So delighted to be able to open up the school to more students

What a joy to be welcoming back more students to Seniors this week, with Year 10 and 12 tutor groups coming into school for time with their tutors, and artists returning next week.

We are delighted also to be able to open up to more students in Juniors, as gradually we are given more freedom to plan for students’ safe return to see their friends and teachers. Of course, we will end this term with the majority of our learning still happening online.

Congratulations to two of our senior girls whose achievements have been recognised this week. Ezi in Year 13 has been named as one of the 10 best Spanish students in the whole of the UK by the Spanish Embassy for her achievements and Beatrix in Year 9 was awarded the prestigious GDST Laurie Magnus Poetry prize for her poem, Phoenix. Well done!

As I optimistically forecast back in March, our girls and staff have more than risen to this challenge with innovation and ingenuity. One great pleasures of the last few months has been witnessing the flowering of initiative and creativity from our community. From charity fund-raising to eco-initiatives and BLM activism, the girls have been living our ethos as pioneers and rebels (of the right kind!). We have also re-imagined many of our events and traditions and over the next fortnight, we will see many of our events going virtual: summer concerts; UCAS advice days; sports day and sports awards and admissions open days. The agile adaptability of everyone involved continues to make me very proud and thank you all for your kind words of support and encouragement in this respect.

No doubt there will be volatility, uncertainty and complexity in the coming weeks for us to deal with, but we will do so with that characteristic innovation and creativity and with the interests of the girls at heart.