Development Trust Office Newsletter July 2016

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Development Trust Office Newsletter July 2016

Welcome to the first Development Trust Office newsletter. Who are we... (you may be wondering)? The Development Trust Office is here to keep in touch with you and to fund raise for projects in school. From

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scale projects:- the hearing loop (see below) we installed earlier this year, to H U scale projects….a new science block maybe? We have made a flying start since January 2016. Alas we haven’t landed that multi-million pound grant yet, but it’s early days and the ground work is being laid!

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And, who are you? Well you are our past pupils and staff! You are sometimes known as “Old Girls”, although our male students may not totally embrace this title (we have had boys in our sixth form for over 20 years)! You are ex-students and ex-staff members. You are our alumni and a very important part of our school community. We want to keep you informed of the news from Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

We want you to be proud of us and our current students as we are proud of you as our alumni. Of course we are always going to be fund raising, but these newsletters and our contact with you is not only going to be begging for money. The newsletters will ensure you feel connected with us and hopefully inspire you to stay connected with each other. You can also keep up to speed with our news via the website www.mggs.org or via our Facebook page My MGGS. Email us at abrown@mggs.org Our first project was to install a hearing loop into the Main Hall. By the time the Old Girls Association held their AGM here in March 2016, the loop was up, running and ready to go.

We were delighted to attend the Old Girls AGM and reunion lunch, meeting students and staff from many decades ago and hearing their stories and memories of their time at MGGS. The sad loss of our Chairman of Governors - Molly Tipples brought with it not only the legacy of the brand new sports hall, but donations made at Molly’s memorial service were given to the Development Trust Office to purchase a state of the art trampoline. Molly’s name and memory will live long and support generations of athletes to come.

a tradition of excellence Buckland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 0SF

T: 01622 752103

F: 01622 681947

E: central @mggs.org

www.mggs.org

The Newsletter One of our largest and on-going projects is to connect with you - our alumni. We are thrilled to hear from anyone who was connected with MGGS, welcoming everyone’s news. We have several reunions in the planning; one in November 2017 and one in 2018. We are also planning to hold 10 year and 25 year leaving anniversaries. So, classes of 2007 and 1992 - get ready to come and see us in March 2017. We will be sending out details of the reunions via email, the website and Facebook. If you would like to organise a class or year reunion, just let us know!

We have a couple of outstanding grant applications at the time of writing. One in particular from the Foyle Foundation to boost the funds of our school library. You may remember fondly using the library in your time here, funds are really lacking in this important area of school so fingers crossed there is some good news to share with you in the next Newsletter.

Several of our alumni are coming in to the annual Virtual University week. What better way to inspire our current students than to have role models come back to school and give them guidance, be it on university, career or life choices. If you have experiences you can share with our current students, please let us know. It is another wonderful way of keeping our community in touch.

Former Head Girl Lizzy Yarnold, exchanged her tracksuit for a stunning wedding gown for her Spring wedding . We were delighted she was able to join us prior to her marriage to formally open the Molly Tipples Sports Hall. We send the happy couple our very best wishes.

a tradition of excellence Buckland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 0SF

T: 01622 752103 F: 01622 681947

E: central @mggs.org

www.mggs.org

The Newsletter Many former staff and students will remember Head of Drama Chrissy Combes who influenced so many pupils during their time at MGGS. We learned that Chrissy was a judge for The Olivier Theatre Awards panel, and here she is pictured at the Olivier Awards nomination lunch.

She let us know about several ex students doing amazing things in the world of acting and the arts:- Paul Hart took over this year as Artistic Director of the Watermill Theatre at Newbury, and has received stunning reviews across the board for his first production of Romeo and Juliet. Rachel Lloyd performs at Covent Garden, most recently as Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor. Katie Bird has been singing her way through wonderful roles and made a great impression in the NI Opera production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw. Richard Chalk has been touring with Spamalot, Hannah Fox with Mary Poppins and Hazel Gardner as been in As You Like It at the National Theatre.

It is always wonderful to hear news from our alumni. Not only is it exciting to see where they are, but it is so inspiring for our current students to see what could lie ahead for them!

We were saddened to learn of the passing of John Wilson in May this year. He was deputy head from 1983 until 1997. This picture of him is taken from the 1997-98 Year Book. Head Girls that year were Charandeep Bansel, Hannah Paterson, Lucy Shackleton and Katie Forder. Many students paid tribute to him via our Facebook page - My MGGS. And finally……..

Cast your mind back to the very first time you walked into Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

Remember the entrance hall with the parquet flooring? The Head Teacher’s office to your left? No doubt this is an image you can readily picture - your very first contact with your school and probably your very last physical contact as you walked through and left on your final day here. We think this first walk through the door is a really important moment in our students lives and we therefore want to make our entrance as welcoming as possible. We are built on tradition, so we are not looking to make radical changes but give what we have a good “spruce up”! Can you help us make these wonderful memories for our current students? We need to raise £8,000 for this project. This Newsletter is going to just over 1,000 alumni, so if we do some rough maths, a donation of only £8 from each of you would allow this project to be completed! A one off donation would be fabulous, but even MORE beneficial would be a monthly or quarterly standing order donation - this would enable us to plan other exciting projects if we KNOW we have that income stream. You will find a form on the following page. It is easy to set up a standing order if you have on line banking - our bank details are on the form, use the ref MGGS DTF and start donating, email a copy of the form back to us at abrown@mggs.org so there is a record of your giving and if we can claim gift aid on your donation, all the better. If you don’t have online banking, you can print out the form, fill in the details, sign it and send it to the DTO at the address below.

Help us create the warm, memorable welcome that you had and our current and future students deserve.

a tradition of excellence Buckland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 0SF

T: 01622 752103 F: 01622 681947

E: central @mggs.org

www.mggs.org

The Newsletter Development Trust Fund – MGGS (charity number 1041191) Standing Order Mandate To: Bank name

___________________________________________________________

Bank address

___________________________________________________________

Please pay

MGGS Development Trust Fund HSBC PLC 1-5 Week Street Maidstone Kent ME14 1QW

Sort code Account no Reference

40-31-06 32495813 MGGS DTF

The sum of

£ ______________

Starting on

______________

Account no

_______________

then: monthly/quarterly/annually for __________ years OR until further notice

Sort code

_______________

Signed

Account name

_______________

_____________________________

Gift Aid Declaration By signing below, MGGS can claim an additional 25p for each £1 you donate at no extra cost to you, provided that you pay income tax at least equal to the tax reclaimed.

If your circumstances change, you must notify MGGS. Signed

____________________________

Date

____________________________

Address of signatory

Print name ____________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

a tradition of excellence Buckland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 0SF

T: 01622 752103 F: 01622 681947

E: central @mggs.org

www.mggs.org