Bulletin Summer 2021

SUMMER 2021

HEAD’S LINES...

Dear Readers

A PAN-TASTIC PRODUCTION! The Summer Term traditionally sees Year 6 pupils bid farewell to their time at Withington Girls’ Junior School through the Strawberry Serenade. Typically, the show is performed to an audience but for the second year ‘curtain up’ became ‘cameras rolling’ to tell the story of Peter Pan.

Filming took place over several days in the the Arts Centre, adorned in blue screen to enable its transformation into Neverland post-production. Year 6 pupil, Lara, who played Shadow and Mermaid said: “ The creation of Peter Pan was a heartwarming experience.

The effort put into the show by both the pupils and teachers made the production look so much better than any of us ever imagined. We are so grateful to even have the production filmed because of the pandemic.

A smile is always found whenever Peter Pan is mentioned.”

Continued on page 2...

Welcome to our Summer Bulletin 2021, our final bulletin of this extraordinary academic year. When we all returned to the school building in September following the first periods of remote learning in 2020, we knew that this academic year would bring its share of challenges for schools, as it has for so many, and I would like to thank you all for the way you have supported the School through this time. As we now reach the end of this term, we can reflect on all that has been achieved and sustained throughout this year. A fantastic team effort has seen Withington support its pupils, their families, and its staff, and continue to provide an outstanding education, whether in person, remotely or blended, academically and in all facets beyond the classroom.

This term has been busy and rewarding.

Our Year 11 and Year 13 pupils have worked very hard towards their assessments, after the disappointment of the cancellation of public examinations, and we hope that they are enjoying a well-deserved break as they look to the next stage. Our teachers have worked tirelessly to support them and have also made sure that many of the other activities that make for a very special WGS summer term have not been overlooked, even where they have required a more ingenious approach than normal!

Examples include our virtual Model United Nations Conference, the twelfth organised and hosted by WGS, and attended by many schools from near and far – even including an international dimension! House events continued in both Junior and Senior Schools with friendly House rivalry in evidence across Sports Days and Drama,

Continued on page 2...

...Head’s Lines, continued from page 1...

where in that very important and striking Withington tradition, older pupils encouraged younger girls, setting a brilliant example and providing excellent role models. A range of musical activities continued to inspire us and lift the spirits and many girls from Year 9 upwards showed grit and resourcefulness as they worked towards their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Citizenship Day was a particular highlight of this term as pupils across the Senior School engaged with themes around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, bringing such a thoughtful, enquiring, and respectful approach to these complex and vital issues of our time. And at the end of term we shared a very special day with our Upper Sixth, the Class of 2021, on the last day of their school career. Following the cancellation of Founders’ Day due to the pandemic, we were determined to mark and celebrate the achievements and contributions of this outstanding year group. In a special Founders’ Assembly, a first for WGS, we were able to share in some of the defining characteristics of a Founders’ Day, not least the presentation of a book to each leaver, a gift to them from the School. This is a long-standing Withington tradition and part of the School’s ethos of a love of learning.

We wish all who leave this term all the very best, both pupils and staff, and thank them all for the part they have played in the School’s story. Thank you also to all parents, alumnae, governors and trustees.

We look forward to the next chapter which begins in September and in the meantime, I wish you a safe, restful, and most enjoyable summer.

With my best regards

MRS SARAH HASLAM Headmistress

...Continued from page 1...

All the Year groups were involved once again and it’s been wonderful hearing the girls as they have practised songs and dance routines in the hall. Upper II, of course, take the main acting roles and Mrs Sargent, Director of Music, has nothing but praise for the pupils for the way they have thrown themselves into learning lines, stage directions and how they have conducted themselves in general.

The collaborative effort spanned both Junior and Senior Schools with the Music Department at the helm and support provided from other areas, including DT pupils creating props such as swords, bows and arrows and crocodile headwear. The show also features some special guests, including Junior School Head, Ms Howard.

The accomplishment with which the girls performed was particularly impressive as they acted and sang against the backdrop of the blue screens with only their imaginations to paint the scenery of Edwardian London and the landscapes of Neverland.

Ms Howard said: “ They took it all in their stride and I think they will be stunned when they see the result. Why? Because our wonderful technicians, Eliott Peterken and Joe Walsh have worked their Peter Pan-like magic, adding special effects galore to bring this wonderful production to life. The challenge this production brought with it and the success it has known, truly showcases the very best of pupils and staff at Withington.”

Click here or scan to view a compilation of songs from

Peter Pan

FOUNDERS’ ASSEMBLY

On the last day of term, the spirit and ambience of a Bridgewater Hall Founders’ Day commemoration was transported to the School Arts Centre in the form of a special Founders’ Assembly. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue filled the air, as is traditional when everyone gathers before celebrations begin. Choral singing was still prohibited under Covid regulations but, as ever, where there is a Withington will there is a Withington way: The Year 12 and 13 Instrumental and Voice Ensembles gave superb renditions of Gaudeamus Igitur for the opening of the Assembly and of Go Forth With God at the close – recorded in their bubbles and then mixed.

The outgoing Upper Sixth, the Class of 2021, were present, while the rest of the School watched a live stream from their Form rooms. On the platform were the Senior Leadership Team, the Head and Deputy Head of Sixth Form as well as a long table, as is tradition, bearing the chosen books of Upper Sixth pupils.

Headmistress Mrs Haslam began, saying:

“ This has been an exceptional year, the like of which none of us has seen before. A year that has brought challenge and difficulty as we have all faced the impacts of the pandemic. A year in which change and uncertainty has at times felt like the norm.

But a year in which the school has not been found lacking; in which, through our determination to do the best we can for each other, to care for each other and to focus on what we know matters, the Withington community has pulled through and the Withington spirit stayed strong.”

Paying tribute to the Upper Sixth, she said:

“ Throughout this time, our Upper Sixth girls have been outstanding. As the most senior students in the school they, along with the staff, knew what must not be lost and they have been inspiring role models to younger pupils. They have helped to make good things happen. They’ve worked hard, and they kept the flame burning. I am very grateful to them all.”

The recital of the Founders was read out in full by the Deputy Head Girls ending with the evocative line: “ ...in the imagination of our thoughts, keep we their name.”

Mrs Haslam then concluded:

“ The founders of Withington wished for its pupils a lifelong love of learning for its own sake, a recognition that an understanding of how knowledge and learning enrich us and can help to sustain us throughout our lives. It’s in that spirit, and one that Withington has long held dear – the tradition whereby all Upper Sixth receive a book of their choice.”

The Head and Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Ms Robinson and Mrs Wallis, presented the Upper Sixth with their chosen books as the School’s gift to them as they look to the next stage of their lives. The traditional presentation was emulated as each student crossed the stage to the soft but awe-inspiring tones of Widor’s Symphonie No 4 – Movement III.

The next tradition, of course, was the Head Girl’s speech and, following the presentation of the books, 2020-21 Head Girl, Natasha Arora, stepped up to the lectern. Natasha picked a theme of likening her final year at Withington to the final chapter of an exciting novel and how she would organise the chapters.

Chapter One would document her first year in the Senior School recounting how the strong bonds of her Year group were forged from Day One. She continued: “ Adapting to change is something that would be addressed in the midsection of my book, from Years 8 to 10 where my characters are settling down into friendship groups, educational preferences and are willing to step out of their comfort zones to follow their dreams. Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire best sums it when he says, ‘it matters not what someone is born but what they grow to be.”

Natasha recounted the Upper Sixth’s journey through the years peppered with humorous stories of the fun of the biennial Whole School Dance Competitions and later, grappling with online learning and Microsoft Teams.

Natasha continued:

“ In most novels, there is a plot twist, and in mine, you can guess, a virus outbreak occurs in a nation far, far away and where a global race for a vaccine competes with an exponential ‘R’ number. As well as the lessons learned from Years 7 to 12, this chapter could teach us life lessons on how to cope with uncertainties and help us become our favourite Withington word – ‘resilient’.”

“ ...The spine of my book is very strong, and it keeps all the pages together providing individual foundations whilst uniting us as a Year group.

No amount of technology, pandemics, or forced change can alter the dynamics between our Year Group whilst we enter the next phase of our lives and our directions take different pathways.

Relationships are built on trust, common ground and shared experiences and, even though we’ve not been physically together for the two lockdown periods, I feel the six years which preceded this unusual time have allowed us to build strong bonds and unbreakable friendships.”

Mrs Haslam concluded the Assembly saying how apt, in this time of a pandemic, were the wishes of Withington’s founders of advocating knowledge through difficulty, rather than success through ease. “ We’ve seen afresh the power of learning through the development of the vaccines, the capacity of music and the arts to move and inspire, the wonder and the healing of nature and the outdoors. And, here in School, we learned that once again there is very little that we cannot do when we work together and when we focus on what really matters, and that is our learning and our humanity.”

MRS PENNY WILLIS Marketing Officer

GCSE & A LEVEL ART EXHIBITION 2021

“ Painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness and some fantasy.

When you always make your meaning perfectly plain, you end up boring people.” Edgar Degas This year, pupils and staff were able to enjoy a scaled-down, but nonetheless inspiring, exhibition in part of the Hub - but with visitors into School still restricted, a more comprehensive digital exhibition similar to last year was mounted and this was shared with parents, pupils, staff and alumnae. While the immediacy and impact of seeing the wonderful colours and textures in true reality can never be emulated, the digital exhibition was beautifully created and certainly reflected the depth of talent and imagination and all the hours of thought, planning and realisation achieved by our fantastic artists.

Every year, our Upper Sixth artists title the show and, this year, the word ‘undertones’ was democratically selected for interesting reasons. In Art, undertones are usually thought of as being the first layers of a painting which form the foundation of composition but more importantly, they set out the important tonal values from which the rest of the painting will follow. The Upper Sixth felt that the word encapsulated all their projects in some way, and they thought that the word would prompt viewers to think more deeply about the roots, layers and meaning of their work.

Head of Art Mrs Ruth Fildes said:

“The whole show is a tremendous achievement on the part of all our immensely talented artists, who have worked incredibly hard over what has been the most unusual and testing two-year period for them in their lives and, indeed, in their education. I can honestly say that every one of these students has risen to and overcome all the added challenges thrown up by the pandemic. They should be immensely proud of the personal growth that they have shown and the outstanding artworks that they have each so thoughtfully created.

The Upper Sixth have simply been a joy to teach. As a group, they have shown determination, commitment and creativity that knows no bounds. Their very individual and personal projects have been devised and driven by themselves and cover such a wide range of subjects, from the natural and built environments, to the human condition and mythology, and spanning disciplines such as animation and illustration to sculpture and installation and, of course, the wonderful staples of drawing and painting. They have inspired me greatly over the past two years. I know they have such bright, creative futures ahead.”

Mrs Johnston added: “As well as developing technical ability and artistic expertise, the students also enhanced their knowledge and understanding of contemporary and historical artists. Exploring themes such as the Holocaust, the ways in which women present themselves in art, landscape, portraiture, trompe l’oeil and mythology, their work reflects their independence of mind and differing interests. This diversity has encouraged sophisticated artwork and well-developed written analysis in their Related Studies. How experiencing trauma impacts creativity and alters expression, how Monet represented the passage of time and how artists have used form, composition, and texture to explore the effects of nature, were just some of the questions students posed themselves. We are exceptionally proud of how motivated and hard-working the Upper Sixth have been throughout their final year at Withington, and there is no doubt their work will be highly influential to the next generation of artists coming through the School.”

Mrs Fildes continued:

“And now to the tremendous Upper Fifth, what a mature and sophisticated GCSE show, displaying skill and ideas beyond their years.

Each pupil should be thrilled with their very thorough coursework portfolios, which have been created with such care. Their versatility in working from such different genres such as natural forms and portraiture is just brilliant and testament to their adaptability and level of technical prowess. They too have been a delight to work with over the past two years and I am very much looking forward to continuing to help with their creative endeavours at A Level next year.

I would like to say a huge thank you to the simply outstanding Art Department staff alongside whom I work. Their absolute passion in all that they do is simply second to none and so crucial to all the successes you see within this exhibition. I do hope you enjoy all the work here and I encourage you just to take a few moments longer to really appreciate each and every work of art and the ‘undertones’ which have been vital in their creation.”

MRS RUTH FILDES Head of Art

Click here or scan to view UNDERTONES

DANCE SUCCESSES

Year 9 pupil Isabelle Burns and her partner Tim became Champions in the Under 21 Ballroom Five Dance Competition at the 2021 Amazing Vienna Dance Festival.

They danced Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz and Quickstep.

The Covid pandemic has caused all live British Ballroom and Latin American competitions to cease. British Dancers have had to travel internationally or compete online. This was a wonderful opportunity to compete against international competitors in front of international judges.

Younger sister Valentina in Year 7 has been invited to become a Mid Associate of the Royal Ballet School. Last summer, during the pandemic, she attended the Royal Ballet School’s online lessons and was spotted and invited to the Spring Intensive at the Royal Ballet School at White Lodge during Easter 2021. She has also been selected and invited to attend White Lodge again this August.

Well done to both Isabelle and Valentina!

SUMMER TERM CHARITIES 2021 It has been another unique term for staff and girls alike, as once again, we have had to adapt and be creative with our ways to raise money.

Our first whole school fundraiser was for the Captain Tom Foundation, which was set up in memory of the wonderful man who inspired the nation in lockdown. We ran a Captain Tom 100 Challenge in which pupils were called upon to carry out an activity 100 times in honour of Captain Tom’s 100 laps around his garden last year in aid of NHS charities. Across both Junior and Senior schools, pupils and staff eagerly took part in the Captain Tom 100 Challenge through baking, jumping, cartwheels and more! Alice in Year 12 decided to tell 100 jokes around school and even put them all together in an hilarious film. Over £500 was raised.

Money was donated to a variety of charities including The Mix, Young Minds and Place2be supporting our young people’s mental health as we emerge from the Covid crisis.

Members of the Gambia Team have been busy thinking of creative fundraising and recently held an ice lolly sale which went down very well with pupils as it coincided with a spell of warm weather. They raised an impressive £424 keeping the school cool.

Sisters Mallika (Year 12) and Nithya (Year 10) Kumar have been raising money for the Covid crisis in Chennai, India, and so far, have raised over £2000. We wish them all the best as they continue to try and reach their target of £10,000.

Our very own Head of Drama, Mrs Berry, ran for the Christie charity in the Wilmslow 10K run. So far she has raised over £1800!

Donations have continued to come through this term for the local Withington Foodbank and I would like to personally thank everyone for their kind donations, they really do make a difference.

Citizenship Day ended the term with a non-uniform rainbow own-clothes day. Money was donated to a variety of EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) charities and Year 7 Form charities, including Make a Wish Foundation, WWF and the Wood Street Mission.

Despite this being a challenging year for many reasons, the Withington spirit of tenacity and creativity has shone through yet again. This academic year we have raised over £15,000 for good causes. Many thanks to all parents, staff and pupils who have put their time and energy into raising money and helping those in need.

MRS NADINE MORGAN Charities Co-ordinator

PHYSICS PARTNERSHIP

Six Lower Sixth Physicists, working in pairs, coordinated after-school sessions for pupils at St James’ C of E Primary School on topics of light, energy and electricity. Presenting via Microsoft Teams, WGS pupils created several experiments for each lesson, including making volcanoes and extracting the colour from Skittles sweets (though the children were quite keen to eat them!).

Prior to each session there was a pre-event meeting with the teachers at the primary school so they understood what the pupils were hoping to achieve.

All the equipment needed for the experiments was provided by WGS and sent to the school in advance.

Mrs Bradshaw, Head of Science, who helped the pupils coordinate the sessions said:

“ The challenge which the girls have faced and the organisation required to run these sessions should not be underestimated. The pupils at St James’ have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and the Lower Sixth pupils have learnt a lot about the need for thorough preparation and risk assessing and have grown in confidence to explain experiments and present over Teams.”

The Lower Sixth pupils said of the project:

“ It was a very rewarding experience, despite being challenging at times due to having to present online to the students. We were able to work well as a team under time pressure, which will be a valuable skill going forwards.”

LEARN WITH THE LORDS

In May, Year 12 Politics students took part in Parliament’s ‘Learn with the Lords’ programme. This was a live Q&A session where students put their questions to Lord Colgrain, a Conservative hereditary peer and an active Member of the House of Lords.

Engaging with Lord Colgrain offered our students the opportunity to develop an understanding of the role and function of the House of Lords within the UK Parliament. We asked a range of questions on a number of issues which he answered in detail. Lord Colgrain was an articulate and erudite speaker and spoke with integrity and authenticity and really brought our theoretical study to life.

In his responses to our questions, he reinforced the idea that the House of Lords is full of experts who do a very thorough job in terms of checking and revising legislation sent by the House of Commons.

He discussed his role in the House of Lords and reflected on the hard work he has seen there since he joined in 2017. Lord Colgrain accepted that if reform takes place in the Chamber it is likely that hereditary peers would eventually cease to exist and we discussed both the advantages and disadvantages to the Chamber not being elected. He agreed that politics is too London centric and can suffer from the perception that it is elitist and discussed with the students the possibility of moving the Lords to Leeds, as well as how to tackle the image of the Lords.

He explained the significant work in which the House has been involved as a consequence of Brexit and we also asked topical questions about why the Conservative party did well in the recent elections, whether the Chamber was too big and how to engage younger citizens in politics.

As Lord Colgrain is interested in the environment we also asked what piece of environmental legislation he would introduce if he could and asked about which significant behaviour changes he thought we needed to make with regard to the environment.

This was an engaging and useful educational opportunity that all the Year 12 students thoroughly enjoyed.

MRS JUDE WALLIS

Head of Politics

CHEMISTRY ANALYSTS

On 12th May, 30 of our Lower Sixth chemists took part in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Schools’ Analyst Competition.

The Schools’ Analyst Competition enables Year 12 students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and their equivalents in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, to demonstrate and expand on their existing chemistry knowledge, skills and aptitude for analytical science through practical analytical experiments based on relevant societal or industrial problems.

This year, the students worked in small groups and carried out Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC), solution tests for anions, and flame tests. The results of these experiments were used to identify the source of a theoretical chemical spill in a river. The quality of our chemists’ results was judged by the RSC against all the entries from the Northwest of England.

Congratulations to our winners: Asha Kochhar, Ifra Ahmed & Hannah Whiteson

ARTS AWARD

MISS HANNAH BROWN Arts Award Coordinator

EXPLORE

BRONZE

SILVER

This term, our Junior art enthusiasts have continued with their World of Fashion Arts Award Explore course. We managed to fit many activities into this term, starting with a fun shoe design project. The girls used vibrant fabric paints and marker pens to decorate canvas shoes before we replaced the plain shoelaces with fancy ribbons.

Following this, we created funky pendants and necklaces by moulding multi-coloured silk clay.

All three groups have also researched items held in the Victoria and Albert Museum and studied the work of a local Manchester-based fashion designer. All evidence of our activities has been displayed in unique portfolios that the girls have taken time to decorate. Our group of Upper II girls have also gone above and beyond and pushed forward to complete the award early. They have practised their stitching skills and sewn pretty felt flowers that we then attached to pastel-coloured headbands. They were delighted with the results!

For the rest of the girls, we will resume our Arts Award sessions in the Autumn term, and everyone will have the opportunity to make their own floral headpieces then!

Our large group of Arts Award Bronze girls have completed beautiful sketchbooks that highlight their individualities. They spent many hours researching different artists and arts events and have displayed all their findings in such interesting and creative ways. Their reviews and personal reflections are absorbing to read and the collections of imagery and photographs that they have displayed in their portfolios are fascinating.

Recently, the girls also produced jewellery, keyrings and trinket trays out of air-drying polymer clay and these look completely dazzling and eyecatching! The Bronze portfolios have now been assessed and will be presented for moderation over the holidays. We are very hopeful that many of our talented artists will continue on to take our two-year Arts Award Silver course in the new academic year.

We celebrated the culmination of our Arts Award Silver cohort’s hard work in a relaxed exhibition just before the end of term. This was a lovely event that provided opportunity for both our Year 8 and Year 9 girls to showcase their work to each other and staff members. The event gave pupils the chance to talk about the positives and the personal challenges of taking the Arts Award Silver course. It was particularly poignant for our Year 9 group as they have now completed the course and this was our final session together before many of them take up GCSE Art in September. Our artists should be extremely proud of themselves for putting together such wonderful portfolios that communicate their thoughts and ideas with such clarity. The girls have thrown themselves into completing sketchbooks to such high standards and they have covered every inch of every page with drawings, diagrams, practice pieces, decorations and written annotations. A special thanks goes to Ms Knipe who has been a tremendous support throughout the year and has organised numerous interesting and beneficial virtual meetings with alumnae who work in the creative industries. It has been a pleasure to work with the girls both online and in person this year and we look forward to seeing what artwork they create in the future!

RUTH BAYLEY COMPETITION

WGS alumna Ruth Bayley, a successful illustrator of many children’s books, left a generous gift to Withington in her will. The illustration competition was set up in her memory. The executors of her will, impressed with the standard of work in previous years, donated additional money to the school, some of which was used for this year’s prizes and we would like to thank them for their continued support. The brief for this year’s competition was to design and make a face mask which demonstrates creativity, individuality and personality!

We are delighted to announce that our partnership project, Manchester Sings, will return later this year. Working closely with seven local schools, the initiative brings together children from across our region and pupils from our specially-convened Manchester Sings Choir to perform as a massed choir. Whilst it’s currently unclear if the event will be virtual or in-person, it will be led by Mrs Gilly Sargent, Director of Music, who will be rehearsing with the partner school children in the first half of the Autumn Term in preparation for the final showcase. Withington’s singers began rehearsing and learning the songs during the Summer Term, so preparations are already very much underway!

We are absolutely thrilled that alumna, Charlotte Pang (Class of 2015), agreed to judge this year’s competition. Having studied Art at A Level at Withington, and animation in Hong Kong and America, she now works at an animation studio in California. She was very inspirational in her encouraging video messages, and we thank her wholeheartedly for her time and expertise. Congratulations to all girls who took part in the competition for creating such personal, skilled and creative pieces of artwork. It has been a pleasure to see them around the Art Department.

WINNER:

Evie Jiang 7X

Y7 WINNER:

Margot Tatton 7X

RUNNERS UP: Fatima Jeilani 8X Kimi Tokala 9X Y 8 WINNER: Eshaa Rao 8W

Y 9 WINNER: Sameeha Atif 9Y

HIGHLY Talia Tipu 7Y COMMENDED: Emily Blackwell 7X Gintare Gray 9V Mahreen Choudhury 12C Emma Shean 13B

THE MATRIX CHALLENGE NATIONAL FINAL

The Matrix Challenge is a cyber skills competition open to 11 to 17 year-olds across the UK, created and organised by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Cyber Crime Unit. The Challenge is in the form of a fun online game testing digital skills that would enable a career in cyber security. It also tests participants’ knowledge of the Computer Misuse Act and how to stay safe online.

Beginning in January 2020, The Matrix Challenge involved 65,000 participants from around the UK. Avani Rao in Year 10 was one of only 38 pupils from the Northwest to make it to the national final in January 2021. Avani’s achievement places her in the top 1% of all entrants from across the UK.

CONGRATULATIONS TO...

... A sha Joseph and Nadia Rauf for their success in the Cheadle Hulme Foreign Languages Debate Competition where they won both the Quarter and Semi Finals to achieve a place in the Final, which will take place at a later date.

They were calm, great communicators and presented their points convincingly.

Our pupils have been extremely positive and willing throughout this competition that has had to be postponed and adapted to the current world challenges.

Very well done to them all.

YEAR 10 INTERVIEW DAY

On 18th June, Year 10 pupils took part in our very first whole year-group interview day, organised by Mrs Cottam, Head of Careers, in conjunction with the Development Team. In the morning, students learnt about what makes a good letter of application and received top tips from parents and alumnae on how to succeed at a competency-based interview. In the afternoon, each pupil took part in a mock online interview, putting into practice the skills they had worked to develop during the morning session.

We are very grateful to our volunteers – our wonderfully generous alumnae, parents and other members of the Withington community who gave up time to read the letters of application, interview the students and give them feedback afterwards.

Mrs Cottam, Head of Careers, said:

“ I was absolutely delighted with the way that all of the pupils embraced such a challenging day, and really pushed themselves out of their comfort zones, in spite of some self-isolations and a few technical challenges.

The volunteer interviewers were incredibly complimentary about our pupils and their interview performances. By taking part, pupils have gained valuable skills and insight into the interview and application process and have been able to engage with real labour market information in areas that are of potential interest to them and their future career aspirations.”

... Hazel Barrett in Year 11 who was part of the winning team in this year’s Young Social Enterprise competition, which challenges students in Years 10-13 across the UK to create a social action project in response to a challenge in the developing world. Hazel’s team won the national competition with a project that focused on improving life prospects for teenage girls in a district of Ghana.

The most common feedback from pupils was that the interviewers were extremely friendly and helpful with their feedback and that the whole process wasn’t nearly as intimidating as pupils were expecting. We hope that students take forward not just the skills that they developed, but a real sense of achievement from participating in a process that even experienced professionals find daunting. They should feel extremely proud of themselves.

BIOLOGY CHALLENGE

In May this year all Year 9 and 10 students took part in the Biology Challenge, an international competition run by the Royal Society of Biology.

This is the first time that we have entered Year 9 for the competition.

The challenge consists of two multiple choice papers which question students both on content from the GCSE specification and on topics that are outside the specification.

We are delighted that so many of our students have received certificates, with a staggering 82 awards in total. This includes six Gold, 11 Silver, 22 Bronze, 24 Highly commended and 19 Commended.

Students who achieved a gold medal are placed in the top 5% of students who competed across the country. Special mention goes to Niha Gudena who scored the highest mark in school. Well done to all who took part.

YEAR 10 GOLD: Charmaine Chamapiwa, Lily Goodley, Sonali Koku Hannadige, Shriya Reddy & Zunaira Shah

SILVER: Safiya Fazuan, Zainab Gasimmalla, Zaina Ilyas, Laura Johnson-Hadley, Meghana Padeti, Kate Ponter, Bella Smart & Yara Soran

BRONZE: Anushka Acharya, Grace Adams, Anya Gupta, Ananya Koteyar, Aysha Malik, Esha Mishra, Neusha Naderian, Maya Nalluri, Sophie Porter, Avani Rao, Lotta Tully, Alice Wilkinson & Hannah Wilson HIGHLY Mya Aslam, Bella Davidson, Pako El Seehy, COMMENDED: Meli Hurlstone, Larissa Karski, Nithya Kumar, Rosa Littlewood, Amelia Shackleton, Holly Siewe, Piya Singh & Janani Velayutham

COMMENDED: Karen Ayodele, Daisy Button, Isabella Chen, Roma Kochhar, Zainab Mazhari, Saleha Omar, Eliza Towers & Emily Woodward

YEAR 9 GOLD:

Niha Gudena

SILVER: Natasha Butterfield, Haidal MacDonald & Kimi Tokala BRONZE: Uma Abbas, Sophia Betesh, Nikita Chakraborty, Florence Hannaby-Cummins, Bridget Heath, Aarya Kumar, Arabella Nawaz, Erin Samaranayaka & Rhea Sud

HIGHLY Mimi Gu, Adhyavi Gupta, Camille Hyde, Sophia Khan, COMMENDED: Meera Mahadevan, Zaara Mahmood, Ella McManaman, Alyssa Mehta, Eleanor Mitchell, Frankie Penn, Zoe Salmon, Miranda Whiteson & Poppy Winnard

COMMENDED: Megan Ballantyne, Nihaan Dawood, Diamond Fasogbon, Oonagh Mathur, Manal Nasir, Satu Rajashanker, Anika Ramesh, Illiyana Raval, Ariella Shapiro, Daisy Simpson & Esme Torevell

CITIZENSHIP DAY 2021

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION & CITIZENSHIP

I was delighted to organise and share in another Citizenship Day at Withington – one of the highlights of the school year.

This year’s focus was equality, diversity and inclusion.

The day highlighted to pupils that equality, diversity and inclusion are interconnected concepts. Equality is about being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.

Diversity is about representation or the make-up of an entity. Inclusion is about how well the contributions, presence, and perspectives of different groups of people are valued and integrated into an environment.

We are very fortunate here at Withington, where many different races, nationalities and identities are present, and the perspectives of different groups are valued.

We may be diverse, but we strive to be inclusive and treat each other as equals.

The day centred around creating greater multicultural awareness, increasing understanding of sexual equality, as well as celebrating diversity and inclusion to prepare students to thrive in a diverse world.

We were delighted to be joined by several guest facilitators and speakers. Pupils in Years 9 to 13 were joined by Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project. Laura has established herself as a powerful voice for women and girls; a cause furthered by her debut novel The Burning.

She is now an established feminist writer for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Independent.

Her writing covers numerous issues, including the gender pay gap and sexual abuse in schools. She was named one of Huffington Post’s Most Inspirational Women of 2012.

Her talk was informative, thought-provoking and inspirational.

Staff and pupils alike were spell-bound by her presentation which certainly tuned into the experiences of sexism in society, but also gave realistic and sensible advice about how we can all make changes – our act of Citizenship against sexism.

Our second speaker focusing on diversity was Louise Ishani.

Louise is an experienced learning and development professional who worked as a successful primary school senior leader in Inner London before moving into learning and development and school improvement consultancy work.

Louise has worked on the design and delivery of a number of programmes specifically targeted at supporting increased

diversity in leadership, with a key focus on the development of women and BAME aspiring leaders.

She is a Director of All-In Education, who delivered and analysed the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion questionnaire recently carried out at Withington, and therefore could draw upon its findings to ensure the messages imparted to our pupils were relevant and accurate. Like Laura Bates, Louise provided sensible, sensitive advice as to how to deal with issues such as micro-aggression and unconscious bias – our act of Citizenship against racial, and other, prejudice and discrimination.

Years 7 and 8 undertook workshops with BelEve, a girl-focused charity who believe, as we do, that it is crucial to inspire and empower girls and young women to maximize their potential and celebrate their achievements. They have created a positive organisation which empowers girls to realise their dreams, redefining what it means to be a female leader, with the support of a network of positive role models. BelEve worked with Form groups to broach the subjects of staying safe and racial discrimination. Pupils in all years were pleased to have the opportunity to discuss and understand more about these extremely important issues.

All students took part in physical activity during the day in the form of learning basic and easy-to-learn self-defence techniques which were provided by a team from Krav Maga, Manchester, with the aim of giving pupils the confidence to de-escalate or avoid potential threats and to feel safe in their daily lives.

The day was great fun, and the wonderful cookies, ice lollies and food from around the world made it even better! But you don’t need to take my word for it. Here are just a few quotes from the pupils: “ Relevant, engaging. The whole class was captivated from the start!” “ The outside speaker was clearly very passionate about the topic matter and spoke very clearly and engaged me.” “ It was so fun while still being informative. We learnt so much, but it was still fun at the same time!” “ It was really fun learning this as I had never done anything like this before.”

MRS JULIA JOHNSTON PSHCE Coordinator

CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC!

Music has always been at the heart and soul of Withington, playing a major part in creating the ambience and tone for every important event, large or small - at celebrations, commemorations and performances throughout the year.

Even though all these special events and highlights of the school calendar have had to be adapted this year, they have all happened and music has remained the thread weaving everything together.

The first sounds of School waking up each morning will be the sounds of instrumentalists and ensembles learning and playing together and the last of a normal day will be the sound of orchestras and choirs drifting through the corridors, and this has continued throughout the year, even if not always within Withington’s walls.

In the Autumn Term, every Christmas event involving Juniors and Seniors was recreated, meeting all the challenges of staying within Covid regulations. Numerous events were recorded and presented to the various audiences for whom they are usually intended: St Ann’s Church, local senior citizens, parents, pupils and many more.

The Spring Term, almost entirely under lockdown, saw all the usual recital performances coordinated between pupils, instrumental teaching staff, technical staff and Music teaching staff. So impressive was the level of engagement by our musical pupils, the Department was able to release, week by week, 11 different recordings of our talented singers and instrumentalists performing at home to accompaniments previously recorded by WGS Music staff.

Back in School in the closing weeks of the Spring Term, Director of Music, Mrs Sargent, got straight to work executing her plan for the annual early summer concert – a spectacular Night at the West End. Again, with an abundance of talented and enthusiastic pupils at her disposal, the material produced resulted in two recordings released for the entertainment and pleasure of our Withington community as well as the senior citizens who would normally have attended the Summer production on Citizenship Day. Then, in the Summer Term, the whole of the Junior School rehearsed, recorded and performed Peter Pan, The Musical. We were also delighted when our harpists were invited to perform at the installation of Withington alumna and current Governor, Diane Hawkins, as the High Sheriff of Greater Manchester.

Thank you from all in the School community to each and every person – pupils and staff – who has kept music alive throughout the pandemic here at Withington.

MUSIC AWARDS 2021

ABRSM examinations results this academic year have been extremely impressive with 85 girls taking their examinations. Special congratulations go to the following girls on their passes with Distinction and/or achievement of Grade 8.

Harmony Coleman Samyuktha Ganesh Anne George Alayna Kumar Abigail Lauder Grace Marando Arabella Nawaz Maisie Nolan Sophia Nelstrop Emily Porter Mancy Yu Ruby King Manni Tian Isabel Zhao Emily Edge Claudia McLaughlin Mimi Gu Florence Hannaby-Cummins Kate Ponter Georgia Campbell Anna Grayson Anna Grayson Sonali Koku Hannadige Silvia McCarthy Amy Myers

Violin Violin Oboe Violin Violin Violin Harp Violin Harp Piano Harp Flute Flute Cello Horn Flute Piano Singing Alto Sax Alto Sax Oboe Piano Piano Piano Singing

Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 2 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 7 Grade 7 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 8 Grade 8 Grade 8 Grade 8 Grade 8

Pickering Cup for Exceptional Contributions to extra-curricular Music: Amy Ponter & Scarlett Williams Chris Holmes Cup for Music Performance: Asha Joseph Piano recital and outstanding composition

MUSIC COLOURS

We are delighted to announce a new Music Colours Award Scheme. These have been awarded to pupils who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to Music and, this year in particular, to those committed to extra-curricular Music whilst both in school and ‘virtually’.

The full list of Colour Awards and ABRSM results will be published in the 2021 Newsletter.

Our Music Department was very proud to present our virtual ‘Night at the West End’!

The Covid-19 pandemic hit our theatre industry extremely hard, causing huge disappointment for both working theatre professionals and our nation’s regular theatregoers. With theatre practically disappearing overnight, we wanted to bring the joy and excitement of theatre directly back into family homes.

Our virtual production featured many favourite musicals including: • Les Misérables • Sister Act • Matilda

• Phantom of the Opera • The Lion King • Oliver

• Chicago • Evita • Come from Away

Alongside our wonderful Withington musicians, we were joined by some very special guests... a brass quartet direct from London’s West End! Under normal circumstances, Adam Chatterton (the son of our Peripatetic Violin Tutor, Becca Thompson) would have been be playing lead Trumpet in the Orchestra pit of Mary Poppins at The Prince Edward Theatre in the West End. Alongside Adam, we had three additional brass musicians, all regular players across multiple West End Productions, who recorded themselves performing in our virtual concert. A wonderfully exciting addition for our aspiring Withington musicians!

Mrs Sargent began putting together the concert back in the January lockdown. We started with weekly ensemble rehearsals over Microsoft Teams, which, thanks to the enthusiasm and commitment of the students, were extremely productive. The girls then recorded their individual performances at home by following technical advice from Mr Walsh. Upon our return to school, the girls were able to perform once again in their year group bubbles, enabling us to gather them together for some final recordings.

The audio tracks from all the recordings were then merged and edited together by Mr Walsh and combined with the technical wizardry of Mr Peterken’s visuals, Mrs Sargent was able to coordinate an exciting evening of performances from our favourite West End shows!

As part of Citizenship Day, senior citizens within our local community received a wonderfully packaged parcel containing a copy of ‘Night at the West End’ and some shortbread biscuits. These were delivered by WGS staff volunteers and enjoyed by all.

Click here or scan the code to view

A Night At The West End

SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS

Greta was also selected to represent Manchester in the 800m event at the Greater Manchester Schools Athletics championships.

Congratulations!

YEAR 7 ATHLETICS TEAM

U12

5

4

0

1

53

41.5

11.5

U13

5

5

0

0

62

30.5 31.5

U14

5

4

0

1

60.5

21

39.5

U15

4

2

0

2

36

38.5

2.5

TOT

19

15

0

4

211.5 131.5

80

UNDER 15 NETBALL TEAM Congratulations to Sophia Howard, Year 7, on being selected for the Greater Manchester County Netball U13 squad. This is in addition to her commitment to the School team, her local club and Manchester Thunder.

Sophia was delighted to be part of a team that won against Lancashire on 16 July.

Following her invitation to train with Wasps U19s and selection into the Wasps Academy again this year, Hannah Jenkins, Year 13, has been selected by her hub coach to be captain of her franchise netball hub.

Congratulations to Hannah.

Congratulations to Ava Greenwood, Year 8, on being selected for the Greater Manchester County Netball U15 squad.

YEAR 10 ATHLETICS TEAM

DIFF

At the Year 10 event, the track events saw successes with Grace Adams securing first in the 1500m, Eliza Towers second in the 100m and Greta Brooks second in 800m.

AGAINST

It has been another fantastic rounders season for all our teams. Of the 19 played, 15 were strong wins. Well done to all!

FOR

The U15 team secured their place in the National Schools’ Semi-Final which was played at Bablake School in Coventry. Captained by Grace Adams, the team lost by one point in the very last moments of the game. The final scores were 35-36.

LOST

An afternoon of athletics was enjoyed by Years 7 and 10 at the Manchester Schools’ Athletics Competition held at the Manchester Regional Arena on the Etihad Campus on 7th and 14th May. How fantastic it was to compete against a number of schools from across our region, albeit with strict protocols in place to ensure the safety of all involved.

At the Year 7 event, the high jump was dominated

by WGS success with Eve Willey in second (1.25m) and Anna Martin in third (1.20m).

LACROSSE

DRAWN

ROUNDERS

WON

NETBALL

PLAYED

ATHLETICS

Congratulations to Lottie Franey, Year 11, on being selected to take part in the U19 England Lacrosse trials.

CRICKET Congratulations to Meera Mahadevan, Year 9, on being selected to represent the Cheshire Youth Cricket County Girls U15s.

HOUSE TENNIS As part of the Summer Shield, House Tennis took place in the last week of term, with Scott emerging as overall winners.

UNDER 12 ROUNDERS TEAM

UNDER 13 ROUNDERS TEAM

UNDER 14 ROUNDERS TEAM

UNDER 15 ROUNDERS TEAM

LOST

FOR

AGAINST

DIFF

It was a rainy sports day for most of our Senior School pupils, but spirits were certainly undampened. Track and field events were conducted in year group bubbles throughout the day. It was lovely to see our pupils cheering each other on and enjoying the activities together. The Year 7 sports day took place the following week, and they were luckier with a lovely sunny day.

DRAWN

A fantastic season for tennis in the Senior School with every game won.

WON

SPORTS DAY

PLAYED

TENNIS

U12

3

3

0

0

107

42

65

U13

4

4

0

0

139

60

79

U14

3

3

0

0

118

71

47

U15

1

1

0

0

41

9

32

TOT

11

11

0

0

405

182

223

Year 8 and 10 pupils progressed to the final of the county round in the Schools Team Tennis Competition following their wins at Stonyhurst College. Both teams won 12-0 and played some great tennis. This took them on to the Lancashire County Final and the Year 10 team won 8-4 v AKS qualifying them for the next stage of the regional rounds of the LTA Schools Team Tennis competition in September.

YEAR 7-9 TENNIS

YEAR 10 TENNIS

Lejeune are this year’s champions, with Simon in second, Herford in third and Scott in fourth. A very well done to everyone and a huge thank you to our PE department for organising an incredible day for our pupils and to our Sixth Form volunteers for their help.

junior journal...

BARONESS BENJAMIN

HISTORY WEEK

PERSUASIVE WRITING

Transition, Form I and Lower II joined a Zoom event with Baroness Floella Benjamin. The fact that many members of staff remember her from TV appearances in their childhood, meant that they were just as excited as the girls about this, and they were especially thrilled when Humpty put in an appearance!

This event was launched by Mrs Air, Head of History in the Senior School.

She delivered an assembly about Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist and political activist. Harriet Tubman, originally Araminta Ross (‘Minty’), was born into slavery. Mrs Air told the girls of how she escaped and her subsequent missions to rescue other enslaved people, including family and friends.

In the Spring Term, Lower II made an in-depth study of persuasive writing in their English lessons. Pupils invented a product that would enhance people’s lives, created a detailed design and a persuasive advert. Inventions included the C2-D2 robot, the Daydream Pen, the Germ Pen and the ‘Tree of Life’. Pupils then researched businesses that they thought would like to make their product and wrote a letter to persuade them to do so.

Floella is a great advocate for children’s rights and believes in each child feeling special, loved and successful. She entertained the girls with stories of her journey to England as a child and gave advice about how to believe in yourself, and how to find consideration, contentment, confidence and courage - her 4 C’s. It was a very moving event and one that clearly made an impact on the girls.

In class, girls studied other strong female figures throughout history and worked independently to research into their own family trees. The information that they found was presented both in class and at an assembly, and made fascinating listening; the different backgrounds their families come from, how they came to settle in this area, jobs they have done, languages spoken and historical events that they experienced. Some have a very impressive ancestry and we even found out that we have princesses in our midst!

Their research was delivered in different ways too: posters, PowerPoints and one was even ‘rapped’!

Letters were sent off and Lower II were amazed to get some replies! Not only that, Amazon sent some science toys to show how impressed they were with the girls’ inventions and persuasive letters.

Both Amazon and Aldi have passed on details of the inventions to their relevant departments. We could hear back with even greater news on the production of Lower II’s products.

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK British Science Week 2021 was all about Innovating for the Future. We started off the week with an assembly where the girls were able to learn about inventions that changed the world. We discussed what skills are required to be an inventor and we found out that children can be inventors too! During the week, the girls explored different activities centred around the theme of innovation. Form I pupils held an interesting debate on selective breeding! The whole Junior School also took part in the British Science Week Poster Competition. Girls were able to create a poster on anything they wanted, as long as it was related to the theme Innovating for the Future.

We received many fantastic entries demonstrating wonderful creativity.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

MS BRIDGET HOWARD HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL

Technology in the Junior School has evolved dramatically over the last couple of years. The girls have adapted to a completely new way of learning during periods of lockdown and these skills continue to be maintained and developed further in School.

Mr Chris Eccles teaches in each Year Group and often stops to tell me just how impressed he is with your daughters and the progress that they are making in the field of computing.

I asked him if he would put an update together so that you can appreciate the way this subject is evolving in the Junior School and what the girls’ lessons involve.

He writes:

The computing curriculum at Withington has three main strands, Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology, covering a mix of computing theory, software skills and coding.

In addition to learning key skills, computing develops new ways of thinking and is a powerful tool to help solve problems. There is also an emphasis on creativity and how technology can be used to develop original ideas.

Upper II have been coding using Python, a text-based programming language usually introduced in Year 7 or 8. After making a chatbot program, girls have spent recent weeks making an adventure game using their own original ideas. Whilst this has been a lot of fun, it has also introduced some of the major coding concepts and introduced a language they will be using much more in the Senior School.

Our warm thanks go to Mr Eccles for delivering these lessons, which the Junior pupils enjoy so much. As you can see, this area of the curriculum has moved at a great pace!

CHARITY

PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS

Many of our Junior girls took part in the Captain Tom 100 Challenge, to come up with a challenge based around the number 100. Any money raised was donated to The Captain Tom Foundation which supports charities who are, in turn, supporting young people’s mental health as we emerge from the recent crisis.

Congratulations to Manvi in Lower II, who has been selected to play for U11 Lancashire County Cricket – a fantastic achievement. Manvi also plays for the U11 mixed team, U15 hardball girls’ league and the U13 girls’ softball league for Brooklands Club. She is a handy addition to our rounders team!

Mili and Scarlett have made beautiful bookmarks at home. They have sold these to their friends and teachers at school and made a staggering £208.70 which they are splitting between the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (75%) and the RSPCA (25%).

With support from parents and in conjunction with the Senior School, we organised a Midsummer Collection for the local Fallowfield and Withington Food Bank. By replenishing their stocks it is hoped that they will be able to alleviate the serious issue of holiday hunger for those in need in our local area.

Over the year, we have worked on many projects and topics, and I have been enormously impressed by the effort, enthusiasm and talent of the girls. During remote learning, pupils showed great determination and resilience to complete class projects including a Scratch Dance Party, Translation App, Image Editing and managing data with spreadsheets.

STRICTLY JUNIORS

This term the great work has continued as pupils have continued to use their own devices in class.

After learning the basics of the programming language Scratch earlier in the year, Transition have been taking their skills a step further, by learning how to write code to control movement and events in a maze game.

Form I have been using Scratch for game coding with an emphasis on the design and creative elements of games. A range of different games have been examined and girls have been encouraged to use their imagination and creativity to adapt game themes.

Lower II have been learning HTML, the language of the world wide web, and designing and coding websites on their favourite topics.

Trinity received her UKMT Junior Mathematical Challenge result from Northwest Gifted and Talented organiser, Mrs Hoare. Trinity received a silver certificate; a wonderful result, especially considering that this competition is aimed at children in Years 7 and 8. Very well done, Trinity!

PSHCE The NSPCC’s ‘Speak Out. Stay Safe’ is a safeguarding programme available to all primary schools in the UK and Channel Islands. It aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse in a childfriendly, interactive way. This unit of work is an important part of our PSHCE programme. We also welcomed Brook into school this term for the first time in the Junior School. They delivered Growing Up talks to girls in Lower and Upper II.

We have been delighted to welcome Amy and Alex Whyatt into school, from A Class Dance.

They have been engaging our girls in the fun of learning Ballroom and Latin dance, and the after-school club has really taken off! So much so, that they are now hoping to start competition classes too, allowing the girls that wish to do more dancing to take part in team matches and competitions.

junior journal...

CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE Upper II girls thoroughly enjoyed their first trip for eighteen months as they took part in a variety of activities at Challenge for Change.

They impressed staff as they motivated and encouraged each other to push themselves out

of their comfort zones to climb Jacob’s Ladder, conquer the Leap of Faith and test their nerve along the aerial trek. It was an experience they will not forget and was the perfect end to a challenging year.

LETTER WRITING

BIKEABILITY

The whole school, from the admin staff, to teaching staff, to the pupils themselves, were thrilled when a letter arrived from none other than Sir David Attenborough!

This was a handwritten response to a letter sent to him by Henrietta, Poppy and Fiona, highlighting environmental issues and their suggestions to rectify these. The girls were thrilled to receive a reply from a man who has dedicated so much of his life to natural history and the preservation of our environment.

Year 6 recently took part in a course called Bikeability where several instructors came in to teach us bike safety and how to ride your bike around other moving vehicles.

It was an extraordinary experience and everyone in the Year Group passed Levels 1 and 2 and got a badge and Cycle Skills profile. Some of the things that we learned were to observe your surroundings, communicate with other road users, do a bike check, comply with signals, maintain suitable riding positions and much more!

Well done to everyone!

Henrietta writes:

Recently, Poppy, Fiona and I wrote a letter to Sir David Attenborough about the environment. We talked about the crisis we are in and asked if our ideas could be used to help decrease the amount of carbon dioxide there is in our planet. It was overwhelming and unexpected when we got a reply from ‘the’ Sir David Attenborough during the last week of school, which will definitely be a highlight of my year. We were all given a photocopy of the letter, which I will cherish forever and has been put in a photo frame at my house.

NABEEHA

JUNIOR SPORT It has been fantastic to return to competitive sport with other schools this term. Rounders, tennis, athletics and even netball have all been played, once the easing of restrictions allowed; needless to say, strict protocols remained in place to ensure the safety of all involved.

In rounders, Upper II played Moor Allerton and Lower II played Cheadle Hulme. This was followed by Form I and both Lower and Upper II, taking on Wilmslow Prep. With one loss against Wilmslow Prep, all other matches ended in wins for Withington.

OUTDOOR LEARNING Form I, Lower and Upper II played our friendly rivals Manchester High School for Girls at tennis, securing a win at home and Upper II took to the rounders pitch, securing a win there too.

Transition, Form I and Lower II also took the MHSG girls on, this time in athletics, and enjoyed an away win for Withington.

Finally, a netball opportunity took both Lower and Upper II to Scarisbrick Hall School; again both of our teams put in strong performances and won their matches.

SPORTS DAY The weather was not at its best for this annual favourite but, having had to miss this last year due to school closures, spirits were not going to be dampened.

The event had to be held in two sessions to allow year group bubbles to remain separate.

Lower and Upper II’s events were held in various different areas: the Sports Hall, fields and on the Astro. However, by the time the younger girls came out for their events, the skies had started to clear and the vast majority of events were held outside. Although we were still unable to

have parents present, Mrs Steer maintained a lively Twitter feed to ensure parents could have some involvement.

Both events were full of atmosphere and excitement with many records being broken.

Hunter just managed to steal a win for Upper and Lower II and then Williams beat Hunter for Transition and Form I. The overall result was Williams 339 and Hunter 308. Well done to everyone – it was a great event!

Upper II spent many happy hours planting and cultivating radish, lettuce and spring onions as part of their extended learning about WWII and how people were encouraged to grow their own food in a time of food rationing.

Upper and Lower II also grew their own potatoes. They thoroughly enjoyed learning how to nurture their plants, ensuring that they had sufficient water and soil, replenishing both as required.

They did an excellent job as, after three and a half months, the time came to harvest them. There was great excitement as the girls dug through the soil to find several varieties of new potatoes of all different shapes and sizes. The harvested potatoes were carefully washed and then taken to the kitchen, where catering staff cooked and garnished them, showing the girls just how tasty homegrown veggies can be. The whole experience of growing these vegetables has been great fun; the girls have really enjoyed planting, tending to the plants and harvesting. Next year we are looking forward to taking our gardening skills to the next level in the Junior School!

FUN DAY At the end of this term, the Juniors embarked on their Summer Fun Day! After a rollercoaster year and the lack of school trips, we decided to have an in-house day of activities. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves, from bouncing on the inflatables, dancing in the disco dome, flipping diablos at circus skills and eating strawberries and ice-cream with their friends. A jam-packed day of frivolous fun!

ONE YEAR...

With the arrival of the pandemic, 2020 - 2021 was a year that will live on in all our memories forever.

Whatever our age, it had a huge impact on our lives. It ignited a range of emotions: sadness, frustration and loneliness, but many good memories were created too; the warmth and positivity felt by the nation as communities supported each other through this extraordinary event in history.

Closer to home, even though schools were closed and friendships missed as we switched to online learning, we enjoyed quality time with our immediate families, learned new skills and rekindled old ones; some of us even acquired new members of our families of the four-legged variety!

Nature too, enjoyed the peace and slower pace of life that lockdown brought, and we were able to enjoy seeing those creatures that would normally hide away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Our collection of 1500 photos - a scaled down version of which is shown here - catalogues this most unusual year and can be seen on the first floor of the Junior School.

alumnae...

HARPISTS PERFORM FOR HIGH SHERIFF

We were very proud that Withington alumna Shamae Griffin (Class of 2020) and Louise Thompson, Harp Teacher at WGS, were invited to perform at the thanksgiving service for the installation of Diane Hawkins as High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, which was held at Bolton Church at the beginning of July. Diane is both an alumna (Class of 1975) and a Governor of our School.

Ms Thomson started teaching the harp at WGS in 2007 and now has the impressive number of 17 pupils aged from 7 to 18, with many previous pupils having achieved Grade 8, including Shamae who also gained a place in the National Youth Harp Orchestra of Great Britain. The Harp Ensemble enjoys regular performances in and outside of school, including at venues such as the Bridgewater Hall and Royal Northern College of Music.

PADDLEBOARDING AROUND SCOTLAND

Ocean advocate and adventurer Cal Major (Class of 2009) is currently spending the summer paddleboarding her way around over 1000km of Scottish coast. Later this year, Scotland will be hosting COP26, the United Nation climate change conference. Cal’s aim is to highlight the importance not only of ocean biodiversity, but our human connection to the seas and the important role that plays. She is filming her trip for a documentary series and is also raising funds for Seaful, a charity she has founded to help reconnect more people to the ocean for mental health benefits and to nurture a connection to our natural world.

During the course of the trip, Cal has battled with the sea around Cape Wrath, Scotland’s most north-westerly point, rescued seabirds tangled in wire, and been shocked and saddened to encounter a drowned humpback whale calf that had also been trapped in debris. She was also joined at one point on her journey by a pod of white-beaked dolphins and had a thrilling close encounter with a group of Orca.

You can follow her progress on her website www.calmajor.com, on facebook @CalMajorOcean or on Instagram @cal_major.

HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES

In April, Alessia Doyle (Class of 2017) was part of a University of Bristol singing group who won the UK finals of one of the world’s biggest a cappella competitions. Her group, ‘The Bristol Suspensions’ wowed judges with their version of The Heartburn Song by American Group Lawrence.

The prestigious competition, the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, was made famous by the Pitch Perfect film franchise. Due to the pandemic the group were unable to meet and filmed and recorded their song remotely from their own homes for the competition which was held online this year. Normally the group would have travelled to New York for the international finals but these were also held online in May. In the run up to those finals Alessia appeared with two other members of the group on This Morning, as well as regional television and radio.

Alessia, who completed her degree in French and Italian this summer, enjoyed singing and performing whilst at Withington and wanted to keep it going during her time at university. She is absolutely delighted that her group are the ICCA UK champions and to have competed against some of the best a cappella groups in the world at the international finals.

Click here or scan to hear the winning entry

@WGSAlumnae @WGSAlumnae Withington Girls’ School

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

Towards the end of June, two of our Sixth Form Bursary Ambassadors, Heather Goodwin and Hana Kurdo, kindly gave up time to join an online event with the Bursary Foundation to talk to Year 5 pupils at local primary schools about what life is like at an independent secondary school.

The Bursary Foundation, founded by WGS alumna Jenny Hopkinson (Class of 2005), works with primary schools to identify pupils with high potential from low income backgrounds and supports these pupils with tutoring and mentoring, so that they and their families are well prepared and well supported before sitting entrance exams for schools such as Withington.

After a challenging school year due to the pandemic, with little or no opportunities for Bursary Foundation pupils to visit schools in person, Heather and Hana, along with bursary recipients from other independent secondary schools, were able to give the pupils a really good idea of what life was like at School. They provided a fantastic insight into school life and answered lots of questions, simultaneously reassuring and inspiring the younger pupils.

We hope that some of them will soon be following in Heather and Hana’s footsteps.

Withington has long held dear principles of social cohesion, diversity and inclusion. The Bursary Fund is integral to our school, consolidating our vision and ethos to create a warm community, centred on equality and opportunity, irrespective of a pupil’s race, religion, social background and financial situation.

Currently one-in-six of the pupils in the Senior School is supported by a bursary. However, in recent years, the number of applications for bursaries has continued to grow and an increasing number of talented individuals are unable to take up their place at Withington as there is simply not enough bursary funding available.

Our immediate aim is to increase our overall bursary provision to include one-in-five Senior School pupils, offering a range of bursaries awarded according to need and rigorously means-tested. Longer term, our aim remains to achieve a ‘needs-blind’ admission policy. Moving to one-in-five is another step to bring us closer to this goal. Regardless of the level of

support that is needed, a bursary transforms the educational experiences and future opportunities for these students.

This summer Withington Girls’ School will be running a telephone campaign.

Current Sixth Form pupils and recent leavers will be calling parents and past pupils. They are looking forward to hearing about your experiences of Withington and how you might like to become involved in our activities – there are many wonderful opportunities.

As well as updating you on how Withington has faced and overcome the challenges of the last year, they will also share our future plans to ensure the Withington experience continues to be the best possible. We are transforming the lives of young women and aim to do more through the bursary programme. You will have the opportunity to help girls shine by ensuring that financial constraints are not a barrier to a Withington education and to support projects that will enrich the education of all the girls in our care.

“ I can promise you that should you choose to give a child the same opportunity that the Bursary Fund gave me, it won’t be wasted. Sparky, bright pupils will take every opportunity Withington can give them and they will come out as sparky, bright adults who are so very, very grateful that a bursary donor opened the door for them.” DEIA (Class of 2020)

NEWNHAM ESSAY SUCCESSES

Year 12 girls continue to immerse themselves in the subject extension classes and various other opportunities.

Many congratulations to Amelia Kloss and Silvia McCarthy who each won a third prize in this year’s Newnham College Essay competitions. Amelia competed in the new Medicine Prize, looking at ‘How could our understanding of social inequities – both in the UK and more globally – shape delivery of medical care in the future?’ and Silvia in the Biological Sciences prize with the title: ‘Replace, reduce, refine: Why do we still need to experiment on animals?’.

Both girls will be receiving their prizes via Zoom and will be invited to visit the College at the end of the summer.

Congratulations also to everyone who completed essays this year; this is a highly valuable process which demonstrates genuine engagement and love for their subject area.

DR CRISTINA VILELA

Oxbridge Coordinator

YEAR 11 END OF YEAR

Dr Smiles, Head of Year 11, had the opportunity to think creatively about how best to use the second half of the Summer Term following the completion of GCSE assessments at the end of May. The desire to participate in group sporting and creative activities, which were limited during periods of lockdown, was strong, and the importance of ensuring pupils felt prepared and confident about embarking on their A Level courses in September was recognised.

Activities were initiated with a Fun Day that included a bouncy castle, zorbing, laser tag and rounders. There was also the option to take part in dancing lessons, to learn a range of ballroom and Latin dances, culminating in a Strictly Come Dancing style dance-off. Lots of activity on preparation for A Levels was a focus for pupils, including an EPQ preparation session for those interested in undertaking this qualification.

The annual 11 to 6 days in the final week of term allowed Year 11 pupils to sample Sixth Form life, using the Common Room and Bistro, wearing their own clothes, trying out new subjects and even having free periods.

We recognise the continued disruption our GCSE class of 2021 have faced, and it was a great pleasure to see the pupils taking part in these activities and enjoying a positive, fulfilling and happy end to their GCSE years.

BIOLOGY OLYMPIAD

In June, Year 12 Biologists were given the opportunity to take part in the annual Intermediate Biology Olympiad. This is an international competition open to all students in the first Year of A Level study and is run by the Royal Society of Biology and UK Biology Competitions.

This year, the competition fell during the Year 12 exam week, so it was with impressive commitment that students took part whilst also revising for, and completing, their internal end of year exams.

The competition tests students’ Biology knowledge and consists of a onehour multiple choice paper with questions on topics likely to have been studied at GCSE and in their first year of A Level.

We are thrilled that many of our students have been awarded medals and certificates.

The results are as follows:

SILVER: Asha Kochhar, Layan Nassier, Sia Sharma, Hannah Whiteson & Libby Wolstenholme

BRONZE: Charlotte Bell, Aleena Khan, Noor Khan, Amelia Kloss, Mallika Kumar & Zahra Shah HIGHLY COMMENDED: Bianca Baier & Eleanor Fernie

COMMENDED: Ifra Ahmed, Niamh Coyne, Rivonia Goswami & Jocelyn Shih

CAFÉ COLLABORATION When it was announced in January that schools would again be closed, the Design Technology and Food and Nutrition Departments created a collaborative project and competition that involved all pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9. The aim of the project was to encourage pupils to work together, albeit from home, to keep them connected, to encourage good communication and leadership skills and to allow for a creative, focused competition.

Pupils were tasked with creating a café including designing a logo, uniform and menu.

Prizes were awarded in several categories across the Year groups including: best overall/most creative concept; best café logo; best uniform; best designed menu; and most interesting menu.

The Design and Technology staff created some wonderful prizes for the winning teams. There were personalised drinks bottles, metal reusable straws, personalised aprons with the groups’ café logo and names created by Mrs Cross. Mrs Levene made mugs with the winning café logos and personalised keyrings with the winners’ initial. All pupils who took part received a certificate.

A special mention goes to 9Y as every single café from that class won a prize.

As part of the competition, our caterers, Holroyd Howe, were enlisted to choose the winning dishes, which would then feature on the Summer Term menus for all pupils throughout school to enjoy.

LETTERS TO A PRESIDENT

The ‘Letters to a President’ competition, run by the University of Manchester’s American Studies Department, inspired hundreds across the UK to write letters to President Biden and Vice-President Harris on what they thought the new administration should prioritise in their first 100 days in office. Incredibly, four WGS pupils received acclaim for their entries to the competition discussing issues of race, climate change and gun violence.

Congratulations to:

METEOR CAFÉ

Y9 WINNER

Y9 COMMENDATION

HALEEMA ASHRAF

DALOLA KAJOPAYE

Y11 WINNER

Y11 COMMENDATION

EVE BECKFORD

MARYAM JAWAD

The chosen dishes were:

METEOR CAFÉ

Beef or Quorn & shredded cauliflower fajitas Aneeka Choudhry, Adhyavi Gupta & Erin Samaranayaka Overall winners:

DAISY CHAIN

CAKE & PUP

Vegan edamame pesto

Vegan vanilla cupcake

Anika Ramesh, Daisy Simpson & Arya Saravana

Lucy James, Holly Moors & Esme Torevell

Herbs & Charta:

Jenny Zhan & Harmony Coleman (7W)

Cafe of Wonders:

Natalia Mei, Reet Anand, Zoe Werner & Ananya Kori (7X)

Lucky Look: Frostbite:

Elementals:

Margot Tatton & Sofia Ahmed (7X)

DAISY CHAIN

Eve Beckford, in her letter to Vice President Harris, wrote:

Ayesha Saif & Zara Amin (7Y)

Aastha Khandelwal, Eshaa Rao, Ciara Halpenny & Sofia Dhawahir-Scala (8W)

‘ ...there has been a great improvement from how the world used to be; the fact that I am writing to the first female African and South Asian American Vice President of the United States is proof of this, and yet there is still much to be achieved.’

Eastern Delicacies: Mancy Yu & Kavitha Gnanalingham (8X) The Oriental Deli:

Faye Davies, Jasmine Meftah & Nanaki Singh (8Y)

The Green Café:

Nihaan Dawood, Zixi Guo & Diamond Fasogbon (9W)

Pangea:

Joy Café: Cup:

Red-Y, Set, Eat:

Sage Street:

Lilly Nguyen, Liyana Malik & Megan Ballantyne (9V) Brianna Cui & Manal Nasir (9W)

Sama Beden, Aarya Kumar, Frankie Penn, Zoe Salmon & Haleema Ashraf (9X) Krishna Bhagdev, Oonagh Mathur, Sameeha Atif & Anequa Fazal (9Y)

Maryam Hossain, Meera Mahadevan & Zainab Vohra (9Y)

The pupils were all thrilled with their prizes and certificates, and the DT & FTT departments report that they will most definitely be repeating a collaboration project next academic year.

CAKE & PUP

Click here or scan to read the letters in full

DofE

The second lockdown in the Spring Term meant that plans for Bronze and Gold Qualifier and Silver Practice Expeditions all had to be postponed.

Eventually, with the publication of the roadmap out of lockdown, we were able to plan a series of expeditions for the Summer Term ensuring that all girls in Years 9 to 12 were able to complete their awards before the summer break.

On Friday, 16 April, at the end of the Easter holiday, the 49 girls in the Year 10 Silver cohort met in Whaley Bridge for a training day. The day before the walk we were approached by DofE and the BBC to ask if we would allow a BBC film crew to interview some of the girls and to film parts of their walk.

This was to form a news item to be shown on the BBC National News immediately after the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh. We were lucky that the sun shone, and the BBC crew were able to get all the footage that they wanted.

Unable to allow the girls to camp due to the COVID restrictions, even in the school grounds as planned, the Year 9 Bronze two-day expedition became two separate days, but otherwise stayed unchanged from the original plan. The girls met at Dunham Massey and followed the trans Pennine trail to School. Here they set up tents, cooked an evening meal using a Trangia and planned their route for the following day, before being collected and taken home. Returning to School the following morning, they then followed their planned journeys back to Dunham using a different route to the previous day.

Both these walks have some rather unexpected and tricky navigational sections (as we found the previous year using the same routes), so there is quite a challenge here to navigate using maps

DR SUE MADDEN Assistant Head and compasses to ensure that the correct paths are found. The Year 10 Silver cohorts followed the same two-day expedition for their Silver Practice.

In School, they worked around a series of training workshops in the evening before leaving to go home.

The Year 11s were able to take advantage of the changes in the easing of lockdown and so, after the completion of their TAG assessments, they completed the one-day Whaley Bridge walk followed immediately by the two-day walk from Dunham to School and return the following day. However, these girls were able to camp in individual tents at School and rotate around a series of workshops out in the sunshine on the field. The girls found this a challenge due to the very hot sunny weather and very hard walking surfaces for the three days.

We had planned to take the Year 12 Gold cohort away to the Lake District for their Qualifier Expedition at the end of June. Unfortunately, a positive COVID case led to 14 of the girls going into self-isolation, so a reduced group travelled up to Keswick by coach on Tuesday, 22 June. From Keswick, after bag weighing and checking (with excess items removed), the teams trekked down to Borrowdale over the top of Lodore and Watendlath, then down to Rosthwaite and our corner of a field, which was to be home for the next four days. With no more luxuries than two portable toilets and our own sink and tap, the girls all very cheerfully set up camp.

The second day was cloudy but mainly dry and the teams walked from Buttermere back to camp over the top of Hay Stacks and past the Honister slate mine, then down the Honister Pass and Little Gatesgarthdale. The weather held for the third day and each team plotted and trekked a different

circular route, with all passing over the top of Dale Head. The final day was very wet as the girls broke camp and set off back to Keswick, trekking down the Western side of Derwent Water.

The physical and mental challenge of the Gold Expedition should not be underestimated and to complete this successfully as a team requires real determination, mental fortitude, resilience and excellent team morale. The teams are all to be congratulated.

We will now be running a replacement expedition in early October for those girls unable to take part due to self-isolation.

The final expedition of the academic year was the combined Year 10 and 11 Qualifier Expedition.

Unfortunately, we were again hit by self-isolation and so, in the end, our party of 69 WGS pupils was missing four girls at the point of departure on Friday, 2 July. Splitting the group into two, the Year 10s travelled by coach to Gisburn and, from there, trekked to the camp site at Whitehough Outdoor Centre, in the shadow of Pendle Hill in Lancashire.

The Year 11 groups trekked to Whitehough from Clitheroe. We were lucky that the weather was warm and sunny although a little too humid to be comfortable, and with a very high pollen count. The groups were all able to set up camp in the field at Whitehough although some groups arrived in camp quite late. The high pollen count meant that some girls suffered from unpleasant hay fever symptoms.

Overnight showers lowered the pollen count in the morning, but it was a warm and very wet start to the treks on Saturday morning. Different groups followed different routes around and over Pendle

Hill, checkpointed regularly by the DofE staff and WGS staff. Some navigational hiccups, not helped by a field of inquisitive cows with calves, meant that some groups had to re-think their routes with the support of the DofE staff. The morning rain gave way to a beautiful sunny afternoon which helped the groups to get back into camp in good time. The sunny warm weather turned in the evening to a heavy thunderstorm which at least had the benefit of clearing the air.

On Sunday morning, the weather was initially warm and dry, and the groups were all able to pack up the camp site and their back packs and set off on their treks back to Clitheroe and Gisburn before the rain again started to fall. However, all groups were successful in completing their treks and made it to the end in excellent time to be collected by their families.

Like the Gold, we will be running an additional expedition in the Autumn Term for those girls who were isolating and unable to take part.

The 2021-22 expedition cycle starts again on Wednesday, 20 October when the Year 12 Gold Practice Expedition will leave for the Yorkshire Dales.

I would like to congratulate all the girls who were able complete their expeditions at all levels and to thank the DofE team of qualified mountain leaders and assessors who make these expeditions possible and enjoyable for the majority of the girls.

These expeditions would also not be possible without the support of so many colleagues on the WGS staff – Mr Parry, Mr Whelan, Ms Kusznir, Dr Smiles, Mrs Menzies, Mr Lazenby and Mrs Parker.

DRAMA NEWS

HERFORD

LEJEUNE

We have a thriving Drama Department here at Withington and there are many rewarding opportunities and fun activities on offer. This term, for example, over and above the well-established Drama and Tech clubs, Year 7s enjoyed a raucous lesson learning some stage combat techniques such as stage punch, slap or hair pull - all performed safely and convincingly! They then incorporated the moves into a choreographed sequence and included an improvised argument to lead up to it!

We await results from the LAMDA exams this term and these will be reported in the next Bulletin.

Although it has not been possible to stage a big production this year, many of our departing Year 13 students have remained committed to Drama and, over the course of their years at WGS, have dedicated many hours, days, weeks and months to rehearsing whole school musicals, productions or supporting younger pupils’ Drama activities. The commitment and generosity of spirit offered by these students are invaluable in expanding the scope of everything we do in Drama. For their outstanding contribution to school drama, 23 Upper Sixth students were awarded an OCSDA in Final Assembly. The full list will be published in the 2021 Newsletter.

Every year, one pupil from Year 13 is awarded the De La Portas Cup for Outstanding Achievement in Drama and this year was presented to Fiona Townsley. Fiona, who studied Drama to A Level, contributed enormously to WGS Drama, including being Director of one of the tales from our 2020 Beasts and Beauties production. She has performed in many productions and supported the Drama Department in her role as a Drama Ambassador, helping to run Drama Club for lower school pupils.

The final Drama event of the year was House Plays in which Year 12 House Captains write, produce and direct Year 7 pupils to win points for their House. This year, Herford were the victors!

TRADING MERGER

Year 12 Economics and Geography students pooled their knowledge to take part in a trading game designed to demonstrate the mechanics of international trade, including why some countries have more power and influence than others.

Students worked in groups representing seven different countries and creation of product portfolios was fast and furious!

The trading negotiations were even more intense but illuminated the fundamentals of international trade in a fun but educational way!

SCOTT

SIMON

HAPSOC

HAPSOC (History and Politics Society) have enjoyed some interesting and enlightening (virtual) talks this term, including two notable external speakers. In April, Dr Emma Peplow gave a talk about careers in the heritage sector. Dr Peplow is currently Head of Development for The History of Parliament Trust, a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from its origins in the thirteenth century. In May, Professor Mike Braddick from the University of Sheffield delivered a lecture entitled ‘Women, Gender and the English Revolution’. The talks were well attended and both speakers commented on how impressed they were with the perceptive questions from Withington girls.

GO4SET

For the past several years Withington has been involved in Go4Set Industrial Cadets Scheme - Bronze Award, a twelve-week STEAM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) project.

The project gives insights into current topical themes, asking participants to solve a problem within one of these themes. The girls who were selected for the Year 9 Go4Set Team this year were Haleema Ashraf, Sama Beden, Dalola Kajopaye, Aarya Kumar and Nishi Panwar.

The Go4Set project would have typically involved a company visit, presentation, graduation and mentor interactions, however due to the current pandemic, adjustments were made rendering the entire course virtual, though, we did in fact have a mentor, Katie Morton, from the supporting company Network Rail.

The project offered several topical themes, we chose ‘Future-Proof: Designing Buildings for Climate Change’ as climate change is a global issue, to which we at Withington could make a positive contribution. Over the course of the following weeks we began to formulate the plans for a building based in flood-prone South Asian countries, which was designed to help the most vulnerable communities. During the research phase of the project, we conducted email interviews with companies already in the humanitarian and environmental protection fields. These confirmed our suspicions that the world is in environmental turmoil.

The concept behind our building was to create a safe house for vulnerable people during floods and droughts. The building boasts a lightweight design, so that it can float, always matching the water levels, and it provides clean water to the surrounding residents, during both wet and dry spells. The building is completely self-reliant, producing renewable energy to maintain itself even in the event of natural disasters.

Thanks to the guidance of Mrs Bradshaw and our mentor, Katie, we were able to acquire new skills such as 3D modelling and how to research and deliver a presentation.

SAMA BEDEN Year 9

MOTHER TONGUE OTHER TONGUE

The Mother Tongue Other Tongue Competition, run by MMU and led by Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE (UK Poet Laureate 2009-2019), celebrates the diversity of languages in schools across the UK. The Mother Tongue part of the competition requires children who do not have English as a first language, or who speak a different language at home, to share a lullaby, poem or song from their Mother Tongue. They then write a short piece in English to explain the poem’s significance to them. The Other Tongue part of the competition encourages children learning another language in school to use that language creatively to write a poem.

WGS had a number of entries with pupils writing poems in Urdu, Tamil, Hindi, French, Spanish and German. Congratulations to Zoe Werner, Year 7, and Zainab Mazhari, Year 10, for winning their categories in the Mother Tongue Competition, and Kira Limbert, Year 9, for winning her category for the Other Tongue Competition. There was a record number of entries this year with more schools than ever participating. Well done to everyone who took part.

ZOE WERNER

ZAINAB MAZHARI

KIRA LIMBERT

2 7

J U N E

2 0 2 1

WITHINGTON GIRLS’ SCHOOL | MODEL UNITED NATIONS

On Sunday, 27th June, the annual Withington MUN conference took place with 15 other schools participating including, for the first time, one from outside the UK - the Colegio Científico Interamericano IHS Sede Earth in Costa Rica.

This year, for the first time, the Conference was held online and this was reflected in the chosen theme: ‘Changing the World from Home’.

This message was echoed and felt by all participants throughout the day as delegates still managed to engage in the same fruitful debate and high level of enjoyment as in previous years.

The Conference was opened by an inspiring talk from the High Sheriff of Manchester, Mrs Diane Hawkins and a warm welcome from the joint Secretary Generals, Safa Saeed and Koshiki Chauhan.

Thanks must go to the organising committee and Year 11 and Sixth Form chairs: Aanya Khandelwal, Aleena Khan, Anya Patoff, Dina Taher, Emma Wilson, Freya Demby, Heather Goodwin, Imaan Saeed, Koshiki Chauhan, Lauren Chadwick, Maisha Lorgat, Mallika Kumar, Maryam Mahmood, Nanaki Singh, Olivia Clegg, Rebekah Babar, Safa Saeed, Sophie Jayson, Victoria Wang and Zahra Ali, who ensured the conference was a great success. This group came into school on the Sunday and masterminded the digital conference from there.

A wide range of issues was discussed, including data privacy, women’s rights in Latin America and climate protection, highlighting the aptitude and diversity of all the delegates and of the conference.

MR ALISTAIR CUMBERFORD MUN Coordinator

NATIONAL NETBALL SUCCESS

England Netball released their team for the 2021 Roses Academy in April and their line-up included our very own Silvia McCarthy in Lower Sixth.

Silvia, who also plays for Manchester Thunder, was chosen for a second year running. Drafted alongside 29 athletes from across the country from the Roses Academy long squad, first selected in December 2020, Silvia plays in goal defence (GD) or goalkeeper (GK) positions.

On being selected she said:

“ It was extremely exciting of course! It felt really nice that my hard work had paid off and that the coaches had recognised that I had potential at playing netball.”

Silvia first started netball in Junior School and went on to join a netball club in Year 7. Her favourite thing about netball is being part of a team and winning competitions as a team. Over the years, she has learnt many skills, but it has mainly taught her how to deal with high amounts of pressure. This has been extremely useful as now she feels more prepared when it comes to interviews and exams.

Silvia attributes her competitive edge to her dedication to training.

She says:

SHORT STORIES

Clara Luke, Year 8, was awarded first place in a national Short Story Competition coordinated by Connell Guides. The competition was open to all students up to current Year 11 and the parameter was to write a short story of no more than 1,200 words on any setting and genre and it could be comic or tragic, period or sci-fi.

The competition was judged by Robert Harris, a former BBC reporter and award winning writer, who said of Clara’s winning short story: “ I admire the fact that you have gone beyond your own experience to try to imagine another world in another age.”

Emilie Claymore and Orli Garnett also did incredibly well in the competition with their stories placed in the top 16.

“ I always want to beat my personal bests, so I’m constantly challenging myself to train harder each time, which keeps me motivated to continue.”

Last year, like so many other athletes, Silvia and her team were no longer able to train together and adapted to virtual training on Zoom, so the past year has not stopped her from maintaining her fitness or netball skills.

Sheonah Forbes, England Netball Roses Academy Head Coach said: “ The Roses Academy trial was full of exceptional talent and the long squad’s development both on and off the court, over the last four months, was demonstrated over the weekend.”

The Roses Academy squad attended camps in May and further camps are scheduled for July with the aim of selection for competitive competition in July. We congratulate Silvia on her selection and wish her the best of luck for the next stage of the Roses Academy!

CLARA LUKE

OP PR ES S! ST OP PR ES S! ST OP PR ES S! STed that Silvia had Bulletin, we learn As we were finalising this issue of the and Roses U19 Netball Academy Engl the of ber mem a as been selected land and Wales from 27th-30th July Scot squad to represent England against - congratulations Silvia!

EMILIE CLAYMORE

ORLI GARNETT

CONGRATULATIONS TO...

...three Withington pupils who progressed to the national finals of the British Shooting Schools Pistol Championships.

Kitty Caldwell (Year 6) and her sister Isabella Caldwell (Year 8) and Annabel James (Year 13) entered the first round of the Championships in which Isabella was named winner of the Northwest Region Junior Section (Years 6-8) and was also the overall national winner in this section for the first round. Kitty was second in the NW Region Junior Section and 13th nationally, while Annabel finished second in the NW Region Senior Section (Years 11-13) and 22nd nationally.

These excellent results saw all three girls qualify for the national finals, which were held via live feeds from various shooting ranges around the country in order to be COVID compliant. In a sport where boys and girls compete on equal terms, the top three in the junior and senior competitions were girls, with Isabella winning a Bronze medal in the Junior Section and Annabel taking Silver in the Senior Section.

Further congratulations to Isabella, who has been selected for the England Team in the British Dressage Youth Home International Competition in August.

PHYSICS 2021

Congratulations to all girls who took part in the various Physics Olympiads, which were moved online this year. We are delighted that so many of our pupils were able to gain medals in what is a very challenging competition at all levels. Very well done.

The British Physics Olympiad (BPhO) has run for 25 years and is entered annually by over 1600 talented young physicists. The examinationbased competition has a dual purpose: to challenge and reward the best physicists in British schools and to select the UK Physics Team for competition at international level. The AS Challenge is an exciting opportunity for students to stretch their lateral thinking skills and apply fundamental physical principles to novel situations. The Intermediate Challenge is a single, one-hour paper that is suitable for Year 11 students.

YEAR 10 PHYSICS CHALLENGE 2021 GOLD:

Maya Nalluri & Zunaira Shah

SILVER: Lorna Abbott, Holly Aniston, Daisy Button, Charmaine Chamapiwa, Zainab Gasimmalla, Shriya Reddy, Holly Siewe & Lotta Tully

SPACE 101 SESSIONS

This term, pupils in Year 8 were joined in their Physics lessons by space experts from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. These sessions, delivered via MS Teams, enabled pupils to learn more about the wonders of the universe, from the Big Bang to black holes, and then to engage in a Q&A session. The presentations were given by WGS alumna Alexia Southern (Class of 2013) and Naomi Smith from the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester.

Year 8 pupils Hannah Lam and Simrita Kathuria report on their experience: The presentation consisted of lots of fun, engaging experiments. For example, the Jodrell Bank ‘black hole’ - a container full of acetone, in which polystyrene was dissolved, demonstrating an ‘expanding black hole’ effect.

The presenters used captivating images to help us understand the concepts and thoroughly explained our queries. Lastly, they spoke to us about careers associated with space, like astronomy and engineering, and widened our perspective.

Overall, it was a very entertaining yet informative experience, which we were happy to have the chance to do. We left with a better comprehension of space and wanting to learn more.

BRONZE: Aleesa Ahmed, Maleeha Ahmed, Mya Aslam, Elinor Claymore, Chrissie Clayton, Layla El-Omar, Orla Fleming, Ronita Ghosh, Simiran Grewal, Anya Gupta, Zaina Ilyas, Esther Kelly, Maryam Maududi, Zainab Mazhari & Meghana Padeti PARTICIPATION: Mahnoor Akhtar

YEAR 11 PHYSICS CHALLENGE SILVER: Hazel Barrett, Em Bate, Olivia Clegg, Sarah Cowan, Emily Liu, Grace Lu, Fiona Meng, Raabiya Mirali, Frankie Pye, Hannah Sakhdari, Leila Shakoor, Nanaki Singh & Dina Taher BRONZE: Mahaab Ahmed, Zahra Ali, Georgia Campbell, Sahara Carter, Sophie Hobson, Sofia Hussain, Maryam Jawad, Zahra Karim, Rosie Jones, Zahra Karim, Ayrah Majid & Swetha Selvarajan

COMMENDATION: Eve Beckford, Zahrah Chowdhury & Anna Wiggets

PHYSICS AS CHALLENGE (YEAR 12) SILVER: BRONZE:

Arabella Allen Kyng & Tuhina Rao Sophie Jayson, Matilda Kelly & Victoria Wang

PHYSICS OLYMPIAD (YEAR 13) SILVER: Shuhan Li BRONZE 1: Amy Ponter BRONZE 2: Ellen Brabban Brown & Areej Naqvi

PARTICLE PHYSICS

During the Easter holidays, the A Level physics students were able to take part in a two-day virtual particle physics and accelerator masterclass, hosted by UKRI. The masterclass sessions, each lasting an hour, consisted of virtual tours of UK laboratories, highly informative Q&As about a wide range of related career paths and greatly detailed introductions to a variety of specific fields. Our knowledge was tested after each session by a small quiz and our attendance was rewarded by certificates. It was a fantastic experience being alongside 200 other Physics students and seeing their questions and thoughts about the exciting topics.

MATILDA KELLY L6

A WARM WITHINGTON WELCOME...

MR MARTIN GRIFFIN

We are delighted to welcome Mr Martin Griffin to the School’s Board of Governors. Mr Griffin is a former Withington parent; his daughter, Shamae, was Deputy Head Girl at Withington, leaving in 2020 to study Politics and International Relations at UCL.

Mr Griffin started his own battery business at 21, which he has run ever since. He is also a Founder Member and former President of the British Battery Industry Federation. He has always made time throughout his career, however, to give his time and skills to a range of local initiatives and charities.

He served on the board of the Government regional regeneration scheme, ‘New Deal for Communities’, from 2003-2011 and was a Trustee for the charity Cameo Aid, which delivers medical and education aid to countries in East Africa, with a focus on East Sudan, from 2000-2004.

Over the years Mr Griffin has been involved with and run several youth clubs and children’s charities, including the Children’s Adventure Group, which took children from deprived areas of Greater Manchester on trips to visit the seaside or into the countryside, and organised other leisure activities. He was involved with an outreach programme in the 1990s which raised money to buy food for homeless people in Manchester, arranged celebrations and meals at Christmas and he was also part of part of a small team that built a shelter and some self-contained flats in response to the concerns about the number of people becoming homeless in Bury. The shelter offered support to young people who had become homeless and is now operated by Barnado’s.

More recently, Mr Griffin has started volunteering at a local food bank.

Mr Griffin is currently a Governor at two state primary schools, where he is the safeguarding lead, and has also fostered children over the years, originally offering care for troubled teenagers with educational and emotional difficulties, and more recently offering foster care to children that have been taken into care.

Mr Griffin has been a Eucharistic Minister for the Catholic Church since 1986 and in his free time, breeds and exhibits budgerigars and enjoys travelling with his family.

MRS GRACE COULSON

CONGRATULATIONS TO...

Mrs Grace Coulson has been appointed as HR Administrator at WGS working on a part time basis. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Business from Lancaster University and subsequently completed her Post Graduate Diploma in HR to become a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.

She worked in the HR Department at AkzoNobel (a global chemicals company) in Altrincham for over ten years in various roles before moving into education. She joins Withington from Bowdon Church School.

Originally from Beverley, she has family in Yorkshire and Dorset and enjoys weekends away visiting when time permits. She has two young children of primary age. With a passion for the outdoors, she loves walking and cycling in both the Peak District and the Lake District.

She commented, ‘I am delighted to join Withington. There is a real sense of community, and everyone has been so welcoming. I am excited for this new role ahead.’

MISS NIAMH HAYDEN

Miss Niamh Hayden was appointed Marketing and Digital Communications Officer in April 2021. Originally from Kent, Niamh graduated from the University of Manchester in 2018 with a (BA) Hons in History. After graduating, Niamh worked for the University of Manchester in a community role that supported the Fallowfield and Withington areas before moving on to a marketing position in the private sector.

Her role at Withington will focus on capturing life at Withington and the special spirit of the school to share with the school community and to attract new families to Withington, in addition to producing content for internal and external publications, facilitating events, and managing social media. Niamh is very enthusiastic about working at Withington and the challenge of elevating our already thriving market presence further.

Niamh is currently renovating a 1930s property in Stockport and is a keen DIY-er and upcycler. She continues to explore her passion for history and is an avid cook. She also enjoys going to the gym, rock climbing and travelling, when possible. Niamh is an animal lover and has volunteered at a local rescue shelter.

... Zoe Werner in Year 7 on winning the Senior Entry to the British Science Association Science Week Poster Competition on the theme of ‘Innovating for the Future’ with her bubble houses.

With over 2,500 entries and an excellent standard of posters in this year’s competition, it was not easy for the judges. Well done, Zoe.

HAPPY RETIREMENTS! MRS SHARON SENN retires from her role as Withington’s Bursar this summer and will move into a new part-time role at Withington in the Autumn to oversee the completion of the School’s current building project, the extension to the dining room.

MS CHRISTINE DAVIES is retiring after leading the English

department for 18 years.

Ms Davies joined us in 2004 from Glossopdale Community College.

She has shared her passion for English with successive cohorts of pupils, inspiring in them a love of language and an appreciation for the world of ideas nestling behind the cover of a book.

Mrs Senn has made an outstanding contribution to Withington Girls’ School during her 19 years as Bursar. Mrs Senn is Withington’s first Bursar and during that time she has been instrumental in much significant development and progression in the School. A fully qualified chartered accountant, Mrs Senn joined Withington having previously held the role of Vice-Principal in a Sixth Form College and with experience of working overseas and in the television industry.

s Davies’ knowledge of literature and texts is encyclopaedic.

M As you might expect, she is an avid reader and writer herself and has published poems, short stories and even contributions to the Dr Who annuals. We have loved the inventive and original pieces that Ms Davies wrote each year for the Entrance Examination, encouraging our prospective pupils to read and engage intelligently. Ms Davies has been proud of the creative writing initiatives that have been introduced under her leadership, with groups for different year groups and regular opportunities for pupils to write for competitions and publications. Her oversight of the pupils’ magazine ‘Scrawl’ has inspired the next generation of young writers and her Sixth Form reading group has introduced students to a world of literature beyond the confines of the syllabus.

rs Senn has played a central role in the School’s ongoing success.

M As a key member of the School’s Senior Leadership Team, Clerk to the Governors and to the WGS Trust, Mrs Senn’s strategic vision, innovation and resolute focus on how we can best support the education of the pupils in our care have been unwavering. Involved in many areas of school life, Mrs Senn has been a wonderful ambassador for Withington and is a highly respected colleague.

Highly energetic, multi-talented, kind and compassionate, Mrs Senn is known to many Withington staff and pupils, past and present, not just for her important work as Bursar/Finance Director and in marketing and publicity, but also for her superb musical skills as a pianist, singer and trombonist which have seen her take part in many School musical performances, playing and singing alongside the pupils; her love of all things sporting and fitness; her interest in Languages and travel, and her teaching of Finance modules in PSHCE and the Sixth Form Enrichment programme. Mrs Senn is one of life’s natural communicators, always positive in her outlook and keen to see things done well, challenges overcome and progress made. The Sixth Form have particularly appreciated their lessons with Mrs Senn because they are always lively, good humoured and informative.

During her time as Bursar, Mrs Senn has been closely involved in Withington’s leading Bursary programme which provides financial support for the places of one in six of our pupils; has forged links with other schools, with businesses and community associations; been instrumental in the School’s continued development of its resources and facilities; and worked closely on a number of exceptional capital projects, not least the new Junior School and Hub opened in 2015 and the extension to the Sports facilities opened in 2018.

Mrs Senn will undoubtedly be remembered as a member of the Withington family who has made a significant, genuine and sustained contribution to the history and success of the School. We will always be grateful for her unstinting commitment, multifarious talents and professionalism. We know that her semi-retirement will be active, varied and immensely rewarding as she spends time with her family and develops her many interests. We thank her most warmly for all she has brought to Withington and look forward to working with her in a new chapter next academic year.

MRS SARAH HASLAM Headmistress

Ms Davies has been a strong advocate for the spoken word and every two years she has led our Festival of Spoken English and Drama; ensuring that every pupil had an opportunity to build their confidence and communication skills by performing in front of an audience. She has taught her pupils to think critically and gain inspiration from the world of words and she has motivated many to study English at university and develop creative careers based on their English skills. She has edited our School Newsletter each year with enormous patience and creativity and she has directed and contributed to some fabulous school productions over the years.

As Professional Mentor, Ms Davies has been responsible for guiding trainee teachers through their placements and ensuring that they enjoyed the best possible start to their teaching careers. Ms Davies will also be remembered with great fondness by her forms as she has provided outstanding pastoral care for pupils over the years, supporting pupils with gentle insight and kindness.

As a colleague, Ms Davies has been unfailingly thoughtful and supportive. Always able to see the funny side when the occasion required it, Ms Davies led the team with wisdom, wit and compassion. She is an enormously encouraging, generous and calm leader, approaching the ups and downs of school life with level-headed assurance – even on the Dr Faustus theatre trip where the fires of hell were recreated a little too enthusiastically and we had to evacuate.

Ms Davies may be retiring, but she will continue to be busy in the coming years. She has worked with the examination boards for many years, setting examinations and leading teams of markers across the country and she is looking forward to maintaining this connection with students and teachers of English.

Daisy and Maisie (her cats) will be delighted to have her home more often … as there is also the (small) matter of a novel to write.

We will really miss Ms Davies’ warmth, wit and kindness but know that she will continue to be a member of the Withington family for many years to come. We look forward to reading her novel!

MS JEN BAYLIS Deputy Head

SEÑORA MARIA LÓPEZ is retiring from teaching after 18 years as Withington’s first Head of Spanish. She joined the Modern Foreign Languages Department in 2003 and Spanish has gone from strength to strength over the years under her leadership.

Señora López has been involved in seeing the MFL Department through various developments, including the installation of the School’s current state-of-the-art language laboratory and, in 2020, completed a move of Spanish to online textbooks, which served the department well when schools were required to move to remote learning in March 2020 due to the pandemic.

Señora López has also always seen the bigger picture and she has made an outstanding contribution to the wider life of the school.

She was one of the intrepid WGS teachers who accompanied the School’s first-ever World Challenge Expedition to Bolivia in 2004 and she has also been part of the staff team accompanying groups to The Gambia, encouraging the pupils in their preparations and as a wonderfully supportive colleague. In the 2000s, Señora López led several trips to different parts of Spain, before establishing the annual Spanish Exchange with La Vall School in Barcelona in 2010 with which WGS now has a successful and lasting partnership. Señora López believed the successful exchange of both Spanish language and culture to be instrumental in the broadening of our students’ perspectives and many Withington pupils have benefited from this memorable experience and very special opportunity to develop their language skills in Spain itself.

Señora López is passionate about her home country of Venezuela, and we have all learned a lot from the assemblies she has presented about the country, how beautiful and varied it is, but also about the political situation and humanitarian crisis there over the last few years.

As those of us who watched her valedictory assembly will know, Señora López is also passionate about music and dance. In March 2019 she combined these interests and, with the help of the ‘Dance for Venezuela’ committee of colleagues and pupils, organised a fundraising dinner and salsa dance event attended by 120 guests and staffed by 40 volunteers. The event raised over £2,000 for Ashoka, a charity that supports schools and education in Venezuela. Señora López later wrote in the WGS Newsletter 2019 that “it was an outstanding example of solidarity and empathy by both pupils and staff” and there is no doubt that her inspiring example and leadership was largely responsible for the success of the endeavour.

Whether she is teaching Spanish or Latin American dance, Señora López is patient, skilled and good humoured, and her greatest strength is the creation of an atmosphere of warmth, fun and togetherness.

Señora López has inspired generations of Withington pupils, instilled a love of Spanish and of language learning, been a superb colleague and always brought kindness and compassion to all that she does.

Señora López may be retiring from teaching but we have no doubt that she will soon be directing her skills and energy into other exciting endeavours. She leaves Withington with our warm thanks for all she has contributed and with our very best wishes for the future.

MR IAN MCKENNA Director of Studies

MRS PENNY WILLIS launched her career at Withington with a brief stint as a temporary IT Technician in March/April 2002, a role that led to a permanent appointment as a Receptionist/Clerical Assistant in November of that year. Since then, Mrs Willis has taken on a wide range of support roles over the years, bringing to each her trademark positivity, enthusiasm and willingness to go above and beyond.

Her duties quickly broadened to include reprographics, support for the Bursar and assisting the DT Department. Mrs Willis then moved to the position of PA to the Bursar, Mrs Sharon Senn, and, while in this role and in addition to her other duties, she seized the opportunity to contribute to the growing marketing effort within the School, working closely with Mrs Senn to promote the School and publicise the successes of pupils. Mrs Senn recalls how much they enjoyed working together and expresses her personal thanks to Mrs Willis for her tremendous support to her over the years.

With first-rate IT skills and a passion for constantly developing her knowledge, Mrs Willis soon took on responsibility for the school website and also mastered the Clarion Call system when it was introduced, regularly sending out the weekly Junior and Senior messages to parents as well as other email communications to parents. Earlier in her career at Withington, she used her organisational skills to good effect when she took on the running of the summer holiday courses when they were launched.

Her writing and editing talent saw Mrs Willis work with Mr Peterken on producing the Bulletin four times a year and, more recently, supporting Ms Davies in her role as Editor of the school magazine, the Newsletter.

When the Admissions and Marketing Department was established in 2017, Mrs Willis became Withington’s first Marketing Officer, and she continued to grow and develop in this role, with responsibility for the website, social media, advertising and publications.

Mrs Willis has relocated to Swansea to be closer to her family and, although she is retiring, we hope to be able to continue to tap into her expertise and knowledge of the School to work on specific projects.

She always said that for her, working at Withington was not really like working at all, she enjoyed it so much. As a member of staff whose commitment to, and love of Withington has spanned 19 years, we thank Mrs Willis for her immense contribution and wish her every happiness for the future.

MRS CATHERINE DOW Director of Admissions & Marketing

FOND FAREWELLS...

MRS HELEN STALLARD, Deputy Head of the Junior School, leaves us this summer. Mrs Stallard joined the staff at Withington in September 2008 as a form teacher in Form I. Her career prior to this had included schools in Reading, Henley-onThames and Wallsend.

At this time, the Junior School was half the size that it is now and housed within the Senior School. When it moved to its newly built premises in 2015, numbers started to grow, and the school became twice its original size. A Deputy Head was now much needed and Mrs Stallard took on this position.

Mrs Stallard has contributed so much to Junior School life, one of the most notable of these being the programme of School Values, which she introduced and developed; encouragement, appreciation, self-control, forgiveness are all included amongst these and form an important aspect of school life.

Mrs Stallard has always immersed herself fully in the life of the School. She has been involved in directing many of the Junior School productions during her time here, the most memorable probably being The Lion King in the summer of 2019. With her great sense of fun, she has always been happy to get involved in some acting too; from snake charming in one play to bringing Roman history to life for girls in Transition, by dressing up as Stallardicus Withingtonius!

Super organised, what will we do without her encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Junior School? However, she’s only a Teams call away!

Mrs Stallard is moving back to the Northeast with her family: Michael, Eva and William. She will be greatly missed in the Junior School, but we wish her well for the start of this exciting new chapter in her life.

MS BRIDGET HOWARD Head of Junior School

MRS ELANOR LEE joined WGS in September 2016 as teacher of IT and Physics. Her positive and enthusiastic approach to all aspects of her roles have been well received by all. She has been an excellent teacher and encouraged girls to share her passion for Physics with interesting and creative demonstrations, a caring Lower and Upper Fourth Form Tutor, launched a knitting club and more recently held the role of Head of Scott House. Over the five years she has been at WGS, she also led the Third Form Crest Awards, ran two external Physics Olympics for Upper Fourth Pupils and assisted in the running of the Junior Scientific Society. She was always keen to participate in any activity and few will forget her performances in the Charity ‘Teachers Got Talent’ and ‘Dance Competitions’.

MISS MIRANDA BATE, a former Withington Deputy Head Girl returned to School in September 2020 as a PE staff member during her gap year before starting university in September 2021. A talented lacrosse player, she provided maternity cover as a Lacrosse Teacher and helped out at the WGS Key Worker School, teaching Seniors PE and supervising Junior lessons. She will also be involved in coaching at the WGS Summer Multi-sports camp this year.

MRS LISA BRADSHAW Head of Science

Having enjoyed her academics and sports since joining the WGS Juniors Form I, Miss Bate will soon be attending USA’s second oldest university, William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia on a lacrosse scholarship. She will be majoring in Biology and will be playing Division 1 lacrosse – the very top standard. Miss Bate aims eventually to study for a PhD in Biological Sciences and to have a career in this field.

I know many girls have benefited from her encouragement, caring and fun-loving nature. We would like to thank Mrs Lee for the fabulous contribution she has made to School life and we wish her all the very best as she takes on her new role as Second in Science at Stoke Sixth Form College.

MISS FAY DONOHUE is relocating to Harrogate after two years as Withington’s Head of Psychology.

With a passion for travel, she then hopes to move to Majorca next year where she plans to tutor online and build a Psychology website.

Miss Donohue counts her Year 7 Form group and Psychology students amongst her WGS highlights, who, she says, always lifted her spirits during online teaching.

Her involvement in extra-curricular activities for pupils included establishing a psychology club for lower years, setting up a reading club and providing weekly lunchtime support sessions.

Salford-born Miss Donohue has strong Manchester links having achieved a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Manchester. Prior to joining Withington, she was Head of Psychology at Tiffin Girls’ School, London; Curriculum Leader at Pendleton College and Psychology Teacher and Teaching and Learning Ambassador at Loreto Sixth Form.

Miss Donohue, who enjoys taking country walks with her pug Stanley and travelling when possible, commented: “ WGS is a very special place. I feel very fortunate to have worked here and know I am a better teacher as a result. The girls and my colleagues have been a daily source of inspiration and I shall miss them all immensely.”

Miss Bate had originally aimed to join scientific research projects overseas when she left her temporary role in April but her plans were unfortunately cancelled due to Covid. However, with hopes of representing Team GB at the Olympics, Miss Bate, who is an England Lacrosse Senior Squad player, England gold medal winner (2018) and former U19 England Captain, has been focusing on lacrosse. She has been busy with Senior England training and will be playing in The Fly, an elite national six-a-side lacrosse event featuring the new Olympic proposed version of the sport. She has also been coaching at the England Regional Academy in Surrey.

Miss Bate said:

“ Withington is a truly special place which empowers its pupils to be their best and become anything they want to be. The School’s response and dedication to pupils over the pandemic is a testament to the passion and commitment of all the staff.”

NEW BUILD PROGRESS

MISS HANNAH MORSE is leaving her post as temporary Office Administrator at Withington to train as a teacher. With a First-Class BA (Hons) in Italian and Spanish from the University of Leeds, Miss Morse will be pursuing a PGCE in Secondary Spanish at Cheadle Hulme Laurus Trust.

Work on the Dining Room Refurbishment and Expansion Project has continued apace since the start of the summer holidays with the steel framework of the new extension now in position.

Having worked at WGS since November 2020 and having enjoyed helping Sixth Formers with Spanish practice, she says her time at Withington inspired her to follow teaching as a career. “The pupils are so bright and eager to learn new things and I found it very rewarding helping the girls with their exam/assessment revision,” she said. Her decision builds on teaching experience gained whilst living in Salerno, where she taught English as a foreign language for a year for the British Council.

Says Miss Morse:

“ Withington feels more like a family than a workplace. I’ve realised that a job isn’t just a job when your colleagues mean so much! I will never forget the people I have got to know over this short space of time. It is truly a wonderful school, and unlike any other I have ever spent time in.”

MISS OLIVIA SINCLAIR, a Withington alumna, who was appointed as a Teacher of Physics and Form 10W Shadow Tutor for the Summer Term, has left her temporary role at the School to work on other projects and an eventual overseas move.

Miss Sinclair was a pupil at WGS from 2004 to 2011, before going on to study Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, followed by a Teach First placement at an academy in Croydon where she became Coordinator of Science and a Teach First mentor. After ten years away from Withington, she was delighted to return in a teaching capacity and during her time here also enjoyed leading staff yoga sessions and helping with Junior rounders.

With hopes of swopping her life in the UK over the summer for a ‘more nomadic lifestyle’ abroad – Covid allowing - Miss Sinclair aims to maintain her online portfolio of tutoring, teaching yoga, coaching and freelance content creation. “ It’s been wonderful to come back to WGS, a place where I felt incredibly supported as a student, and see things from the other side of the front desk. It has reminded me of how much I enjoyed my years at school.

Thank you for such a warm welcome back!” she said.

Click here or scan to watch a short film about this exciting new project

Work is also in progress in the indoor spaces that form part of the project, including the library.

SIXTH FORM

Throughout the Summer Term, our Lower Sixth benefited from the range of university preparation activities that we run each year. Facilitated by Oxbridge Coordinator, Dr Cristina Vilela, the Oxbridge Information Evening welcomed alumna Lucy Higginbotham [Class of 2019] to lead this session. Lucy studies PPE at Brasenose College, Oxford, where she is involved in university outreach and consulting societies and has been supporting over 80 Oxbridge applicants including around 40 Withington pupils through group workshops or one-to-one mock interviews.

On Wednesday, 16th June, Lower Sixth pupils took part in a UCAS preparation day, during which they were off timetable to attend a series of university application workshops.

The day consisted of a mixture of talks and activities designed to give them a comprehensive start to the UCAS process, including a talk about writing personal statements from a representative from the University of Nottingham, an interview skills session, and the opportunity to register for

Apply (the online UCAS application form). Later, following the conclusion of the Lower Sixth parents’ evening, both pupils and parents took part in a session delivered by Katherine Pagett, Student Recruitment Manager at the University of Birmingham. This provided an upto-date picture of the current situation regarding university applications across the UK. Later in the Summer Term, Lucy Higginbotham returned to Withington, albeit virtually, to lead a thinking skills course in preparation for the TSA and BMAT assessments. Lucy herself scored in the top 1% in the TSA. We thank Lucy for her ongoing commitment to Withington and for sharing her expertise. It is certainly one of the very special features of life at Withington to see the interaction between current and former pupils and to have such inspiring role models. All sessions were thoroughly enjoyed by the Lower Sixth and were undoubtedly helpful in initiating the process of university applications that will be the focus for so many during the Autumn Term.

CHEMISTRY CHALLENGE

Our Upper Sixth’s Summer Term saw a focus on final preparations before sitting the examinations.

The annual Fun Day welcomed Upper Sixth back into school following the completion of exams for a day of activities that included a bouncy castle, an egg and spoon race, lots of photo opportunities and heartfelt goodbyes to peers and teachers.

The hallways were filled with an array of fancy dress costumes from Shrek to Charlie’s Angels to Superwoman and Smurfs. A number of pupils attended life skills sessions coordinated by Miss Diane Halfhide and Mrs Vicky Brickhill which offered practical lessons on a range of useful activities, from learning to use electric tools, changing a light bulb and wiring a plug, to checking car oil, tyres and jump starting a car.

We cannot deny the impact of the past 18-months on our Class of 2021, but their determination, positivity and unwavering attitude is testament to them all, achieving so much on their own journey in their own way.

This is an extremely challenging competition, with over 7000 entries nationally. WGS girls performed extremely well, gaining in total 22 awards: 7 Gold, awarded to 9.2% of national candidates, 4 Silver, awarded to 19.2% of all entries, and 11 Copper, awarded to 33% of national candidates. We are also delighted to announce that Grace Adebowale gained the top mark in school. Very well done to all who participated!

GOLD: Grace Adebowale, Jessica Blankstone, Maryam Mahmood, Silvia McCarthy, Tuhina Rao, Zahra Shah & Libby Wolstenholme

SILVER: Eleanor Fernie, Mallika Kumar, Liana Maiti & Hannah Whiteson

COPPER: Ifra Ahmed, Sarah Chan, Emily Chiu, Maya Davies, Freya Demby, Noor Khan, Aisha Khanom, Amelia Kloss, Maddy Lear & Victoria Wang

PARTICIPATION: Rivonia Goswani, Khadija Nadeem, Sia Sharma, Jocelyn Shih & Jenny Zou

INSPIRING DESIGNS FOR INSPIRING ALUMNAE

One of the aims of introducing the Ad Lucem Alumnae Awards was to inspire our current pupils. We know that this will be the case with our shortlisted nominees, but pupils in Years 7-9 have also been inspired by taking part in a competition to design the awards that will be presented to this year’s winners.

The competition was launched by the Design Technology Department in the Spring with all Key Stage 3 classes being set a project to design an entry for the Awards. The aim was that the design should highlight what is special about WGS, our Ad Lucem motto and our alumnae, and reflect the Withington ethos and values. They were asked to approach this as a full design project and, once back in school, continued this by making preparatory models, as well as submitting design folders. Pupils were asked to outline their choice of materials, colour, and any specifics such as where the engraving would be. They were also invited, if they wished, to support their design work with mood boards, research, or initial designs.

We’re delighted to say that the project was warmly embraced by students, with an array of remarkably imaginative and striking designs. The standard of their accompanying folders was also extremely high, making the role of the shortlisting committee, including the Head Girl team, very difficult indeed!

Mrs Cotton, Head of DT said:

“ Despite Covid restrictions we knew it was important that Key Stage 3 students had the opportunity to experience the practical aspect of modelling their design ideas. The Ad Lucem Award Design Competition was a fantastic opportunity for this to happen. What we didn’t anticipate was the creativity, ingenuity and beauty that our students would apply both to their design work AND to creating wonderful models of their trophies. The overall standard of design and model was exceptional and this made the final selection process extremely difficult, yet a pleasure to be involved with.”

Well done to all the pupils for their incredible ideas and hard work. Instead of two winners, there are now three as, in addition to the two awards, there will also be a special award presented. We are very much looking forward to seeing the awards once they have been made in the Autumn term.

FUNDRAISING FOR INDIA

Mallika and Nithya Kumar, who joined Withington from India in 2019, were devastated when they realised the impact of the second wave of Covid-19 on the Indian population, and particularly children.

“ A few years ago, when we lived in India, we set up an organisation called KidsForKids to enable children to help other children in need. One of the projects we worked on involved us collecting and selling second-hand books. We used the profits generated to fund the PE kits for an underprivileged school. Now that we are remote, we thought the best way to help is to raise funds. These will be donated to Chennai Tricolor Initiative’s Covid ChildCare Taskforce. The TaskForce aims to provide children and families affected

by Covid with the resources they require to deal with the pandemic (masks, sanitisers, activity kits to help the child’s mental well-being, etc.),” explains Mallika. “ We aim to collect £10,000 to support the activities of the Covid ChildCare Taskforce.

So far, our fundraiser has raised over £2,100. Below is a link to our fundraiser.

More information about the fundraiser is also on this page, including a link to the TaskForce website.”

We are thrilled to announce the winners as follows:

WINNERS: Camille Corbett 8W, Mimi Gu 9X & Aleeza Khan 8X

SHORTLISTED: Aysha Ahmed 7W, Sienna Basso 8W, Natasha Butterfield 9V, Sophia Dumitru 7X & Maria Khan 8Y

HIGHLY Sofia Ahmed 7X, Reet Anand 7X, Haleema Ashraf 9X, COMMENDED: Emily Blackwell 7X, Faye Davies 8Y, Nikita Chakraborty 9Y, Brianna Cui 9W, Katya Dickson 9V, Rosamunde Faithful Eastup 7W, Meerab Fatima 7X, Anequa Fazal 9Y, Beth Franks-Townsend 7W, Niha Gudena 9V, Adhyavi Gupta 9X, Ciara Halpenny 8W, Zixi Guo 9W, Dalola Kajopaye 9X, Sophia Khan 9V, Fatima Jeilani 8X & Evie Jiang 7X

Click here or scan to visit the fundraising page

ALUMNA AWARD CANDIDATES

AD LUCEM AWARDS

GABBY EDLIN Class of 2004

BRENDA MILNER Class of 1936 Gabby is an activist campaigning for menstrual equity, and the CEO and Founder of the charity Bloody Good Period.

She started the charity in 2016 when she was volunteering at an asylum-seekers’ drop-in centre and discovered that period products were only provided ‘in emergencies’.

It is now a full-blown operation to collect and distribute toiletries and period supplies for asylum seekers all around the UK.

Education is also an important part of Gabby’s work with BGP. Realising how infrequently the communities with whom the charity works visit medical clinics or make appointments to see medical practitioners, the charity also delivers sessions and workshops to support female asylum seekers and refugees, helping them to understand more about their bodies and sexual and reproductive health.

With the pandemic continuing to push people into financial hardship and poverty, more and more people are forced to make impossible choices between these essentials and other items. The level of demand is six times higher than pre-pandemic. Bloody Good Period has distributed 66,000 packs of period products since March 2020.

Products have gone to refugees and asylum-seekers, food banks, community response groups, shelters for the homeless, those fleeing domestic violence, and in the early days of the pandemic, NHS frontline workers.

At the age of 103 Dr Brenda Milner remains Canada’s pre-eminent neuropsychologist, having pioneered research into the human brain; many consider her a founder of the field of clinical neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. She is the Dorothy J. Killam Professor at the Montreal Neurological InstituteHospital, and a professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Her contributions revolutionized our understanding of how brain structures govern different learning, memory and speech functions. She has received numerous major awards and honours. Her career spans more than 70 years – 60 of those years as a member of the McGill/Neuro community, where she directed the neuropsychology laboratory at The Neuro and taught in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. Her extensive body of work and contribution to many significant discoveries paved the way in the field of neuroscience and are still studied by psychologists and students around the world, including Withington’s A Level Psychology students.

In 2018, the Brenda Milner Centenary Symposium was organised to celebrate Brenda’s accomplishments and reflect on all that has been learned in 100 years of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience.

In 2019 a Montreal school for children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and associated disorders was named after her - l’École Régionale Brenda-Milner.

Photo courtesy of Meera Paleja courtesy of the Montreal Neurological Institute & Hospital

Following an online assembly at the end of June, all Senior School pupils were given the opportunity to vote in the very first Ad Lucem Alumnae Awards.

Withington alumnae are an amazing group of women, excelling in so many different ways and in so many different areas and the Ad Lucem Awards are a way of celebrating some of these achievements, as well as inspiring current pupils.

The recipient of an Ad Lucem Award will be a Withington alumna who has made an outstanding contribution to society, or who acts as an inspirational role model, either in a professional, voluntary or

ZEENAT MOHAMMAD Class of 1997 Dr Mohammad, who studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge, works in Withington as a GP Principle and Partner. She takes pride in serving the community in which she spent her teenage years.

Her practice has been commended by the Care Quality Commission for providing outstanding services to the vulnerable migrant population and has been awarded a Bronze Award for services to the LGBT population. She has previously been awarded 1st prize for Quality, Innovation, Performance and Productivity (QIPP) from NHS Manchester. She is heavily involved in undergraduate medical education and has been awarded multiple awards for her standard of teaching.

During the pandemic she ensured the safety of her staff by taking over duties from her colleagues who were deemed to be at high risk. She also supported her most vulnerable patients by providing home visits.

Now her efforts are focused on vaccinations, not only for her own registered patients, but also for local homeless people and the wider Manchester community. She has actively promoted the vaccine to populations where the uptake has been low, such as for people of ethnic minority backgrounds, and for other vulnerable groups such as drug dependent individuals. She has also been a GP lead for a local pop-up vaccine clinic.

Click here or scan to find out more about the Ad Lucem Award and the shortlisted alumnae on our website

philanthropic capacity, or through their personal endeavours.

Their achievements, outlook and conduct will demonstrate that they continue to reflect the school’s ethos and values, making them an exceptional public ambassador for our school community.

We would like to congratulate all the amazing alumnae who were

nominated. The shortlisting committee, which included the Head Girl

team, had a very tough job to narrow down the field but came up with

an excellent shortlist. We plan to announce the winners in September with the formal award presentation taking place at our Founders’ Day celebration in October, if the situation allows.

YOUNG ALUMNA AWARD CANDIDATES ELISSA THURSFIELD Class of 2005 Elissa has volunteered as a crew member with the RNLI in Abersoch for 15 years. In May 2019, she became the first female to become a helm of the lifeboat. This means that she takes command of the Altantic 85 lifeboat and of the crew when they are at sea. Her duties are described by the RNLI as, ‘to use utmost endeavours to safeguard and rescue the lives of those in danger, whilst having regard for the safety of their crew’. As helm, Elissa is responsible for the lives of her crew on board the lifeboat and any person rescued on service. The role demands the ability to make decisions under pressure as well as leadership and strategic skills. She and the Abersoch crew have also been featured several times in the BBC series ‘Saving Lives at Sea’.

Elissa, who served as a member of the elite RNLI Flood Rescue Team and was deployed to the Cumbria Floods in 2015, is also a trained community first responder, providing emergency treatment to people in her local area. She says that, ‘volunteering in any capacity gives you the opportunity to change someone’s life’.

Professionally, Elissa is Head of Employment Law and a Director of a leading North Wales law firm. In 2020, she founded HR Anchor which she heads up as Managing Director alongside her role as a solicitor.

In 2016, she was the Junior Solicitor of the Year in the Law Society Excellence Awards and was shortlisted for Solicitor of the Year in Private Practice in 2020.

TORI LONGDON Class of 2009 T ori is a well-known choral conductor.

During lockdown she co-founded the Stay at Home Choir, an online musicmaking community running virtual choir projects which have allowed more than 23,000 amateur singers from around the world to meet and collaborate over the internet. She began the Stay at Home Choir with the aim of providing hope and solace to those isolated during the pandemic by coming together to sing and received a Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award for this work in November 2020.

She directs a number of ensembles around London and is a passionate advocate of music education in all its forms, teaching at the Junior Guildhall conservatoire in London and coaching voice for the Royal Schools of Church Music and the Voices Foundation. She is also a conductor for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.

Tori has appeared as an on-screen conductor for Songs of Praise on BBC1 and as an adjudicator for Young Choir of The Year and Young Chorister of The Year. She appeared on BBC2 as a judge on two series of Gareth Malone’s The Choir. She leads workshops and adjudicates nationally and internationally. Tori is also an advocate for women in leadership, having been shortlisted for the 2019 Women of The Future awards.

BRONYA SYKES Class of 2018 Bronya was part of this year’s Cambridge eight in the Women’s University Boat Race.

She was originally selected for the 2020 race which was unfortunately cancelled due to the pandemic.

Undeterred, Bronya still worked hard at her training to give herself the best chance for being selected again this year.

Once selected, training was a real challenge with no in-person training on or off the water, due to the lockdowns. Sessions on rowing machines, bodyweight circuits and working out via Zoom became standard. Along with all the extra training challenges, this year’s race had to take place on the Great Ouse at Ely, rather than the traditional course on the River Thames in London, making the result less predictable.

Bronya also had to maintain her studies in Natural Sciences as well as manage her training schedule. There are usually 12 training sessions a week early in the morning and in the evening, but Bronya says she employs ‘extreme time management to get everything done’ and credits Withington for helping her to develop her organisational skills.

Bronya has been rowing since she was 11 and, as a junior, competed both locally and nationally. She only moved from scullying (two oars) to sweep (one oar) when she started at Cambridge. She would like to take part in another Boat Race campaign and has aspirations to take her rowing further, so watch this space!

YEAR 8 STEM DAY

ENABLED FOR A SECOND YEAR BY THE AD LUCEM FUND Year 8 pupils had great fun working together to design, create and then race their own planes during a Year 8 STEM Day. In addition to the Aircraft Challenge, they also participated in a live Science Magic Show. This was followed by a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers session, inspiring them to think about careers and opportunities for women in these key areas. It was wonderful to be able to offer our students these kinds of opportunities in STEM once again. We are grateful to all donors to the Ad Lucem Fund (formerly the Annual Fund). The fund supports projects across the school that enhance and enrich pupils’ learning but that normally fall outside the reach of the annual school budget. We would not be able to offer these fantastic educational experiences to our pupils if not for the generosity of the Withington community.

YOUNG ENTERPRISE

For the first time in the history of WGS Young Enterprise both teams reached the Northwest regional finals which took place in May. Congratulations to our highly successful teams, Modieus and Sacola for their achievements and determination. Despite going head-to-head in the competition, the MDs, Maya Davies and Sofia Risino, helped each other throughout the process.

Mrs Ositelu, Young Enterprise Coordinator, said:

“ I have been so impressed by the commitment of all members and how they worked together at such challenging times. They embraced online marketing and trading like ducks to water and should be congratulated on their consistent efforts, business flair, teamwork and terrific achievement! They’ve been a pleasure to work with.’

A special mention to Mr Walsh for helping the teams achieve a professional presentation and a very slick interview set up. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Joel Rosenblatt for his generous support of Young Enterprise at WGS.

Withington Girls’ School, Wellington Road, Fallowfield, Manchester M14 6BL 0161 224 1077 office@wgs.org wgs.org withingtongirlsschool WGSManchester

The presentation teams were:

MODEUS: M AYA DAVIES, SARAH KINNEY, JESSICA BLANKSTONE, EVELYN MORRIS & EILIS MATHUR SACOLA: SOFIA RISINO, KARMA KABBANI, MAYO ADETUJOYE, LUCY POOLER & ALEENA KHAN

DO CALL US

(BEFORE WE CALL YOU!) Pupil absence: Please would all parents use 0161 249 3476 to inform the School of pupil absence before 8.30am on each day of absence.

For contact after school please use these numbers: Junior Late Room: 0161 224 1077

Senior Late Room: 0161 249 3492