Issuu

2020/ 21

Features 175th Anniversary Celebrations

From Sister Jean and Sister Maria

Combe Bank School Audiobook

Mayfield Medics on the Frontline

The re-launch of Caedmon

From the Cornelian Association

From the Mayfield Archives

School News

OC News

The Register

Welcome from The Chair of Governors

t gives me great pleasure once again to welcome you all, fellow Old Cornelians, to the latest edition of the magazine.

As the Headmistress so eloquently describes, these past 18 months have been a rollercoaster ride for the School, as it navigated the challenges posed by the global pandemic. Thanks to the commitment and efforts of Antonia Beary and her staff, I am delighted to report that the School has fared relatively well. The Board and I are deeply grateful to all they have been doing. Countless individuals, families, businesses and charities have faced enormous difficulties as they struggled to cope with the medical and social effects of Covid-19, and the impact on society. The world as we knew it seemed to have been turned inside out. But Old Cornelians have come together in a quite remarkable way, and many old contacts and friendships have been reignited, thanks to the wonders of 21st century technology. My own Class of ‘71 has been Zooming together regularly, much to the amusement of many of us as we reminisced about the highs and lows of our longgone school days. That shared experience of a Cornelian education in our formative years quite clearly left a deep impression and I have no doubt will continue to do so on current and future generations. I hope you will enjoy reading this year’s magazine and will stay in touch with each other and with Mayfield, as we approach the 175th Anniversary of the founding of the SHCJ this autumn. With my very best wishes,

Mayfield Connect

Mayfield Social Media To join the Old Cornelians Facebook Community, please visit www.facebook.com/OldCornelians To find out about other School news and activities, please visit: Facebook www.facebook.com/mayfieldgirls Instagram www.instagram.com/mayfieldschool Twitter @Mayfieldgirls

Chantal Davies (Lady Davies of Stamford) Chair of Governors

Letter from The OC Liaison

t was with great excitement (and anticipation) that I started my new role as OC Liaison a few days before Cornelia’s birthday on 15th January this year - something positive and uplifting to look forward to during lockdown! I was told that many Old Cornelians usually write to us on Cornelia’s birthday and this year was no exception. We received many birthday wishes for her – possibly even more than usual this year – prompted perhaps by the E-Newsletter which was sent out before Christmas. Thank you to everyone who has been in touch with me this year – you have all made me feel very welcome in my new role. The team has been working on a number of exciting initiatives and events for the coming year to support engagement with and between OCs, and I wish to highlight some for your attention: OC REUNION AND PILGRIMAGE OF THANKSGIVING – SATURDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2021 Although the restrictions have meant we have been unable to gather Old Cornelians together at Mayfield in the last 18 months, we are looking forward very much to welcoming you all on Saturday 16th October. It will be wonderful to meet you then. We will be in contact in September with more information about the schedule for the day but, in the meantime, please Save the Date! MAYFIELD CONNECT In the autumn, we will be launching Mayfield Connect, our new online platform for the OC community. You will find out more about this exciting new initiative on Page 62 and I look forward to bringing more news of this in September!

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS In addition to the printed OC magazine, we send out regular communications to OCs during the year via email (including the OC survey, which will be online). We do not hold email addresses for all OCs and have many more postal addresses than email contacts recorded. If you haven’t received any of our email communications in the last year, then we do not hold an email address on file for you. If you would like to receive all the communications to OCs, then please send your email address to me at oldcornelians@mayfieldgirls.org and I will ensure our records are updated.

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch with me this year.

OC SURVEY On the following page Antonia provides details of the survey we will be conducting with OCs in September. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete and I hope you will all participate as this will help to inform the events, communication and support we provide for you.

In addition to the special anniversary we will be celebrating together in October this year, 2022 will mark the 150th anniversary of the School moving to Mayfield - lots of happy memories to share. I am very much enjoying corresponding with and getting to know you all, and I feel very honoured to fulfil this new role. Thank you, again, for the very warm welcome and I hope to meet many of you at the anniversary celebrations in October. With my best wishes, Marie-Sophie OC Liaison

Letter from The Headmistress

hat a year this has been! Every time I draft this welcome, something else seems to happen to meaning I have to rewrite… So many challenges, but also so many achievements! I have learnt, should I ever have doubted, that it is in adversity that you really see the strength of the Mayfield community, and I would like to pay specific thanks to the girls and the staff for all they have done to keep going so positively and so cheerfully over the course of the last year. Please be assured that this is not a ‘lost generation’ at Mayfield, they are young women who are keen and proud to follow in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors!

In a year where, yet again, examinations and teaching have been disrupted, the limitations of learning in isolation have been revealed. What has been crucial for our morale is personal engagement; girls and staff reaching out to each other (and the wider community) to support those who were struggling. I hope that we have been able to listen more, tolerate weaknesses, appreciate each other’s strengths, and ultimately work together better. One thing that has become eminently clear over the last year, prompted by a range of global and domestic events, is the importance of women (and young women in particular) being able to speak the truth to Power: to have the confidence to ask questions and find out answers; and to stand up for truth and justice, both for themselves and for others who don’t have a voice (albeit being mindful that the voice speaking the loudest is not always the one speaking the truth or speaking with integrity). This is a crucial aspect of being able to ‘respond to the needs of the age’, which, as you know, I firmly believe is a fundamental element of a Holy Child and, especially, a Mayfield education.

I would like to pay tribute to the thousands of OCs, who over the past year have proved such an inspiration to us all in this respect. I have been impressed by the articulate, informed and reflective testimonies (for the most part) I have received from OCs across generations, prompted by different events over the year, evaluating and defining the impact their time at School and Cornelia’s philosophy of education had on them: the way in which it moulded and influenced them, and the choices they subsequently made in their life journeys. While a single voice is important, voices joined together are still more powerful. When it became public that the Generalate in Rome had decided that Cornelia Connelly’s remains were to be moved to Philadelphia, your response was overwhelming: year groups reunited; OCs in different parts of the country and indeed the world made intergenerational links. This challenge to our community (and Cornelia Connelly remains at the heart of our community) made you reflect on what a transformative effect she – and the education you had received here - had had on your lives.

We are part of an international community of feisty, intelligent and proactive women. What we have here is unique and therefore what we expect of them significant.

I received many inspirational reflections, some starting along the lines of “although I wasn’t always happy at school, what I was taught has helped me through my life, and looking back I realise how formative that time was and how fortunate I was…” Many very different people doing different jobs in different places were joined together by a common theme: the effect that Cornelia Connelly and her teaching had on them, and the values Mayfield (St Leonards, Combe Bank, or Harrogate) had instilled in them. You wanted to make your voice heard. You lobbied everyone from the Vatican (‘just passing’ the Papal Nuncio’s home to speak to him in person…) to the Ministry of Justice, you wrote articles and featured in the mainstream media, you appeared on radio, and behind the scenes you researched: asking questions and finding answers, and going viral on social media. You were passionate and impassioned, but also polite, eloquent, respectful, well-informed and uncompromising in your approach. There is much I want our current Mayfield girls to take from this experience. We are part of an international community of feisty, intelligent and proactive women. What we have here is unique and therefore what we expect of them significant. When something is important, I want them to know that they can make their voice heard and join together to make a difference, even when other people tell them it is pointless and futile. If they are doing the right thing, for the right reasons, they will be able to disagree courteously and prove the doubters wrong. I hope the education our girls receive here will continue to prepare them to do this: to respond to challenges when they arise and do their bit to make their part of the world a better place. I want to ensure that this continues to be the case for the next generations of Mayfield girls. The tools they

are being given, the qualities being nurtured, the resilience built up through difficult questions and being asked to do things that, at first, they think they can’t manage, and the faith we have in them will, I hope, enable each of them to have the confidence to stand up, when the time comes. I have said it before, but this year it seems more true than ever: the world needs more Mayfield girls and it seems Mayfield girls working together are more than the sum of their parts! I hope that the launch of our new ‘Mayfield Connect’ will allow us to bring you together more effectively to build on and extend these links and relationships. Also, I hope that you will take part in our OC survey (even if you are not a fan of questionnaires!), so that we can ensure that your voice is heard more effectively. Now that restrictions, at least in this country, appear to be lifting, I hope that in the coming year we will be able to welcome many of you back to Mayfield for a reunion, to help with careers, as a prospective or current parent or grandparent, or dropping in to Sunday Mass or just to say “hello”! Thank you to everyone who has continued through lockdown to help us with careers and talks: your advice and experience continues to be inspirational. If you are not able to visit, please send us your news. The next magazine will be published in January 2022, with a deadline of 15th October, and will include the 175th celebrations and Live Crib. Which reminds me: if you (or an OC you know) have a potential Live Crib baby, please let me know headmistress@mayfieldgirls.org. Due to the ongoing general uncertainty over summer gatherings, we have decided to delay the Thanksgiving Pilgrimage until October, to tie it in more appropriately with the 175th anniversary of the founding of the SHCJ. I hope it will be safer for everyone to travel by that point. Our International School Mass on Friday 15th October is scheduled to be filmed and available to everyone, and we hope to welcome OCs over the course of the weekend for a Reunion and Thanksgiving Mass on 16th October (the Mass will also be streamed), and the opening of the newly refurbished Music School. I hope you will be able to join us either in person or virtually then. In the meantime, I hope you are able to enjoy a more sociable yet safe summer. With my prayers and best wishes,

Miss Antonia Beary MA MPhil (Cantab), PCGE Headmistress

175th Anniversary of Cornelia Connelly founding the SHCJ We are very much looking forward to our 175th anniversary celebrations for current pupils and staff on Foundation Day (Friday 15th October), when we will give thanks for Cornelia Connelly’s life, work, and legacy. The Mass to be held at School will be filmed and made available to OCs.

We also look forward to welcoming OCs back to Mayfield on Saturday 16th October for a special Pilgrimage of Thanksgiving followed by a Reunion Celebration. More details will follow but please save the date. It will be wonderful to gather everyone together in person again.

From Sister Maria Dinnendahl and Sister Jean Sinclair

he Society of the Holy Child Jesus dates its beginning to 15th October 1846, when Cornelia Connelly and the first small group of Sisters celebrated the first Mass in the Convent in Derby. So this year, 2021, we celebrate our 175th anniversary, 175 years of Love and Service. The members of the Society, together with Associates and Friends, are celebrating most of the year by following the Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola – adapted to be made over several months during their daily lives. Plans for other celebrations, such as Masses or parties, had to be postponed because of the present pandemic. However, we hope that the main focus chosen by the European Province of the Society to mark the 175th anniversary of its foundation will be realised before long, and this focus is The Tree. Trees are often used as symbols for a group or an institution and it is easy to employ images of roots, branches, fruits and so on. The planting of trees is also widely recognised today as important in the struggle to combat climate change. So, the symbol of the tree enables us both to look back across 175 years of Society history, and to mark in the present our concern for the future. In our celebration we will remember three stages of the tree’s growth: THE PAST: THE ROOTS OF THE TREE The Society was founded in Derby in 1846. Looking back 175 years from the present day, conditions at the time seem somewhat familiar: “England was a land of bitter divisions, hunger and disease. Cholera wiped out thousands of people and in Ireland a blight had almost destroyed the potato crop, causing the Great Famine. Hundreds and thousands of those made destitute crossed the Irish Sea to find work in newly-built factories in such cities as Derby. Conditions were often cruel, with child labour, few safety regulations, and low wages for those who spent long hours each day producing the immense wealth of early Victorian England. It was also an era

of exploding scientific awareness and technological expertise.” 175 years later many of those descriptions can be ‘matched’ in countries where the Society is serving. We know the current times well... and we also know that when Cornelia and the first sisters arrived in Derby they ‘rolled up their sleeves’, literally

“...the tree enables us both to look back across 175 years of Society history, and to mark in the present our concern for the future.”

and metaphorically, and got on with what God was asking of them in the situation. This anniversary year is an invitation for us to do the same, whether still shielding or in semilockdown or returning to work in schools and other ministries. To remember and commemorate the place where the Society was first planted, we will arrange for 1846 trees to be planted in or around Derby.

THE PRESENT: THE EUROPEAN PROVINCE TREE OF TODAY Today, using the tree analogy, the European Province is probably past its full growth – a mature and elderly tree. Most of the elderly and frail Sisters of the Province live in the Society’s care home, Apley Grange in Harrogate. In recognition of this, we will arrange for 2020 trees to be planted in or around Harrogate, and for one tree to be planted in the grounds of Apley Grange, to join the many strong and healthy trees already there. THE FUTURE: NEW GROWTH, NEW SHOOTS The Province’s most immediate contact with future growth is possibly through the network of Holy Child Schools. We will make a gift of 175 trees to each of the schools in the network in England, Ireland and France – and to Mayfield of course. We will ask each school to involve its students in this gift, to give them an opportunity to decide how, when and where the trees are planted, and perhaps encourage them to add to the number of trees planted; and to help students get to know the history of their own school and the significance of Holy Child – and of particular Sisters – in its establishment and continuance. We will also make a gift of 175 trees to each of the other groups which are celebrated with us (our Associates, HOPSA and a small group of friends).

THE FUTURE: NEW GROWTH We will reach out to the other two provinces on the African and American continents who also trace their roots back to that tiny tree planted in Derby in 1846. They will also each receive a gift of 175 trees. The Province is not planning any single large-scale event. We started the Jubilee year on 15th October 2020 and will end it on 15th October 2021 with prayer and celebrations wherever SHCJ are living and where they can gather easily. Obviously Covid-19 has so far prevented any face-to-face meetings, as well as the planting of trees. Now we are again free to meet, Sisters will be happy to join any celebrations organised by schools or other groups of friends. The Province is also investigating the logistics of purchasing, siting and planting our trees with groups such as ‘Trees for Cities’, as we will need expert advice concerning appropriate locations, planting the right trees for the right soil etc. ‘Trees for Cities’ is a charity which ensures that trees benefit less advantaged people in urban areas.

Cornelia Connelly’s Words for Us

With thanks to the SHCJ for allowing us to reproduce these images

Combe Bank School Audiobook: an interview with Emma Margrett We were delighted to have the opportunity to interview OC Emma Margrett, Headmistress of Radnor House Sevenoaks Prep School and former Mayfield teacher, about an audio book for children on the history of Combe Bank School that is currently being compiled:

Q: You are the Headmistress of Radnor House Sevenoaks Prep School, could you tell us about your connection with Mayfield? A: I worked at Mayfield between September 2011 and August 2013 when I was a Sixth Form tutor, Teacher of Religious Studies and Drama, and Head of Astor House. I was drawn to working at Mayfield due to its connections with the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and because I am a Catholic myself. I was an old girl of Combe Bank School, and when I was looking for a new teaching role, the symbol of the Holy Child Jesus in both logos made me feel an instant connection with Mayfield. Then I visited the School and felt immediately ‘at home’. I thought (and still think) that the buildings are wonderful – my children felt that they have more than a whisper of Hogwarts about them! I particularly enjoyed spending time in the beautiful grounds – there are so many places to be quiet and contemplate, and in the Chapel. I found praying to Cornelia Connelly very helpful when my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. On a personal note, I am so pleased that Cornelia has been allowed to stay in Mayfield to inspire future generations of girls.

Q: What was your best memory of Mayfield? A: I have many extremely fond memories of Mayfield and it is very hard to pick one! I particularly enjoyed working with the Actions Not

Words group which I set up to build a connection between Mayfield and Grove Park School Sixth Form. The awards ceremony, which we held in the Courtyard at the end of the year with a black tie dinner, was really special. Seeing our pupils and the pupils from Grove Park Sixth Form delighting in each other’s company and celebrating their mutual achievements was lovely. Obviously Live Crib was a particular highlight too, and so was watching my fantastic tutor group celebrate their successes at their Sixth Form Leavers’ Ball. I made the celebration cake for it. I am still in contact with a number of my past pupils, and I am always so delighted when one of them chooses to share news of their personal successes with me via email or LinkedIn.

Q: What did you do after Mayfield? A: I was appointed Deputy Head Academic at Lingfield College Prep School. I took on a prep school role as I had thought that one day I would like to be Head of a school spanning the 2 to 18 age group. However, I really enjoyed teaching the younger children and have stayed working in prep schools ever since, although I wouldn’t rule out a return to senior school teaching again in the future as I particularly enjoy the challenge of teaching my subject at GCSE and A Level. Whilst I was at Lingfield, I completed my doctorate on adolescent mental health, something which I had started to research when I was at Mayfield and which I feel has become more and more important

in today’s society. Following on from my time at Lingfield, I was Head of the Junior School at St Edmund’s Canterbury, working with children between the ages of 7 and 13, and taking on the role of Headmistress for the Choristers at Canterbury Cathedral. In September 2019, I was appointed as a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. I moved back home to Edenbridge in 2020 for family reasons and took on the role of Head of the Prep School at Radnor House in September 2020.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about the history of Combe Bank School? A: The Combe Bank estate has been through a number of ownerships, as many an estate. The grade 1 Palladian house by Roger Morris was built for Colonel John Campbell and modelled on the Argyll family seat of Inverary. It became the boyhood home of Henry, later Cardinal, Manning, and later of William Spottiswoode, the King’s printer in the early 19th century. In 1907 the estate was purchased by Ludwig Mond of the British chemical engineering giant ICI. During the difficult economic climate of the 1920s, the 518 acres of the estate was divided and sold. The House and grounds were purchased by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus so as to found the convent and school. In the World Wars, Combe Bank provided convalescence for the

“ I was an old girl of Combe Bank School, and when I was looking for a new teaching role, the symbol of the Holy Child Jesus in both logos made me feel an instant connection with Mayfield.”

wounded, latterly under the British Red Cross and St John of Jerusalem, the school having evacuated first to Torquay and latterly to Coughton Court in Warwickshire. Combe Bank was a convent boarding and day school from the 1920s, and was subsequently re-founded in 1973 as an independent girls’ day school. Science, religion and learning are recurring themes in the history of Combe Bank. As a Fellow and later President of the Royal Society, William Spottiswoode, a mathematician, undertook research on light, publishing in 1874 ‘The Polarisation of light’, and ‘Lecture on Electrical discharge’ in 1881. Among those who visited Combe Bank at this time were literary figures such as Oscar Wilde and Matthew Arnold, and scientists T H Huxley, Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday. Each of the eras in the estate’s history has seen extension and remodelling of the property. Significant among which must rank the stable block of 1809, becoming part used in the 1900s as garaging for the Mond’s motor vehicles as keen ‘automobilists’, and later as laboratories for Robert Mond in his work on carbonyls. Later, as St Anthony’s, the stables (which is now the location of the Prep School) provided accommodation for the Order. In the House, the work undertaken by Walter Crane of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1880s on ‘The Saloon’ can be seen, and that of Walter Cave, President of the Royal Society of British Architects, effecting a design by Adam for the ‘Adam Room’

ceiling, again in the 1900s. A major extension to the north added ‘The Long Gallery’ giving the Mond family a ballroom and space for amateur theatricals. Wartime needs saw the creation of nine wards providing 73 recuperation beds. The Order’s major extension was completed in 1931 and provided a dining room, hall, and classrooms above, and made the ‘Long Gallery’ their Chapel. Subsequent developments included a gym, swimming pool and sports hall.

Q: What is the purpose of this book?

Q: Is your school still linked with Mayfield now?

A: When I heard about the audio book project from The Friends of Radnor House, I knew it made sense to get in touch with Antonia Beary and reach out to the Old Cornelian network. The Friends of Radnor House would love to hear from anyone with a memory or an interesting fact about the owners of Combe Bank House, the people who worked there or the local area, it doesn’t matter if this is a large or small detail. Everything helps to add more authenticity and to weave the final story together. We know that there are many ex Combe Bank pupils who are parents of current Mayfield girls, and we know that the Old Cornelian magazine has a wide reach to people who have a history with the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, which also founded Combe Bank School. Friends of Radnor House may be reached directly at friends@radnor-sevenoaks.org if you have any information you would like to share with them.

A: No, Combe Bank School was taken over by Radnor House in 2015 and on 1st September 2016, the school name was officially changed from Combe Bank to Radnor House Sevenoaks. Today, it is no longer a Catholic girls’ school. It is a secular co-educational day school.

Q: We understand your Friends’ Association and Chair Liz Baker are planning to produce a children’s audiobook about the history of Combe Bank. Could you explain? A: The book marks the 300 year anniversary of Combe Bank House and will be written by Lisamarie Lamb, a parent at Radnor House School, an old girl of Combe Bank and Old Cornelian herself.

A: The book and audiobook seeks to show children the wonderful history of Combe Bank House with tie-ins to eventful times in history, as well as being an exciting read. It is hoped that the sale of the book will provide muchneeded funds to support the charities chosen by the school community.

Q: How can Old Cornelians support you with that?

Thank you.

Mayfield Medics on the Frontline We were delighted that OC Dr Charlotte Turrell (Class of 1992) took some time out of her very busy schedule to talk to us about her work. Q: When did you first decide you wanted to be a Doctor? A: At School I realised I was good at Science and loved the idea of working with people. I was attracted by the idea of a vocational degree.

Q: Where did you study after Mayfield? A: In London at the UMDS (United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals) for five years, which was a real eye-opener coming from my rural Mayfield life! I had a room at St Thomas’ overlooking the river and facing Westminster which was amazing. I then had a final year working as a GP registrar.

Q: Where was your first job after University? A: Greenwich Hospital where I spent six months in Medicine, and then the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells where I spent six months in Surgery. It was a tough ‘old school’ experience whereby I was on call all weekend with little or no sleep. It was hard but I learned a lot and the camaraderie was great.

Practice Manager of the Year 2020. At the start of the pandemic there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty but it has actually brought us together as a team.

Q: We understand you were on the BBC News as your GP Practice was the first in Sussex to start giving patients the Covid-19 vaccine? A: On 15th December 2020 we were the first practice in Sussex to start the vaccination programme. We are a hub for five local practices (Uckfield, Buxted, Heathfield, Herstmonceux and Newick) and we can administer up to 500 vaccinations per day - an impressive team effort!

Dr Charlotte Turrell on right

Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring Mayfield medics? A: Be open-minded and take every opportunity you can along the way. You can make a real difference to people’s lives - go for it!

Q: Where are you working now and how long have you been there? A: I’m now working in Uckfield as a GP in the Meads Medical Centre. I’ve been there for 11 years.

Q: How has your experience of working as a GP through Covid been? A: It’s been wonderful. I feel very privileged to work in such a forwardthinking surgery with amazing colleagues including Charlotte Luck, our Practice Manager, who was awarded The Meads Vaccine Team after the first delivery of the Oxford vaccine: “The beginning of the end!”

Mayfield Medics on the Frontline

Amelia Hardy (Class of 2020)

My name is Amelia, and I am a first year medical student studying at Lancaster University. My first year at Medical School has definitely been strange, however I know that I have been very lucky to have the amount of contact hours I have been receiving during lockdown. I really enjoyed my first term at university, despite being in and out of lockdowns, as there was a real sense on campus of everyone pulling together to help each other. (Although I have to say I definitely enjoyed coming home to my Mum’s cooking again, and not having to pay to do laundry!). Before we entered Tier 4 last term, I was training with the university swimming team, and my college netball club as well, which I really enjoyed as I was able to meet lots of new people. Being able to have an outlet when work gets a bit too much has really helped me, and I can't wait to be able to get back in the pool! Coming back after Christmas initially was very hard as I was the only person in my building for about a week, especially as I still had the same workload. I found ways to cope with this though, such as meeting with other medics on campus and trying to get out of the flat during the day. Before lockdown, we had six hours of in-person group discussion, and four hours of clinical skills and anatomy lessons every fortnight. However, my in-person teaching is now down to one hour a week of clinical skills, and the rest has been moved online. This has definitely been hard for all of us - trying to have a group discussion on Teams is very different to having a discussion in person. My course is Problem Based Learning, which means we have two week-long modules that are based around a scenario that we read and analyse at the beginning of the two weeks. We then set ourselves learning objectives based around four topics: medical sciences, health and cultural sciences, population health, and professional practice, values and ethics. Our lectures and anatomy sessions are then based around these. For example, our last module was on embryology and reproduction. We also have communication skills sessions, where we learn how to approach patients, how to take a history, and other appropriate communication skills and techniques, that we can take forward to use in the future. It has definitely been a challenge adapting to the university lifestyle during a global pandemic, but I am very lucky to have met so many amazing people here, and to feel supported by the Medical School.

Lottie Brushfield (Class of 2020)

This year is certainly different from how I imagined it. Most of my time is spent at a desk in my room, but I know that is the same for students across the country at the moment. I’m lucky that I was able to come back to Bristol University to continue my studies in Medicine as I work much better here than at home! Online learning is definitely difficult, especially when Medicine is usually such as practical subject, but I’m lucky that I have other medics in my flat who I can study with. I’m glad that I still have the time to keep up with my hobbies, like ceramics, my bedroom is often covered in clay as I managed to bring a potter’s wheel back with me after Christmas! Covid-19 has thrown us some curveballs, like in October when around 15 people in my flat tested positive and we had to isolate for three weeks! I’m lucky to be in a flat of 42, so I see lots of different people every day. The format of my course at Bristol is case-based learning. This means that each fortnight we get a new topic to look at - for example, the most recent one is the cardiovascular system - and all of my tutorials and lectures are based around that topic. We get given a case example, and my tutorial group then discuss and research areas such as treatment options, current medical research, anatomy, and physiology. Usually we would do this in person, but currently it’s on Teams I imagine it’ll be quite strange when we can finally meet in person! I get to do virtual placements, which consist of observing online consultations with a GP and chatting to patients about their conditions. I also get to do something called ‘effective consulting’, where we learn consultation techniques that we will use throughout our careers - they even bring in actors to play patients so we can practice our bedside manner. You have to see the funny side of it I suppose - I never imagined using a teddy bear to learn how to use a stethoscope! I haven’t had much in-person learning, apart from a few seminars and dissection sessions, but in March I get to do my first in-person placement - a 12-hour shift as a health care assistant at one of the hospitals in Bristol I’m so excited that I will finally get to meet patients faceto-face! Whilst it is certainly a strange experience being a first-year medic at the moment, I love my course and I’m so glad that I chose medicine.

he Drama Department was delighted to re-launch Mayfield’s elite drama society, Caedmon, which has inspired and guided generations of Mayfield girls over the years on their journeys to stage and screen success, as you will see over the following pages. The re-launch was celebrated with an acclaimed performance of ‘Antigone’, reviewed here by OC Megan Cooke (Class of 2020), and a wonderful party attended (pre-lockdown) by members of Caedmon old and new.

The re-launch of Caedmon

Mayfield’s prestigious drama society, Caedmon, has re-formed for the first time in 15 years. The re-launch event on 10th October was a big success - a sophisticated evening with great food and even better company – which gave us the chance to meet former Caedmon members who shared their wisdom and experiences of theatre. There was a buzz of excitement in the air about our upcoming performances of ‘Antigone’, giving a lovely atmosphere to an evening which inspired the new generation to uphold the Caedmon tradition of excellence. Rehearsals began in October and we focused on individual scenes and relationships between the characters, as this is an important part of creating truthful performances. Beginning with a skeleton overview of the scenes, we then added chorus points, creating abstract movement to fit with the dialogue while working on the unison and intention behind it to deliver strong storytelling. Rehearsals ran throughout October and November, with cast members rehearsing privately to develop their

“ ...a lovely atmosphere to an evening which inspired the new generation to uphold the Caedmon tradition of excellence.” scenes and characters further (which we felt was necessary considering the sophistication and standard this play requires). Everything began falling into place so that by the last week of rehearsals we could work on polishing the finer details. Soon the performances arrived and the nerves kicked in but our cast performed both evenings beautifully, with Izzi playing Antigone and Samantha playing Creon. The feedback we received was beyond our expectations and we were thrilled to have been given such a complimentary reception for our first performance as the new Caedmon. I will treasure my memory of the cast singing the soundtracks to ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at the top of our lungs while we were getting ready for each performance – a true behind the scenes highlight!

‘Notes on Lockdown’ Reminiscences by Caedmon Alumnae ‘Acting in Lockdown’ by Rosie Cavaliero (Class of 1986)

ust before Christmas 2019 I finished work on a long but extremely enjoyable shoot for the BBC called ‘Black Narcissus’, based on the Rumer Godden novel of the same name. You may remember the Powell and Pressburger film, a movie classic that I watched and adored regularly over the years. Our intention with this version was to go back to the original book and explore it a bit more deeply. I was thrilled to be finally playing a nun, the hardy Sister Briony, able at last to call on my memories of Mayfield and its many Sisters during my years there in the 1980s. I had the added privilege of filming in Nepal, a breathtakingly exquisite country that I long to return to. I can hardly believe that I was there just over a year ago. It feels like a dream now. Anyway, after we finished filming, I was pretty shattered and was looking forward to having January off, be at home with my family and have a bit of a rest. Little did I know how long that rest was going to last. My industry is a tough one, it takes years to break into, it's a constant struggle to stay in and the fear of never working again never leaves you. I've spoken to the most famous and highly decorated actors in the business who still believe that their current job may well be the last. When young actors ask me for advice I have to bite my tongue when tempted to say “Please, just don't do it!” I remember getting advice from the late great Dame Peggy Ashcroft via my mother after she had met her on one occasion. Her reply when Mum asked about my acting bug was “Well, if there is absolutely nothing else in the world she can do… But there really has to be nothing else at all.” That advice didn't particularly thrill me at the time but it has stuck with me. It is a life full of rejection, terrible for the self-esteem, and it never gets any easier. The national lockdown for the acting industry has been devastating. The

complete shutting down of theatre has destroyed lives. Many have had to retrain, young actors have had to leave the business before they've even got started. Drama schools have gone online - try teaching a movement lesson to students via zoom! Teachers have been incredible at adapting to this situation but it is far from ideal. Just as the business was trying to address the issue

management, front of house staff, the list goes on.

“My industry is a tough one, it takes years to break into, itʼs a constant struggle to stay in and the fear of never working again...”

Before having my son, my career encompassed a fair amount of theatre which I was lucky enough, now and again, to mix with TV and film roles. However, the prospect of long West End runs with a small child, eight shows a week and generally being away from home, did not appeal, particularly as I don't live in in London anymore. TV work, although intense, does mean you can have chunks of time between jobs to be at home with your family and have a relatively normal life, if that is indeed possible in this business. Therefore screen work and radio have been my source of income for the last 15 years or so.

of why kids from less advantageous backgrounds weren't breaking through, the pandemic struck, making it even harder for those struggling at the best of times. The worrying thing is no-one really knows when it will get back up and running again properly. How soon will audiences want to gather together in an enclosed space? I am optimistic things will get back on track eventually, but I am saddened by how many livelihoods have been decimated in the process. And of course it's not just actors, it's musicians, producers, writers, designers, technicians, makers, stage

Bizarrely, the day before lockdown was announced last March, I was on a train to London for an audition at the National Theatre for a new play. I was excited at the possibility of treading the boards again. As I got off the train at Paddington, my agent called to tell me to get back on and go home. The whole project was on hold for the foreseeable… After a few months however, the filming industry was allowed to get going again. This was down to government-backed insurance schemes and budget increases to allow mass testing regularly for cast and crew. It was deemed that the filming industry is essential. I don't feel that this is altogether fair as I watch small

The re-launch of Caedmon

Helena Little (Class of 1978)

businesses around me collapse, but such is the nation's desire for more and more telly to binge on. Regular Covid testing for a shoot is not cheap, some production companies simply cannot afford the extra expense for Covid protocol. Everyone is usually tested three times the week before filming and then three times a week while filming. I have managed to complete a few jobs in the last few months with these strict measures in place. However you have to be responsible, avoid contact with anyone outside your bubble beforehand, be super careful on set, keep a two metre distance, wear a mask right up until the director shouts “Action” and keep the anti-bacterial gel on hand at all times. No-one can afford to slip up. Obviously infection hasn't been avoidable. If someone tests positive, filming shuts down, sometimes for up to two weeks or more.

“What do you remember about my time in charge of Caedmon?” I asked my Whatsapp group of three die-hard buddies from that time of yore, circa 1976, at Mayfield. I was astonished back then to discover that, as was the tradition, the departing members of Caedmon voted for the next person to take the helm and they’d chosen me. I literally ‘got the badge’. Clueless, but full of energy, interest and enthusiasm, I mounted a production of NF Simpson’s ‘One Way Pendulum’. Long hours were spent below the stage in the Great Hall, constructing a bank of grandfather clocks out of cardboard. In this absurdist drama, the final scene required them all to sing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s ‘Messiah’. However chaotic my production was (and certainly none of my buddies have the remotest memory of it. “What’s Caedmon?” asked one), I was clearly smitten and went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to train. All these years later and I’m still acting. Even my construction skills have not gone to waste. I have a homemade audio booth to prove it! In this dark, duvetclad enclosure, my gorgeous Rode NT1A mic and I conjure up worlds and characters for all kinds of audiobooks. I wish all my Caedmon colleagues of today a very happy, creative collaboration. Based on my memories of ‘One Way Pendulum’, my soundest advice is ‘don’t forget to rehearse Act III’.

My current job has been a series of stop-starts for various Covid reasons. Productions keep getting pushed until things are more settled. At the moment, no-one is quite sure when that will be. I feel privileged to have been allowed to work at all during these difficult months and it has reminded me that I love my job, despite the hard times that go with it. I wish the Caedmon re-launch luck and joy. Drama is absolutely vital in schools. It gave me, along with the music at Mayfield, so many happy memories. It was where I felt the most at home, the most confident and the most fulfilled. Break a leg!

FUN FACT: Three Mayfield alumni have all played nuns in the last year: Fenella Woolgar in ‘Call the Midwife’, Dolly Wells in ‘Dracula’ and moi. Plus ça change!

‘Caedmon, cardboard and character-building’ by Polly Paulusma (Class of 1993) Caedmon was already a hallowed institution when I reached the Sixth Form at Mayfield. I journeyed up the ranks of the Drama Department through my seven years at Mayfield: Mrs Moore, the Drama teacher, ran a tight ship in those days and I was one of four brave guinea pigs to take Theatre Studies A Level for the first time under her stewardship. She was an amazing and inspirational powerhouse of positive energy, with her dazzling white hair and twinkling,

smiling eyes. She made you feel there was nothing you couldn’t do. Having been in a Caedmon play directed by older girls, I took on directing a production of Edward Albee’s 'A Perfect Balance', with Claire Hemsley. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life, and I think I probably let everyone know it was — but we pulled it off. Back then, a treasure box existed of old photographs and programmes of

Caedmon performances past, and we really felt part of a long chain of tradition. I wonder if it may turn up one of these days… but the spirit is re-kindled with the society’s re-launch. I hope the young women who work together to bring Caedmon performances to the Mayfield stage learn as much as I did through the process, lessons about the importance of teamwork and the value of working together on creative projects.

Su Collings, Former Head of Drama I remember Caedmon very well and was delighted to be at the re-launch dinner in 2019. During my time teaching drama at Mayfield, I directed many Caedmon plays, the first being ‘The Boy with The Cart’ which was performed in the Chapel.

has always been strong at Mayfield and has been the start of many successful theatre careers. I send my very best wishes to all new members of the society and feel sure they will carry on the exciting work of their predecessors.

I am very glad that Caedmon is being revived, I remember judging many competitive sessions. The drama

Good luck everybody and remember ... All the World’s a Stage!

The Happiest Days of Your Life by Clare Ghika (Class of 1987) Perched on a ladder, speaking with an American accent is my earliest memory of drama at Mayfield. I was lucky enough to be a cast member in Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’, directed by Su Collings. As a new girl in the second year, the production gave me the chance to continue nurturing the acting bug I had caught at my prep school. I don’t think there was a year during the next six that I wasn’t a part of at least one production, whether directed by Mrs Moore, Mrs Collings, or Mayfield’s own homegrown, talented directors. There was always a script to learn. And I will never forget the fiercely competitive Inter-House Drama competitions! Winning for Raphs in ‘The Real Inspector Hound’, alongside Fenella Woolgar (we played Moon and Birdboot), was a total joy. Treading the boards brought much happiness and excitement. And shrieks. I can still feel the nervous anticipation of waiting for the curtain to go up (so to speak) and the mad dashes underneath the length of the Concert Hall. The camaraderie, fun and even the queasymaking nerves made many happy memories.

Co-directing and producing with Fenella our Sixth Form Caedmon production of John Dighton’s ‘The Happiest Days of Your Life’ felt a tremendous achievement. From the trip to London to select ‘our’ play, to holding auditions, building and painting the set (a box set for the first time in several years), and choosing costumes. It was all-consuming. The final preparations were not, however, without high drama. Pond (Headmaster of Hilary Hall School for Boys) succumbed to a nasty bug and Fenella took on the part at the eleventh hour. As the consummate professional, she played Pond as though the part had been hers from the first day of rehearsals. Quite brilliant. “It will be alright on the night” took on a whole new dimension! While I didn’t continue to act at UCL, my Mayfield ‘dramatic’ experience has proved immensely helpful during my working life. And it gives me enormous pleasure, and pride, every time I see an OC’s name in lights. Who knows, maybe there is time for a little drama yet!

From the Cornelian Association The Cornelian Association (CA), represents pupils from St Leonards, Mayfield, and from other former SHCJ schools such as Combe Bank and Harrogate, and maintains links with Mayfield in a number of ways. These include organising the annual Cornelian Association Awards, and supporting the charitable works undertaken by Mayfield School and the SHCJ. This year, the CA is donating £1,000 to WEFA (Water and Education for Africa), one of the School's chosen charities, as well as prizes for the Cornelian Association Awards.

In recent years, the CA has also made donations to support refugees in East Sussex through ‘Voices in Exile’; supported literacy for underprivileged children near Killiney, Ireland; supported the Alzheimer’s Society; supported SHCJ missionary education in the Dominican Republic for the Well Baby Clinic, and hurricane relief work; supported SHCJ charitable work in Africa and the ‘Step into the Gap’ programme run in conjunction with CAFOD; assisted ‘Bliss’ for babies born prematurely or sick; made donations

for Masses for deceased old girls and donations for the Head Girl’s Prize; as well as supporting individual girl’s music lessons, school trips, and the construction of the Sixth Form Centre. We are also working with Mayfield’s Lay Chaplain, Ronan Lavery, to ensure that deceased old girls are prayed for by the School and remembered at Mass regularly.

Cornelia Connelly In mid-February, we learned of an application by the SHCJ leadership in Rome to exhume Mother Connelly from her resting place in Mayfield Chapel in order to send some of her remains to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia. The Society believed that by being in the Cathedral, Cornelia’s life, legacy and her charism would have the potential to be recognised, seen and shared by a larger number of people. However, many were dismayed at this suggestion in terms of the potential damage to the Chapel (a Grade 1 listed building), the cost of such an exercise, and whether or not this was at all necessary to advance her cause for canonisation. The Cornelian Association, as the representative of Old Cornelians around the world, created a Facebook group, ‘Cornelia Remains’, which brought together over 600 OCs, and many more were also contacted through our existing personal networks beyond Facebook. Certainly, the group has been a positive example of the power of social media! We are relieved to report that the application has been withdrawn and we are sincerely grateful to the SHCJ leadership for listening to

the many genuine concerns raised, and for revisiting their decision. A debt of gratitude also goes to those among the OC body who used their expertise as engineers, surveyors, archaeologists, journalists, councillors, theologians and historians to inform responses to the Historic Churches Commission, the Ministry of Justice and the press. Particular thanks must go to Sue Gaisford (née Speak), who gave so freely of her journalistic skills - speaking with diplomacy while at the same time conveying so eloquently the strength of feeling from within both the OC and the local Mayfield community. Above all, we are deeply indebted to every single person who gave their voice so readily. The resulting OC response was one of strength, faith and resolute passion. For many, it was the latter which they were surprised to find within themselves. The application exposed deep feelings of association with the SHCJ and Cornelia Connelly and this is something the Cornelian Association looks to build on going forward. The Chapel remains a sacred space for Holy Child Sisters, the School, OCs and all those with Mayfield

associations, and with the help of the SHCJ representatives and the School, we are seeking ways to develop a renewed dialogue and relationship between the SHCJ and OCs. The SHCJ are proud of the long tradition of Holy Child life and mission at Mayfield and the way the School has always ensured its students love and live by Cornelian principles. We are delighted that the links between the School and the Society remain strong and the CA will do all in its power to ensure that they continue to do so as the school and OCs look for new ways to promote Cornelia's legacy going forward. The Facebook group remains open and can be found here www.facebook.com/ corneliaremains. As well as documents relating to the original application, you will find many hundreds of welcoming OCs and an active discussion on how we can celebrate and promote the spirit of a Cornelian education for the benefit of all. Do please join us there. Alternatively, if you are not on Facebook but wish to find out further details and join the discussion, please email cornelianassociation@outlook.com.

Help needed ... JOIN FELLOW OCS In terms of the CA Committee, we have recruited three new members in 2020. We meet several times a year (on zoom currently), and it is always lovely to come together and discuss plans for the best way to work with and support Mayfield and the current girls, and to decide on our annual donations to charities, both at Mayfield and in the wider SHCJ community. If you benefited from a SHCJ education and would like to join us in helping to support the SHCJ and Mayfield in

various endeavours today, please let us know. Commitment can be as little or as much as you can manage. It is a great way to remain connected with your alma mater and to contribute a little to that which gave us all so much. “Let us never think we have done enough” (Cornelia Connelly). We are planning a Zoom meeting to which all are welcome. Let us know if you would like to join us. We look forward to hearing from you: please email: cornelianassociation150@gmail.com.

CAN YOU HELP? We wish to revise our rules and would welcome assistance from someone with experience of working with the non-profit sector and an understanding of the legal aspects of this. Please get in touch if you would be willing and able to help by emailing cornelianassociation150@gmail.com.

From The Cornelian Association

Cornelian Association Awards "Stunning, exciting, captivating, striking, fascinating, compelling, thrilling, delightful, inventive, inspired, amazing, impressive, and breath-taking" – these were just some of the adjectives used by the Cornelian Association Awards judges to describe entries to last year's anniversary competition for Years 7, 8 and 9. The competition theme was 'adventure', to be interpreted in a creative and imaginative way, and the girls certainly did not disappoint. Entries included Alexa’s illustrated account of making an earthenware pot using clay dug from her garden, which she fired overnight in a sunken bonfire; Tabitha's nature video of Pennybridge Woods; Rebecca's book reviews from every continent; Elizabeth's lockdown diary; Phoebe’s board game linking trivial pursuit with the current academic syllabus; and Katie’s artwork of Alex Hannold, which showed a "remarkable talent for portraiture" and which won her the prize for best artwork.

As with so many things, lockdown meant this year’s competition took place online, and, while we missed seeing the entries in person, and meeting the girls and their families at the prize-giving drinks reception, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing so much talent, imagination and ambition. We are, once again, incredibly grateful to OC Sue Gaisford (née Speak) for her expertise in judging the final entries. Since its launch in 2013 as part of the 150th Anniversary celebrations, we have seen many exceptional submissions and we would like to extend our thanks to all the girls who have entered the Cornelian Association Awards over the years. On previous occasions, the girls’ entries have been displayed for the wider community to enjoy, and we hope that this will continue so that everyone can share in their achievements.

Pupils of St. Leonards-Mayfield School in the 1960s, wearing their unique cloaks.

From the Mayfield Archives

Juniors of St. Leonards-Mayfield School in 1886. Note the distinctive frilled bonnets.

We have very much enjoyed perusing these historic photos of St. Leonards, Mayfield School uniforms in times gone by in ‘Blazers, Badges and Boaters – A Pictorial History of School Uniform’ by Alexander Davidson. We imagine our current students are very happy that their uniform has been updated!

The pinafore worn at St. LeonardsMayfield School in the early 1900’s. Note the striped stockings.

Lockdown – a year we will never forget

Ashley Briody (Class of 2020) I remember packing my bags as school closed, but not all of them as I was sure to be back. Then online learning began which was fun at first, but I remember the feeling of uncertainty about our A Levels and what would happen - would we go back? We all adapted to our situation very quickly, and my teachers were working hard not only to teach us the content, but to also keep us calm and motivated (in the midst of a pandemic), in the best way they could via computer screens. It was a challenge and we were all trying to navigate through the storm.

qualification and was eager to continue working myself up the professional rankings towards my goal of owning my own scuba diving centre. When I arrived home from Manchester, I contacted all the important people I had met in the scuba diving industry, and a month later, I was on a 14 hour flight across the world to Mauritius where I began a 14 day quarantine in one of the local hotels.

Underwater Photography Instructor and Wreck Penetration Instructor, with many more to come.

We then finished school, and, after eagerly awaiting our results, I received the grades I needed to become a student at The University of Manchester. I went for a week, then left! I just knew that being locked down in student accommodation wasn’t for me (and those who knew me at Mayfield will know that too!) so I registered myself with the university as ‘working from home’ and carried on with my lectures remotely. In the summer between Years 12 and 13, I achieved my first professional diving

Now I am in Mauritius, working towards my higher professional certifications with the aim of running my own centre and teaching people of all ages how to scuba dive on a coronavirus-free island, while studying for my Bachelors degree in International Management (no, I’m not joking, and no, I don’t sleep!). Since arriving here in October, I have achieved professional certifications as an Emergency First Response Instructor, Assistant Scuba Instructor, Emergency O2 Instructor,

It’s important to find the pathways in life that matter to you and to ensure that your goals are waiting for you at the end of that path. Walk towards them every day and enjoy the journey! Life has taught us all many different lessons over the last 12 months, and perhaps changed our perspectives. One of the many important changes for me has been trying to make the most of every moment and finding the positives. It takes courage to stand out from the crowd and pursue your dreams!

Genevieve Badia-Aylin (Class of 2020) This last year has been, if we’re going to put it mildly, incredibly strange. Leaving Mayfield seemed like something out of the Twilight Zone (unnerving government announcements, girls being hurried home, the empty echo of hallways that, just a few days earlier, had been bustling with students…), and the Summer that followed, in its restless, siren-punctuated glory, an especially worrying version of Groundhog Day. By the autumn, I couldn’t wait to pack up my bags, order a matriculation gown, and get to university. University has also been bizarre. Knowing that I’m more than halfway through my first year at Cambridge, where I’m studying Modern Languages at St Catharine’s College, and yet barely know most of my classmates or professors, is surreal (although thankfully I don’t have to get up extra early for 9am lectures). Luckily, the people I’ve been living with are all in the same boat, and so we’ve grown

closer than most do in normal years. My friends from Mayfield have also played a part in keeping me sane, as we communicate across the airwaves with late night FaceTime calls and movie marathons, and we keep our fingers crossed and wonder about the next time that we’ll see each other. The manic pace of life has also been a welcome break from the sun-beaten lethargy of the summer. Classes have kept me more than occupied, and now, sandwiched as I am between Spanish picaresque novels, Sardinian linguistics and Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’, the world outside seems, thankfully, a little less apocalyptic than it did before. On top of this, I’ve acted in drama productions, joined a radio show writing team (for all self-endorsing purposes, it’s on Spotify) and written self-indulgent newspaper articles about my favourite musicals. And when, last term, we were yet again sent into isolation, one of the college fellows even managed to get Ian McKellen (himself an alumnus of

our esteemed accommodation block) to send us his autograph, which was possibly one of the greatest moments of my life. Now that I’m working from home again, it feels strange to think that this has been my university experience. But I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to have it, and not just because it gives me something to do. The world seems a little clearer now – something I think everyone is searching for at the moment. I’m excited for what the future holds.

Mary Whitlock (Class of 2020) Now, almost a year since the first lockdown started, it feels strange to think that my last term ‘at Mayfield’ was actually spent online at home. School feels like a million years ago and yet it also doesn’t really feel like we ever left. Despite online leavers' events, there wasn’t much of a feeling of closure and I am actually surprisingly grateful for this. It wasn’t easy leaving my home of the last five years - best friends who used to live one step from my bedroom door were propelled to the other side of the world and not seen for another nine months or more. This was made even harder by the suddenness of our leaving and the last few days were quite an emotional rollercoaster. Yet because of this, I still feel like a Mayfield girl, as though when Coronavirus ceases to control our lives, we will simply move back in, as if nothing had changed. Of course a lot has changed, but things were definitely made easier by Teams lessons, prefect meetings, and walks later on in the Spring.

Even though we couldn’t go on the various travelling and inter-railing trips we had planned, my summer was good fun. I became an assistant in an art gallery, which was an amazing experience. Writing, talking about and selling art all day made me realise just how much I love it, and hopefully, when things open up more, I can go back there. Creating my own art was also a big part of my lockdown and summer, and still is. My passion for oil painting started at GCSE in Mayfield and has been furthered by a number of projects, including a series of portraits which I’m documenting on instagram. More recently, I’ve created an art studio at home which has kept me very busy, particularly as I haven’t been able to go back to uni this term. In September I started studying art history at St Andrews University. The experience has of course not been the same as it would normally be but I’ve still had an incredible time so far. I feel very privileged to be studying in such a

sunny and picturesque town. With three beaches, beautiful buildings and very friendly students, I feel a little like I’ve moved to Mayfield-on-sea. Much has changed for us, and more so for many others. But I feel that the foundation Mayfield has given me is strong enough to support me through these times, and further into the future.

Isabelle Brattle (Class of 2020) Despite only being a year ago, my memories of leaving Mayfield are all a haze. The transition from physically leaving Mayfield on a random Friday in March, to online learning, to study leave, will be a time I shall never forget. The feeling of community, support and love from staff, as well as peers, during that uncertain time of lockdown before, during and after our exams were cancelled, is a warmth I’ll never forget. I have fond memories of taking my online classes outside in the sun, maybe not so much talking about our subjects in breakout rooms, but all the same having a sense of trust that everything would work out somehow. One memory that will always stick with me was our online leavers' prize giving. Listening to everyone’s achievements and farewells simply showed what incredible peers I had, all of whom will go off to do amazing things. The passage into Summer 2020 was equally an unique experience, I think for everyone. Being allowed to celebrate Results Day in August with friends, after

months of not seeing each other, was extremely special, showing enduring and long lasting friendships. However, before then, after being rather bored, I took a Harvard online course called ‘Ebola, preparing for the next Pandemic’. The similarities between this course and reality truly took me by surprise, and I especially found it interesting to compare mistakes and lessons learnt from the Ebola outbreak to the pandemic I was, and am still, living in. Currently, I am studying History at the University of York and having the time of my life! All credit to Mayfield, I have found the jump between A Levels and my degree manageable, despite always having a mountain of reading. Additionally, online learning at Mayfield earlier on in the year prepared me well for the bulk of my university course similarly being online. Moreover, joining hockey and netball, as well as casual tennis, at University, means the love of sport that I developed at Mayfield, continues to be a big part of my life. I have also joined the Cheese and Wine

society (the most important part of my university experience!) as well as the Model United Nations. As Cornelia said, “A Mayfield girl is a busy girl!” I still have plans to convert to law after my History degree and am excited as to what the future may hold. Alongside my degree I am taking another Harvard online course about contract law to aid and assist me into my future conversion. However one constant in my life and future will forever be the cherished memories that I have of Mayfield.

The Society of St Augustine of Canterbury The Society of St Augustine of Canterbury was founded in 1822 to promote and advance the Roman Catholic religion in England and Wales. The Society’s principal objective is to support the Archbishop of Westminster by contributing financially towards the funds needed for the conservation, maintenance and improvement of Archbishop’s House which adjoins Westminster Cathedral. Archbishop’s House was designed by John Francis Bentley who is considered to be the most influential 19th century Roman Catholic architect in Britain after AWN Pugin. The House was completed in 1903 and serves as the residence of the Archbishop of Westminster. The building, which is Grade II listed, provides the Archbishop and the wider Catholic Church in England and Wales with a suitable venue for national and international meetings, to receive His Holiness on Papal Visit and to host receptions for Catholic organisations. The Society through its membership and sound investment policy has been able to assist the Archdiocese of Westminster by taking responsibility for a substantial part of the annual maintenance costs. Each year, we are able to make a significant donation at a private reception given by the Archbishop in the Throne Room. Members may bring a guest to these special events when there is the opportunity to meet the Archbishop and listen to a talk being given by His Grace. In 2022 the Society will celebrate its Centenary. Please join us and help support the work of the Archbishop and, through our other initiatives, to further the aims of the Roman Catholic religion in England and Wales. Mary M Goodwin, Chairman

For further information or to request a membership form, please contact: Claudia Jasper, Membership Secretary, 2a Overhill Way, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 6SW. Tel: 07885 385 584.

School News

Renovation of the Music Block We are delighted to announce that the newly-refurbished Music Block will be ready in time for the new academic year. The building will be a huge asset to both the Music and Drama Departments, and will incorporate six sound-proofed and climate-controlled music practice rooms, break-out rooms, a Music Classroom including an IT suite, a dedicated Music Library, instrument storage facilities, and areas for individual quiet study. The ground floor of the new building will also comprise a large second Drama Studio which will be used for teaching, rehearsing, occasionally as a dressing room, and for public performances. The Studio will be equipped with stage lighting and has been designed to be a versatile space. There will be an opportunity to tour the refurbished building at the Reunion on 16th October.

Sixth Form twins win prestigious Arkwright Scholarships Identical twins, Valeria and Victoria, both celebrated being awarded a prestigious Arkwright Scholarship at the end of last November. The Scholarships aim to inspire potential future leaders in engineering, and the girls went through a rigorous selection process which involved submitting a detailed proposal for their project on detecting the presence of ionising particles. As part of the Scholarship, the girls are being sponsored by Rolls Royce and the ERA Foundation, and support is offered in various different ways. This includes through valuable hands-on work experience, support for their project, and a personal mentor who can help them with their studies and career planning. The girls’ interest in applying for a Scholarship was sparked by attendance at the School’s STEM club in which they were actively encouraged to explore the dynamic field of electronics and coding. Valeria and Victoria said: “We are very excited to have been awarded Arkwright scholarships. We're really looking forward to developing our project and can't wait to begin working with our sponsors, Rolls Royce and the ERA Foundation."

Live Crib 2020 While we were sadly unable to invite parents and OCs to join us for Live Crib 2020, we were delighted to be able to send a recording of the magical and festive socially-distanced performance for you all to enjoy at the end of the Christmas Term. Many thanks to all of you who contributed to the Live Crib Just Giving page which raised £220 for the Cardinal Hume Centre and Crisis.

School News

Creative Arts The Creative Arts have continued to flourish at Mayfield with beautiful art works being produced even during lockdown.

A selection of Year 13 artwork exploring fine liner pen, mixed media, watercolour and photography.

A selection of A Level artwork exploring the properties of oil paint and watercolour.

School News

Year 11 GCSE coursework project on architecture using photography and Photoshop to overlay several images together to create a series of graphic outcomes.

A selection of GCSE artwork exploring colouring pencil, photography, Photoshop and watercolour.

School News

A selection of GCSE artwork exploring mixed media surfaces based on the girls' own photographs, oil painting, Photoshop and watercolour.

Year 13 artwork using oils.

School News

A selection of A Level artwork exploring cut-work, charcoal, photography, Photoshop and graphic wallpaper design.

Mayfield in top 20 all-girls schools for Cricket We are delighted to announce that Mayfield was named in the Top 20 allgirls schools in The Cricketer Schools Guide 2021. The award followed an exhaustive process which saw a record number of schools submit entries to be included in the guide, despite the ongoing pandemic. All entries were judged against an extensive set of criteria, which included a compelling commitment to cricket in the curriculum, facilities, fixture programmes and coaching. Emily Starr, Mayfield’s Head of Cricket, who has represented England (Indoor) at U19 level and Northamptonshire County Cricket, said, "We’re delighted that the School has been recognised

as one of the top 20 all-girls schools for cricket. Cricket was introduced as a major sport just three years ago and in that time we have established a comprehensive programme, supported by a significant investment in our facilities and infrastructure, and we have exciting plans to develop these even further. The girls have responded positively, with dedication and determination, and we have reached regional finals in the U13 and U15 age groups, and have girls in the Sussex team. This year we had planned our first international tour to Barbados, but due to the pandemic we had to postpone the trip – we’re now hoping to go in 2021/22 once guidelines allow this.”

“The award followed an exhaustive process which saw a record number of schools submit entries to be included in the guide...”

Lockdown Listening Programme Mayfield’s most recent outreach initiative is the Lockdown Listening Programme in which the girls have been encouraged to reach out to members of their family or local community who may be feeling isolated or lonely (after consultation with their parents or guardians), to see if they would welcome a regular chat on the phone.

This has been a great success and we continue to be impressed by news of the girls proactively supporting friends and neighbours, and hope that they and their ‘partners’ will gain something from the intergenerational friendships forged and perspectives broadened. For some, an ostensibly unimportant conversation can provide a lifeline.

Year 9 Olivia said: “I am really enjoying emailing my lockdown listening partner and learning about her life as a Nun, and her experiences of Mayfield long before I was born. It is lovely for both of us to have made a new friend and to share our experiences of Mayfield past and present.”

School News

Bugsy Malone Last February, the Drama and Music Departments collaborated to stage 'Bugsy Malone', a musical gangster spoof set in New York City, substituting real bullets for splurge guns! The plot is loosely based on events in America during the prohibition era, specifically the exploits of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Staged in our Concert Hall, the two-tiered set design, painted with a hint of art deco style, helped to create the right ambience, along with flapper girl costumes, suits and trilby hats. The cast looked the part as they acted, danced and sang the story with aplomb. Accompanied by an eight-piece band, with Dr Matthew Ward as Musical Director, the live music helped to lift the mood and added to the feeling that we were all at The Speak Easy after-hour’s club. The entire cast were superb, belting out numbers and creating memorable characters. In the title role, Year 12 India made an excellent and convincingly charismatic Bugsy, directly addressing the audience with witty banter and a cheeky grin. Year 13 Hettie delivered a fantastic comic performance as Fat Sam, whilst his nemesis, Dandy Dan, was played by a suave Year 13 Genevieve. Soloists Year 13s Megan and Tali performed wonderfully as the female protagonists, Tallulah and Blousy, respectively. Year 9 Yaa made a soulful Fizzy, as she sang 'Tomorrow' with a fitting mournfulness. The cast, band, and backstage, all worked incredibly hard to stage the production and deliver these creative performances and catchy songs. Everyone who took part should be incredibly proud of themselves for showing such commitment and delivering a truly wonderful production.

Sarah Becvar Embroidery Workshop Pre-lockdown, the Textiles Department was delighted to host a workshop by OC Sarah Becvar (Class of 1993), in which Mayfield ‘Mothers and Daughters’ very much enjoyed designing and creating their own embroidered zipped pouches. Workshop participants learnt how to use the sewing machines to free embroider their own designs onto the front of their lined linen pouches, before assembling the various different layers of fabric and inserting a zip to create the finished product. Great fun was had by all.

International Women's Day 2020 and 2021 Mayfield celebrated International Women’s Day 2020 by inviting Year 6 and 7 pupils from Blackboys Primary School, St Mary’s RC Primary School, and Ashdown House, to a series of fun lectures and workshops presented by eminent Mayfield alumnae. The keynote speaker was OC Dr Helen O’Connor, a Senior Climate Change Advisor to the UK Government, who is currently training for a trip to Antarctica, where she will work with a global network of female scientists to find solutions to climate change. She spoke to the children about her work and encouraged them to follow their scientific passions. The children also took part in workshops on veterinary science, emergency medicine, physics and engineering. Their particular favourites were workshops run by vet and former Mayfield pupil, Claire Burfield, who brought her two lovable dogs to the session and showed the children x-rays of different animals; and by Jaguar Landrover engineer, Naomi Lee, who spoke about her engineering

career in HM Forces, and involved the children in making and racing elasticband-powered cars. The competition was fierce! IWD 2021 looked very different due to lockdown restrictions, but we were delighted to welcome two amazing women, OC Giovanna Forte and Martha Silcott, who shared their stories about overcoming obstacles to bring new products to market. Passion, tenacity, and the support of good friends, helped Giovanna Forte of Forte Medical, and

Martha Silcott of FabLittleBag, launch their products. Giovanna has developed a unique urine collection system, Peezy Midstream, that is being used by healthcare professionals worldwide to collect reliable samples for early diagnosis of infections. Martha's product is an eco-friendly solution to sanitary product disposal. This was a refreshing presentation discussing taboos surrounding feminine healthcare delivered by two inspirational women.

Mayfield PPE Mr Warren and Mr Rees-Moorlah put the School’s 3D printers to good use during lockdown and produced over 700 face visors for local front-line healthcare workers at a number of locations including Hospice in the Weald; GP surgeries in Mayfield, Tonbridge, Bexhill, Heathfield, and Buxted; Covid-19 Hubs in Eastbourne and Hastings; Brighton Hospital; Chichester Hospital Intensive Care Unit, and Holy Cross Priory Care Home. Mrs Budden and her Textiles team also worked hard making isolation gowns and scrub bags for local hospitals and doctors’ surgeries in the Wealden area. They also made 30 fabric cotton masks for Apley Grange Care Home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire – an SHCJ Care Home where Mayfield’s beloved Sr Anne and Sr Teresa Joseph are spending their retirement. We are also very proud of OC Amber (Yoyo) Lei (Class of 2012) who used her own initiative to source 10,000 medical grade face masks from Hong Kong for frontline workers in the UK, arranging all the logistics herself, and passing the masks on to Mayfield for distribution where they are needed. We would like to say a big “thank you” to Amber on behalf of all the local surgeries and hospices who have benefitted from her foresight and generosity.

Learning in Lockdown Mayfield overcame the challenges of remote learning during lockdown and continued to provide an excellent educational environment for the girls, albeit an online one, whereby the girls logged on for face-to-face lessons with their teachers as per their usual timetable. We also encouraged them to be creative, and to stay fit and active through a range of School-wide initiatives that the girls hugely enjoyed. These included the ‘Mayfield E-Drama Extravaganza’ in which the girls learnt a short monologue or poem, and then recorded their performances so that Mrs Sally Gerstmeyer (Head of Drama), and Miss Clark in the IT Department could combine them into the wonderful

‘Mayfield E-Drama Extravaganza’. It was a great success and we all very much enjoyed watching it. We would also like to say a big ‘thank you’ to accomplished actress and OC, Rosie Cavaliero, who gave up her time to perform Year 8 Chloe’s poem ‘Ode to Lockdown’ for the ‘E-Drama Extravaganza’. The girls also continued with their practical creative subjects such as Art, Ceramics, Textiles, and Food and Nutrition, thanks to the Departments devising creative projects that the girls were able to complete at home. The VE Day cooking was a particular treat for the girls’ families, with a scrumptious array of sweet and savoury treats being cooked up to celebrate the VE Day Bank Holiday!

A Message from Kenneth Pont, Former Head of Music Following the amazing response to the 2018 Schola Reunion, I listened to some of the many reel-to-reel recordings and broadcasts we made together over 30 years. Professional recordings were made by Anthony Howells of the Oxford University Press and John Aitchison of Martlett Archives, all of which have been re-mastered at my request to produce four superb CDs. Each has an attractive inlay card with dates, biographies and names of the choir. CD 1 ‘Laudate Dominum cum Schola Cantorum’ is a recording of two choral works made in St. Dunstan's Church in June 1989. The recording took over seven hours and contains ‘Missa St. Leopoldi’ by Michael Haydn – a work written for the trebles of Salzburg Cathedral Choir (where Michael Haydn succeeded Mozart as Organist), and ‘Ave Maris Stella’ by Samuel Wesley one of the best known Marian Hymns to the Virgin which was written in 1786. The fourth movement is a masterly

example of combining Gregorian Chant in a two part composition for treble voices. There is an English translation. Both works on this CD are accompanied by the Primavera Chamber Orchestra. CD 2 Opera ‘Dunstan and the Devil’ by Malcolm Williamson. Those of you who were at Mayfield in May 1972 will remember the Mayfield Festival visit of Malcolm Williamson (Master of the Queen's Music) who was 'composer in residence'. With Castle Opera Company we mounted two staged performances of his opera ‘Dunstan and the Devil’ in the Parish Church, and two weeks later were invited to take the production to St. James's Church, Piccadilly, as part of the Westminster Festival. The Mayfield performance was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3. This was the first major concert for Schola 1 who sang the part of the chorus of angels. Sadly, the names of the angels are not listed in any of the programmes. An especially interesting feature is an introduction about St. Dunstan, compiled and

Mr Pont in The Courtyard in front of his portrait painted and gifted to the School by accomplished artist and former parent, Daphne Todd

narrated by Malcolm Williamson himself. The two further CDs will be made available before Christmas. The CDs cost £10 each and can be ordered via Marie-Sophie Reijers, OC Co-ordinator, on oldcornelians@ mayfieldgirls.org. Mr Pont has asked that all proceeds from the sale of the CDs be used to purchase musical instruments for the newly-refurbished Music Block.

School News

Staff Farewells Mrs Natasha Evans – Head of English Natasha was a much loved and respected Head of English. Her passion for literature was hugely inspiring – for her Department members and her pupils. As well as engaging with the texts within the curriculum, she was always keen to expand the girls’ experience of reading and brought a huge range of novels, plays and poetry before them. Those of us who worked for her were equally challenged to broaden the girls’ – and our own – studies of literature. Natasha was an extremely kind Head of Department, often keeping the tricky or more mundane tasks to herself rather than delegating them. Her endless support and patience engendered confidence and loyalty, although we were always encouraged

to try new approaches and ideas. Whenever there was a change to the syllabus, her reaction was always, ‘How do we make this work for the girls?’ Her positive attitude was infectious. As well as the usual duties, Natasha ran the Mayfield Poetry Festival each year, and a truly impressive cast of poets came to the School to share their poems with pupils and the wider community. Among these world-class poets were Daljit Nagra, John Agard, Grace Nicholls, Patience Agbabi, and Robin Robertson. As part of the Festival, Lower School pupils took part in an Eisteddfod where they learned poems and recited them to compete for prizes, judged by a visiting poet.

Natasha also oversaw our annual ‘Shakespeare OffbyHeart’ competition which involves all girls from Years 7 to 10. The girls learn and perform a scene from any Shakespeare play, and the finals are held in front of the whole School. This experience embeds the plays they study in their minds, and encourages them to experience the verse and drama for themselves. The entire School is, of course, sad to see her go and she will be hugely missed. However, as she embarks on a new adventure in Wales – her original home as well as home to some of her favourite writers – we all wish her only good fortune in the future. Mrs Jane Leslie, Teacher of English

Mrs Elizabeth Crawley – Housemistress of Leeds House and Teacher of English Elizabeth Crawley joined us in September 2013, with her husband Tony, from Packwood Haugh, Shropshire, to take charge of Leeds House. Her extensive experience was invaluable in ensuring that the girls in Leeds had the support, encouragement and discipline to start their Mayfield careers in the best possible way. Perhaps it was those years in Prep School that helped her sustain a calm and unflustered air, while coping with (or pretending not to see) the hairraising pranks of Leeds girls. With a clearly defined sense of duty, balanced by a great sense of fun, she seemed indefatigable and was also expert – and immensely patient – in picking up the pieces (literally and metaphorically) and pouring oil on the troubled waters of Lower School friendship issues. More seriously, numerous girls (and indeed parents!) have been nurtured and supported through bereavement or have learnt to respond to daunting challenges with Mrs Crawley walking beside them. Many recognised and appreciated this at the time, others perhaps took a little longer! Credit must also go to Tony, Mr Crawley, who tried to keep a low profile but

was regularly roped in to help, most notably by ‘offering’ to be involved with Lower School Farm Club, invariably a thankless task, but an invaluable support particularly to Mr Christian. The important link between Lower School and Leeds House was cemented by Mr and Mrs Crawley in different ways. As a valued member of the English Department, Elizabeth’s love of literature was something she enjoyed sharing with the girls. Under her watch, we introduced bedtime reading and it remains a pleasure to see the girls, curled up in their PJs, reading in Leeds Common Room. Seeing her cope with the mayhem of wild games of Bingo in that same Common Room was something to behold: slightly bemused, long-suffering and affectionate towards her charges; a maternal figure who gave them space to be themselves, but cared enough to impose discipline and structure as required. If I were not to cast her as a feisty Georgette Heyer heroine, then she would certainly carry off the role of Just William’s (or perhaps Gerald Durrell’s) long suffering, but enduringly optimistic mother with aplomb. A woman of quiet faith, Elizabeth valued

the integrity of Mayfield’s ethos. She, in her turn, played an important part in the Catholic life of the School. I am grateful to her for the way in which she contributed not simply as a Eucharistic minister, but also in all that she did to foster the faith of the girls in her care; leading by example in living out her faith. We wish the Crawleys every success in the future. Elizabeth is not really retiring, she is going to enjoy time with her new family old and new. Mayfield’s loss is her grandchildren’s gain: I hope they know how lucky they are! Miss Antonia Beary, Headmistress

OC News

Ruth Poole’s (Class of 1965) Lockdown in ‘Guate’ “Guate” being the affectionate nickname of Guatemala, for the “mala” ending might conjure association with all things “mal”. GuatemaYa would be more appropriate as here lies the heart of the Maya culture. And how have the Maya, and all other residents, adjusted to the 2020/2021 lockdown? Quite well, actually. It is true that after the first official orders in March, when everything was to be closed from 2pm to 4am, panic ensued. There was no more Lysol on the shelves, nobody had masks, surely there were not enough toiletries, whoever heard of buying alcohol by the gallon, what on earth was sanitized hand gel, and of course there wasn’t enough sherry in the house for the faint-hearted! After we digested the fact that lockdown was obligatory, its disregard punishable by law, and that it had nothing to do with politics, people began to enjoy its novelty and talk, talk, talk about Covid-19 and how horrible bats in China really were.

Mum, or an Auntie or a big brother may be a thoroughly conscientious teacher, and the child’s grades may actually improve, the lack of socializing and the lack of playtime is serious. I have found it has made my nieces much more introverted and the telephone or tablet is now an indispensable appendage wherever they go.

Then the problems began. How were the kids going to study? How were we going to go to church? How were we to get home help? (Public transport was suspended.) How were we to see loved ones? How were we to comfort friends who needed comforting?

“It is true that after the first official orders in March, when everything was to be closed from 2pm to 4am, panic ensued.”

At first, the news of friends and acquaintances who had caught the disease was frequent. It was frightening, especially when one learned of deaths. Then, all kinds of remedies began appearing on our social media. Many worked. The cases of hospital recoveries also increased. We became a speck more hopeful. We realized strict adherence to wearing masks, keeping social distance, spraying with alcohol all things entering the home, (shoes, groceries), the endless washing of hands, and constant application of sanitized gel was, and is, the answer to staying alive. Knowledge of technology has increased by leaps and bounds because willy-nilly, the children had to continue school and adults had better see to it. We have had to learn about Blackboard, about Teams, about Google drive, about Chat, about scanning, to say nothing of Zoom. Home schooling has become the norm and although a

Our spiritual welfare couldn’t be neglected. In fact, we realised it was the very first thing we must bolster, strengthen. First, I discovered televised

masses. There were televised Sunday masses at all hours. It was fascinating to hear mass at 8 pm from, say, Slovenia! Now I have begun to listen daily to an early morning televised mass. At first, we were oh-so-lucky to have the Holy Sacrament administered by a friend who’s a lay Minister. It was such a privilege to have Holy Communion on Sunday in my little garden! Several cousins used to come too, until our church, (San Martín de Porres), opened up its large parking lot and cars are allowed in for Sunday Mass and lay Ministers come around with the Holy Host. Sunday Mass is now held in a giant auditorium where chairs are very widely spaced. You have to get there early!

Home help doesn’t arrive by public transport anymore. If we need help, we are to pay extra, for private transport, taxis, ubers, or small car owners profiting from a paid lift. Buses are gradually resuming routes but the new, lucrative trade for many ‘taxis’ is not going to go away soon I have seen my brother twice these past eleven months! He’s a surgeon (honoured with an OBE) who gives time to a public hospital. He is extremely careful and changes clothes completely every time he gets home. He refuses to put us at risk so we have had tea once, around a garden terrace. John Anthony used to celebrate Christmas enormously, with lots and lots of relatives. Not this year. We had to forego hugs, or even seeing each other. But we were invited briefly to admire his ‘Nacimiento’, (Nativity scene) carefully built outside. I hope we soon are as lucky as my 93-year-old Auntie Beryl in Pangbourne, UK She’s had the vaccine which I think will come to us as a form of liberation. It will feel like an un-chaining. We will be free to travel, we will be free to hug friends, we will be free to show our faces, we will be free to shake hands. However, we will not be the same. Ever. Lockdown and confinement, and the real possibility of a death-dealing contagion, be it in Paris or London or Guate, encourages soul-searching. It forcers one to come to terms with the inescapability of one’s mortality. That is the question. The real question: Are we prepared? For the Mayas, 2012 marked the end of a ‘bashactún’, (a colossally long period of 64,000 years), and the rebirth of a new era. Today, 2021 marks for all of us the end of a punishing period of enforced confinement and a hopeful reopening to a healthier, perhaps wiser world.

Cristo Negro de Esquipulas by Ruth Poole “Omi! Grandma! It’ll soon be the 15th!” Christmas was over, Epiphany was over, decorations were down, presents put away, and school was about to begin. Not a welcome prospect. But… BUT, maybe a trip to Esquipulas, in the East of Guatemala, was in the air. Maybe a long journey with stops for juicy fruit, with a dip in a river, and a delicious breakfast after a night’s sleep in a picturesque, bouganvilliacovered ‘pensión’ (inn), was in the offing. Perhaps even a trip on a rickety train that took hours to get there in sweltering heat, but offered the constant amusement of merchants selling tortillas, mangoes, macadamia, cashews, fleshy coconuts full of their scented water, chico-zapotes (sapollias), you name it! Then there was the arrival at the Basilica itself. A hushed silence enveloped it from the very beginning of the long, wide pathway to its open doors. Those first 200 yards in the open were speckled with penitents covering the distance on their knees, with supplicants holding lit candles of all colours and sizes, with pilgrims like

ourselves, respectfully walking towards the seemingly interminable line of people waiting to come close to the image of the Christ of Esquipulas.

by pilgrims from all over the continent, from Peru to Mexico, from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles. Esquipulas has been referred to as the Mecca of America.

The image is black. Its nailed feet not so intensely dark because of the millions (yes, millions) of kisses bestowed upon them before the image was placed in its present glass enclosure to protect it.

The respect commanded by the shrine is such that during the armed conflict that ravaged Guatemala, its site was chosen to bring together the conflicting parties so that they might find a common ground for peace. They did. Their deliberations, within the aura of El Cristo Negro brought about the successful Agreements of Esquipulas.

The ‘Cristo Negro de Esquipulas’ was sculpted by Quirio Cataño at the request of Franciscan Friar Cristóbal Morales, then Provisor of the Spanish Bishopric in Guatemala, in 1595. Tradition holds that the image was petitioned black so that it might be readily accepted as one of their own by the Chortí Indians there inhabiting. Black is the colour of the gentle earth that makes one well. Miracles began to occur. Healings happened. Petitions prayerfully sought after were granted. Veneration of the image increased. Visits to Esquipulas multiplied. Fame of the miraculous Cristo spread throughout the region. Its renown is such that today it is visited

15th January is honoured as the Feast Day of the Christ of Esquipulas because then it was consecrated into its present temple, today elevated to Basilica. Caravans of bikers, numbering hundreds, motor their way to the church every year. Pilgrims make arrangements to walk to the shrine from their homes in the city at least once in a lifetime. And I will always remember holding Grandma’s hand while we bargained outside the Basilica for the best candles to light at the feet of our dear, miraculous Cristo de Esquipulas.

“And What about the Seventh Continent?” Helen Medway O’Connor, OC '92 Joins the Homeward Bound Network of Women Scientists Helen developed her passion for caring for the environment while she was a student at Mayfield School, and she now works as a Senior Climate and Environment Adviser for the UK Department for International Development. Helen was accepted on a global leadership programme for women in STEM called ‘Homeward Bound.’ She explains, “The aim is to build a network of women from around the world who can work together not only to inspire the next

generation of girls in science, but to take their place in leading work on finding solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges, including my area of climate change and environment.” It was expected that the programme would culminate in a trip to Antarctica in September, where the members would meet with scientists researching climate change and pollution. But, Covid-19 changed their plans. Helen explains how unexpected events created an opportunity. “Firstly, I have

more time to spend getting to know the women I’m working with, and sharing our learning and ideas on how we communicate and lead at times like this. Secondly, the voyage to Antarctica has been postponed and is now likely to take place at the end of next year or start of 2022 – but this gives those of us working on carbon offsetting and sustainability more time to work with the shipping operators to understand where changes can be made to reduce the environmental impact. So there is always a positive to be found!”

OC News

Mayfield Class of 2017 – Where are we now? Many thanks to Cara Hodgkins (Class of 2017) for collating updates from her year group below: MARTHA GABRIEL Graduated from the University of Leeds with a midwifery degree. Now working as a midwife in Leeds. CORAL MAN Graduated from the University of Surrey with a degree in Creative Music Technology. Now working as a customer service administrator at a music academy. Her work is not related to music but she gets to play the Grand Piano there which is a bonus! Also singing in a trio named ‘Man to be three’ with her sisters, hoping their voices can reach to the audience's hearts. IMMIE LONG Graduated from the University of East London with a First class honours degree in Advertising. Now has a full time job as a social media executive in a PR and Digital media agency. IZZY GOATCHER Graduated from Chartered Institute of Marketing with a Level 4 professional certificate in Digital Marketing and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Now working as a Marketing Coordinator for Wightman & Parrish, a healthcare company in East Sussex. LOTTIE TURNER In her last year of an integrated masters in Maths (MMath) at Durham University. ALEX BOWEN Graduated from Durham University with a BA in Anthropology. Now working at Morgan Stanley in Equity Swaps Trade Support. Wanting to end up in something to do with the sustainability divisions of finance.

DARCIE GOMER Graduated from Durham University with a degree in Anthropology. Now working as a sabbatical officer for the Junior Common Room at her college (Josephine Butler). Her title is Financial and Community Support Officer, she oversees the finances for the JCR and acts as a student representative overseeing the wider student experience and helping to organise events. CARA HODGKINS In her final year at Oxford Brookes University studying History of Art. Will finish her degree in December 2021, then hopes to find a job/internship with a design company. MATILDA TURNER In her final year at the University of Sheffield studying Geography. Embarking on a BA in Physiotherapy in September 2021. MILLIE BARKER In her final year at Exeter University studying Drama. Covid permitting hoping to go travelling and do a marketing internship. REGINA LAI Graduated from LSE with a degree in Philosophy. Currently doing a Law conversion in London and starting a Masters in Law at LSE in September. MISAKI ARAI Starting a two year course at a Baking School in Kyoto in the Spring.

EMILY CANTWELL-KELLY In her final year at Trinity College, Dublin studying Geography and Economics. Covid permitting hoping to go sailing offshore in the summer to practice for her yachtmasters exam. Then going to University of Kiel, Germany to study a Masters in Environmental Management. LUCIA ŠVECOVÁ Graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Music. Currently working as a Music Graduate Assistant at Bloxham School but applying to German conservatories to do orchestral conducting. SCARLETT VEREKER In her final year at the University of Bristol studying Criminology. Covid permitting hoping to work abroad in Europe while travelling and then returning home to get a job in Insurance. Ideally in cyber, political risk or bloodstock insurance. KAT O’HARA In her final year at the University of Birmingham studying Philosophy and English. Next year will be teaching English under the Teach First programme. SASKIA LARA Graduated from the University of Roehampton with a degree in Early Childhood Studies combined with Education. Became a mother to a little boy in August 2019. Now teaching Year 3 part time alongside blogging about teaching/parenting.

Fiona Hill nee Rourke (Class of '88) Our wonderful WhatsApp group is helping a lot of us get through lockdown - of which there are 48 members. The past year has been tinged with sadness with some old girls losing parents and relatives, and some even unable to attend their funerals due to travel restrictions. Others have endured Covid themselves, including long Covid. However we have all supported each other through kindness, hope and good humour. Several ladies have been involved in the Covid effort directly through medical work, and others have volunteered to assist with the vaccine programme - Actions not Words!

There are several teachers in our group and they have coped admirably with education in these times, some even juggling young families. We’re all looking forward to a brighter future when home schooling and remote learning seem a distant memory and we can all meet together in real life. In 2020 we had planned a large party to celebrate our respective 50th Birthdays at the Cafe Royal - the venue of our leavers’ ball in 1988. Sadly this didn’t take place but we remain hopeful for the event to take place in the not too distant future. Testament to the very enduring nature of friendships made at Mayfield".

Reflections on Mayfield in 1947 by Joanna Barker (Class of 1954) When I arrived at The Convent of the Holy Child, Mayfield for the Summer term 1947, there were only about 100 girls in the school and we all lived and worked in the main Victorian building, which had steps leading up from a drive and had a large round lawn in front with the stump of a huge monkey puzzle tree. The area where the Sixth Form is now was the enclosure of the convent, and except for a small parlour where parents might see the Reverend Mother, we never entered the nun’s part of the building. The room of the Headmistress Mother Declan was on the left as one entered the school building. The classrooms were on the ground floor and each year had its own classrooms. The Art Room was on the first floor, with the dormitories for the smallest girls overlooking the front lawn, and there were two large dormitories on the right. Other smaller dormitories were along the corridors towards the Music Rooms. There were bathrooms along the passage and we were allowed two baths a week. The matron had a dispensary on the same floor. Up a very steep flight of stairs were some individual rooms for sixth formers and the Clothing Room where we all had shelves where our clean underclothes were kept. There was a gas bracket outside the Clothing Room which burnt all night. The whole school ate in the Refectory at tables of eight with one senior girl at each table who dished out for the rest. In 1947, when there was still rationing, we had the sugar and butter for the week on the table and it had to last. At mid-morning break we were given cocoa and delicious hot buns, and our letters - which had been opened - were laid out on the benches which lined the passage on the way to the refectory. Mother Cornelia Connelly had devised a routine for the girls derived from the Jesuit way of life. After recreation, when we went up to bed at 9pm and we were not meant to say another word until after grace at breakfast next morning. Mother Declan stood at the head of the refectory to say grace before breakfast and if you had spoken unnecessarily during the evening, you had to go up and report yourself to her in front of the whole school. There was Mass every day in the Chapel at 7am and if you did not want to go to Mass you had to pull out a knotted string on a board, kept on the landing of the dormitory floor, which had the names of everyone, listed by dormitory. If you were a Child of Mary a Sodality to which you got elected at the top of the school - you had to be in the Chapel for 15 minutes of meditation before Mass, and you were called by

a nun knocking at the end of your bed and saying 'Blessed be the Holy Child Jesus' to which you had to reply 'Now and for ever more Amen'. We all wore white veils to church, kept on the head with elastic. Every afternoon at 5pm there was either Benediction or a visit to church and afterwards we all stood on the stairs or in the passages round

“In 1947, when there was still rationing, we had the sugar and butter for the week on the table and it had to last.”

the Grandfather clock and statue of Our Lady to say the Angelus. Our teachers were almost all nuns. There were a few women lay teachers but hockey was taught by Sister Bruno who used to tuck up her skirts and race up and down the hockey pitch. We had wonderful English teaching from Mother Elizabeth who had been an actress, Maths from Mother Lorenzo who was an architect and sadly built the new buildings, especially the one which ruined the facade of the original school. One member of the class

had to wait outside the room for the teacher to arrive, and carry her books for her, and if one passed a nun in the corridor, one did a sort of skip which was a rudimentary curtsey. We were not allowed to read fiction during the week and there was little fiction in the Library. Fiction was kept in a special cupboard. The Headmistress, Mother Declan, was a formidable figure and to be summoned to 'Our Room' (as nuns held everything in common) made one quake. She was very fair and far-seeing and I owe her a very great deal. There was practically no science taught, except for Biology though there was a rudimentary science lab over an out building. The centre of life in the school was the large School Hall - now I believe the Library. Here we had prayers in the morning if you did not go to Mass. Here we did our preparation, and had films on special days and school entertainments. Here we did all our exams and Mother Declan gave us the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost at Whitsun. Here we darned our stockings on Saturday evenings. Here we made our Altars when we had three day silent Retreats. All through the school we had Sodalities to which it was an honour to belong. For the youngest there were Angels, for the next level Aloysians, then Aspirants (who wished to be Children Mary,) Enfants de Marie or E de M's for short. Each had a medal on a different coloured ribbon which was worn on Sundays and high days. The E de M's wore their medals on a

OC News chain all the time and on a fat white ribbon on Sundays. If elected there was a special initiation ceremony with its own prayer book and on 8th December, the Children of Mary got a whole holiday. I still have my medal and the prayer book. There is so much more I could write about our lives but you may have had enough already. At the end of the term, the whole school sat on the stages by the organ in the Concert Hall and each class was called up to stand in a semicircle in front of Reverend Mother while the exam marks were read out. The girl with the top mark moved to the top of the semi-circle and this continued until some poor girl was at the bottom. At the end of the Summer Term, after some form of entertainment, there was a grand Prize Giving and the prize winners in each class walked down from the stages while Mother Consolata played Chopin on the piano, to collect the prizes, which were books with the Holy Child Logo stamped on the cover. In the dormitories we had beds with a rail down one side and at the end of the bed. One pulled a curtain along the side of the bed, put the bedcover over the end of the bed, and hung a small curtain in the gap at the end of the bed. On the stand by the bed we each had a china basin and a metal jug in which we fetched hot water from a tap in a bathroom.

Emily Bostock (Class of 2015) I moved to the Isles of Scilly a year ago to work on a privately-owned island called Tresco. It is a popular holiday destination for many people and has selfcatering holiday cottages, as well as a pub to stay in. It is a wonderful, hidden gem off the coast of Cornwall and due to the unique climate, is host to a fabulous garden, growing plants found nowhere else in England. I work at a two AA Rosette restaurant on the island called ‘The Ruin Beach Café’. I am currently Assistant Manager and I am absolutely loving it here! Hospitality has been hit hard over the last year but the short window we had last summer gave us the chance to welcome back guests, some of whom have been coming here for decades. It's a very special place and I'm proud to be a part of it. The photo below is the view from the restaurant. I can assure you it never gets old! I am very lucky to have moved here just before the pandemic and to be in a relatively much safer area. My family managed to get here for Christmas which was a privilege many did not have this year and I am very grateful.

After washing, the water was poured into slop buckets in the middle of the room. Hair washing was on Saturday afternoon in a special room. A nun slept in a corner of the biggest dormitories and had a candle or a torch by which to go to bed. Finally there was no central heating in 1947 and we all had chilblains every winter. It was installed a year or two later and one of the heavy iron radiators fell over and crushed a finger of a girl in my form, before they were connected. We always had to go for walks in threes as it was not considered right that we should only walk with friends. By 1954 the idea of 'houses' came in but there were no separate buildings and only enamel pins with 'St. Michael' etc on them. But then came the 'amalgamation' and the great changes which mostly happened after I had left.

The Register

Weddings

Keara Masrani (Class of 2008) to Alex Gurran in Mayfield School Chapel on 27th May 2019.

Amelia Street (Class of 2007) to Wade Pasfield at St. Matthias Church, Richmond Upon Thames on 21st September 2019. OC's present; Mercedes Llewellyn (Maid of Honour), Katie O'Toole (née Thorne), Goziem Ikwueke, Sarah O'mahony-Zed, Lucy Camden, Hannah Richards, Georgia Taylor, Rebecca Walters, Poppy Busuttil, Daisy Campbell-Salmon, (all Class of 2007), and Daisy Greenlees (Class of 2006). We would also like to announce that Amelia and Wade had a lovely baby boy on 18th June 2020 - Arlo Henry Pasfield, born at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Sarah Ruthven (Class of 2005), married Thomas Scott on 25th July 2020 at St Margaret the Queen Church in Buxted. Sarah’s sister Isabel Ruthven (Class of 2008) was also present. We were due to get married on 27th June 2020 but obviously Covid put pay to our original plans. As soon as the total ban on weddings was lifted we managed to have our wedding ceremony, with just our parents and siblings present. Isabel Rae (Class of 2010) married Joseph Brickle at St Albans Church, Frant, on 8th July 2019. Her sister, Jemima Rae (class of 2015) was her maid of honour, and Rebecca Fraser, Flora Barker and Amy Batty (all class of 2010) were her bridesmaids.

We were married on 25th July 2020 at St Margaret the Queen Church in Buxted, and are planning to have a larger wedding celebration with our wider family and friends in due course - not least because I wasn't able to wear my planned wedding dress due to Covid delays!

Message from our Lay Chaplain, Mr Ronan Lavery

I would like to remind you all that the first Mass of each School term is offered for deceased OCs. A prayer is prepared that includes all of the names to be mentioned, and these are also recorded in a Remembrance Book. Please do contact oldcornelians@mayfieldgirls.org if you would like us to pray for any deceased OCs. Thank you.

The Register

In Memoriam VERONICA BAILEY (CLASS OF 1964) “Come on, we’ve nearly done it !” That was Vrons, trying to open a bottle of Babycham on the iron bedstead in the San, with myself and Rosaleen (Haran) obviously in the last, and we assumed terminal, stages of the flu. Though we had no idea where the bottle came from, we were determined to share it before we were caught. Vrons was no goody-goody, but she did go on to become an exemplary Mayfield girl: a Badge (which is what we called Prefects), a Marion (Child of Mary), and a Sodalist (distinguished member of the Sodality of Our Lady) - all of which I yearned to be too, but being far too naughty, I had to put up with hockey and tennis prizes. However, all her magnificent achievements paled into insignificance beside one unique and invaluable talent which gave her a head start in life : she was, from the beginning, a magnificent best friend. In those far-off days, we used to send each other messages on holy pictures, which we kept in our missals, and furtively read in Church, just to pass the time. On all of them, she was everybody’s best friend. She and I spent many summers in Ireland, at our little house by the sea. I remember a broken toe she was still complaining about early this year; I remember collecting cockles, and even a slight case of food poisoning due to my sister Biddy’s (Brigid HorganKehoe) amateur cooking. And in return, her family looked after me during many happy visits to their house in Epsom. Latterly she stayed with us in Provence, and we travelled together to India and Thailand, still weakened by the same severe cases of the giggles we had cheerfully suffered at school.

new countries, though she had already travelled extensively with her family as her Dad was in the RAF. She married Bart, her one and only love, and hid the wedding ring from BOAC for a while, so that they could get enough air-miles for a late honeymoon. And then she began to follow her real vocation, her nursing career. All her life she spent caring for people. I moved to Canada shortly after all that began, and we stayed in touch, as she did with many of our class. She was an earth-mother, or soul-sister to so many of us. Whenever we would find ourselves in trouble, wondering what to do, the answer was simple: call Vrons. And what did she offer? Whether it was a solution, a suggestion or just a virtual hug, she made it better. She spent so much time looking after others, and she was a major force in organising the class reunions we had over the last 20 or 30 years, making sure that we all kept in touch, keeping up our spirits. She had an extraordinary way of bonding with everyone she met. She was so at ease in herself that people relaxed with her, and they never forgot her, even after only one meeting. This gift she obviously used as a nurse, where the help, love and care she gave to the sick, and the dying, was immeasurable. She moved easily

between adults and children with short or long-term illnesses, and towards the end of her career, she worked in children’s hospices, where she must have been a shining light to her young patients and to their families. She nursed her husband Bart for several years with patience, love and humour, through a particularly cruel form of dementia. His death was a terrible personal loss, from which she never entirely recovered. But she turned to her four gorgeous, beloved sons, and their wives and children, and became the best and most generous Granny, Gaga and Gary in the world to her eleven grandchildren who will remember, and miss, her fun and her wisdom. I found another of those holy pictures addressed to me recently: on it, she declared that we would never be parted. But alas, Vrons was to leave us, all her best friends, far too early, just before her 74th birthday, and the world is a duller, colder and poorer place without her. However we, who knew her for so long - and many of her other friends - will keep her in our hearts, and will treasure the abiding memory of a staunch, loyal, loving, beautiful, vivacious and totally irreplaceable confidante and friend, who will never, really, leave us. Sarah Browne (née Horgan)

When we left Mayfield, we had some mad moments together: I remember us selling ice-creams from a barrow in Hyde Park, for instance. I lived only a short time in the UK, while for Vrons, a short but exciting stint as a BOAC trolley-dolly introduced her to many

VERONICA BY SUE GAISFORD (CLASS OF 1964) She was a woman driven by compassion. He was exhausted, staggering, burdened and blood-blinded. And through the jeering, prurient crowd she shoved, Scooped up her scarf, to clean his face, Just trying to help him see. She dared to go where all the rest hung back. She could not save his life, but she could make His stumbling steps a little safer, And in that daring move, she set her mark on history, Her very name the product of her act. She was, she owned and she became A true icon, For on her scarf his portrait was emblazoned, Damaged and desolate: God – and suffering man. Did they know, her parents? Did they imagine that she would become, The perfect, live embodiment of that name? Compassion was her very essence, too. She went where none of us would dare to go, Into the howling wilderness of grief. She, too, was helpless to prevent untimely death. And yet she stood, brave and unflinching, Offering her own strength to ease their suffering. She bore the agony of helpless parents, And somehow, somehow made it bearable. That first Veronica, they say, might be a fiction, A pretty myth with no substantial base.’

CLAIRE CALVER NEÉ FULBROOK (CLASS OF 1977) Claire sadly passed away in November 2020, surrounded by family, at St Michael's Hospice in St Leonards, after a short battle with cancer aged 62. Claire was born in Nairobi and spent her early life there with her parents and her brother Guy. She started at St. Leonards in 1967 and was initially very homesick (and shocked that the English seaside was not quite the same as Mombasa!) However, she soon found friends who remained with her for life, and moved on to Mayfield, eventually leaving before the final year of Sixth Form. She continued her studies at Chichester College, where she took a Farm Secretarial Course and developed a life-long love of both pigs and donkeys. After a short spell at the RSPCA, Claire moved to London, where she worked in the City. For a year Claire joined

Women have no sure foothold, after all, In scholars’ minds. Perhaps, she was. I think not. But our Veronica was very real, As all those families whose hands she’d held, Whose children she had loved, whose sanity she saved Know very well. For day after day, night after night, she nourished them. I saw it when, straight after such a night, She nursed my dying sister, Brought her own peace and competence, her courage and her kindliness And saw us through. Somehow, she saw us through. And she was fun. And joy. And laughter, too. And friendship such as never is imagined, nor deserved. The virus snatched her, and she died alone. None of her lovely boys to hold her hand, No little grandchild with a final hug. No blessing from her brother, no last rites. To me, three kisses on a final text. God rest her soul

fellow classmate Mickey Muntzer (neé Snellgrove) at Arup Associates. This was very much the heyday of the 80s and a lot of carousing and fun was had. To this day, Mickey is still Claire's dearest friend and godmother to her daughter. Claire met her husband, David, a paediatric ophthalmologist, in 1991 and they were married by the end of that year. They set up home together in Kennington and in 1992 Claire left N M Rothschild to look after family and their spotless home. In 1994 Claire gave birth to their daughter Rosie, who went on to follow in Claire's footsteps, starting at Mayfield in 2006, with the family moving to East Sussex. Along with her superb memory for detail (especially regarding her time at school!) Claire had a keen interest in art, ballet and music (particularly Roger Daltrey!). Claire was a kind, generous friend to all who knew her, remembered for her

lovely laugh and happy demeanour, as well as a loving wife to her husband and a devoted mother to her daughter. She will be wholly and deeply missed. David Calver

The Register SISTER EVA HEYMANN (SISTER MARY CUTHMAN) Some of you who were at the School in the 60s may remember Sister Eva Heymann, a remarkable woman who came over with the Kindertransport from Germany just before the outbreak of the war. Sister Eva died peacefully on 12 February 2021. May she rest in peace.

JANCIS HOUSTON NÉE BURN (CLASS OF 1947) Thank you so much for giving David and me such an enjoyable morning at Mayfield last month, while we were staying at Burwash. We were very impressed by not only the old but also the new buildings and lovely grounds. I am also writing to give you some details of my older sister Jancis Houston (Burn) who died

JULIET DALY NÉE ARNING (CLASS OF 1949) Juliet was born in Manchester in 1932. Her first SHCJ school was Harrogate, then early in the war she was sent to St Leonard's, where her aunt, Mother Ursula Blake, was Headmistress (which put Juliet at a disadvantage in disciplinary terms as Mother Ursula was anxious to avoid any hint of favouritism). Fearing Luftwaffe attack, St Leonard's was evacuated to what was mistakenly thought of as the safer Torquay, where soon afterwards a fierce air-raid resulted in a direct hit on the neighbouring military hospital, prompting a hasty move to Buckinghamshire and the luxury of Hedsor Park, with its marble baths and stately commodes. Peace saw a return to St Leonard's but subsequently Juliet was despatched by Mother Ursula to spend a year in Brussels (where post-war austerity was in fact more severe than in Britain), at

December 27th 2014. She came to Mayfield aged nine in 1939 and was there until she left in 1947 having done well academically - she remembered hearing the doodlebugs (flying bombs) going over during the war! After leaving school she worked in London for a publisher before joining the Foreign Office, where she stayed and posted to Germany and Finland before she married David Houston

La VIerge Fidele. There she acquired fluent French and improved her piano playing but, finding the evenings dragged as most pupils were day girls, frequently climbed out of her groundfloor window to visit them. After returning to St Leonard's, she realised that good French alone was unlikely to gain her entry to Oxbridge, so in 1949 moved to cram at Lady Margaret Hall in Cambridge, followed by a year in London working as a publisher's reader, before she was admitted to Newnham to read English in 1951. After graduation and various jobs in Europe, she moved to Sicily and married Sergio Siragusa; the marriage ended in divorce and subsequent annulment, but produced Francesca. Fortuitously, Juliet re-met a former boyfriend from Cambridge days, Michael Daly (Downside '45-'49), recently widowed with a very small daughter; they married in 1971 and

in 1959 and travelled with him to many postings overseas, supporting his successful army career until they returned to Scotland with their two sons, where they took an active part in their local community and made my family and friends very welcome when we visited them, mainly during the summer holidays. Lucinda Gilbert

Juliet, now the much-loved step-mother of Emma, joined Michael on his Foreign Office postings to Brazil, Ireland, the Cote d'Ivoire, Costa Rica and Bolivia. Debarred by FCO rules at the time from taking any remunerated employment she joined the diplomatic spouses' traditional round of receptions, dinners and charitable work, learned Spanish and Portuguese, enhanced her skill as a water-colourist and, as ambassadress in Michael's last three posts, entertained (a not unalloyed pleasure) most members of the Royal Family except the Queen. On retirement to Kew in 1991, she was active in the local parish until Alzheimer's took its toll and she died in her sleep on 24th March. With lockdown restrictions there has yet to be a proper requiem mass, but at her cremation ceremony one of the readers was Old Cornelian Elizabeth Byrne-Hill (née Mackenzie). Michael Daly

PAULINE HARTIGAN NÉE MORROGH (CLASS OF 1941) I am writing to tell you of the recent death of my mother, Pauline Hartigan on August 19th, at her home in Stone, Aylesbury. It was a blessing that two of her seven children could be with her as she died, and two others arrived within minutes of her passing. I wonder how many of her generation at Mayfield are still with us? As Pauline Morrogh, Mum attended Mayfield the late 30's, leaving I believe in 1941 or early 42 to marry my father, John Cargin, a doctor in Woking. As luck would have it, one of her sons, David, married Jackie, the daughter of her old school chum from Mayfield, Myra Poole (now Monica Hoghton, living in Perth, Scotland)! At Mayfield, she enjoyed the hockey more than the academic side, apparently, but the really lasting impression came through the selfless example of the nuns of the Holy Child Order; I am sure that this was instrumental in her finding so much support down the years in her friendship with religious sisters, especially the Servites in Begbroke, and the Ursulines in Brecon.

TRIBUTE FOR MUM, PAULINE HARTIGAN, AFTER HER REQUIEM MASS, FRIDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2020 Over the past few years, in anticipation of this moment, I have sometimes wondered what I might say in tribute to Mum. Who could have imagined her funeral taking place under these strange conditions, with just family members here in the church, and a livestream to others who cannot be here in person, including my brother David, and Jackie and Monica in Perth, Rosie and Char in Kinsale and many others, friends and family? But wherever you are, we are together in this moment of grief and remembrance. To quote mum, ‘No words of mine could ever be enough to thank you.’ Mum, Pauline, has impacted on all our lives, and today we come together to remember her. First thing to say is that this is just a personal tribute from me, her youngest son. Nearly all of you all knew mum, and your own stories would be great to hear. I would be very surprised if each of you didn’t mention her immense energy, sense of fun, sheer zest for life and her tireless capacity to turn up

For 20 fast-moving years, Mum lived in Brecon, where she threw herself into the role of grandmother in the L’Arche community. She certainly gave a lot, but like many others, she too discovered that community life brought her a great deal as well, at the level of the heart, through her friendship with members with learning disabilities. Mum was glad that L’Arche also brought her into occasional contact with Therese Vanier, another Mayfield old girl and a prime mover in the founding of L’Arche in the UK. In 2010, Mum moved to Aylesbury, to be near her second daughter Francis. For the last four years of her life, she was bed-bound and had vascular dementia, but her indomitable spirit and energy continued to shine through, making a deep impression not least on her visiting grandchildren, and her brilliant carers. She loved to banter, chatting about the parties, trips and holidays she was forever planning, interspersed with requests for a little top-up of whisky. You could often see something click, especially on the faces of the young women who looked after her: it was the inspiration, that ‘if ever I get to 96, I want to be like Pauline!’ Into her coffin, along with her rosary, we placed a bottle of Bell’s whisky (diluted, just in case!). Jim Cargin

on your doorstep, dogs in tow, having driven the length and breadth of the country. She once told me, that one of her favourite lines from the Gospel, was where Jesus says, ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions.’ It is not hard to see why that appealed! Not surprisingly, this could be exhausting for anyone trying to keep up with her: I remember Johnny saying to her more than once, “Mum, just try to stay in one place for a while.” Fat chance! And it is exactly that driving dynamism that makes me think there is a question mark missing from the words on the lid of her coffin here today. It should read: ‘Pauline Hartigan’ – at rest?’ On the other hand, many of you will recall her talent for falling asleep at dinner parties – her own included; but that was only to wake up after five minutes, bursting with energy again, and ready for the next round, just when everyone else was beginning to flag. And if you do remember that, you will be remembering too, her amazing gift for entertaining and generous hospitality. A hospitality that invited others not just into her home, but into her heart.

Mum was very much a person of the heart. Incredibly strong-willed. Several people, in offering condolences, have used the word, ‘indomitable.’ Indomitable, yes, but also incredibly vulnerable. I think it was this combination, and her underlying faith in God, that helped her to engage so deeply with many people, and not just in her own generation, but becoming true friends with people who were much younger. Mum went by the shortest route: directly heart to heart. Her own life-experience taught her that life can sometimes be tough. Perhaps that was what helped her to give space to others going through their own tough times. I never ceased to be astonished at how quickly she could get on the wavelength of young people in L’Arche, many decades younger than herself. She was both grandmother and chum, listening and engaging. Of course, every now and then, there would be the famous line: “Doaty, could I ever ask you to pour us another little drink?” Doaty, this, doaty that. It’s from her Irish roots. To Mum, ever a wild Irish rose, whoever we were, family, friend or most recently carer, we were all “doaty”.

The Register

This photo portrait was taken when Mum was 90, by a professional photographer, Paul Wilkinson, who entered it for a national competition, where it won! The beauty of age! I just want to speak briefly about the last few years of her life, when she was confined to bed and needed to be looked after by her brilliant carers. I will say that again: her brilliant carers. The very phrase, “confined to bed” implies a slowing down surely? Not a bit of it! It was sheer joy to witness her immediate impact on new carers. They came to our house, expecting to look after a sweet little 96-year-old lady. What they met was Mum, firing on all cylinders, yelling at them at the top of her voice, threatening to murder me, and all while winking, planning her next party and as ever, delighting in the shock she was causing to anyone in earshot. A fighter with a heart. And that’s because Mum was an independent spirit, and that always stayed with her. It will surprise no-one who knew her, that even as recently as June, she suddenly announced, ‘I don’t feel ready for heaven – I think I will do my own thing.’ I replied, “Mum, chances are you’ll be going straight down without touching the sides.” And immediately her bedroom was filled with that wonderful peel of laughter. She loved to banter. It was always so good to hear her giddy laugh.

In fact, Mum was ready to go. I think perhaps she had a sort of premonition that her time was not long. One afternoon, when I was cooking in the kitchen, I heard this clarion voice singing at high volume upstairs: “For she’s a jolly good fellow!” I went up and we sang loud and long together. A swan song, although I didn’t realise it at the time. And then a few weeks before she died, when I was sitting in her room, one evening, she simply said, apropos nothing at all. “I want to thank you for all you have done.” And it wasn’t just me. It was all of us.

more glamorously dressed than ever. As ever, the life and soul of that party too, discovering to her delight, all the other lives and souls that have created with her so much joy, laughter and fun, hope and compassion in this world. The only ones I feel sorry for are any souls up there, who have, up till now, been blissfully enjoying their doubtless well-earned rest, and imagining that would continue forever… well, have I got news for you… Jim Cargin

We will soon be burying Mum’s body in the cemetery in Stone. But we won’t be burying Mum. She has already moved on to one of the many mansions, she was looking forward to. In fact, if past form is anything to go by, she has probably already zoomed off to her second or third. Heaven’s gain is our loss. But as we grieve her today, we have to remember: there is simply no way that something as puny as death could ever extinguish a spirit like Mum’s. If heaven really is a wedding feast, she will be even more in her element, and

DIANA PHILLIPS NÉE HAWKINS (CLASS OF 1950) Diana was born at the end of December 1932 and from the age of two she and her parents lived in India, moving nine times in 11 years as part of army life. On returning to England after the war she was sent to St Leonards, where her mother Alison (née Cole), and her sister Marye Paul were schooled. After gaining her school certificate she studied French for a year at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. She worked for the War Office in London, taking an opportunity to work in the Middle East where she met Hywel Phillips, an army officer. They married in London in 1956. They had three

MARY REMNANT (CLASS OF 1952) Mary Teresa Elizabeth Remnant (1935 – 2020) was a world-renowned scholar and enthusiast of early music and early musical instruments, writing several books and numerous articles on the subject. She was the daughter of a music teacher and architect/art historian, and uniquely managed to combine these two fields of artistic interests, becoming an enthusiast and ambassador for Early Music, at a time when this was not such a popular field of study or interest as it is now. Educated at the Holy Child Convent at St Leonards in East Sussex, she left in 1952 to study piano and violin at the Royal College of Music in London. While studying at the Royal College of Music, she was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal. She went on to specialise in Early Music, following her first degree with a DPhil in Bowed Instruments at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Receiving a Churchill Travel Fellowship, she was able to further study early musical instruments as they were portrayed in carvings and on the walls of Churches. She pursued this interest, becoming an authority on early music and giving many lecture recitals in London. She played on reconstructed instruments, many of them made to order by Alan Crumpler, and would demonstrate the sound of an instrument by playing a tune. She would illustrate a point in the talk with pictures of the instrument in a carving, painting, or engraving. She was a founder member of the Confraternity of St James, founded on

children, Anthony, Veronica and David. Veronica followed her mother and grandmother to St Leonard’s Mayfield. Diana kept in touch with many of her contemporaries from school. Family tree:My grandmother’s first cousin Margaret Hope spent a short time at St Leonard’s. She was about five years younger than my grandmother I think. There are a number of photographs taken inside and outside during the time my grandmother and great aunt spent at school, and certainly some of the nuns also taught my mother. My mother kept in touch with Maureen Briggs (née Gormley), Clare Synge (née

13th January 1983 at her house, at a gathering of six friends to celebrate her birthday. Mary’s interest in the Confraternity was to become total and she was a committee member for many years. Initially committee meetings took place at her house in Chelsea. It did not take much time for Mary to set up a CSJ choir which went on to meet regularly and sang together for the better part of 30 years. Many lasting friendships were made through the choir and much fun was had by the pilgrim singers who enjoyed singing, not only in the Purcell Room, but also in places such as the Paris Metro, the ruins of Merton Abbey (to be found in an underground carpark), Canterbury Cathedral, 11 Downing Street and many other places beside. Mary was a member of many academic societies and contributed much to the Early Music Society. She was a member of The Society of Antiquaries and was an active member of The Catholic Writers Guild. Mary was also a woman of great faith and a few years ago, in recognition of her lifelong work for the Church, she was made a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great.

Weld), Elizabeth Donovan (née Heron) to name a few. In fact I have just come across an article my mother wrote for the Cornelian Summer 2015 about her time at St Leonard’s if you have that copy in your archive. Veronica O’Brien

Finally, no recollection of Mary would be complete without recalling her love of cats. She had several over the years and the most memorable pair must be Ferdinand and Isabella… She made a unique contribution to British cultural life and to the Church in the UK. She will be sorely missed by her pilgrim friends in the UK and on the continent, and early music enthusiasts all over the world. I first met Mary when I moved from Junior to Senior school at St Leonards in the late 1940s. We shared a love of music and cats. I had the good fortune to attend some of her Festival Hall concerts over the years, and we used to meet at parties at the house of a mutual friend. The last time I saw Mary was at a friend’s wedding in Wimbledon in 2013. She was her usual enthusiastic self and we enjoyed a good gossip about St Leonards and some of the nuns we had known. Mary died in the middle of the first lockdown on the Isle of Wight where she was living. Unfortunately, her funeral could only be attended by a few close relatives. Catalina Vassallo-Bonner (Class of 1956)

The Register ANN RIETCHEL (CLASS OF 1952) Ann was born on 14th December 1934 to Jerome and Maureen (Mary Josephine) Rietchel at Old Tiles, Mark Cross, Sussex. Ann said recently, September 2019, “I never yearned to have my own children. As I was growing up there was always a baby at home”. Jane joined her when she was three in 1937. Elizabeth when she was seven in 1942. Paul when she was 12 in 1947. Felicity when she was 14 in 1949. Brigid when she was 17 in 1952. Ann was often involved with our care when we were very little and later taking us to the cinema, theatre etc. Just after Paul was born in 1947, our Mother contracted polio. The family was in quarantine so Ann helped run the home. She thought she may have had Rheumatic Fever as a child which may have led to her heart conditions. At one time a cardiologist said to her “with your heart you shouldn’t be alive”! Ann had many memories of war time when she was aged five to ten. These are some, which she wrote down last year, May 2019. “My First Communion on 3rd May 1942; earlier than planned because Daddy was going abroad with the army to El Alamein in North Africa. He later went to Kohima in Burma. He was away for three and a half years; not home until October 1945.” She had previously remembered him walking up the garden path after his return from Dunkirk in 1940. Her love of London probably started as a young child with many trips to a London optician during the war (“when it was safe to do so”). She remembers “barrage balloons and the windows of the buses covered with mesh, except for a small opening so you could see where you were”! Only last year, September 2019, she said, “I couldn’t honestly say I was frightened all through the war but we all knew we didn’t want Hitler”. Ann’s main school days were at The Convent of the Holy Child Jesus in Mayfield, Sussex, 1941 - 1952. At first as a day girl, then as a boarder, because she enjoyed all the after-school activities. Ann was the youngest in her class and too young to take her Matriculation exams with all her contemporaries. However, she did sit the exams and was marked by the school with a distinction. Jane makes the comment that “Ann liked adventure as long as it was safe”! Although at one time, she did try gliding, and at the age of 17 in October 1952, she flew from Heathrow (which only had a departure hut) to Toronto (with two refuelling stops – Prestwick in Scotland and Newfoundland) to stay with our Father’s friends. Then she took the threeday train journey across Canada, to stay with our relatives in Vancouver for six months. After her return from Canada, she started her nurse’s training at The Middlesex Hospital in London on 31st August 1953. She later trained as a midwife working at Dulwich Hospital, then the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells. All Ann’s working life was with the NHS; mostly as a medical secretary; - Radiotherapy Follow Up Department at University College Hospital, Camden Rehabilitation Centre, and later in Children’s Services. Ann and Chris first met in 1964 at a Lourdes reunion. He invited her to a performance of Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion at the Albert Hall. It became one of her favourite pieces of music and Chris remained a lifelong friend.

Ann would talk about her childhood family holidays with excitement. Later as an adult she had many holidays with friends and family which she would recall with great enthusiasm. These began when package holidays were in their infancy and the Mediterranean unspoilt. She was a lovely travelling companion and enjoyed everything from start to finish. Ann loved books and encouraged her sisters and brother to read. She enjoyed enormously the cultural life of London; classical music, history of art, theatre and playing bridge. Not forgetting the not-so-sophisticated card game of racing demon, played at Christmas! Also, she had a talent for painting and drawing which was little known. She enjoyed going for local walks, but not in fields of cows! Point to Points in Spring. An interest in gardening from an early age continued through her life. Long family after-Sunday-lunch conversations around the dining room table, and afterwards with our Mother whilst sharing the washing up. Ann was calm, gracious, patient, kind and always interested in the people around her, and in life in general. Once, a meal was paid for Ann and friends by a man on a neighbouring table as their conversation was so engaging! Her faith was an important part of her life and she introduced the family to Lourdes. She loved working in the Baths, which allowed people to see her very gentle nature. One of Ann’s earliest memories was the need to carry her gas mask to school during the war. She went into Croydon University Hospital on 27th March 2020 for an emergency hernia operation, when the Country was in lockdown with hospital staff wearing masks due to Covid-19. These protective masks are like brackets around her life. Between them the backdrop to her life was exceptionally peaceful in our part of the world. She very sadly caught the virus and died on 20th April 2020. Ann, you are remembered well and we love you. May you rest in peace. Felicity Bryant (Class of 1967) Jane Adolph (Class of 1955) Brigid Rietchel (Class of 1970) 15th August 2020

JANE ROSALYND HERON EVANS (CLASS OF 1952) 9TH MARCH 1935 – 4TH FEBRUARY 2021 Jane was born in Essex but was not yet five when she was sent to board with the nuns at the Convent of the Holy Child at St Leonards near Hastings, where her own mother had been at school. Relatively safe from the dangers of aerial bombardment, the school offered a haven for her and her older sister Elizabeth. Their mother Mary Cox (1903-2004), the only daughter of Austen Cox and Elizabeth (neé Singleton) came from a Lancashire Catholic family and many of the nuns who had taught her were still teaching at the school which meant that neither girls appeared to suffer from anything other than the slightest homesickness. Music teaching at the school was enhanced by the presence of Mother Aloysius who had been to Leipzig to study with a pupil of Theodor Leschitiskzy, who had learnt from Carl Czerny so a link can be traced directly to Beethoven. Jane always credited her skill at the piano from the early lessons she received at school and the fact that practicing was part of their daily routine.

Jane Heron standing back row, second from left, with Mother Germaine, 1949

When the Sussex coastline itself became a target, the junior section of the Convent was evacuated to Torquay and then Hedsor Park in Berkshire for the remainder of the War. Jane credited the origins of the religious order being from America, thanks to Dame Cornelia Connelly, with the relative freedom of her school life and talked often of the happy times they enjoyed in all three places. The first of her many certificates for passing piano exams with distinction was for Grade III in July 1946 when she was 11.

In 1990 Jane was invited to become a Trustee of the Dalcroze Society, a position she held for 25 years, and she occasionally gave papers on her teaching practice at their AGM. In 1992 she joined the Executive Committee for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, actively engaged in their campaign to retain Cecil Sharp House as their London HQ. In 1998 she gave talks to the European Piano Teachers Association, London and Leeds and some of her articles were published in the Music Teacher magazine.

In March 1950 Jane and some of her musical friends were entered for the Hastings Music Festival competition and the following year they won the highest award for Chamber Music, with Jane playing Chopin’s Piano Concerto with Mary Remnant, later to become a distinguished musicologist herself on the violin. This was commemorated by the presentation of the D.Tonnell Silver Challenge cup, now sadly lost. In 1952 Jane was appointed Head Girl of the school for her last year and gained a place at Kings’ College to read history. After graduating she worked at St Richard’s, a small boarding school near Malvern, and then moved to London to work at Macmillan publishers.

The arrival of grandchildren in 1997, eventually to become eight in number, and her enthusiasm to spend summer months near her boat on the River Blackwater in Essex meant that she gradually decreased the quantity of pupils who came to her house, but she continued to put on concerts and ensured a wide and appreciative audience for events at home for pianists, in particular Julia Cload for whom she organised more ambitious events, one memorable one at St John’s Smith Square in 1997. Ever ready to translate her enthusiasm into practice, she chose charities to raise money for through these events which included SleepingOntheStreets, donning her own sleeping bag for a night on the South bank, and the St Nicholas Charity Centre, Moscow, associated with St Francis of Assisi RC church in Pottery Lane, W11 where her funeral on 9th March was held.

Jane married architect Martin P.W. Evans in 1959 and had four children, making their home in Ladbroke Grove, West London and it was while they were at school that she studied at the Froebel Institute in Roehampton, where she gained her Diploma in Education (Music) in 1982. Lodgers in the family home around this time included Jacqueline DuPre and Sarah Connolly, and a tradition of hospitality began that lasted through two house moves. Martin’s encouragement concerts and country dancing parties in the garden in the summer were regular features of their family life. In the 1980’s an extraordinary organisation, which sadly no longer exists, called the Kensington Committee for Friendship for Overseas Students recognised that many young people came to Imperial College and other great centres of leaning for years from all over the world but never stepped over the threshold of anyone local’s homes. Visitors to the Ladbroke Grove basement would be encouraged to lose their shyness in persuading Malaysian PhD scientists to learn an Eightsome Reel. Jane taught the piano to adult beginners and during term time to children coming straight from school.

In recent years Jane provided piano music for the organists at both HMP Wormwood Scrubs and HMP Wandsworth and in 2018 through to last year pre-Covid, 2020, she gave weekly piano recitals before Covid restrictions prevented it at Thomas Dalby Court in North Kensington. Wisely choosing themes from Broadway musicals and a mix of popular classics, these gave great pleasure to the elderly residents of this sheltered housing scheme. Photos survive in our family albums of happy reunions at St Leonard’s and Mayfield: if anyone would like further details please don’t hesitate to get in touch: magdalenevans@gmail.com

The Register SISTER PATRICIA MILNER Sister Patricia Milner was a fondlyremembered teacher and SHCJ Sister who was at St Leonard's until its closure in 1976. She died peacefully on 6th June 2020 in the SHCJ care home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. She was one of the faithful pioneers of the Focolare in Ireland. Anna Carboni (Class of 1981), remembers her: It only really dawned on me in the last decade that it was Sister Patricia (or ‘S.P.’ as she was known at St Leonard’s) who set me on my path to a career in the law. I found out her address in Dublin from Claire Ball at Mayfield and wrote her a letter out of the blue a few years ago, reminding her of some of the things she taught me and the rest of ‘Junior 4P’ (‘P for Patricia’), a class of inquisitive 10 year old girls. It was my first year at boarding school, after a couple of years at our local village school. I learnt all my country capitals and rivers of the world from her (not that I remember them all); I made a lapis lazuli bracelet to represent some part of history that again I now forget; and I took part in a mock trial about whether one of the girls had mistreated her pet rabbit! S.P. and another nun, Sister Carolyn Mitchell, used to take us down to the beach by Hastings Pier to have a swim in the sea on sunny July afternoons towards the end of the summer term. She encouraged us to plant flowers in some special flowerbeds that were arranged for us, and let us make camps in the school grounds,

where once we led S.P. to put her foot into a rabbit hole, at which we fell about hooting with laughter while she got very cross with us. Luckily she forgave us! I went on to Mayfield when St Leonards closed in 1976, with the class that would have moved in any event, and had another enjoyable three years there, but decided to join my brothers at King’s Canterbury for my sixth form, probably with no better reason than to be closer to the boys! It now feels

rather disloyal to the SHCJ which had given me six fantastically fulfilling years of boarding school. S.P. remains the most important teacher that I had at any school, and I always thought it was a shame that she didn’t come on to Mayfield with many of the other nuns. I guess her calling was elsewhere. I am sorry that I never managed to catch up properly with S.P. in later life, but I hope that she was pleased that she had been remembered by one of her charges from the 1970s.

SISTER MARY HILARY DALY Sister Mary Hilary Daly died peacefully in Dublin on 21st December 2020. She was Housemistress of St Raphael’s House and a Maths teacher at Mayfield from 1978 to 1983. Before she came to Mayfield, she was Headmistress of what was then Combe Bank Holy Child School. On leaving Mayfield she became Headmistress of Killiney Holy Child School, Dublin, from 1983 to 1996. Old Cornelians from all three Holy Child Schools remember her with fondness and respect. Sister Mary Hilary also served as a Governor at Mayfield. May she rest in peace.

G IN M CO

Mayfield CONNECT Get CONNECTED for: • News: Stay up-to-date with news from the whole Old Cornelian community and Mayfield School • Invitations: To reunions and other events at Mayfield School and near you • Friendships: Find old friends, make new ones • Memories: From your classmates and the archives for all OC schools

• Sharing: Share your News, Photos and Ideas

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A dedicated online space just for the Old Cornelian Community

• Networking: Social, Regional and Professional networks and clubs • Volunteering: Lend your experience, energy and enthusiasm as a Careers Mentor, OC Ambassador or Reunion volunteer

Don’t miss out on the launch of Mayfield CONNECT which will be announced shortly by email, so PLEASE BE SURE TO UPDATE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS!

oldcornelians@mayfieldgirls.org

Mayfield Connect

It is with great excitement that we announce our plans for this new initiative, which will be launching in the Autumn Term. As part of our aim to extend our engagement with and support of OCs, we have invested in and developed a new online network for the OC community. Mayfield Connect will be the central hub for all information, news and events for OCs and will also provide exclusive access to resources and archives. It will be easy to join and create a profile, to find and invite friends, and to share news. We will bring further news in September.

Save the Dates! OC REUNION AND PILGRIMAGE OF THANKSGIVING – SATURDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2021 We are thrilled to be able to host our annual reunion again at Mayfield and this will take place alongside our Foundation Day celebrations in October. This year is particularly special as we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the SHCJ and give thanks for Cornelia’s life, works and legacy. Further information about the schedule for the day will be sent to all OCs in September but, in the meantime, please Save the Date!

SCHOLA REUNION 2022 – SATURDAY 18TH JUNE 2022 Dr Ward is delighted to announce the date for our third Schola Reunion - Saturday 18th June 2022 - which promises to be a very exciting day. Particularly thrilling is that Sir James MacMillan is writing a new five-minute choral work especially for our 175th anniversary celebrations, which will be premiered during the event. Taking our cue from this commission, the event will be themed around music that has been written for Schola Cantorum over the years, and which some OCs will remember performing and recording. The day will take the form of rehearsals in the morning and the afternoon (with lunch), and then a celebratory performance in the afternoon - including the world premiere.

Mayfield School, The Old Palace, Mayfield, East Sussex, TN20 6PH mayfieldgirls.org