The Mount's Head of History, Helen Snelson MA (Oxon), has been invited to The Hague to advise EuroClio, the European Association of History Educators.

The group is starting an online set of resources for European history teachers which will be useful for non-national syllabuses.

During her visit in early July, Helen will become a Visiting Editor for Euroclio, helping to trial and write resources for teaching.

For further information, please contact Vanessa Charters, Director of Marketing, on 01904-667500 ex 7802.

Children from Reception to J4 enjoyed entertaining family and friends as they showcased their traditional Maypole dances. Dressed in white and many of them wearing home made garlands, the children reeled in and out with the colourful ribbons. Many thanks to dance teacher Sue for teaching the children this skill and for her incredible knack of knowing exactly which ribbon/dancer should be where! Despite a slight tangle or two the children all had great fun ... and were very impressed with the audience participation!

Click here for photographs

This week J3 travelled back in time and became Romans for the day. To start the day the children had a lesson in Roman numerals and found out that the Romans used letters to represent different numbers. It was quite tricky at first but by the end of the lesson everyone was adding, subtracting and even multiplying in Roman numerals! This was followed by a lesson in Roman letters. The children found out that the language the Romans used was Latin and practised writing some Latin words using the Roman alphabet.

In the afternoon the children had a go at making some Roman pottery with clay. After our pottery session everyone was ready for a lie down and a relax at a specially prepared Roman feast. Everybody enjoyed some typical Roman food which included bread, olives, grapes, cheese and cucumber, washed down with apple juice (white wine)! Finally, the children were put through their paces as Roman soldiers by having drill practise outside. They were given orders to march in straight lines with their javelins and then had to make a 'Tortoise' to protect themselves using their shields. All the children had a fantastic day and wished that they could be Romans for the rest of the week!

' I really enjoyed doing Roman P.E with Miss Harvey' – Leonie

' I liked doing the Roman writing because it looked different to our normal writing' – Lily

'Learning about Roman numbers was fun' – Lara

'I enjoyed everything about Roman Day' – Romilly

Click here for photographs

On Monday May 20th our J5 and J6 rounders teams travelled to Bootham Junior School for matches.

The A team batted first, running sensibly and not risking getting out until their last bat. Some of our fielding was good but at other times our catching in particular let us down and Bootham made the most of our mistakes by running on to score.

The B team match was very even with both teams starting to do some good fielding and thinking about stopping the 'live' batsman from scoring. At one point in the second innings, play had to be stopped temporarily as a duck had wandered up behind the batsman and was in danger of being hit!

Well played everyone and keep practising that throwing and catching!

Final scores: A team - Bootham 13, Mount 7.5

B team - Bootham 9.5, Mount 9

The Mount, which became the first school in England to introduce curricular Peace studies into the syllabus, has now extended the programme to from the Sixth Form to pupils in Year 7 and upwards.

The School made headlines last year with the announcement International PeaceJam Foundation's Ambassadors Programme – which is devised by Nobel Peace Laureates – would be adopted into the curriculum.

The highly successful programme "aims to develop creative leaders who are committed to solving the most difficult problems facing our world, giving them a critical consciousness which enables them to make a difference in whatever path they choose," says The Mount's Principal, Julie Lodrick.

"We are very excited about our new curriculum which promises to provide an even more varied, interesting and enlightening academic experience for our pupils," says Ms Lodrick.

The announcement was made this week as the School's senior leadership team revealed their curriculum review to parents and students.

Also confirmed in the review is the news that The Mount Junior School, which already boasts one of York's finest onsite Forest Schools, will introduce further outdoor education studies from Year 1 upwards, and from Year 3 upwards will launch a 'Global Thinking' programme looking at global awareness, philosophy and enterprises.

In the prestigious all-girls Senior School, Year 10 and 11 students will now have the chance to take the Higher Project Qualification (HPQ), an opportunity which enhances their evaluative and project management skills.

The Mount has a reputation for nurturing scholars who are able to transform the world around them.
Past students include five living Dames (astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, poet A S Byatt, actress Judi Dench, novelist Margaret Drabble and politician Elaine Kellett Bowman) as well as Country Director of ActionAid Cambodia Caroline McCausland, Controller of CBBC Cheryl Taylor, community agriculturalist Tamara Hall, TV presenter and Scientist Kate Bellingham and TV journalist Cathy Killick.

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From The York Press.

CHILDREN in York took part in a "Food Revolution" day organised by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Pupils from St Paul's Primary School, The Mount School and the Minster School visited Jamie's Italian in Lendal to learn how to make bread and homemade pasta and for a blind tasting of "guess the fruit and veg".

They also made alcohol-free fruit cocktails before sitting down to eat together.

Food Revolution Day, held around the world, is an annual day of awareness to encourage better food education and cooking skills.

Jamie said: "Food Revolution Day is all about people power. I was amazed last year when we managed to get over 1,000 events organised across the world in only a few weeks but this year, the response has truly been incredible."

Photograph is reproduced courtesy of The York Press.

Click here for photographs

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!

Click here for photographs

Life at The Mount is a never-ending hive of activity, growth and development.

This page will help you keep up to date with the latest facilities and developments happening  at the School.

• Head of History Invited to The Hague: Helen Snelson MA (Oxon) has been invited to The Hague in early July to advise Euroclio, the eminent body for educational historians.
• New Head of Classics: With the impending retirement of ever-popular Rosemary McEvoy, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Karen Downs, who joins us from the end of the Summer Term as our New Head of Classics. Karen is a welcome addition to our Languages department and will begin in September.
• English Department Move: We are in the process of moving our English Department from College House into Main School.
• School House:
  • New Games Room.
  • Duty Room decor refreshed, including new carpets in the office.
  • First Floor Corridor decorated.
  • New pumps to the School House boiler room.
• IT:
  • New state of the art IT system throughout the Pre-School, Junior School, Senior School and boarding.
• Careers Library Staircase:
  • Decor refreshed. 
• College House:
  • Upgrade all Second Floor Bathrooms.
  • Full electrical testing.
• College Common Room:
  • Redecorated.
• Sports Hall:
  • Floors Refurbished.
• Gymnasium:
  • Repairs to the external roof.
• Year 10 Common Room:
  • Refurbished.
• Kitchen:
  • New flooring in the Catering Office.
  • Potwash Area Decorated.
  • New emergency lights.
• Tramlines:
  • New noticeboards and decorations.
• Horseboxes:
  • Refreshed the decorations.
• Assembly Hall:
  • New exterior drains.
• Swimming Pool:
  • New channel drainage at the deep end.
  • New sand in the pool filters.
  • Pool chlorifier is refurbished.
• Car Parks:
  • Resurfaced Carpark area 1.
• Susan Scott Room:
  • Fully redecorated.
• Enchanted Garden:
  • Redesigned with new potting areas for Pre-School children to grow their own gardens.
• Exams Office:
  • Doorway cut through to Staff Accomodation.
• Staff Offices:
  • New window seat in Head of Religious Studies office.
• Staff Accomodation:
  • Fully decorate two flats.
  • New carpets in an Estates house.
  • Refurbish an Estates house.
  • Reroof one flat.
• Junior School:
  • Redecorate the Main Foyer.
  • New desk in the Main Foyer.
  • After School Care rooms refurbished.
• Nursery Room refurbished and opened for 51 weeks a year.
• Toddler Room refurbished, decorated and relaunched, ready to for afternoon sessions in addition to morning sessions.

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!

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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.

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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".

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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

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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.