Welcome to St Paul's Girls' School — St Paul's Girls' School

Netball teams play Godolphin

Results from our netball matches against Godolphin & Latymer School on 15 October:

• Under 16
• 20–11
• Player of the match: Louisa Kahn

More netball teams play Latymer

Results from our netball matches against Latymer Upper School on 15 October:

• Under 13 A
• 21–8
• Player of the match: Clem Makower
• Under 13 B
• 15–8
• Player of the match: Harriet Alway
• Under 13 C
• 2–7
• Player of the match: Alicia Drabble

Netball teams play Latymer

Results from our netball matches against Latymer Upper School on 14 October:

• 1st
• 9–32
• Player of the match: Alexa Vittoria
• 2nd
• 29–12
• Under 16
• 21–22

A taste of our new catering facilities

Joining in with everything St Paul's has to offer needs healthy fuel (and lots of it). Over the summer we revamped our catering facilities to make sure they were up to the job of nourishing hundreds of hungry students and staff. We've opened up the kitchen, redesigned the seating areas, inaugurated an all-day café and even added a "theatre cooking" station so you can watch your meal being made from start to finish. For the many clubs and societies that meet at lunchtime, we're able to provide packed lunches so that you can take part in a full choice of lunchtime activities and still be well fed.

We've been enjoying the new facilities since the start of term and according to our students they're clearly an improvement. "The food quality and choice has improved significantly," says Daisy Fletcher, "with a large selection from a diverse range of cultures." Harriet Marsden adds, "The favourite meals seem to be chicken korma and shepherd's pie and the double chocolate sponge has been well received." Based on the feedback we've had so far honourable mentions should also go to our duck salad, our butternut squash risotto and our burgers with potato wedges. Lily Stroud is pleased with our caterers' imagination – "I love how there's no routine for the meals during the week, because you can never anticipate what you're going to eat for lunch."

"You can't go anywhere now without overhearing someone talking about the food – especially the new conveyor belt," says Roxana Legezynska. And even though year 12 and 13 students have the option to go out for lunch, we're still holding our own against the bright lights of Hammersmith Broadway. "In the sixth form I thought I'd go out for lunch every day but the new school food is so good that I don't want to at all," says Miranda Critchley. "There is so much choice and the soup in the new café is always good if you are in a hurry."

We're sorry to say goodbye this half term to Nadine Travis, formerly general services manager, who did so much to set the highest standards in cuisine and who managed the catering department through the recent changes. We wish her every happiness in her new job at St Mary's, Ascot, and we'd like to welcome as our new general services manager Mark Vernon, who was previously the head of conferences at Imperial College, University of London.

Rowers and bakers support street kids

Charity fund-raising and sport are two vibrant parts of the St Paul's experience, so it was natural for the St Paul's Girls' School branch of Students Supporting Street Kids (SSSK) to combine them last Saturday when they organised a sponsored rowathon on 11 October. "With sunshine and a high tide, conditions could not have been better for our rowathon in support of SSSK," says Zoe Ogahara from year 12. "Sixteen of us accepted the challenge of rowing 10km or more in one hour and we all succeeded – although 10km is really longer than we thought!"

SSSK's weekly bake sale opened up an outpost at the boathouse for the occasion and Eloise Haylor, the St Paul's chair of SSSK, estimates that they raised over £120 from the stall alone. (Make that three vibrant parts of the St Paul's experience: charity fund-raising, sport and cake for a good cause.)

Lacrosse players selected for Junior South trials

After the annual triangular tournament between Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Surrey on 12 October, several St Paul's lacrosse players on the Middlesex team were selected for the Junior South trials. Alexia Arts, Chandler Benet, Claudia Havranek, Anna Harrison and Olivia Watson now have the chance to play lacrosse for the South of England.

Lacrosse teams play Haileybury

Results from our lacrosse matches against Haileybury on 11 October:

• 2nd
• 14–5
• Player of the match: Ally Hart
• Under 15
• 8–1
• Player of the match: Aina Menneken

Netball teams play Highgate

Results from our netball matches against Highgate School on 11 October:

• Under 14 A
• 22–10
• Player of the match: Emily Jelly
• Under 14 B
• 16–7
• Player of the match: Gemma Lowcock
• Under 13 A
• 22–2
• Player of the match: Sophie Wardlaw
• Under 13 B
• 10–9
• Player of the match: Charlotte Hempstead
• Under 12 A
• 9–6
• Player of the match: Holly Hatfield
• Under 12 B
• 22–5
• Player of the match: Claudia Richardson

Netball teams play St Augustine's

Results from our netball matches against St Augustine's on 8 October:

• Under 13 B
• 17–23
• Under 12 B
• 18–13
• Under 12 C
• 18–1

Netball teams play Westminster

Results from our netball matches against Westminster on 7 October:

• 1st
• 20–14
• 2nd
• 23–5
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High Mistress writes on girls' education

Gaslight lights up the drama studio

The latest drama initiative by our enthusiastic student directors, actors and stage crew was a studio production of Patrick Hamilton's thriller Gaslight, which opened at St Paul's on 30 September.

"After we learned our lines over the summer holidays, rehearsals started in earnest at the beginning of the autumn term," reports cast member Chloe Gale. "We fitted them in wherever possible, often on a Sunday at the director Charlotte Glazebrook's house, so that by the 30th the whole cast felt ready for the show."

"Charlotte was full of ideas for staging and direction," adds Chloe. "For example, she came up with a predominantly black and white set, which made all the more impact with the mostly monochrome costumes – so the innocence of Bella (Rosie Skan) was visually represented by her white dress. The production was not without its challenges, such as where to hang the curtains from, how to stage the love scene between Jack Manningham (Ellie Price) and Nancy (Olivia Cundy) and where to suspend a real gaslight in the studio. Both performances ran smoothly and almost without incident, and the cast would like to thank Charlotte for being such a great director and investing so much time in the performance."

Lacrosse teams take on Middlesex rivals

On Saturday 4 October the 1st, 2nd and Under 15 lacrosse teams took part in the Middlesex County tournament, hosted by North London Collegiate School. Our 1st team came third overall and the 2nd and Under 15 teams both came second.

"After a quick 15-minute warm-up and stick-check in the freezing cold," reports Chloe Gale from the 2nd team, "it was time for our first match against Lady Eleanor Holles. We knew it would probably be our toughest match of the tournament and even though we scored the first goal of the game early on LEH went on to win 6–2. We were disappointed, but with a two-game break before our next match we regrouped and were determined not to lose any more! Our next game against the home side North London Collegiate was hard-fought, but in the end the final score was a comfortable 6–1 victory to St Paul's. Our last match followed immediately afterwards against St Helen's and having been warmed up from the previous match we dominated the game from the start, winning 9–0. This left us in second position overall. The whole team really enjoyed playing in the tournament, and we left feeling proud of our performance!"

• 1st vs North London Collegiate
• 6–4
• 1st vs LEH
• 2–8
• 1st vs St Helen's
• 1–2
• 1st vs St James
• 3–0
• 2nd vs North London Collegiate
• 6–1
• 2nd vs LEH
• 2–6
• 2nd vs St Helen's
• 3–0
• Under 15 vs North London Collegiate
• 2–0
• Under 15 vs LEH
• 0–4
• Under 15 vs St Helen's
• 4–1
• Under 15 vs St James
• 4–0
• Under 15 vs Heathfield
• 6–0
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Scientists forever blowing bubbles

A year 7 science lesson moved outdoors last week to blow giant bubbles in different shapes across the playground and see how long they lasted – or rather, to take part in a hands-on presentation by a year 13 chemist, Olivia Kenyon, who was demonstrating her own research into bubble solutions.

"This started two years ago with some research into developing a giant bubble solution for an American company called Klutz," explains Olivia, who's just been awarded a gold BA CREST award – a scheme recogising creativity in science and technology – for her research. "I then continued the project with a mentor from a local toy company. I came up with one solution that makes bubbles up to 14m long under ideal conditions and one that makes smaller, stronger shaped bubbles. I had a lot of fun with this and the bubbles always make people around you happy, as I think I saw with the year 7s."

"It was so exciting to make bubble shapes like pentagons, squares, spirals and other irregular shapes," says Savannah Murphy from year 7, "and I learned a lot about bubbles – what their film was made of and why they appeared to be different colours."

St Paul's sings out for Colet Day

On 2 October we came together with St Paul's School at an afternoon service at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate the life of John Colet, the humanist scholar and dean of the cathedral who established the St Paul's foundation. Nearly 500 years after Colet set up a school in the cathedral grounds to educate "the children of all nations and countries," his mission is still alive and well.

Before the service we enjoyed a brief tour of the cathedral, introduced in a morning assembly by our head of art history, Kate Evans. "Colet Day was great and the organ playing was amazing," reflects Sophie Hammond from year 7 on her first Colet Day, "but for me the most interesting bit was the tour – the cathedral was beautiful and it was fantastic to have seen the tomb of Lord Horatio Nelson."

What's more, St Paul's musicians were heavily involved in the service itself: current students sang in the choir, our organist Simon Weale played the cathedral organ before and after the service, John York (head of keyboards and senior music) and Heidi Pegler (head of singing) composed pieces used in the service and this year saw the premiere of a new setting of John Colet's prayer by Mark Wilderspin, our head of curricular music – while the final hymn, I Vow to Thee, My Country, was set to music by our first director of music, Gustav Holst.

"Colet Day is one of the special occasions when the well-loved hoodie and jeans are put at the back of the wardrobe and smart clothes at the front," according to Roxana Legezynska (year 8)'s view from the pews. "Looking around the cathedral, it was interesting to see how differently people understand the word 'smart'. Some girls came in a dress and others came in a suit. We all look forward to or dread different aspects of Colet Day, from clothes to singing hymns, but it’s the things we like and the things we dislike that bring it together as a whole and make each Colet Day a memorable experience."

Good Schools Guide: St Paul's has the 'wow' factor

Our staff, students and parents are convinced that the quality of St Paul's teaching is unique, so we're delighted to have been recognised by The Good Schools Guide in music, Italian, Latin and classical Greek. In the Guide's latest awards, worked out by combining results, the relative popularity of each subject and students' relative success into a 'wow' factor, we received awards for girls taking classical Greek at A level, Italian at AS level, Latin at GCSE, piano, saxophone, clarinet and music theatre.

One current Latin student has her own ideas about what makes our Latin and Greek teaching so special – "At St Paul's classics are really emphasised as fundamental parts of learning and the curriculum, unlike many other schools where classical Greek is not even offered and Latin is considered unimportant. Being able to take ancient Greek at all, let alone to A level, is obviously really unusual. The Minimus scheme which involves teaching basic Latin in primary schools nearby (I participate in this scheme) is genuinely amazing – it's a chance to really spread classics to a young age group and is also unbelievably rewarding, as the children are so keen to learn Latin and interact with us."

Our approach stands out from the rest when it comes to modern as well as ancient languages, according to one member of year 12 who's currently enjoying Italian with us. "The teachers are both great (Mme Knight teaches classes and Silvana Marconini teaches conversation) and the workload is very manageable compared to my other subjects, at least for now. It's really enjoyable to come into Italian and not be expected to know anything yet, just to learn the basics and have a general chat."

Music is a central part of life at St Paul's and this time the Guide has singled out piano, saxophone and clarinet for particular praise, along with a discipline we've introduced more recently – music theatre. "Music theatre is a fantastic thing to try and do," says one student who takes lessons with our team of singing teachers, "and it helps you to develop your musical and acting skills in a different way to conventional singing and drama teaching." As another satisfied singer explains – "Music theatre involves performing popular stage and musical numbers without sight reading or aural tests, so you don't just sing but also act (in costume) and display your knowledge and appreciation of the repertoire by researching the background to the songs. You then get to put these skills into practice in large-scale musicals. Personally, playing Anna in The King and I was one of my most exciting experiences at St Paul’s, and most of the credit goes to the teachers for blending two incredible arts: acting and music."

Artist Naiza Khan visits St Paul's

Naiza Khan, an artist and former student, visited St Paul's last week to talk to staff and students about her work and career. Three teachers in the audience who remembered her as an A-level student – Kate Evans, Jenny West and Willow Winston – were all delighted to mark Naiza's return to St Paul's.

Naiza now lives with her husband and three children in Pakistan, and has an exhibition titled The Skin She Wears in London until 25 October.

Netball teams play Putney High

• Under 14 A
• 3–15
• Under 14 B
• 7–19
• Under 12 A
• 5–13
• Under 12 B
• 8–10
• Under 12 C
• 7–13
• Under 12 D
• 10–5

Lacrosse players selected for Middlesex

• Under 18 A
• Alexia Arts
• Chandler Benet
• Claudia Havranek
• Under 18 B
• Teresa Benet
• Hannah Chambers
• Gabrielle Giessen
• Charlotte Greene
• Olivia Watson
• Su-Lee Xiao
• Under 15 A
• Emma Dougall
• Maddy Eno
• Hebe Foster
• Sanjana George
• Olivia Morley
• Under 15 B
• Helen Bench
• Dido Connolly
• Ellen Tracy
• Non-travelling reserve
• Emma deBeer

Netball teams play LEH

• Under 16
• 17–33
• Under 15 A
• 25–27
• Under 15 B
• 15–22
• Under 14 A
• 13–17
• Under 14 B
• 4–9