On Wednesday 11th January Sister Mary Andrew was invited to watch and review the musical Sister Act starring Alexandra Burke, by Emily Jeffery of Radio Sussex. Her thoughts were broadcast on 15th January as part of Sunday Breakfast with Emily Jeffery. You can listen to both parts of the interview in the clip below:http://www.thetowersconventschool.org/sister-mary-andrew-reviews-sister-act/

Sister Mary Andrew reviews Sister Act

The Towers Junior School has been sponsoring two children, Momadou and Fatou, to attend Medina Mannen School in The Gambia for the last two years. We have also been collecting Sainsbury’s vouchers and sending equipment to support the school. Last year we managed to equip the nursery with lots of lovely toys and games with the vouchers collected. Mrs Hoare, a former Towers teacher and charity worker, showed us pictures of the children using the equipment and Momadou and Fatou looking very smart in their uniform. Mrs Hoare is delivering letters we have written to our friends in The Gambia this week when she visits the school again. To help raise money for next year’s sponsorship we are planning a fabulous finish to our Ice Worlds topic at the end of term. Without the generosity of our children, parents and friends we would not have been able to support this fantastic project – thank you.

Generosity at The Towers

Year 6 Bible Drawings

Nursery Activities

Eva year 5Winner of the year 5 and 6 ‘500 Words’ story

Year 3 ‘Ice World’ Topic Work

Although the weather was chilly, the Junior School returned from the Christmas break ready to embrace their new topic, “Ice Worlds.” The excitement started with the delivery of a strange parcel and a video letter. In the parcel we found some ice eggs and a message from a scientist asking us to solve the mystery of the ice eggs. On Wednesday we began to prepare for a possible expedition to Antarctica by learning the skills to walk safely in a blizzard. On Thursday we went ice skating at Horsham Winter Wonderland to practise our skating skills.Ellen: “I would rate this trip 10/10 because I felt I really developed my skating skills.”Miranda: “It was great fun because we did lots of things on the ice and even the older girls could use penguins”.Erin: “I would have liked longer on the ice but other than that the hot chocolate was amazing!”We can’t wait to unravel the ice egg mystery further!

Ice Worlds

A further 6 Towers girls have been made members of MENSA, putting them in the top 2% nationally. Congratulations to all the girls: Charlotte, Bea, Lottie, Saskia, Meghan and Harriet on their achievement.

MENSA

Lead by the Towers Eco-group, Years 7, 8 & 9 took part in an eco-building project to build a ‘Live Willow Dome’ on the school field. This will be enjoyed by all as an outdoor recreational room and learning zone. The initial concept, planning and organisation took place during our lunchtime eco-club meeting. The club then went on to harvest willow at Gatwick as a part of the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership project, where they learnt how to coppice, learnt about woodland ecosystems and woodland management. Then, with the help and guidance of The Sussex Wildlife Trust, they embraced the frosty elements, had great fun and built the dome! They cannot wait to make full use of it when the weather improves! Jacky

Live Willow Dome Gatwick Greenspace Partnership Project

Towers pupils had been practising, at every given opportunity, for weeks. The challenge facing the four houses was to choose, choreograph and musically accompany two songs for the inter-house competition. All this happened in only 5 weeks and without any staff input. House Captains were able to use their, already well-developed, leadership skills to inspire, cajole and encourage their house members. There was an eclectic selection of songs, ranging from Bob Marley to The Beatles, all of which were performed with passion and gusto. Congratulations to the winners of the House Music cup, Howard House, who will all receive a treat after half term.http://www.thetowersconventschool.org/towers-house-singing-competition/

Towers House Singing Competition

History Work - Erin G in Year 6L

The Barcelona trip, during February half term, was amazing. The group loved this vibrant and intriguing city full of culture, laughter and sun. The art galleries were inspiring, and the architecture was overwhelming. Pupils took advantage of the many opportunities to practise their language skills, immersing themselves in the Spanish way of life. Both the girls and staff have so many lovely memories. It is a trip they will always remember – a once in a lifetime experience.

Barcelona Welcomes Towers Girls!

Year 6 have been busy taking part in the West Sussex Bikeability Course and have proved their proficiency on the roads around Upper Beeding. They ended the week with Level 2 certificates and a large hot chocolate!

Bikeability

Womens’ Football Player Coaches at the Towers

We were very fortunate to have ex-Towers girl, Amelia Ritchie, in school for a week, delivering football coaching to both junior and senior pupils. At only 17, Amelia has played several international matches for the full Wales Women’s team and has already turned semi-professional with Brighton. Her real dream however, is to play for Liverpool, her favourite club! Throughout the week Amelia truly inspired many of the girls, with her skills and drills in each of the lessons. She was also kind enough to run some extra practices at lunch times. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and loved Amelia’s style of delivery. While at The Towers Amelia was always a highly respected team member of The Towers’ successful netball and rounders teams, which won both the leagues and the tournaments every year.

Amelia‘This term I represented The Towers in the Worthing Music & Arts Festival and the Springboard Performing Arts Festival; competing in solo acting, prose reading and solo verse speaking categories.I enjoy taking part in Drama festivals as it’s very interesting to see how different people perform the same poem, or work by the same author, in such varied ways and there’s always an atmosphere of excitement. The competition was particularly tough this year as I was against 12 other people in some of my categories and we had all worked hard to perform well.I was delighted to be awarded 1st place for solo verse speaking, two 2nd places for acting and prose reading, and also a 3rd place for acting.As all my scores were Distinction level I qualified for the Springboard 11 - 14 Championship. This was a brilliant experience, as I was able to watch the winners from other age groups, learn from their performances

and perform again myself. Only one champion was declared and it wasn’t me this time but I will certainly work hard to try to make the championships again next year as it was a lot of fun!Amelia P, 7A

This year World Book Day celebrated its 20th birthday and here at The Towers we were delighted to be part of the festivities.

World Book Day

World Book Day in the Junior School was great fun! The teachers put on a performance of Eat, Peach, Pear, Plum and everyone in the school dressed up in fabulous and imaginative costumes. Throughout the day, pupils and teachers stopped what they were doing to read. The day was a real celebration of books and reading.The Junior School ran a very successful 500 words story competition in conjunction with the BBC 500 Words Competition. The entries were amazing; some stories were hilarious and had us all laughing, others were full of imagination and colourful characters, based on travels and history or inspired by books our children like to read. Well done to all of those that took part. The winners were announced on World Book Day and are as follows:Year 2 – Niamh MCYear 3 – Ottolie G (Overall winner for KS1, Years 3 and 4)Year 4 – Ruby LYear 5 – Eva H (Overall winner for Year 5 and 6)Year 6 – Sri K

Senior pupils and staff dressed up as a wide variety of book characters, including The Book Thief, Red Riding Hood, the Cheshire Cat, plus many more. Mrs Trelfa and Mrs Syred were particular favourites as comic book heroes Batman and Robin. Prizes were awarded for the top costumes in each year group.The Library was the venue for a host of lunchtime activities. Senior Librarians ran a stationery stall and a book swap; artistic book marks were designed and designed and fiendish quizzes were completed. One of the most popular activities was ‘Where’s Wally?’ The well-loved picture book character was hiding somewhere in school just waiting to be discovered by hordes of eager girls and his hiding place did not remain a secret for too long.

In keeping with The Towers tradition of raising money for great causes, not only did all these exciting activities get us thinking and talking about books, but we also raised a fantastic £110 for Book Aid International, a charity which sends books to impoverished parts of the world where schools do not have the funds to supply books for pupils.

Year 10 GCSE Photography‘Damaged’ Project

Dates for your Diary

Open Evening - 3rd MaySisters Coffee Morning - 6th May

Junior School Production - 19th & 20th May

French Trip Years 5, 6 & 7 - 13th - 15th JuneKS3 Production - 20th & 21st June

French Trip - Years 8 & 9 - 23rd - 26th JuneYear 7 to Cudham - 28th -30th JuneD of E Assessment - 1st & 2nd July

The Towers Convent School,Henfield Road, Upper Beeding, West Sussex BN44 3TF

Tel: 01903 812185 Fax: 01903 813858Email: admin@thetowersconventschool.orgWeb: www.thetowersconventschool.org