Roedean new head

[Parlourgames]

Does anyone have any personal experience up to date of Roedean and the new head?

Where has the old one gone?

The school was sold to us by Mr Blond. We had a few other offers but thought you could not go wrong with someone who was the head of the HBS in London. The child started school and boom, they announced his departure. We were so disappointed. Unfortunately, the new Head is nowhere near the caliber Mr Blond was ( also coming from a non-selective school where she had just 1 year of experience as an 'Acting Head'). Mr Blond had charisma and was very visible, really got the standards of the school up and the last 2 years of exam results clearly show that. A lot of established teachers and senior staff left with Mr Blond and were replaced with less experienced staff, that shows. The new Head seems to be hiding in her office and not engaging a lot with parents. Her main focus seems to be on girls wearing uniforms and no jewelry and less so on checking the quality of teaching or organizational issues. Last year, for instance, girls in some year groups were given a week to prepare for 3 weeks of tests. Would it kill them to give the revision plans/ cards before the Easter holidays instead of putting kids under so much pressure and stress? Comms isn't great either compared to our previous school. The 2024 exam results will serve as the first gauge of Ms. Green's performance, I suppose.

Hi and apologies for hijacking your post. My DD is exploring her options for a Year 9 entry as a day pupil. We attended the school’s recent open morning. Given my DD’s interests in drama and academics, Roedean initially seems to be a better fit for her? There seems to be quite a considerable number of Hong Kong students at Roedean. Is that one of the new strategies from the new Head, I wonder? Don't get me wrong though, I genuinely admire and love their hardworking ethic and it will no doubt have a positive influence on my DD. I slightly worry that, as I observed during the open morning, most girls from Hong Kong tend to group themselves together in groups and speak in Cantonese. I wanted to know if local day girls from non Hong Kong families will feel left out? Or will there be separate groups of Hong Kong students and other students? Or the school is doing a great job at mixing all students from different backgrounds?

Thanks for your replies. I was disappointed not to see Mr Blond there. Interesting to see how the new head gets on. I really do think a school rises or falls because of the head.

Two terms is nowhere near long enough for a new head to make any kind of real impact.

I like what I've seen of her so far though. I've seen her out-and-about around the school every time I have been for an event and she has made the effort to talk to me on two of those occassions (Mr Blond never spoke to me).

My daughter seems to like her (mainly because she changed the rules allowing the girls to have their hair down 🙄😂).

There are a fair number of pupils from Hong Kong. Nothing to do with the new head though and in fact the numbers of local girls has steadily increased over the past ten years. My daughter is a local day girl there on a drama scholarship and has tended to make friends with the other day girls, but I don't know if this is indicative of an issue there.

Would I recommend the school? Absolutely, without question.

I’m afraid to say, the school is not the same as it once was when Mr. Blond was there. He devoted himself tirelessly to making quality education accessible to local girls who otherwise may not have had the opportunity to experience it. The school used to provide several means-tested scholarships to local families, ranging from 100% to a generous number of up to 80% bursaries. Sadly, the school has now decreased the maximum amount it offers for Year 7 entry to 50%, which will undoubtedly limit accessibility for local girls. These couple of years we’ve also seen a notable number of international borders being admitted. It's unfortunate that such a remarkable educational institution is only accessible to the wealthy individuals from abroad. In fact, more than 40% of the students come from abroad. However, I'm pleased to let you know that the new head is working diligently to keep the parents informed about the private school VAT.

New head is approachable and pleasant
Most importantly, the girls have welcomed and like her.
One can’t possibly make a judgment on her impact based on being in role for a term

Completely agree..

@bonbonmama What happens is that socially at least, the school is divided in two. Most of the Chinese girls just want to stay between themselves, even cooking their own food. That's how they want it, not how things are set up of course. It's just weird and halves the friend's pool in half. Roedean was one of the first school to heavily advertise themselves in HK and mainland China about 20 years ago now. It probably doesn't impact on day girls as much as on boarders though.

Would re iterate the point that the new head has had a very impressive start at Roedean. The girls all seem to really like her and of the staff I talk too, they all speak very highly of her too.
Her open door policy (literally they took the door off) means anyone can approach her & they do.
I have also spoken to her a couple of times & she comes across as someone with a great deal of empathy & understanding.
I really liked Mr Blond too, very large boots to fill but from our experience she is certainly filling them

Hmmm. I'm not sure in what way the start was impressive. Not convinced girls like her either, at least this is not what I hear from my DD every week. Some changes that the new Head brought in e.g. new House system were quite controversial and benefited the minority rather than the wide student groups. I also have concerns about the HM's management of her staff, as there have been several recent hiccups, with overseas trips being just one of them.

My DD says Mrs Green is very visible and approachable and genuinely wants to talk to the students and hear from them both informally and through the formal rep system. She has no concerns about Mrs Green and any changes she has brought in, the senior team of Dr Hobbs and Dr Barrand have ensured that there is continuity in approaches.

in terms of the scholarships/bursary changes I believe this was planned prior to Mrs Green’s arrival and would have been discussed, I’m sure, by the schools governing council/trustees and not down to a single Heads decision, the bursar Mr Poffley would have been instrumental in the financial planning model for the school which includes the bursary and scholarship support. Many other schools have changed their scholarship systems recently e.g. Benenden, Sevenoakes, and therefore changes aren’t unexpected.

In terms of the HK girls, yes they recruit a lot of girls from HK but they integrate very well in my experience, my daughter’s close friendship group includes girls from HK, and also Europe, London and Brighton, both day and boarding. Mixing with girls from a wider range of backgrounds has certainly enhanced her cultural awareness and has been very positive.

Would I still recommend the school? Absolutely.