SPG Alumni newsletter 2012 In this edition: P3: School updates P.4 Step Out! P8: Inspire Me: P15: Annual Reunion Social engagement in our Get involved in our new event 16 June 2012: community programme Save the date and book tickets The alumni newsletter for Perse Girls and SPSFC A successful initiative this year is our new Overview from Tricia Kelleher ‘Inspire Me’ programme. By way of encouraging our students to think creatively Welcome to our alumni Foundation website endeavours to capture this about their future, we have organised a range newsletter for 2012. very special ethos - www.stephenperse.com . of interesting and at times quirky events to Thank you to those of you challenge the conventional well-trodden who have contributed to As a 21st Century school, we are very career paths - not least because the future of our features, we really conscious of the challenges posed to our our students is likely to be far from enjoy hearing and sharing students by living in a digital age. Educating conventional. I’d be delighted if our alumni your stories. for this changing technological landscape and became involved in ‘Inspire Me’. These events offering our students tools that will inspire are taking a variety of formats from panel The Stephen Perse Foundation continues to them is an integral part of our ethos. For the discussions with Q&A to keynote speakers and evolve as a centre of educational excellence in past 12 months our teaching staff have been even ‘careers speed dating’. We’d like to hear Cambridge. The co-educational Stephen Perse piloting iPads in the classroom. From from you if you are happy to share your Pre-Prep in Madingley will be twinned this September, every student in the Senior School experiences and career paths. autumn with a new City Pre-Prep located on will have an iPad, which means they will have Brookside. access to far more educational resources and As always, I hope you enjoy seeing the information than ever before. directions our alumni have taken, and the The Sixth Form College is now a well lifelong relationships that have been forged established co-educational institution in As part of our ‘New Horizons’ fundraising from early friendships at school. Cambridge with not only a reputation for appeal, we are reaching out to alumni to academic success but also an ethos which support the education of young people within I hope you will be able to join us for the next encourages our students to be personally the Foundation. We have included news of SPG reunion on 16 June. If you can’t make ambitious within a strong pastoral framework. our first telethon in this newsletter and I should that day, there are other ways to get involved – Perse Girls continue to enjoy all the personally like to thank everyone who see the back of the newsletter. advantages of single sex teaching in our supported this telephone fundraising Junior and Senior Schools. This distinctive campaign. We believe fundraising is vital to I look forward to seeing some of you in June. learning environment offers an exceptional enable the Foundation’s vibrant and inclusive education for our students. The new ethos to flourish. flourish, and in order to facilitate this the Foundation is committed to increasing bursary Contents: Development provision and to growing its outreach programme (see our article on SteP Out).” P2 Overview from Tricia Kelleher Verity Armstrong is the new This will enable us to continue to widen access to Development Development Manager at the our schools in our local community and ensure New Horizons Foundation. Verity joins us from that young people with suitable potential are able P3 Junior School update Girton College, Cambridge to study here, irrespective of financial SPSFC update where she managed annual circumstance. At the same time we are Pre-Prep update fundraising for nearly four years. P4 SteP Out! committed to enhancing the fabric of our schools, Verity said, “In my new role, I PFA fundraising update offering our students the best possible Supporting local causes am responsible for the Foundation’s long-term environment in which to learn and grow. P5 That Summer in Ischia fundraising strategy and all aspects of alumni Website refresh relations and development, working with Melissa The Stephen Perse Foundation is entirely fee- Our hyacinth birthday tradition Santiago-Val, who many of you will know. Some financed and we have no endowment to Creative and Performing Arts may ask, ‘why do you need to fundraise?’. The cushion us, so to achieve our ambitions we will programme answer is simple; we feel it is vital that we enable P6 Then&Now - Memories of school fully depend on the continued generous the Foundation’s inclusive ethos to continue to during WW2 support of our alumni and friends. P8 Inspire Me Rising stars P9 Industry focus: a career in media P10 Retiring and leaving staff New Horizons Obituaries P12 The generation game We have also been delighted to receive a Please read more about how you can support Lifelong friends donation from an anonymous donor to cover the Foundation on the back cover. P13 Announcements 100% fees for one pupil for five years at Perse P14 Enterprising SPGs Girls Senior School. Such generosity will make Awards & honours a huge difference to a family who would not P15 Alumni reunion events normally be able to send their child to this P16 Our first telethon - ‘It’s good to talk!’ school. We hope that many more friends of the Top 5 ways to support Foundation will consider helping in whatever way they can. Please contact Verity Armstrong, Front cover photo: Helen Purdie (née Rumbold) and Educating for the unknown Development Manager on Rachel Connor (née Jeanes), Group 66, at the ‘Anti- The New Horizons Fund Reunion’ in October. Cover photo and Anti-reunion [email protected] or 01223 454738 if photos by Paul Sanders you would like any more information. 2 The alumni newsletter for Perse Girls and SPSFC Junior School update As part of our 130th birthday celebrations, the what school days were like before the digital members of 3A invited Catherine Sharp (née age and, a week later, 3A shared their findings Hann, Group 39) to share her memories of life in a brilliant assembly. as a Junior School pupil in the 1950s and as a teacher in the 1980s. Armed with her school A Barnardo’s style sale in the playground, beret, a hand mirror, some exercise books and which included games such as ‘pin the glasses a daffodil for each interviewer (as it was St on Miss Cattley’ and ‘match the year to the David’s Day), Catherine told the girls about Persean cover’ brought the term of ‘looking back’ to a close and then came a term of ‘looking forward’. The girls were given the challenge of designing a device for use in school in 130 years’ time! Entries ranged from spelling pens and food capsules to transport This year we have introduced an innovative systems and eco-zones. The two entrants from curriculum designed to challenge and inspire each year group whose entries were judged to current and future Stephen Perse girls. This is be particularly innovative enjoyed a special visit really taking root and we invite you to find out to the Visual Arts Centre and DT Workshop at more by browsing our new website, or better the Senior School as their prize. still, coming to see us! We attended the Bath International Schools schools, they had the opportunity to discuss Model United Nations Conference once more development issues with teachers, community SPSFC update and hope to push the boundaries to some elders and a doctor. The students were able to European destinations in the coming years so see the positive impact of past projects funded We are delighted to see the Sixth Form grow if anyone has some contacts or ideas as to by students at SPSFC and to identify ways their again and now, nearly, have a rugby-team’s- how to build on the enthusiasm for politics, money could be put to good use in the future. worth of boys! The trend continues for us to economics, international relations and law in have about a third of our students coming this area, please let us know! from other schools both near and far and the Sixth Form College community gains much Prior to the 2012 Gambia expedition, ten L6 from the mix. students initiated a host of interesting and often physically gruelling fundraising events, which We have been pleased to see our enrichment raised a fantastic sum in excess of £8,000. programme enhanced by the formal adoption of Accompanied by two members of staff, the ‘Model United Nations’, which gives students a students spent a busy week becoming familiar wonderful opportunity to engage within the with the realities of life in urban and rural world of debate on a whole new level. communities. As well as meeting and leading activity sessions with students from local outdoor curriculum that encourages children Pre-Prep update to take managed risks and to collaborate with their peers in the outdoor environment. Plans are underway for opening our new city Pre-Prep. The builders have begun converting The Pre-Prep had a busy start to the the classrooms in the Junior School into academic year. Fundraising began early in the exciting learning spaces for Pre-Prep aged term with the popular Harvest Festival sale. children (4-7). Our City Pre-Prep has access Proceeds from the sale went to the Seeds of to the Junior School facilities and has the Africa charity, helping a primary school to buy Botanical Gardens and Fitzwilliam Museum on equipment to grow their own food.