Old Girls Go Global

Dawn Wiles (née Glasgow, 1969-1979) Thirty years ago I took the massive step of emigrating to Australia with my husband and four-month-old son. We settled in Cooma, NSW – a small rural town of 6,000, an hour from the snow, surf and city (Canberra). My husband and I are both GPs. We have had three more children who have all left home now. The climate in Cooma is very different from rainy England! Cooma is in rain-shadow from the Snowy Mountains so the countryside is browner and gum trees define the landscape. One of the hazards of driving home at night is hitting a kangaroo or wombat. There are many colourful birds and sometimes we see echidnas in our garden. I love the lifestyle of our rural community; however, the sheer distances in Australia surprised me initially. Being the only family walking on a beautiful beach or appreciating stunning mountain scenery still astonishes me! I miss my family in the UK the most. My brother and his family still live there, but we have been using Zoom to catch up frequently. I also miss the history and the range of dialects across the country in England.

Valerie Storey (née Lee, 1964-1971) In 2002, after 25 years as a teacher and school leader in the UK, I crossed the Atlantic to complete a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. After completing my doctorate, I chose to stay in the USA and eventually became a tenured faculty member and professor emerita at the University of Central Florida, one of the largest universities in America with almost 72,000 students and an operating budget of $1.9 billion. Moving from the north of England to Nashville was indeed a culture shock. Upon moving into our new house, amazing, cooked food began appearing on our doorstep. Initially suspicious of this hospitality, I soon began to appreciate the kindness of my Tennessean neighbors who quickly demonstrated the benefits of disposable plates, cups, etc rather than English china. I also learned to love country music and the Tennessean Titans – although the rules of American football remain a mystery to me! Living on the intracoastal in Florida and close to the ocean, life revolves around the outdoors and specifically water sports. Three hundred and twenty days of sunshine brings with it many benefits, but this is counterbalanced by hurricane season. Ruth Hepner (née Freilich, 1947-1950) after Ruth Hepner I was born in Hartlepool and removed to Bolton where my Father, Minister of the small Jewish community, sadly died; my brave Mother decided we should join my oldest sister who was teaching in London. There I attended a co-educational school and a year's secretarial course – all very different from Bolton School. I served as Headmaster's Secretary to two Headmasters for some thirty years during which time I married and had three children. When our children were in primary school, I very much wanted them to learn to read music and to play an instrument; the chosen teacher was a brilliant windinstrumentalist who had attended the Boys’ Division of Bolton School (though we didn’t know him then); his name was John Denham, who had become a teacher at the school in London where I worked. He taught our children to play recorder and so enthused our youngest child that the two maintained a lasting friendship. My husband, Arie, and I were persuaded in 2020 by our daughter and son-in-law - themselves about to emigrate - that we should move to sheltered accommodation here in Jerusalem; they live nearby and are enormously supportive: we could not have undertaken this move without their constant help. Of course, Jerusalem has great religious significance - and so much to love and by which to be amazed: whereelse can one see olive trees growing on the pavement in a main thoroughfare? Our apartment is part of a community of fewer than 100 residents – men and women of worldwide nationalities - most of whom speak English, though we are not unfamiliar with Ivrit, as Modern Hebrew is called. The residents and social workers are all friendly and helpful and there are many optional activities suiting every taste. We naturally miss our dear friends in UK, but today’s technology minimises the separation. Climate is hot – airconditioning helps! – diet not too different and is, of course, strictly Kosher. In my time at Bolton School Miss Varley was Headmistress; I fondly remember Mrs Tate who taught French and Miss Dawson (History) - she was not impressed with my version of the Bayeux Tapestry!….).

Danielle Cook (née Skelly, Class of 2005) One of the things that I loved about Bolton School was getting to play lacrosse. Little did I know that the sport that I learnt to play there would lead me to spend the rest of my life on the other side of the world. When I moved to a different Sixth Form, I wanted to continue playing the sport that I had grown to love and so I joined Timperley Lacrosse Club. It was here I made lots of American friends over the years who came to the UK to coach us, and it was one in particular through whom I met my wife, Jenn. I moved to the US in 2018 to get married and I now live just outside of Princeton in New Jersey. It’s a perfect location, one hour south of New York and one hour north of Philadelphia, with mountains and the beach also both within a two-hour drive.