As I said to girls in Assembly last week, even when we are very busy, we must find time to read. Reading stretches the mind and fills the soul, and we are not complete human beings without it. This is true of books even when – perhaps especially when – they deal with subjects that …
Category: BOOK REVIEW
Jan 22
Learning from the great women of this world: the humility of a local hero
At the weekend I attended the celebration dinner of the annual Student Leadership Conference run by the Alliance of Girls’ Schools (Australasia) – a fabulous 4 day conference in which Head Girls and their Deputies from girls’ schools in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Phillippines and further afield, including the US, are led …
Nov 28
Kitty Wilkinson, the Saint of the Slums: remembering our pioneering women
I very much enjoyed my visit last week to Liverpool, to attend our annual Girls’ Schools Association Heads’ conference, and I took the opportunity to discover a little more of the history of a city that was once one of the UK’s most important ports. (Actually, it still is – it is one of the …
Nov 02
The artists, the exhibition and their enriching legacy: what our former pupils bring to our schools
This has been an astonishingly creative week, as the St Mary’s Calne Art department moved to Cork Street, London, for a most beautiful Art exhibition. Pupils present and past exhibited, and the range of media and array of subjects was amazing. I could devote a blog a day from now on to each of the …
Sep 20
We must put more women on screen
The new Director-General of the BBC, George Entwistle, has just gone on record as saying that the BBC has to do more to promote women in “serious” roles, or as newsreaders, in its programmes. In an interview reported in the Daily Mail on Wednesday, he said this: “We have made real progress in actively looking …
Sep 11
Talking of female role models …
… what an amazing set of role models we have had in our Team GB Paralympians! With the strains of Sunday’s final Closing Ceremony still ringing in our ears, and the images of fire still dancing before our eyes, as well as the images of the thousands of people who lined the streets of London …
Sep 08
Tulisa: a role model and inspiration for broken Britain?
I have been thinking a lot about female role models recently, and so was drawn to the Daily Mail online article this week which reported an interview in Look magazine with Tulisa Contostavlos, singer and X Factor judge. In the interview, she described herself as an “inspiration for broken Britain”; I was intrigued. I was …
Aug 20
“Women were celebrated for doing more with their bodies than model the latest clothes”
Janice Turner has written a fantastic piece in Saturday’s Times magazine, and if you have access to the Times online, then do read it. Over six pages of glorious photos of women Olympic athletes, she took us through the triumphs of these Games, which really did place women on the front pages for their achievements, …
Aug 10
Inspirational Women
I came across a fantastic website recently, and I thoroughly recommend that you visit it. In fact, it is a subsection of the magazine Marie Claire’s website, and it is entitled ‘Inspirational Women‘. The introduction on the site says it all: “There’s no doubt about it – the women of the world are truly inspirational. …
Aug 04
The Women’s Games?
Before the Olympic Games even started, the omens were good, with the news that for the first time, every country represented had both male and female athletes. Then, the first GB medals came from women, and the tally at this point still looks fairly female heavy. Commentators have been delighting in the performance of the …