IN OUR DAY
Advancing Girl’s Sport
I
Sternian Antonia Carding-Wright remembers the challenges to put girl’s sport on the map at LWC
started at LWC in 1998 as one of the first 12 girls to enter the third Form in Gosden House. There were girls above us in the 6th Form and a few below us in Junior House, but nothing in between. This was both a privilege and a challenge throughout my time at LWC. We were able to be trail blazers for the girls coming behind us (including my sister, Christina, 2 years later) and able to challenge the schools natural male bias to ensure we had equal opportunities.
Mr Badger taking great leadership in girls hockey and Mr Kimber excelling with girls tennis. Miss Neighbour shone through in standing up for girls sport from the beginning when it was the hardest to get things going with small numbers. I went on the first girls netball tour to the Caribbean and was able to play lots of tennis and hockey. My love for sport, in particular netball and tennis has continued through to today and I have genuine thanks for being allowed to spend so much of the school week doing physical activity!
Over the 5 years I spent at the College I went from Gosden House in 3rd Form to Park House in 4th and 5th and then back to Gosden in 6th Form, as the school took on more girls and more space was needed. It is so great there are now three firmly established girls boarding houses and girls are fully integrated into all aspects of school life. The huge range of extra curricular activities are “Teachers stepped the lasting memories I out of their comfort have from school. CCF zones and took to girls was a big part of my 5 sport to allow us to years – I have strong compete at the same recollections of being level as our male one of 2 girls who went counterparts” to Sennelarger in Germany for a residential field trip. Both petrifying and great, all rolled into one! The 5th Form ski trip also stands out in my mind. Mr Kimber taking a mini bus full of 16 year olds to the 3 valleys - my first taste of skiing and one that started a life long passion that led me to working in the Alps for a year and a sport that ended in me meeting my now husband! Sport was of course the major area of school life that was great. A lot of teachers stepped out of their comfort zones and took to girls sport to allow us to compete at the same level as our male counterparts. Names that were important to me were Mr Dyson becoming a netball coach and umpire, 23
I ended my time at the College as Head Girl and remain appreciative of the life and leadership skills I developed in this year. I went on from LWC to Nottingham University to do a MSci in Nursing Science. I have been a mental health nurse (working with children and adolescents) for the past 15 years and currently am an Associate Director of Nursing at a specialist London Mental Health Trust. A job I feel very lucky to say I love. ANTIONIA CARDING-WRIGHT (2003, Gosden)
