Francis Holland School Newsletter February 2015 “Polished Corner” Joan Collins receives New Year’s Honour
From the Headmistress Dear Parents, 2015 began with the happy news that Miss Joan Collins, a member of Quondam (the association for all alumnae of this school) had been awarded a DBE for her services to charity in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. In 1996, Miss Collins and the Bishop of London officially opened the school swimming pool. Building work on the new swimming pool and changing rooms began at the beginning of term. This major project is one of the ways in which the school will be marking the centenary of its move from Upper Baker Street to Ivor Place in 1915. Congratulations to the Upper Fifth on completing ten days of mock GCSE examinations, which they undertook with impressive commitment. The annual Higher Education Evening, which will be held on Monday 2nd March for all Lower Sixth girls and their parents, is an important event, which will provide information about the UCAS application process and the ways in which the school offers guidance and support for all university applications, including those to Oxford and Cambridge. The 136th school birthday on Thursday 12th February is also the day of the finals of the inter-form drama competition. We are delighted that Miss Sarah Rick-Harris, a “polished corner” who frequently acted in school plays and who read Drama at university, will be this year’s adjudicator.
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In the first assembly of term, students were delighted to learn that Miss Joan Collins a “Polished Corner” has been awarded a damehood for her charitable and philanthropic work. She has supported a range of charities over the last several decades including the International Foundation for Children with Learning Disabilities, earning the foundation's highest honour in 1988 for her continuing support. In 1990, she was made an honorary member of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Dame Joan Collins was also awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Association of Breast Cancer Studies in Great Britain for her contribution to breast cancer awareness. She is patron of Fight for Sight and in 2003 became a patron of the Shooting Star Children's Hospice while continuing to support several foster children in India, a cause she has supported for the past twenty-five years. The main school concert this term will be a joint performance with the Choral Society of Harrow School. This year’s concert promises to be particularly special, since it will be Francis Grier’s Around the Curve of the World and the composer himself hopes to attend the concert. The concert will be held in the Speeches Room of Harrow School on Tuesday 17th March at 7:30pm. Tickets cost £8 and are available via the Director of Music, Mr Robert Patterson at robert.patterson@fhs-nw1.org.uk A charity concert in aid of St Cyprian’s Church will be held at 6:30pm on Monday 30th March, in St Cyprian’s.
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I hope that many parents and friends of the school will attend this concert in which more than eighty FHS students will be singing. Tickets for adults cost £10 and can be obtained via Mrs Sue Gurini at sue.gurini@fhs-nw1.org.uk. Good luck to all those going on the school ski trip, led by Mrs Rona Grant, to To nale in Italy dur in g February half term.
Mrs V M Durham
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