DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNAE

50 Year reunion

St George’s Church Carol Service At the beginning of the academic year, we could not have envisaged the global events that were to unfold during 2020. Although many of the plans we had in place had to be curtailed during this time, we are extremely grateful for the continued support we have received from the NLCS community.

NLCS is dependent on philanthropic support to raise money for important capital projects and bursaries. Our provision of bursary places is central to the ethos of the School, and the Bernice McCabe Bursary Fund continues to flourish, providing opportunities to transform lives. Funded by donations, franchising and investment income, during 2019/20 the School awarded 74 bursaries, with a total value of £1,328,531. We are committed to increasing our level of donations to the bursary fund during the next academic year.

DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNAE RELATIONS

Although the pandemic hampered many of our planned events, we were delighted that two Neighbourhood Drinks in St John’s Wood and Hampstead were able to take place, providing an opportunity for local parent communities to come together. We are very grateful to the parents who so kindly hosted these evenings.

Our global alumnae community continues to grow, and we are in contact with over 9,000 ONLs (Old North Londoners). Even though Covid-19 has impacted on our alumnae relations work this year, and we could not hold all the events we had planned, we are so grateful for the resilience of the ONL community, as well as its patience, grace, and kindness during these challenging times.

Before lockdown we had several opportunities to meet. In September, we were delighted to welcome back the Class of 1969 for their 50-year reunion – it was wonderful seeing ONLs reconnecting and sharing memories of their time at school. An informal reunion of our 1986 alumnae was held at Canons in the early Autumn and, as Christmas approached, ONLs were invited to enjoy an evening of carols performed by our music students at The Parish Church of St George’s in Hanover Square. In the new year we welcomed back the Class of 2019 to North London for their one-year reunion and, in March before lockdown restrictions were imposed, we had a very successful Women in the Workplace event kindly hosted by ONL Sarah Anticoni, and featuring a fabulous panel, including ONLs Rosa Jung and Judith Breuer, as well as keynote speaker Lucy Frazer QC, MP for South East Cambridgeshire.

During lockdown, we put in place plans to strengthen our mentoring and career services programme, reaching out to ONLs to mentor our Sixth formers, and we have received a fabulous response. We are planning a schedule of events including virtual reunions, networking events, as well as reaching out to our global community. The upcoming digital issue of ONLine promises to be an inspirational read! A big thank you to everyone within the NLCS community who has supported, donated and given their time to our School during this challenging year. We were particularly delighted to raise an unprecedented amount of money for the Bernice McCabe Bursary Fund and Hardship Fund, largely due to the generosity of many outgoing Year 13 parents who donated their school deposits. We value all that you do.