Biography, change and two inspiring women

Founders’ Day at school was a great affair, and this was in no small part down to the two guest speakers we had: the Very Reverend June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury, in the morning, in our annual church service, and Miss Amy Williams MBE, GB Gold Medal winner at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in the afternoon, in the school marquee as part of our annual prizegiving.

After graduating in Social Sciences from Manchester University, the Very Reverend June Osborne went on to train in the Church’s ministry at St John’s College, Nottingham and Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. In 1980, she took up the post of Deaconess at St Martin-in-the-Bullring in Birmingham, moving on to the East London Old Ford parishes in 1984. In 1994, she was one of the first group of women to be ordained into the priesthood and moved to Salisbury in 1995, as one of the Cathedral’s three residentiary canons. In February 2004, she was appointed Dean of Salisbury, making her the Church of England’s most senior woman priest. In June 2009 she was appointed by The Archbishops of Canterbury and York to join a panel of clergy to help select and elect new Deans. She has recently led a delegation of the Church of England to South Africa to an Anglican Communion conference addressing the issues of global poverty and inequality, and is playing a key role in the Communion’s commitment to implementing the Millennium Development Goals. She is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.  On 8th March 2008, she gave an uplifting Address at the School’s Thanksgiving Service at Salisbury Cathedral, in celebration of the 135th anniversary of St Mary’s Calne, when over 800 pupils, parents, old girls and staff attended, so she knew her audience.

For Miss Williams, too, this was a return visit to the school, as she had come as a surprise guest to our annual Sports Presentation dinner in April 2011. She lent a distinctive Olympian theme to the day; it will not of course surprise you to know that the focus on success and achievement was closely bound up with the impending London 2012 Olympics. Originally a runner, Miss Williams began competing in skeleton racing in 2002, after first trying the sport on a push-start track at the University of Bath.  Although unable to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics, she went on to win Silver at the 2009 World Championships in Lake Placid. She then qualified for Team GB at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where she won the gold medal in the women’s skeleton racing, breaking the track record twice along the way, and winning by more than a half a second.

These two women were very different – different ages, different achievements, different life experiences and different life directions – but as they told their stories, they both communicated similar messages: the importance of not being afraid to work hard, to strive to change for the better, and to make the most of life. Both had a determination about them, a resolve to look forwards, and a deep joy that comes from the satisfaction of knowing that they had done their best, coupled with the knowledge that their path will take them on other, changing, seas of adventure in the future. Their stories are far from over; there is much more to be written on their tapestries, and I predict that what we will see there in a few years’ time will be still more spectacular. But their stories so faras told to the girls, were already inspirational, and I thank them for this on behalf of the girls and our community.

We learn a lot from people’s lives, if only we listen to what they have to say. Founders’ Day was a great, great day in this respect.

 

 

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