Dear Parents,

At the beginning of the week, I was away at the Girls’ Schools Association Conference where I was lucky enough to listen to some fascinating lectures. For example Dr JoAnn Deak talking about Why the brain cannot truly multi-task and what that means for teaching and learning; Professor Tanya Byron looking at why emotional resilience is more important than grades and Marcus Child (a motivational speaker) explaining how to ‘Accentuate the Positive and Eliminate the Negative’. I also had an opportunity to visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to hear from some of the women that work there and about their varied roles in this organisation. It felt as though I was walking into an episode of Spooks as we entered the building!

For me the highlight of the conference was listening to the Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai. Aged 17, she is the youngest ever  Nobel Prize recipient and her Headmistress told us the story of how Malala got pulled out of her Chemistry lesson to be told of the award, thinking she was going to be told off for something and then returning to her friends and fish and chips for lunch! Malala is an incredible young woman and an inspiration to us all. She thoroughly believes that every child should have choices in life. At the age of 15 she wanted to speak up for every girl who was not allowed to go to school. In her words ‘I wanted change, I wanted peace. I had two choices to remain silent and be killed or stand up for what I believed in and then be shot. I chose the second.  My weapon that I used was my voice and my pen, I did not stop after the incident. I got a second chance to make a difference. I now realise that my voice can make a change and my words are powerful’. Incredible words spoken for someone so young.

I then returned to school to discover we had had a rather exceptional week on the netball pitch and in the pool. We beat Queensgate in a swimming gala on Monday and then the following day we had two draws on the netball pitch against Queen’s College and Portland Place.

Results from this week:

Swim gala – won v QG

U15 Netball Tournament – drew with QC and PP

U14 Netball League – drew with QG 6-6.

Whatever the girls ate over the weekend, it worked! We have had trips out to the Tate, The Royal Academy of Arts and theatre trips for the GCSE and A level Drama students and the Sixth Form Classicists. Mrs Boulter even popped out yesterday afternoon with her Yr10 English group to go on a ‘Word Hunt’ around Knightsbridge, in order to inspire their creative writing.

Sorry to remind you but Christmas is fast approaching and the Christmas tree has arrived and been decorated by the Year 7’s and School Officers.

I hope you can join us for some festive fun at the Christmas Fair on Saturday 6^th December 12-3pm.

Have a restful weekend

Amanda Leach

 The weeks ahead

Prayer of the week

This week celebrated the feast day of St Catherine of Alexandria –  patron saint of students and teachers

Glorious St. Catherine, virgin and martyr, help me to imitate your love of purity.

Give me strength and courage in fighting off the temptations of the world and evil desires.

Help me to love God with my whole heart and serve Him faithfully.

Amen