her speak!"

To read more about Karen Darke's Thinking Lecture, please click here.

Future speakers and dates will be announced here as they are confirmed. 

From Minster FM's website - 9:07am 30th April 2013

York Student Tops National Finals

A York student has been named Best Chairperson in the national finals of a major public speaking competition for schools, where adjudicators agreed the standards were the highest ever seen.

Alice Grierson, 17, of The Mount School (York), took the Best Chairperson title in the Rotary Youth Speaks national finals for senior schools, held at Hull University, after she and her team mates Holly Gardiner, 17 and Lily Howells, 16, had qualified earlier in the year by winning the top spots for North Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the East of England with their topic of the decriminalisation of squatting.

The overall senior division of the final was won by Brentwood School on the topic of 'Raising Children Without Cutlery', with John Ogilvie High School (topic - 'We're All Cheats') and Rugby High School (topic - 'Are We The Most Ignorant Generation Ever') taking second and third places respectively.

The Mount and Rugby High were the only teams from all-girls schools in yesterday's finals, as well as being the only all-girl teams.

Adjudicators also voted Isabel Fewster from Brentwood as the Best Speaker and Joseph Kellachan of Ogilvie High won the Best Vote of Thanks.

Rotary Youth Speaks is an international competition run by the Rotary Club, open to school students between the ages of 11-18, to actively encourage the young to improve their public speaking skills.

Bill Ramsay of the English Speaking Union chaired the Senior Competition adjudicators, and declared yesterday's presentations were of the highest quality ever seen.

Alice said 'The level of pupils' abilities yesterday was insanely high, there was a lot of humour deployed in the speeches. I quite enjoyed the day. I even met my favourite childhood author (Master of Ceremonies, author and educator Gervais Phinn).'

Holly, who last week was elected to take over as the School's Head Girl from September this year, said 'The topics people chose to talk about were very interesting, and it was a really enjoyable event. You could tell this was a National Final: the buffet was amazing; the competition room was quite daunting; we used microphones so we could be heard by the 300+ audience; and there was proper stage lighting, which there hadn't been in the previous rounds.' Ever magnanimous, she adds cheerily 'It was nice for us to see another all girls' team placed third!'

Deputy Head of The Mount School, Victoria Sherwood, said "The girls were simply brilliant. We are all delighted for them and they should be very proud of themselves. The competition was amazing and a real feather in the cap for the girls and indeed for the entire School. This initiative by the Rotary Club of GB and Ireland is a truly great grassroots programme for young people, whether they are pursuing careers requiring public speaking skills or even if they are just trying their hand at it for the first time."

The event is the school's second competitive national finals this month.

Earlier 15 year old Niamh Devlin took part in the Poetry by Heart finals, having won the North Yorkshire championship of the competition spearheaded by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

In June a team from The Mount will take their place in the national finals of the hotly contested Debating Matters competition at University College London and the Royal Society of Medicine. The winners of Debating Matters will progress to the International Finals in India.

29 April 2013 - For immediate release - A Mount School student was named Best Chairperson in the national finals of a major public speaking competition for schools yesterday, where adjudicators agreed the standards were the highest ever seen.

Alice Grierson, 17, of The Mount School (York), took the Best Chairperson title in the Rotary Youth Speaks national finals for senior schools, held yesterday at Hull University, after she and her team mates Holly Gardiner, 17 and Lily Howells, 16, had qualified earlier in the year by winning the top spots for North Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the East of England with their topic of the decriminalisation of squatting.

The overall senior division of the yesterday's final was won by Brentwood School on the topic of 'Raising Children Without Cutlery', with John Ogilvie High School (topic - 'We're All Cheats') and Rugby High School (topic - 'Are We The Most Ignorant Generation Ever') taking second and third places respectively.

The Mount and Rugby High were the only teams from all-girls schools in yesterday's finals, as well as being the only all-girl teams.

Adjudicators also voted Isabel Fewster from Brentwood as the Best Speaker and Joseph Kellachan of Ogilvie High won the Best Vote of Thanks.

Rotary Youth Speaks is an international competition run by the Rotary Club, open to school students between the ages of 11-18, to actively encourage the young to improve their public speaking skills.

Bill Ramsay of the English Speaking Union chaired the Senior Competition adjudicators, and declared yesterday's presentations were of the highest quality ever seen.

Alice said 'The level of pupils' abilities yesterday was insanely high, there was a lot of humour deployed in the speeches. I quite enjoyed the day. I even met my favourite childhood author (Master of Ceremonies, author and educator Gervase Phinn).'

Holly, who last week was elected to take over as the School's Head Girl from September this year, said 'The topics people chose to talk about were very interesting, and it was a really enjoyable event. You could tell this was a National Final: the buffet was amazing; the competition room was quite daunting; we used microphones so we could be heard by the 300+ audience; and there was proper stage lighting, which there hadn't been in the previous rounds.'

Ever magnanimous, she adds cheerily 'It was nice for us to see another all girls' team placed third!'

Deputy Head of The Mount School, Victoria Sherwood, said yesterday "The girls were simply brilliant. We are all delighted for them and they should be very proud of themselves. The competition was amazing and a real feather in the cap for the girls and indeed for the entire School. This initiative by the Rotary Club of GB and Ireland is a truly great grassroots programme for young people, whether they are pursuing careers requiring public speaking skills or even if they are just trying their hand at it for the first time."

The event is the school's second competitive national finals this month.

Earlier in April The Mount's Niamh Devlin, 15, took part in the Poetry-By-Heart national finals, having won the North Yorkshire championship of the competition spearheaded by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

In June a team from The Mount will take their place in the national finals of the hotly contested Debating Matters competition at University College London and the Royal Society of Medicine. The winners of Debating Matters UK qualify for the International Finals in India.

Ends.

Editors' Notes:

1. Rotary Youth Speaks is run by Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland for young people from 11-18 years of age http://www.ribi.org/youth/competitions/ribi-youth-speaks

2. Poetry By Heart http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/?page_id=50

3. Debating Matters http://www.debatingmatters.com/events/final2013/national_final_2012_13/

For further information please contact Vanessa Charters on 01904-667500 ext 7802.

This morning a group of aliens invaded J1! There were green aliens with five eyes, an alien with a very large head and hands, an alien with lots of heads, a nurse alien and princess aliens. The aliens started by counted how many eyes there were altogether in the classroom, before writing a story about themselves. Luckily there were all very friendly aliens! During the day the aliens also focussed on number bonds using planets and entertained us with some alien dancing.

More facts about our alien visitors:-

"I live on Ali Sparkle Land and I have Ali powers."   Isabella

"My name is Sparkle and I have sparkling stars and sparkling eyes."   Ava

"I have six eyes on me and I have a green tongue." William

"My name is Rainbow and I live on Rainbow planet."  Harriet

My name is Super Hero and I live on Mars."  Freddie

"I have blue and white stripes and I live in Blue Land."   Leah

"I make animals which are poorly better."    Harriet

"My name is Fran and I make aliens better if they are very, very sick. They just ring me."   Faith

From Mountie, Primrose Adjepong (College 2010-2012) who is now studying with the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.

"Taking a much resisted gap year has to be one of the best decisions I will make in my life. It became clearer when I got accepted to the prestigious African Leadership Academy, which is dedicated to developing the next generation of African Leaders. Many say that they go off and 'find themselves' on their 'gap yah' and truth be told, if I had not taken the path that I chose to, I most probably would have been doing this at a monastery in Thailand. Meanwhile, here at the academy in South Africa, not only have I had the opportunity to explore this beautiful country, coloured with an inspiring history of resilience and human strength but also I have found that I am increasingly creating myself. I have eked out a part of my identity, which I had never given a second thought to, and begun a profound journey of leadership, which is infiltrating every part of my life.

The most amazing thing about this year though, I would say, is the inspiring people I have met from so many different walks of life. There was much opportunity for this because I got to interact with people from 45 different countries whilst at the academy and it taught me so much about tolerance and the beauty of difference. It is easy to feel unworthy at a place like this because almost everyone here has taken on challenges like building windmills in their communities or setting up schools in refugee camps and are amongst the smartest in their countries. But once you get over that depression, there is a lot to learn from peers like that.

The Quaker values of peace, equality and social justice have undoubtedly become resonant with the new understanding I now have of Africa as a continent. I definitely got the gap year experience like no other and I can confidently say that greatness has been set in motion.

For now, it is off to the city of Dakar in Senegal with my non-French speaking self to live alone and work with Global Research and Advocacy group, an NGO which deals with social justice issues. Wish me luck!"

The Mount's LAMDA students continue to maintain their high standards in performing arts, with 44% achieving Distinctions and 90% gaining a Merit or Distinction in 2013.

Seven girls were awarded Gold Medals with four gaining Distinctions.

• Gold Medal Distinction in Acting: Flora Carr, Alice Grierson, Sophia Wormald.
• Gold Medal Distinction in Public Speaking: Holly Gardiner.

Twelve girls were awarded Silver Medals with four gaining Distinctions in Acting. 

• Silver Medal Distinction in Acting: Emma Berridge; Clare Burgess; Mary Fulford; Katherine Long. 

- Rachel Lavell, Speech and Drama Teacher, April 2013

At The Mount, LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) examinations are offered to all students.

Students are prepared for LAMDA examinations from Year 3 to College II (ages 8 - 19 years).

The examination level begins at Entry Level and pupils can choose to work through the examinations to reach Gold Medal Level.

Acting

At Silver and Gold Medal Level in Acting, LAMDA students study three plays chosen from set periods - ranging from Greek Tragedy through to modern playwrights of today. They are marked on their interpretation of the text and character, their techniques and their knowledge of the overall context and content of the play.

Speaking in Public

At Gold Medal Level in Speaking in Public, LAMDA students develo their technical and oral language skills to create speeches for specific audiences. Thye are examined on the success of their speeches and their knowledge gained during the process.

Speech And Drama at The Mount School

• Build confidence and self-confidence;
• Enhance communication skills, personal and social skills;
• Develop presentation skills;
• Develop performance skills, such as acting and public speaking.