FOUNDER’S DAY ADDRESS 2018

Founder’s Day 2018

By its very nature we are called upon to recognise, celebrate and commemorate those visionary people, who, 168 years ago, established North London Collegiate School in a small set of premises in Camden, North London. Each year we gather together as a school community to celebrate the vision and determination of those founders, and also to reflect on the continued development and progression of our School since then.

I have only recently become part of the NLCS community – but it is clear to me already that this School is a very special place indeed. From the many conversations that I have had with ONLs and with current pupils, staff and parents, I understand that the spirit of this School runs deeply throughout its community. This has caused me to reflect on the nature and principles that underpin North London Collegiate – and to research the impetus behind its foundation, and the guiding code of ethics, moral values and educational ambition that lay behind it. Through the scope of my investigations and with grateful thanks to the Archive of North London Collegiate School, I have become fascinated by the impact that these founding principles have had and continue to have on our Old North Londoners, the graduates of our School.

So, in this, my first Founder’s Day address, I am going to focus on the principles upon which North London Collegiate School was founded in 1850 and how those principles have been celebrated, promoted, challenged and personified by those thousands of young people who have attended NLCS as students over the years.

When Miss Frances Mary Buss opened her school on 4 April 1850 she had clear and unequivocal ambitions for North London Collegiate: to provide the best and most comprehensive education possible for the girls in her care, equal at least to that already provided for boys, and for that education to be put to a good use in society.

Miss Buss was adamant about the quality of the education that North London Collegiate would provide. The curriculum from the start was designed to include not just the study of Latin, but also “the leading facts of Natural Philosophy and other Branches of Science” – the study of which were thought by many at the time to be utterly unnecessary for girls. This patronising approach towards women’s education galled Miss Buss deeply. She was determined that her School’s pupils would follow a similar academic curriculum to that studied by the boys at Eton or Harrow, what she termed “a sound and thorough education”, for how else would her charges show their capability and be able to experience teaching at the forefront of academic knowledge?

Teaching Science as a mainstay of the curriculum has therefore always been an essential element of the North London curriculum, and many thousands of North Londoners have taken advantage of the opportunity to study such subjects and forge careers from it, even if, on one famous occasion, it meant defying the Founder herself…

Lilian Lyndsay attended NLCS from 1887 – 1889. She was a scholar, terribly bright and extremely ambitious. Lilian Lindsay She was determined to study to (ONL 1889) become the first fully qualified and registered Dentist in the United Kingdom. According to her biography Lilian Lyndsay:

Remarkable Woman, Remarkable

Work, the story unfolded like this:

“… as her two year scholarship came to an end in 1889, Lilian … apparently won a further award for two years which would presumably have prepared her for entry to university or other higher education. According to Lilian, she was summoned to

Miss Buss to discuss her future. The headmistress announced that Lilian was destined to be a teacher of the deaf and dumb. Lilian refused. This enraged Miss Buss, who declared, “Then I will prevent you from doing anything else”. “Like a flash,” recounts Lilian, “I replied, “You cannot prevent me from becoming a dentist”. She prevented me from having that scholarship… I knew nothing of dentistry, but having stated boldly that I would be a dentist, there was nothing else to be done.”

Lilian was true to her word. Following an apprenticeship with a local dentist in Holloway she passed her preliminary qualification and applied for dental school. When she arrived at the gates of the National Dental College, Lilian recalled that she found the Dean, Henri Weiss standing outside. She was not allowed to cross the threshold to register.

Undeterred, Lilian went North – to the Edinburgh Dental School, which did accept her as a student, even though she was the only woman enrolled. The treasurer of the School did his best to put Lilian off from registering for the whole course, but Lilian persisted, despite having to pay double fees for the course.

Lilian graduated on 3 May 1895, having won the Watson Medal for dental surgery and pathology, as well as the medal for materia medica and therapeutics in 1894. She therefore became the first woman to obtain a Licence in Dental Surgery from a British Royal College.

Roma Agrawal

(ONL 2001)

Most recently they have included Roma Agrawal, a structural engineer who helped to build The Shard, the financier Angelie Moledina, recently recognised as one of the Top 100 Women In Finance, and Many hundreds of North Londoners have followed in Lilian’s footsteps, pursuing careers in science and mathematics.

Angelie Moledina

(ONL 1993) Dr Natalie Greenwold, a successful obstetrician.

Dr Natalie Greenwold

(ONL 1982)

Commitment to academic excellence has, from the Foundation of the School, been a hallmark of North London Collegiate. Many thousands of ONLs have left NLCS to go on to university in this country and abroad, studying a dazzling array of courses from the arts to the social sciences, modern and ancient languages, jurisprudence, architecture and design, accountancy, finance and business, English literature and language, technology, computing, music, drama and many other courses besides.

Miss Buss was interested in inspiring and encouraging her students to THINK, rather than to repeat rote learning. “In training the youthful mind to habits of thought, instead of burthening the memory with merely a number of words respecting the meaning of which the pupils remain in ignorance.” Independence of thought was therefore a much sought after quality for girls studying at NLCS.

The commitment to fostering such a quality has led to the emergence of a certain independence of spirit among North Londoners. ONLs proved time and again that they had considerable bravery, strength of will and intention.

The Right Honourable, The Baroness Sharp was one such ONL. Evelyn Sharp was a Baroness career civil Evelyn Sharpservant at a time (ONL 1919) when women were almost entirely unknown in such a profession. Even as a young teenager, she made her mark. She clashed with the authorities at School and

her rebellious streak remained a key part of her character. In 1926, she began her career in the civil service in the Mercantile Marine Department of the Board of Trade. She described meeting her new boss in a Times article in 1975:

“My superior was an elderly bachelor to whom the law of the foreshore was absorbing. My arrival completely upset the even tenor of his life, and we never achieved a rational relationship.”

Evelyn was determined to pursue her career, and used her networking skills to arrange a transfer away from the “elderly bachelor” to the Ministry of Health. She was attached to the Local Government Division of the Ministry and spent happy years travelling around the UK visiting various Local Authorities. Gradually, she became accepted as a professional civil servant regardless of her gender. In 1946 she was made the first female Deputy Secretary to a major government department, and, tellingly, she was paid at the same level as her male counterparts (achieving equal pay a full ten years before the civil service in general accepted that principle). She was formidable, tough-minded, decisive, inventive and resourceful… but she was also “a warm, unstuffy, impulsive and tremendously energetic person.” Independence of thought and action has also underpinned Dame Anna Wintour’s career. A remarkable and often challenging character, Dame Anna became interested in fashion as a teenager whilst at School and determined to pursue a career in fashion journalism. From the editorship at Vogue, House and Garden, US Vogue and most latterly, Condé Nast, Dame Anna has come to be regarded as one of the most powerful people in fashion, identifying and setting trends, and anointing new designers. She is also a notable philanthropist and has raised over $10 million for AIDs charities since 1990.

Famously, she is reported as saying: “I don’t like people who’ll say yes to everything I might bring up. I want people who can argue, and disagree, and have a point of view.”

That spirit of independence, the embrace of a good argument and the strength of character that it takes to hold your own in a competitive and often unfair environment is certainly a characteristic of very many North Londoners.

Miss Buss was always interested in educating the whole person – not simply in preparing her students to pass examinations. All aspects of a child’s growth and development were considered. Miss Buss toyed with the Swiss practice of teaching swimming by rowing out into the middle of a lake and capsizing the boat, leaving the children in it to save themselves (although there is no record that she actually tried it). She was also convinced that music, cookery, carpentry and art were also essential elements of the North London educational experience. It should be no surprise to us that so many North Londoners have sought to pursue careers in the creative industries. In the early years of the School however, such an ambition – to be an actor, a performer on the Victorian stage, would have been met with a considerable degree of dismay and concern. Jesse Millward learned her love of acting during her time at School, participating in the tableaux vivants and the dramatic societies that were fundamental elements of the NLCS educational experience. Miss Buss took “the greatest delight” in these societies, which were conceived of and run by the girls themselves.

In 1881, Jesse persuaded her mother to allow her to act on the professional stage. She rose quickly,

playing leading lady at Drury Lane and in many melodramas at the Adelphi Theatre. Jesse also toured the United States of America. Her many Broadway roles included the title role in Phronso in 1898, Lady Algy in Lord and Lady Algy in 1899, Countess Zicka in Diplomacy in 1901 and Clara in the Girl in the Taxi in 1910. Jesse was followed into the acting profession by Daisy Noble – who took the stage name of Maisie Gay. Maisie carved out a successful international career in musical comedy before retiring to run a public house in Wiltshire. What I found particularly fascinating about Maisie was an essay that she published in the journal Music Masterpieces. Her article, “Laughter Making in Musical Comedy” is remarkable for its analysis of what makes a successful comedy performer. She writes: “What are the qualifications of a stage comedienne? First of all I should say sincerity. The only laugh that matters is the one that comes straight from the heart. It is impossible to assume sincerity on the stage if it is not a part of oneself in private life, and that is why you find that nearly all our great actors and actresses are such charming people in real life.” The list is long and distinguished of other ONLs who have forged and continue to pursue careers in the arts. From actors such as Eleanor Bron, Dame Anna Anna Madeley, Wintour Rachel Weisz, (ONL 1967) Anna Popplewell and Emer Kenny, to producers such as Robyn Slovo and Alison Kirkham the BBC Commissioning Editor, to musicians such as Mandhira di Saram who is forging a

Jesse Millward (ONL 1872)

Maisie Gay (ONL 1894)

Eleanor Bron (ONL 1956)

Anna Madeley

(ONL 1995)

Rachel Weisz

(ONL 1985) Mandhira de Saram

(ONL 2003)

Anna Popplewell

(ONL 2007)

successful career as a soloist and a founding member of the Ligeti Quartet, dedicated to the performance of improvised and experimental music… to artists such as Peggy Angus, who is best known for her industrial designs, tiles and wallpapers, North London has inspired many to express themselves on stage, screen and in the studio.

Many more ONLs are writers – North London is an intensely literary place. I was struck when I first began to get to know the School, by how many magazines, newsletters, blogs, lectures and articles the girls produce. I have a lever arch file on my desk that struggles to contain only one edition each of all the literary productions that have been issued during this term alone. Over the years North Londoners have gone on to become writers of every form and persuasion. Stevie Smith and Ruth Padel are notable poets, the latter coming to poetry after an academic career teaching

Alison Kirkham

(ONL 1992) Netta Syrett

(ONL 1943) Peggy Angus

(ONL 1993)

Stevie Smith

(ONL 1971)

Greek at Oxford and Birkbeck, opera in the Modern Greek Department of Princeton University, and sung in the Choir of Saint-Eustache in Paris. Netta Syrett became a prolific author of novels after leaving School in 1876 and came to prominence when her debut play The Finding of Nancy (1902) caused shock and indignation among the nation’s critics. The play told the story of Nancy Thistleton, a lonely secretary, who embarks upon an affair with a married man who is

Alison Eadie

(ONL 1972)

Emer Kenny

(ONL 2008) Ruth Padel

(ONL 1964) Robyn Slovo

(ONL 1972)

separated from his alcoholic wife, What was truly shocking about the play was its happy ending, as the curtain fell on Nancy embracing her ineligible lover, looking forward to a lifetime of happiness. Victorian (male) critics were united in their horror and condemnation of the immorality that the play appeared to condone. Alison Eadie studied History at Cambridge and Harvard before becoming a successful journalist. Alison’s ability to explain complex economic and financial matters with clarity, verve and wit enabled her to forge a successful career at Financial Weekly, The Times, The Independent and latterly The Daily Telegraph.

Myfanwy Piper combined a career as an art critic and opera librettist, and was a key figure in the abstract art movement of the 1930’s. Through her relationship with John Piper, she met the famous Poet Laureate John Betjeman, collaborated with the composer Alun Hoddinott on most of his operas and wrote the libretto for three of Benjamin Britten’s major works, The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave and Death in Venice. Perhaps inspired by her many contributions to the NLCS School magazine, Myfanwy founded an influential art magazine Axis, which was produced from 1935 – 37 and described as “the most radical and stylish production on art at that time.” (Oxford DNB), edited book of essays on abstract and figurative art and surrealism and biographies of the artists Reynolds Stone and Frances Hodgkins. Eleanor Graham worked successfully as a children’s book editor… and Stella Gibbons wrote many novels, the most famous of which was her first, Cold Comfort Farm published in 1932. The book, in which she depicts the efforts of “a rational, bossy London heroine” to bring order and serenity to her rustic relations, the Starkadders, on their run-down, Sussex farm, skewered the pretentions of and parodied with grace and subtlety the works of authors such as DH Lawrence, Thomas Hardy and Emily Brontë. It’s hilarious – do read it. The tradition of North London Collegiate writers continues to this day. Emma Gordon is currently working as a script writer and editor in London. She credits North London with first inspiring her to write for an audience as well as developing her ability to work hard and “the belief that I am smart enough to find a solution to any problem”.

As much as she was determined that her teachers should inspire their students with the heady thrill of scholarship, Miss Buss saw education as a means to an end. She wanted the students who studied at North London Collegiate to be economically independent and successful, but she also wanted them to contribute actively to society.

This Victorian ideal of social service appears to have been deeply important to Miss Buss. She wrote:

“It is surely one great advantage of a large public school whatever other imperfections it may otherwise have that it inspires its pupils with a feeling of membership in a great body, that it helps to cultivate that collective, as opposed to individual feeling;

which has various forms – domestic affection, charity, public spirit – but in the true fulfilment of which consists the highest happiness.” Dame Elizabeth Cadbury embodied that NLCS commitment to social service and charitable work. It is true that Dame Elizabeth was born into a wealthy family and then married into an even wealthier one… but what marked her out was her commitment to active philanthropy. Dame Elizabeth wanted to make a difference. This desire for active good works appears to have been born at NLCS. The Birmingham Post newspaper told the story of a fateful lesson led by Miss Buss herself: “Miss Buss sweeping into the classroom with the sudden question: “Well girls, what are we here for?” Myfanwy brushing aside the answer of learning

Piper the particular lesson of the moment (ONL 1997) with an impatient “No, no – what is the purpose behind our work?” remained a vivid memory to Elizabeth Cadbury at 90. Deeply impressed upon her at 16 was the realisation that the higher education in which she was sharing was to fit her for a wider service to her fellows in the years to come.” (Birmingham Post Oct 24 1955) Dame Elizabeth’s energy and verve mirrored that of Miss Buss. In 1884 she started a boys’ club in the London Docks. A year later she was living in Paris, working with a protestant mission for the relief of victims of the Franco-Prussian War, before moving back to London to work with women in the London slums. Her marriage to George Cadbury gave her the opportunity to take a full and enthusiastic role in the foundation of Bournville Village, a community of houses, flats and other amenities for the workers in a newly built chocolate factory south of Birmingham. “No pubs Eleanor though,” my Dad used to say darkly Graham as we made our way past the model (ONL 1984) village to my parents’ house in Hall Green. It was true – in keeping with

Stella Gibbons (ONL 1989)

Emma Gordon (ONL -1996)

Dame Elizabeth Cadbury (ONL 1876)

the Quaker temperance philosophy that underpinned the foundation of Bournville Village, Elizabeth and George planned for schools, acres of sports fields, a swimming lido, several bowling greens and a fishing lake, there were no public houses or legal places where alcohol could be bought or drunk.

Dame Elizabeth’s commitment to the service of her community extended beyond the formation of Bournville Village. She Helped to found the Birmingham Union of Girls’ Clubs in 1898 and later became an active worker for the Young Women’s Christian Association and a strong supporter of the Girl Guide movement. In 1911 she was co-opted on to the Birmingham Education Committee, and from 1919 to 1924 she was a City Counsellor for the Kings Norton Ward.

She was also President of the Birmingham United Hospitals from 1941 until 1948 and she was Chairman of Birmingham’s Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in 1935. Nationally, Dame Elizabeth was President of the National Council of Women, led the British delegation to the world conference at Calcutta convened by the Indian National Council of Women and she supported the League of Nations Union and thereafter the present United Nations Association.

More recently I have been made aware of another extraordinary ONL, who, in her short life, also made a profound and deeply valuable contribution to social justice, and whose service to the displaced Karenni people of Burma would have, I am sure, made Miss Buss very proud. I am of course talking about Stephanie Lee.

Stephanie first encountered the Karenni people by accident. She was backpacking around Asia on her Gap year, before taking up her place on a Foundation Art Course in Chelsea. Stephanie encountered a vast refugee camp while travelling in the challenging terrain of North Thailand. The people living there in the camps had been displaced by the ruling military junta in Burma (in scenes that are chillingly familiar to those of us who have seen the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in the West of that nation). Many of the children had never known anywhere beyond the camps’ bounds. The facilities that were there were very limited in scope and Stephanie was determined to do something about it.

She returned to London and immediately began fundraising to support the community. She also dropped her plans to study art, instead determining to learn Thai and Burmese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Stephanie spent every vacation travelling to one of the refugee camps, teaching and raising money for her own charity the Karenni Student Development Programme. In three years she raised more than £30,000.

Stephanie had great plans for the camps, including boarding schools for orphans and new facilities for schools. She became known as “Teacher Stephanie” and her creativity, love of life and determination gave rise to Fantasy Fashion, an annual event here at NLCS that continues to celebrate Stephanie’s extraordinary life even today. If she had not been killed in a motorbike accident in 2001, who knows what she might have achieved. The Karenni Student Development Programme continues to grow and support the Karenni people, and we were delighted to hear the news this year that the charity has now raised more than a million pounds to enable them to help themselves to have the opportunity to follow their aspirations, vocations and dreams, much as we encourage all our students here and in our schools in Jeju and Dubai to do.

That same spirit of equality and drive for social justice, was self evident in the foundation of the School. Miss Buss intended that her school should provide educational opportunities for girls from the neglected middle classes, whose families were not wealthy enough to be able to afford private tuition from governesses or the select academies and boarding schools for their daughters but neither were they poor enough to benefit from the so-called charity schools at the time.

Miss Buss believed that a significant group of girls was therefore being profoundly disadvantaged:

“The deplorable ignorance of the poor half a century ago was a great national evil and philosophers and statesman have cooperated to diminish it, but whilst their attention was directed at the poor man, they altogether forgot the tax and rate payer, the voter and that middle class of the community in whose hands our lives, our prosperity, nay, even our liberty depends.”)

There was to be no class distinction or racial prejudice in her school; all who came were to be given equal opportunities. She wrote: “All the pupils who enter are considered as upon the same equality. The same high tone of feeling is expected from all, the same attention to instruction, the same advantages offered to every pupil.”

And so a commitment to the principle of equality is inherent in our School – a fundamental principle that we adhere to today.

It is one hundred years since (some) women won the right to vote in this country. Dorothy Evans was a feminist activist and political leader. She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1907 shortly after leaving School, becoming its Birmingham organiser between 1910 and 1912. During this period she was frequently arrested and imprisoned for acts relating to the Suffragette movement. In 1913, she acted as a liaison officer between the WSPU’s headquarters in London and its exiled leader Christabel Pankhurst, in Paris. Dorothy travelled between London and the French capital in disguise, putting into practice the nerve and guile she had developed during her time on the sports fields and through her contributions to the School magazine at NLCS. She was

Stephanie Lee (ONL 2001) Dorothy Evans (ONL 1906)

finally imprisoned for possession of explosives in Ireland (she had been planning to blow up Lisburn Castle to draw attention to the cause of women’s rights in Ireland), went on hunger strike and was force fed.

Dorothy’s radicalism continued during the War, which she opposed, unlike the leadership of the Suffragette movement. She broke with the WSPU and instead joined various other feminist campaigning groups, eschewing her previous commitment to armed struggle. Dorothy’s activism continued throughout the 1920’s and 30’s, and up to her death in 1944 – by then she was leading the Women in Westminster pressure group, campaigning peacefully and passionately for more female MP’s in Parliament.

Another radical campaigner and ONL, also viewed by some as a divisive and challenging figure, Marie Stopes, shared Evans’ commitment to women’s rights and the desire for economic, social and political equality. Following a successful career as a palaeobotanist, Stopes campaigned vociferously for the provision of adequate birth control for married women. In later life, Stopes’ views on breeding and eugenics became increasingly controversial, (she was estranged from her only son because of them), and her habit of self-aggrandising her work also led to criticism and derision… but her efforts to combat the Victorian taboo on the discussion of sexuality and marital intercourse were significant and long lasting. As the Oxford Dictionary of National biography comments, “If she sometimes rated her own achievements rather more highly than they deserved (ignoring or scorning the contributions of others), nevertheless they were remarkable contribution to human happiness.” Dame Esther Rantzen (NLCS 1958), journalist, activist and investigative broadcaster continues the tradition of campaigning for equality and social justice today. Dame Esther, who described herself in the ONLine magazine as “never the perfect North Londoner”, rose to particular influence as the presenter of the programme That’s Life! from 1973 to 1994. Aside from humorous segments such as singing dogs and odd shaped vegetables, Dame Esther and her team used That’s Life!’s tremendous popularity and profile to highlight social injustice and political corruption. In 1986, following a report on child abuse in the home, Dame Esther launched Childline, a free telephone number, the first in the world, designed to enable children, who were in distress or danger, to call for help. On the first night of its launch, more than 50,000 attempted calls were made to the helpline. Such was the demand for a free and confidential helpline for children, that the original help centres had to rapidly expand to meet it. Childline has now merged with the NSPCC, enabling it to expand even more in the UK, and has been replicated in 150 countries around the world. In 2013 Dame Esther introduced The Silver Line in a bid to combat isolation and loneliness among older people.

So as I reach the end of this speech, I return to my opening question: what are the founding principles that underpin North London Collegiate School? I hope that I have been able to illustrate the impact of Miss Buss’ commitment to academic excellence, her high ambitions for the School and her relentless drive for improvement, her determination to give opportunities to those she perceived to be disadvantaged, her desire that the young women in her care should meet the challenges of life fearlessly and with the determination to be economically and socially independent, successful and productive. History is important – but here we are at an extraordinary place – in that moment between the past, present and the promise of the future. The Year 13 students here today are shortly going to become Old North Londoners, and I have one more story, particularly for you. I am conscious that I have illustrated my talk today by referring to women who have, in one way or another, come to fame or prominence in their career. There are many thousands of ONLs whose stories I have not told, whose lives have not been documented in the same way as those I have shared with you today. I have been privileged to meet a number of ONLs since my arrival here who have led very happy and fulfilled lives entirely outside the public sphere – and I know that some of you are here today as guests, benefactors, mums and grandmothers. My final story is about an ONL called Helen Spencer, neé Weston,

Marie who attended NLCS during the 1930’s.

Stopes In common with many ONLs, Helen (ONL 1899) was asked to send her reminiscences in to School, in order to shed more light on some of her more ‘famous’ compatriots. I want to read you part of the letter that she wrote to the Archive, because I found it quite remarkable: “Yes, I have been very fortunate and had a very interesting life, though now it is drawing to a close I am very conscious of how little I have done of real worth… however we have produced three children who are in useful professions. “My husband, a retired solicitor who has born with my eccentricities wonderfully for over fifty-two years and I have travelled a great deal in small cargo ships, once getting stuck off Guanta [in Venezuela] for over a month!

Dame Esther Rantzen (ONL 1958)

“In 1983, I persuaded him to accompany me on a fact finding mission to Poland which was then in a desperate state…. We went on a Polish ship because we were taking clothes, food (including a crate of oranges which the Polish children at an orphanage [that we visited] had never seen), medicines etc. We had got to know Poles on the small Polish cargo ships on which we had travelled for months and one, a dissident too outspoken writer (afterwards sentenced to house arrest) was able to put us in touch with the underground movement and I did some smuggling for Solidarity.” (That was the Polish resistance movement to the repressive Communist regime that was in charge in Poland at that time).

“We came home in a Russian train and it was terrifying at the borders when the police came in with their dogs, even taking down the ceiling panels and searching under the lavatories, [as] I had the addresses of people imprisoned for ages without trial in my possession.

“I had taken a long time carefully inserting these on minute bits of paper in a new carton of lavatory paper, and our friend’s incriminating article, which had shut down his paper, casually shoved in my pocket with a crumpled headscarf. Lech [my Polish friend] was frightened for me carrying this but after much discussion we decided I could say casually that someone had just handed it to me and I didn’t understand Polish anyway… too true.

“I did not tell my husband I was carrying these papers as it was better for him not to know. Anyway, it was a wonderful relief and felt very odd to arrive in Holland and be able to speak without looking over ones shoulder. We did get an article published about this … and you can imagine how thrilled I was to see [the leader of Solidarity] Lech Waleska with the Queen the other night.

“Thank you for sending the magazine. It is beautifully produced and I am especially interested in the story competitions. It is wonderful what Esther Rantzen has achieved.”

I think this story is tremendous, and for me it sums up what it means to be a member of this extraordinary School’s community. Helen, an otherwise ‘unremarkable and ordinary’ North Londoner, saw an injustice and determined to take some action in order to try to help. She had the confidence and courage to seek out the underground movement and volunteer to publicise the plight of those imprisoned without trial. She acted independently (didn’t want to worry her husband or implicate him in her actions) creatively and judiciously (she thought to use the Russian border police’s assumptions about an elderly British couple travelling in Europe to keep her illegal cargo hidden) and she was able to see her mission through to the publishing of the article that she had smuggled out of Poland.

I think that Miss Buss would have been very proud.

Let me make something very clear.

Every time you use your intellect, your courage, your passion and determination to do something positive, something kind, something good in the world, you will be honouring the traditions and the founding principles of this School’s community.

It is a truism to say that you will never forget your school days. Today we reaffirm our part in the story of this remarkable School and look forward with confidence and anticipation to what the future holds.

Happy Founder’s Day, everyone!

Sarah Clark,

Headmistress March 2018