W elcome
Welcome from the Headmistress
T
his year has been one of joy at Wycombe Abbey. Not only have we had an uninterrupted school year, but we have celebrated our 125th Anniversary with a host of events and activities to bring together the whole School community. To kick start the celebrations, girls and staff took part in a special ‘colour run’ around the School grounds whilst being blasted with colour powder along the way. On our Founder’s Day itself, we unveiled a new plaque to Dame Frances Dove and we are delighted that Abbey Way has now been re-named Frances Dove Way. This was followed by a special service in Chapel for the whole School led by the Bishop of Buckingham and a celebratory party with music, cake and rides. Girls, staff, Seniors and parents have also enjoyed the 125 Speaker Series including Liz Earle MBE, Dame Helena Morrissey, Sir Matthew Pinsent and Ben Fogle, as well our impressive Seniors panel contributing to this. Last month, on a beautiful sunny day, I was delighted to bring nearly 200 Seniors and Honorary Seniors together for a special 125 Grand Reunion for drinks, lunch, tours and much reminiscing.
much looking forward to welcoming everyone to this much-loved space again when it reopens in the Autumn Term. As well as looking back and celebrating our past we are focused on looking forward and we have a very clear vision - to be at the forefront of girls boarding education and to be recognised globally as a world class school. Our strategic direction sets out our roadmap until 2025 under six key pillars. The final pillar, Transformational Change, consists of two key strands. The first is bursaries and partnerships, which has been ably led by Dr Neal Carrier (Director of Sixth Form and Head of Partnerships and Bursaries) over this past year with much valued support from Council. We are aiming to increase the number of girls receiving bursary support from the already not insignificant 30 pupils to around 80 in the coming years.
The second strand is the Estates Masterplan. We have been working with London based, female-led architects Walters and Cohen to create a site masterplan which spans approximately 25 years. The first two projects that we are now focusing on are a new Junior House and a new academic building – The Innovation and Design Centre – which will offer an exciting integrated teaching space for art, design, technology, engineering and robotics. I am delighted to be able to share the brochure with you which provides the outline of our estates vision. I hope you agree that these are exciting times for Wycombe Abbey and I look forward to updating you as plans progress. Jo Duncan MA (St Andrews) PGCE (Cantab) Headmistress
We have reflected on the work of our pioneering founder, Dame Frances Dove, who established Wycombe Abbey in 1896 and the girls have led Chapel services throughout this term on her and her work. She was a clearly a remarkable woman; I like the quote from the first Head of School, Ursula Farwell, who, when writing about Miss Dove in 1942 said ‘She was absolutely certain of what she wanted to do, how she wanted to do it and of the faith and convictions that inspired her. She showed us the example of a life of courage, faith, directness and simplicity.’ I am delighted that the refurbishment of Big School is now underway thanks to the generosity of a Senior. I am very 2
The Dove
Read about our vision here