Just as most girls were starting to really enjoy the Summer Holidays, 13 girls from year 11 embarked on their Silver expedition. The weather promised to be 'improving' over the weekend and the severity of the showers did decrease. The girls navigation and camp skills were found to be excellent, the only criticism was their late start on day two. True to Convent form the girls rose to this challenge and day three started early - one left camp at 8am and the other by 8.30. It should be noted that it takes at least 2 hours for girls to from being in a sleeping bag in a warm tent to being ready all packed (after cooked breakfast) to leave camp. The expedition completed with a brisk walk down Butser Hill to Queen Elizabeth Country Park and the very welcome sight of the their parents cars. Of course they did have to climb the hill prior to the dissent. Congratulation to all girls and thanks goes to Brockland Farm and Stock Farm for allowing us to camp and to Sister Helen and Helen Wallace for volunteering their time to assess the expedition and to Jill Kerr.

Drama comes in many forms and this year's final GCSE examination performances were no exception! The work was created and performed in five groups. The creative inspiration was a piece of contemporary film music by Craig Armstrong called 'Glasgow*. 'Big Brother's Watching You', a piece about the way we are all being surveyed today; 'Heaven Sent, Hell Bent', a slightly surreal comic play set in Limbo; 'Storm', the toy shop as a microcosm of life today; 'No Man's Land', a view of the world as a totally female society and 'When the Lights Go Out'.

Six girls from the V Form formed this year’s team for IBM's annual Blue Fusion science competition. The team of Vicki, Georgina, Georgia, Serena, Tara and Chloe had a splendid day and came 4th out of 16. The day involved 9 activities, the marks from these giving the total. The activities ranged from playing different whistles to communicate with a computer, run a taxi business simulation and planning to send an unmanned probe to photograph our neighbouring planets – modelled by a computer. In this last challenge our team scored by far the highest marks. Well done for an excellent team effort!

On Sunday 9 March two girls in the Vth Form, Hannah and Jenny, had the unique opportunity to participate in the annual performance by the Bach Choir of the St Matthew Passion in the Royal Festival Hall. This is the second year that our girls have been invited to participate in this event and offers some of our more advanced singers the chance to sing with a truly outstanding choir.

On 4 March the IV and V year GCSE Drama students visited The New Victoria Theatre, Woking to see Peter Shaffer’s ‘Sleuth’. The play is wonderfully crafted and we appreciated the twists and turns of the plot. The set was a really detailed depiction of the Drawing room of a Manor House, with staircases and landings it was in fact typical of the settings of a traditional murder mystery play. Sadly for us the lead actor was unwell and his substitute, while trying hard to step into the shoes, was non-the-less disappointing. Never mind; there will be more theatre visits to come!

Mr Whatnot, Death and the Maiden, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Humble Boy, A Memory of Lizzie and Arcadia were the plays chosen by this year's V Form for their performances of extracts from plays. A supportive audience of parents and friends were moved emotionally in responses as varies as the texts: sometimes tenderly sympathizing with the characters' predicaments, sometimes laughing hysterically or whimsically and sometimes just intrigued by the plots. Whatever the emotional response there was plenty to admire in the diversity of the girls' theatrical skills.