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As we end one academic year, we look ahead to the next two! On Tuesday the Harpur Trust Governors confirmed all the schools' term dates for the year 2011-2012. We attach these dates, and a reminder of the dates for 2010-2011. Please make a note of these and take them into account when planning your holidays. We are always disappointed when parents take girls out of school in term time, especially when we have such a generous holiday entitlement. This Friday we finish for almost eight weeks, but there are still some families who have withdrawn their daughters for the last few days of term, which means the girls have missed experiencing, alongside their friends, a number of very special end of year events. This is such a shame!
This week, for example, we have had the Year 11 trip to Drayton Manor Park; the Junior School Charities afternoon and Open House; a day off timetable in the Senior School to take part in a whole range of exciting activities which celebrate the strength of the Dame Alice community; the very special Junior School Celebration to mark all that has been achieved and experienced in Howard House during its years as the Dame Alice Junior School; Sixth Form Induction; the Hilda Long Poetry Competition; a Youth Theatre production of Ash Girl; a visit from Louise Stanton, the British High Commissioner of Malta and a former Dame Alice girl; the Year 13 Revue and Leavers' Tea; the Year 11 Dance and the final (and my final final!) assembly. Life at Dame Alice is always full and vibrant, but this has been a very special week!
At the end of this week parents will receive a letter from Jo MacKenzie and a mini-prospectus relating to Bedford Girls' School. We hope you will find this interesting and informative, and that it encourages everyone to look forward to the future evolution of the school with a positive sense of anticipation.
This is certainly a week to look forward and to look back! We say goodbye to several members of staff in the Junior School and the Senior School, both teaching and support staff. We wish them all well in their future ventures:
In the Junior School, goodbye to Mrs Braud, Mrs Myers, Miss Turner, Mrs E Williams and, from the support staff, Mrs Thorpe.
In the Senior School we bid farewell to teachers Mrs Baxter, Miss Calvert, Mrs Harling, Mrs Huddart, Mr Sedeno, Mr Taylor, Mrs Tekell-Mellor and Dr Viswanathan, to our Learning Support Co-ordinator Mrs Chapman, to our French and Spanish assistants Marion and Monica, and on the support staff to Mrs Campbell our Marketing Manager, to Mr Lilley our Catering Manager, to Mrs Hawkins in the Accounts Department, to Mrs Hughes the school nurse and Eloise Paige who has worked in the Admissions and Alumnae Office this year.
Congratulations to the girls who are our last Gold Award recipients of this academic year.
Gold I Manhoor Saleem 7KHR, Anna Lawson, Saira Dass and Rachel Briggs 8ABL, Rachel Arrowsmith and Cristina Keech 8HCT, Ellie Kimber and Sophia Matu 9ARC, Lauren Bone 9AMB, Katerina Konstantinidi 9REP, Lucy Charatan 10JLP.
Gold III Yulia Ermakova 7KHR, Olivia Adams 8HCT.
It starts afresh in the autumn, girls, so determine to replicate, or even to exceed, your achievements this year!
And after ten years as the Head of Dame Alice, I leave for pastures new. I plan to complete a part-time Doctorate in Education at the University of Nottingham, and I have also arranged to do some work for the National College in Nottingham, promoting headship in the independent sector. I am very much looking forward to these new challenges and experiences.
Many thanks to everyone for the way in which they have contributed to making my time here such a positive experience, and for the generosity and warmth they have shown in a number of leaving events over the past two weeks. In the forthcoming Autumn Term edition of the School Magazine, Reflections, I have written a piece called 'Ten really enjoyable years' where I have tried to explain what a pleasure and a privilege it has been to lead Dame Alice. I know I shall miss it, but after ten years I do feel the time is right to move on. I wish the school, and everyone within it, every success and happiness in the future.
Jill Berry
Headmistress