ONLine Magazine 2022

ONLINE MAGAZINE FOR THE OLD NORTH LONDONERS’ ASSOCIATION

DOING GOOD

ISSUE 25 | 2022

Doing Good

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MAGAZINE FOR THE OLD NORTH ASSOCIATION DOING LONDONERS’ GOOD

A message from the Head

PLEASE CONTACT US POSTAL ADDRESS North London Collegiate School, Development and Alumnae Office, Canons Drive, Edgware, HA8 7RJ

EMAIL onla@nlcs.org.uk TELEPHONE 020 3946 8937 & 020 3946 8941

https://www.nlcs.org.uk

EDITORIAL TEAM Emily Abrahams (Class of 2016), Claudia Marks (Class of 2017)

Dear ONLs, I hope that you and your families are safe and well.

The past two years have seen us all face significant challenges both personally and professionally. I have been exceptionally proud of the community here at Canons and everything that we have achieved despite and alongside the current global pandemic.

I am delighted to introduce this latest edition of ONLine, the first for nearly three years, and warmly invite you to read the stories of engagement, entrepreneurialism, support and selflessness within these pages.

The theme of this year’s ONLine is ‘Doing Good’, echoing both our shared adherence to the Founder’s Day prayer “Oh Lord, who has taught us that thou dost require much from those to whom much is given …” and also the extraordinary response of our community to the impact of Covid-19 and other global crises. North Londoners have always given back and continue to make a remarkable impact on our world – locally, nationally and internationally.

I really hope that we are able to welcome you back to Canons in person this year, for year group reunions on their designated dates, and the Summer ONLA picnic that is open to all.

With best wishes and kindest regards, Mrs Sarah Clark

Dear ONLs, To introduce myself, my name is Gavin Mann, and I am the Director of Development at school with oversight of our fundraising and alumnae relations programmes.

Following a 22-year career in the British Army, serving as the Principal Trumpet in the Regimental Band of H.M. Irish Guards, I started work at NLCS in 2014. After three years

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elcome to another edition of ONLine. We are so excited to be sharing this ‘bumper’ edition of the magazine with you, after a couple of years without one. The events of the past few years have really shown us the strength and kindness of humanity, and so the theme ‘Doing Good’ only seems fitting. We were overwhelmed with stories from ONLs who have done incredible things for their communities, and for the world at large.

For those of you who don’t know us we are both ONLs (Emily left in 2016 and Claudia left in 2017). We both have deep connections to the School, with family members being both staff and students here. NLCS has played such a key role in shaping who we are today and so we both jumped at the opportunity to come back to the School as the Alumnae Relations Officers. Creating this magazine was particularly exciting for us as we were able to connect with other ONLs, of all different ages, and share stories about ‘doing good’ from their time at the School and beyond.

NLCS has always been a place that encourages students to ‘do good’. As students at the School, we were both involved in charitable initiatives, ranging from Canonaid, overseas volunteering trips and taking part in the annual Liveability parties. The School has never put limits on what its students can go on to achieve and has inspired many to go out into the world and make a difference.

We hope that you enjoy reading the articles in this edition that they inspire you to ‘do good’.

in the Marketing and Development team, I moved to Haileybury in 2017 to set up their new development office, build a fundraising and alumni relations team, and develop the fundraising campaigns for bursaries, scholarships, and capital projects.

I was fortunate to be able to return to NLCS in January 2020, reuniting with former colleagues, and was appointed the Director of Development in September 2021. However, my association with NLCS goes back much further; my daughter started in Reception in 2008 and is currently a member of the Big Six in Year 13.

Also, my wife has been working here since 2006 and is currently a History Teacher and Deputy Head, Pastoral.

We are truly an NLCS family!

Over the coming months and years, I am looking forward to working closely with the ONLA Committee and our Alumnae Relations Officers to help build the ONL community, and to further develop a wide range of events, activities, and societies for all.

I hope to see you back at Canons soon.

Students help to pack rucksacks full of food for Mary’s Meals. Mary’s Meals provides one good meal to some of the world’s poorest children every school day.

Lockdown hasn’t stopped North Londoners Whilst it has been a whirlwind 2 years, there is nothing that is going to stop North Londoners from doing their bit for charitable causes. The Canonaid committee, made up of current Year 13 students, have been working to fulfil their aims of ensuring that those in the local, national, and indeed international community are supported.

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nce students in the School no longer had to be kept apart in ‘bubbles’, the Canonaid team developed a ‘star jar’ to support the community coming back together – students could purchase stars with kind messages on or write their own.

Canonaid fundraised to purchase a defibrillator, which was given to Canons Park to support the local community. Early in the academic year, students from across the School also supported a drive to provide backpacks to children who live in poverty. Every form across the School produced at least one, with some making three backpacks to send to those in need.

The house system also supported the giving nature of the students, as each house voted on a charity to support through a termly home clothes day, a sale, and a drive. Christmas

time saw a fabulous cake sale and the start of a food bank within NLCS which supports families in North London.

Under usual circumstances the students in Year 12 would put on a pantomime for residents of a local home. This wasn’t possible in 2021, however each form group made a gift to deliver to the residents.

There may have been a global pandemic but the thirst for helping others and supporting those in need will always shine through at NLCS.

Samuel Munday-Webb (Drama teacher and Charities Coordinator)

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An Interview with Jo Newman; Head of the Junior School Class of 1976 Staff Member: 1989-2022

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any ONLs will know Jo Newman; as a teacher, as a mentor, as a friend or as a colleague. Jo is an ONL, joining as a student in the Senior School in 1970 and graduating with the Class of 1976. Jo returned to the School as a teacher in 1989. In 1996, she was made the Deputy Head of the First School. Although she took a break from NLCS in 2000, she came back and was made the Head of the Junior School in 2003, a post she has held since. She has made the decision to retire at the end of this academic year, after over 30 years of service to the School. We had the pleasure

of speaking to Jo about her time at NLCS both as a student and as a staff member.

Talking about her time at NLCS, Jo said “as a student at North London, you are always given the opportunity to grow and are always able to do something new. No one ever says to you “no you can’t do that”, they say “that’s an interesting idea, let’s make it work”. This also happens as a staff member; as a teacher, you enable your students to go out and do what they want to do, and as a leader, you replicate this with your staff and colleagues. I think that this

1. W HAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORY OF YOUR TIME AS A STUDENT AT NLCS? I think my favourite memory was organising the first ever Canons Follies. In 1976, my last year at the School, the direct grant was taken away by the government which led to an increase in fees. In order to help students who couldn’t afford to pay the fees, Miss McLauchlan, the Headmistress at the time, decided to set up the Bursary Fund. In response to this, the sixth formers decided to run a fundraising event to raise money for the fund.

The first Canons Follies took place during the day, during what is now called ‘long-break’. The performances (of which there was more than one) were part ‘spoofs’ and part talent show. One of the things I particularly remember was that, although I wasn’t great, I loved to sing. I had a dear friend who played the guitar and we used to practice and sing endlessly in the dungeons where the sound was gloriously. It was a place away from everyone

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is a very special feature of NLCS. The School allows its students and staff to become self-determined. This is something that I don’t want to be lost - at the moment, when there is a lot of change going on, it is important to remember what the essence of NLCS is truly about.”

else and a great hideout for us. This is a very happy and joyful memory, but also one which I feel we did some good for the School.

What’s great is that Canons Follies is still held every year and the money raised still goes to the Bursary Fund.

I will always also be grateful for the many friends I made at school. I am still in touch with lots of them too. Old friends are the best, you can’t make those.

I don’t want you to think everything was always rosy – there were difficult times too and tricky teachers as well, but I have lots of fond memories.

2. W HO WAS YOUR FAVOURITE TEACHER? I didn’t have one favourite teacher, but I think you develop a special relationship with the teachers who teach you for A-level and in the Sixth Form as they get to know

you best. I loved my Upper Sixth teacher, Miss Mellor. She taught me French and was also my form teacher - she was very kind while being firm and objective.

I also loved my Lower Sixth form teacher, Miss Thomas, a History teacher. While she was very quiet, she was also quirky, and she seemed to get us in a way that other teachers didn’t. When I came back to teach here, she was still the Deputy Head. I remember finding it very difficult to start calling her by her first name Ann, rather than Miss Thomas!

One other very special person, who I was in awe of as a teacher and as a person, was Miss Weaver. She was a History teacher and was the smartest person, in both her appearance and her intelligence. She had a wide range of interests and absolutely loved art - I remember her teaching me about the Renaissance period during History in the Upper Fourth. There was a cross-curricular approach and we learnt about the artists in our Art lessons alongside the History. I think this is why I still remember what I learnt in those lessons and why I still have such a passion for Renaissance artists.

3. W HAT WAS THE UNIFORM LIKE WHEN YOU WERE HERE? Until Sixth Form, it was cream blouses, a brown skirt and a brown jumper. The cream blouses were a particular kind of cream – if you bought the blouses from Pullens, they were quite expensive. Some people decided to buy cheaper white ones and then dipped them in black tea until they became the required colour! But of course, over time, the colour would fade, and the blouses would all become rather revolting.

We were also supposed to wear a school tie, but most people didn’t wear it. There was also a beige jumper you could choose to wear, which had yellow, light blue and dark blue stripes around the V and the sleeve – I remember it being rather itchy.

It was strange in the summer because you had to wear summer dresses, but you had to buy the actual material available from Pullens and the mums would sew the dresses themselves. You could buy the regular gingham dress that was ready made, but if you wanted something nice you bought the other fabric and made up your own dress. Almost every year they introduced a new fabric, and it was exciting to see what was going to be the new

fabric each summer. I remember we thought the blue fabric was very ‘cool’ purely because it wasn’t brown – you knew who the cool kids were because they had the newest fabric in the latest style.

I remember that NLCS girls were considered the scruffiest kids because it was pretty much accepted that you could wear most things that were cream and brown. We were allowed to wear trousers, even in those days.

When I was here as a Deputy Head, there were blue summer dresses for the First School. I then came up with the idea that we needed blue cardigans to match – Mrs Clanchy was horrified because she didn’t think we should change from brown – that seemed too revolutionary!

4. W HAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE NLCS TRADITION? I think it has to be Founder’s Day, although there are lots of lovely traditions. The fact that this relatively ‘liberal’ school can come together for a very smart and formal occasion to pay tribute to our founder and history is a unique celebration and a unique aspect of life at NLCS. I really hope that come March this year we will be able to hold a traditional Founder’s Day again because there are so many children and staff that are yet to experience a proper Founder’s Day. My own memories of Founder’s Day are that I was rather naughty – we, of course, brought in daffodils but one of the things we used to do was to put our daffodils in our ink wells. When you put a daffodil in the ink well, it turns blue. Then we would sit in the pink canvas chairs in the hall, stick the daffodils in the back of the chairs in front, and judge whose was the bluest. Whether those daffodils made it into the procession, I can’t remember.

I think when you’re a student at the School, you don’t necessarily appreciate Founder’s Day and its traditions – it’s only really as you come away from NLCS that you truly appreciate what it’s about.

5. W HAT WILL YOU MISS MOST AS A MEMBER OF STAFF? I absolutely love driving into school every morning and I will greatly miss the School grounds. I’ll miss the people and the camaraderie. I count the staff as my friends, and I will miss seeing every single one as well as the daily inter-

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Jo Newman’s admission form for NLCS

change. I’ll miss the children’s joy, energy, enthusiasm, and the feeling that I, as a teacher, hold their potential in my hands. I’ll miss being able to nurture individual children but also staff members. Everyone here has a terrific sense of purpose and commitment and NLCS is genuinely such a joyful place to be. As soon as I enter the School in the mornings, even if I am feeling really quite glum, I am filled with a sense of joy - I have felt this every single day.

7. WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO NOW?

6. W HAT MADE YOU COME BACK TO THE SCHOOL TO TEACH?

Other than that, I want to learn to live a slightly less timetabled existence – I think this will probably be good for me. I want to spend more time with friends, I want to do the cultural things that I like, I want to spend time with my granddaughter, and I want to make more use of a new home that we have in the Cotswolds. I hope to be able to travel when it’s possible.

What literally made me come back was an opportunity to teach part time when I had two young children? Mrs Clanchy offered me a part-time teaching job which meant that I had two mornings where I wasn’t in school first thing. At that time, this allowed me to do the shopping and organise life at home – I have to say, the part-time didn’t last long! I was very excited by the opportunity to teach all girls as I have previously taught all boys. I was also excited because the Junior School was doubling in size and so it was an opportunity for me to be part of the general development of the School. I had never been a Junior School girl because I didn’t get a place at 7-years old (I had to wait until I was 12). There had always been a mystique about the Junior School which I finally got to be a part of.

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To be perfectly honest I don’t really know. I hope that I can do something useful. I have this idea and this feeling that I would like to be able to give back and help less privileged children. I would like to use my skills to help children who maybe don’t have the opportunities that students at NLCS do. How this will come to fruition, I am not yet sure.

8. D O YOU THINK YOU’LL EVER RETURN TO THE SCHOOL? I think it’s important for me to do things that aren’t ‘brown and blue’. Having said this, you can never truly take the ‘brown and blue’ out of any of us. If anybody wants any help with anything, I’ll be there.

Messages to Jo Newman Rachel Rushbrook

Emily Abrahams

(Class of 2016)

(née Sternberg)

Claudia Marks

(Class of 1998)

(Class of 2017)

As an ONL, current Junior School parent, and Junior School teacher, I have a bright array of memories of knowing Jo in various capacities. In all of them her warmth, kindness and verve shine through. One of my earliest memories is from 1990 when she was Mrs Newman, form teacher for Year 3, or First Form as it was then called. Mrs Newman was known amongst the girls for being warm, kind and passionate about calligraphy and nature. At that time, NLCS had an outdoor swimming pool and on weekends in the Summer Term, staff and NLCS families would spend afternoons swimming and relaxing on the grass beside the pool. I was a pre-teen who was starting to feel self-conscious, and my two-year-old sister, Sarah, was in a phase where she insisted that her name was Thomas (in honour of the tank engine) and that she must be addressed as such. When Mrs Newman approached me at the poolside one weekend to meet my little sister and was told definitively by the toddler at my side that she was called Thomas, I remember that somehow Mrs Newman’s easy, friendly manner dissipated any embarrassment I might have felt. This same warmth radiates out of Jo as a Headteacher. Her nurturing qualities are not reserved solely for the pupils. She bakes cakes for the staff room when she feels we are having a tough week, sends cards and messages to us after we’ve organised events and keeps us in mind as professionals and individuals. The annual February half term activity of poring through archive material and writing the Founder’s Day Play at Jo’s house is always a delight; connecting with the history of the School while feeling very much involved in its present, with the added bonus of lovely colleagues and Jo’s wonderful cooking! As the Headteacher for my daughter, I am continually in awe of the way Jo is authoritative, calm, and clear headed whilst showing the girls her infectious sense of fun and passion.

Jo has been a huge part of both of our NLCS journeys.

We both started the School in Reception and remember fondly the assemblies Mrs Newman would give to the First School on all sorts of topics. The sense of community that Jo helped to create in the Lower School is one of the most memorable parts of our time there. No matter what year you were in, you could always find someone to talk to.

We both remember how nervous yet also excited we felt when we were invited into Jo’s office, but Jo was always so welcoming. We were both very lucky as our mums worked in the First School which meant that even before we were invited back as Sixth Form assistants, we would always go down for a visit during break times. Jo would always greet us with a huge hug, reminding us that we were always welcome. Since returning to the School as staff members, we have had even more contact with Jo as we work with the ONLA committee, which she currently sits on, and we know we can always rely on her to answer any of our questions about alumnae. From talking to our mums, it is clear that Jo will be so dearly missed as Head of the Lower School, but we feel incredibly lucky to have her as an ONL.

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Jo (far right) with her friends from NLCS

Mary Hanson (Class of 1985), Current Staff When I first met Jo in 1999, she was teaching in Year 2. I saw her as a bubbly ‘Duracell bunny’ who was always on the go and gave 100% to the girls in her class. I remember Jo and I showing Miss McLauchlan the Junior School displays of all the past Headmistresses, during the sesquicentennial celebrations in 2000, discussing each one in turn. When Jo returned as Head, while I was teaching in Zambia, I still recall her thoughtfulness in emailing me specifically to tell me of Miss McLauchlan’s death. Since then, it has been a privilege to work for her in the Junior School, as well as to continue to share memories with her over the years.

Georgia Mosheim (Class of 2016) I have such lovely memories from my time in the Junior School and so do so many NLCS girls from my year, the Class of 2016. You made it such a special place to learn with both teachers and friends, and I really appreciate it.

Thank you and wishing you all the best!

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Sonal Sachdev Patel & Rupal Sachdev Kantaria (Class of 1990) Jo Newman started and finished as a legend. When we were little, she taught our older brother at Haberdashers’ Boys’ School, and we heard about her around the family dinner table. Later when she moved to NLCS, we knew her as we popped back to the Junior School in our prefect roles as well as over to her house round the corner to babysit her two daughters. Later she was Head when our own daughters went through the Junior School. We served together on the Parents’ Guild and memorable Emerald Ball and Summer Breeze Committees.

In all these roles she is equally in her element - when hosting the Reception girls for afternoon tea (an absolute highlight for our 4-year-old daughters), commanding large audiences of parents and head teachers, or sinking her hands deep into the earth at Gardening Club which she hosts. Jo is so humble – heading up one of the top girls’ schools in the country but she always mucks in – we remember decorating pineapples together for the Summer Breeze party, crawling under tables to clear up after the Emerald Ball and picnicking on the lawns when our daughters graduated from the Junior School. It is perhaps only now that we have come to appreciate her breadth across all these roles, the vision she has always had, her immense commitment to the School, her ability to develop and retain a leadership team and build a culture of warmth, excellence, and integrity in her fellow teachers, in the girls and even the broader school community in the parents and alumnae. These threads of Jo Newman are woven intricately in our hearts and minds, and all over Canons. Her powerful legacy will continue even after her departure from school.

North London Collegiate School 1850 - 2022

HISTORY

1995

1850 Frances Mary Buss founds North London Collegiate School for Girls.

The School is originally based in Camden Street before it moves to Camden Road, making space for the establishment of the Lower School.

1879

The First School, designed by Pamela Lea (Class of 1972), is opened. The brief she was given was that the building must be interesting and good-looking. It must also have enough space for sixty-students to paint, play, and work.

2007

North London Collegiate School moves to Sandall Road after a brief stint at Prince of Wales Road.

The building is opened by the Princess of Wales. While at this new location, Frances Mary Buss dies, and Dr Sophie Bryant becomes the second Headmistress.

1940 After being ‘discovered’ by Isabella Drummond in 1927, North London Collegiate School moves to Canons. Under Dame Kitty Anderson and Madeline McLauchlan many new buildings, including the Drawing School, are opened.

1987 A year after becoming Headmistress of NLCS, Joan Clanchy opens the new Junior School. Previously, students aged 7-11 were based where the current Year 7 classrooms are. The new building provides space for the younger students to play and learn separately from the older students.

The Performing Arts Centre is opened as the growing need for a designated performance space becomes apparent. Now named the Bernice McCabe PAC, it has provided a space for hundreds of concerts, plays, musicals, symposia, and much more.

2013 The New Building (now the Joan Clanchy Building) and the Indoor Teaching Space are built. These provide more classrooms, a common area for Year 11, and another large space for P.E. lessons.

2022 Building work for the IDEAS Hub commences. This building will open in 2024 and will contain new studios for Engineering, Design, and Technology, as well as more communal spaces for Sixth Form.

Go to https://www.nlcs.org.uk/about-nlcs/site-masterplan to find out more about this new building.

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DOING GOOD

How a random Facebook message between two ONLs led to 92 men, women, children and six pets being evacuated from Afghanistan

Anonymous (Class of 1994)

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any of us will have seen and been devastated by the horrifying footage of the chaos that unfolded in Afghanistan over the summer leading up to and following on from the withdrawal of the American and British troops.

I myself had seen and been appalled by the tragic sights of people literally clinging onto planes out of desperation to leave their homeland which had now become a place of fear and uncertainty for them. However, like many people, while horrified, it never occurred to me that I would be in a position to do anything to help anyone in Afghanistan, a country far removed from me both geographically and culturally. Little did I know that this was soon to change.

In mid-September, I received a Facebook message from another ONL in my year saying ‘Hi! What can we do to bring the other animal rescue teams to safety?’. Whilst my old school friend, a vet, had been in sporadic contact since leaving school, mainly via Facebook as is often the case, and as staunch animal lovers we had both been following and sharing the attempts and eventual evacuation of 67 staff members, their dependents and approximately 200 dogs and cats of the Nowzad animal charity, the first thought that crossed

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my mind as someone based in Jerusalem was ‘How on earth can I help with this?’ However, not wanting to ignore such a message and a plea for help, I responded in the best way that I knew by suggesting contacting people that had actively been campaigning for Nowzad’s staff, families and animals to leave Afghanistan. I had no idea whether they would see, let alone respond to messages from random strangers sent via Twitter and Facebook. My friend had been put in contact with staff members of the international arm of the animal welfare charity ‘Mayhew London’ (for which Meghan Markle is a patron) and also formed a WhatsApp group where we were in regular contact with them and exploring ways to help them leave.

My friend reached out to a number of people, amongst them Dominic Dyer, one of the key organisers of Nowzad’s evacuation mission, ‘Operation Ark’, who to our pleasure and surprise, responded and offered to help. Before we knew it, the three of us had formed an impromptu working party and were holding Zoom meetings to discuss what we could do to help these people leave Afghanistan and ‘Operation Magic Carpet’ was born. I had come across the name of someone who might be

DOING GOOD

able to help them cross the border and contacted him via Twitter, again hoping that he would respond to my message, a hope which thankfully materialised. Dominic brought in other people that he knew to form part of our working party, including a Gibraltar-based lawyer who was instrumental in helping us secure funding and in a number of weeks we managed to raise US$270,000 (£204,000) through private donations – not only to get the group out of Afghanistan successfully, but also to pay for them to be housed and fed in Islamabad. In the meantime, the group of evacuees had also grown from 60 to 91 as some of the other team members had friends and family, including business executives, former military and security specialists and their families, all of which were at risk under the Taliban regime and desperate to leave Afghanistan. A few weeks later the group increased by one more after a baby girl was born to one of the women shortly after she crossed into Pakistan. In a testament to the caring and selfless gesture made by my fellow ONL friend in seeking to help a group of unknown people in a desperate situation, the first-time mother named her daughter after her, describing her as ‘the mother of this mission’.

After a harrowing two months of evacuating the people in small groups, during which the situation in Afghanistan was becoming increasingly bleak, the group of 92 and their companion animals who put their faith and trust in a group of complete strangers living thousands of miles away, are now safer in Islamabad where they will be securely accommodated while plans are made for moving them to a permanent home in Britain, Canada or other countries around the world. We are looking for support to find safe countries for the group so would appreciate any assistance or leads that ONLs may have to offer.

We are also looking to raise funds to meet the monthly accommodation, food, utilities, medical bills and animal care costs for the evacuation group from January to March 2022.

These funds are critically important for supporting both people and animals as we seek a safe permanent country for them to call home. Any donation, no matter how small, will be gratefully received.

Donations can be made via the GofundMe appeal at https://www.gofundme.com/f/fmjsar-operation-magic-carpet

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DOING GOOD

The great thing about working in public service is that the ‘giving back’ is the day job

Antonia Romeo

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hen your job is to deliver for the citizens of the country, you’ll never meet anyone with a more rewarding job than you.

I’ve now spent over 20 years working in the public sector, and have been privileged to work in a variety of roles on a range of issues, from reforming the system of governance across Government, to being a diplomat in New York City, to negotiating global trade agreements for the first time in a generation as the UK left the EU. When working in public service, every day there are new opportunities to tackle some of the most interesting and high-profile issues facing our society. The policies that public servants develop, and the services that we deliver, have a direct impact

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(Class of 1990)

on the lives of millions of citizens across the country.

department that leads this work, at such an important time.

In my current role I’m Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which has responsibility for criminal justice, prison and probation services, civil, family and criminal courts, legal services, and constitutional policy. At the MoJ, our objectives are to protect the public, reduce reoffending, and provide swift access to justice.

The focus on delivery and impact in the public sector also means that there is a culture of investing in staff, and ensuring public servants are equipped with the opportunities and support they need to learn and develop, so that they can make a real difference through their work.

A huge number of people who find themselves in the Criminal Justice System have struggled earlier in their lives. Working to rehabilitate offenders, to support them in turning away from crime, while improving their life chances and supporting the communities that they live and work in is hugely important. I consider it a real privilege to be leading the

More than five and a half million employees are employed in the UK public sector, working on a range of issues. From the UK’s influence overseas to welfare, and from national health to the arts - there is a huge variety to suit every interest. And if you work for the public sector you never need to think about finding a way to ‘give back’ – it’s what you do every day.

DOING GOOD

It is a real pleasure to make a positive difference to the pandemic in the UK

Celia Bangham (Class of 1972)

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n 2020 I had just started volunteering as a School Reader, helping Primary School children with their reading practice, when the pandemic broke out and I had to stop. I then volunteered for the NHS as a retired GP, relicensed for the duration of the emergency, to help

in any way allowed, and was told I would probably do contact tracing.

But along with thousands of other retired doctor volunteers I was told at national level there were “too many of you to process”! Meanwhile contact tracing was contracted to an expensive organisation which did

not do the job well. Thus, trying to volunteer was frustrating!

However, in contrast, the Covid-19 vaccines arrived in 2021 and the Primary Care Networks organised vaccine clinics at local level with extraordinary efficiency. For months I have been administering vaccines in my old practice area, meeting former patients and colleagues, in a wonderfully cheerful atmosphere.

It is a real pleasure to be making a positive difference to the pandemic in the UK, and, because many of us are unpaid volunteers, some surplus funds from the vaccine clinics have been given to charities to send vaccines to developing countries. At last, a win-win result!

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DOING GOOD

The Society of Designer Craftsmen Daniela Maier (Class of 1993)

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’d just got back to my hotel in San Francisco when I got a message to phone home… it was 1993, I didn’t have a mobile phone and it was jolly expensive to call London from the hotel, but I reckoned it must be important. I dialled with some apprehension and my boyfriend answered… it was great news; I had

been accepted as a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. This is a prestigious organisation in the craft and design world which only admits entry to makers who are deemed to produce work of high calibre, so this was indeed an honour and was certainly worth the phone call!

The Society of Designer Craftsmen is one of the oldest and most highly regarded arts and crafts societies in the UK. It was founded by Walter Crane and William Morris and some of the most innovative and 14 ONLINE - ISSUE 25 | 2022

skilled craftspeople in the country are members. Notable members include Edward Johnston CBE, creator of the sans-serif “Johnston” typeface for London Underground who also redesigned the roundel branding, Constance Howard, Textile artist, who started the Embroidery Department at Goldsmith’s College, John Makepeace OBE, furniture designer and founding member of the Crafts Council and ceramist Alan Caiger-Smith founder of Aldermaston Pottery. The craft equivalent of the hall of fame! Within a year or so of becoming a member, I found myself invited to join Council (now the Board of Trustees) to assist with the running of the Society which I really enjoyed but as my career was taking off (I’d just launched my Knitted Chandeliers at the San Francisco Gift Fair) I had to step down to concentrate on building my business.

Fast-forward to 2019 and a bit more time on my hands, I volunteered to help again and am now both a Fellow and a Trustee.

It’s great to be able to put my commercial experience to good use for the benefit of the Society and I have to say, as I’m sure many people who volunteer know, it’s not just the work you do, but the people you meet and the relationships you make that can be so valuable. Our members range from 21-year-olds to 80-somethings and the joy is the natural camaraderie that crosses all ages and disciplines when we get together. It’s clear that mentoring works both ways as the tech-savvy younger members swap skills with

those who’ve been in business for a lifetime and have valuable tips to share. Volunteering in this context gives me the excuse and opportunity to be in touch with any of our members and I’m always met with a warm reception. Being a designermaker and self-employed is typically a fairly isolated existence so being part of our creative community with common values is hugely beneficial and especially rewarding.

With our incredible history and reputation, our aspiration is that the society becomes a household name – the SDC being the go-to place to find exquisite crafts of the highest calibre, and a first stop for any new maker considering a career in craft.

We’re keen to work with schools and colleges to encourage young makers

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and keep hand-made crafts alive and flourishing. With this in mind, we’re eager to raise our profile, increase awareness of the society and build our membership. My current mission is to find people who share our vision to fill some key roles to strengthen our presence and help us grow. We’re particularly looking for help with PR & Marketing, Fundraising & Sponsorship, Exhibition / Event Management and Legal matters.

If you’d like to find out more, please contact me: dan.maier@ societyofdesignercraftsmen.org.uk

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My father’s absolute determination that women should be educated like men, the sacrifices made by both my parents and a Frances Mary Buss bursary enabled me to attend NLCS for Senior School.

Frances Lindon (Class of 1984)

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entered the medical profession, eventually becoming a Consultant Psychiatrist specialising in the care of older people. Miss Madeline McLauchlan was headmistress at NLCS, and I believe that her mantra that our privilege required us to think of others, shaped in me a strong social conscience.

Early retirement in December 2020 gave me the opportunity to work on a voluntary basis. You will recall that vaccinating vulnerable groups was a national imperative. Many years from practising physical medicine, I trained myself up and joined the vaccination programme, catching Covid-19 from an affectionate care home resident on the day I received my first jab! There were emotional experiences; the relief and gratitude expressed by patients vulnerable to Covid-19, those who were grieving,

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struggling with chronic ill health and lack of family contact. I know that after working mainly on screen, having the tangible camaraderie of NHS colleagues, face-to-face contact with the public and being able to act to make a difference, did me the power of good. By the time I had given one thousand jabs, I was also supporting front-line colleagues suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder, anxiety and depression using Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. This evidencebased therapy facilitates a shift in trauma memory networks in the brain so that the traumatic events are no longer distressing, and the client has a different perspective on what they believe about themselves in relation to the trauma. There were common themes: working in PPE, being redeployed, life events and being unable to do the activities that

Frances and her daughter, Miriam, volunteering for the Retired Greyhound Trust, Liverpool

restored them were powerful factors contributing to their difficulties.

It helped to be familiar with NHS culture. It is still so rewarding to see committed colleagues coming back to themselves.

Thanks to this voluntary work, I am now an accredited EMDR practitioner and am looking forward to my further development and work in this field. In the meantime, I am assisting with a local cub pack [quite a change in age for me!] and supporting my daughter who has started her career in ‘giving back’ by caring for retired greyhounds; a shame we can’t bring them back home! Our two would struggle with that……

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“Not all kids do that”; working with families experiencing Child to Parent Violence and Abuse

Helen Bonnick (née Yeomans)

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left NLCS in 1976, studied for a degree at Cardiff, and went on to become a social worker in an east London borough. It wasn’t long before I started to come across parents fearful of their children, afraid to go to sleep and dreading their presence in the home. As I moved through different jobs it became a theme that followed me. Kids refusing to get out of bed to go to school, trashing the house, “disobedient” in a manner that few could imagine – let alone comprehend. It became my obsession, and yet even by 2010 there was little written worldwide about this aspect of family violence and abuse. It didn’t even have a consistent name!

In 2011, I tentatively launched my website, Holesinthewall.co.uk.

Growing up in a pre-calculator era, and living in a household full of IT over-achievers, it would be fair to say that I had limited understanding of how to organise, set up or maintain this level of technology.

Nevertheless, I proved a keen learner and, just a short time later, this has become an international resource hub for all matters Child to Parent Violence and Abuse (as we are gradually deciding to name it). What a privilege to be part of a community

(Class of 1976) seeking to develop awareness and resources around what remains a hidden and shameful secret for many families. It is thought that as many as 1 in 10 families of teens will experience this at some point in their journey, and this has certainly been my experience as I have shared my learning and listened to friends and colleagues, as well as the many who have contacted me after finding my site.

The website has grown so much from its original few pages, and a suspicion that I should start to slow down is still challenged regularly by new ideas for pages or ways to develop it further. In 2019 I was thrilled to finally publish a guide for practitioners working in this field. It was something that I had mooted over five years earlier, but it took many iterations before I found a format that worked. A group of friends, family and colleagues met for a party at the House of Commons to celebrate all the work in supporting families and raising awareness.

As the world shut down last March, it became clear that for many individuals being locked in with someone else was a scary place to be. While this brought

new publicity and awareness of abuse from children towards their parents, and ultimately funding, it was not a situation anyone would have wanted. With a rapid literature review commissioned by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s office, launched in November 2021, there is now a clearer sense of direction for future research, policy and practice; and we look forward to seeing what the next year brings.

This is work that is much needed and still has a long way to go, but it is happening and that is something to be grateful for.

W: www.holesinthewall.co.uk T: @helenbonnick Child to Parent Violence and Abuse, A Practitioner’s Guide to Working with Families https://www.amazon.co.uk/ChildParent-Violence-Abuse-Practitioners/ dp/1912755254 Understanding CAPVA, a rapid literature review on child and adolescent to parent violence and abuse https://domesticabusecommissioner. uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ CAPVA-Rapid-Literature-Review-FullNovember-2021-Baker-and-Bonnick. pdf ONLINE - ISSUE 25 | 2022 17

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Everyone ~ Music for a while shall all your cares beguile ~ Patron: Howard Shelley, OBE

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sympathetic walking flower befriends a lonely old chap on a hillside; a harpist plays in front of a Christmas tree watched by a teddy in a Santa hat; cascades of notes fly from the fingers of a piano duo to rows of empty church seats; a lone boy treble sings “Over the Rainbow”. These images are all vivid snapshots in my mind from among the forty-five videos created in a collaborative effort by a diverse community of professional, amateur and young musicians, to reach out through music in an attempt to overcome the ever-deepening loneliness imposed by the stringencies of lockdown.

Thanks to technology it was possible to send music links by email to care homes where previously we would have given live concerts, and to our Charity’s support group of Friends, many of whom are older people living alone. Dozens of emails started to arrive in response and an ongoing correspondence began with many, the project thus creating and maintaining links with people who might be isolated but who knew they mattered and were remembered.

“Just a quick email” wrote one Everyone Matters Friend “to thank you so much for the e-mails with links to lovely performances. They have helped keep me sane!”

to access it for themselves. When I set it up in November 2010, I chose its name in honour of Dame Kitty Anderson who had been my Headmistress for most of my time at NLCS and whose motto it was.

For nearly ten years we busied ourselves delivering a rolling programme of concerts in care homes and day centres, workshops in schools for children with special needs, intergenerational projects mentoring young musicians who joined professionals to perform in care settings and lead children’s workshops, and an ongoing series of lecture-recitals. Then, towards the end of March 2020, the music stopped.

Everyone Matters is a registered charity that exists for professional musicians to share live music and music-making with people less able

Along with nearly everyone in the performing arts, I suddenly found myself writing “cancelled” on every page of my diary. It had

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Everyone Matters and Langley Park School for Boys take an orchestra into a care home lounge.

always been an act of faith that “the show must go on” and to be told that the show must not go on was a heavy blow indeed. Then I had a call from David Bullen, Director of Music at Langley Park School for Boys in Beckenham, asking if I would like him to invite some of the school’s young musicians to make home recordings for us to send to local care homes. These boys had already taken part in our annual intergenerational project “A September Music Cocktail”, playing and singing alongside a small team of professional musicians to rehearse and perform a varied programme for the entertainment of local care home residents. One of the great joys of developing an ongoing relationship with this school has been to work with much the same group from one year to the next, watching the teenagers develop not only as musicians but as thoughtful caring individuals overcoming their fear of attempting conversation with elderly strangers, enjoying sharing a card trick or a joke, and learning to listen.

Now, unable to attend school or mix with others, they were being tasked with using whatever technology was available to them at home to create music performances that would reach out to their elderly audiences, albeit remotely. By mid-April 2020 I’d taken delivery of eight separate video performances, all recorded

Matters

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Margaret Archibald (Class of 1967) by boys at home on their phones or laptops, sometimes with piano accompaniments added remotely by David whose initiative launched us on a series of music links that twenty months later continues to develop and grow.

Music technology had never been my thing and I looked with admiration and some envy at the multi-track recordings emanating from Langley Park School, especially a split-screen video recorded by an accomplished young violinist playing all four parts of his own arrangement for violin and viola of Piazzolla’s “Oblivion”. Then my son took me in hand, helped me set up a home studio and taught me the elements, first of GarageBand and then of Cubase, so that I too could record to a click track and lay down multiple parts. I set about trying to raise funds to employ fellow professional musicians to make a series of videos tailored for the entertainment of care home residents and our Friends.

Eventually I raised project funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, and I set about commissioning a wide range of videos. YouTube offered a convenient platform for sharing our work and we set up “Everyone Matters Music”, our own channel that continues to grow as we commission more work and as

many guest artists offer to share performances with us. If you would like to dip into the collection, just click on the links embedded here for a sample of the music available: A Floral Friend https://youtu.be/ P4Qisc-lefk Music Links from Berlin https:// youtu.be/3l4rlK3CZcU Poems for Pianists https://youtu.be/ qE2MYL7mEyA An Aquatic Adventure https://youtu. be/9ET7KWmV9-Q

At last! Emerging from lockdown Midsummer Minstrels al fresco perform to a socially distanced audience of friends I was immensely fortunate at school in discovering my passion for music early. I was no more than 14 when I’d already decided to attempt a career as a professional musician, encouraged by teachers who became lifelong friends. I was supported by parents who funded my lessons, my

instruments and my growing library of music and who encouraged me to seize all manner of opportunities to gain experience in student ensembles. Certainly I was blessed by the generosity of those who cared for me and at the distance of nearly five and a half decades I find myself increasingly aware that “much is expected of those to whom much is given”. Many of my fellow musicians have shown that they feel the same and I have been overwhelmed by their generosity in working to meet deadlines, tangle with technology, often for the first time, make special music arrangements, work all hours and come up with new and often highly individual ideas. Thanks to the goodwill and sheer effort of colleagues, teachers, family and friends we’ve done our best to harness the power of music to create and maintain links with hundreds of people whom we were not able to see.

At last! Emerging from lockdown - Midsummer Minstrels al fresco perform to a socially distanced audience of Friends.

Margaret Archibald, Artistic Director, Everyone Matters Everyone Matters: a company limited by guarantee no. 07450130; registered charity no. 1143445

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The Cedar House Support Group Elizabeth Wise (née Brown) (Class of 1975)

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was always known as Liz when I was at NLCS from 1965 to 1975.

I wanted to write my story as I set up my own charity in 2004, ‘The Cedar House Support Group’, counselling and supporting parents experiencing the very debilitating illness, Postnatal Depression (PND).

PND can have a dreadful impact on families if it is left unsupported and is the leading cause of maternal death in the first year postnatally due to suicide.

I left NLCS at 16, knowing that I was not university material and I had known since about the age of 10 that I wanted to work with children.

I attended The Wellgarth Nursery training college in Hampstead for two years and qualified as a nursery nurse (NNEB, as it was then!).

My first job in 1978 was working for Esther Rantzen, who is also an Old North Londoner, as a nanny to her five-week-old daughter Emily.

After two years there, I then went on to work at Great Ormond Street Hospital, worked in various other childcare jobs and ran my own employment agency for nannies before becoming a mother myself in 1986.

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After the birth of both my daughters in 1986 and 1989 I experienced the most dreadful experience that personally I have ever been through, Postnatal Depression. I won’t go into my story here but please see my website www.cedarhousesupportgroup.com for further information. Having never had depression or anxiety before, and I’m pleased to say never since, it was an experience that turned my life around and allowed me to make a career out of helping others recover from this very debilitating illness.

I trained as a counsellor in the early nineties and have been counselling and supporting through PND to the present day, setting up my charity The Cedar House Support Group in 2004.

My charity supports mothers and their families experiencing Postnatal Depression. We run weekly groups in Surrey and Southwest London during term time, providing a safe and trusting environment for mothers to discuss their feelings with others who are experiencing similar emotional and physical symptoms.

There is a crèche available in each group so that mothers can focus on themselves during the sessions. We have excellent results in helping mothers through their recovery allowing them to enjoy their families, which is sometimes very difficult to do whilst in the thick of PND. Our referrals come from GP’s, health visitors, perinatal mental health teams and various other agencies.

Mothers can also self-refer.

My charity receives no funding from the NHS, or local authority and relies solely on private donations, local fundraising and applying for community grants. We are a very small charity but do help many mothers and their families get through a very difficult time after childbirth, which in turn for me is the most rewarding job I could ever have dreamed of.

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As the granddaughter of immigrants, I felt I had to do something to counter the rising tide of hatred

Margaret Fingerhut (Class of 1954)

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uring 2019 I gave over a large part of my concert schedule to raise money for refugees and asylum seekers in a series of 32 solo piano recitals across the UK. My goal was to raise £88,000 - that’s £1000 for each of the 88 keys of the piano! I devised a special programme of words and music for the series which I called ‘Far from the Home I Love’. The music I chose, together with the composers’ stories, gave a powerfully emotional context to the theme of migration.

As the granddaughter of immigrants, I felt I had to do something to counter the rising tide of hatred and intolerance towards refugees and those in exile. This programme demonstrated just how important the role of migration has been in the history of classical music.

The musical landscape would look very different today if composers had not been able to move country.

In the course of my tour, I performed in cathedrals, churches, synagogues, arts centres, universities and schools. Most of the concerts

were in support of City of Sanctuary UK, which has a network of over 120 local groups around the country who are building a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers.

By the time I finished the tour I was just shy of my target. Then of course came lockdown with no chance of any more concerts. So, in June 2020 I decided to organise a grand finale livestream. I joined forces with singer/songwriter Sam Slatcher, the Syrian viola player Raghad Haddad who now lives in Birmingham, violinist Peter Fisher, and the Kurdish composer and oud player Arian, now resident in Beijing. We called the livestream ‘Let Us Be Together’, which was the title of the wonderful song by Sam Slatcher we all played at the end - a very appropriate title under the circumstances!

My goal of £88,000 was duly reached. However, it is shocking to witness how the situation for refugees continues to deteriorate, so now that live concerts have resumed, I am offering the programme once

more to promoters on an informal basis. I have also made a recording of the beautiful and haunting piano piece ‘Memories from My Land’ which I had commissioned from the Kurdish refugee composer, Moutaz Arian for the series. Old North Londoners can help to contribute by downloading this charity single on www.margaretfingerhut.bandcamp.com

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ast on 72 stitches and knit in K2 P2 rib for 16 inches”.

So began the first charitable work I remember doing. This was the pattern for babies’ vests which we Upper IIIs were given in 1947 and told to complete for display on Founder’s Day. Was the destination Bromley (perhaps a children’s home? Some girls went there as volunteer helpers)? 16 inches! And I couldn’t even knit. I cried. But I just had to get on with it. I struggled at first, but by the last stitch I was hooked on knitting, and it became a favourite hobby. I learnt a lesson: do something for someone else and the reward far outweighs the effort.

As an adult I have usually had some sort of voluntary job, among them many years as a telephone Samaritan and as a St John Ambulance first aider. Helping people to get through the present and face their future, reassuring and treating the injured, brought me great joy and satisfaction. But I think the volunteering job I have done for the last twenty years is the most rewarding of all.

It all began many years ago when I was in hospital for a while hundreds of miles away from family and friends. At visiting times folk streamed in, visitors for everyone but me. It was a lonely and miserable experience. So, I chose to volunteer at our local Birmingham hospital after I retired from teaching. At first, I took the library trolley round the wards. It was fun guessing what sort of book a patient would choose, but a retired professor surprised me when he asked for a Catherine Cookson novel, and a gentle, elderly Asian woman only wanted horror books.

Yes, the books were welcomed, but even more so the brief time for a smile and a chat.

When I became disabled and could no longer push the trolley, I became a Ward Helper. This usually means doing odd jobs around the ward. Not for me: I have the luxury and pleasure of going round the ward looking for those patients who have no visitors and are lonely 22 ONLINE - ISSUE 25 | 2022

Experiences of a Selfish Volunteer Philippa Russell (née Harris) (Class of 1954) or bored. I can sit with someone for as long as they like which the busy staff are unable to do. What a privilege! I meet folk from all walks of life, and I hear some remarkable stories and often learn a lot. I have heard so much of interest about living in this city during the grim days of the war: older patients love to reminisce about that. Often my eyes have been opened to just what difficult home lives some people have. I’m impressed by the many plucky widows I come across. I meet extraordinary, courageous patients tolerating awful, often painful, illnesses without complaint. Oh, but there was the woman I nicknamed the Professional Grumbler who complained about everything and everyone. Every time I visited her, over many weeks, I was determined to make her smile before I left her.

Often, I gave people magazines, donated by neighbours, or I looked at some of my old picture postcards with people. But what patients usually appreciate most is my attention: my time and my ears.

Frequently I am saddened. I spent a lot of time with one young woman with a beautiful personality over the many months when she was in hospital. She always welcomed me; we became friends. Then one week there was someone else in her bed: she had died. I think of her still.

And there was the school caretaker, a “salt of the earth” type. Always cheerful. He was often in pain. On almost the last occasion when I spent time with him, he was literally writhing with pain; I had never seen that before. The following week I was told he was dying, and his sister asked me to sit with her beside him during his last hours. He was peaceful at last.

There are cheerful times too. Most patients try to see the funny side of their situation and keep each other’s spirits up on the ward. Bowels are a frequent topic, where else but in a hospital can that provoke laughter!

Covid has sadly put a temporary stop to us volunteers, but I hope to be back on the ward soon. I only go for one afternoon a week, usually selfishly grumbling as I go, thinking I’d rather be at home doing this and that. But although I come home again exhausted, I am always elated and happy because I’ve helped this patient in a practical way, made another smile, or listened to another who just wanted someone to spare time and show they care.

As that vest taught me so long ago, by doing something for someone else the benefits to myself far outweigh the effort.

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My journey into sustainable floristry Ranak Tebbit (née Pandya) (Class of 1995)

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to growing British flowers on a seasonal basis. No Kenyan roses with a huge carbon footprint flown in for Valentine’s Day to be found here!

hen I turned 40, I decided I wanted to learn new skills after many years of a career in law. I had always loved flowers and a few years ago I completed a City and Guilds diploma in floristry. The course was brilliant at teaching floristry techniques and particularly the skills needed to run a business. But as the weeks went past, I realised something was missing. There was no mention of the ways in which we, as budding florists, should be aware of our role in protecting the environment.

This seemed at odds with the current political and social mood and even more disappointing as the course was run by a land-based college, set in beautiful gardens, with horticulture and landscaping students studying next door. There was such a disconnect between the flowers we worked with and where they had come from (usually hundreds of miles away in Kenya and Holland). We used mountains of green plastic floral foam and metres of cellophane, only to throw them in the bin as we moved on to the next design. This did not feel like an appreciation of flowers and the natural world.

skills to impact greater sustainability in the floristry industry? I had a number of ideas, particularly around education and getting sustainability written into floristry courses in order to arm future florists with knowledge they could then pass on to customers.

Some useful advice came from a meeting I had with Shane Connolly, a leading voice in green floristry and wedding florist to Prince William and Kate Middleton. He advised me to learn more about how flowers are grown in the UK; their seasonality, their shape and their scent in order to develop a real connection with their origin.

As a lawyer I specialised in environmental law, as I was passionate about advancing environmental protection through the use of legislation. I think this was partly inspired by the NLCS Earth Action group, set up around 1993!

Halfway through the floristry course I had my light bulb moment – how could I use my environmental legal

I began researching organic flowers growers in London and to my surprise discovered Wolves Lane Flower Company (WLFC), 10 minutes from where I live in North London.

Run by two impressively committed and hard-working women who also had a career change, WLFC is a micro urban flower farm with an organic and sustainable approach

I began volunteering at WLFC in the middle of winter, totally out of my comfort zone. Flowers are grown chemical free in two long glasshouses and outdoor space on a 3.5acre site which they share with other community organisations and growers. There is always an endless amount to do as they have to carefully plan when to sow, plant, grow and harvest according to the seasons. I came to appreciate the effort, love and timing it takes to grow each precious stem. Flowers are then sold to florists who are committed to “grown not flown” or used by WLFC for events. I’ve done a whole range of jobs, from making raised beds, putting in a watering system, weeding, sowing, watering and shovelling many forkfuls of manure in the wind and rain…a million miles away from a City office desk.

I am now much more conscious about the waste and pollution involved in the cut flower industry.

This includes labour conditions, water and fertiliser use, carbon emissions and packaging. I am slowly gaining awareness of a growing movement in eco-floristry and British flower growing and exploring ways to merge my legal and floristry skills to help promote a more sustainable industry.

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Volunteering after working, a new double life!

Roz Foads (Class of 1967)

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he British Computer Society’s Primary Health Care Specialist Group (PHCSG) exists to promote innovation in the field of primary care health informatics.

GP IT clinical systems are 20 years ahead of those in secondary care, due to the GPs originally writing and continually developing their own systems, rather than having an offthe-shelf system imposed (often very reluctantly) on them, which is what happened in hospitals. Primary care systems enable you to order repeat prescriptions electronically which are sent straight to the pharmacy, book appointments online and view your medical records. When you change practice, they are available almost instantly in the new one.

Many hospitals are still shuffling stacks of large, unwieldly notes on trolleys, and those notes are often missing when needed. I have been working as a volunteer with the PHCSG for 17 years now, alongside a career in NHS health informatics finishing in consultancy. We run a two-day residential showcase conference every year, and I have been running this for the past 15 years, including a black tie Awards Dinner, to present the John Perry Prize to the most worthy innovator, and also one to encourage an early career applicant.

The Group also holds 24-hour residential discussions, choosing a hot topic to discuss. They meet over dinner in a characterful hotel,

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and informal discussions on the topic take place in the bar during the evening. This is a very useful way of unofficially sorting out possible bones of contention and disagreements before the meeting starts. The meeting proper begins after breakfast, and consensus is thrashed out and a paper produced.

This may be sent to NHS Digital or other movers and shakers, who sometimes commission us for these papers. The Group is always seeking new members, so if you are interested, do get in touch.

My other life is spent working for my local hospice, Rennie Grove Hospice Care. Initially taken on just to do basic data entry for them, a chance conversation with the Chief Exec. led to me being asked to project manage the implementation of NHS standard information governance to enable them to connect to the NHS Intranet. I have also done research for them working with the University of Northampton into how hospice care available 24/7 in the home (which is what RGHC provide free of charge) can prevent hospital admissions. I ran their annual conference for them in 2019, and also produced a newsletter for their Education Department.

When the first Covid-19 lockdown was introduced, the offices were shut, and all work had to be tackled from home. As I already had a Hospice laptop, I volunteered to

enter all the consultation data from the Counsellors and Volunteer Listeners into the clinical system on a daily basis, to save the paid staff having to do it. I still continue to do this for about an hour a day. But my charity volunteering could be easing up. I have told the PHCSG they need new blood running their conference, and with 8 grandchildren, my volunteering now tends to be more family focused. But I will never turn down an interesting opportunity!

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Selena Bevis (Class of 1988)

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very prison in the country has an Independent Monitoring Board of lay people with a statutory function to ensure that proper standards of care and decency are maintained. I am currently the Chair of such a board at a men’s prison in the south of England. About a dozen of us have complete access to go around the prison unaccompanied, monitoring the conditions for the prisoners and ensuring that their treatment is fair and humane. We are volunteers entitled to look at prison records and any prisoner can talk to us in confidence.

In practical terms we look at matters such as living conditions, whether prisoners are getting their prescribed medication or whether the prison system has once again – it happens a lot – lost a prisoner’s few precious possessions. We consider whether they are being kept safe from violence from others or selfharm and whether prisoners have

Most of us think little, if anything, about how prisons function.

However, people are in prison because we as a society have decided that they have done something that deserves imprisonment as a punishment. It is actually a very serious thing that is done on our behalf, and we should know if it is being done well.

access to any education or training.

We will argue the smaller things such as whether it is decent for someone to have no shoes or fair that they have not been able to make a phone call as well as the bigger things such as the adequacy of healthcare or preparation for release. We pay particular attention to the people who are segregated – the most extreme form of imprisonment – to ensure it is being used proportionately and only when absolutely necessary.

Routinely, concerns identified are taken to the prison’s senior leadership team; sometimes they are grateful that a problem has been identified, and sometimes less so as we are challenging their methods, effectiveness and/or staff. The role can be enormously frustrating as I often see what ‘ought’ to be done but I am only there to monitor, unable to force change. However, it is also fascinating and sometimes one can feel a real sense of achievement if

something is changed for the better.

It’s not all bad, and I have witnessed acts of great kindness and patience from staff. But I’ve also witnessed misery, depression and severe mental illness in people who are often very vulnerable.

This may seem a less than obvious way of ‘giving back’. But in my experience, there are very many prisoners who are there as an inevitable consequence of failures in their childhoods – abuse, neglect, chaos – so I often find myself thinking about the luck I’ve had in my life so that ‘there for the grace of God, go I”. In any event, almost all prisoners will be released at some point, and we should hope for ourselves, as well as for them, that they re-join society better able to participate constructively than when they were removed from it.

For further information, visit www.imb.org.uk

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An Interview with Judith Breuer (Class of 1976) 1. W HEN DID YOU JOIN NLCS AND HOW LONG WERE YOU HERE FOR? I joined NLCS in the Junior School in 1965. I was interviewed by Dame Kitty Anderson who I still remember, but by the time I started she was no longer Headmistress and Madeleine Mclaughlin had been appointed. I left the School in 1976.

2. W HAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORY OF YOUR TIME AT THE SCHOOL? I have very fond memories of the grounds and the part they played in all our activities. From playing on stilts in Perron when I was in the Junior School, to acting in Shakespeare plays in the rose garden with Miss Clay, to the freezing swimming lessons in the unheated pool and, best of all, lazing around with my friends on the grass in the hot summer sunshine trying to get a tan (this was before we knew about the risks!).

3. A RE YOU STILL IN CONTACT WITH ANYONE FROM NLCS, BE THAT OTHER ONLS OR STAFF MEMBERS? A good number of the 1976 school leavers are part of a WhatsApp group that was set up following our 40-year reunion. This has brought us back in touch at a time when people are winding down or retiring from work. I have reconnected with so many old friends and what is so amazing is that despite a gap, in some cases of 30-40 years, we still have a lot in common. I divide my time between London and Cambridgeshire, where my husband works, and am in regular contact with friends from NLCS in both places. I am also in touch with other NLCS friends in New England (USA) as I have family whom I visit there. I also try to get to the wider get togethers that are organised when I can.

4. WHAT WAS YOUR CAREER PATH? When I left school, I went to medical school at what is now University College London. I was not overly happy as my family had just moved to the USA, with my father’s

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job, and I felt rather alone without somewhere to escape to when I needed to get away. I went straight through without doing an intercalated BSc as I figured I wanted to start working as a doctor as soon as I could and did not think I was interested in research. I started off training in general medicine and while I was doing a neurology job I looked after one of the first patients with AIDS in the UK. I remember he was a GP and he had a brain abscess caused by a bug call toxoplasmosis. I got to know him very well as he was an inpatient for some time. At that time there was no treatment for HIV and it was very sad to see such a young fit and very frightened man die in this way. That experience got me interested in infectious disease and I went into microbiology, subspecialising in virology. By the time I had finished my training, I decided that I was quite interested in doing some research and I managed to get a fellowship to work on HIV at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill. From there I was appointed Senior Lecturer at the London Hospital. While at the London I was involved in looking after several adult patients who died of chickenpox. This was very unusual and intrigued me, so, in addition to the work on HIV, I started to do research into the virus that causes chickenpox, varicella zoster virus. This led to my becoming an expert in that family of viruses, the herpesviruses and gradually this research took over in my interests from HIV. I was very fortunate in that I was able to get research funding and publish my findings which eventually led to my becoming Professor of Virology at Barts and The London Medical School and Head of the Research Centre for Infection and Immunity. In 2009, I was recruited back to UCL to co-head the application for a Centre in Molecular Virology. We were successful in obtaining that funding and I was deputy director of this as well as Professor of Virology at UCL for the next 5 years. During this time, I had transferred my clinical practice to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for children which is affiliated to UCL. About 30% of children at GOSH are profoundly immunocompromised either due to genetic causes or following bone marrow or organ transplantation. These children are prone to very serious viral infections, often caused by viruses that are completely innocuous for the rest of us. Once again, my clinical practice influenced my research and I developed an interest in using research technologies to understand how to improve diagnosis and treatment of these children.

This has again opened up a whole new area of research for me. The techniques I developed have led to me to working on subjects from new approaches to diagnosing brain infection to developing ways to use experimental drugs to try to treat life-threatening infections. Amazingly enough, the work we were doing put us in a very strong position to apply the same technologies to SARS-CoV-2 when it emerged in 2019. I was part of the UK COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium, where we sequenced viruses from all over the UK to help identify new variants and to understand how the virus transmitted. I am now supporting the UK Panoramic trial of new antivirals against SARS CoV-2. We are looking to see how the drugs impact on the virus and

DOING GOOD whether there is any sign of drug resistance emerging.

During this time, I have been lucky enough to head up the Division of Infection and immunity at UCL for 6 years, stepping down just before the pandemic. I have been a member for 10 years of the Joint Committee on Vaccines and immunisations (JCVI) which advises the government on new vaccines and the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Advisory (MHRA) committees on vaccines and drugs for SARS-CoV-2.

These positions have given me the opportunity to contribute to training the next generation of clinical and non-clinical researchers (including some old North Londoners!) and to provide input into UK healthcare decision-making.

These experiences have been hugely interesting and rewarding. In 2019 I was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a fantastic honour for which I am very grateful.

5. H OW DID NLCS HELP SHAPE YOUR CAREER PATH? I think that NLCS gave me the confidence to pursue a career in medical research and not to be put off by any misogyny I encountered. I was determined not to compromise on having children if I could (I have two and now grandchildren). However, after my first child was born I was questioned at one job interview as to whether I planned to have more children; women with children don’t do very well in hospital medicine, I was told! Needless to say I did not get the job and of course, this sort of questioning is now illegal. I do think, however, that this episode just made me more determined to succeed, an attitude of mind that I am sure my NLCS background contributed to!

6. C AN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE WORK YOU HAVE BEEN DOING REGARDING COVID AND THE PANDEMIC? As a virologist I was catapulted into COVID work from the earliest moments. Children are less likely to be seriously affected by Covid than adults, so my clinical experience was not as frantic as that of colleagues working in adult hospitals. That being said, I very quickly become involved with efforts to support public health decision making through sequencing the virus; my lab provided the SARSCoV-2 sequencing hub for London. The mass sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK has underpinned much of the UK’s public health policy since mid-2020. The identification of Delta in 2020, led the government to lockdown immedi-

ately after the new year, saving thousands of lives. The rapid detection of Omicron and its greater transmissibility in late 2021 prompted an acceleration of the booster programme, which again is likely to have saved lives. The UK now leads the world in the use of this technology for public health and it is likely that we will see pathogen sequencing becoming routine for management of patients in hospitals. For me, as someone who has been interested in this area, this is one of the most exciting and positive things to emerge from this terrible pandemic.

The other extraordinary achievement in this pandemic has been the speed with which vaccines against the virus were produced and their success in helping to prevent disease and save lives. I was privileged enough to be a member of the MHRA committee that licensed the first SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the world, enabling the UK to be the first to roll out vaccination. Since then, we have gone on to license several more vaccines, providing resilience for UK vaccination programmes. At this time, I am involved in running the virology to support national trials of new antiviral drugs. The data we generate will provide information on how drugs are affecting the evolution of new variants and whether resistant viruses are emerging. These results will be important in helping the UK to decide whom to treat with these drugs and how they should be used.

7. W HAT WOULD YOUR ADVICE BE TO WOMEN WHO WANT TO GO INTO BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH? I would be very supportive of anyone wanting to pursue a career in biological and medical research. There is no doubt that this is a challenging career but enormously rewarding. Research is essentially a creative exercise and affords tremendous freedom to pursue ideas and follow one’s imagination. Science also opens many other career opportunities, including science writing, science administration, civil service and industry. The barriers to women succeeding in science are gradually reducing, with recognition of the importance of encouraging women into science and supporting their early careers through excellent parental leave provision and opportunities for part time working if requested. Women are now being supported to move into more senior positions and with this, more women can mentor younger colleagues. So, for someone with imagination, curiosity and an interest in finding solutions to the questions they ask, a career in science is ideal.

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Older Women’s Co-Housing Project Shirley Meredeen (Class of 1947)

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ellow and brown has been my favourite colour combination since I was 11 and, from 1941, while a first-year student at NLCS. I still warm to these colours from the days of proudly and sedately walking down the hall aisle in brown uniform, clutching my single yellow daffodil.

Yet it takes me back to those miserable days of WW2. Moving too, because of the morning gathering in that same hall at which Headmistress Dame Kitty Anderson gravely announced that our favourite music teacher, had been killed during during the previous night’s air raid bombing. His wife was one of our teachers too. On other days, this announcement came with the names of other now dead students from our class. Such announcements shook and frightened us all.

A chill goes through me as I remember taking our exams in the lower ground floor dining room from which we could not glance out of the windows to the beautiful grounds, then sandbagged throughout to withstand flying debris or worse from expected air raids.

When cycling home from school I continually had to dodge between the square brick air raid shelters situated along the side streets, to avoid bombings and blast. The sound

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of sirens punctuated the school days and the journeys home where we rushed to shuttered windows and relieved hugs from waiting parents.

Nothing would prevent me from getting to school whatever the weather or state of war, though I tempted Providence one icy, snowy winter day as I walked with others from Canons Park station across the wide fields to Canons. Tomboy, as I was then called, I dared to test one of the many icy pits of the dugout holes which were intended to prevent enemy planes from landing there.

Each ditch was covered with a layer of thick ice onto which I daringly stepped. However, the ice gave way and I plunged into the icy water below. After dragging me out my friends ran with me the remainder of the journey to school where I shamefacedly and, sodden to my skin, sat with Matron all day after she had stripped me of my soaking clothes, in a chair in front of the electric bar fire for the rest of the day clothed in many layers of my friends’ dry winter coats. When my precious uniform was dry enough having steamed the room out, I was despatched home and dared not repeat that trick ever again.

It is a retrospective hilarious memory but another less so, is the one in which I played the role of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a drama class production of ‘Twelfth Night’ and forgot my lines – one memory I was not allowed to forget.

The awareness of feminism had not struck me yet, even though the School was forward thinking and many of us went on to further education and worthy careers. I am embarrassed and shamefaced as I remember staring at our then art teacher as she arrived noisily to park her vehicle, hoisting her trousered legs over the saddle of her powerful

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motor bike, and brazenly marched into school while still wearing her goggles.

How shocking, the uniformed me thought at the time. And what a long way I have come since.

Perhaps the most lasting effect of NLCS on me is the democratic way in which we were involved when we nominated one individual from each class as our spokesperson to represent us in the School government system as it then was. The example of democratic participation in our futures is one that permeated my whole life and has continued to influence everything I have done since - both in employment and as a mother, then grandmother.

The most profound effect of that started during the first postwar General Election campaign of 1945. We were encouraged to discuss how we wanted to change Great Britain and the world so that there would be no more future wars. I was allowed to speak from a soap box professing my views and hopes for a better world. (The outcome of that election result was incidentally 373 wins for Labour and 213 for Conservatives). Sadly, many of those hopes have failed in the years since. However, this democratic involvement has stayed with me. I became a pioneer of sorts in many ways and believe I have helpfully influenced others along the way. Having worked with disadvantaged students in further education I then continued to do parallel activities.

Having established the Growing Old Disgracefully Network in 1993 to encourage older women to live a full life in their later years (many had not ever driven a car, taken up further education, or signed a cheque) I went on to develop a cohousing project.

Now 91, I live in a co-housing community in Barnet of 26 women over 50 where we have become a supportive group which operates democratically, inspired by my learning during my years at Canons between 1941 and 1947. This is nothing like a typical old people’s home.

This is a unique project which I co-founded with a dear friend who unfortunately did not live long enough to enjoy the experience we had worked and dreamed of for 18 years. We have just celebrated 5 years here and none of the original members have left. It has become a welcoming home to us all and we are proud of providing 8 social housing flats for members who are full participating members of our community.

As an aspiring community, we worked together with the architects to design a wholly accessible building within a busy community where we are close to good transport, shopping, and community health provision. During the 18 years we encountered many agonising hostilities, delays with local authorities, funding, and many difficulties in finding a location we could afford where we could be part of the wider community and thus able to use and contribute to society generally.

Every resident contributes to the management of the project in one way or another. It may be the rotation of cleaning roles of the common parts, managing finances, correspondence, recruitment of new applicants for residency within our equality and diversity policy, gardening, laundry, etc. This is done through a monthly community meeting to which each sub-group reports on their current activities and future plans. Decisions are made by consensus.

We each have an individual one-, two- or three-bedroom flat with access to a common room and large garden. Because of our shared common values, we respect the individual privacy of each other and are also willing to provide help and expertise when required.

For example, my front door was kept on the latch throughout my 8-day recuperation from surgery and other residents provided food and care daily. Others have benefitted in similar ways. During the pandemic the purchase of shared bulk food was spontaneously organised, prescriptions collected, and companionship offered within government regulations.

Another example of community spirit and friendship is exampled by our attitude to cats. The responsibility for the three cats owned by individuals is voluntarily shared by others who organise a rota to feed and care for them while the owners are away for a day or on holiday. Pets are not allowed in most residential homes for the old.

The Older Women’s Co-Housing project extends along a street on the opposite side of which are Victorian cottages whose residents quite reasonably resented the 2-year building works which disrupted their neighbourhood. We invited them all in for tea to view what happily now exists behind the street view. We are now accepted and valued as part of the community.

We are breaking the stereotypical attitude towards old people, and I hope others will follow our hard-won example.

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SolidariTee Tiara Ataii (Class of 2015)

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hose of you who attended NLCS at the same time as me (ONL 2015) may remember me as a classical musician, attending the Royal College of Music and then gaining a place to study Music at Cambridge. Nonetheless, on my gap year, which coincided with the apex of the refugee ‘crisis’ in Europe, I began volunteering, using the Persian that I spoke at home and the French and German that I had learnt at Pre-U to translate for Afghan refugees seeking legal aid.

This experience I consider the most formational of my life. Until I began volunteering, I had no idea how much my life had rested on an accident of fate totally unbeknownst to me – my British citizenship. Each time I boarded a flight back to the UK, I keenly felt the irony that I had complete freedom of movement at my leisure, whilst those who were fleeing persecution and probable death were entrapped in refugee camps so unfit for purpose. In Greece, I worked with Iraqis who lived in a refugee camp placed by the EU – quite literally – atop a rubbish processing plant. In Calais, I met Sudanese teenagers seeking reunification with their family members just across the Channel, but having turned 18 just days ago, had no legal recourse, being no longer considered an unaccompanied minor. In Germany, I met Syrians who were spat on on the street as we walked to their legal aid appointments to discuss the torture they suffered and the execution of their family members.

The ordeal hadn’t stopped in their country of origin; it had assumed a new form in Europe, one where

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they were treated with displeasure at best and derision at worst by their new communities, where they were treated as ‘freeloaders’ by the host government and – in the case of the UK – left on the poverty line open to the vulnerabilities of undocumented work due to the lack of job permits.

It was this that motivated me to found SolidariTee in my first year at university (at this point studying Arabic, having put my musical career on the shelf). We raise awareness and funds for the refugee crisis, engaging 900 annual volunteers, and raising now £500,000 for aid for refugees across the globe, with a special focus upon legal aid.

Together, we are now the largest student-led charity in the world.

Despite the sums that our university volunteers have raised that have now reached 100,000 asylum seekers, for me the ultimate objective is long-term societal change. I can say definitively that all of this suffering has been avoidable.

The ‘crisis’ is not that refugees exist; far before the birth of the nation state, populations migrated freely across borders to ensure their safety and survival. The ‘crisis’ is that in the twenty-first century, our response to the most vulnerable in our society – asylum seekers, many of whom have suffered unimaginable injustice – is to penalise and criminalise them for daring to want a shred of the security and safety that we have.

I write this now on the plane, returning from mission with the UN, a job that has taken me to humanitarian response in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, West Bank, and Somalia. One of the ironies is that I have found incredible

generosity and solidarity amongst the most vulnerable. In a recent project in Somalia, handing out 100$ vouchers to internally displaced persons facing famine following drought, a quick survey I conducted that 50% of beneficiaries went on to share their voucher with other families. The least fortunate always seem to be the most inclined to give to their neighbour.

SolidariTee, nonetheless, remains a glimmer of hope in my darkest moments (of which I have many working in this sector). Thousands of students – many of whom, in the early days especially, were ONLs – have dedicated their time, energy, and passion to speaking out against the contempt with which our societies have treated asylum seekers. I suppose at the heart of it, a fact that I am only now coming to terms with, is that my parents themselves migrated to the UK following revolution and war. Had I been born a couple of decades later, would I too be in a refugee camp now? Would anyone have taken us in?

I often reflect on this in the context of NLCS. The first-class education I had access to is of the utmost privilege; I recently visited a school in a refugee camp in Lebanon riddled by bullet holes, with 10-yearold Syrian children begging on the streets of Beirut. I often can’t square the circle with myself: how can I have been discussing Jane Austen and Wilfred Owen at age 10 whilst a child of that same age born by accident into the wrong time and place fights for survival.

My solution has been to act. The 14 years I spent at NLCS made me the person I am – and if that person fails to mobilise the opportunities that I had from the youngest possible age, then I have not done justice to what I received. As was marked on the First School assembly hall, ‘of those to whom much is given, is much expected.’

I’m a firm believer in volunteering, for pet causes or things I enjoy

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Susanne Christian (Class of 1976)

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’m a firm believer in volunteering, for pet causes or things I enjoy – sometimes combining the two – using existing skills (writing, editing, organising) or learning something new. Here’s a taste of what I’ve been up to recently.

Keen to ‘do my bit’ during the pandemic, I became an NHS volunteer (natty orange polo shirt!) greeting everyone arriving at the main doors while firmly ensuring they used the gel, wore a mask and had no symptoms, including telling taxi drivers that they could no longer walk in and use the toilets.

During lockdown, I found some at-home opportunities. One was Project Gutenberg which makes outof-copyright books available online.

A worldwide team of volunteers checks the scanned pages for errors, choosing which books to work on from a diverse range. I particularly enjoyed copy-editing crochet patterns (htr, 2dc, ss 4times, etc.), and the history of Sikhism.

What could be more pleasant than wandering the countryside or beach identifying and recording species? Actually, I’m better at recording than identifying (as long as someone spells out the Latin names).

I’m working on my identification skills – sea potato or honeycomb worm anyone? Wisely, the Wildlife Trust only run their sessions until September, but rECOrd identification sessions continue through the winter so I’m looking forward to some days out in the driving rain…

Our local colony of natterjack toads returns to the same pond each year, but they need encouragement to spawn. I did one session of clearing reeds from the pond edges at the beginning of March 2020 and I’m looking forward to resuming next Spring

Finally, I’ve always wanted to join an archaeological dig and this summer I did, helping excavate a Bronze Age site on Moel Arthur, North Wales. Far from just brushing up for the professionals, I cleared out and sectioned postholes and even had a ‘find’!

Oh yes, and I have also been editing a local community magazine for the past few years.

For several years, I’ve been knitting jumpers and bootees for Knit for Peace. Originally sent to Syria, since the pandemic they’ve gone to refugees/asylum seekers and victims of domestic violence in the UK. A good stressbuster.

Once we were allowed out again, I got involved with wildlife recording for the Wildlife Trust and for rECOrd Cheshire. Here in Wirral, we have countryside (including rare lowland heath) and coastline, including several SSSIs. ONLINE - ISSUE 25 | 2022 31

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SHINE FOR SHANI

Juliet’s daughter, Tammy, and her friends who are all current NLCS pupils taking part in The Pulse Challenge

Juliet Berman (Class of 1993)

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s a pupil at NLCS my favourite subject was always biology. Although I did not take to the other sciences, I loved biology (inspired, I am sure by the fantastic Mrs Betts) and I especially enjoyed the study of the human body. I well remember dissecting a heart and being fascinated by the genius of the human circulation system. (It certainly beat the time we dissected a locust and stuck bits of it in our exercise books - but that’s another story!)

I did not know then how understanding the complexities of the human heart would play such a massive role in my life. In 2011 my third child was born - a massive, squishy 10lb baby with loads of hair. But the paediatrician noticed something else - a distinct heart murmur and although this is not unusual, we were referred straight away to Great Ormond Street Hospital. It was there that we were given the shocking news that our baby Shani (short for Shoshana) had a complex congenital heart defect called Pulmonary Atresia with VSD. No amount of A-level Biology was able to help me understand the exact complexities of her little body but very simply her heart and lungs were not joined together normally, she had a large hole in her heart and a long journey of open-heart surgeries, hospital visits and catheter procedures was ahead of her.

stage of her repair surgery she was hospitalised, and her consultant had devastating news for us. She was suffering from ventricular dysfunction, i.e., heart failure, and they would not be able to operate on her. We were to take her home and prepare for the worst. Despite this terrifying prediction, our little miracle baby was not going to listen to her consultant and remarkably, with the help of an array of medicines, she grew stronger, went to nursery and then to school and turned into the fabulous, hilarious, clever, and cheeky little girl that was much loved by all.

Despite Shani’s condition, from the outside she appeared to develop normally. She breezed through her first open heart surgery and grew into a funny, demanding, and adorable toddler. However, as she turned 2 and neared the time for the next

We realised that we wanted to do something big and lifechanging in her memory, so her family and friends set up a charity called Shine for Shani. Running the charity means that we are all talking about Shani, all the time and not only when we

In 2016 we celebrated our son Joel’s Bar Mitzvah, and it was a truly special day, but hanging in the background was the knowledge that her consultant and surgeon were ready to attempt to continue the repair of Shani’s heart. It was a finely balanced decision. On the one hand she was doing OK, despite very low oxygenation levels, so why would we risk that with surgery? On the other, if they left it too long her body would be too weak to attempt the surgery at all. Without it her circulation was not sustainable, so really there was no option. In January 2017 they carried out her second open heart surgery. It proved to be more complex that they had anticipated and after two rocky weeks in Cardiac ICU, tragically our Shani passed away.

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SHINE FOR SHANI

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are feeling sad and tearful. The aim of the charity is to improve the health and life chances of children with heart conditions by funding research into paediatric cardiology at GOSH and other research centres.

Our first target was to raise over £70,000 to support a vital piece of cardiac research at Great Ormond Street Hospital Institute of Health.

The research, led by Professor Tessa Compton, looked at ways to improve the short and long-term success of heart transplants in children, by studying the effects of transplanting thymus tissue from the donor, along with the heart, to see if this helps stop the immune system attacking the transplanted tissues. We also raised enough money to buy 14 new pain relief syringes and pumps for GOSH’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit a place very close to our hearts as it is where Shani spent her final days.

to help fund an incredible piece of equipment at the Schneider Institute in Tel Aviv, called a Holoscope – this incredible piece of machinery allows doctors and surgeons to view and interact with a 3D image of the child’s heart in the air to improve surgical outcomes for children in Israel and across the Middle East.

Our recent challenge has been

Our main fundraising, however, comes from the sporty, family-friendly events that we organise. We held a 12-hour Football Marathon in 2018 with a 12-hour Bake Sale on the side which raised over £10,000. And we planned and ran our own 20-mile sponsored walk from GOSH to Shani’s hometown of Borehamwood for over 100 people which we have successfully run twice and hope to do again in 2023. All our events aim to tie in with a theme of healthy hearts to connect with our areas of research and Shani’s belief that she had a “magic heart.” North Londoners past and present are always welcome!

Many donations come from those who commemorate special occasions by asking for donations in lieu of gifts or by doing individual sponsored challenges, like marathons, screen silences and mini-mudders.

Our older daughter Tammy (current pupil) wrote and sold a poetry book for her Bat Mitzvah, called ‘Rainbow Rhymes’ (copies still available). We have also been supported by charity collections at a number of schools, including NLCS, who generously donated money from a Year 7 bake sale and other events.

For more information visit our website www.shineforshani.org or follow us on Facebook.

Juliet and her daughter Shani

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You Can Change the World!

Everyday Teen Heroes Making a Difference Everywhere

Margaret Rooke (Class of 1979)

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he idea for ‘You Can Change the World’, a book of interviews with ‘everyday teenage heroes’, came from a wish to help teenagers who feel stuck, not sure of the direction they want to take in their lives. The young people I spoke to for the book have found ways to make a difference in their own life and the world around them. They’ve felt inspired to change their communities and the wider world for the better.

campaign for free sanitary protection where it’s needed, another is campaigning to raise awareness of prostate cancer, having lost his father at a terribly young age.

Some have overcome their own difficulties and used this as a platform to influence their peers. Others have focussed on an issue they feel isn’t right and have pledged to help change it.

Teenagers are so often portrayed in a negative light, and I wanted to show the other side.

The teens in the book could be yours or mine. They are volunteers, fundraisers and campaigners. They stand up against bullying, support those who have less than they do, and fight for a better environment.

One, at just 14, persuaded Tesco to stop selling eggs from caged hens; another successfully launched a

Everyone knows that teens are strongly influenced by their friends, and this is often presumed to be a bad thing, but this influence can be positive, with friends encouraging each other to behave with this kind of compassion and generosity.

As Trisha, 18, who invented a way of dealing with cyberbullying, told me, “My message to all teens and tweens is to have faith in yourself.

Lead with your strengths. Chase after your passion and ignore the naysayers.”

“Every teenager has the potential achieve something meaningful – and the world can be made a better place.”

You Can Change the World! by Margaret Rooke (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) £12.99 https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Can-Change-World-Difference/dp/1785925024/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MYAWSRZ3F7DU&keywords=You+can+change+the+world&qid=1641986803&s=books&sprefix=you+can+change+the+world%2Cstripbooks%2C866&sr=1-1

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Co Bo rn ok er ANN MILTON (NÉE RICHARDSON) Class of 1979 Ann Milton has lived in Brussels for many years. When she recently joined the local English language writing group she heard they were producing an anthology, submitted some work and had two poems accepted. This is her first published work and it is a thrill she recommends everyone tries! The cross section of many nationalities with different stories to tell in prose and poem creates a fascinating snapshot of people.

The anthology (still available from amazon) is entitled, ‘The Circle 19: A Brussels Anthology’, with her poems “Releasing a Poem” and “Silent Struggle” included.

BARBARA LAMPLUGH (NÉE TALBOT) Class of 1967 I’ve lived in Granada, Spain since 1999 and this has helped me write authentically when setting my

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novels in Spain and writing from the point of view of Spanish as well as English characters. Secrets of the Pomegranate, set in Granada, was published in 2015 and tells the story of two sisters with a secret. My second novel, ‘The Red Gene’, was first published in April 2019 and relaunched in 2021. Set partly in Spain, partly in England, it spans three generations of women, starting with an English nurse who goes to Spain with the International Brigades in 1936. It takes in the scandal of the babies stolen from Republican sympathisers for ideological reasons and given for adoption to Catholic families on the Nationalist side.

For more information, see my website, www.barbaralamplugh.com

JEMMA KATTAN (NÉE WAYNE) Class of 1998 “When an old friend reappears in her life, Hollywood screenwriter Lilith is forced to confront childhood demons that threaten to destroy the

world she has created to keep herself – and others – safe. Can she trust anyone? Can she even trust herself?”

Jemma Wayne’s book ‘When I Close My Eyes’ will be published in May 2022 and is available to pre-order now. She is the author of three previous novels: ‘After Before’, ‘Chains of Sand’, and ‘To Dare’. She has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for both The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize and the Waverton Good Read Award.

JULIA HOLLENBERY Class of 1986 ‘The Healing Power of Pleasure’ (Findhorn Press) is about trauma and healing, science and spirituality, relationships and the earth - it is timely and timeless! It helps people move through personal and social barriers, rediscover their body wisdom for navigating uncertain times well, and enter the Universe of Deliciousness a realm of delight. A wonderful read for Christmas, Valentine’s or anytime!

ok er Bo rn Co HELEN LAWRENCE Class of 1969

LIZZY BARBER

EVE MASON

Class of 2005

Class of 2017

‘Out of her Depth’ is due to be published on 28th April 2022. A highly addictive thriller set in sundrenched Tuscany, exploring toxic friendship, manipulation, seduction and desire. Lizzy Barber’s critically acclaimed debut novel ‘My Name is Anna’ (2019) won the Daily Mail First Novel Competition.

Eve Mason published five previously untranslated German nineteenthcentury fairy tales by women writers in her book, ‘A String of Pearls’ (2020), funded by the Oxford German department and Lidl. Eve won the inaugural Lidl Year Abroad Project Prize for her fairy tale translation project while in her final year at Oxford studying English and German. According to the project’s press release, the original goal of the project was to publish on a blog, but Eve then acquired funding to self-publish the book, which was illustrated by professional artist Susan Sansome. Eve also enlisted Oxford tutors as well as Nick Massey, a former teacher at NLCS, as editors for her translations, as well as Dr. Joanna Neilly, who wrote the book’s foreword. Eve has since moved to Berlin to complete an MA in contemporary literature and publishing at the Freie Universität.

MERYL YANKELSON Class of 1998 Meryl Yankelson has published a novella in 2020, titled ‘Kitchen Knives and Insta-lies’. – Meryl Yankelson’s (pen name: Elise Lowe) novella is about a former TV producer turned stay-at-home mum who finds a secret outlet for her angst and grievances against her husband through Instagram. Her fame and growing financial independence soon puts a strain on her marriage; meanwhile, her 10 year-old son’s obsession with keeping loved ones ‘safe’ has devastating consequences.

Helen wrote ‘How Hampstead Heath Was Saved’, a look at the campaign to save Hampstead Heath in 19th century, which was at the heart of what became the new conservation movement. Extensive new research has uncovered layers of fresh information about this fascinating story and rediscovers the remarkable people who played their part in the battle to save London’s commons.

The book examines the political and social upheavals, the cultural developments that led to a new understanding of the value of open space, and the rise of Town Planning.

The book tells, for the first time, the story of the Heath & Hampstead Society in the 20th century when they played a significant part in the development of modern democratic accountability. Last year the book won the London & Middlesex Archaeological Social (LAMAS) publication awards for the Best Book 2019/20. Frances Mary Buss, who lived in King Henry’s Road, contributed to the campaign to save Parliament Hill.

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DOING GOOD

s e v i h c r A Article T

he School archive collection reflects the passage of history at the School, and as such contains a variety of material including items concerning Miss Buss and the development of the School, the early days of the education of women and teacher training, as well as information on staff and pupils throughout the school’s history. Related subjects include the interests of

prominent staff, such as Sophie Bryant’s involvement with the Suffrage movement. It also holds information on the history of the School’s sites and buildings, with the collection relating to James Bydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and owner of Canons being of particular interest.

The collection is used extensively within school to support teaching, bringing

history lessons alive in enabling pupils to handle primary documents. It also heavily used by academics, researchers and genealogists, and we are constantly surprised by the new information we find when responding to enquiries. For example, a professor researching ‘Alice in Wonderland’ discovered through our collection that pupils put on a play the year after the publication of the book, making it probably the very first performance of ‘Alice’.

Similarly, we have carried out research on Isabel Ellie Knaggs (1893-1981) who made an early and outstanding contribution to the X-ray analysis of organic compounds.

We are always happy to receive enquiries from ONLs, and indeed many of our resources are available online for you to view, including the entire school magazine from its beginnings in 1875. You may find your own contributions!

You can find more detail on our website at http://library.nlcs.org. uk/archive.html or feel free to contact Jenny Bartlett, Head of Library and Archives, or Rachael Porter, School Archivist.

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THE DESTINATION OF LEAVERS 2021 SUBJECT AREAS 20

MEDICINE

8 ENGLISH

10

8

ECONOMICS 7 PPE

LANGUAGES 6 HISTORY

TOP

8

Durham

11

Oxford

9

UNIVERSITY DESTINATIONS

Cambridge

18

University College London

9

King’s College London

12

Warwick

STUDENTS STUDING AT UK UNIVERSITIES Birmingham (1), Bristol (5), Cambridge (9), Cardiff (1), Durham (8), Edinburgh (6), Imperial College London (6), King’s College London (9), Leeds (4), London School of Economics (2), Manchester (1), Nottingham (5), Oxford (11), Queen Mary University of London (3), Southampton (1), University College London (18), Warwick (12)

STUDENTS STUDYING AT INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITIES Stanford University (1), University of California, Los Angeles (1), Yale (1)

McGill University (1)

Students have chosen to take a gap year and will apply for entry to university in 2023

The impressively wide range of disciplines taken up at Higher Education by the Class of 2021 include: Architecture; Biochemistry; Biomedical Sciences; Bioprocessing of New Medicines; Chemical Engineering; Classical Studies; Classic; Computer Science; Dentistry; Design Engineering; Drama; Economic Studies & Global Sustainable Development; Economics; Economics & Management; Economics & Politics; Engineering; English; English & German; English Literature; Financial Mathematics & Statistics; French; French & German; Geography; German & Italian; History; Information Management for Business; International Social & Political Studies; International Relations; Law; Liberal Arts; Mathematics; Mechanical & Electrical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Medicine; Modern & Medieval Languages; Modern Languages & Cultures; Natural Sciences; Pharmacy; Philosophy; Philosophy & Russian; Philosophy, Politics & Economics; Psychology; Sociology; Spanish & Latin; Sport & Exercise Sciences; Theoretical Physics; Veterinary Medicine

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Annual General Meeting DOING GOOD Saturday 21st May 2022

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting 2022 of the Old North Londoners’ Association will be held at North London Collegiate School, Canons, Canons Drive, Edgware, HA8 7RJ on Saturday 21st May 2022 at 9:30am AGENDA:  APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE  MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING  MATTERS ARISING  SECRETARY’S REPORT  PRESENTATION OF ONLA ACCOUNTS  ELECTION/RE-ELECTION OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND VICE PRESIDENTS  ANY OTHER BUSINESS

All ONLs are more than welcome to attend. The Association is run for the benefit of ONLs, and we would be delighted to receive your input.

If you would like to attend, please contact the Alumnae Office by 9th May 2022.

If you would like to nominate another ONL for election or re-election to the Committee at the AGM, please contact us for information on how to nominate and the forms.

Email: onla@nlcs.org.uk

Buzz Square Frances Mary Buss has over 2,600 friends on Facebook and over 1,100 connections on LinkedIn. If you would like to become a member of the online ONLA community, please add Frances Mary Buss on Facebook and connect with us on LinkedIn. Please also join ONL Connect, our social media platform only available to members of the NLCS Community. We have many regional and career networking groups, as well as groups dedicated to each year group.

Forthcoming Events 2022 MAY 21st Classes of 1970, 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2012 Reunion

JUNE 12th

ONLA Summer Picnic

23rd Classes of 2019 and 2020 Reunion

SEPTEMBER 7th

Class of 2021, 1 Year Reunion

12th Class of 1971, 50 Year Reunion 19th Class of 1972, 50 Year Reunion

The Frances Mary Buss Fellowship ONLs and indiviuals who remember North London in their Will become members of The Frances Mary Buss Fellowship and receive a silver daffodil pin in recognition of their support to the School. Members are invited to annual events, hosted by the Headmistress, to recognise their commitment and support. If you would like to receive an information pack or speak in confidence about leaving a legacy to North London, please contact Gavin Mann, Director of Development: 020 3946 8933 gmann@nlcs.org.uk.

Thank you

Legacies For those who valued their time at North London, a legacy is a powerful way of giving something back, as well as providing opportunities for the next generation of students.

Since its earliest days, North London Collegiate School has been the grateful beneficiary of legacy gifts, providing a vital source of funds. Bequests, big and small, have helped shape the School from its foundation to the present day. Over the years, legacy gifts have helped fund bursaries and support sport, science, music and the arts, and 40 ONLINE - ISSUE 25 | 2022

enable the School to build important capital projects. A legacy is one of the greatest gifts you can make and is a lasting testimony to your affection for the School. Bequests can be made for bursaries, for a specific project, or used ‘where the need is greatest.’

North London is a registered charity, so all legacies to the School are exempt from Inheritance Tax.

We want to thank all those who helped our NLCS students last year. In 2021, the School welcomed 119 visiting speakers at various societies, 83 speakers for the annual Careers Convention, 50 volunteers to help with mock university interviews and 65 career mentors. Thank you to everyone who was involved for helping to enrich our students’ educational experience and support their future education and careers.