Welcome ONLs!
We are excited to publish the first Old North Londoner's termly newsletter where you can read updates and announcements from ONLs themselves and find out what happened this term at North London Collegiate School. We look forward to our calendar of events in 2022 and hope to see as many of you there as possible. Please click on the relevant event below to register! If you want your news published in the next termly newsletter, please email your news to onlasnippets@gmail.com or message us on our socials. The next newsletter will be published in April. If you would like to be informed about current news and events going on in school, you can email us at onla@nlcs.org.uk to subscribe to the weekly School newsletter. We would also like to make you all aware that an ONL Survey is going to be sent out in the New Year - this is a chance for you to update your contact details and communication preferences. We will also be asking questions about our events programme and seeking your feedback to improve what we currently do. Please look out for this in your inboxes!
Socials:
Events Calendar: Class of 2019 Reunion - 13/01/2022 Classes of 2016 & 2017 Reunion - 19/03/2022 Classes of 1970, 1982, 1992, 2002 & 2012 Reunion - 21/05/2022 ONLA Summer Picnic - 12/06/2022 Class of 2020 Reunion - 23/06/2022 Class of 2021 Reunion - 07/09/2022 Class of 1971 Reunion - 12/09/2022 Class of 1972 Reunion - 19/09/2022 Frances Mary Buss Fellowship Lunch - 28/09/2022 ONL News:
If you would like to be informed about current news and events going on Coral Harding's (Class of 2019) in school, you can email us at onla@nlcs.org.uk to subscribe to the 'Obscured': weekly school newsletter. Coral Harding's drawing ‘Obscured’ has been chosen for this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It is currently being exhibited at the Royal Academy until January. ‘Obscured’ investigates the ability of mist to illuminate and veil space. Coral says, “it is a preservation of a moment of reconnection between what is visible to the eye and what is imagined.” Coral graduated from NLCS in 2019 and went on to study her Art Foundation at Central Saint Martins. She is now in her second year of a BA in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London (UCL). Coral’s work examines the impression of awe and the psychology of perception. She is interested in the exploration and creation of space, and the ability to change the way space is experienced. Working with the material properties of light, she creates work in the forms of sculpture, painting, drawing and print to investigate the way light is both ephemeral and solid and has the power to illuminate and reveal while simultaneously being obscure. The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is running from 22nd September – 2nd January.
www.coralharding.com @coralhardingart
Nicole Volavka (Class of 1997): Nicole Volavka is a TV Director and has just directed a female-led Crime Drama for ITV, The Bay (episodes 4-6). This drama will be broadcast from 12th January on ITV Hub.
Erica Brostoff (Class of 1953): Erica Brostoff is organising an international conference in May 2022 in London on clinical approaches to exceptional experiences. This conference is jointly hosted with Dr. Renaud Evrard, University of Lorraine. The conference will most likely be hosted at: British Psychological Society, 30 Tabernacle Street, EC2A 4UE. For more information, contact erica.brostoff@btinternet.com
ONL Hampshire Reunion: After three missed meetings due to the pandemic and one successful zoom meeting, the Hampshire branch of the ONL Association finally met again in person at Jackie Batchelor’s house on 2nd October 2021. It was good to catch up and see that everyone had stayed well, with several members either still working in the NHS or volunteering for the vaccination programme in various roles. Several also have family members in the NHS so could understand the pressures they had all been under. There was good food and lots of chat, especially about lots of new grandchildren who had arrived since our last meeting. We would love to welcome new members to our group, any enquiries to Amanda Collins ALCollins@doctors.org.uk
Dee Norval (Class of 2008) Breakthrough: Dee Norval spent her eight years in strategy consulting very disconnected from the Criminal Justice system. When she started working in Wandsworth Prison, it was a shock, but not how she expected it to be. The men were inspirational. They were creative; they were resourceful - making a mackerel curry with only a kettle and limited rations is no easy feat! On discovering the huge amount of talent within our prison system and the unbelievable barriers that this group has to reintegration, she founded Breakthrough. Breakthrough exists to build prisons that boost potential and businesses that relish the talent. They run pre-apprenticeship programmes and then fully supported apprenticeships with Employer partners in technology and business. Breakthrough are looking for volunteers to support building the strategy of the organisation and to support in delivery of the upcoming programme. Specifically, they are looking for volunteers who work in business and / or technology who have half a day to spare to visit the Breakthrough offices in Finsbury Park and codeliver a session to the prison leavers. If you are interested, please send an email to dee@wearebreakthrough.org for an informal follow-up discussion.
Jo Bloom (Class of 1988) – Ridley Road: Ridley Road premiered on BBC One on 3rd October 2021. It was adapted from Jo Bloom's 2014 novel of the same name.
Roma Agrawal MBE (Class of 22001): Roma Agrawal is on University Challenge! The Christmas Special airs on BBC 2 on Christmas Eve. Commenting on the experience, Roma said, “it was one of my highlights of a challenging year. It was terrifying but such a brilliant and fun experience!”
ONL Reunion September 2021: On Saturday 11th September, the School welcomed back ONLs for the annual 10, 20, 30 & 40-year reunions. As we were unable to host the reunions last year, we also welcomed back the classes of 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010. Around 110 ONLs joined us here at Canons to enjoy a welcome from Mrs Clark, lunch in the dining hall and a chance to explore the school. Photos of the day are available here.
ONL Profiles: Dr Anne Grant (Class of 1963): Dr Anne Grant (née Marr) was invested with an MBE by HRH Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle on 10th November 2021 for services to her community.
Dr Laura Cohen (Class of 1982) MBE: Dr Laura Cohen MBE who has been Chief Executive of the trade association, the British Ceramic Confederation, since 2009 was appointed in 2020 as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at Manchester University Department of Materials and the Henry Royce Institute. Rosalind Hext (née Thursting) (Class of 1965): In August 2000 Roz was awarded an MA in Railway History by York University. Her research topic was “The First Female Railway Clerks from 1870 to 1914.” Her years at NLCS were 1958 to 1965, so she was quite a mature student.
Caroline Preiskel (Class of 1994): Caroline lives in Jerusalem. After reading Hebrew and Jewish History at University College London, she moved to Israel where she attended post-graduate studies in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic at Hebrew University. Following a series of posts in think tanks and a 2-year stint at the Prime Minister’s Office she now works as a media analyst for UNTSO (the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation) providing briefing notes for the military and the senior civilian staff as well as being their Official Hebrew Translator. In her spare time, she contributes articles for the Jerusalem Post - the largest English language newspaper in circulation in Israel – and enjoys going horse riding, to the theatre and on walks with her three dogs.
Claire Booth (Class of 1986): Claire joined rail technology consultancy '3Squared' in the role of Head of Client Support in July 2021. Click here to read more.
ONL Publications Jane Corry (Class of 1974): Jane Corry's book The Lies We Tell made it to No.6 on the Sunday Times bestselling list. Jane trained as a journalist and has written for most major magazines and newspapers including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Woman, Woman’s Own and My Weekly. She has worked as a writer in residence of a male high-security prison as well as tutoring in creative writing at Oxford University. In addition, she was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter University. Jane is now a full-time novelist for Penguin and contributes to The Daily Telegraph. She lives in Devon with her second husband, close to her grandchildren. Her last six novels have all been in the top ten of The Sunday Times. Access the book here! You can also click here to read her 'Diary of the New Normal' blog on her Facebook page.
Naomi Stadlen (née Jacoby) (Class of 1961): "Being a mother is more educational than many of us seem to realise. In essence, we learn - or re-learn through our children - about love. I have tried to illustrate this in my book, What Mothers Learn - without being taught (Piatkus, 2020). using observation and what mothers say.” More details can be found here.
Dani Coleman's (Class of 2005): Dani Coleman released a graphic novel entitled, The Unfinished Corner. Dani is a writer and educator from London, where she attended NLCS from 1996 to 2005 before attending Wells Cathedral School as a specialist musician. She plays the violin, dabbles in stand-up comedy, and is absolutely terrible at videogames. When she isn't writing comic books and novels, she teaches aspiring writers how not to annoy their editors. She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband (creator of many comic books), and two cats (creators of many hairballs). "TWELVE-YEAR-OLD MIRIAM IS FULL OF QUESTIONS, BUT THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS COUNTING ON HER FOR ANSWERS. Jewish mythology has it that when God created the universe, one corner of it was left unfinished. Opinion is divided on why, but everyone agrees that the Unfinished Corner is a dangerous place full of monsters. Twelve-year-old Miriam neither knows nor cares about the Unfinished Corner. She's too busy preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, wrestling with whether she even wants to be Jewish--until a peculiar angel appears, whisking her, her two best friends, and her worst frenemy off to this monstrous land with one mission: finish the Unfinished Corner." Access it here! Monica Kendall (Class of 1972): "I published my third non-fiction book in 2021, Lies and the Brontës: The Quest for the Jenkins Family. On reading biographies of the Brontës, I discovered that no one had researched the Jenkins family – my ancestors – who knew the Brontës in Brussels and West Yorkshire. Instead biographers relied on fabrication and copying – with the noble exception of Mrs Gaskell in 1857. The book is a quest, a biography and an occasional travel book. It reveals radical insights into the background for Charlotte Brontë’s writing, not least the identification of one of her main characters, my two times great-uncle. There is more on my website. The book is available at all bookshops and online. The Kindle e-book is available from Amazon."
ONLs Favourite Christmas Memories: "The Christmas party for the Junior School where we danced Strip the Willow and the Roger de Coverly and played games" - Maggie Keirnan (Class of 1973) "Singing The 12 Days of Christmas at the Christmas assembly with all the students and staff!" - Georgia Mosheim (Class of 2016) "Every form had to make an ornamental postbox in which girls could post cards to their friends. On I think the last day of term the letters were pulled out and delivered. There was always great competition as to who had got the most cards...perhaps not the Christmas spirit!" - Rosalind Stewart (Class of 1977) "The Carol Service especially as I was in Senior Choir. And the Junior School party" - Rosemary Rowett (Class of 1969) "Learning how to polka with Miss Waddington in readiness for the Junior School party - the luxury of time to learn and practice, the joy of simplicity. We adored our Christmas party." - Eleanor Sturdy (Class of 1983)
The Archives As Christmas approaches, we thought we would share some photos from the Archives relating to Christmas at the School. The photos below are Christmas cards created by students, between 1945 and 1965, for Dame Kitty Anderson.
ONL Regional Coordinators: The ONL Community is a wide international community, and we have ONLs living in all parts of the world. We have regional coordinators for several parts of the UK as well as overseas. Please find their details below should you want to get in touch. We are always on the hunt for more regional coordinators, so please contact us if this is something you are interested in doing. Cornwall/Devon - Jill Hall (née Hankins) - jill22hall@gmail.com Midlands - Kate Jones (née Levinson) - kate.levinson@talk21.com South-West – Jane Watkins - janewatkins645@btinternet.com Hampshire - Amanda Collins - alcollins@doctors.org.uk Australia - Kay Moyes - moyes_kay@hotmail.com USA - Sophia Breslauer - sophia_breslauer@yahoo.co.uk
Autumn Term at NLCS: Looking back at some of the news and events that took place this term at NLCS. For more school news, please click here. The Wardrobe: Year 9 Middle School Production On 17th and 18th November, some of the Year 9 students took part in the Middle School Production of The Wardrobe. This was the first full-scale production at the School since the pandemic began! This beautiful production followed the journey of the 'Wardrobe' which is inherited, sold, and passed down through the generations and across several countries. Over the years, the 'Wardrobe' is used as a place of refuge, secrets, and fun.
National Grid UK Voices for a Green Future Competition Winner: After being selected as the winner in @nationalgriduk's Voices for a Green Future competition, Katya was filmed delivering a speech on her ideas to tackle Climate Change. This speech was shown live at @cop26 on Friday 5th November at 10am. Click here to watch Katya's fantastic speech!
Joan Clanchy Memorial Service: On Saturday 11th September, the school held a memorial service to celebrate the life of former Headmistress, Joan Clanchy. The service was attended by current and former staff, past and present students and Joan's family. Joan was the Headmistress at NLCS between 1986 and 1997. A commemorative plaque was also unveiled on the Joan Clanchy building. Read more about it here
Spirit of Innovation - Helmet Design Competition: Earlier this year Chloe (8N) won a national Rolls Royce helmet design competition, aimed to promote the ambitious attempt by Rolls-Royce to break the speed record for electric flight. Her prize as the overall winner for her age category was for her design to be used on the helmet of pilot Phill O'Dell, the very helmet that he will use every time he flies the Spirit of Innovation aircraft.
'Sunshine' Musical Theatre Evening: The Sixth Form put on a musical theatre evening, Sunshine in the Performing Arts Centre. The mood was celebratory, with a rendition of Morecambe and Wises' iconic Bring me Sunshine having toes tapping. The cast took the audience on a highenergy tour of hits from the '80s to the modern-day, with some nods to musical and film music along the way. In an evening with something for everyone, the delightful musical medley was accompanied by an excellent 3-piece live band.