Old Girls in the Emergency Services

Emergency Services

Helen Booth (Class of 2000)

Those who knew me at School would probably agree I was not academically minded, not 100% committed to my studies, and as my mum (herself a teacher) always said, I was “very capable, but did not apply myself”. I played a lot of sport and loved being part of a team, but, as for academic subjects, those with a “hands-on” or practical element were my favourites. After School I gained a degree from Durham University in Information Systems Management (in hindsight, never going to be a good fit for me), and then graduated in Sport and Recreation Management from the University of Notre Dame Australia, the latter as a stepping stone to moving my life Down Under. In this process, I’ve had to navigate numerous visas and work requirements; it’s taken an extraordinary amount of time, money, energy, diligence and perseverance to achieve, and I believe Bolton School prepared me for much of this: managing workloads, deadlines and standards. The rest was my upbringing; the work ethic that has been instilled in me by my parents has repeatedly set me apart in Australia.

In 2014, I was finally a permanent resident, having lived in Australia for eight years, and with that came the freedom to choose what I wanted to do for work. It came down to one simple thing: “I want to be useful”. So, I reverted back to a childhood desire, and I applied for the position of Firefighter with the Department of Fire & Emergency Services (DFES) in Western Australia. The odds were against me; over 2000 applicants for a school of 24. However, one thing I love about the Firefighter role is that the male and female entry testing standards are identical, as are the expectations on shift. On my second attempt, in 2017 (now 35 years old!), I was accepted to a school – an intense 18 weeks, delivering all the basic skills needed to perform the role of Firefighter and work on station. This was is followed by five years of further study on the job. I have now moved up the ranks and am a Senior Firefighter. As firefighters we deal with fire (bushfire, buildings, cars, boats, ships), rescue (the occasional cat up a tree!), Road Crash Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), Hazmat, casualty management and more. We are trained in multiple disciplines and are expected to respond to a variety of incidents. Each shift has the potential to present something entirely new and unexpected. The job is always hands-on, but you also need to be observing (warning signs, changes in conditions, hazards present) – tunnel vision can be extremely dangerous. Working in close quarters with your crew for long hours (10-hour days, 14-hour nights and regular 24-hour shifts), you need to trust yourself and the people around you to know their job. When we’re not at incidents we continually train, drill and upskill to keep us fresh. It’s a great team environment to be involved in.

My education and values from my formative years at Bolton School have afforded me a certain ingrained discipline. Knowing how to study, process information, evaluate and make assessments has been crucial in getting me where I am today. For anyone thinking of a career as a Firefighter, I’d say: go for it! Just keep as fit and strong as you can and try to have a good practical mind. The best part is you work in a tight crew, you always have help and backup and everybody mucks in. If you love team sports and have a desire to help, this could be a good job for you … but maybe start earlier than I did!

Janette McCormick QPM (née Owen, Class of 1986)

Coming up to 33 years in policing, I reflect on a career that I think is ‘a job like no other’. Having served in Greater Manchester and Cheshire to the rank of Chief Constable, I am now working with the Home Office heading the national police uplift programme. This is bringing in more than 50k officers over three years and will help the service face the very different challenges of modern policing than when I started my career. What was once crime in the open is now in the digital space crossing international borders. Yet the societal challenges, such as domestic abuse, remain a priority. Being with people at their most vulnerable and low moments, making that difference by providing them with support, strength and justice, is a privilege. Thinking back on my time at Bolton School, I learnt lessons that have held me in good stead over this time. Most fundamentally the deep-seated value in me of fairness and equality is perhaps the one that has most strongly shaped my policing career. My current role is focused on ensuring policing is more representative, but sitting for many years on the national Equality and Diversity Committee, leading for Gypsies and Travellers and, until recently, disability, has meant changing perceptions and challenging policy. In a world of social media, standing up for people who are often marginalised shows you the prejudice in society at its worst. School encouraged me to be an independent woman, open-minded and to stand up for what I thought was right. You remember the people who did that in practice and don’t forget the impact small acts have – Mrs Fisher, who let me buck the trend working outside the curriculum, and, more recently, Mrs Hanrahan, who did that for my daughter. Sport played a large part in my time at Bolton. Captaining and being part of a team showed me the support you can provide each other in good as well as tough times, and I learnt some hard lessons on the accountability of leadership. I joined on the fast-track scheme that meant I led a team from an early age, relying on their backup, celebrating our successes, as well as being that mentor and coach ensuring their personal wellbeing. More latterly running a multimillion-pound organisation of around 4,000 people it is equally important to have that business acumen. That maths and stats has come in useful!

I was never top of the class, nor a Prefect, but I gained a work ethic that has stood me in good stead, a sense that I could achieve, and have been given an opportunity to do just that in a job like no other, and certainly one I can recommend to anyone who wants to make a difference.

Bolton School prides itself on encouraging its pupils to follow their ambitions. Here we meet four Old Girls who work in the emergency services – and who attribute their motivation and determination to build their careers to their inspirational teachers and lessons learned in the Girls’ Division.

Lindsy Slamon (née O'Reilly, Class of 1994)

I knew from an early age that my interests primarily lay with the sciences. I may or may not have been inspired by watching Quincy on television and reading lots of Nancy Drew books, but forensic science and police investigations always held a certain allure! I always felt it was a real privilege to be at Bolton School – it was never the plan, indeed was never on the radar, until a primary school teacher suggested I sit the entrance exam. But, from my first day, I knew it was an opportunity not to be wasted and I can honestly say that I look back on my time there with great fondness. In those seven years, I found inspiration in many of the strong female figures around me – Mrs O’Kelly, my Chemistry teacher with her dry sense of humour; Miss Dickinson with her calm, unruffled presence; Mrs Robinson, my maths teacher who commanded respect without even raising her voice; and many others that I could list whose impact lingers still. After School, I studied Molecular Biology at the University of Manchester, knowing at this point that I definitely wanted to pursue forensic science, but unwilling to risk pigeonholing myself by undertaking one of the newly-introduced degrees in it. The three years gave me enough experience of laboratory-based work to sharpen my focus – I certainly didn’t want a career in a lab; rather I wanted to get to the coal face! I joined Greater Manchester Police as a Crime Scene Investigator (or Scenes of Crime Officer/SOCO as we were known then) in 2000. Based just north of Manchester city centre in Collyhurst, I dealt with all crime types, from theft and burglary to serious sexual offences, assaults and murders. No two days were ever the same, and the camaraderie exhibited within the team was essential when dealing with such potentially impactive situations. I do think that my experiences at School helped when it came to being a strong woman in a predominantly male environment.

Having gained a huge amount of experience working on several major investigations, I was promoted to Senior Crime Scene Investigator and ultimately managed a team of CSIs whilst also carrying out the role of Crime Scene Manager. This was such an interesting, challenging and rewarding job. I saw some terrible sights, but also helped to serve justice and to bring some degree of peace to those most affected by violent crime. Certainly, working on the Manchester Arena bombing investigation was both disturbing and rewarding at the same time. Ultimately, after 22 years with GMP, 22 years of shifts, working weekends, and being on call, I decided to seek a new challenge and earlier this year became a lecturer at the University of Salford. So far, I’m relishing the new direction. I have lots to talk about and plenty of experience to share with the students, and the variety of work is really enjoyable. Hopefully, I can inspire some of my students in the way I was inspired back at Bolton School.

Sarah Coleman (née Jones, Class of 2009)

I didn’t settle on a career path whilst at Bolton School and went through the various ‘traditional’ career options, but they never felt right for me. My favourite subject at School was History, taught by my favourite teacher, Mr Davies. I look back on History lessons very fondly as I recall Mr Davies saying, “I don’t need to read your essays to mark them, I could just weigh them!” in response to my always epically long essays. My passion for History was routed in my inquisitive nature, always asking ‘Why?’ as a child. I was curious about people and finding things out. This led me to study History at Lancaster University, with the guidance provided at School giving me confidence that I didn’t need to have a career already picked out. Gaining my degree was an achievement in itself; I was the first and am still the only person in my family to attend university. It was at university that the suggestion of joining the Police came about. I spoke to some officers at a careers fair on campus and, combined with my enjoyment of crime and psychological thriller novels, a seed was planted. The more I researched a career in the Police, the more my enthusiasm grew. I joined Lancashire Constabulary as a Special Constable in 2013, a volunteer role which I undertook around a full-time job. In 2014 I become a Police Community Support Officer, working alongside Police Officers in a Neighbourhood Team. After three years, I finally became a Police Constable and I spent five years working on the front line as an Immediate Response Officer. I still can’t believe I was being paid to race around with blue lights and sirens going, arrest criminals and help vulnerable people, hopefully giving them some closure. I am very thankful to have found a career that I love and that has so much scope for development, diversity and progression. I passed my Sergeant exam in 2020 and had plans to seek promotion, but knew deep down that my career lay in the detective world. Putting promotion on the back burner, I made my way into the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), becoming a Detective Constable. I feel privileged to be investigating serious and complex crimes, and getting to support the most vulnerable victims. One of my career highlights so far was working on the team investigating the brutal murder of an Accrington pensioner who was tortured and killed by a man trying to fund his drug habit. On an investigation of this scale, you are only one small part of the whole investigation, but seeing how the CCTV I had located and spent hours viewing helped send the man responsible to jail for life, I felt very proud. If anyone is interested in a career in the Police, speaking to someone in the job is great place to start, but I would highly recommend applying to be a Special Constable as this really gives you a big insight into the role and gives you the opportunity to try it out without committing to it as a career. My time at Bolton School taught me to follow my curiosity and find out where my passion lay. I would encourage anyone who is struggling with figuring out their career path to follow whatever they are passionate about – unknown opportunities will arise that you don’t expect.