June 2015 – Roundwood Park School

Sarah McKenna misses France but gets call up for Canada tour

June 19, 2015/in Alumni/by wpengine

Sarah McKenna has been selected for England Women’s Super Series tour in Canada.

Harpenden’s Sarah McKenna has missed out on selection for the England Women’s Sevens trip to France this weekend [June 20/21], and will instead be heading to Canada with the first XV for the Super Series. The Sevens team travels to France for the final round of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix on Saturday with qualification for the Olympics in Rio already secure. McKenna will join the first XV in Canada for their first action since the fourth-placed finish at the Six Nations.

“My short-term focus is with the Sevens and the Olympics next year and World Cup in 2017, but I want to play XVs,” she said. McKenna made her England XVs debut in the Six Nations and is looking forward to the time and space that the format affords. “Sevens is all go,” said the full-back. “I can have a real hand in the game at XVs because there’s more time and I can try things out.”

As well as the hosts, England will be joined in Canada by New Zealand and America.“It’ll be great to play really competitive matches and see how far we’ve come in the last year,” she said.

Reprinted from The Herts Advertiser 18th June 2015

Georgina Calle [2011] elected Town Councillor

June 17, 2015/in Alumni, Alumni Listings/by wpengine

Georgie was elected on 7th May 2015 as a Conservative Councillor for Harpenden North and serve on the Planning B and the Policy and Finance Committees.

Georgie joined Roundwood Park in 2009 in the Sixth Form, having studied for her GCSEs at Wellingborough School. She has just completed a BA in Politics & Modern History at Manchester University.

However from an early age Georgie has shown great interest in caring for others and for politics. She was a Harpenden Youth Town Councillor and had numerous roles working for charities. She undertook work experience with the local MP, the Rt Hon Peter Lilley, and later as a parliamentary intern for Dominic Raab MP. Whilst studying in Manchester she also stood as the Conservative candidate for Rusholme and, despite increased the share of voting, was unsuccessful.

Natasha Dowie BBC Women’s World Cup commentator

June 17, 2015/in Alumni/by wpengine

The 2015 Women’s world cup is currently being played in several venues across Canada. The matches are broadcast on BBC tv and Radio 5 live. Natasha Dowie [Liverpool WFC and England] is joined by others to preview and give comments and match analysis during the England Women’s campaign.

Nicola Swindon marries Mark Whippy

June 9, 2015/in Alumni/by wpengine

On June 6th 2015, Alumna Nicola Swinden married Mark Whippy at a church in Stratford. The couple honeymooned in Thailand and will return to live in Hertfordshire.

Natasha Dowie: I’m not bitter over World Cup omission.

June 8, 2015/in Alumni/by wpengine

Liverpool forward Natasha Dowie says she is “not bitter” about missing out on a place in the England squad for this summer’s Women’s World Cup.

Manager Mark Sampson named six strikers in a 23-player squad for the tournament in Canada but left out Dowie.

“Of course I felt I’d done enough to go and that’s no disrespect to the girls that are out there,” Dowie, who has won 14 caps, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Mark’s the manager, it’s his decision, I can’t change that.”

She added: “It’s out of my control and I wish the girls the best of luck.”

Dowie, who has scored five senior international goals, was voted FA Players’ Player of the Year and won the Women’s Super League golden boot in 2013.

The 26-year-old also won back-to-back WSL titles with Liverpool in 2013 and 2014.

“I’m not bitter about it because deep down I felt that I’ve given everything I possibly could have.

“It’s hard to take when you hear that players probably won’t be fit for the first couple of games but it’s only going to cause me misery and upset if I think about it too much.

“So I look at it as a challenge to prove him wrong and get involved again. I’ve never made a major tournament with the seniors, I never got involved under Hope Powell.

I’ve got the Euros and I’ve got another World Cup that I could be involved in.”

England start their World Cup campaign against France on 9 June in Moncton.

BBC sport web site June 5th 2015 -By Jo Currie

Jade Bultitude and the Pente Ensemble

June 4, 2015/in Alumni/by wpengine

The Pénte Ensemble is a recently established wind quintet based in London, consisting of five postgraduate scholarship students, at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Having formed in September 2014, notable performances already include recitals and concerts at venues such as St James’ Church, Piccadilly, the National Maritime Museum and Southwark Cathedral.

Individually, members of the group are forging successful freelance careers, winning many awards between them including the Sir James Galway’s Rising Star Award, June Emerson Launchpad Prize, and both Wilfred Hambleton Chamber Music and Clarinet prizes. Collectively, members of the ensemble have performed with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Festival Sinfonia and the English Festival Orchestra.

Future performing highlights include a collaborative, side-by-side project with the New London Chamber Ensemble on a work by Philip Cashian, Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. In June, the ensemble will also be opening the annual All Hallows’ Music Festival in Twickenham with a full evening recital of 20th century music.

Jade is bottom right in the photo.

Angela Clarke [1998] writes new play called The Legacy and showing at the Hope Theatre in London from 8-13 June

June 4, 2015/in Alumni/by wpengine

Following Angela’s successful first novel ‘Confessions of a Fashionista, she has now written her debut play , which is set in Harpenden, and is called, The Legacy. It has been given it’s first run at the HOPE THEATRE in Islington.

The Legacy is darkly comic play about the squeezed middle (class), gender politics, and a mattress.

Everything changed the day Esther took her mattress to class. Esther claims it was a performance arts protest. Rebecca and husband Adam say it was attention seeking. The estranged sisters are reunited at the reading of their father’s will, where the very presence of Esther unnerves Rebecca and Adam. Cracks appear. Tempers fray. And the truth about Esther’s disappearance a decade ago finally surfaces. In 2014 Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz became a lightning rod for worldwide anti-rape and women’s right protests, when she carried the mattress she was assaulted on to classes and lectures.

Inspired by those events THE LEGACY, by acclaimed author and debut playwright Angela Clarke, is a cynically funny play that explores gender, affluence, and shouting back.

Imagine if you took a politically minded, media savvy, online viral activist, and dropped them into conservative, status driven, vanilla suburbia?

Loving wife and mother Rebecca is thrilled when her estranged sister Esther shows up for the reading of their late father’s will. But free spirited Esther’s very presence soon disrupts Rebecca’s dream suburban life; prompting questions neither sister wants to face. Cracks appear. Tempers fray. And the truth about Esther’s disappearance a decade ago finally surfaces.

THE LEGACY is an exciting new play about love, money and bleeding heart liberals.

https://www.thehopetheatre.com/productions/the-legacy/