Holles Connect Spring 2022 by Lady Eleanor Holles

LEARNING LIFE LESSONS ON THE PLAYING FIELDS Alumnae reveal the benefits of taking part in team sport at school

TEAMWORK: TOGETHER WE CAN ISSUE

LEH Alumnae News Spring 2022

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PUPILS Our wall of alumnae portraits has been expanded and updated

OUR OAR-SOME RECORD-BREAKING ALUMNAE ROWERS

They’re the fastest trio of women ever to cross the Atlantic

Alumnae Advisory Group members CHAIR Lisa Day (Director of Development and Communications) SECRETARY

Susanna Frayn (Alumnae Communications Officer)

MEMBERS

Sue Barber (LEH 1973-1980) Emily Formby (LEH 1975-1985) Vivienne Hay (LEH 2003-2010) Joanna Hubbard (LEH 1977-1987) Gillian Keller (LEH 1963-1970) Lizzi Michael (LEH 1997-2007) Jane Ross (LEH 1957-1964) Charlotte Surguy (LEH 1982-1986) Trish White (LEH 1947-1955)

WITH SPECIAL THANKS Holles Connect editor Susanna Frayn would like to thank teachers Katie Sinnett and Dani Mugridge for their contributions to the magazine. Many thanks are also due to our wonderful L6 team of Creative Directors. Plus, we are very grateful to our alumnae who kindly agreed to be profiled: Stephanie Hilborne, Alys Thomas, Amy Andrew, Nicky Shields, Abby Johnston and Charlotte Irving. And finally, a special thank you to freelance photographer Penny Bird, who allowed us to use her stunning photos of Team ExtraOARdinary for Atlantic Campaigns.

CONTENTS PAGE

HEAD MISTRESS’ WELCOME

Heather Hanbury explains why she believes kindness is the key to building community.

TEAMWORK ISSUE

WRITE THE GIRL

Play writing success for pupils

ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

SPRING 2022 ALUMNAE PROFILES

finalist Alys Thomas.

ROWING FOR VICTORY

We bid a sad farewell to some much-loved alumnae.

DATES FOR THE DIARY

HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

THE WINNERS OF THE 2021 AWARDS REVEALED

OBITUARIES

Reserve your place now.

WING-WALKING AT NEARLY 90

HELPING ALUMNAE TAKE ON NEW CHALLENGES Persistence paid off for Olympic SWIMMING FOR TEAM GB IN TOKYO

Two of our alumnae reveal the inside story of the world’s toughest row.

EMERGING TALENT AWARD

BACK AT THE CAROL SERVICE 50 YEARS ON

TEAMS ACROSS THE DECADES

ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES

Pro boxer Amy Andrew is determined to be the world champion.

Can you spot yourself in these photos?

Alumnae from the Class of 1971 joined the advent service.

How a daredevil alumna took to the skies to raise funds for her charity.

TEAMWORK AT LEH

SCHOOL NEWS

GIRLS SCHOOL OF THE YEAR

LEH has won a prestigious award for its values-led approach to education.

COMING TOGETHER AS ONE

IN POLE POSITION

TV presenter Nicki Shields’ passion for motorsports has fast-tracked her career.

LEH is a very special community says Head of Middle School Katie Sinnett.

@LEHalumnae

COMMUNITY RAISES US UP

alumnae@lehs.org.uk

Our Sixth Formers explain why it’s so important to support and champion each other.

Lady Eleanor Holles Alumnae

Cover image: Team ExtraOARdinary celebrate their victory. Image credit: Penny Bird on behalf of Atlantic Campaigns.

Head Mistress’ Welcome

One of the great joys about LEH is the amazing sense of community and connection we share, a lasting sense of loyalty and pride that remains with so many of you long after you’ve left. It’s why we are focusing on the theme of Teamwork: Together We Can in this issue of Holles Connect magazine: LEH is a close-knit community with shared goals and ambitions. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than on our playing fields, netball courts and boat house as pupils come together to take part in competitive sports. In addition to encouraging team spirit, sports can help our children to develop character and learn important social brain skills, as our Director of Sport Dani Mugridge explains on page 28. The benefits of playing competitive sport in school can extend well beyond the classroom, as several of our alumnae, who excelled as pupils, have gone on demonstrate. See pages 32 to 43. Stephanie Hilborne, Class of 1986, who now heads up Women in

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Sport, sets out how the real benefits of playing netball for the school only became apparent to her in later life. See page 32. I am often asked by prospective parents and others who visit LEH, about my philosophy of education – on what do I base my school leadership? This is a very complex question, but I frequently sum it up with one word: kindness. And there is a reason for this: being kind underpins almost every other desired behaviour in human beings. Kindness asks you to attend to others and not always pay attention to yourself. The practice of kindness inspires and deepens our connection to ourselves and to one another. It binds us together as a team, as a community.

Empathy allows us to see connections rather than differences and this sense of supporting each other and of being on the same side is one of our central tenets. Our Head of Middle School, Katie Sinnett, really focuses on this when pupils arrive at LEH in the Thirds (see her article on page 29).

Kindness binds us together as a team, as a community.

Occasionally, I come across alumnae who attended LEH in years gone by and sadly don’t feel that sense of connection and loyalty to the school. They felt that academic achievement was valued above all else and if they weren’t headed for an Oxbridge scholarship themselves, the experience

That’s why it was so important for us to update our alumnae wall last term, increasing the number of former pupils on display three-fold to ensure that it is more inclusive and to make it clear that we are proud of all alumnae, whatever they go on to do.

left them feeling side-lined. I suspect this says as much about the ethos of society at the time, as it does about the school, but still, it makes me feel rather sad. Times change and while we will always be immensely proud of those students who go on to study at university and pursue an academic career, if you came back to school now you would see there has been a fundamental shift.

We are proud of all alumnae, whatever they go on to do.

Now we empower pupils to be exactly who they are, whatever their current interests or future aspirations. While we still encourage them to stretch and strive to become their most confident selves, as students and as citizens of the world, we do this by giving them the freedom to express themselves and take on new challenges and, above all, to be supported and championed by each other. It is this sense of community which raises us up. As our Creative Directors in the L6 explain on page 30, it’s why we encourage a sense of female solidarity and support.

It’s the Taking Part that Matters

There are yoga teachers, charity workers, foster carers, sports people, actors, writers, artists and yes – lawyers, doctors, and academics – and they all play an equally important role inspiring current pupils as they walk by. To see the full list of alumnae featured, please turn to page 23 to 27. We are delighted to be holding a Remarkable Women Reception to which you are all invited on Saturday 26 March. This is your chance to celebrate each other and everything you have achieved since leaving LEH. Please see details of how to purchase tickets on page 18. At LEH, we encourage pupils to believe that they can be anything they want to be and that if we are kind, support each other, champion the achievements of others and work as a team, then Together We Can.

Women in Sport CEO Stephanie Hilborne on fighting gender inequality in life.

The Whole is Greater than the sum of its parts.

Heather Hanbury Head Mistress

Together We Can Change the World

LEH Alumnae wall. You are all invited to our Remarkable Women Reception.

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ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

LEH ALUMNAE ROW FOR GLORY

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In a truly inspirational display of sheer hard work and determination two LEH alumnae and their teammate, who has incurable cancer, have shattered the world record for rowing across the Atlantic. Abby Johnston, Class of 2007, who also works at LEH and was promoted to Head of Rowing just before she set out at the end of last year, teamed up with fellow

alumna Charlotte Irving, Class of 2008, and friend Kat Cordiner, to take part in the world’s toughest row, the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The trio, who together make up Team ExtraOARdinary, completed the 3,000-mile crossing on Sunday 23 January in just 42 days, seven hours and 17 minutes, knocking an astonishing seven days off the female trio world record. As they stepped onto land for the first time in six weeks, they said they felt “wobbly, overwhelmed and happy”. Race organisers said they had shown the impossible was possible. The record-breaking bid hit the headlines around the world and the trio were featured heavily on news bulletins and across international press, ranging from

ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS the Today programme on Radio 4 to Sky News, who came down to the school to film. Kat Cordiner has secondary cervical cancer and is thought to be the first person to tackle this challenge as a cancer patient. The team is raising money for Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. She said: “The doctors have told me I don’t have decades, I have years, so I really want to make the most of them. I don’t want to muck around doing stuff that doesn’t matter - I want to do things that are challenging and fun.” Grinning from ear to ear to have completed the challenge in such record-breaking time, Abby said: “We can’t quite believe it! But it was hard work, we’re not going to lie. We’re all exhausted but it was worth it.” She added: “No-one can appreciate dry land like we can right now. You push yourself to the limits and you realise what you are made of. I’m not saying I’ll do it again, but this feels pretty good.”

No-one can appreciate dry land like we can right now.

Charlotte said: “You’ve got to celebrate the good times to get you through the bad. We had such fun out there and we have come back still fast friends, which was a huge objective for us. It wasn’t just about breaking the record but about enjoying the whole experience and we really did.” Students at LEH School are bursting with pride that their Rowing Coach has smashed a world record and

become one of the fastest females ever to row across the Atlantic Ocean. Upper Sixth students in the LEH Rowing Squad followed Abby and Charlotte’s progress across the ocean. Rowing captain Maddy said: “It was great to see Abby going from just talking about the challenge to seeing her actually break the world record and by a week too. It’s definitely really inspiring.” Vice-captain Danielle said: “We saw her do all that training and put in the work, so it’s really exciting as a rowing team to see the benefits and how it’s all paid off.” Fellow vice-captain Emily agreed: “Seeing her training with us and being part of her preparation made us feel really involved. Sometimes you question whether you can do it but seeing her determination to complete this record has made us that much more determined too.” Katherine said: “You always hear about people doing these challenges and breaking these world records, but you never actually know the person that does it. To actually know Abby and to know that it’s possible – that’s really amazing.” Charlotte added: “Abby was doing the same kind of training as us, and to know that she then went on to row across the Atlantic is just so inspiring. It makes us want to train that much harder too.”

Who are team ExtraOARdinary? Abby and Charlotte met as pupils at LEH when they rowed together for the school. They were part of the crew that became National Champions in 2007. By now firm friends, they both attended Newcastle University where they won various national titles and qualified for Henley Royal Regatta. They have both taken part in epic adventures before. In 2016 Charlotte walked the entire length of America on the Pacific Crest Trail. The 2,600-mile trek across deserts and mountain ranges took almost five months to complete. In 2018 Abby took part in the Clipper Round the World Race, sailing from Australia up to China and then across the North Pacific. Abby is now Head of Rowing at LEH and Charlotte works as Marketing Manager for Mercer, a health and benefits brokerage and consultancy. Kat is Wholesale Head of Business Regulatory Risk and Strategic Change at HSBC. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2019 and had a radical hysterectomy. The cancer returned in May 2020 as secondary cervical cancer. To begin with she was worried that it would scupper the crew’s chances of taking part in the Atlantic row. But determined not to let the others down, she continued training despite the exhausting intensive cancer treatment, including heart surgery. Just before setting out, her doctors confirmed she is currently in remission.

Head Mistress Heather Hanbury said: “We are all in awe of Abby, Charlotte and Kat and send them huge congratulations. They are the true embodiment of our school motto – Hope Favours the Bold. Their world-breaking achievement is truly inspirational for our pupils, and we are looking forward to welcoming them back to school. We will be inviting them to give a special assembly so they can tell students all about their adventures.”

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ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

EXTRACTS FROM TEAM EXTRAOARDINARY’S JOURNAL 29 NOVEMBER 2021 We’re flying out to Tenerife. We can’t quite believe we’re finally here! We’ve spotted at least another two crews on our flight, some we recognise and some new faces. The excitement is palpable. The adventure starts.

THE CROSSING IN NUMBERS

42 7

days hours minutes THE NEW WORLD RECORD

days – The number of days they beat the previous record by

12kg

2,794

– The miles they actually rowed

– The number of litres of water each rower drank per day

5,000

– The number of calories they had to consume every day

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– Weight an average rower loses on an Atlantic crossing

700,000

– The number of strokes each team member made to cross the ocean

– The hours each crew mate spent rowing every day

4 DECEMBER 2021 Pre-race inspection day. A bit nerve-wracking as it’s a pass or fail situation, but everything was checked and tested, and we passed with flying colours. We’re ready to race. Our daily chocolate bars have melted, but Dolly’s every nook and cranny is stuffed full of our packages, ready to hit the water.

30c

– The daytime temperature the women faced while rowing

20ft

– The height of some of the waves in the Atlantic

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11 DECEMBER 2021 One day to go and our start time has been confirmed. After almost two years of hard work, fundraising, preparation and excitement, we’re now ready to go. Look out Antigua! Wishing the other amazing crews all the luck in the world! 12 DECEMBER 2021 Today’s the day! The atmosphere is amazing and we’re so grateful for everyone’s support. As we finally row out there’s such a sense of relief. Here we go! Rowing away from family and friends and knowing you aren’t going to see them or step foot on land for six weeks is a weird feeling and very emotional. The departures are staggered every 15 minutes, so for the first day we can see the others and at night we can see the lights of 20 boats around us – it makes us feel less alone out here! 14 DECEMBER 2021 Within hours of setting out Kat and Charlotte ‘never-getsseasick’ Irving are heads in the bucket, enjoying their freeze-dried meals for the second time round. We can laugh now about the shifts we were on together, just passing the

ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

20 DECEMBER 2021 When every minute, hour and day involves non-stop rowing, you’ve got to get creative to break up the monotony. Which is why we’re celebrating fun Fridays by wearing Hawaiian shirts to add a splash of colour to Dolly’s decks.

bucket back and forth. But we push on through. We have to! The two hours on and one hour off routine is brutal. We’re really feeling it. Already our bodies ache EVERYWHERE, with our hands, bums, backs and knees taking the biggest hits. But to be honest, there’s nowhere we’re not feeling it. We’re starting to settle into the routine, but a bit more sleep would be much appreciated. 16 DECEMBER 2021 We are utterly exhausted. Although we’ve done some really tough rows in our time this is a whole new level. It’s relentless, for 18 hours a day. We’re so sleep deprived we’re starting to hallucinate. Last night Abby thought the moon was a great big cruise ship which was going to crash into us…

18 DECEMBER 2021 The weather has been pretty fab, with some great looking clouds – and the stars at night are just incredible and unforgettable. We’ve seen so many shooting stars! Yesterday the wind was non-existent, and the Atlantic was like glass. It made us feel like we were floating, and the silence on our night shifts was eerie. But the sunsets are like nothing else we’ve ever seen.

23 DECEMBER 2021 Last night was one of the most physically demanding so far. We rowed into a strong headwind for about eight hours just trying to keep the boat moving. We only managed about one knot, it was backbreaking and dispiriting. But the Atlantic has a way of knowing when you need a break. This morning we saw an amazing display from a pod of around 20 dolphins. They were less than a metre away from our oars for about two hours. They were leaping around then swimming under the boat and off the bow. It really lifted our spirits. How lucky are we to be here right now? 25 DECEMBER 2021 Merry Christmas from Team ExtraOARdinary! For the first time in the whole row, we took 10 minutes off the oars to celebrate together! 26 DECEMBER 2021 Lessons learned so far:1. Rowing an ocean is brutal. Amazing? Yes. Life-changing? Definitely. Hardest thing we’ve ever done? Absolutely. 2. T hings are scarier at night. Flying fish, waves and birds. 3. If something goes overboard you have less than two seconds to get it back before it’s lost to Davy Jones’ locker. RIP Kat’s hat and our beloved toilet bucket (luckily we’ve got a spare!) 4. Screaming at the top of your lungs into the Atlantic abyss feels good! 5. E verything is always damp even though it’s unbelievably hot.

19 DECEMBER 2021 We’ve found our rhythm now, but the one hour off still passes in a flash. There’s just time to make up some food with the hot water in the thermos, eat it, try and stretch out aching muscles and wash a pair of pants for the next day and it’s almost time to get back on the oars again.

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ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS 11 JANUARY 2022 A big day for us as we hit the 1000 nautical mile to go mark! Every morning our weather router, Dawn Wood, sends us the heading to steer by to take advantage of the conditions that day. If the weather stays good, it’s looking more and more likely that we could break the world record. How amazing would that be?

1 JANUARY 2022 Happy New Year! How do you celebrate NYE aboard a 23-foot rowing boat? You don your Hawaiian shirt, pop on some (biodegradable) glitter, throw some shapes (at watch changeover) and you pop the bubbly on (Atlantic) ice.

14 JANUARY 2022 A really tough morning. We’re still exhausted and we saw from the update today that Row for Impact have hit an amazing current, and have reduced our lead to just a mile. We’ve somehow got to dig deeper. We can’t let the record slip away. Time to get rid of anything we don’t need to keep the boat as light as it can be.

4 JANUARY 2022 We’ve all been suffering from a progression of blisters/ calluses over the past couple of weeks. One of Abby’s has become infected and needed to be gouged out with a scalpel and treated with antibac and some antibiotics. On the upside, we’re over halfway there and celebrated last night with a quick song break. Living on sleep deprivation and adrenaline at this stage. Sun is back to beating down again today, but what a milestone! 7 JANUARY 2022 Day 26 aboard Dolly Parton and it’s a good one – it’s Kat’s birthday. We celebrated with presents, a small glass of fizz and glow sticks! We also had a visit from the Atlantic Campaigns support yacht Suntiki and they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ over the VHF radio. It’s our first sight of another human since we set out in early December! This time last year Kat was in the middle of six weeks of gruelling radiotherapy. What a difference a year makes! It’s really spurring us on. 10 JANUARY 2002 We’re locked in a fierce competition with the Dutch crew and other female trio, Row for Impact. We are both so determined to break the world record. At one point they were 36 miles in front, but we love a challenge. With the weather in our favour, we managed to cover 88 miles in one day – more than any other crew. The boat was surfing the waves, the sun behind the clouds, and it was such a sweet relief skimming across the water. We clawed our way back to 46 miles ahead – we are exhausted but jubilant.

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15 JANUARY 2022 Day 35 and about one week still to go. Getting really fed up with the freeze-dried meals, although we all have our favourites including salmon and broccoli pasta and pork loin in green pepper sauce! What really keeps us going is our snack packs – chocolate, fizzy sweets, cereal bars and crisps. The crisps are the best! 16 JANUARY 2022 Yesterday we saw a massive pod of minke whales. There must have been about 50-100 – it took them about 45 minutes to swim past - they just kept on coming. One swam alongside the boat for a few minutes just half a metre away from the oars. There was absolutely no doubt it was looking at us, thinking ‘who are you and what are you doing’. They were playing on the waves, coming through the water and flashing their white tummies. It was absolutely incredible – a real boost. They seem to be our good luck charms - minkes bring good winds so we are hopeful the weather is about to change.

ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS 19 JANUARY 2022 So close we can almost smell the piña coladas! 2499 nautical miles rowed and just 294 to go. Irving has realised that this is what she really lives for – carrying out adventures in the midst of nature. Abby and Kat are both blown away that it’s possible we’re at this point. At the beginning it felt so hard we didn’t think we could take another stroke, but somehow, we just kept going and now we’re almost in touching distance. How amazing is the human body? How adaptable! If we can do it, anyone can. 20 JANUARY 2022 It was pretty scary last night – our first, and thankfully only, knock-down. We had about 20 knots of wind and some incredibly big waves – about two storeys high. Abby was on deck by herself, and the moon wasn’t yet up so she could hear a massive wave getting closer and closer, but not see it. Then suddenly it crashed over the boat and knocked her off the seat, tipping Dolly over at 90 degrees. It was a hairy moment, with the boat half capsized, Abby up to her armpit in water and the boat just hanging there. But Dolly saw us right, righting herself up. The others slept through the whole thing - one of the benefits of sleep deprivation! At shift change Abby had just enough time to tell Charlotte it was the worst shift of her entire row, before another wave crashed over the deck, soaking Abby and sending her swiftly into the cabin - leaving Charlotte to wonder what she meant for the rest of her shift! 21 JANUARY 2022 Just over 150 nautical miles to go and we’re having to dig deeper than ever to keep the speed up among the big waves. The world record and a win seem to be in the bag, but with ocean rowing you never can tell - so much can change in a matter of hours and we are determined to keep hold of it. 22 JANUARY 2022 We thought we’d see land about 100 miles out, but our very first glimpse was a halo of light on the horizon last night. Finally, today, with about 25 miles to go we can actually see it for the first time in six weeks. Land ahoy! Now every time when we look over our shoulder it’s getting closer. It’s so exciting.

23 JANUARY 2022 Arriving at the finishing line was so surreal – just the weirdest feeling. Abby was steering us round the headland while Charlotte and Kat rowed, when the Atlantic Challenge boat came out to meet us. It was so emotional to finally be at this point. You can see your family and friends on shore after longing to see them for 42 days and finally – there they are! Holding those flares, we all just felt sheer elation. We’d done it! Pulling up at the dock was crazy. There were so many people there and our first steps on land were hilarious. We just couldn’t walk. You’re expecting the ground to be moving up and down like the water. It’s like being drunk! Standing on the podium was amazing, so exhilarating, we couldn’t stop grinning. To say we were weary is an epic understatement, but we still went out partying - we can always find the energy for a celebration. We were running on adrenalin. All our friends and family were there, and we didn’t want to miss out!

25 JANUARY 2022 It’s all rather surreal being back on land – all the press interest and the messages of congratulations. We’ve been thinking about getting to this point for two years now, and finally we’re here and it’s done. We broke the world record, and it feels unbelievable. We’re incredibly proud of each other. Going back to our normal lives will be so weird. But it all went to plan, and we are so excited to have done it. The exhaustion is beginning to hit - we’ve been racking up a debt with our bodies and now it’s payback time. It’s time to rest and recover before we think about what’s next!

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT The Alumnae Advisory Group sponsored team ExtraOARdinary to take part in the race and the LEH logo was proudly displayed on the hull of Dolly Parton. Many alumnae followed their progress on social media and posted messages of support as well as donating.

The team has set themselves an ambitious target of raising £100,000 for their three cancer charities - Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Donations are still welcome, so please keep them coming.

To donate please head to the We Are ExtraOARdinary website: www.weareextraoardinary.com/donate or to their GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com Holles Connect Spring 2022

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ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

Melanie Ivarsson awarded OBE in New Year Honours List Many congratulations to Melanie Ivarsson, Class of 1990, who received an OBE in the New Year Honours List 2022 for services to public health during COVID-19. Melanie, who is based in the US, is Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Moderna and led clinical trials to develop one of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccines.

none of this would have been possible without the love and support of my amazing family and friends. Thank you for being with me every step of the way.”

She said: “I am incredibly honoured to have received this OBE. It has been a true joy and privilege to work with the incredible team at Moderna to develop our COVID-19 vaccine and deliver on the promise of mRNA technology. I am so very proud of what we have achieved together.

The company is currently working on an Omicron-specific booster shot, which will be ready by late 2022. Its scientists are also exploring ways of using the mRNA technology that helped COVID-19 vaccines succeed to develop a universal flu vaccine with higher efficacy rates than those currently available.

“I have been fortunate to have had really marvellous managers, mentors and colleagues throughout my career. You have guided and developed me on this journey, and I am so grateful to all of you. Last but by no means least,

Melanie is due to return to LEH in March to give the Goswell lecture to current pupils.

Poppy Gilbert stars in Netflix Hit Thriller Talented actress Poppy Gilbert, Class of 2015, is one of the stars of Stay Close, the smash-hit Harlan Coben drama, released on Netflix at the start of the year. Just a few weeks after being released it charted as the most watched show on Netflix, featuring in the top 10 in 71 countries and boasting 176.2 million hours viewed to date. The eight-part drama features a star-studded cast including Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage and Eddie Izzard. It follows a woman desperately trying to protect her treasured family life from dark secrets coming back to haunt her. Poppy Gilbert plays Barbie, who is described as the “brains of the business”. She is ruthless and willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve her goals. She has previously appeared in Call The Midwife,The Pale Horse and Midsomer Murders. This month, she’s back on BBC ONE in the title role of the creepy new psychological drama Chloe.

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ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

Gabriela Cohen on Portrait Artist of the Year Talented up and coming artist Gabriela Cohen, Class of 2016, won a place in the semi-finals of Sky Art’s Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 in November. The multidisciplinary artist was initially selected for the competition, which is presented by Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell, after submitting a striking self portrait painted in oil on canvas (above). Her artistic process is a unique combination of polaroid photography, digital art and oil painting. Gabriela says: “I think polaroids bring a soft romanticism to an image, combined with digital editing to manipulate the colours of my reference image. The paintings often come out as if they are from a parallel world. It gives them a dreamy quality which allows me to capture the sitter’s personality while also presenting a magical, fairytale version of them.”

In her first round, Gabriela painted space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who presents The Sky at Night on BBC FOUR (below, left). The judges loved it. Kathleen Soriano said: “We have here an artist who uses technology in a truly creative way.” While Tai Shan Schierenberg and Kate Bryan praised Gabriela’s distinctive painting style and beautiful colour palette, describing it as “inventive and playful and a tantalising promise of what’s coming next.” In the semi-finals Gabriela painted drummer Nick Mason. She says: “I really love Pink Floyd so this was amazing! It was quite moving when we had to show him our paintings, you could tell it touched him and it was an

honour to show him my artwork. I put so much pressure on myself to make the best ever painting and I’m proud I gave it my all and pushed myself. Taking part in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 was such a wonderful opportunity. It was an experience I’ll treasure forever.” After leaving LEH, Gabriela did a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at the Arts University Bournemouth, and went on to achieve first class honours for her BA in Fine Art there in 2020. She is currently working as a freelance digital content creator/ graphic designer, with a year-long residency at spudWORKs, an artist community based in the New Forest.

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ALUMNAE IN THE NEWS

Wing Walking at Nearly 90-years-old Sheila Hallas, MBE, Class of 1948, really lived up to the LEH motto – Hope Favours The Bold – as she displayed her pluck wing walking for charity a few months short of her 90th birthday. The sprightly daredevil undertook the challenge to mark the 50th anniversary of her fundraising initiative, the Combined Charities Christmas Card Shops, which Sheila founded in 1971 and has since gone on to raise over £5.5m for good causes. She says: “2020 was a disaster for all charities. The pandemic prevented us opening our five pop-up Christmas card shops and stopped all fundraising. “As this is our 50th year, I wanted to make a special effort to raise much-needed funds for our charities. It was a wonderful experience. I’m so glad I did it. It was exhilarating but scary, as despite straps, you don’t feel tethered!” For more information about Sheila’s fundraising initiative, please see her website: www.christmas-cards.org.uk

One Moment Could Change Everything The debut novel from alumna author Caroline Khoury, who attended the Junior School from 1982-86, is published this month and is already being lauded as the most romantic read of 2022. From London to Istanbul, Paris to Beirut, It Must Be Love is a heartwarming story that will leave you believing in the power of fate and destiny. Caroline says: “It’s a dream come true having my book

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published. I’ll never forget my LEH Junior School years, seeing my creative writing being displayed in the cabinet outside Mrs Braithwaite’s office. She instilled in me a belief that anything is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself.” When Abbie met Oz, they were young, idealistic students from different backgrounds, but their connection was unmistakable. Then Oz went home to Istanbul and life moved on. Now Abbie is with the man she thinks she’s going to spend the rest of her life with, until she meets Oz again – a chance encounter that might change everything.

recently returned to the UK after more than a decade living in Hong Kong, Japan, and America.

Caroline Khoury was born in Beirut to a Lebanese mother and Welsh father, and grew up in suburban London. She

It Must Be Love by Caroline Khoury was published by Penguin in February 2022.

A L U M N A E U P DAT E

100-Year-Old Prize Book Returns to LEH A beautiful copy of The Stories of King Arthur and his Knights, awarded to Elsie Langford, Class of 1911, when the school was still in Hackney, has kindly been donated to the LEH archive by her great niece. Sharon Langford sent us her Great Aunt Elsie’s immaculate hardback, which bears the school crest on the cover and a copperplated inscription on the fly leaf. Sharon said: “I decided to offer the book to you as I felt it was the best home for it, and one where it would be appreciated and treasured.” According to the inscription, 11-year-old Elsie was awarded the book as a ‘Prize for Class Work’ in Midsummer 1905. The Head Mistress of LEH, Mare Street, Hackney, at the time would have been Mrs Beatrice-Clarke. She oversaw an era of expansion and growing recognition for the academic achievements of the school. The 200 pupils benefitted from a newly installed laboratory and gymnasium. “I always remember Elsie as a kind and gentle soul,” says Sharon. “The book is rather lovely and I’m sad to see it go, but it’s nice to know it will be appreciated by others now.”

Nicky Budd, Director of Sport, LEH 2008-2020 Many alumnae will be very sad to hear that LEH’s long time former Director of Sport Nicky Budd suffered a massive stroke last year which has left her on life support. Under Nicky’s guidance LEH won many school tournaments and competitions, including the Lacrosse Nationals Championship in 2018. The former England U19 and GB Lacrosse Coach worked at LEH for 12 years and was devoted to the school and pupils. She left in September 2020 to accompany her husband George who was starting his new position as Principal of Moreton Hall in Shropshire. Nicky is now in need of a long-term care facility. We are sending our love and support to Nicky and her family.

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SCHOOL NEWS

Ground-Breaking Sixth Form Partnership LEH and Hampton School have teamed up with Reach Academy as founding partners behind a ground-breaking new Sixth Form College for Feltham, which aims to broaden choices for local young people and offer transformative opportunities. Opening in September 2022, Feltham College is an innovative model of post-16 education, which brings together state and independent educators and leaders from the business and health sectors. It will be a centre of academic and vocational excellence at the heart of the town, playing a key role in rejuvenating a historically deprived area that has experienced significant pandemicrelated job losses.

LEH Head Mistress Heather Hanbury believes Feltham College has the potential to become one of the foremost sixth form colleges in London: “Its unique approach and ambitious plans to support the education of 16 to 18-year-olds in Feltham chime well with LEH’s own ethos and philosophy and gives young people with ambition, drive and aspiration the chance to study up to the highest level and gain entry to leading universities. We are delighted to play our part in the establishment of this exciting new college.” Situated in the town centre, the new sixth form college campus will be affiliated to Reach Academy, already a renowned local education provider. In addition to classrooms and laboratories, facilities will include

LEH wins Independent Girls’ School of the Year Lady Eleanor Holles School fought off fierce competition to be named Independent Girls’ School of the Year at the prestigious Independent School Awards 2021. The judges said: “All this year’s entries were really strong, but for its values-led approach to the education of girls, focusing on resilience and permeating across all aspects of school life and relationships, this year’s winner is Lady Eleanor Holles School.”

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“We are truly delighted to have this recognition,” said Head Mistress Mrs Hanbury. “The Award recognises the hard work and commitment of all LEH staff, so congratulations are due to the entire School team. We won this against some very impressive competition, so it’s all the more pleasing.” The other finalists were Benenden School, Downe House, Harrogate Ladies’ College and St Mary’s School, Cambridge. More than 700 schools took part in the nation-wide contest and the winners were revealed at a virtual ceremony in October.

a restaurant and café, music rehearsal rooms and production studios, allowing pupils on vocational courses to gain real-life work experience. Feltham College’s academic courses will be supported by LEH and Hampton – building on the relationship of trust that has developed at all levels over the past nine years, and ensuring that across the board, academic courses are highly effective and set pupils up for success.

SCHOOL NEWS

LEH Named National Schools Regatta Champions Again The 1st Eight team successfully defended the title they first won in 2019. The 2020 championships couldn’t go ahead due to the pandemic, so this was their first chance to prove themselves back on the water. “Over the first weekend of half term, the J16 and Senior squads raced at National Schools Regatta. This was the first race since February 2020, so everyone went into it keen to see how they would perform after 14 months of lockdown training.

On Sunday, the J16 squad had a quad and an eight racing. Again, both crews raced well, with the eight taking the Cup in the A final. This was the first time these students had made an A final at National Schools. The hard work they put in over the national lockdowns paid off as they won the trophy. The J16 eight fought hard, coming home 6th overall. Well done to everyone who raced.” Assistant Head of Rowing Stuart Larner.

On Saturday, the Seniors had a coxed four, coxless four and eight racing. All three crews raced well, and it was evident that they enjoyed being back out competing on the water after so long. The coxed four made the A-final, where it came 5th. The eight secured their place in the A final by winning the time trial in the morning, and went on to reproduce this dominance in the final, leading throughout the race and retaining the Ayling’s Challenge Cup.

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SCHOOL NEWS

Play Written by Sixth Formers Wins Recognition A play about the survival of children during a siege, written by Sixth Form students Diya Sengupta and Amy Brian, reached the semi-finals of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting last year.

The pair wrote Of Silent Words having been mentored by a professional playwright as part of LEH’s Write the Girl initiative. This is a programme set up by the school in 2019 to encourage more plays to be written for large casts of females by both professional and student playwrights. Betsey, the main drama production of the year, was written specially for LEH by Lucy Foster as part of this same initiative. It charted the life of Elizabeth Hamilton who was an impressive philanthropist in 18th century New York. She also happened to be the wife of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s Founding Fathers, but her story was never told…until now. This dynamic play offered opportunities for

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ambitious ensemble choreography, a playful set with many levels and a climbing wall, raw percussion accompaniment and live singing. The production certainly reflected Elizabeth Hamilton’s adventurous spirit and her story has inspired a new generation of young women.

SCHOOL NEWS

Books are the Mirrors of the Soul LEH Junior School has a beautiful new Reading Room, bursting with colourful wall art and inspirational quotes, all aimed at bringing books alive and sparking young imaginations. The transformation has been created by Leaps and Strides, a design company, run by LEH alumna Ruth

Mulholland, Class of 1992, so this was a project close to her heart. She said: “Stepping back into LEH was powerfully emotive. I feel especially proud to have been asked to design this legacy piece for LEH.”

Grant Reading Room, in memory of the much-loved teacher, who taught at the Junior School for 30 years and left a generous legacy in her will. An avid reader herself, Jill fostered a lifelong love of reading in hundreds of girls over the years.

The new space has been called the Jill The striking design has proved an instant hit with pupils: “It’s fantastic and beautiful,” said one member of Year Five. “I really like the quotes from the books – it makes you want to read them.”

LEH Music is back LIVE and in Person

Live music roared back to LEH with a vengeance in two breathtaking Winter concerts. The buzz and sense of excitement and anticipation was palpable in the sold-out assembly hall, and the audience responded with rapturous applause. The Symphony Orchestra produced an overwhelming opening with die Meistersinger Overture and Brass Group closed the concert with a slinky James Bond medley. In between, there

was highlight after highlight - from all of the choirs singing their hearts out to our astonishing instrumental ensembles. With performances ranging from Tchaikovsky to Strauss, Elton John to Little Mix and Sondheim to Balmages, it was a dazzling display of verve, musicianship and chutzpah. The world premiere of ‘Life’ written by Mr Ashe (LEH’s Composer-inResidence) for our new Thirds, saw over 140 children singing in four-part

harmony with soloists, narrators and dancers accompanied by live band. After such difficult times for live music it was a wondrous thing to be able to say that #LEHMusicLivesOn in the most spectacular way!

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Dates for the Diary 2022 Remarkable Women Reception

Joint Networking Event with Hampton School

SATURDAY 26 MARCH 3 - 5PM

THURSDAY 26 MAY

Come and see our newly updated Alumnae Wall in the Gateway Foyer and celebrate each others successes.

Mrs Hanbury and Mr Knibbs invite you to a Joint London Networking Event for LEH and Hampton School Alumni at the Refinery, Bankside.

TICKETS £8 to include a champagne tea.

6 - 8PM

TICKETS £10 to cover drinks and plentiful food.

Alumnae Reunion

Alumnae Carol Service

SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER 11AM - 3PM

MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER FROM 7.30PM

Catch up with former classmates and contemporaries over lunch. Plus a talk from the Head Mistress, student performances and tours of the school.

Please join us for one of the highlights of the alumnae calendar at St Giles’ Church, Cripplegate. Followed by a mulled wine and mince pie reception. Please reserve your place.

TICKETS £20

ALUMNAE REUNION 2022

All events can be booked at: www.hollesconnect.org.uk Teamwork issue

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SAVE THE DATE

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THURSDAY 16 JUNE

me a will co nd e r e h t that ry Fu I hope en the Bursa h ed to time w iciently fund rriers f f ba is su ancial girl in f e m overco ucate every EH, and ed a place at L ll ing ge a deserv sincerely ur I he and so who are in t nate e o do thos o so, t d o t n positio

Lady E le provid anor Holles enviro ed a uniqu e n was p ment, wher ushed eI to def obsta eat cl failure es and turn s into succe ss Holles Connect Spring 2021

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HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

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V I R T UA A LU M N L REUNI AE ON 2 0 21

Getting Together Again from Home Former pupils from delighted that we are able to do a of last year’s virtual reunion around the world caught reprieve morning. Welcome to anyone who up with friends and happens to be watching from the other side of the world – something which contemporaries at our of course wouldn’t be possible were Virtual Alumnae Reunion we at LEH today. I do look forward to welcoming you back to school at some in October, after the point, but I know that today will be pandemic forced it online very special in its own way.” for the second year It was clear many of you agreed, with running. animated chats with friends past Showing what an international community we are, alumnae joined us from Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Pakistan, South Korea, the UAE, and, of course, from all round the UK. Head Mistress Heather Hanbury greeted guests by saying: “I’m

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and present in the live video reunion groups. Trish White, Class of 1958, described it as “truly magnificent”, while Janet Farrow, Class of 1955, said: “Thank you, the live chat was wonderful.” In addition to nostalgic photo galleries featuring the school now, and in years gone by, there were pupil performances from some of our

talented music scholars as well as Sixth Formers presenting their EPQ talks. Fingers crossed that we’ll be back in school this autumn.

HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

Alumnae Monday

Carol Serv

ice

29 th Novem ber 2021 at 7.30pm St Giles’ Cripplegat e Church

A Light in the Dark There was a great turnout for the Alumnae Carol Service at St Giles’ Cripplegate, including a special contingency from the Class of 1971 who are celebrating their 50th anniversary of leaving LEH this year.

meet up, as well as braving the snow to give her reading The Shepherds go to the Manger. She is seen here with some of her fellow P Class: Back Row (L to R): Sabina Lovibond, Caroline Dalal, Judith Boyce (White). Front Row (L to R): Diana Swain (Keiller), Pauline Simpson, Valerie Smith (Rushton), Anne Sykes (Dennis).

The seven-strong group of friends were all keen to meet up to mark the start of Advent, especially as the Alumnae Reunion in October had to go online, foiling their plans for a big get-together.

The fine acoustics and the setting of the beautiful church in the Barbican, close to where the school was founded, means it is always one of the highlights of the LEH calendar, and this year was no exception. The talented Holles Singers and Chamber Choir sang especially beautifully, and the effect really was exhilarating.

“It was a very special service and a joy to be there,” said Diana Swain (nee Keiller), who encouraged the friends to

The Christmas story was told through traditional Bible readings and poems given by a number of our alumnae as

well as the Head Girl team, Chair of Governors David King, Head Mistress Heather Hanbury and Deputy Head David James. In addition to Diana, readings were given by Hazel Mann (Class of 1976), Ellie De Souza (Class of 2021) and Jiya Saggu (Class of 2018). The final alumna reader was Sophie Littler (Class of 2011), who said: “It was a honour to be asked to do a reading and it was such a great evening. I was blown away with the quality of the singing from the choir.” The congregation wore masks throughout, but it didn’t dampen spirits or enthusiasm. To be back again with a live service after an absence of a year due to lockdown, was all the more moving and all left with hearts lifted, thinking of the festive season ahead.

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HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

A Very Warm Welcome to the Class of 2021 We were really looking forward to catching up with our newest alumnae – the Class of 2021 – for their first-ever reunion, which was due to be held just after the Christmas holidays.

But the surge in infection rates due to the Omicron variant and the resulting new COVID-19 regulations in school meant that it had to be postponed at the last minute. We’re delighted to

announce that a new date has now been confirmed – it will be held in the Summer Term on Wednesday 20 April.

Holles Connect - Join the Conversation The LEH Alumnae community is a strong, supportive network of Remarkable Women, all here to cheer each other on. There are many ways to stay in touch.

Lady Eleanor Holles Alumnae alumnae@lehs.org.uk

www.hollesconnect.org.uk

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HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

LEH Alumnae Inspire Current Pupils Pupils eagerly crowded round to see the new photos going up on the Alumnae Wall in the foyer of the Gateway Building last term. The major overhaul of the wall is part of the strategy to increase the visibility of our alumnae for the whole LEH community. The update has seen a three-fold increase in the number of photos proudly on display. The hope

is that these pictures, along with a selection of quotes from powerful women, will engage and inspire pupils as they pass by daily, knowing that one day they too could be added to the wall.

The plan is to regularly update the wall to keep it fresh and relevant and to keep catching pupils’ attention. If you’d like to nominate yourself or a fellow alumnae to feature on the wall, please contact us at alumnae@lehs.org.uk.

Between them they represent an amazing diversity of age, experience and professions that our alumnae go on to achieve, ranging in age from a then 17-year-old bursary student now training to be a doctor, to our intrepid 89-year-old charity wing walker, with professions as eclectic as Olympic athlete to foster carer extraordinaire.

All alumnae are invited to come and see the wall for themselves at the Remarkable Women reception on Saturday 26 March – see details on page 18.

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HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

LEH Alumnae wall

Catherine and Gemma King (2007-2018) Former GB Junior Rowing Team, currently rowing for Cambridge University Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 3

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Jane Thynne (1968 – 1979) Historian, Novelist, Journalist and Broadcaster

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Soshin Limbu (2010-2017) Studying medicine at Imperial College London

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Sabrina Bains (2001-2008) Europe, Middle East and Africa Security Manager (Risk & Operations), The Walt Disney Company Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 2

Alexandra Pollard (1986-1993) Commander of HMS Northumberland

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Jeni Mundy (1971-1981) Former round-the-world yachtswoman and current Managing Director UK & Ireland, Visa

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Poppy Gilbert (2008-2015) Actor

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Mary Geraghty (1984-1991) Associate General Counsel EMEA, Starbucks

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Louise Wooller MBE (1988-1995) Lieutenant Commander, Royal Navy

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Katie Gollop QC (1979-1986) Barrister specialising in healthcare & Deputy High Court Judge

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Sheyi Martins-Allen (1995-2006) Musician

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Vicky Arundel (1995-2002) Yoga Therapist

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Stephanie Hilborne OBE (1976-1986) CEO Women in Sport

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Alexandra Pollard (1986-1993) Commander of HMS Northumberland Louise Wooller MBE (1988-1995) Lieutenant Commander, Royal Navy Stephanie Hilborne OBE (1976-1986) CEO Women in Sport

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Jane Thynne (1968-1979) Historian, Novelist, Journalist & Broadcaster Jeni Mundy (1971-1981) Former round-the-world Yachtswoman and current Managing Director UK & Ireland, Visa

Catherine and Gemma King (2007-2018) Former GB Junior Rowing Team, currently rowing for Cambridge University Sabrina Bains (2001-2008) Europe, Middle East & Africa Security Manager, The Walt Disney Company

Mary Geraghty (1984-1991) Associate General Counsel EMEA, Starbucks

Poppy Gilbert (2008-2015) Actor

Vicky Arundel (1995-2002) Yoga Therapist

Sheyi Martins-Allen (1995-2006) Musician

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Soshin Limbu (2010-2017) Medical Student, Imperial College London Katie Gollop QC (1979-1986) Barrister specialising in Healthcare & Deputy High Court Judge

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Cathy Millis (1978-1989) Co-founder at the Millwood Partnership & Fastforward.me, LEH Governor Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 7

Emily Formby QC (1975-1985) Barrister and Recorder (part time Judge)

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Dr Daisy Fancourt (2001-2008) Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology, UCL 10/15/21 12:40 PM

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Georgina McBarnette (2006-2013) Airline pilot, Ryanair

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Amy Andrew Andrews(2001-2004) National Boxing Champion and UK Head of Boxing @virginactiveuk Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 2

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Caroline Bird (2001 – 2005) Author and Poet

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Melanie Ivarsson OBE (1979-1990) Chief Development Officer, Moderna

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TOO LOW Lizzy Finch Julia Goudsmit (1989-2000) Kay (2002-2009) Directorand Author of Skills Editorial for the Director Future, at Barclays The Novelry PLC

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Sarah Spear (1979-1986) Talent Agent, Curtis Brown

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Simon Croft (1978-1985) Director of Professional and Educational Services, Gendered Intelligence Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 8

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Becky Hewitt OBE (1987-1994) Former CEO, Changing Faces UK

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Jay Hunt (1981-1985) Creative Director, Europe, Worldwide Video, Apple

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Sapna Dattani (1987-1996) MD and COO, Technology and Financial Services

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Amy Andrew (2001-2004) National Boxing Champion and UK Head of Boxing Virgin Active Simon Croft (1978-1985) Director of Professional and Educational Services, Gendered Intelligence

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Dr Daisy Fancourt (2001-2008) Associate Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology, UCL

Cathy Millis (1978-1989) Co-founder at the Millwood Partnership & Fastforward. me, LEH Governor

Melanie Ivarsson OBE (1979-1990) Chief Development Officer, Moderna

Caroline Bird (2001-2005) Author & Poet

Georgina McBarnette (2006-2013) Airline pilot, Ryanair

Becky Hewitt OBE (1987-1994) Former CEO, Changing Faces UK

Julia Finch (1989-2000) Director of Skills for the Future, Barclays PLC

Sarah Spear (1979-1986) Talent Agent, Curtis Brown

Emily Formby QC (1975-1985) Barrister and Recorder (part time Judge)

Jay Hunt (1981-1985) Creative Director, Europe, Worldwide Video, Apple

Sapna Dattani (1987-1996) MD and COO, Technology and Financial Services

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HOLLES HIGHLIGHTS

LEH Alumnae wall

Fiona Tan (2005-2012) Global Programmes Operations Officer, Save the Children UK

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Dame Sue Owen DCB (1964-1972) Former Permanent Secretary, DCMS

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Sheila Hallas, MBE (1939-1948) Founder of Combined Charities Christmas card shops

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Dame Lesley Regan (1965-1973) Professor Lesley Regan (1964 – 1974) President of of the the Royal Royal College College of of Obstetricians Obstetricians Professor and Gynaecologists Gynaecologists and Alumnae artwork Gateway wall Frames - To2021-MacBook Print.indd 7 Pro_converted.indd 5

Alison Lomax (1984-1991) MD of Lifestyle Retail, Google UK 10/15/21 12:40 25/06/2018 9:54PM am

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Meena Kanagasapay (1995-2006) VP, Global Fixed Income Strategist, BlackRock

Nicki Shields (1997 – 2004) Scientist, TV Presenter, Broadcaster

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Dr Gail Trimble (1992 - 2000) Brown Fellow, Classics Faculty, Oxford University

Joy Lisney (2004-2011) Cellist, composer, conductor Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 9

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Professor Celia Brackenridge, OBE (1959 – 1968) Sportswoman, Campaigner and Academic Dr Daisy Dunn (2003-2005) Author & Classicist

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Janet Bazley QC (1965-1975) Queens Counsel, Arbitrator and Deputy Judge specialising in Family Law Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 19

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Vanessa Kirby (1998-2005) Actor

Georgia Galton-Ayling (2006 – 2013) Former Deputy Head Girl, Teach First Graduate, English Teacher

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Dame Lesley Regan (1965-1973) Professor of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists Joy Lisney (2004-2011) Cellist, Composer, Conductor Janet Bazley QC (1965-1975) Queens Counsel, Arbitrator and Deputy Judge, specialising in Family Law

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Dame Sue Owen DCB (1964-1972) Former Permanent Secretary, DCMS

Sheila Hallas MBE (1939-1948) Founder of the Combined Christmas Card Shops

Nicki Shields (1997-2004) Scientist, TV Presenter, Broadcaster

Meena Kanagasapay (1995-2006) VP, Global Fixed Income Strategist, BlackRock

Dr Daisy Dunn (2003-2005) Author & Classicist

Dr Gail Trimble (1992-2000) Brown Fellow, Classics Faculty, Oxford University

Georgia Galton-Ayling (2006-2013) Former Deputy Head Girl, Teach First Graduate, English Teacher

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Vanessa Kirby (1998-2005) Actor

Fiona Tan (2005-2012) Global Programmes Operations Officer, Save the Children UK Alison Lomax (1984-1991) MD of Lifestyle Retail, Google UK Professor Celia Brackenridge OBE (1959-1968) Sportswoman, Campaigner & Academic

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Lydia Beaton (1994 – 2004) Global Head of the James Dyson Foundation

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Alys Thomas (2002-2009) Swimmer, Team GB - Olympic Games, World and European Championships, Commonwealth Games Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 6

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Dr Anjana Dua (1998-2009) Medical Oncology Registrar

Annie Nightingale MBE, CBE (1951-1957) BBC Radio and TV Broadcaster

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Trish White (LEH 1947-1955) Current LEH Archivist, Retired LEH Chemistry Teacher and Deputy Head (1967-1996) Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 10

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Saskia Reeves (1972 - 1977) Actor

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Letizia Treves (1985 – 1992) Curator of Later Italian, Spanish & French 17th Century Paintings, National Gallery Gateway Frames - NOT REPRINTED IN 2021.indd 2

Dame Sara Cockerill QC (1979-1986) The Honourable Mrs Justice Cockerill DBE, Judge in charge of the Commercial Courts Alumnae wall artwork 2021-MacBook Pro_converted.indd 5

Yasmine Chinwala OBE (1984-1995) Advocate for Diversity and Financial Services Partner, New Financial LLP

Nick Paine (1981-1986) Foster Carer Extraordinaire

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Trish White (1947-1955) Current LEH archivist, Retired LEH Chemistry Teacher & Deputy Head (1967-1996) Dame Sara Cockerill QC 1979-1986) The Honourable Mrs Justice Cockerill DBE Judge in charge of the Commercial Courts

Lydia Beaton (1994-2004) Global Head of the James Dyson Foundation Saskia Reeves (1972-1977) Actor Nick Paine (1981-1986) Foster Carer Extraordinaire

Katie Blake (1997-2004) Strategic Communications Advisor

Lizzy Goudsmit Kay (2002-2009) Author and Editorial Director at The Novelry

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Alys Thomas (2002-2009) Swimmer, Team GB Olympic Games, World and European Championships, Commonwealth Games

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Annie Nightingale MBE, CBE (1951-1957) BBC Radio & TV Broadcaster Yasmine Chinwala OBE (1984-1995) Advocate for Diversity & Financial Services Partner, New Financial LLP Lizzy Goudsmit Kay (2002-2009) Author and Editorial Director at The Novelry

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Dr Anjana Dua (1998-2009) Medical Oncology Registrar Letizia Treves (1985-1992) Curator of Later Italian, Spanish & French 17th Century paintings, National Gallery Katie Blake (1997-2004) Strategic Communications Advisor

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TEAMWORK TOGETHER WE CAN

It’s the Taking Part that Matters Problem-solving, resilience, perseverance and confidence are just some of the benefits of taking part in games lessons, says LEH Director of Sport, Dani Mugridge. Our experiences of school sport can stay with us forever, be they positive or negative. I know of many friends and colleagues who did not enjoy PE as pupils because of the way it was taught. So, I’m pleased to report that coaching sport has developed hugely over the years, with a big focus on engaging everyone and the language and methods we use to do this.

teams and are looked to in times of need. They have a flair for making quick decisions and encouraging their team mates to perform. I find it’s often the quieter ones in a group who can be the best leaders; those who think clearly under pressure. Sport can help build character and give opportunities for pupils to feel free, away from life’s stresses and academic pressure.

Alongside netball, lacrosse and rowing we have yoga, dance, orienteering badminton and mindful walks, to name but a few of the activities on offer. We also ask the students if there are any activities that they would like to see on the programme to ensure that their voices are heard and to make it clear that it matters to us that they enjoy what they do.

I personally believe that sport and physical activity are for everyone as they bring so many benefits. I read an article recently that suggested that team sports in particular support the five C’s: Competence, Confidence, Connections, Character and Caring (www.edutopia.org).

Thankfully the ways of selecting teams have changed. When I was at school and teams were being picked, it was always the same one or two left until last and I can imagine how that made them feel. This is not a system I have ever used and at LEH we organise our groups ahead of time ensuring differing ability is put together. No pupil is left out and we are very much in favour of participation.

We also look at fundamental movement skills within all activities to ensure pupils are able to move easily within their sports and therefore improve their life-long enjoyment of it. This is probably the most important aspect of teaching sport for us – that our students are encouraged to participate and enjoy it; that they feel that they can take part in anything they want to and continue this post-school.

As a department, we are constantly exploring ways of doing things better and how to make our lessons accessible to all. Our L5 to U6 programme allows for choice and it is not just team sports. Physical activity has so many benefits for our health and if team sports just are not your thing (which is totally ok!) then moving our bodies in a variety of other ways is great too.

I would really like to think that future LEH alumnae can look back on their sporting lives at school and have fond memories, that they were not forced to do cross-country but took part because of the teamwork and fitness benefits. I also hope that they felt inclined to take part because it was fun!

I firmly agree that team sports help people to work together in a variety of situations and this allows them to gain confidence. This confidence comes from sticking together and seeing tactics and strategies work, as well as supporting each other through the difficult times. A key aspect is how we grow and move on from failure which is something that academics can sometimes struggle with. Through this teamwork there will always be natural emerging leaders who become role models for their

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TEAMWORK TOGETHER WE CAN

The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

In this piece based on her first assembly of the Autumn Term, Head of Middle School Katie Sinnett introduces the new Thirds to one of LEH’s guiding principles. Isn’t an orchestra a magical thing? The instruments working together, playing all their parts at the correct time in the correct order. What would happen if one of the musicians decided to play a passage differently, or to miss a beat or to stop altogether? The rhythm would falter, the melody would fade and even worse the piece may fail completely. The performers have to keep working together; they are part of a community. A community is defined as a ‘group of people who work together for a common interest’. Our school is our community and it requires us to work positively together, towards a shared goal and with collective values. Everyone should be able to rely on one another to play their part, to do their job and hopefully reach the best possible outcome for the whole. Last year we introduced our Middle

School motto which is four simple words. Kindness and Compassion; Tolerance and Inclusion. By embodying these traits we can reach our goals. Allowing everyone in our community to feel accepted, to make mistakes and to learn from one another will enable everyone to succeed. The school community is very special as it is made up of many different people who have different interests and talents. They have different identities, family experiences, varying influences and beliefs that make them unique. Every person is an important individual and valuable member of the school. The way we behave in school affects other people. We have the power to make other people feel a certain way and we should never underestimate this. A community works best when everybody treats each other with respect and kindness. If we think about each other’s feelings and do our best to raise each other up, school will be a happy and special place to be. Just like the violinist does not have to want to play the cello, you too do not have to share the views, interests or beliefs of others in order to see the value they may bring to you as part of the same community. They may challenge your views, disagree with

you and sometimes persuade you that you were wrong. If this can be done with tolerance and compassion it will make us all the best possible version of ourselves. You can’t all be good at everything, you may not be successful in the same things as the person next to you, but we should take pleasure in the success of those around us because being part of a community is about more than the individual. Being a young person is not always easy. Friendships are very important and sometimes young people may be tempted to be unkind to others because they think that it will help them fit in. Stop, and always question the purpose of your actions because another very important community that you may identify with is a worldwide one, women. Female solidarity is something we should take seriously, women have enough battles to face without putting each other down. As you go about your day in school, think about your obligations as part of a community. All of you have the right to come into a supportive environment, where you feel safe and happy. But that does not come without responsibility. The responsibility to always be kind, the responsibility to listen and the responsibility to recognise the impact you have on others. How you make others feel about themselves says a lot about you.

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TEAMWORK TOGETHER WE CAN

Together We Can Change the World Our team of L6 Creative Directors are part of the organising group putting together a two-week programme of events in school to mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8 March. We asked them to explain why it’s so important to support and empower each other and all women.

AMELIE “Attending an all-girls school means that it is even more important to me that women support one another. From teachers and alumnae to older pupils, LEH is full of inspiring role models for us all to look up to. I love hearing about past students going into male dominated fields, with their fearlessness encouraging me to pursue my own passion for STEM subjects. There is an atmosphere about my school though, that I truly feel sets us apart from others like it. It is an unspoken, but incredibly well understood feeling of community and support; support for one another despite differences and ongoing outside pressure for us to compete. I wholeheartedly believe that in every corner of our school, you are met with kindness, and championed by others to succeed in your own way. I am so proud to be a part of our LEH community, because when it comes to breaking the bias attached to girls’ schools and women in general, it does exactly that in every imaginable way.”

SANNA “LEH celebrates community and constantly evolves to create spaces for people to feel valued and included. I particularly feel that the creation of the new APoC (Allies of People of Colour) club has formed a space to strengthen members of the community by sharing and celebrating cultures. At LEH our voice is heard and amplified both by the amazing legacy of alumnae and the

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SELENA “I have played a lot of team sports in my time at LEH and I have noticed that you can always feel the support from fellow players. We can see a prominent example of working together in the success of the England women’s rugby team, The Red Roses. There is of course the spirit and skill of the players themselves, but what helps to set them apart and to be able to excel over much of the competition is because of increases in funding, fan support and national engagement. This shows how collective support can play a vital role in progressing professional women’s sport. We are all required to participate in a small way to fully unlock the potential that’s already out there.”

staff. Whether it’s a motivational voice in a tricky maths lesson or conversations with peers which make me feel more comfortable and confident in my experiences as a woman of colour, the community at LEH is ready to uplift and celebrate us. I feel confident in my endeavours, both now and in the future, that I will always have this community in the friendships I have formed during my time at LEH.”

TEAMWORK TOGETHER WE CAN

N I LO M I

C H A R LOT T E

“The topic of women supporting women sparked memories from March 2021 when there was a particularly strong emphasis on social media, surrounding rape culture and sexual harassment. This was due to the tragic murder of Sarah Everard and the consequent creation of the “Everyone’s Invited” movement.

“Showing support and love to each other in the society we live in today should always be a priority. Although women’s rights are constantly improving and we, living in the UK, are among the most privileged in the whole world, it is still so important to uplift each other and challenge female stereotypes.

At LEH, my fellow peers and I took it upon ourselves to increase awareness about such issues within our smaller community. We collated experiences of pupils and became effective mouthpieces for not only pupils in our year, but far beyond that and it was one of the most empowering moments of my life. The supportive atmosphere of LEH was highlighted during this process when there was the creation of clubs such as feminist society and an Upper Sixth committee, as well positive changes to Hampton and our PSHE curriculums. This journey strengthened my belief that together, we can strive for better.”

WHO ARE THE CREATIVE DIRECTORS? Every year six L6 students are selected to take on a role of responsibility working alongside the school’s Marketing and Development team. Their remit is to be the voice of students and help shape the way the school is represented both internally and externally. They devise ideas for special events in school, have creative input into design projects around the school, such as murals and corridor displays, as well as making video reports about school news and devising campaigns to drive engagement on social media. The role is particularly of interest to students who are considering a career in journalism, marketing, graphic design, or communications.

Standing up for what we, as women, believe in and fostering an inclusive environment, increases each other’s potential as with support grows confidence and with confidence, I truly believe anything is achievable. We should work together to make the world a better place and try to accomplish everything that we set our minds to.”

AVA

“Supporting other women is so important and this message is clearly translated through the ethos at LEH. It is amazing being in an environment with so many other strong women who all champion each other in light of our differences and uniqueness. Whilst a woman alone has power, collectively we have impact. Traditionally we have been taught to be competitive with one another, because there was such a scarcity of women at the top. It’s so clear that strategy doesn’t work. The truth is that raising each other up and channelling the power of collaboration is truly how we implement change—and have a lot more fun along the way. We need to reverse the stereotype that women don’t support other women. Being surrounded by so many strong women, whether that be teachers or students, I am inspired every day to be the best person I can be. It is such a privilege to have the unlimited support of so many influential women and being able to reciprocate this is just as empowering. The theme of #BreakTheBias perfectly encapsulates the strength and power of women at LEH and I am so thankful to be part of such a community.”

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ALUMNAE PROFILES

Learning Life Lessons on the Playing Field

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ALUMNAE PROFILES

Sudbury wins the Clubs Knockout Tournament at Wembley in 1978 Mary Beardwood as GA

Stephanie Hilborne, Class of 1986, was the Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts for 15 years, before becoming the CEO of Women in Sport in 2019. Her proudest achievements at school include winning colours in netball, lacrosse and badminton and being made School Games Captain. But the real benefits of playing team sports at school only became apparent later in life. I lived for sport during my time at LEH. I frustrated endless French and Physics teachers by staring out of the windows during class. I would look longingly at the netball courts and lacrosse pitches, waiting for break to start so I could start living again. It’s hardly surprising. I loved the fun and excitement of playing team sport. Almost all academic learning was at the time an individual experience – the only sense of collective we could get in most lessons was by being naughty at the back of the class. Not to say I’m proud of that, but a teacher had to be outstanding to command the attention of the restless amongst us. Some were, notably Miss Thomas,

our history teacher, who helped us understand the truth of the British Empire like no other could. From 1978 to 1986 I was taught netball by the best – Mary Beardwood – an England netball great [see the photo - this is how I remember her] and we learnt lacrosse from Sue Wilson who was leading England at the time. At least I thought I was being taught netball and lacrosse. It was only later in my life that I realised I had been learning more than how to take a baseline throw near the post in netball or command a defence in lacrosse. In fact, I had been learning core life skills that subsequently

helped me enormously in my career. When I was young, girls could not dream of a career in team sport. There was zero press coverage at the time and very little investment, let alone salaries or serious prize money. When I was born women were still formally banned from playing football at FA club pitches, a ban that had started in 1921 and lasted to 1971. Even now only 30% of girls and young women dream of reaching the top of sport compared to 60% of boys and young men. But it was this lack of sporting opportunity, combined with a back injury at the age of 17, that meant I could pursue my academic studies and focus on my passion for environmental protection. I loved nature from an early age and after a degree in Biology and MSc in Conservation I worked in the charity sector, campaigning for wildlife for 27 years. This was no easy place to be, and especially for a woman. Men were making all the decisions – in Parliament, in business, in Local Authorities and many didn’t much like

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ALUMNAE PROFILES only needed to happen once or twice and we could win. We didn’t win in the end, despite being just ahead for much of the match, and it was gutting. But it wasn’t because we didn’t turn back the odd ball out of defence, it was because to capitalise on these rare events meant unbearable pressure on our own attack who needed to put every single shot in the net for us to win.

a mirror being held up to them by a young woman. I suffered my fair share of aggressive dismissal. To deal with this and to lead change in charities and ultimately in a movement of 46 sizeable charities, required resilience. Whilst I could draw resilience from a loving upbringing, whenever the going got really tough I would picture Miss Beardwood at the side of the court in a squat position, her fists clenched, screeching “Go on!”. This may sound strange, but the culmination of my school netball career was playing GK for the U18 team and our reaching the final of the netball schools national finals in freezing cold winds on the Isle of Sheppey. I was 5’10”, our GD was 5’7”. My GS opponent was about 6’3”. The only possible way we could hinder their attack was by excellent communication and keeping going, not letting the balls flying over our heads and into the goal weaken our resolve or sap our energy. It would just take one forced error on their part, and we could intercept, and that

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So, what did this and my team sport teach me about life? I learnt that even if the odds are stacked massively against you, even if you keep seeming to fail, you cannot afford to give up. Just one look to the side lines at Miss Beardwood made us realise this. We were a tight team in joint endeavour, none of us could have any impact on our own, so we had to communicate. I had been drilled to shout commands at the other players and to respond to theirs. Shouting went against all my instincts but my “Left!”s and “Right!”s meant our brilliant GD could be her best. Every throw you took, every move you made was not for you, but for the team and you learnt to take risks for the team and to watch others take risks that affected you. If you dropped a pass or missed a chance, you learnt how to channel that into positive energy and make up for it. If others lost their nerve, you forgave them because they were taking risks on behalf of the team, and you needed to accept other people’s mistakes as well as learning from your own. And finally, but critically, I learnt leadership – I watched it in others, and I learnt it.

Think about it. What are the skills frequently cited in business circles being weaker in women than men? Leadership, drive, confidence, willingness to take risks. Well, I know that I have had a lot more of all those things as a result of my sporting life at LEH, and every girl deserves that chance. But even now, 23% fewer women and girls play team sports than men and boys.

I learnt that even if the odds are stacked massively against you, even if you keep seeming to fail, you cannot afford to give up.

It was my understanding of what I had learnt, and of the ongoing gender inequalities in access to team sport and visibility of women’s team sport, that led to my taking my current role as CEO of Women in Sport. And when I started the process of applying for the role, I was amazed to discover that our charity had been founded in 1984 (the year I took my O levels) by an LEH alumna and England’s most-capped Lacrosse player, an amazing champion of equality and child protection in sport – the late Celia Brackenridge OBE. This makes me all the more fired up to address the ongoing gender inequalities in life and sport.

ALUMNAE PROFILES

The Secret of my Success? Never Give Up For swimmer Alys Thomas, Class of 2009, qualifying and competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games was one of the toughest yet most rewarding experiences of her life. Swimming is essentially a solo sport: when you are stood behind the block at the start of your race you are on your own, everything is down to you; how hard you kick; how fast you pull; how quick you push off the wall; it’s you against the clock. But behind the scenes swimming, or pretty much any sport for that matter, is very much a team game. From

professionals to teammates, in both competitive and training environments teamwork is fundamental to the success of not just the athlete but the person themselves. I began swimming at an early age as a toddler and joined my first club Kingston Royals at age five. I swam with Kingston all through Primary and Secondary School, while at LEH, usually before school, so often turning up to school with wet hair in the mornings. After completing my A levels at LEH in 2009, I left home and moved to Swansea to join the Welsh High Performance Centre, where I still live and train today. I deferred enrolment at Swansea University to study Psychology for two years, as I wanted to focus solely on my swimming.

After competing for Wales in Delhi in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, I decided I would enrol in my degree the following year. I spent the next two years juggling being an ‘elite athlete’ and full-time student. I found the balance pretty simple, just be organised! I took the option to complete my final year of my degree part time to allow time for my training, taking part in my second Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. A year later I finally graduated from University with a 2:1 in Psychology. Since then I’ve not chosen to go back to school, instead opting to focus on being a full time athlete. In the lead up to the Rio Olympic trials in 2016 I’d had shaky preparation. I had been diagnosed with bone stress in my upper arm. This wasn’t my first Olympic trials – I’d been to the Beijing

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ALUMNAE PROFILES and London trials, however this was the first trials where I thought I might have been able to qualify. Due to the injury I was unable to train fully for six months, but despite this I managed a second place in the 200m butterfly and a first in the 100m butterfly. My places did not guarantee selection and ultimately I was not selected. At the time I was crushed, and I thought at the age of 25 I would never be an Olympian. Long discussions with my coach and friends and family later taught me that there was more to me and swimming than being an Olympian, and there were plenty of instances where World Champions were not Olympians… The following year I qualified for my first World Championships team. This was my first British team and was a massive eye opener, I was suddenly on a team with Olympians, people I’d just watched on the TV compete at Rio, people I looked up to and I was on the same team! I had new staff and coaches I needed to impress, and team mates to get on with. 2018 was considered my ‘breakthrough year’ and I was 27, considered old in the world of swimming. People were asking me what I was doing differently or what my secret was; my answer was simple – I hadn’t given up. I finished the Commonwealth Games 2018 with a gold medal in the 200m butterfly with a games record and a bronze medal in the women’s medley relay. A few short months later I took home two bronze medals in the same events from the European Championships in Glasgow. Still hungry for more, and with a strong support system of coaches, friends, and family around me, I started to set my sights on Tokyo which would now only be two years away. In 2019 I qualified and competed at my second World Championships in South Korea, I felt far more settled than I had at my first world’s experience and finished

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ALUMNAE PROFILES fifth in the 200m butterfly. Although pleased with my results, I felt a pang of disappointment as I knew my time from the previous year would have got me on the podium. But this only spurred me forward for 2020. Then came the pandemic.

circumstances and how much had been taken away due to restrictions.

In reality we were in an ‘Olympic cycle’ training phase for two years when normally this would last nine months. Qualifying and competing at the During this time I leant Tokyo Olympic Games was easily heavily on the support one of the toughest yet rewarding around me, my coaches, and enjoyable experiences of my psychologist, physio, life. I cannot express how hard and boyfriend, family and stressful mentally, emotionally, and close friends created a physically the lead up through the small close support bubble to help postponement of the games and the me stay motivated and resilient to pandemic was. When I look back on bounce back and stay moving forward it all now, I can’t believe everything when the world seemed to be stood I was doing at the time given the still. Communication became a key part of this, Zoom was a COMPE TITI ON H I GHLI GHT S lifeline. COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010 DELHI

Reached the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly

COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2014 GLASGOW

Placed fourth in the 200m butterfly WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 HUNGARY

Reached the semi-finals in both 100m and 200m butterfly COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2018 GOLD COAST

Gold medal in the 200m and bronze in the women’s 4x100 medley EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018 GLASGOW

Bronze in 200m and bronze in the women’s 4x100 medley WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019 SOUTH KOREA

Finished fifth in the 200m butterfly finals TOKYO OLYMPICS 2020 JAPAN

Placed seventh in 200m butterfly finals

I became an Olympic finalist at my first Olympics aged 30 and placed seventh, a result I am ultimately very proud of, given the circumstances and whole perspective of the lead up and environment we all endured. In September last year, I took part in a series of competitions in Naples for the International Swimming League, and never more has the ethic of ‘together we can’ been more appropriate and important. The difference in this setup is you don’t compete for your country, or alone for that matter. You are part of a team. My team in this case was completely multinational, made up of people from a total of 25 different countries from around the world, and it was crucial to meet, understand and create a positive motivational team environment from day one. All my experience in my senior swimming career has helped me cope and appreciate

opportunities like these so much more. In a situation like this there are many people who I didn’t know, understand or relate to but still had to work with in order to achieve a common goal and have fun. I didn’t know the staff either, so asking for support was similarly a challenge in some respects. Knowing what I needed and knowing how I work best, allowed me to communicate my needs effectively and helped create a cohesive stress-free environment. Throughout my career in swimming there have been many ups and downs, probably more downs than ups, and more years with obstacles and hardships to overcome than the small fleeting glimpses of success. But the hardships teach me resilience to keep going and the glimpses of success I have experienced, along with the people I have met and places I have travelled, make the whole journey worthwhile and ultimately it’s a passion I enjoy. My story in the swimming world is slightly out of the ‘norm’. I’ve been swimming competitively for 20 years but have only come into my ‘prime’ in the last five years. I just haven’t stopped, I haven’t given up. If I could offer a piece of advice to anyone it would be to use the people around you. People are so wise, and often have the best stories. They’ve had experiences you haven’t, so listen, keep learning, and don’t give up. Keep trying - it might take four goes.

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ALUMNAE PROFILE

I’m a Nice Polite Girl from LEH and it Felt So Mean to Hit People at First Pro boxer Amy Andrew, Class of 2004, is not content to rest on her laurels as English National Champion. The 35-year-old has given herself a year to become World Champion and works hard to fit in training and bouts in the ring with her job as UK Head of Boxing at Virgin Active.

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ALUMNAE PROFILE

“I did a lot of sport at LEH – I was on the team for Netball, Swimming and Running. We had the most incredible sports teachers – including Miss Sdao – who was on the England Netball Team. I was very inspired by her. We all went to see her play for England against New Zealand. She was tall and beautiful and a little intimidating, but it gave me something to aim for – a sense that you could succeed if you tried hard enough. I really loved being part of a team and being active. I’ve always been buzzing with energy and that’s one of the things that drew me to sport – it was a great way of letting off steam. I was just so appreciative of all the space at LEH. It was such a nice environment to be in, with those amazing playing fields, tennis courts and great stretches of grass to go running on in the lunch hour. I always felt I should have a traditional career; a lot of my friends went on to study law or work in finance, so after leaving LEH I went to Loughborough to study English and Sports Science. Then I did a postgraduate course in newspaper journalism at Cardiff University. I worked as a journalist for eight years, starting off on local newspapers, before becoming a financial reporter for Mail Online.

One day I wrote a story about whitecollar boxing and I just felt really drawn to it. I signed up for white collar fight myself and I absolutely fell in love with it – I realised that’s what I really wanted to do. It felt like something I could be really good at. My first ever white-collar fight was an eye-opening experience. The first time I got hit, I cried. Not because it hurt, but because it was so shocking. And it was so weird hitting other people. For the first couple of years every time I hit someone I said ‘sorry’. I’m a nice polite girl from LEH and it just felt so mean! But you do get over it. Boxing started out as a hobby when I was 29, just to get my fitness up. I absolutely loved it from the start, couldn’t get enough of it. I spent a while trying to balance boxing with my career, teaching boxing in my spare time, taking advantage of the explosion of interest in the world of fitness. By this time, I was 33, and that’s relatively old for the world of boxing. In the UK, the sport is supported by the National Lottery, and they tend to look for young people, so I was kind of stuck in the English cycle, wanting to improve but not really being able to break into it. My Mum comes from New Zealand and their system is self-funded, so they didn’t worry about the age so much. I spent a few years trying to get into the New Zealand team and I was hoping to qualify to represent them in the featherweight division in the Olympics. We were on our way to the qualifiers

in Wuhan when the pandemic hit, and they obviously had to cancel the whole thing. Instead, they decided to take into account your performance over the past four years so I didn’t have enough experience and didn’t get selected. I wouldn’t have chosen for it to finish like that and I was really disappointed at first.

The first time I got hit, I cried. Not because it hurt, but because it was so shocking.

But that’s when I decided to go professional. There are two kinds of boxing – professional and amateur. The term amateur is very misleading. It’s what can lead to taking part in the Olympics. It’s a points-based system and you wear head gear, and the standards are incredibly high. Professional boxing is more like a business than a pure sport. There’s no head gear, smaller gloves and you’re going for a win by trying to knock someone out. It sounds very aggressive, but you have to be very fit and learn lots of techniques. It’s about

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ALUMNAE PROFILE

AMY’S ADVICE TO PUPILS I’d recommend boxing to everyone. I’d say to others – try it out. Boxing is amazing whether you are looking to improve your fitness or take part in competitive boxing. being controlled and technical. Boxing is still a relatively new sport for women, but it’s become increasingly popular in the last couple of years. Now that people are starting to see other women excel, they’re realising there’s a lot more to it than just hitting someone, it’s really technical and requires a lot of skill. One of the things I love is that you are so completely in the moment. There’s this great rush of adrenalin and you can only think about right now and how to defend yourself. You are so caught up you don’t notice the pain, you’re just thinking about scoring the next point and keeping moving. It’s not so explosive with women and it’s all done in as safe a way as possible. Obviously, the ultimate aim is to knock someone out, but taking part is more like a game of tag, it’s about scoring points, about catching someone out. In the ring someone is trying to hurt you and you need to think constantly about your technique, keeping your hands up, your feet moving and your brain whirring, keeping a few steps ahead. Foot work is my thing – I’m fast in and out. I’ve never been knocked out and

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I’ve never knocked anyone else out, but I have had fights stopped – if there’s too much blood. Once, just before the qualifications for the Olympics, I got a stress fracture at the top of my spine - and that was painful. There’s nothing for it but to rest.

I’m really keen to support and encourage other girls coming up through boxing. I’ve organised events for young female boxers and helped fundraise for events to promote them. I’m really lucky that I found an incredible club and coaches - Haringey Boxing Club, who produced Nicola Adams, so they’ve been amazing. Boxing has given me so much more confidence. You have a sense that if you can be in the ring and do that, you can do so much more than you realised outside it. It’s really helped in all areas of my life and I’ve seen a massive increase in my fitness.

My ambition is to be world champion. I’ve Women didn’t used to have access to this world. If given myself a year you step out from expectations, it’s really liberating, to do it and I believe you can be aggressive, you can fight. In normal life, that I can make it. I’ve I’m quite polite, but that’s not me in the ring at all. It’s beaten the current a great outlet for stress and a fantastic opportunity world champion in to be something completely different. the past, and a couple of the other key world champion on Instagram, it’s contenders. But once I’ve won the title about being in the right place at the I plan to hang up the gloves. right time. It’s old-style boxing and people do get frustrated waiting for In professional boxing there’s no set it to happen. But if you have a bad path to winning titles. It’s all about fight and take a punch in the face you self-promotion, you have to get as just need to pick yourself back up and many fights as you can to showcase get on it. I’m very lucky to get to do your skills. I find it quite hard to big something I love.” myself up, so I tend to let my fists do the talking. You have to call out the

ALUMNAE PROFILE

Follow Your Passion and You’ll End up Somewhere You Want to Be

Best known as the face of Channel 4’s Formula E Championship, the electric street racing series, TV presenter and journalist Nicki Shields, Class of 2004, turned her back on a high-flying career in finance to pursue her dream job in motorsport.

Nicki has built a reputation as a talented broadcaster and passionate advocate for electric vehicles, fronting several environmental programmes for the BBC and CNN. Shows such as Supercharged, Going Green, and Saved by The Future, have raised the profile of sustainable transport and zero emission travel. She is also the Co-founder and Associate Editor of digital platform, electrifying.com. “I’ve always enjoyed sports, but I didn’t have a clear vision about what I wanted to do when I left school. Motorsports was always a passion, but I never in a million years thought of it as a career.

The beauty of LEH is that it’s both very academic and very sporty. Our sports teachers were very inspiring, and we really looked up to them. Several of them played for England on the Lacrosse, Rowing and Netball squads. In my early years I was especially keen on netball, but as I got older, I got more and more into my rowing for the LEH Squad at the East Molesey boat house. I had several close mates who decided to get into rowing, so I tried it out and absolutely loved it. We really threw ourselves into the training and it was exhausting. I’ll never go near a rowing machine again!

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ALUMNAE PROFILE

the importance of turning up on time (you got extra drills if you were late), of sticking to a schedule, of looking after the boat, taking care of yourself, and looking out for the team. There was a real 360 approach, which we all really enjoyed.

Beryl Crockford was one of our rowing coaches (she was a World Champion and Olympic rower who represented Team GB from 1975 to 1986). She was always so full of energy and enthusiasm - the life and soul of the Boat House – and a great inspiration to all of us. Her energy was relentless. I can picture her now standing on the riverbank shouting encouragement. Many memories from school can start to blur as the years go by, but those times really stand out. The competition element was really enjoyable. I remember the Heads of the River race and the first National Championship. We’d get together at each other’s houses the Thursday night before a big race and have pasta parties. The idea was to load up on carbs to give you lots of energy for the race, but we usually ended up eating more marshmallows and Haribo than were good for us! The beauty of rowing is the way it combines everything, honing both your individual fitness and team spirit. All that ergo training with intense targets to hit really developed your personal physical fitness. You’d never know in advance if you’d be rowing by yourself or as part of the squad. If you were in a single, you had only yourself to blame. I recall vividly the first time my parents came to watch me compete and I somehow managed to capsize. I can

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still picture the look on their faces! But if you were rowing with a squad, the team spirit was incredible. You need to be so in sync with each other. The technique is all-important, and it really incentivises you to push hard, knowing you are going into a competition together. You do not want to be the weakest link in the boat. Six of my best friends today are from my school days and we’re still really close – we’re godparents to each other’s children and just have so much shared history. It taught us such great discipline – it engrained a strong work ethic in you:

The team spirit in the squad was incredible

I found out about Formula E back in 2012 or 2013 after doing a series on climate change. At first, I couldn’t see how it would work – a racing championship with electric cars and no noise! But the more I thought about it and the sustainability the more excited I got. I’ve always loved motor racing, so it seemed to combine two of my great passions and I knew I’d found the right thing.

ALUMNAE PROFILE

NICKI’S ADVICE TO PUPILS Don’t worry if you don’t have it all mapped out – it will become clear. If there’s something you want to do and it seems unattainable, don’t be put off. Make opportunities for yourself. It’s not about being in the right place at the right time. It’s about being in lots of places, lots of time and it will happen. If you follow your passion, you will end up somewhere you want to be. Make sure it’s a subject that you love and enjoy. Focusing on something which fascinates you will really help drive your success. Once you find the industry you want to work in, study really well for it so once the opportunity arrives, you’re ready to make the most of it. Always be polite. Show compassion and be as proactive as possible. Send people an email if you’re looking for help and don’t be put off if they don’t reply the first time. We’re always so busy, so a polite reminder is always welcome. Work hard and remain focussed on your own goals.

Motorsports is still a relatively maledominated industry but it’s getting better all the time. When I first started working in Formula E, there were just two women in my TV crew and 58 men. Now, about six years on, I look around and there are 20 women, so things are dramatically improving, and that change is right across the field. There are always going to be some people in every industry who are stuck in their ways and have certain opinions by default, an unconscious bias. They end up directing their conversation to the men in the room, or they give the job to the men on speed dial in their phone. But the opportunities that motor racing has brought far outweigh any sexism I might have encountered. FIA is working hard to encourage women from a grass roots level – for example with the all-female karting circuit. It’s part of their ‘Girls on Track’ initiative which I’m proud to be an ambassador for. The project is driven by Motorsport UK, the governing body for UK motorsport. It organises school and networking events to ensure girls and women feel there’s a valuable place for them in the motorsports industry.

In July we invited some girls aged from six to 16 down to a Formula E race in London so they could experience the whole thing behind-the-scenes. A small opportunity like that really can change someone’s career completely. You don’t always get a chance to meet fans of the sport face to face, so it was a fantastic opportunity to engage a younger generation. While I’ve seen a great improvement in the number of women in the industry, there’s still a way to go. But that can actually play to your advantage. FIA want it to be as diverse as possible so there’s lots of opportunities. As you build your career it’s important to build a strong community of women to support and champion each other. If anyone ever asks me why or how I got into motorsport, particularly as a female, I always say that you need to have a passion for it and you need to be tough about it. Know the sport, watch the sport. Do your research, do your studying and most of all give those boys a run for their money!”

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E M E R G I N G TA L E N T AWA R D

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2020 Winners Reports

Supporting Alumnae Beyond the Classroom

Our Emerging Talent Awards 2020 winners have put their funding to great use over the past 12 months. To see their full reports, please visit the Emerging Talent Award page on www.hollesconnect.org.uk.

Dr Gayatri Saxena, Class of 2011 Having worked on the frontline fighting COVID-19, Gayatri used her Award to develop specialist training for medical students whose training had been hit by the pandemic. She was able to create a new interactive virtual simulation package which allowed students to decide the next course of action. “We could then show students how their answer progressed the scenario clinically and whether they needed to go back and rethink. It was a cool project and we were able to inject some much-needed fun into learning at a point when students were as fed up as the rest of the planet and growing ever-anxious about falling behind in learning to be a junior doctor.”

Kate Marlais, Class of 2002 Composer Kate, who is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, put her Award to use to help fund the recording of her first-ever album. She says: “It was a joy to be afforded the time to create my own music again, and also get back in the studio with my co-producer Jon, after such a strange year of pandemic. It made my creative process feel all the more special and vital.”

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Priya Velusami, Class of 1997 Clothes designer Priya used her Award to develop a website and expand her product range for her new business selling colourful accessories and kids wear made from upcycled saris. Priya says: “Receiving the Emerging Talent award has helped me to create my own website and expand my product range to include bags, bunting and baby muslins. This gave me confidence to think about the business as a real brand, one that was no longer just a hobby. I have since gained press coverage in national newspapers, radio interviews, podcasts and have climbed a steep learning curve in digital marketing.”

Antonia Beck, Class of 2003 Theatre maker and performance artist Antonia tells stories using writing, theatre and music. She used her Award to help her explore the concept of creating new rituals and connections. Antonia says: “I’ve started writing a piece of performance poetry which will become the narrative of a new site-specific performance in 2022. Inviting audiences to come together and take part in a new creative experience that explores intentional and everyday ritual, the art and importance of being, and encourages connection amongst a group of strangers.”

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And the 2021 Winners Are...

We’re delighted to announce that the Emerging Talent Awards 2021 will support an enterprising duo, two musicians and the creation of a new chess club. 2021 Winners Revealed

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Meena Santhosh, Class of 2006 Meena works in Finance and plans to set up a Junior Chess Club for under-18s across Surrey. Chess has been shown to improve children’s concentration, problemsolving, critical thinking and Maths skills. Her application was supported by LEH’s chess teacher of 40 years Michael Basman. Meena says: “I have a huge passion to get more young people (particularly girls) into careers that are these days incredibly competitive, and right now are very male-dominated. I believe it starts with encouraging and shaping the mindset and behavioural traits of our juniors, and chess can play a huge part in seeding the foundation of strategic and healthy competitiveness, particularly at a young age.”

Joy Lisney, Class of 2011 Cellist and composer Joy is just completing her composition studies at Cambridge University. Having seen her usual revenue streams hit hard by a combination of COVID-19 and Brexit, she wants to try her hand at composing for the screen, which has seen a massive increase in demand following the success of steaming services such as Netflix. Joy will require specialist software to enable her to do this professionally. Joy says: “This award will make a huge difference as I embark on a new chapter of my career in the post-pandemic world!”

Rose Robertson and Claire Haddon-Lowson, Class of 2006 The friends launched an e-commerce platform to sell quality, accessibly-priced homeware called Late Afternoon earlier this year. They plan to use the funds to help drive their digital marketing strategy. They say: “We’re thrilled to receive the Emerging Talent Award in support of our start-up homewares brand. This year has been full of incredible challenges as we launched our business, and this support will help us build for the future. Thank you LEH!”

Paige Reynolds, Class of 2012 Paige works as a musician under the name of Paige Bea. She needs support to help her complete the self-funded album she recorded during lockdown. She plans to put the Award towards the cost of professionals to mix and master the tracks which will help her win vital airtime when it’s released this year. Paige says: “The last two years have been a little bleak for musicians at all points in their careers but particularly for those who, like me, are just starting out. This award is a little ray of hope that will help towards the costs of mixing and mastering my next EP and give me that extra bump of confidence as I start to release my new music in 2022.”

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OBITUARIES

Former Classics Teacher Stella Martin Popular former LEH teacher Stella Martin passed away in November aged 93 and is remembered fondly by all who knew her. She taught Classics at LEH for some 20 years, until her retirement in 1991. One of her former pupils Louisa Greenacre (Hartley), Class of 1989, has paid tribute, saying: “I was fortunate to have her as one of my Latin A level teachers at the end of the 80s, and then to know her later in life when she was a good neighbour and friend to my mother. Stella remained as sparkly and chatty as ever and would always ask for news of my LEH contemporaries. “Stella’s lessons were rather jolly. She was always ready for a good chat, and her enthusiasm for the literature was impossible to resist. I remember her making quite sure that we’d all understood exactly what unlucky Dido and Aeneas got up to in that cave, and we had many lively discussions about Catullus and his friends and lovers. Perfect material for an LEH Sixth Form, explored with romance and

laughter while still drilling into us the technical requirements of proper translation.” Stella enjoyed her long retirement and retained her love of languages. She took French and Italian classes and had recently started on German. Former colleague Ruth Iredale says: “Her strength as a teacher was based on her genuine love of Latin; she enjoyed the logic and precision of the language as well as its literature. She could cover the syllabus efficiently while keeping classes engaged. A younger pupil once said to me “Oh we loved having Mrs Martin. She told us things like how the Romans blew their noses” (on the edge of their togas, apparently!) What she enjoyed most was teaching literature, especially Latin poetry, finding the right word for a translation, teasing out meaning, and was always ready for the students to give her new insights. “I loved working with Stella. She was

a brilliant presence, with sparkling, entertaining conversation, and some riveting stories. Under the sparkle was a deep interest in people, a strong sense of right and wrong, and great warmth and kindness. She has been a dear friend for nearly 50 years, and I shall miss her very much.”

Mary Cordle (Ryan) 1949-2021 Mary Cordle, Class of 1967, passed away last year aged 72. She was a pupil at LEH from the age of eight to 18, very much enjoying her school days, before training as a speech and language therapist. Her first job was at the White Lodge Centre for children with cerebral palsy. She found it so rewarding that she dedicated her career to working with very disabled babies and young children, helping mainly with feeding and communication skills. She was married to husband Malcolm for 43 years and had three

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children. Malcolm says: “Mary had such a lovely, gentle and kind nature and was a very godly character. There was a cheerfulness, a warmth and an attractive personality which I found very winsome, and which touched many folks.” Mary enjoyed entertaining and excelled at home-baking and sewing, often making the children’s clothes when they were younger. A keen traveller, she was an excellent swimmer and loved reading, word games and crafts.

OBITUARIES

Janet Hughes 1945-2020 After attending LEH Janet went to Girton College, Cambridge, to read Natural Sciences and, having completed a PhD at the University of London, became a lecturer at the London School of Pharmacy. She later worked as a Science teacher at a range of secondary schools and Sixth Form colleges.

Janet Hughes, Class of 1963, passed away last year aged 74, following a short illness. The sad news reached us after her son Gareth and his wife Julia attended an open day at LEH. They were shown round by two current pupils who helped them find Janet’s name on the university honours board as well as on a paving stone in the grounds. “Janet spoke so warmly of her time at LEH and the opportunities and friendships it gave her,” said Julia. “We had all assumed that when the time came to attend an open day for our daughter Annabel, that Janet would be attending with us. It was therefore hugely poignant for us to see her name at the school and we are very grateful to our guides.”

Janet loved singing choral music and often sang operatic arias around the house, especially as she cooked. She was an active member of the Brighton Orpheus Choir, an usher at Glyndebourne and a volunteer at Nyman’s National Trust House. She was an intrepid traveller and maintained her lifelong love of learning with water colour and history of art classes.

Jean Deacon (Bulley) 1929-2021 Her daughter Ruth Deacon, Class of 1978, attended LEH in the Sixth Form, and said: “We all miss her enormously and are adjusting to life without her, but are comforted that she lived a long, healthy, happy and productive life and was unwell only for a short time.’ After leaving LEH, Jean worked at the NPL in Teddington, where she met her husband Thomas. After raising her three children, she returned to LEH to work as the Physics Lab technician from September 1969 until her retirement in December 2000. Jean Deacon, Class of 1946, who was both an alumna and a former member of staff, passed away last year aged 91. Jean worked as the LEH Physics Lab technician for 31 years. She was a regular at alumnae events and is very fondly remembered by many colleagues past and present as well as former pupils.

She was a talented water-colour painter and gardener, committee member of the Hampton Horticultural society; she played sports and athletics in her youth and won more than 40 trophies at Hampton Bowls Club in her 70s and 80s.

She was also a devoted mother and grandmother. She lived in Hampton throughout her life and has many friends in the area to whom she brought love, inspiration and a great sense of fun. When Jean retired, she wrote a wonderful piece about her memories of her time at LEH during the war.

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OBITUARIES

Jane Lines (Shutes) 1936-2021

Friends of Jane Lines, Class of 1954, were sad to hear that she had died shortly before Christmas at the aged of 85 after a long period of poor health. Jane loved drama and music and was always artistically gifted at school, but she originally trained as an orthoptist. When she told Miss Ruth Garwood Scott what she wanted to do, Miss Garwood Scott declared: “How interesting! It is a career no-one else in the school has ever chosen!” As a qualified orthoptist, Jane’s next wish was to travel to Canada and she applied for a job in Montreal. After her friend backed out at the last minute, Jane took the ship from Liverpool on her own and spent two happy years working at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Life contrived a meeting with a young man called Peter Lines who worked for his family firm, Triang. On accepting his proposal of marriage, she said it was conditional on their returning to Canada. In fact, it was 35 years before

this wish was realised. They married in 1961 and had two sons and a daughter. In the fullness of time there would also be nine grandchildren. After one or two moves, they settled and created a happy home with a beautiful garden in East Horsley. When her children were old enough Jane returned to work as a teacher. Her skills were enough without the need for formal training. She found jobs in local schools, teaching art, and she loved it. After converting a large room in their house into a studio, she became renowned for her illustrations in local magazines, for detailed pictures of birds and animals, and for drawings of historic buildings and everyday objects. She tried oil painting but much preferred watercolour and drawing. Now and then she would hold an exhibition and sale of paintings. In addition, Jane found time to attend the University of the Third Age, to conduct tours of nearby Horsley

Towers, to support the school for musically gifted children founded by Yehudi Menuhin and above all to be an active and devoted member of her Church. She was one of a lifelong circle of friends from LEH and all of us will miss her. Madeline Macdonald, Pamela Symonds and Trish White, all Class of 1955.

Sheila Leach 1932-2021 Sheila Leach, Class of 1949, who was a regular at many an alumnae event over the years, has sadly passed away. She lived in the same house all her life, nearby in Teddington, with strong family connections to the area, as her grandfather helped to build the church where her funeral was held, as well as Teddington Memorial Hospital, where she remained a ‘friend’ and supporter. Sheila was described as “an excellent and enthusiastic pupil” during her time at LEH, where she discovered a passion for Biology. After leaving school, she trained as a Radiographer at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, and worked her way up to running the department. Stella Stephens, also Class of 1949,

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says: “Sheila was a huge supporter of the Holly Club, so we always saw each other at meet-up days, albeit the summer cheese and wine party or the winter lunch. She was a very relaxing person to sit at a table with and mull over the old and present times.” Sheila’s cousin Shirley Kershaw, Class of 1955, also attended LEH and gave the eulogy at her funeral, recalling Sheila’s love of singing and her membership of many local choirs, and her great interest and support of nature as well as animal charities. She said: “Sheila was a loyal and enthusiastic lady who put her heart and soul into everything she did and will be remembered fondly by a great many people whose lives she touched.”

OBITUARIES

Ella Meacock (Hill) 1927-2021 Ella Meacock, Class of 1944, passed away in November, aged 94. She attended LEH during WW2 and recalled avoiding enemy bombing on the way to and from school, and working with fellow pupils at a farming camp near Broxbourne. She kept in touch with school friends Betty and Maureen throughout her life.

Meacock, who had attended the Grammar School next door to LEH. They had three children and moved, with Alan’s job, from Surrey to Newcastle, Madrid and Sydney. On retirement, they moved to Bath and finally to Shaldon in Devon, to live near their daughter. She leaves behind daughter, Sarah, and four grandchildren.

After the war, Ella married Alan

Former Head of Biology Janet Hanssen Fellow former science teacher Ruth Parker recalls: “I recollect being awed by the huge collection of Biology books Janet had for reference in the Biology prep room, many of them on the subject of botany. Her love of the natural world was evident in many ways, from extensive foreign travel to attending the Chelsea flower show every year (for which Miss Candy would allow her a day off). Janet drove a sports car, choosing models with biological names. I recall smiling to see that she had graduated from a panther to a spider!”

Much-loved Biology teacher Janet Hanssen, who worked at LEH throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s, passed away last year following a long illness. Former Deputy Head Trish White said: “Janet was an excellent teacher and expected high standards from all her pupils. Many went on to have successful careers in a variety of subjects including medicine, dentistry and veterinary science.”

Dr Jane Tighe, Class of 1979, who is now a Consultant Haematologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, said: “There are several people that stand out as being pivotal in my school days and subsequent career, and Mrs Hanssen certainly is one of them. She taught me biology throughout my Senior School years and set me on my path in medicine. On reflection, she somehow managed to make biology seem – well – natural, easy, interesting… none of the complexities of physics or the formulae of chemistry, and yet I realise how well prepared she was for every

lesson, how varied our activities were – drawing plants, dissecting, and those interactive experiments. “The one thing that I am sure of though is that she would be proud to know how we all turned out in the end and would have taken great joy in knowing that she had set us on that path. So, thank you Mrs Hanssen - for everything.”

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LEH TEAMS ACROSS THE DECADES

Can you spot yourself in these photos?

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LEH TEAMS ACROSS THE DECADES

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Join the 1710 Society and help change a life www.lehs.org.uk/support-us/1710-society

The Bursary Fund Thanks in part to generous donations from

1710 Society members

and others, this year we are able to support 67 students, with 48 of these holding 100% bursaries. An LEH bursary not only covers the fees of students throughout their time at LEH, it also covers associated costs. Demand for bursaries is greater than ever and we have set ourselves the ambitious target of supporting 100 pupils by 2025.

Your gift

1710

We are inviting you to join the Society today by setting up a regular gift. Please help us give more students the opportunity of a life changing education at this remarkable school. If 100 people give £17.10 a month, with Gift Aid, it would cover the cost of one new bursary student.

If 75 people give £171.00 a month, with Gift Aid, it would cover the cost of 10 new bursary students.

“

The scheme has shaped my life in so many ways and effectively continues to do so – I wouldn’t be who and where I am now without it.

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”

Stay Connected with Holles Connect The alumnae community is a network of supportive people who want to celebrate and enjoy each other’s successes. All LEH pupils go on to become Remarkable Women and we love hearing your news. Please do get in touch and let us know what you are up to, whether it’s a significant life event, job change, sports win, charity endeavour or just reaching out to former friends and teachers. We’re here to cheer each other on. Please email: alumnae@lehs.org.uk

Lady Eleanor Holles Alumnae alumnae@lehs.org.uk

www.hollesconnect.org.uk Lady Eleanor Holles Hanworth Road, Hampton, TW12 3HF T: 020 8979 1601 E: alumnae@lehs.org.uk www.lehs.org.uk Registered Charity No:1130254 | Registered in England : Company Number 6871042

A LU M N A E R EU N I O N

2022

Incorporating reunions for 7’s and 2’s

Saturday 1 October 2022 11am - 3pm, at LEH £20 per person including lunch

All alumnae and former staff members are most warmly invited to attend this year’s annual get together. To reserve your place, please visit www.hollesconnect.org.uk

Holles Connect Spring 2022

Articles inside

THE WINNERS OF THE 2021 AWARDS REVEALED

HELPING ALUMNAE TAKE ON NEW CHALLENGES

We bid a sad farewell to some much-loved alumnae.

IN POLE POSITION

ROWING FOR VICTORY

HEAD MISTRESS’

WING-WALKING AT NEARLY 90

GIRLS SCHOOL OF THE YEAR

WRITE THE GIRL

COMMUNITY RAISE US UP

ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES

SWIMMING FOR TEAM GB IN TOKYO