“Volunteering is at the very core of being a human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.”
– Heather French Henry
Our sixth-form programme is constructed around six pillars: employability, leadership, concern for society, challenge, scholarship and wellness. Students, in addition to their A-level studies, acquire experience of each of the six pillars as a way of developing the skills and behaviours that will serve them well whatever they choose to do when they leave St Swithun’s.
Concern for society, reflecting caritas, one of our founding virtues, is very dear to us and last term we reviewed the charitable activities that our sixth formers had been involved in.
The range was astonishing: in school, the sixth form have coordinated the Pachamama project to make reusable period pads, helped with art, drama and science activities with our local partner primary schools and acted as subject mentors to younger students. Beyond St Swithun’s, individual sixth formers have acted as a youth governor for the Southern Health NHS Foundation; helped Move Momentum with their dance classes for local wheelchair users; been a youth panellist for Young Minds; volunteered with the homeless or with Parkrun or with Meals on Wheels and helped at primary schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly both in the UK and abroad. I hope that the habits developed at St Swithun’s will last these students a lifetime. I often talk about spreading a ripple of happiness – that is definitely one of our guiding principles.
Sixth-form charitable activities have their foundations lower down the school. From the time that students start with us in L4, we expect them to think about others. Indeed, both our High Performance Learning programme and our Positive Education programme emphasise concern for others and how ‘no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.’ Just before Easter every form organised an activity to raise money for charity as part of Fundraising Thursday, an annual event to raise money for, and awareness of, our three school charities (Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Malala Fund, Ruth Strauss Foundation) and the Bramston Foundation, which raises money for transformational bursaries. The highlight is undoubtedly ‘sponge the teacher’ so hats off to our brave volunteers for what is always a very chilly 15 minutes. And no, I did not take part personally and would only do so were we to raise a truly enormous sum of money. Who knows, that time may yet come.
In the meantime, I will continue to encourage all our charitable endeavours whether they involve giving time or raising money. And hopefully, we will continue to send students out into the world to spread that ripple of happiness.
Jane Gandee MA (Cantab) Headmistress
1. Culture Fair
2. Design technology - L4 boxes
3. House Lacrosse
4. German exchange
5. Swithun’s Live
6. Pachamama Project
7. Winchester Pancake Race
8. M5 biology - Kidney dissection
9. Model United Nations at Wycombe Abbey
THE U4 ENTERPRISE DAY
Students took on the role of young entrepreneurs in U4’s Enterprise Day, creating a company and pitching a product to guest judges from Jude’s Ice Cream. They considered the USP of their product, many making eco-friendly choices with products such as a biodegradable dog toy and a doll-shaped pen made from fast-fashion waste headed to landfill. The winning team was SPEGO (spongy Lego) and the judges from Jude’s Ice Cream commented in feedback how brave and impressive the students had been in presenting.
ST AGNES EVE BANQUET
L6 and U6 literature students gathered to celebrate St Agnes’ Eve with a candlelit reading of Keats’ narrative poem of the same name. Complete with traditional ‘dumb cake’ (and less traditional chocolate brownie), we put a twist on the tale to consider the students’ future ambitions instead of just focusing on future marital matches. It was joyful to see the students engaging in the world of romantic literature.
END OF MOCKS AFTERNOON TEA
U5 celebrated the end of mock season with an afternoon tea of mini sandwiches, brownies, scones and drinks in the dining room.
MODEL UNITED NATIONS: WYCOMBE ABBEY
MODEL UNITED NATIONS: WINCHESTER COLLEGE
Ten sixth-form students represented the school at Wycombe Abbey’s Model United Nations Conference. They got stuck into rigorous debate and demonstrated great diplomacy. The event concluded with the Highland Ball where they forged friendships with students from other schools.
18 students visited Winchester College for a joint Model United Nations event, re-enacting a historical committee from 25 June 1950 on the evening of the outbreak of the Korean War.
MATHS FEST
St Swithun’s sixth-form mathematicians spent a day in London at Maths Fest 2025, an inspiring annual celebration of mathematics. A particular highlight of the day was the Maths Slam competition, where selected students had the opportunity to present a short talk on a mathematical concept of their choice. Claire C qualified for the final of the competition and delivered an outstanding presentation on multiplication tricks.
ECONOMICS TYCOONS
ECONOMICS
POLICY PITCH PRESENTATIONS WITH WINCHESTER COLLEGE
L6 economic students paired up with boys from Winchester College to deliver an economic ‘Policy Pitch’ presentation. Students enthusiastically shared their policy ideas, which ranged from tackling corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the UK rejoining the single European market.
A number of students set up their own businesses as part of an economics Tycoon Challenge, and have been selling their product to friends, parents and members of the school community.
MOCK TRIAL
Politics students from St Swithun’s and visiting students from Badminton School took part in a mock trial day, with the court sessions overseen by real judges from Winchester Crown Court and the Old Bailey. HHJ Sarah Monro (an Old Girl from St Swithun’s) and HHJ Angela Morris gave inspiring talks and invaluable feedback.
CAREERS NETWORKING EVENING
This evening provided an invaluable opportunity for students intending to study languages and humanities at university to hear what these courses might lead to.
MEDICS DINNER
Students interested in careers in the medical field attended a dinner to network with professionals across the sector.
LUNAR NEW YEAR
To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Alina J and Luna Z gave an assembly including performances on traditional Chinese instruments, a guzheng and a guqin.
TREE PLANTING WITH WINCHESTER ROTARY
Students planted trees with the help of Winchester Rotary along the back field of the school. Named by the girls, the tree pictured sits among those planted each year by students at both our prep and senior schools, and will continue to grow and provide a greener environment. Watch a video here.
OXBRIDGE
We celebrated another record-breaking year of offers to study at Oxford and Cambridge universities. For the fourth year in a row, over 10% of UCAS applicants from the current upper sixth and class of 2024 have received Oxbridge offers, a school achievement not matched for at least 20 years.
L6 SOCIAL WITH WINCHESTER COLLEGE
Lower sixth students enjoyed a wonderful social with Winchester College, planned by the L6 social committee with a masquerade theme, games, quizzes and music. Some of the girls spent their Saturday afternoon transforming the dining hall for the event, which was enjoyed by everyone.
SWITHUN CHOIR DINNER
ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT
Our Swithun Choir leaders organised a black-tie supper for all Choir members, including a fun quiz and bingo.
One element of Academic Enrichment is our lunchtime student-led talks. They are a valuable opportunity to share knowledge and practise presenting skills. Examples from this term included Miya G’s discussion of the role of AI in bioengineering to protect coral reefs, Amy H’s exploration of recycling from Rome to the Reformation, an introduction to modern Greek by Maryam K and quantum mechanics by Georgie C-B, amongst many fascinating talks.
SCHOOL LIFE
VALENTINE’S DAY
GERMAN EXCHANGE
The Head Girl Team raised money for charity by organising the exchange of personalised roses throughout the school and delivering them from desk to desk. Catering put on a wonderful display and treated us to heartshaped biscuits and red velvet cake sprinkled with rose petals.
Our creative librarians offered the whole senior school community the chance to have a ‘Blind Date with a Book’ and provided perfect book matches for students and staff.
Our German exchange students spent a fun week with their Swithun’s partner, making jewellery in DT, flipping pancakes at our house pancake races and and taking part in various other school activities. The students now look forward to seeing each other again on their visit to Germany in May.
CULTURE FAIR
The Diversity & Equality school officer team arranged our annual wholeschool Culture Fair. The event was a celebration of the school’s diversity, and a showcase of the cultural heritage of our student body. Stalls from 12 countries were on display in the Harvey Hall, providing activities and fun facts to entertain everyone alongside plenty of delicious food. The Ukrainian Cabbage Dumplings were especially popular!
INTERHOUSE PANCAKE RACES
Day houses then boarding houses raced along the athletics track for house pancake races on a sunny Shrove Tuesday. Congratulations to Caer Gwent and Hillcroft for their team victories.
WORLD BOOK DAY QUIZ
World Book Day was celebrated in assembly with a Literary Challenge quiz. Two teams of students with a staff member each, battled it out over books and buzzers.
PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS VISIT THE PREP SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
The U6 psychologists visited our prep school to gain first-hand experience of experiments by key researchers such as Piaget, Selman and Baron-Cohen. They conducted the studies to aid their Cognition and Development A Level topic. It was wonderful to bring together some of our youngest and oldest cohorts.
Students took part in an academic poster competition inspired by the question ‘If you could set up a project to make a real, meaningful difference to women’s lives, what would you do?’. We interviewed students and our headmistress, Jane Gandee, on what International Women’s Day means to them, which you can watch here . Students also came to school dressed as a woman who inspires them.
THE WITCH PROJECT
L5 presented their findings from their research project ‘How have women been presented in Literature and Culture through time?’ through various media. Some of the highlights included rap battle films, ‘washing lines’ of women’s fashions through the ages, a game show of female destiny and a reworked version of The Cell Block Tango from Chicago! Each form group chose a different method to showcase their responses, and we were all inspired by the creative and academic endeavours on display.
TEAM MATHS CHALLENGE
REGIONAL FINALS
A small team went to PGS for the Team Maths Challenge regional finals and took home a commendable second place. They performed excellently and only just missed out on winning by a few points.
GEOGRAPHY TRIP TO ICELAND
Geography students enjoyed a trip to Iceland in the Easter holidays, exploring the varied landscape from waterfalls to black sand beaches, geothermal springs and glaciers.
HISTORY OF ART TRIP TO LONDON
Our history of art students in L6 and U6 enjoyed a cultural day in London. Amongst others, they viewed Rodin’s Burghers of Calais, the Albert Memorial, Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House, William Butterfield’s All Saints & Alfred Waterhouse’s Natural History Museum.
LOST WORDS ART PROJECT
GREENPOWER
Our Greenpower team visited Envisage, a leading supplier of concept design, realisation, and engineering services. Students found out about the fastest diesel car ever made, toured their electronics, materials and interiors workshops and listened to expert tips on how to make our own race cars more efficient. The following day, they raced at Mallory Park and ran two F24+ style races on Beryllium and an F24 race on Neon. It was a great educational and fun trip for our Greenpower engineers.
‘The Lost Words’ is a book which celebrates the words that are disappearing from the language of children. ‘The Lost Words’ is a joyful celebration - in art and word - of nearby nature and its wonders and with the aim of re-wilding the language of children.
St Swithun’s lower years (L4, U4, L5) have produced various pieces of beautiful art in celebration of the ‘The Lost Words’. From pottery to printing and everything in between, the students have come together to create a true celebration of the words lost, but not forgotten. Miss Rindfuss has created a huge oak tree installation and has invited the whole school community to write upon a leaf and hang it from the ‘branches’. Many of the leaves contain a poem, a word, or a memory inspired by The Lost Words. The Summer Term will see a private view of the Lost Words project where all of the artwork along with the Oak tree will be displayed.
HOUSE MATHS
House maths, a team maths relay competition, took place this term. Everyone performed well and it was good to see a crowd of girls joining in to support their peers. There were two standout houses, Caer Gwent (Day) and Hillcroft (boarding), with Hillcroft crowned the ultimate winners.
HIGHLAND GAMES
LE ROY LAMP MAKING
Boarders enjoyed an evening of Highland games including caber toss and tug of war on Burns night.
In the Le Roy boarding house, girls undertook a fun creative project of making their own lamps.
PANCAKE DAY
On Shrove Tuesday, boarders had a go at making their own pancakes with friends.
SUSTAINABLE CLOTHES SWAP
Boarders donated and swapped old clothes and uniforms at their Sustainable Clothes Swap. The activity not only encourages the girls to exchange items they no longer need, but by giving clothes a second life, we reduce the amount of clothing that ends up in landfill, promoting a circular fashion economy.
ROLLER DISCO
Our boarding roller disco night was a great way for all our boarding students to come together to unwind and create joyful memories after a day of hard work in the classroom.
NERF WARS
Boarders had great fun during an evening activity of Nerf wars.
LOWER SIXTH SOCIAL
Boarders attended the lower sixth social with Winchester College.
FLUTE MASTERCLASS WITH JULIAN SPERRY
Flautist Julian Sperry gave expert advice on advanced techniques to a small group of our flautists in a masterclass.
HOUSE MUSIC
The House Music Competition once again displayed a high level of musical expertise within the school. Congratulations to Sorcha, Effie and Leqi, who were the winners in each category, and to Hillcroft, who were the overall winning house. Our winner of the advanced category, Leqi, will perform a concerto with the Symphony Orchestra in the Founders’ Day concert to celebrate her musical achievement.
SPRING MUSIC SCHOLARS
AND EXHIBITIONERS’ CONCERT
OLIVIER AWARDS
Our music scholars and exhibitioners gave a captivating concert in Harvey Hall, with a thoughtfully curated programme of chamber music performances.
The ‘Olivier Awards’ made a grand return to St Swithun’s to celebrate excellence in the performing arts and beyond. Named after the legendary actor Laurence Olivier, these awards recognise outstanding achievements in school productions, musicals, dance and academic work. The 2025 Olivier Awards highlight the best in stage performance, with categories such as Best Play, Best Actor/Actress, Best Musical Performer, Best Ensemble, and more. Complete with canapés, speeches and special performances between the awards, it was a memorable night for all our drama students.
CABARET CONCERT
ROMSEY ABBEY MUSIC RECITAL
Music officers Leqi and Rachel organised our annual Cabaret Concert, which showcased a wonderful variety of performances across the year groups. The evening featured an array of solos, duets, group pieces and dance ensembles, highlighting the breadth of talent in our community.
Our music scholars performed to family and friends at Romsey Abbey
SWITHUN’S LIVE
Our much-loved rock concert ‘Swithun’s Live’ brought together talented bands from St Swithun’s senior and prep school and Winchester College. They performed to a packed auditorium and the evening was filled with excitement as the audience enjoyed the sounds of familiar rock favourites.
WINCHESTER PANCAKE RACE
PACHAMAMA –STUDENTS JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST PERIOD POVERTY
Three teams from St Swithun’s raced at Winchester’s annual Shrove Tuesday pancake race. The fantastic community event was organised by Winchester Rotary and profits this year went to Winchester Street Ranch.
Lower-sixth student Miya G introduced The Pachamama Projecta volunteer-run initiative tackling period poverty in refugee crisesto St Swithun’s. Students drop in to the textiles classroom at lunch to help create the pads, which will be distributed to communities in need across Ukraine, Uganda, Pakistan, Lebanon, South Sudan and more. The World Bank estimates that over 500 million young women and girls globally struggle daily to manage their menstrual health. By getting involved with The Pachamama Project, St Swithun’s students are not only learning new skills but are also playing a part in tackling this global epidemic. Read the full news story here.
FUNDRAISING THURSDAY
Our annual fundraising Thursday gets the whole school community together to raise money for our school charities and is a highlight of the spring calendar. Form groups set up unique stalls ranging from classic fairground games like hook a duck to food stalls selling handmade cake pops, milkshakes, popcorn and candy floss. Students could get glitter tattoos and henna, as well as take part in a dress to impress competition before watching the much-anticipated sponge the teacher. This year we raised £2800; a new record.
COLOUR RUN
One of the main events during Fundraising Thursday was the colour run, complete with a bouncy castle and obstacle course. Sixth-form students were ready with handfuls of brightly coloured powder as the girls made their way through the course, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.
LACROSSE NATIONALS
Congratulations to our 3rd lacrosse team who were crowned the winners of the U19C National Championships. It was an excellent capstone to an undefeated season.
The 1st X lacrosse team also did well at Nationals, with the 4th highest points total across all schools, earning the team a top 16 finish in the country. Our 2nd team made it to the semi-finals at Nationals, whilst our 4th X lacrosse team competed and earned a spot in the top 16 championship division – the only fourth team to accomplish this feat.
We are proud of all of our lacrosse students for playing so well at this level and their overall performance was a testament to their hard work and progress throughout the season.
ENGLAND NETBALL NATIONAL SCHOOLS FINAL
Our U16 Nationals team competed in the England Netball National Schools final, with the best 19 schools in the country. Overall, we finished 5th, which is a significant achievement in the pinnacle of netball competitions for schools.
HOUSE SPORT
Junior house netball and senior house lacrosse took place on a sunny afternoon at the end of term, and the results were:
Lacrosse Netball
1st Davies
2nd Venta
3rd Caer Gwent
OLD GIRLS VS 1ST VII NETBALL MATCH
1st Davies
2nd Caer Gwent
3rd High House
We welcomed recent alumnae back to school for a friendly netball match on the last day of term. Our current students ran out as winners in a fun but competitive game played in great spirits.
