ALUMNAE & DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Our ONL community continues to thrive and grow, and a range of successful alumnae and fundraising events have taken place in the 2017-18 academic year.

An exciting development this year has been the launch of ONL Connect – an online platform exclusively for ONLs, enabling them to find and reconnect with each other for social and networking purposes. We now have nearly 1,000 ONLs who have signed up to the platform, the majority of whom are happy to help in terms of mentoring and career advice. Our Facebook group continues to grow with over 2,300 ONL “Friends”.

ONLs events this year have included a number of reunions. In May we welcomed back over 200 former students from the Classes of 2008, 1998, 1988 and 1978. We were also delighted to host the 50 Year Reunion for the Class of 1967. These events were full of reminiscences and renewed friendships.

In June, we held our inaugural “Women in the Workplace” event which focussed on life as a working woman in the 21st Century. This was attended by ONLs of all age groups and across all industry sectors. 1978

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Our overseas and regional ONL groups continue to flourish with meetings being held in the UK and across the globe. In May, 25 ONLs attended at drinks party at the Harvard Club in New York, kindly hosted by ONL Sharmila Sani.

Exciting plans for the future include a fundraising campaign for an Innovation Centre for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) and we are talking to supporters, parents and friends about the School’s future master plan; we are delighted and extremely grateful for donations received to date. We will update the School community on the Capital Campaign in the months ahead, once planning is agreed and finalised, and are looking forward to the whole of the NLCS community getting behind the largest fundraising campaign since the School was founded 170 years ago.

Bursaries hold a very special place at North London. The School was built on generosity and the belief that education has the power to transform lives. To mark the extraordinary contribution of Bernice McCabe OBE to North London over her twenty years of Headship (1997-2017), the School named the Bursary Fund in her honour. This year, we continued to raise much-needed funds for bursaries at the School, and we had our most successful Year 13 leavers’ deposits campaign for bursaries, with an anonymous gift of £100,000.

To further boost bursary funds, in May we hosted a stimulating ‘Question Time’ style evening in the Performing Arts Centre with proceeds from ticket

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sales going to the Bernice McCabe Bursary Fund. Our panellists included current parents Jo Johnson (MP), Lord David Pannick (QC), Rajesh Agrawal (Deputy Mayor of London for Business) and ONLs Camilla Turner (Journalist), Juliet Mann (Broadcast Journalist) and current student Zara Khan, for an evening of topical debate.

The John Lyon’s Charity continues to support specific girls on bursaries, and we are extremely grateful to the Trust to be in receipt of a third grant from the charity for a student joining in 2018-19, making the Trust our most significant supporter of bursaries.

Thank you to our corporate sponsor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, for their continued support: as well as supporting the Bernice McCabe Bursary Fund, the Bank provided a speaker for one of our Senior Society meetings and hosted a trading game for Year 12 students studying Maths and Economics.

We were delighted to receive support towards Sport and the PE department at NLCS from Nigel Wray (Saracens owner and former NLCS parent) and his daughter, Lucy Mercey (ONL 1999, represented and co-captained Wales in Lacrosse), providing funding towards sporting costs of tours/trips for bursary students; supporting the launch of the Elite Athlete Mentoring Programme (EAMP) with training and development of athletes; provision of kit and equipment; and encouragement of high aspiration among all students (e.g. funding guest speakers in areas of nutrition, sports psychology, coaching and injury prevention, management and rehabilitation).

Our programme of Neighbourhood Drinks Parties continues to bring together parents living in a local area; during 2017-18, we were generously hosted at homes in Hampstead, Holland Park and Stanmore. These events provide an informal way for school staff and governors to chat with parents, and for parents across all year groups to meet. Our thanks go to our hosts for these lovely evenings, and to all those who were able to attend. If you are interested in hosting a drinks party event, please do contact us on development@nlcs.org.uk.

In May, ‘Thank you’ drinks were held for those who have supported the School with their time and also financially. This year, the event was held at The Royal Automobile Club, kindly hosted by parents Mr and Mrs Rajesh Agrawal. Carolyn Eadie (ONL 1971) has worked with us to establish The Alison Eadie Prize for Journalism, in memory of her sister, Alison (ONL 1972), who died in 2004 from motor neurone disease. We were delighted when Carolyn, who has kindly pledged a legacy bequest, which will endow a bursary in Alison’s name, agreed to act as the Honorary Chair of our legacy society, The Frances Mary Buss Fellowship. The Fellowship was set up several years ago as a means of thanking those who have let us know

about a future legacy, and is being relaunched with a tea at the beginning of the 2018/19 academic year. A legacy donor board is to be located in the Old House to acknowledge individuals who have left a gift to the School.

If you are interested in finding out more about our fundraising plans or want to get involved, please contact development@nlcs.org.uk - we would love to hear from you.

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NEW COPY TO GO HERE Valedictory 2018