Farewell to Mrs Doyle

Farewell to Mrs Doyle and Mrs Stephen

Mrs Stephen Mrs Doyle

It is with a sad heart that I am saying farewell to the AHS Community. It has truly been a wonderful five years and I have really enjoyed meeting and getting to know all the children, parents and amazing staff. It has been a privilege to lead the prep school and every day I have been able to see the talents, skills and the enthusiasm of our pupils in some way or another. It is watching them grow and develop that drives all the staff here and it has been a really great pleasure to be part of that team. I want to thank each and every one of you for all your support and entrusting me with your children. I am honoured and feel so fortunate to have been given the opportunity to be part of the AHS Community. I have fostered relationships with many of you and I will cherish the memories and friendships I’ve made during my time. I will miss you. Although it’s hard to say goodbye to the parents and staff, the hardest part of leaving is saying goodbye to the children. I have loved watching them grow into amazing young people. I will treasure my memories of them all. In closing I’d like to acknowledge just how lucky we are to have such a fantastic school community and I will use all that I have learned here at AHS and carry that to the next phase of my career. I wish you and your families all the very best! I cannot quite believe that I have come to the end of my time at Abbot’s Hill. I started here in September 2002 as Head of PE and was asked to develop the netball, gymnastics and athletics curriculum and the extra-curricular provision as we already had some very experienced lacrosse coaches, which included Mrs Hodge (nee Bellamy) at that time After only a term I was asked to be a Head of Year too, which was only for a year group of 32 pupils, with 8 pupils in each tutor group - how times have changed! During those years I worked under the headship of Kerstin Lewis and it was very clear that the ethos was nurturing and very child entered, which has continued to this day. This caring and supportive environment is true for pupils and staff alike, and this was very clear to me in September 2018 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a few months off work for surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The support from pupils, parents and staff is what got me through that very difficult time along with my family circle. I was keen to get back to the normality of work in February and that really helped me. When Mrs Thomas started her headship at AHS, I was promoted to Director of Studies and one of my first jobs was to design a whole school timetable which meant that Prep and Senior timings were aligned. It allowed me to set up a Teaching and Learning committee and we managed to achieve that first task. After that we introduced Building Learning Power into the school, something I am very proud of as we designed and led the staff INSET on this. In January 2016, I took over the role of Deputy Head from Miss Maynard, who I learnt so much from and I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenging role. Leading the day to day business in the Senior School and still teaching a few hours of PE has allowed me to get to know the pupils and parents in the Senior School very well and it has been so rewarding. One of my more recent proudest moments has to be when the school received ‘Excellent’ for our Academic provision in the last ISI Inspection in January 2020 as we have always had that top grade awarded for our Pastoral provision but never for our Academic side. Only a couple of months after this inspection, the Covid pandemic hit us and that has meant that many of us have re-evaluated what is important to us, as my illness did too. After not seeing my family for 18 months I decided that I would resign and move to North Devon to be closer to them. This has not been an easy decision at all but I am looking forwards to a new challenge and taking some time out to walk my dog on the beach and over Exmoor. I would like to finish by thanking you all; pupils, parents and staff for your support over the years and I hope that the school will continue to flourish for many more years to come.

Independent Day School for girls 4-16 years, Day Nursery & Pre-School for girls & boys from 6 months Bunkers Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP3 8RP Email: enquiries@abbotshill.herts sch uk www.abbotshill.herts.sch.uk