Rhubarb Issue 12: November 2023

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SCHOOL NEWS

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1. In Summer 2022, renovations at the Warden’s Lodgings revealed a surprise under the wallpaper in the drawing room – a mural of hand-painted daisies and birds from the 1870s, which a local conservator restored and repaired along with a Sixth Form pupil. 2. A new initiative placed reading for pleasure at the heart of school life – Time to Read involves the introduction of dedicated reading periods into the timetable, during which pupils, teachers and House staff spend time reading together. 3. The school production of Shakespeare’s Othello in the Autumn Term 2022 was set in a future barren landscape destroyed by global warming; a progressive re-imagining with Sade McNichols-Thomas (pictured) taking the lead role. 4. Over five weeks last winter, two of our teachers – twin brothers Arthur and Euan Friend (along with their other two brothers Jack and Hamish, also twins) – undertook a 3,000-mile race, rowing unassisted across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Antigua and finishing in third place! 5. To mark 40 years since girls first joined the School, the Warden commissioned a new portrait of Felicia Skene; campaigner for social justice and a friend of Simeon, instrumental in the move to Summertown – of which this year is the 150th anniversary.The portrait was painted by Head of Art, Adam Hahn.

6. A pupil performs in the Autumn Term Ballet Recital in The North Wall.

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