THE RULES I LIVE BY

South Hampstead High School alumna

Grace Spence Green is a junior doctor working to challenge the narratives surrounding disability, medicine and identity.

Anger can be a positive emotion

I let things slide a lot before my injury, which I don't think was always good. I've got much more of a backbone now, I'm just more confident in my own worth and what I bring to the table. Emphasising to myself what is acceptable in the moment is so important; living and dealing with microaggressions every day is demoralising and exhausting. I think anger can be really productive and important, in terms of setting boundaries around what language I will accept about myself, and how I want to be treated by people.

No question is a stupid question

In school I definitely felt like I could ask anything and there wouldn't be judgment, but it was difficult in medical school to not feel like every question was a bit stupid. It’s such a shame when you're held back from learning something because you're worried that you're going to be judged for asking questions. So now I don't care if some of my questions sound stupid, because I want to know the answer.

It’s fine to be a bit weird

I was quite unique as a teenager; I was really passionate about certain things, and I wasn't afraid to talk about those passions. I was obsessed with climbing. Really obsessed. I wore quite weird clothes, but I loved them.

I think it's so hard being a teenager, especially nowadays, when you're very much pressured to act and like the things that the dominant society likes. So I'm so grateful that I didn't do that, even if I was called weird sometimes.

Don’t think about the 'What Ifs'

I don't like ruminating too much. Since my injury, I've felt like 'what ifs' are the most pointless exercise possible. I find them really negative and you can ‘what if’ everything. If you're considering a better outcome from your ‘what if’, then you have to accept that it could have been much worse. In terms of my injury, I could ask ‘what if I wasn't there?’, but actually, I could have died. What if that had been the outcome instead?

Be practical, be present

I have learned a lot about how to support friends in a crisis situation through what happened to me and how I saw people react. I had a lot of people messaging me, saying, ‘let me know if there's anything I can do to help’. That’s the worst response when anything happens to someone, because then you put the onus on me to reach out to you. It's very non-specific. The people I really appreciated when I was in hospital did practical things, like cooking meals for my family or bringing me things that I needed. Presence is so important, I think.

Grace Spence Green

In 2018, as a 22-year old fourth year medical student, Grace Spence Green sustained a spinal cord injury, and is now a full-time wheelchair user. She is passionate about medicine, advocacy for the disabled community and challenging ableism, the stigma surrounding disability and inaccessible spaces.

In 2022, Grace was named Trailblazer of the Year in the GDST's Alumna of the Year Awards.

@gspencegreen

Streatham & Clapham High School

2022 ended with Streatham & Clapham smashing both its 2019 A* record and the 2022 national A* average at A Level. With 35.1% of results at A* — which is 142% better than the national average – the school grew off a much larger base with SCHS A* percentage improving on 2019 by more than 172%.

Nearly all girls got their firstchoice university and classicist Maisie (left), and chemist Charlotte (right) remain classmates now at the University of Oxford. Maisie, who served as Head Girl for the Class of ‘22, and Charlotte, also a SCHS prefect, both won places at Sommerville College, Oxford thanks to their outstanding results and contributions.

Looking forward to next year, Ms Cathy Ellott, BA (Oxon), MA (London), PGCE (Cantab) will take up the post of Head of Streatham & Clapham High School from September.

Sutton High School

After a three-year pandemic delay, Sutton High School’s 50-year reunion party took place last year, attracting over 40 alumnae from as far afield as Australia and Canada.

The Class of 1970 celebrated their return to the school in the former Study, with Gillian Roper and Diana Barton, the joint Head Girl team meeting Sutton High’s current Head Girl, observing that the school had been “quite spartan in our day” and that it had “changed out of all recognition”. A piece of advice, too, for Mushy, the school’s current Head Girl, that “if you have been chosen to be Head Girl at Sutton High, you can go far in the world.”

Sydenham High School

In February, alumna Sandy Powell OBE continued the Sydenham High School tradition of breaking boundaries by becoming the first costume designer ever to be awarded the BAFTA Fellowship Award – the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA. Having worked with everyone from Martin Scorsese and Julianne Moore to Leonardo DiCaprio and Tilda Swinton, she has won three Academy Awards and now four BAFTAs, in a career spanning more than thirty years.

In her acceptance speech, Sandy said that she was “most grateful for the generosity and guidance [she has] received throughout [her] life,” before singling out her mother, her mentor, the late Derek Jarman, and her primary school teacher for special praise. Sydenham High School is proud to have played a part in her journey, and to be able to give pupils such a great role model to inspire them to follow their dreams and ambitions.

Wimbledon High School

”What are the challenges for younger alumnae and how can we support them?” ”What skills are needed in tomorrow’s workplace?” ”How do we encourage young people to take risks and pick themselves up from setbacks?”

These are the questions that were posed at Wimbledon High School’s Head Girls Advisory Board (set up in 2020 with former Head Girls from 2015-2021) at a recent dinner with Head Fionnuala Kennedy. It was enormously helpful to hear feedback direct from the school’s youngest alumnae about the kind of support they want in the first few years of life after school. Wimbledon’s Futures Programme, which supports students in Years 12 and 13 and beyond, is led by the new Head of Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Employability, Dr Sheela Sharma. She joins the Futures team with over 15 years’ experience in the corporate and start-up sectors and is passionate about instilling both the confidence and skills in young women needed to help them navigate their careers and reach their full potential.

Please get in touch with the school’s alumnae team to share how you most want to be supported at university and in your first careers by emailing alumnae@wim.gdst.net