As we are now in the Summer term, the end of the academic year 2018-2019 draws ever closer. It is the time at which bright and warm weather reminds us of the long holiday ahead, and hopefully, in the meantime, allows us some moments of peace and distraction from the exams accompanying the season.

May is also the month in which those in Year 13 and many from Year 11 leave behind Blackheath High School for the next stage of their future. Yet, in some respects, this term can oddly be a time for new beginnings within the school.

I became aware of this sense on the 2 May, at the Grand Opening of the newly rebuilt Blackheath High School. It was an evening which celebrated the success of a development project and hailed a promising future for the school as a whole, but, for me in person, the event also marked my first occasion speaking as Head Girl (albeit a short introduction to our headteacher, Mrs Chandler-Thompson’s, speech, which didn’t prevent me from being more than a little nervous!) and working with the Head Girl Team. For Olivia, Subee, Natasha, Apple and myself, it was perhaps the official beginning of a year of shared responsibilities, which we expect will be exciting, even if demanding at times.

I have been at Blackheath High School since I was eleven, and have many brilliant memories from the six years in which I have been taught, looked after and supported by all who make up the community of the school. Whilst here, I have grown, learnt about myself (as clichéd as it sounds), discovered feminism by being in our society, struggled, alongside close friends, to survive GCSEs, found the subjects which interest me (I am taking A-Levels in History, Latin, English Literature and French, and want to study History at university) and, above all, met the people who have meant the most to me.

Remembering the importance of the latter, of supporting each other and working together, whilst valuing individuality, is the greatest lesson that I have been taught and is a message that I want to emphasise in my time as Head Girl. At the Grand Opening, the CEO of the GDST, Cheryl Giovannoni, quoted an African proverb which could not put this more clearly: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”