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Gazette 2020/2021

Headmistress’ Welcome W

elcome to the 2020/2021 edition of the Gazette. This academic year has been extraordinary once again with Covid-19 restrictions still in place and a national lockdown from January-March 2021 which meant a return to online learning in the Spring Term. While the pandemic has affected us all, we have pulled together to make this year a success. The year star ted with news that we were finalists in the Girls’ School category for the Independent School of the Year Awards 2020, a great testament to the hard work our staff and pupils put into making Wycombe Abbey the place it is. This was followed by winning the TES Creativity Award for our Sixth Form Enrichment Programme, The Carrington Award. You can read more about this on page 26. Throughout the year we held a range of online events and girls enjoyed lectures from a variety of speakers from British athlete and adventurer, Sarah Outen to Scarlett Koller, a Wycombe Senior, who worked on the Mars Rover. A highlight of the year was the launch of the Wycombe Abbey Seniors’ Mentoring Programme for our Sixth Form. The scheme has been wellreceived by pupils and alumnae alike and we plan to build on its success by expanding it to a greater number of pupils next year. See page 17 for fur ther details of this initiative. Over the course of the past 18 months, I have consulted widely on the future direction of the School. Our Strategic Plan (Strategic Direction Wycombe Abbey 125) has been produced and it sets out the School’s plans to evolve over the coming years. We have a very clear vision, which is to be at the forefront of girls’ boarding education and recognised globally as a world-class school. Our roadmap for the next five years is set out under six strategic pillars which are Academic Excellence, Pastoral Care and Wellbeing, Leadership and Growth, Engagement and Connectivity, Global Awareness and Future-Focus and Transformational Change. The document is available on the School website. At the end of the summer term 2021 we were inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) and we were delighted with the final report in which the School was given the highest grade of Excellent; it demonstrates the outstanding education and pastoral care our pupils receive. A raft of Estates works took place across the site during July and August; I am delighted that we have star ted the Big School project which will see the transformation of this much-loved space, as well as refurbishing bathrooms and dormitories in the boarding houses and a significant upgrade of the IT infrastructure across the site and in our classrooms.

This coming year, we will celebrate our 125th anniversary and we look forward to an exciting programme of events and activities which will bring our community together to celebrate the School’s foundation by Dame Frances Dove. On Founder’s Day, 23 September 2021, we celebrated her life and legacy with a service in Chapel led by the Rt Rev Dr Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham followed by a celebratory ‘bir thday’ par ty for the School to enjoy with music, cakes and funfair rides. We have a Speaker’s Programme planned with speakers including Liz Earle MBE, Sir Matthew Pinsent and Dame Helena Morrissey. We have commissioned a composer, Becky McGlade, to compose a School Anthem which will be launched at the 125th Anniversary Concert in the Spring Term of 2022. I very much hope that you will be able to join us on one of these occasions. I hope you enjoy reading this year’s Gazette, which I am sure you will agree, is a delightful record of all that has been achieved by girls and staff at Wycombe Abbey. With best wishes

Jo Duncan MA (St Andrews), PGCE (Cantab) Headmistress

Gazette 2020-2021

Contents

Awards 5 Highlights 11 Achievements 29 Activities and Societies

Virtual Lectures and Talks

Chapel and Community

Creative Writing and Art

Drama 81 Music 87 Sport 93 House Reports

105

Seniors 119 Staff Leavers

129

Gazette 2020-2021

Awards

Awards School Positions

Scholarships 08 Wing Lam Wins Prestigious Prince Philip Scholarship

Gazette 2020-2021

School Positions

Head of School Catrina Yang

Deputy Heads of School Alyssa Conradie and Carys Ward

Heads of Houses

Airlie

Victoria Semark-Masters

Barry

Lily Fearnhead

Butler

Cordelia Lamming

Campbell

Diana Reed

Cloister

Anna McFadzean

Pitt

Uma Horder

Rubens

Alice Lloyd

Shelburne

Sofia Harris Roqueta

Wendover

Bea Reynard

Chairmen of Clarence

Victoria Garson, Isabel Jemide, Charlotte Johnson-Watts and Isabel Sobowale

Awards

School Prefects School Sports Captain

Alice Newton

Charity Prefects

Anna Pattle and Yam Pothikamjorn

Music Prefect

Rosalie Ko

Drama Prefect

Charlotte Defriez

School Artist

Alex Hayden

School Almoners

Reni Fasinro and Edith Oborne

Junior House Prefects Chloe Davis, Alisha Desai-Kinvig, Larissa de Silva and Unwana Essien Fourth Form Prefects

Phoebe Fox, Kathleen Lai and Audrey Miu

Fifth Form Prefects Charlotte Gowers, Maya Mukherjee and Hilary Tang Lower Sixth Prefects

Jade Li and Morenike Majekodunmi

School Officers Head of Orchestra

Chloe Suen

School Pianist

Rosalie Ko

Head of Choir

Sophie Young

MUN Secretaries General

Chloe Davis and Phoebe Fox

Debating Officers

Alisha Desai-Kinvig and Helen Kurnytska

Digital Officers

Alison Dauris and Grace Sawatyanon

Poet Laureate

Angelina Curtis

Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Meryl Lim

Sustainability Officers

Tabita Bobs and Amelia Howie

School Librarians

Charlotte Gowers and Eleanor Kochman

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme Officers

Alex Hayden and Noor Mitchell

School Photographer

Malvika Kheterpal

Wellbeing Officers

Larissa de Silva and Victoria Semark-Masters

Gazette 2020-2021

Scholarships 2020 11+ Scholarship

13+ Music Scholarship

The Wycombe Abbey Open Scholarship: Allegra Leathers (Kensington Preparatory School)

Music Scholarship: Gwyneth Suen (Harrow International School, Hong Kong)

The Crosthwaite Scholarship: Matilde La Magna (Glendower Preparatory School)

Music Scholarship: Iris Canning-Jones (Godolphin and Latymer School)

The Barnes Scholarship: Clélia Antoine (Eaton House The Manor Girls’ School)

Sixth Form Academic Scholarship

Academic Exhibition: Olga Maltzoff (The English International College)

The Fisher Scholarship: Darvin Min

Academic Exhibition: Freya Man (Danes Hill School)

The Dr Seville Scholarship: Melissa Riley

11+ Music Scholarship Music Scholarship: Allegra Leathers (Kensington Preparatory School) Music Scholarship: Catherine Li (St Helen’s College)

13+ Academic Scholarship The Wycombe Abbey Open Scholarship: Ahjung Kim (Wycombe Abbey) The Dove Scholarship: Gwyneth Suen (Harrow International School, Hong Kong) The Goodland Scholarship: Tia Bajpai (Wycombe Abbey) The Walpole Scholarship: Emily Ying-Clifton (Wycombe Abbey) Academic Exhibition: Astrid Miu (German Swiss International School, Hong Kong)

Awards

The Flux Dundas Scholarship: Sarah Dauris The Bathurst Scholarship: Clara Canning-Jones The Davies Scholarship: Emmanuella Etuokwu The Tang Award: Wing Lam Wong

Sixth Form Music Scholarship Music Scholarship: Katie Foreman Music Scholarship: Melissa Riley Music Scholarship: Ellani Visavadia

2021 11+ Academic Scholarship

13+ Music Scholarship

The Wycombe Abbey Open Scholarship: Rosalind Davies (Pembridge Hall School)

Music Scholarship: Judy Li (Wycombe Abbey)

The Dove Scholarship: Eva Bowes (Glendower Preparatory School) The Crosthwaites Scholarship: Sissie Ma (The Abbey Junior School)

13+ Academic Scholarship The Wycombe Abbey Open Scholarship: Fariha Lovejoy (Godstowe Preparatory School) The Dove Scholarship: Cice Cheng (Wycombe Abbey)

Music Exhibition: Henrietta Finlayson-Brown (Wycombe Abbey) Music Exhibition: Chloe Ng (Diocesan Girls’ Junior School)

Sixth Form Music Scholarship Choral Scholarship: Dawn Chow (St. Paul’s Convent School) Music Exhibition: Elaine Lin (Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls) Music Exhibition: Charmaine Tung (Wycombe Abbey)

The Goodland Scholarship: Judy Li (Wycombe Abbey) Academic Exhibition: Margot Evans (Dragon School) Academic Exhibition: Fiona Li (Wycombe Abbey) Academic Exhibition: Myra Mak (German Swiss International School)

Prince Philip Scholarship for Wing Lam (UVI)

e are delighted Wing Lam has been awarded the prestigious Prince Philip Scholarship offered by the Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong. This scholarship is highly competitive (typically fewer than ten awards are made each year) and Wing Lam joins a small and select group of Wycombe Abbey pupils who have won the award since its inception in 1982. Wing Lam’s mathematical achievements are exceptional against any measure and we are thrilled that the Prince Philip Scholarship selection board has recognised this. This scholarship is a testament to her hard work and her commitment to Mathematics over her years at Wycombe Abbey.

Dr Neal Carrier Director of Sixth Form

Gazette 2020-2021

Highlights

Highlights Winner of the TES Award for Creativity

Wycombe Abbey Finalist for International Student Experience

Heroes of Wycombe Abbey

This Year in Careers

Tycoon Enterprise Competition

Diversity and Inclusion

Wycombe Abbey Mentoring Programme

Digital Art Exhibition

Digital Concert

GlastonAbbey 20 Sports Day

Flourishing and Wellbeing

Parenting the Teenager Talks

The Carrington Award

STEAM at Wycombe Abbey

Gazette 2020-2021

Highlights Wycombe Abbey Wins Award for Pioneering Sixth Form Leadership Programme

e are pleased to announce that Wycombe Abbey has won the Creativity Award at the 2021 TES Independent School Awards, which were held virtually on Friday 30 April 2021. The award was given in recognition of our Sixth Form Enrichment Programme, The Carrington Award. This programme of study is the result of a two-year research project undertaken by staff to provide a unique experience for pupils aged 16 - 18 years.

Judges were particularly impressed by the School’s use of transmedia storytelling, using a variety of media to immerse pupils in a narrative.

Highlights

The Carrington Award programme is tailored and designed to reflect the par ticular needs of Wycombe Abbey pupils, their high potential and their global outlook. The programme develops skills across four strands: leadership, responsibility and global thinking; confidence and self-reliance; creativity and vision; and critical thinking and intellectual curiosity. In just two years this programme has been exceedingly wellreceived by pupils and parents alike. Judges were particularly impressed by the School’s use of transmedia storytelling, using a variety of media to immerse pupils in a narrative. Leadership skills are further developed through a two-day Leadership Summit with the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe and the Award also forms a par t of the School’s outreach programme with three local state schools taking part in some events. Mrs Duncan said: “Wycombe Abbey is well known for its academic achievements, but to be recognised for creativity is very special. A lot of work has gone into the Carrington Award, it’s something that helps our pupils be future focussed. We’re continuing to improve the Award and have recently introduced electives, to really use our staff expertise. This award is all about developing skills and knowledge for the future.”

Wycombe Abbey Finalist for Independent School of the Year Award 2021 We are also pleased to announce that Wycombe Abbey has been named a finalist for an Independent School of the Year award for International Student Experience. We aim to make a home away from home for our pupils and are pleased the team has been recognised for the work they do to suppor t our overseas pupils and parents. The winners will be announced in an awards ceremony in October.

Gazette 2020-2021

Superhero Teacher

ince May 2020, Head of Biology Mrs Wallace, has been donating plasma to the NHS to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic. She has been one of the most prolific donators of plasma in the country with ITV news calling her a ‘Superhero Teacher’. I was unwell during the 2020 Easter holidays, just as the first lockdown was announced. It was not until May when I took a test to see if I had antibodies that I found out I carried the long-term IgM Covid-19 antibodies, and my levels were high (5.46 on a scale of 0 to 6). A friend of mine mentioned the convalescent plasma clinical trial and I signed up online via the NHSBT website where I found out I was eligible to donate. Every time someone donates, you are triaged to ensure that you have not been in contact with anyone with Covid-19 or other infectious diseases, such as zika. The next step was pulse and iron level check – you must read over 120 units to be eligible, which means keeping a healthy diet with lots of red meat, dark green vegetables and plenty of vitamin C. Once passed the tests, I was then hooked up to the plasmapheresis machine. It looks like a small cashpoint, and all the tubing is stored individually in sterilised packing. After confirming my name, address and date of birth multiple times, the nurse located the best vein and then it is needle time – my worst fear! I can honestly say that it took two seconds of pain, and then it was completely fine. Once the needle is secured, there were three plastic tubes attached to my arm; one to remove my blood, one to return my blood, and one for the anticoagulant so the blood returns smoothly. After the draw, the blood is spun inside the machine and the plasma slowly accumulates in the bag. The plasma removal usually takes about 45 minutes, but this is dependent on body mass, blood pressure and hydration.

It has been amazing to be part of ‘real time’ science, particularly when it is needed most.

Highlights

After 13 donations, I have only ever had two small bruises and my arm is completely recovered by the next morning. My body also replenishes the antibodies lost within 48 hours. As well as the plasma collection, nine vials of blood were collected and sent off to Filton for blood screening, plus two further vials which went to Por ton Down to be tested for Covid-19 antibody levels. This data has helped establish better understanding of the longevity of immunity and was impor tant in the development of the UK vaccines. It has been amazing to be par t of ‘real time’ science, par ticularly when it is needed most. The trial is currently focussing on using the convalescent plasma as an alternative for those who are clinically extremely vulnerable but ineligible for the vaccine, for example those with compromised immune systems in the middle of chemotherapy. Plasma is also used in other hospital treatments and is especially valuable for treating burns victims and those with leukaemia. I feel incredibly lucky that despite the odds, I have passed the eligibility criteria and have been able to donate. Each donation contains two units of plasma and could potentially save two lives, which is a little overwhelming.

Mrs L Wallace Head of Biology

This Year in Careers

he Academic Year 2020/2021 has certainly brought its challenges, but thanks to technology (and especially Zoom!) the Careers Department has offered a fantastic range of opportunities for pupils to connect with professionals to find out about various careers. working in their various fields. As ever, we had an amazing variety We are delighted that more girls than ever before from across the of careers represented, including a Professor of Psychology and whole School age range have engaged with our Career Spotlight Genetics, Head of International News at Sky News, an art fair events this year. Highlights include a talk and Q&A from social director, wine importer, and a spacecraft thermal engineer. This entrepreneur Ronit Kanwar, founder of Empower Energy which year most of our speakers were Wycombe Abbey Seniors, so the brings power to remote rural areas of India. Still in his early 20s, evening offered a real celebration of success and diversity from his achievements inspired girls to pursue their passion and to find our own community. ways to help others. This important theme continued with speaker Shanu Rasheed, Work experience opportunities have been Consultant Surgeon at the Royal Marsden, This year most of our speakers greatly restricted for obvious reasons, but who gave a fascinating insight into his were Wycombe Abbey Seniors, several of our potential LVI medics seized work as part of a Disaster Response Unit the opportunity to create activity packs so the evening offered a alongside his usual role treating cancer for local care home residents, writing to real celebration of success patients. Further Career Spotlights included them and helping to support them through Wycombe Abbey Senior, Sophie Odenthal, and diversity from our own some lonely lockdown periods; we are who is now Senior Strategy and Policy community. proud of their efforts and commitment. Advisor at HM Treasury; Political Journalist In celebration of International Women’s and Author Peter Oborne; Sean Scanlon Day, SAS Software linked with us to run an and colleagues from law firm Arnold Porter insight event called ‘Women in Software’ discussing a career in Law, including their incredible pro bono work; and we are also extremely grateful to Credit Suisse who ran a and Tosin Akinluyi from Morgan Stanley highlighting the degree virtual work experience day which enabled interested girls from apprenticeship programme as well as giving an insight into banking. UV to UVI to engage in various interactive sessions with a range of speakers across the organisation. It was one final celebration The annual Careers Seminar, open to UV – UVI inclusive, took of successful women from a diverse range of backgrounds and place once again, this time as a virtual event in March. We are so a wonderful way to end the year’s programme. grateful to the many speakers who gave up their time to share the highs and lows of their careers with pupils at Wycombe Mrs A Kiln Abbey and to answer their questions about what it is really like

Head of Economics and Enterprise, Head of Careers

Tycoon Enterprise Competition The Tycoon Enterprise Competition is run by the Peter Jones Foundation; it is a national competition where pupils form a small team, brainstorm ideas, write their business plan, pitch for funding and then start their business trading over two terms and competing with other student companies through the Tycoon kickstarter style platform. This academic year, we were delighted that six Wycombe Abbey teams (consisting of 23 LVI girls in total) secured start-up funding amounting to £1,227. Supported by business mentors, all of whom are Wycombe Abbey Seniors, they produced an innovative range of products including sweatshirts (LineUp Clothing), trackies (Track On), caps (Panache), stickers (Earth Stickers) and a class ring (EmpowerRing), as well as a service customising and revitalising old shoes by hand painting (Re-Soul). Their imagination, enthusiasm and energy was particularly inspiring during such a challenging year where reaching their audience was definitely more difficult due to social distancing and year-group bubbles.

At the time of writing, the exciting news has just been announced that Re-Soul has made it through to the National Final at Hampton Court Palace in September. This team was overall winners in their age group. All teams’ success was extraordinary. There were two trading windows this year – Autumn and Spring Terms and (due to lockdown) Autumn and Summer Terms. Team LineUp Clothing came top of the national leaderboard in the first trading window, whilst four of our remaining teams were placed in the top 10 of the Autumn/Summer leaderboard at numbers 1, 4, 5 and 6. The return on investment figures are certainly impressive but what is even more important is how much each team learned, showing great resilience, adaptability, teamwork and sheer drive!

Mrs A Kiln Head of Economics, Enterprise and Careers

Gazette 2020-2021

Diversity and Inclusion D

iversity focuses on understanding differences, what makes us unique and why this is important. At Wycombe Abbey, we are committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for all those within our community. The School is keen to improve diversity, promote awareness and acceptance and to foster an inclusive culture where both staff and pupils learn to appreciate the differences between race, religious and cultural beliefs, disability and sexual orientation. The benefits of diversity can only be reaped once we acknowledge how impor tant these differences are to a person’s identity. We believe that organisations who embrace diversity are better equipped for success. We also believe that our pupils should have their voices heard; especially when decisions are made concerning them and so the pupil Diversity and Inclusivity Committee was launched. The pupil committee hold regular ‘Courageous Conversations’ – which are open forum discussions for all staff and pupils. Engaging in courageous conversations is about challenging current practices and fostering improvement and growth through conversation, listening to and acting on feedback, and providing feedback that will lead to improvements in pupil and staff achievement and wellbeing. In courageous conversations, individuals are encouraged to express their views openly and truthfully, rather than defensively or with the purpose of laying blame. Integral to courageous conversations is an openness to learn.

Highlights

The School also has a Staff Diversity and Inclusion committee and they have also been busy planning how the staff body can create a diverse and inclusive atmosphere at School. It has been looking into: • Use of language and agreeing on inclusive terminology. • Stereotypes: Racial, gender, cultural, and other (Goth, etc) profiling. Raising awareness, using examples, what to do? • Identity Protocol: Preparing the School to have measures in place – to be proactive and prepare for the future.

Ms A Hurribunce Lead Teacher: Diversity and Inclusion and Barry Housemistress

“It has been wonderful speaking to somebody who I can aspire to be like.” Marika, UVI

Wycombe Abbey Mentoring Programme

he inaugural year of the Wycombe Abbey Seniors Mentoring Programme has been a huge success and an amazing experience for both our Upper Sixth pupils and our alumnae. The programme launched in October 2020 and attracted over 150 registrations from Seniors willing to be mentors for current pupils. The mentoring sessions run as part of the School’s Sixth Form enrichment programme, the Carrington Award, which helps pupils achieve not only academic excellence, but also prepares them for the broader challenges of life and work beyond School. The aim of the mentoring programme, which took place vir tually this year, was to provide the oppor tunity for current pupils to connect with alumnae around the world. Mentors offered a diverse set of experiences gained from careers within industries ranging from engineering, medicine, performing ar ts, science, law and digital communications. One of our Mentors, Dame Sue Carr, Lady Justice of Appeal (C151) commented “I have learnt a huge amount from my mentees and have got so much out of this programme. It has really lifted our hearts, par ticularly during the time of a pandemic. The mentoring programme has provided a fantastic oppor tunity to stay in touch with the School.” Pupils have found the programme invaluable for seeking suppor t from alumnae who, not long ago, were going through similar choices that they are facing now. Sessions have been used to discuss university applications and degree subject choices, plans for work experience and internships.

Discussions covered many other subjects and resulted in fun anecdotes shared between Wycombe Abbey pupils past and present. One mentee said, “I very much enjoyed and appreciated the insights and advice my mentor shared with regards to my upcoming university interviews as well as the possibilities for my degree beyond a traditional engineering career. I hope to keep in touch!” Due to the popularity of the programme, we have been able to develop two additional branches of the Mentoring Programme; one working with the Diversity and Inclusion Pupil Committee; the second with the Tycoon Enterprise programme providing business mentors to guide Lower Sixth pupils through the development and growth of their start-up businesses. We are looking to fur ther promote mentoring at the School, and we look forward to offering pupils the oppor tunity to connect with alumnae across the globe through our programme.

Miss K Tyler Seniors’ Officer

Gazette 2020-2021

Digital Ar t Exhibition

ver the past year, a collaborative Art Exhibition was created to exhibit pupils’ artwork from across our international schools in the UK, Hong Kong and Changzhou, China. Together, the overarching theme of ‘East meets West’ encompasses our schools’ locations and importantly an awareness of cultures. The work was displayed through a virtual gallery where you could ‘walk’ around.

The ar twork presented by Wycombe Abbey in the UK was produced by pupils in UIII to UIV, who focused on the theme through inspiration from Ar t History. They explored and experimented with a variety of media including drawing, painting, printmaking and creative textiles. Wycombe Abbey School Changzhou pupils (Years 7 – 9) were given the theme for their Christmas holiday homework.

Highlights

The great variety of responses in terms of subject matter, style and choice of media were the result of pupils’ own personal inspiration and inclination. At Wycombe Abbey School Hong Kong, pupils individually drew upon the theme to explore new ideas, thoughts and concepts. They investigated various cultures to create a visual form of communication and using a broad spectrum of materials to record their individual creative efforts.

This was a fantastic way to encourage par tnership between Wycombe Abbey sister schools. We are looking forward to more projects next year.

Miss H Allen Teacher of Design and Technology and Pitt Housemistress

This concert showed us that, out of the difficulties of the last 18 months, we have discovered exciting new ways to connect musicians around the world.

Digital Music Concer t T

he technological skills we have acquired in the last 18 months have offered new ways to connect the global Wycombe Abbey musical community. After the success of uniting the voices of current pupils and Seniors in a virtual choral rendition of the Chaterhouse Carol, our next project was to arrange our first musical collaboration between Wycombe Abbey School Changzhou and Wycombe Abbey in the UK. This collaboration took the form of a Vir tual Concer t featuring pupils from both schools performing a variety of solos as well as a duet. Eleven pupils from UIII to Sixth Form par ticipated in the event preparing a wide-ranging programme including unaccompanied Bach, and music by Franck, Chopin, movements from Beethoven’s Pathétique and ‘Tempest’ Sonatas as well as Bloch’s Nigun. Each performance was preceded by a shor t interview where the pupils - despite being 9000 kilometres apar t - were able to learn more about each other’s musical experience, interests and reper toire choices.

Because of the challenges of time zones and software platforms, the event was pre-recorded and broadcast with a live introduction at appropriate times in both the UK and China. The UK showing of the concer t took place on Friday 21 May 2021 and all of us watching were impressed by the committed and musical performances from the pupils of both schools.

The concer t was a team effor t, recorded in-house at each school with our Development and External Relations Team in High Wycombe editing the final video and the Changzhou Team adding subtitles in Mandarin. Ashley Garfitt - the Director of Music in Changzhou - and I have enjoyed working on the project and are looking forward to our next piece of work. This concer t showed us that, out of the difficulties of the last 18 months, we have discovered exciting new ways to connect musicians around the world.

Mr S Reid Director of Music

Gazette 2020-2021

GlastonAbbey 2021

crowd full of energy, excitement and sheer noise greeted every act to the stage of this year’s GlastonAbbey. The School’s outdoor music festival once again exhibited the very best musical talent from the pop and rock genres at the end of the Summer Term. A perfectly choreographed routine by the GlastonAbbey street dancers opened the festival. They were followed by Mr Ledingham’s stage band with a dynamic arrangement of Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody. The award-winning LVI band, Ionic, made their final appearance at the festival with an eclectic mix of rock classics including Cocoon and Pacifier by Catfish and the

Highlights

Bottlemen, Kiwi by Harry Styles and Trashbag Baby by SWMRS. The tremendous solo musical talent of Semal followed with a variety of pop and rock ballads. RockSoc presidents Semal and Tabita conducted an exhaustive talent search featuring several weeks of auditions and mentoring to find the very best juniors

A crowd full of energy, excitement and sheer noise greeted every act to the stage of this year’s GlastonAbbey.

to take to the stage. Their chosen acts featuring Amalia and Emily, and Frida, Sasha and Freya cer tainly demonstrated that there is plenty of extraordinary upand-coming talent for future festivals. The audience adored Frida’s beautiful rendition of Adele’s Someone Like You and Sasha’s powerful performance of A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman.

The most exuberant crowd response of the festival was reserved for Wycombe Abba – an Abba tribute act featuring the Resident Tutors. A medley of songs by the Scandinavian pop foursome included Dancing Queen, The Winner Takes it All, I Have a Dream, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! and When I Kissed the Teacher. Gaps in the music were ably bridged by LVI comperes Catrina, Kathleen, Semal and Tabita with the help of regular appearances by the incredibly popular T-shir t cannons firing freebies into the audience! A range of side stalls provided festival merchandise, fairground-style games, glitter face painting, candyfloss and exper tly mixed mocktails. Proceeds from the concer t went to suppor t our Chapel Charities.

Dr A Goddard Director of Co-Curricular Activities

Gazette 2020-2021

Spor ts Day T

here was great excitement in the last week of term as we held our annual Sports Day. The sun came out in time for what was a fantastic day of sporting achievement with plenty of House spirit on show. Many girls took par t in the day competing in a variety of track and field events including 300m, 1500m, hurdles, high jump, relays and javelin. The girls were in their respective bubbles throughout the day making lots of noise cheering each other along. They wore their House colours with pride, waved banners and spor ted face paint which only added to the fun. The final result saw Campbell House take home the Spor ts Day trophy as overall winners, with Pitt winning the junior events, Wendover the intermediate events and Campbell as senior winners.

Highlights

The Victrix Ludorum Cup is awarded to the athlete who scored the most points across two events, this year the cup was awarded to: • Junior : Jasmine (LIV) • Intermediate: Arolape (LV) • Senior : Francesca (LVI) The Relay Cup winners were Pitt and the Spring Cup for the most improved athlete this season went to Jasmine (LIV). It was a great day to be able to come together as a community and take par t in events that leave lasting memories of School life.

Ms R Conroy Communications Manager

Gazette 2020-2021

Flourishing and Wellbeing Flourishing@Wycombe

e all want to do our best and be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. At Wycombe Abbey we want pupils to consider how they can truly flourish, how they can go beyond feeling okay and really feel that they are living full lives and making the most of the opportunities that are there for them. Our Flourishing@Wycombe programme works alongside our wellbeing lessons to help pupils explore ideas related to positive psychology, wellbeing and our community. Each term we adopt one main theme upon which to focus and this year the themes of Respect, Kindness and Sleep are as important as they have been well received. Through tutor times, assemblies and House activities pupils have involved themselves fully with these ideas. One thing we know about Wycombe Abbey pupils, and the Wycombe Abbey community in general, is that they have a real thirst for knowledge. The Flourishing@ Wycombe Guides have been published each term to help pupils develop their

understanding of these topics and we have been delighted to be able to share these with parents this year. One of the most enjoyable additions to our programme has been the creation of our Flourishing@Wycombe podcasts. In each episode, I discuss with a member of our community how an aspect of their

life, their work, or their interests and hobbies, link with how we can flourish in the modern world. We hope that you’ve enjoyed being able to listen and we look forward to sharing more of these ideas with you in the future.

Mr J Jones Deputy Head (Pupils)

Wellbeing

his has been another fantastic year for Wellbeing at Wycombe Abbey. It was lovely to welcome girls back into the classroom. They have been creative in their study of a diverse array of topics this year - from learning about mental health, uniting against bullying and creating information packs on who we have in School that they can turn to if they need support. The UIII also spent some time celebrating Black heroes and their contributions in science, sports, music, medicine, literature, fashion, art, and cinema. Their presentations were well researched and inspiring.

It seemed fitting that our 7th annual Mental Health Awareness Week fell during another period of lockdown learning. It reminded staff and girls that even when separated the sense of community at Wycombe Abbey is strong and there is always someone that they can lean on. The theme of the week was Listening, and we encouraged girls to build their active listening skills through Chapel services and tutor time. The Wellbeing Officers ran a Time to Talk over Zoom in which they shared strategies and tips on how to support our friends and families. The Officers, Gee and Charlotte also ran competitions for girls to take part in virtually that encourage those in School to remain connected when apart and encouraged creativity in finding a moment for mindfulness.

Highlights

It has also been wonderful to have some fantastic speakers back in the Wellbeing programme both online and in person. The LV heard from Natasha Devon MBE. Natasha is a writer and activist for mental health, and she spoke to the girls about how to cope with stress and anxiety. The Wellbeing Officers arranged for an informative UVI workshop on disordered eating. Healthy Lifestyles Day at the end of the academic year was a huge success and the girls were inspired by three fantastic speakers. The first was Emma Cole, a long-time survivor of HIV who won the girls over with her humour and bravery in the face of adversity, The School of Sexuality who delivered two talks on Consent and Healthy Relationships and Gary Blunt, my dad, who spoke passionately about his love

of journeying through the UK and how it helped him overcome his battle with cancer. A highlight of the year must be the session that I ran with the School prefects to help develop a World Class Relationship and Sex Education provision here at Wycombe Abbey. They debated topics that are relevant to them today, suggested improvements to be made and ensured that their voice was heard in the co-production of a programme that is inclusive, safe, and enjoyable.

Miss S Blunt Head of Wellbeing and Wendover Housemistress

Parenting the Teenager

he global pandemic and long periods of lockdown over the past two years have given us more opportunities to reflect upon the nature of adolescence and the lives of young people. Our Parenting the Teenager series is an opportunity for parents and the School community to come together and explore these issues. This year our talks have been a mixture of recorded talks and live Zoom events, and although we have missed hosting parents on site, we hope that you have been able to make the most of this provision, and that families who live some distance from Wycombe have been able to enjoy these talks as well.

Nicola Morgan “the teenage brain woman”

The first talk in the series was about the impor tant topic of ‘pressure’ and was a chance to introduce our School Counsellor, Claire Maddock, to our parental body. With great insight and depth of knowledge Claire was able to give the audience a real understanding of some of the issues facing young people and how they manage the pressure they feel. Our second talk focussed upon the digital world with some impor tant

reminders about online safety issues from Mrs Fawkes, our Director of Safeguarding and Pupil Welfare, and a thoughtful discussion of the importance of digital skills in the 21st century from Mr Shah, our Director of Digital Learning. Our final talk of the year was delivered by the award winning author Nicola Morgan, ‘the teenage brain woman’. Nicola gave the audience a tour of the teenage brain and how its development helps to determine some of the characteristic

behaviour of teenagers. It was a fitting end to this year’s series with one parent asking for the School to make sure they invite Nicola back to talk to parents, staff, pupils and anyone else who would listen as they would all benefit from hearing from her! We cer tainly will have Nicola back in the future and we look forward to more Parenting the Teenager sessions next year!

Mr J Jones Deputy Head (Pupils)

We certainly will have Nicola back in the future and we look forward to more Parenting the Teenager sessions next year!

Gazette 2020-2021

The Carrington Award

e are delighted to announce that this year Wycombe Abbey’s bespoke Sixth Form Enrichment programme, the Carrington Award, won the prestigious Creativity Award at the 2021 TES Independent Schools Awards. Lead judge Simon Larter-Evans said: “Wycombe Abbey’s Carrington Award is a carefully researched programme that aims to meet the future needs of young women, particularly in the realm of leadership.” The Carrington Award is an extensive programme of taught seminars on themes such as Leadership in Theory and Practice and Critical Analysis and Argument, alongside weekly talks on a range of topics from global issues to personal wellbeing.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we were also able to hold a number of immersive education experiences. These included the Management Conference, where teams of pupils from Wycombe Abbey and Royal Grammar School High Wycombe formed companies and used an online business simulation to star t their own coffee companies. This was our 30th anniversary of hosting the Management Conference, and we’re proud of this long tradition of promoting entrepreneurship and business acumen amongst our pupils. You can read more about the conference on page 43. In the summer we hosted the Leadership Summit and invited pupils from Dr Challoner’s Grammar School. The day began with an astounding talk from Vicky Ellis, one of the few female skippers to lead a crew in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Teams then embarked on a host of activities designed to test their leadership skills including practical challenges, an assault course and archery rampage. This year also saw the introduction of a new initiative, the Wycombe Seniors’ Mentoring programme where pupils

Highlights

in the UVI were partnered with Wycombe Seniors for regular online mentoring sessions that covered everything from career advice and interview practice to reminiscing and comparing experiences of living and studying at Wycombe Abbey. We’re hugely grateful to all of the Wycombe Seniors who so generously gave up their time. The Academic Forum brought Wycombe and RGS pupils together vir tually for academic discussions and debates related to their chosen degree. Our UVI then took par t in a team interdisciplinary quiz, encouraging lateral thinking and problem solving. Despite the success of the Carrington Award, we are eager for it to evolve so that it constantly meets the needs of our pupils in best preparing them for success in life beyond the Sixth Form. We are therefore excited that for 2021-2022 the programme will include the introduction of University Preparation Lessons into the LVI. These will be based around subject faculties and will enable our pupils to explore their academic interests even further whilst producing an undergraduate level essay by writing either a University Preparation Project or gaining the Extended Project Qualification. We can’t wait to see what topics they choose to write about!

Ms E Bowen Deputy Head of Sixth Form (Enrichment)

STEAM at Wycombe R ising to the challenges of Covid restrictions and lockdowns, STEAM activities went ahead in 2020-2021, with imaginative adaptations and innovations.

At Wycombe Abbey, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) is all about identifying the links between subjects and introducing non-curriculum subjects such as medicine, engineering and materials science. Carefully chosen themes will often ignite interest across subjects, enabling pupils to learn and discover different skills and ways of thinking. The inclusion of Art underlines the importance of creative thinking in using technology and science to envision elegant solutions to real world problems. The aim is to challenge pupils and encourage them out of their comfort zones; real life rarely falls into neat subject areas and it is hugely rewarding to see pupils engaging with novel situations and ideas, employing collaborative skills, taking intellectual risks and developing their ideas, sometimes through calculation and sometimes through trial and error. The importance of STEAM subjects in today’s world must not be underestimated. Medical advances and the development of vaccines in an incredibly short timescale has been astonishing. Technology has enabled so much to develop and continue during the pandemic and, out of necessity, there has been a great deal of improvement in

our technological proficiency. Aside from the enforced recent upskilling in our use of technology, however, the ability to think in a creative way and draw upon skills which are more often associated with just one subject in order to solve a problem is a tremendous advantage in the modern workplace. Sustainability and climate change are top of the world agenda, and it is the STEAM subjects which underpin our understanding of these problems and will be the key to bringing about change. STEAM subjects often drive progress and that is exciting; our aim is to ignite that excitement in pupils. Science Week fell during school closure, so the science society chair came up with the idea of encouraging pupils to grow some vegetables at home, either by planting seeds or replanting offcuts of vegetables such as carrot tops. Pupils were invited to submit photographic evidence of this activity to win prizes for their efforts. As a grand finale to our STEAM year, we held two STEAM days in School for UIII and LIV pupils at the end of the Summer Term. The theme was “STEAM Impressions” and the pupils rotated round five activities during the two days. Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Computing embraced the strong creative element provided by the Art Department. In Physics, the pupils took photographs with pinhole cameras, turning

a lab into a makeshift dark room and applying themselves rigorously to ensure that the process worked. In Chemistry, they turned their hands to blueprints, learning about the chemical processes involved and using these to create some eye-catching artwork. In Biology, they explored the wonders of the wildlife of the lake, enjoying the fascinating pond-dipping activity. A coding challenge in Computing enabled pupils to create tree-like pictures using algorithms. In Art, a wide range of media was used, particularly working with re-cycled materials to create 3D sculptures and gaining inspiration from the beauty of nature in the School grounds. Tasks were set using their home environment during lockdown to encourage observation and walks in the fresh air. In a year characterised by unforeseen setbacks, it is good to reflect on the achievements of the Wycombe Abbey pupils, their resilience and determination to carry on and look for another way when the original plans fall through. It is a great credit to our pupils that they maintained their energy, enthusiasm and focus in the most challenging of circumstances. We look forward with great optimism to more real life and fewer virtual activities in the new school year.

Mrs S Buxton Director of Science and STEM

Gazette 2020-2021

Achievements

Achievements From the Head Girl

Pupils Celebrate Winning Inaugural Black and Blum Design Competition

Success at the Industrial Cadets Bronze Award Competition

Inter-school Maths Competition

Wycombe Abbey Pupil wins Supreme Court Student Writing Competition

Art History Success

Sixth Former wins Literary Competition with Emotive Blog about a Refugee

Gazette 2020-2021

From the Head Girl

arrived in the role of the Head Girl keen to improve the atmosphere of the School post-pandemic. The ongoing pandemic made this a challenging task, and we were disappointed when both the Talent Show and House Spirit Weekend were cancelled (due to the countrywide lockdown). On returning to School in person, however, we were pleased to set up a ‘kindness board’; the messages from pupils pinned onto the wall highlighted the gratitude and compassion of our School community.

Carrying on from the work of the previous Head Girl Team, we spent time focusing on the School’s mental health system. It was a pleasure to work with the new School counsellor Claire, and to share with her the opinions of pupils on the provision of mental health support at Wycombe Abbey. We also collaborated with the Wellbeing Officers to create an FAQ page on a variety of mental health topics. Another main area of focus for us as a team was sustainability. Together with the Sustainability Officers, we made more

Achievements

sustainable items available in House dispensaries, and pushed for improved recycling (including introducing compost bins) throughout the School. We look forward to hearing of fur ther change implemented in an area so many of us feel strongly about. The past year has been unimaginably different for all of us, and our tenure was no exception. The pandemic meant no in-person Chapel or Big School, and Open Days for prospective families were carried out online. Perhaps one of the few beneficial impacts of the pandemic was the transition away from paper, which no doubt was brought forward several years. I feel so privileged to have worked alongside Katie and Ella, the Deputy Heads of School, to bring about change within the School. I hope that through our introduction of weekly Big School addresses and a Head Girl Team email, we were seen as an approachable team who worked hard to represent the views of the pupil body.

Sarah Head of School 2020/2021

Pupils Celebrate Winning Inaugural Black and Blum Design Competition

upils in the Fourth Form took part in the inaugural Black+Blum design competition in May. This competition challenged children across the country to design a new on-the-go food and drink product for teens. We are delighted that Dana (LIV) won first prize and Charlotte (UIV) was a runner-up. For her winning entry, Dana designed an innovative lunchbox and cup. About her product, Dana said, “Over 15% of the world’s population has a type of physical disability. I saw that a lot of the products here were not as accessible as they could be, and I wanted to change this by creating a line for teenagers that could help people. This project is only supposed to be aimed at teenagers, but I think that eventually this idea could be implemented into more ranges for adults too. Just because someone has a disability, doesn’t mean that they can’t buy from an eco-friendly company like this with good products. Likewise, I believe that the already existing products didn’t seem fun or exciting enough for some teenagers.” Competition founders Dan Black (Co-founder and lead designer at Black+Blum) and Tim Weston (Head of Design and Technology, Oakham School) said “We established the competition to help children develop their creativity, analysis, evaluation and presentation skills whilst remote learning.” Launched in October, the Black+Blum Student Design Competition provided a ‘real life’ design challenge that could easily be done at home, either as an individual project, or one set by schools as remote classwork. The challenge enabled pupils to identify strengths in existing products, consider what makes a nutritional lunch, identify user requirements and develop ideas through sketches, 3D models and CAD.

As winner, Dana received an iPad, whilst runnerup Charlotte received a range of products from Black+Blum.

As winner, Dana received an iPad, whilst runner-up Charlotte received a range of products from Black+Blum.

Miss L Crampton Teacher of Design and Technology

Gazette 2020-2021

Success at the Industrial Cadets Bronze Award Competition

ver the course of the Spring Term, two teams of UIV pupils have been working on engineering projects for their Bronze Industrial Cadets Award. Through Industrial Cadets experiences, pupils gain insight and exposure to STEM and the world of work, helping to open their eyes to exciting careers and opportunities. Team One were par tnered with the media company “MediaKind” and met their mentors vir tually every week. They worked together on a project to design residential housing in an area of the world with specific climate challenges. The team chose the Sahara Deser t and carried out extensive research into different options and then created their final design using Fusion-360 3D Design software. Team Two were par tnered with an intelligent identification systems company called “Innovative Technology” who produce a range of cash detection systems. In their weekly Zoom meetings, they worked with their mentors to design a school on an island.

Achievements

In the final stage of the competition, both teams impressed the judges with the exceptionally high standard of their written reports, their efficient collaborative teamwork during the challenges of lockdown, and the professional delivery of their video presentations. We are pleased that both teams were recognised and rewarded for the outstanding quality of their work, picking up the top two awards. • The award for the Best STEM Solution went to Team One, which consisted of Sofia, Lila, Bea and Dana. • The Best Overall Project award went to Team Two, consisting of Freya, Adela, Milly and Polly. We are very grateful to our mentors from MediaKind and Innovative Technology for their encouragement, suppor t and advice during all stages of the competition.

Mrs S Buxton Director of Science and STEM

Wycombe Abbey Success at Inter-school Maths Competition

lmost exactly a year ago I wrote a report on the National Finals of the UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge, which is normally one of the most exciting days of the Mathematical calendar. Unfortunately, like so much else, the live event was cancelled this year, but not to be deterred, Wycombe Abbey joined with four of the best schools in the country, Eton, Highgate, Magdalen College School Oxford and Westminster to host our own online version. This proved to be exceptionally popular with a total of 66 teams of four taking part in two age categories, including nine from Wycombe Abbey. The format of the competition was largely the same as the National Final with a group round, shuttle and relay, but the cross-number was replaced by a tie-breaker round that was essentially an Olympiad Paper. The standard of competition was incredibly high with an average of 35 out of 40 on the group round, with numerous teams scoring full marks. As expected, the relay and the par ticularly devilish tie-breaker rounds proved decisive. The Senior competition was won by an impressive team from Magdalen College School, beating Westminster by a single point. The highest placed LVI Wycombe Abbey team of Darcy, Rose, Chloe and Noor finished a creditable 22nd in the Senior category. However, the real Wycombe Abbey stars of the day were the UV quartet of Lauren, Claudia, Charlotte and Hannah.

After missing just one question in the group round and shuttle, a strong relay placed them just one point behind the top junior team from Eton. However, a perfect 25/25 in the tie-break left them as the top placed intermediate team. They should be really proud of this result, and hopefully they will mature into a top senior team when the live competitions resume. There was a huge administrative effor t behind the scenes, and I would like to give huge thanks to the teachers from Eton, Highgate, Magdalen, and Westminster who helped write some of the questions and kept track of the scores as they came in. It was a Herculean effor t, but well worth it.

Mr D Vaccaro Director of Innovation and Learning

Gazette 2020-2021

Wycombe Abbey Pupil wins Supreme Court Student Writing Competition

t the beginning of the Spring Term, Diana (LVI) penned an entry for the Supreme Court writing competition, aimed at encouraging those in the Sixth Form with a keen interest in law and the UK justice system to put their skills of persuasion to the test. We are delighted that Diana’s essay, exploring whether the law has reached a fair balance between protecting the rights of individuals whilst still safeguarding society against crime and terrorism was judged to have won first prize.

Diana not only won a £100 book token, but also the chance to visit the Supreme Court and meet with Lord Reed, Justice of Supreme Court, once Covid restrictions allow. The Justices and Judicial Assistants said, “This is a really excellent essay that engages with the issues raised by the question in a cogent, sophisticated and detailed way. The argument presented is clear and very well supported by reference to authority, including past UKSC cases and even a very recent authority. Not only this, but the essay looks at the views expressed in dissenting judgments, considers how the different authorities can be contrasted and reconciled with one another and shows good awareness of the various different ways in which the UKSC has approached the critical task of ensuring a balance between both of the public interests raised by the question. The essay also included apposite mention of the COVID-19 pandemic by way of a topical analogy demonstrating that the same different public interests can be in tension in very different contexts. The essay is written in a very clear and lucid style.”

Ms R Conroy Communications Manager

Ar t History Success I

t has been a wonderful year in the department with two girls excelling in competitions.

A huge congratulations to Jade (LVI) for winning second prize at the 2021 SPoKE competition for her film on Edward Hopper and ‘The Ar t of Being Alone’. The judges praised Jade’s film for its relevance and said it had made them rethink Hopper’s work. In the London final of the ARTiculation competition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Uma (LVI) gave a brilliant

Achievements

I found this essay competition when I was researching the Supreme Court for my Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). My EPQ is about the impact of the Nuremberg War Trials on International Criminal Law. The question stood out to me because within my EPQ I had examined the balance between individual rights, state sovereignty and the power of international legal institutions such as the International Criminal Court. This question enabled me to examine a similar balance on a national basis. In particular, the question’s reference to the relationship between law, individual rights and collective security piqued my interest. I also appreciated that all candidates received personal feedback from the Supreme Court Judicial Assistants no matter where they were placed. The process of researching relevant cases and Statute as well as engaging with the opinions of the Justices of the Supreme Court was interesting and rewarding. Diana, LVI

presentation on Balthus’ ‘Therese, Dreaming’. The judge, ar t historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, congratulated Uma for dealing with a contemporary issue and applauded her appeal to us, as viewers, to reconsider our relationships to ar tworks that may be deemed exploitative, reminding us of our individual responsibility.

Ms E Bowen, Miss F Weatherby History of Art

Sixth Former wins Literary Competition with Emotive Blog about a Refugee

he Chalfont St Giles Literary Competition encourages young people to reflect creatively upon a range of historical and social issues and share their works with the wider community. Every aspect of creativity is celebrated, with art, poetry, literature and cinematography all being discussed and explored. As I’ve always loved writing, I decided to participate in 2020 where one question particularly stood out: ‘The Mayflower sailed to America 400 years ago, taking the Pilgrim Fathers who were escaping persecution. Today, asylum seekers are leaving the Middle East to try and make a new life in Europe. Imagine you are escaping from persecution and write a blog about your escape’. For several months, the competition was somewhat put aside, due to the pandemic and I’d half-forgotten all about it until my prize was popped through the letterbox – a lovely reminder! The nature of the question encouraged us, as writers, to step into the shoes of refugees and reflect upon the brutal reality of their journey, one that encompassed both physical and emotional pressures. As par t of my writing process, I spent time reading testimonies on social media and beyond, consulting charitable mission statements and ar ticles in an attempt to glean a glimmer of insight into the most tumultuous journey. In literature, when we think about heroic journeys and overcoming adversity, perhaps what first springs to mind is Achilles or Hercules, but there is also true heroism in the courage it takes to leave behind everything that is familiar, to learn a new language and immerse yourself in a new culture that is invariably foreign and often hostile. Recognising the immense bravery of these people, and exploring the human aspect of their journey, was a cornerstone of my writing. Additionally, the ‘blog’ aspect of the question was hugely engaging, it’s hard to imagine such an arduous journey being condensed into 280 characters in a Tweet or something as seemingly mundane as an Instagram infographic, but social media proved to be an excellent insight into the fears, aspirations

and reflections of people who had made such a journey. These firsthand reports were fascinating in their own right and helped me bridge the gap of fictionalising a journey that is so real for so many people. I decided to write from the perspective of a young woman, juggling all the typical challenges of any teenage girl but compounded by this life-threatening political backdrop and an impossible journey stretching before her. I was truly honoured to have won the award and been able to share my writing with the panel and larger festival community. I’ve always believed that writing connects us, and strangely, during the midst of the pandemic when the world felt so disconnected (and not just because of the social distancing), learning more about this marginalised cohor t of people, reading and empathising with their stories about dinghies and camps made me feel more connected to the wider world than I had for several months.

Izzy UVI

Gazette 2020-2021

Activities and Societies

Activities and Societies Weekends at Wycombe

Bonfire Night

A Love of Reading

The 2021 Carnegie Medal Award Book Club

Rock Soc

Management Conference

Duke of Edinburgh Report

UIII Scratch Coding Hackathon

Greenpower Race at the Bedford Autodrome

Encouraging a Nuanced Understanding of American Politics

Wycombe Abbey Societies

Gazette 2020-2021

Weekends at Wycombe W

eekends at Wycombe Abbey have always been full of fun, giving the opportunity to experience new things, develop talents, build friendships or take the chance for a well-deserved rest. With our usual programme of weekend trips postponed this year, pupils have instead enjoyed a wonderful range of activities based in our extensive facilities and beautiful grounds. Those seeking adventure, exercise or stress-relieving fun were well served by many new outdoor activities. Every Sunday began with Boogie Bounce, a fun workout performed on mini trampolines to pumping music. A number of crack shots were discovered trying clay pigeon shooting for the first time, making use of our new laser system used for coaching Olympic shooters. Girls were able to release their inner Katniss Everdeen in Archery Rampage, an exciting combat-based spor t where teams battle it out with foam-tipped arrows from inflatable bases. Laser tag was also hugely popular, with battles raging across the School woods. During cold and wet weekends, many pupils enjoyed relaxing and reconnecting with friends indoors. Many tested their puzzlesolving abilities and teamwork in our new war time-themed escape room. Girls followed clues hidden in the 1940s-style office in order to crack the cipher and find the secret location of an abducted codebreaker. The weekly boardgame café was very popular throughout the year, with Cluedo a par ticular favourite. Many also enjoyed racing cars round our whopping 130-foot Scalextric track. There was the chance to battle evil, explore new worlds, gather treasure and seek out new knowledge in Dungeons and Dragons, the immersive fantasy role-playing game, and for those seeking more sedate pastimes there were our “knit and natter” sessions with milkshakes and cookies.

Activities and Societies

For those in the Sixth Form, classes in mocktail and cocktail making taught a range of bar flair tricks. A number of special weekend dinners and tastings tutored the girls in wine tasting and appreciation. Magician Carl Charleswor th also enter tained pupils with his incredible stage magic show. House-based challenges and competitions helped develop House spirit on Saturday nights, often accompanied by make-your-own ice cream sundaes. An egg drop competition was fiercely fought with aspiring engineers building contraptions with limited materials to protect eggs, which were then catapulted from the roof of the Abbey. Creativity was tested in a different way in the Inter-House recycled fashion competition, where pupils designed outfits using only a selection of discarded waste. The pupils’ competitive sides were also evident while trying the traditional British autumnal pastime of conkers.

Dr A Goddard Director of Co-Curricular Activities

Many tested their puzzle-solving abilities and teamwork in our new wartime-themed escape room.

Gazette 2020-2021

Bonfire Night Bonfire Night was marked with a spectacular fireworks display in November. The event provided a rare opportunity in the Autumn Term for the whole School to enjoy a shared experience, with the crowd spread widely across the site in penned areas. This year, the pupils were able to choose their own soundtrack for the night, which was then synchronised with the display. Old classics dominated the girls’ choices: ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline featured before a finale accompanied by Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. With traditional charity stalls unable to run this year, each House created a beautiful hamper of goodies for a raffle. Themes included a chocoholic’s dream and a wellbeing boosting kit. Rubens chose their House colour as a theme, with a huge collection of pink paraphernalia! Sale of raffle tickets raised over £3,000 for the Chapel charities. Every Boarding House also designed and constructed a Guy for the bonfire.

Dr A Goddard Director of Co-Curricular Activities

Activities and Societies

We also held book club meetings (via Teams) for anyone wishing to discuss their thoughts on the texts.

A Love of Reading T

he Wycombe Abbey Library offers pupils the opportunity to learn, explore, and make connections together. The Library oversees the curation of all books and electronic databases selecting a diverse range of titles that address the needs of diverse users.

will be quite useful for my studies in physics. It is also pleasing to browse the shelves, especially as I have tutor time in Dove Library. This gives me plenty of time to look through the Physics section including Par ticle Physics and Renewable Energy topics.”

For Noor (LVI), library resources have been invaluable to her EPQ research. “So far, I have utilised JSTOR, Google Scholar, and the online School library resources such as Heritage Online. In Heritage Online, it was quite easy to search relevant books about my topic, though the engineering and science section is slightly limited. I have managed to find the book Hydrogen: the essential element which

A core aspect of the Library programme is the development of a love of reading through exciting programmes planned for the School year. ‘Respect’ was the Library theme for Reading Week in November. ‘Respect’ reading lists and posters were displayed throughout the School with QR codes containing book extracts. House librarians also

adver tised their favourite books and what they are currently reading to initiate conversations. Anthony McGowen’s Lark and Zadie Smith’s Intimations, were available for girls and staff to take home, read, and pass around the School community. We also held book club meetings (via Teams) for anyone wishing to discuss their thoughts on the texts. We were delighted to host Anthony McGowen, via Zoom, to talk to girls about his book. Ms J Sergeant Librarian

Gazette 2020-2021

The 2021 Carnegie Medal Award Book Club E

ach Thursday this term, readers from different year groups came together (on MS Teams as well as in person) to talk about what they thought of the shortlist for the 2021 Carnegie Medal – the most prestigious award in young adult fiction. The topics covered across this year’s shor tlist varied from the historical in Ruta Sepetys’ The Fountains of Silence set in Franco’s Spain, to the contemporary in Jason Reynold’s Look Both Ways set in modern urban America. This range in periods and locations plus the variety in forms (two of this year’s shortlist were written in verse) made for rich and diverse discussion. Meetings were collaborative and informal, providing a space to share personal reflections as well as more academic approaches to the books we discussed. The unique form of Run, Rebel made it a par ticular favourite, with its use of shor t verses, different

fonts, bold lettering, and calligrams allowing readers to enter the busy mind of the central character. All girls thoroughly enjoyed discussing the books and the themes around them, and the conversation was lively.

Mrs J Sergeant Librarian

Rock Soc A

lthough Covid-19 has impacted music performances, it was exciting to see some smaller concerts this year with safety precautions. Thankfully we managed to successfully put on three individual year group concerts in November 2020 on behalf of the Rock and Pop society. UVI enjoyed two acts from Katie and the band ‘Our Man in Havana’, for whom it was unfortunately their final School Rock Soc concert. This was proceeded by LVI’s Semal and the band ‘Ionic’, and then UV’s ‘Bad Guy and the Blondes’. To add a flare to the evening, there were many funky props, no end to the vibey music and fairy lights to set the mood. To ensure a safe but invigorating show, the Music Depar tment very tactfully put together Covid safe covers for mics and transparent shields. Decorations did not fall shor t, and neither did the electricity in the air. It is fair to say that the event was indeed very successful, leaving pupils humming tunes the rest of the week.

Activities and Societies

The School has never shied away from embracing the pop culture amongst the pupil body, with the staff are always happy to join in. It was indeed, very comfor ting to have a night to spend some time with friends and get away from the madness and chaos of the pandemic, attempting to have some normality in our day to day lives. We are very thankful to the staff for helping to put together such a great show.

Tabita and Semal LVI

The Wycombe Management Conference 2021

Jo Hilditch (Senior)

he Wycombe Management Conference has been a staple of the Wycombe Abbey Sixth Form experience for the last 30 years. In collaboration with the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and now nicknamed ManCon, its aim has always been to provide an experiential learning opportunity to develop commercial awareness, leadership and teamwork, creativity, and project management.

In our 30th year, we were determined that even a global pandemic wouldn’t prevent the event from happening. We were proud to deliver a virtual conference for almost 200 delegates that we think may have been even better than in previous years. Throughout the two-day conference, delegates from both schools worked in small teams to set up and run a coffee shop using a virtual simulation typically employed by major corporations and business schools. The delegates needed to make decisions on branding, location, staffing, products, pricing, advertising, and dealing with a changing market. They were guided in their decision making by expert mentors, and we are hugely grateful to the parents and Seniors and who gave up their time to take on this role. We were also delighted that during the conference we hosted three keynote speeches from Lord Bilimoria (Founder of Cobra Beer and President of the CBI), Jo Hilditch (Managing Director of White Heron Drinks and Wycombe Abbey Senior) and Peter Higgins (Co-Founder of Charles Tyrwhitt), all of whom shared their personal experiences and advice on how to succeed in business. The overriding messages were that it’s okay to make mistakes and that you have to follow your passion.

“It allowed us to understand that starting a business is not easy, but incredibly rewarding when you get it right!”

ManCon was extremely stimulating and exciting, faced with the task of running a coffee shop – something we had never encountered or thought about before. It was so interesting to see our ideas and decisions play out in a real-life scenario, seeing where our strengths and weaknesses lay and where improvements should be made. Listening to the mentors and guest speakers was definitely my favourite part. It was so inspiring hearing such successful people speak about their experiences, emphasising that you must get things wrong in order to excel and achieve your goals. It allowed us to understand that starting a business is not easy, but incredibly rewarding when you get it right! Anna, LVI The Management Conference gave all of the Wycombe Abbey pupils such a unique opportunity to develop new skills of analytical thinking, problem solving and teamwork. Although the global pandemic halted some social aspects of the conference, it was still incredibly enjoyable to discuss the project with RGS pupils and to make new friends with our neighbours from just up the hill. Hearing the keynote speakers and mentors talk was a real highlight for me personally, as I loved learning about all the different aspects of entrepreneurship and business and gaining knowledge about a whole range of different careers. Additionally, the mentors were gracious in fielding a whole range of questions from pupils, giving us a real insight into the world of work, which we may not have fully understood beforehand. Charlotte, LVI

To learn more about speaker Jo Hilditch, read her Spotlight on page 128.

Ms E Bowen Deputy Head of Sixth Form (Enrichment)

Gazette 2020-2021

Duke of Edinburgh Award E

ven with the lockdown, Wycombe Abbey girls have been as resourceful as ever with their Duke of Edinburgh Award. They have embarked on volunteering activities such as the ‘missing maps project’, an open, collaborative project in which you can help to map areas where humanitarian organisations are trying to meet the needs of people who live at risk of disasters and crises. Other examples include tutoring in maths and Chinese, data collection and testing, food bank help and a whole raft of other activities.

This year we were very pleased to get our expeditions started again: first with the Bronze expedition, then our Bronze training day for next year’s cohort. The week after term finished in July we managed our Gold expedition which had been cancelled in April 2019.

Gold Expedition: July 2021

With the Covid restrictions still in place, we decided the best way of us completing a Gold expedition was to base our camp at School and use the Chilterns for our walking. This was to be a rare ‘back-toback’ practice and assessment. With the Yorkshire three peaks in mind, our route

Activities and Societies

master, Mr Chilton, masterminded the basis of the routes around our very own three peaks of the Chilterns encompassing many areas of outstanding beauty including chalk download and ancient woodland. Six groups of 33 girls made their camp above the sports pitches and started cooking up their suppers. On the final day of the practice we walked right out of our own back door down through the small lanes and beech woods to the Thames finishing in Marlow. It was a good marker for the real expedition that was to begin the next day: four days walking and three nights more of camping

for the assessment. The main expedition meant coaching out and back to the start and end points but over the four days, the groups made a journey from Stokenchurch to the Dunstable downs over Whiteleaf Cross, Coombe Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon. The weather created the real challenge for the trip making it a truly Gold experience, we experienced flooded tents and torrential rainfall on the walks. But there were also some sunny days and great views to make it all worthwhile. Well done and congratulations to all 33 girls who have now successfully completed their expedition.

Bronze Expedition: May 2021

On Tuesday 4 May most of the LV set off for their delayed Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition. Unfortunately, due to coronavirus their practice expedition (originally scheduled for summer 2020) had to be cancelled and so this was the year group’s first time heading off for an expedition. Three coaches set off to various starting points scattered around the Chilterns, with all groups heading for the final checkpoint of Bradenham Manor. Despite a gloomy forecast, the weather

Alyssa, LVI, writes: “On the 2 July, after School breaking up, a group of LVI and UVI pupils set off for our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Expedition. Camping at School just below the tennis cour ts, the first day saw us set up tents and cook our first meal on the trangias, after some preliminary navigation training – something which came in crucial for our walking the next day. Although there was definitely huge relief about our ability to shower in Clarence and leave our tents up overnight, the expedition still had its fair share of challenges. The rain rudely surprised us on many nights at the typically peaceful hour of 0300 and it is certainly fair to say that

stayed fairly dry and sunny – though the wind meant that whenever groups stopped for lunch or water they got pretty chilly! Groups arrived in good spirits at the finish point. The next day one coach headed north to Stokenchurch, while the other two headed south towards Hambleden, with all groups aiming for Lane End as their final checkpoint. By this point the groups were feeling more confident with their navigation and were able to use their maps

people were very grateful for having brought sufficient waterproof clothing for during the day! However, after eight hours of walking and a meal cooked for dinner – pasta and rice being common choices – spirits tended to lift. With a large group of LVIs, it was par ticularly nice to spend time with our year group in the evenings, whether that was playing card games near the camp, or watching the sun set over the School grounds. The beauty of the Chiltern Hills also surprised many of us. Routes on the second and third days of the assessed expedition saw scenic views near canals and reservoirs and we often stopped to take photos. One of my favourite

Well done and congratulations to all 33 girls who have now successfully completed their expedition.

and compasses to find their way to their checkpoints. The groups were delighted to reach the finish line and complete their Bronze awards!

Mr A Porter Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator

memories from the expedition as a whole was being able to watch each other’s presentations on the last night. From identifying leaves, to what not to eat/touch, to a (albeit rather confusing) hunger games parody, it was both fascinating and full of humour to watch people describe their own personal experiences of the expedition. So, five days, roughly 100km of walking and many, many porridge pots later, we completed our Gold DofE expedition. And, despite the challenges faced along the way, it was undoubtably something that we all learnt a lot from and which I have already come to miss.”

Gazette 2020-2021

UIII Scratch Coding Hackathon I

n the Spring Term, the Computer Science Society hosted the UIII Scratch Coding Hackathon. Having become proficient at using the software Scratch during their Computer Science lessons, we thought that it would be great to challenge the UIIIs to code with a new programming construct - the use of the random function! We gave the UIII girls the task of creating an animation of a scene from their favourite TV show, book or film using this random function to randomly create an original and different animation each time the program was run. We were amazed by the high quality and creativity displayed in the animations. It was incredible to see so much involvement in the Scratch coding challenge, and we hope to see more and more involvement in Computer Science in the future. Everyone who par ticipated did a fantastic job. Creating animations of Harry Potter and Jumanji, Dottie and Eloise were our runners up. What we loved about this animation was how clicking the remote control icon in the top right corner allowed you to cycle through different animations as if watching TV programs, the music in the background was also unique to each animation and cleverly implemented. The winner of the UIII Scratch Coding challenge was Mabel with an animation of the movie series, Harry Potter. The code showed

Activities and Societies

great complexity as she committed to animating all seven movies in the series. We saw that her program had many random aspects and her use of transitions to animate each character and movie was entertaining. Her code was filled with helpful comments and she fully engaged with the task of using the random function. Overall, the complexity, coding techniques and animations of her animation made her program the best executed of the hackathon task! All entrants put so much effor t into their projects, and we thank them all for taking the time to par ticipate in our first hackathon of the term. It was a brilliant way to take our minds off the current situation and gave us all something new to think about. Here’s to many more in the future!

The CSS Team (Alison, Grace, Eleanor)

Greenpower Race at the Bedford Autodrome F

ollowing some swift organisation and a concentrated effort to get the cars race-ready, seven pupils raced our two electric cars, Phoenix and Sprocket Rocket, in the F24 and F24+ races at Bedford Autodrome on Sunday 25 April.

The morning was for practising on the track, where the team experienced a few problems including a tyre blow-out, drivechain failure and a few steering issues. The teams overcame these in the end and the cars were fine-tuned, ready for the races. In the afternoon, under enhanced

Covid-19 rules, there were four 20-minute races. This allowed for the safe swapping of drivers between races and made for some exciting sprint racing action on the track. The idea was to cover the greatest distance in the time available, with no battery changes allowed between races.

Sadly, Phoenix, although the faster of our cars, ran out of battery power halfway through the final race. However, Sprocket Rocket continued to the end. In the final results, the cars finished a very creditable 9th and 10th place out of the 20 star ters. Fabulous teamwork was in evidence, with a number of Wycombe Abbey pupils racing for the first time, ably coached by our more seasoned drivers. The remote race data showed excellent tactics in driving to maximise battery life and distance covered. It was a brilliant competition and we look to improving further in the future.

Mrs S Buxton Director of Science and STEM

Gazette 2020-2021

Activities and Societies

Q&A with former US Congresswomen on Zoom

Encouraging a Nuanced Understanding of American Politics

vents surrounding this year’s United States presidential election provided the perfect opportunity to encourage a balanced and more nuanced understanding of American politics, history, society and culture amongst pupils.

of imitation meat, end federal upkeep of Confederate statues and provide funding for the US-Mexico border wall.

A number of innovative approaches have been used to encourage girls to question the facts and opinions emerging from the echo chamber of social media. While pupils may remain unconvinced by the policies of President Trump or President Biden, they hopefully better understand why such political figures believe in their ideologies and how their arguments are based in American history and political philosophy.

Kathleen (LVI) commented: “Having to research and take on the role of a reallife Republican Senator really required me to understand why some Americans interpret political issues in a certain way. I do not really identify with Republican policies, but the simulation has made me appreciate the arguments behind their worldview. It is so useful for my studies of A level Government and Politics.”

Special events and programmes have included a Q&A session with former members of Congress, a national conference simulating the debate of the US Congress, hosting a special pop-up museum on American female political leadership, and organising a film series exploring areas of the country’s recent political history. In November, the often-dramatic floor debate of the upper house of the American legislature was recreated in an online simulation of the US Senate. Pupils in the UV and Sixth Form were asked to analyse a range of issues currently in the news including coronavirus, immigration and racial justice. Amongst the bills debated were proposals to require the wearing of face coverings in federal buildings, guarantee the franchise to those incarcerated, prohibit the sale

Wycombe Abbey girls chaired debates involving more than 80 young people from six different schools.

In January, the Government and Politics depar tment hosted a very special Q&A session with two former Members of the US Congress. Sixth Form girls posed questions to Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle (Republican - New York) and Congresswoman Lois Capps (Democrat – California). Together, they provided a fascinating insiders’ perspective on the American political system just a couple of weeks after the storming of the Capitol building in Washington DC.

The School also hosted a special pop-up museum celebrating and exploring how female leadership has been represented in American political ar t over the past decade. Amongst original posters on display were examples from Hilary Clinton’s 2016 election campaign, placards from the 2017 Women’s March, and a modern poster from Alexandria OcasioCor tez’s campaign to establish a Green New Deal. Each ar twork was placed in its political and historical context with a series of captions written by the Government and Politics Depar tment. As par t of the Weekend Activities Programme, the Sixth Form have enjoyed a season of documentary films exploring various aspects of American government and politics. The first film, the BAFTAwinning RBG, tells the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away a few days before its showing. Other films in the season included the Oscar-winning The American Factory and a documentary telling the story of the trial following the shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999. It is tempting for young people to unquestioningly follow a view of the US shaped by their social media. In preparing events to mark the presidential election, we wanted pupils to engage with the campaign debate analytically and in a way that identified the facts, recognised the nuance, and developed empathy and understanding of alternative political viewpoints.

Dr A Goddard Director of Co-Curricular Activities and Teacher of Politics

Gazette 2020-2021

Wycombe Abbey Societies • African Society

• Fashion Society

• Model United Nations (MUN)

• Ar t Society

• Fisher Society

• Modern Linguists Society

• Bee Society

• Genetics Society

• Music Society

• Catholic Society

• Geography Society

• Oriental Society

• Chess Society

• Greenpower Car Society

• Philosophy Society

• Classics Book Club

• History of Ar t Society

• Politics Society

• Classics Society

• History Society

• Psychology Society

• Computer Science Society

• Identity Society

• RocSoc

• Debating and Public Speaking Society

• Islamic Society

• Sanskriti

• Diversity and Inclusion Committee

• Junior History Society

• Science Society

• Drama Society

• Literary Society

• Sustainability Society

• Embroidery Society

• Maths Society

• The Publication

• Engineering Society

• Medical Society

Activities and Societies

Gazette 2020-2021

Virtual Lectures and Talks

Virtual Lectures and Talks Working on the Mars Rover with Wycombe Abbey Senior, Scarlett Koller

The Black Heroes of Mathematics with Dr Nira Chamberlain

Online Astrophotography talk by Photographer Gavin James and Astronomer Jonathan Genton

Maths Masterclass with Dr Angela Tabiri

100 Great Black Britons by Dr Angelina Osborne

Dr Richard Stemp: The Art of Jan van Eyck

Holocaust Survivor Shares her Story with Lower Fifth

Gazette 2020-2021

Working on the Mars Rover with Wycombe Abbey Senior, Scarlett Koller

ycombe Abbey Senior, Scarlett Koller (C281), became a Systems Testbed Engineer within the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA in 2019, and for the last two years has been working on the Mars 2020 Mission Systems Testbed, acting as one of the ‘stunt doubles’ on Earth. We welcomed Senior, Scarlett Koller, to give a talk about ‘How I got to work on the Mars Rover’, which was par t of our ongoing Computer Science projects this year, with a particular interest in the launch of the Mars Rover. She began the talk by describing her time at School and the career choices she had made before she got to work on the Mars 2020 ‘Perseverance’ Rover. She was in Barry House and her time at Wycombe Abbey was memorable; however, she noted that Computer Science was not offered at School when she was here and that she wishes she had the opportunity to take the subject. Scarlett attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. When she was there she was able to take many courses ranging

from systems engineering to software development. After university she went on to work at SpaceX on the Crew Dragon capsule – a spacecraft designed to carry up to seven humans and cargo into space. Having listened to her talk about her two years of working at SpaceX, she then went on to tell us about her experience working at NASA. It was amazing to hear about her experience of learning on the job and working as par t of a team of thousands of people. We all learnt more about what it means to be working as a testbed engineer, as well as the balance between the challenges of working on systems and with people. It was interesting to learn how impor tant basic computer and coding skills have been for her career and her motivation behind studying and working in engineering was inspiring. She also let us know about her

next project which involves working on a rover due to land on the metal asteroid ‘Psyche’. Overall, Scarlett’s talk motivated us all to want to move into an engineering career that would shape the future. All her experiences and future aspirations fascinated us and made us realise the broad potential of STEM careers that we hadn’t previously considered. She was a captivating speaker to listen to and we were all so grateful to her for taking the time to address us. Thankyou!

Alison and Grace LVI

Overall, Scarlett’s talk motivated us all to want to move into an engineering career that would shape the future.

Virtual Lectures and Talks

Recently, Scarlett spoke to our Seniors’ Office about why she wanted to follow a career in the Aerospace industry. She said: I first became interested in engineering as a career during a visit to CERN during my AS level year at Wycombe Abbey. I was really drawn in by how engineers had actually done the work of designing such a huge collider and cooling huge numbers of superconducting magnets. When I star ted at MIT, I took an introductory course taught by an astronaut that really captured my imagination. Not only is space just incredibly cool, but I was really interested in the way my professor drew attention to the complicated interactions within tightly coupled aerospace systems. My interest only grew as I took more courses in aerodynamics, mechanics, propulsion and structures.” She also offered this advice to current Wycombe Abbey pupils: “It took me until university to really focus in on aerospace engineering as the discipline I wanted to study. Even now, I am working on systems engineering, which is quite different from propulsion engineering that I was especially keen on as a student. I would advise anyone interested in engineering to keep an open mind and avoid pigeonholing themselves. If you find yourself interested in something you had not expected, don’t be afraid to try something new. Changing your mind about where you want to direct your career can be daunting, but it is impor tant to regularly reassess what it is that interests you most and how you can go about doing that. Keeping open to new oppor tunities and new directions is a good way to ensure your career is as interesting as you can make it.”

Scarlett Koller (C281)

Gazette 2020-2021

The Black Heroes of Mathematics with Dr Nira Chamberlain

hen Nira Chamberlain was at school his favourite subject was Mathematics, so when a teacher asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up, Nira replied that he wanted to be a Great Mathematician. His teacher replied “well somebody of your physique should become a boxer…” which, understandably, left the young Nira feeling upset. But when he spoke to his parents, who were Jamaican immigrants from the Windrush Generation, they reassured him that “You do not need anyone’s permission to be a Great Mathematician.”

This story was the starting point for Dr Chamberlain’s fascinating lecture on ‘The Black Heroes of Mathematics’ which was attended by pupils from Wycombe Abbey and Cressex Community School. The lecture cleverly interwove songs, images and statistics to tell the story of Black mathematicians and scientists who have often been unfairly forgotten. It was easy to see why Dr Chamberlain won the accolade of the World’s Most Interesting Mathematician in 2018. We learned about the NASA computer programmer Katherine Johnson whose calculations underpinned the successful lunar landing in 1969 and the slave Thomas Fuller, whose mathematical abilities helped inspire the abolitionist movement. However, just as inspiring as these stories, we also heard how Nira did indeed become a Great Mathematician working across a range of disciplines, for example, his models were used to design the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the 65,000 tonnes battleship that became the flagship of the Royal Navy. This work led him to become one

of only a handful of scientists to be listed in Who’s Who and be named the President of the Institute of Mathematics in 2018 – the first Black person to be elected to this role. The latter par t of the talk described the outreach work that Dr Chamberlain and other Black mathematicians are doing to act as role models for the next generation. For instance, he described the work done by Dr Angela Tabiri in Ghana, founder of FemAfricMaths, who works with schoolgirls and early career female mathematicians across Africa. After the lecture, Dr Chamberlain was extremely generous with his time, answering numerous questions that came from the pupils and teachers. It was a truly fascinating and inspirational lecture, and I am sure that many pupils will have left feeling inspired by the stories that they heard.

Mr D Vaccaro Director of Innovation and Learning

It was easy to see why Dr Chamberlain won the accolade of the World’s Most Interesting Mathematician in 2018.

Virtual Lectures and Talks

Online Astrophotography talk by Photographer Gavin James and Astronomer Jonathan Genton

n October we had the pleasure of listening to a fascinating lecture via Zoom on Astrophotography by Photographer Gavin James and Astronomer Jonathan Genton. One of the main features of the talk was learning about the process by which the photographs were taken. Gavin told us numerous exposures were required for cer tain photographs, and that 25 hours of data was needed to produce a perfect picture. We learnt that a mono-chip camera was used with filters layered on top to gather light at different wavelengths in order to present a colour image. This process changed depending on what the subject of the photograph was. We were shown a picture of the Veil Nebula – with its cataclysmic size - several instruments were used on their widest field of view and still the nebula could not fit in the frame. This meant that four different pictures had to be stitched together to form the overall result. In summary,

the work involved in producing the pictures and creating the exhibition was truly incredible. Throughout the talk, Jonathan spoke to us about the bir th and death of stars and star cycles. We learnt that there is a nebula which is only a million years old in star-age, in contrast to our sun which is around 4.5 billion years old. In addition to this, we discovered that one could see the Beehive Cluster with the naked eye, and in the picture we were shown, the Coma Cluster consisted of over 650 catalogue galaxies, one of the large celestial arrays in the night sky. Overall, the lecture was very insightful and extremely interesting and came to a close with a memorable and per tinent line, ‘However far you look, there is always more to see.’

Malvika LVI

Maths Masterclass with Dr Angela Tabiri

n May, we were delighted to welcome Dr Angela Tabiri, a post-doctoral researcher at the African Institute of Mathematics in Ghana.

Dr Tabiri’s talk was entitled The International Language of Mathematics, which was fitting as the presentation was attended by pupils from all over the world. Her talk touched on some sophisticated ideas not normally seen at School, and she gave some insights into her research topic of non-commutative algebra. While at first glance this may appear to be an esoteric field of study, she outlined how it could be applied to encryption techniques used by banks and governments. She also gave an example of how dance choreography was noncommutative. Equally impor tantly, Dr Tabiri also spoke about the outreach work that she does for FemAfricMaths, an organisation that she founded to promote STEM subjects to women and girls across Africa. She

spoke very passionately about the impor tance of this advocacy work, and in the final Q&A she answered pupils’ questions about how to address the fact that cer tain genders and backgrounds were under-represented within STEM. There was also an opportunity for the par ticipants to work together in groups on some problems, suppor ted by some LVI pupils from the Mathematics Society. Dr Tabiri was extremely generous with her time and she emerged as both a passionate communicator of the beauty of Mathematics and also an inspiring role model for young Mathematicians all around the world.

Mr D Vaccaro Director of Learning and Innovation

Gazette 2020-2021

100 Great Black Britons by Dr Angelina Osborne Dr Angelina Osborne, the co-author of the 100 Great Black Britons gave a highly educational talk on the book which celebrates the role that key Black Britons have played throughout British History. She highlighted that, generally, people tend not to recognise the BAME individuals who had an equal impact on Britain to their white counterpar ts. For example, we learnt about Mary Seacole, who worked alongside Florence Nightingale and was a crucial figure in the Crimean War, but was not given the same recognition due to her skin colour, as well as the Windrush generation whose work was not just sadly forgotten, but individuals dismissed as outsiders to the extent of being

depor ted. Shockingly, in 2002, no person from an ethnic minority was included in the poll of Greatest Britons. However, black history played an integral role in Britain’s development.. Throughout the talk, Angelina raised many thought-provoking questions with regards to why black history is not compulsory in the curriculum, and why we separate black history from British history when they are not mutually exclusive. It was also interesting to note that whenever black history is indeed taught, slavery is often the most accentuated topic.

Dr Richard Stemp: The Ar t of Jan van Eyck

he History of Art Society were delighted to welcome Dr Richard Stemp in October, to deliver an online lecture, discussing ‘The art of Jan van Eyck’. Dr Stemp gave an in-depth and incisive analysis of the ‘Arnolfini Por trait’, exploring the theme of identity from multiple angles; who were these people? What is their relationship? What is the significance of the many objects around them? Who are the people reflected in the mirror? Most intriguingly of all, Dr Stemp made his audience question the reality of the image we see; did this room ever really exist? Did Mrs Arnolfini really look like this? Using the latest highresolution imagery, pupils were drawn in to look closely at even the smallest aspects of the work, making clear the vir tuosity of van Eyck, and encouraging this closer inspection in all works of ar t. Following the talk, there was a lively Q&A, with Dr Stemp commenting that the girls’ questions prompted him also to consider some new aspects of the painting. Clearly this is a work that will continue to intrigue and delight all art historians.

Ms E Bowen Head of History of Art

Virtual Lectures and Talks

Overall, the talk was extremely engaging and intriguing, and it highlighted the impor tance of many black figures in British history. Learning more about black history is crucial, and it should be compulsory with the British curriculum as the eradication of racism and marginalisation in society truly does hinge on education. The more people that are aware of significant black individuals in the past, the more likely it is that present and future individuals will not be forgotten nor marginalised.

Anjola and Pia UV

I am extremely grateful that I was able to hear her story and that she was able to tell it.

Holocaust Survivor Shares her Story with Lower Fifth

n 11 May, LV were given the incredible opportunity to hear the first-hand account of Holocaust survivor, Susie Barnett – I could not hide my amazement as I listened to her story. Although she was only a baby in Nazi Germany, the experiences her siblings told her about were harrowing: Susie’s sister, Inge, being unable to come home from school on her own owing to stones being thrown at her; being forced to go to strictly Jewish schools where each day her class declined in number; befriending people who suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again. There were particularly horrifying events that her father, Arthur Frankenberg, had endured during the eight months he spent in a concentration camp. Things I had previously thought unimaginable were done to him and many others by Nazi soldiers who were respected and valued in their communities, seen as “good, honest folk” by their peers. There were so many things I could not possibly relate to in this summary. Susie also talked about people who were “the light in the darkness” and helped her and her family. She owes her life to her mother’s cousin in London, who was persistent in arranging for her and her mother to come to England so that they were lucky enough to escape. There were many others as well: when there was not enough food, their German neighbours would slip money under their doorstep. When Nazi police officers were ordered to arrest 400 Jewish men, one of whom was Ar thur Frankenberg, a friend of his in the police force let him know in advance and offered to take his name off the list; although Ar thur refused, I cannot help but imagine what his and his family’s lives would have been like had he

accepted. When he was released from the concentration camp months later, forced to find his way home by foot – seeing a man collapsing from exhaustion in the streets, a German police officer took pity on him and gave him a glass of water. Despite the horrors done by Hitler and the Nazis, there were still a few whose kindness shone through and whose actions Susie will never forget. Her narration of her life after escaping Germany in 1939 was captivating. When they came to England, her three older siblings were forced to find work, having neither a complete education nor any prior knowledge of the English language, moving from foster home to foster home

in a never-ending grasp for survival. After Susie turned nine, she was reunited with her father and eventually left foster care to live with her parents. She said that relations between her and her family were strained – she did not share the hardships they had endured when she was too young to remember, and they never had the oppor tunity to bond. Never theless, Susie has overcome her past and lived a happy and fulfilling life in England with her husband of 58 years, two children and four grandchildren. I am extremely grateful that I was able to hear her story and that she was able to tell it.

Anya LV

Gazette 2020-2021

Chapel and Community

Chapel and Community Chapel Report

Confirmation

Charity Report

Gazette 2020-2021

Chapel Repor t 2021

uring the past year, the coronavirus pandemic has had an enormous impact on our Chapel life at Wycombe Abbey. Sadly, we have been unable to meet as a whole School inside the Chapel building since the beginning of March 2020. Much like the rest of our School life, we needed to adapt and create a new way of continuing to meet. Following the development of new IT skills, our morning services were transformed into virtual online occasions with pupils gathering in their tutor groups to watch. Whilst the experience of virtual worship is never going to match being physically together as a community, the quality of our speakers and House services has been excellent. Dr Fernandez, despite various lockdowns, worked with great The themes of our Chapel Services star ted in the Autumn Term commitment to prepare over 20 girls for their Roman Catholic by focussing on the Parables of Jesus and the lessons they can Confirmation. The lessons ran from the Autumn Term with teach us in our day to day lives. From being encouraged to be some being in person and a number needing to be online. We kind and inclusive of all by acting as the ‘Good Samaritan’ to were very for tunate to be invited by St Augustine’s Church, allowing our characters to shine forth by not ‘hiding our light High Wycombe to hold the Confirmation under a bushel’. In the Spring Term we Mass there which was presided over by used various topics to inspire us; from the Bishop of Nor thampton. This enabled learning from the stories of Winnie the One of the highlights of the the close family members of the girls to Pooh and being encouraged to be a past year was the production attend such an impor tant moment in their community whereby all of us are able to of our Christmas Carol daughter’s journey of faith. Following the be ourselves to celebrating International service which was shared service, with the sun shining, we were able Women’s Day. The staff at Wycombe with the whole Wycombe to celebrate the occasion with afternoon Abbey were also shown amazing gratitude Abbey community. tea outside the Abbey building at School. by the girls through the Head Girl Team The usual ‘House Cakes’ were produced leading a service for Teacher Appreciation and enjoyed by all. Day. Our final term concentrated on the Wycombe Abbey School Values of Our final end of term service of the year was held outside on Encouragement, Mutual Respect, Balance, Excellence, Dynamism, the ‘GlastonAbbey’ stage. Despite the threat of rain, the weather Service, and Innovation. In amongst these topics, we were led remained dry and for the first time in over 15 months, the by the Pitt Sacristans in a very moving chapel service that School gathered as a community and were able to sing some celebrated Deaf Awareness Week. of our favourite hymns. Over the year we have been able to continue to honour My thanks must go to our School Almoners, House Sacristans impor tant days. For Remembrance Sunday, we created a preand members of the Music Department who through their recorded film which included readings and prayers delivered commitment, resilience and creativity have enabled this most by some of the pupils along with the traditional ‘Last Post’ and impor tant aspect of our community life to continue throughout ‘Reveille’ being played by two very talented brass musicians. this past year. One of the highlights of the past year was the production of our Christmas Carol Service which was shared with the Our School Almoners this year have been: Edith (LVI) and whole Wycombe Abbey community. A professional filming Morenike (LVI) company came to the School for two days and the Chapel was Our House Sacristans this year have been: Shelburne - Sofia transformed into a beautiful festive space in which the choirs (LVI), Rubens – Maddie (LVI), Cloister – Morenike (LVI), Airlie – performed. The Christmas story was told by girls from different Victoria (LVI), Pitt - Heloise and Darcy (LVI), Campbell - Toluwase year groups. The pupils who were involved worked extremely (LVI), Wendover – Alison (LVI), Barry – Catrina and Vanessa (LVI), hard for long periods of time in a cold Chapel building. My Butler - Edith (LVI) thanks must go to all who were involved.

Rev P Nash Chaplain

Chapel and Community

Roman Catholic Confirmations On Sunday 13 June 2021, the following girls were confirmed by Bishop David Oakley, Bishop of Northampton: Barry House

Cloister House

Rubens House

Argia (UV)

Poppy (LV)

Natalia (LV)

Emma (UIV)

Kimberly (UIV)

Aoife (UIV)

Butler House

Nicole (LV)

Avalon (UIV)

Hannah (UIV)

Shelburne House

Alice (LV)

Pitt House

Valentina (LV)

Campbell House

Annoushka (LV)

Adela (UIV)

Acada (LV)

Grace (UIV)

Caterina (UIV)

Nelly (UIV)

Sofia (UIV)

Hannah (UV) Diane (UV) Clarence House Isabel (UVI)

Wendover House Celeste (LIV)

Gazette 2020-2021

Charity Repor t 2021

ver the past year we have all been reminded of the importance of humanity, caring for one another and being mindful of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Wycombe Abbey continues in its commitment to give back by fundraising and offering our time and talents to the local community. Much of our fundraising this year has been hampered by the pandemic, but I am pleased to report that our dedication to serving others remains strong and as a community we are looking forward to being able to offer our usual full range of fundraising activities next year. Despite the circumstances we have found ourselves in, we have not given up on our fundraising effor ts and have found alternative ways to suppor t our whole School charities. Firstly, we were faced with the need to become a cashless society and so quickly learnt about the various fundraising platforms we could use as an alternative. Bake sales were put on hold until the Summer Term and our usual charity stalls at Bonfire Night were not able to go ahead.

Other charity events this year have been a Christmas Jumper Day raising funds for Save the Children and Virufy, along with a red themed mufti day which raised over £1000 for our local Rape Crisis Centre in High Wycombe. Alongside this, our loyalty to the ‘Foundation Charities’, chosen by our founder Dame Francis Dove, has continued through the generous suppor t of parents via the ‘Foundation Fiver’ scheme. As a School we have recently nominated and voted for two new charities to support from September 2021 to July 2023. Our UK charity will be Rape Crisis (High Wycombe) which offers support and services for victims of sexual violence. Our International charity will be Ripple Africa who run environmental projects across Malawi to create a sustainable future.

However, our year began with a Mufti Day led by the Head Girl Team which An incredible £3,377 was raised money for a small local charity raised for our whole school called YesWycombe which seeks to offer charities, Renewable World counselling services to young people. This and Wycombe Homeless raised an incredible £1,182. The Charity Connection. Committee, composed of our Charity Prefects and House Reps, came up with a new way to raise money at our annual I would like to thank our Charity Prefects Bonfire Night. Each Boarding House Nat and Vas who, despite the frustrations donated items to create a House Hamper. The hampers all had presented to our charity work this year, remained optimistic. a theme and were packed full of treats. A competition for the Our House Charity Reps for their energy and enthusiasm and best hamper was judged by Mrs Duncan with Junior House finally for the assistance of Mr Houston who has overseen the winning first prize. Raffle tickets were sold across the School charity work this year. community in a bid to win one of the amazing House Hampers. An incredible £3,377 was raised for our whole School charities: Rev P Nash Renewable World and Wycombe Homeless Connection. Chaplain

Chapel and Community

Gazette 2020-2021

Creative Writing and Art

Creative Writing and Art A Level Art

GCSE Art

Poetry Competition

International Women’s Day Flash Fiction

Othello 78

Gazette 2020-2021

A Level Ar t

Gloria, UVI

Jio, UVI

Jess, UVI

Creative Writing and Art

A Level Ar t

Gloria, UVI

Rianne, UVI

Jess, UVI

Rianne, UVI

Gazette 2020-2021

GCSE Ar t

Alicia, UV

Kizzy, UV

Eden, UV

Natalie, UV

Creative Writing and Art

Rayo, UV

GCSE Ar t

Victoria, UV

Aumkaar, UV

Vivian, UV

Lynn, UV

Freddie, UV

Gazette 2020-2021

GCSE Ar t

Isabella, UV

Anjola, UV

Anna, UV

Ayla, UV

Creative Writing and Art

Dara, UV

GCSE Ar t

Biobele, UV Anna, UV

Maya, UV

Erica, UV

Gazette 2020-2021

School Poetry Competition ‘Ar t is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It’s what everything else isn’t.’

Theodore Roethke.

espite (or perhaps in part due to) our ever-busy lives, the Wycombe Abbey poetry scene is flourishing. With our Poet Laureate crafting verses which reflect upon our world, a well-attended weekly poetry club for the UIII - UIV, annual Poetry Declamation competitions and regular Sixth Form poetry events, there are myriad in-School opportunities to listen to, discuss, write, and experiment with this “means we have of undoing the damage of haste”: poetry. An ever-popular annual event, this year’s School Poetry Competition attracted the greatest volume of entries in recent memory. We were delighted to receive entries from every year group in the School and were struck by the depth of creativity on display. From tightly woven sonnets to experimental free verse, our poets tackled subjects which speak to a broad range of human emotion and experience.

The judges had an extremely challenging job in selecting prizewinners for each of the three categories: Senior (Sixth Form), Intermediate (Fifth Form) and Junior (Upper Three and Four th Form), and warmly congratulated all who entered. After intense deliberation, the decision was made to award the following prizes.

Dr M McKendry Second in the English Department

Junior Category • Highly Commended: Celina for her poem entitled Caliginosity/ the desolate whispers • Runner up: Fiona’s Withdrawal • Winner: Isabella’s The Dangers of Flower Picking and Misogynistic Men Intermediate Category • Highly Commended: Pia’s My Daily Walk and Ava’s History Reversed • Runner up: Natalie’s poem entitled Mother • Winner: Bella’s N1 Senior Category • Highly Commended: George’s poem Portrait of a Lady • Runners Up: Uma’s Blue Terrapin House and Audrey’s i would burn for you, love • Winner: Hilary’s Grave Sweeping When, therefore, you are feeling the effects of ‘the damage of haste’ or when ‘everything else’ seems tedious and tiresome, pick up a pen and write!

Creative Writing and Art

N1 02.02.21 You couldn’t call it a concrete jungle. Not even a concrete thicket,

Territorial clumps of squat structures in brickwork, windows

Scuffed kids trail resentfully to the Cally pool. Red light

But the unwanted remains of some longforgotten autumn glut

Tacky with suffering and the grime of despair. Neighbourhoods

From the Texaco next door. Luminous, damp,

Residing bitterly over puddles on the Essex Road. Uneven paving

Without name, without integrity. Over There That Way.

Sickly in the dreary twilight, the pavement chokes

Tripping your good spirits. A casualty of neglect.

Expletives from the estate down Barnsbury.

On its perennial diet of litter and melancholy.

Bella UV

The Dangers of Flower Picking and Misogynistic Men Maiden perches by the trickling creek.

Cracks appear on the ground around her,

Hair a waterfall of fire: each burning strand cascading

long dark streaks cut through the Ear th.

down her back; sunlight strands weave

A sword splits soil with jarring cuts.

through chinks in foliage, casting a honeyed glow.

Obsidian coils of darkness snake.

Her hair ignites. Inferno.

Gaping chasm – abyss.

Humming gently, her fingers stroke the singing lyre.

Chariot emerges: a cer tainty.

Each pluck releases a bittersweet tone.

Hades stands.

Notes strung together

His eyes mimic the chasm

as she sews a melody

holding the chaos of mankind in his singular gaze.

that resonates and reverberates throughout the Ear th.

Skeleton fingers extend, teasing strands of her fiery hair.

Halting, nimble fingers stretch and reach the flower stem.

Maiden perches on the chariot seat.

Its petals, milky white, arch to tips and in the centre

Inferno now extinguished by the darkness.

a protruding trumpet serenades her in hues of yellow.

Descending, depth, chasm, abyss –

“Narcissus,” she says.

Her fingers still sticky with

Ivory finger tips break the stalk; the head droops slightly as nectar drips into her palm.

nectar.

Isabella UIV

Gazette 2020-2021

Grave Sweeping We take off our mouths when we arrive at the cemetery. This time, the sky spills sweet, sticky droplets of rain and air is thick with grief. This is not Colonial drizzle but dark, indigenous fog - familiar and surreal. Rows of tombstones are carved into the side of the mountain. The family kneels. I scrub the stone, bulbous under the weight of my mothers before, and dir t finally begins to flake, tracing golden initials with muffled shame. The marble heaves and wakes. As tradition dictates, I wash the graves, bathe the fear. She died at the end of the last year. The final moments passed in a fiery glaze, days broiling with the past, local riots from a warbled haze. The world watched with a foreign gaze, translating folk songs into prose. We whisper eulogies for a country starved on stolen time, offer silent libations for a leaden ghost. Babies know better than to cry. The people pledge, swear, then star t to lie; browse for birdsong in another language, redecorate their tongue with deliberate goodbyes. We guard her spirit. The washing rag soils itself again. A nation’s rage splinters like a wet paintbrush ground into the roof of my brain, gray-cells chewed into shards of spoiled ink. I try not to think. Standing up, I yank chrysanthemums from supermarket plastic, vicious, vindicated when a stem snaps. The incense stinks. The pots are arrogantly heavy and I stuff flowers by the fistful; milky petals stiffen like candle wax, and I bow, spine melting into ash. I could devour myself and still feel the poverty of my apology. We stay long enough to scatter candy on her coffin, loose oranges, shared mythology. Strength is a sin. The gas stings my eyes and I look up at the swollen moon, weeping high. I swallow misplaced time and it sits quietly in my stomach, like a pebble, sanded down. Cup her future in your hands. Pray for a promised land. My little brother fetches a stone and we smooth it into her ear th, our own. A collective memory made unknown. We’ve lost our place, torn the seams of our common face. How do you teach children to mourn? You make sure they are never born.

Hilary LVI

Creative Writing and Art

Exploring Strong Women Through Creative Writing

he English Department is always looking for ways to challenge Wycombe Abbey pupils and give them opportunities to be creative. This year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘Choose to Challenge’, proved a fruitful prompt for some fantastic flash fiction and poetry writing. The ‘Choose to Challenge’ theme is about challenging gender bias and inequality, and this was the inspiration for the pupils’ creative writing. All UIII, LIV and UIV girls had the oppor tunity to write a piece relating to the theme; this included exploring women’s history, thoughts about gender inequality, or writing tributes to women from the present day that inspire them. There was a strict limit of 50 words. Many girls found that writing such a shor t piece is surprisingly tricky, but also realised that a small but perfectly formed piece of writing can be as striking as some of the longer pieces they write in English lessons.

We had some fantastic entries on topics as wide-ranging as the suffragette movement, equal pay, and inspirational figures like Serena Williams and Amelia Earhar t. All of the entries have been made into an anthology to be distributed to those who contributed, and this will also be shared on Microsoft Teams so that all Wycombe Abbey pupils can enjoy reading their peers’ creations. See below for a few examples.

Mrs A Taylor-Davis Teacher of English

I move because she did not By Arinade, UIV She sits with stillness, immersed in a book. Raven black hair neatly tied, skir t severely below her knees. She chose to sit, not move; refusal led to removal. Her name was Rosa Parks, and she chose to sit. I move because she did not. Choose.

For tune Favours the Brave By Celina, LIV They would rather be rebels than slaves. “Deeds not words,” they screamed, begging to be heard by just a soul, on the grimy streets of London. They found their voices, and not once did they hesitate to use them, for for tune favoured the brave. The suffragettes would settle, only for victory.

Gazette 2020-2021

Othello The Fruits of Desire

(inspired by the quote ‘Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners’) My soil is peppered with poison. My will with desire and knavery. My garden, an army of weeds Which twine tall and snake in silence In the sooty shadow of thick trees Strangling the budding stalk Which lay innocent, Yes, satisfied my soldier’s greed. I could repent, And sow the seeds of an immor tal forest Whose limbs would stretch, To powdered clouds blotted in the blue, And bathe in saffron shafts of light. If only they could reach, Before the nimble vultures Had wrapped around their naive shoots.

Wind breathes over the oasis, Oozing drops of sticky nectared sap And an orchestra of rustled whispers sings. My frail web of weeds trembles They’ll hold until their brittle bones give in. But the oak stands anchored, That is, until its etched trunk of mossy bark Is chopped to an insipid stump. Tempest rises, Our bodies are our gardens, To which our wills are gardeners. So, Do I let the passing robin nestle in my coat of leaves Or clip its plumed wings with a sabre? Do I trap myself to please Or prey on reputations of my neighbour?

Michelle LV

Creative Writing and Art

“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on” While many of us have heard of jealousy being described as a ‘green-eyed monster’, not everyone is aware that the provenance of this metaphor is Shakespeare’s Othello, written around 1603. This play – a set text for IGCSE English Literature - is not only rich with stunning imagery, but it also offers the oppor tunity for pupils to engage with timeless concepts and questions: how does one know who to trust? What does it mean to be honest? What is the psychological impact of being an outsider? What motivates villainy? The study of English Literature is about so much more than passing exams (although we cannot deny that this is impor tant)! It is about giving pupils the oppor tunity to engage with those elements of great literature which they find most inspirational. For some, this will be the richness of language. For others, it will be the ways in which writers craft characters, pose questions or develop themes. The Lower Fifth were given the oppor tunity to use their study of Othello as a springboard for their own creative endeavours and produced a most impressive diversity of responses. Charmaine, in Othello: Switched! tapped into a long tradition of reworkings and retellings of Shakespeare, choosing a format of a playscript to experiment with Iago’s characterisation. Hugely enjoyable to read, this tightly structured piece showed flair in its use of language. Elodie’s movie provided a fascinating exploration of Shakespeare’s themes and contexts. With nuanced consideration of how Shakespeare presents the relationship between male and female characters, this piece was also impressive for its consideration of how different audiences may interpret the play.

Liza, in Cassio’s Court Case, displayed real creativity in her imagining of an additional episode to the play. There was an energy in her manipulation of legal language and a wry playfulness in her invention of a psychological explanation for Iago’s impact upon characters. Michelle’s poem, The Fruits of Desire took as its inspiration Iago’s statement, ‘Our bodies are our gardens, to the which / our wills are gardeners’. Her piece was notable for its striking, often beautiful imagery (such as ‘soil peppered with poison’ and ‘saffron shafts of light’) and sensitivity to the sounds and rhythms of language. Yau Yau’s free verse poem [an ode] To the Green-Eyed Monster took as its inspiration this most striking of metaphors. Her poem displayed an inventive poetic reimagining of Iago’s voice combined with a thoughtful approach to the poem’s crafting, deftly mingling Shakespeare’s language with modern vocabulary. We are proud of the way in which these pupils have taken the oppor tunity to par ticipate in a 400-year-old creative tradition of personal response to Shakespeare. So the next time you read a book or watch a play which moves you through its language, characters or ideas, why not take the oppor tunity to use this as a springboard for your own act of creativity?

Dr M McKendry Second in the English Department

Gazette 2020-2021

Drama

Drama Ernie and His Incredible Illucinations, UIII Play

Shakespeare Schools Festival 2020

The Paper Birds Workshop - GCSE and A Level

Gazette 2020-2021

Ernie and his Incredible Illucinations We are Mati and Isla. We had the pleasure to be included in the UIII play in June. This was a great opportunity to get on stage and get better at acting! We have also learnt how to cooperate with a professional camera crew and so have experienced what it is like to be part of a real movie. We rehearsed for weeks on end to perfect every last second. We had an amazing team of teachers who worked very hard to make this play the best it could be. We cannot thank them enough for all their hard work. We had to go over scenes quite a few times and there were a couple of ‘bumps’ along the road, but we finally made it due to the support of everyone included in the play. We were certainly very grateful for the great experience with the professional film crew and the opportunity to improve our acting skills! As we were on a really tight schedule, filming was gruelling. We had to repeat scenes over and over to get them exactly right but were constantly reminded to ‘keep going’ and that the final edited version would be great; that motivation helped us a lot. It was certainly tiring whilst filming, but now that we look back, it was all worth it. Thank you to all of the staff who helped with the lighting and make-up and who managed to get us all into our amazing costumes and makeup quickly each evening, to ensure we looked our best on camera! Finally, we would like to thank all the girls who took part and put a lot of time and effort into the play. Also, a big thanks to the UIII backstage crew for playing an important part in making the show a success. We hope to be in another play soon!

Isla and Mati UIII

Drama

We had an amazing team of teachers who worked very hard to make this play the best it could be.

Shakespeare Schools Festival 2020

n November, 12 LV pupils took part in the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival event, performing The Tempest.

On returning to School in September, it soon became apparent that the normal public performances at The Wilde Theatre Bracknell, Cressex Community School and at Wycombe Abbey were not going to go ahead as they had in previous years and that we would have to adapt the project to reflect this. Rehearsals were also complicated by the fact that two members of the cast (playing Prospero and Ariel) had to join rehearsals from their homes in Hong Kong. In order to make this possible, our wonderful theatre technician, Mr Myles, arranged for the two remote cast members to be projected onto the sails of our ‘ship’, looking down on the rest of the cast throughout the

play, a device which helped establish their ethereal/supernatural personas! Rehearsals also had to take place early on a Friday morning, to allow for the time difference between the UK and Hong Kong. The cast performed the show to an empty auditorium and a video camera but, despite the very challenging circumstances and the disappointment of not being able to perform to a live audience, persevered and still managed to produce an engaging and fun (and very different) Shakespearian production. The recording of the performance can be found on Planet E-Stream.

Mr J Harrington Head of Drama

Rehearsals also had to take place early on a Friday morning, to allow for the time difference between the UK and Hong Kong.

Gazette 2020-2021

The Paper Birds Workshop – GCSE and A Level

uring the Spring Term, GCSE and A level drama pupils had the exciting opportunity to participate in a remote workshop with Kylie Perry, co-artistic director of devising theatre company ‘The Paper Birds’. The company is renowned for its ‘verbatim’ theatre, using text, speech, quotes and dialogue derived from real sources to create its shows. Both the A level and GCSE pupils are exploring the possibility of using this style in their own exam pieces in the Autumn Term 2021. After a brief warm up, the workshop focused on the underlying principles of a Paper Birds production. We heard first-hand about some of the techniques employed by the company, such as ‘exposing the method’ and ‘shared narration’. This gave us insight into the company that went beyond having watched their previous productions and helped us to understand the process behind creating a verbatim piece of drama. We were then given the chance to create some practical work of our own. Using the unique approach and techniques of The Paper Birds, we combined verbatim material with physical theatre to create a movement sequence woven together with a famous speech made by a suffragette. Overall, this workshop was an enriching educational experience. It inspired the A level drama pupils to choose The Paper Birds as our practitioner for the devised piece, and it challenged everyone involved to step out of our comfort zones.

Charlotte LVI

Drama

Gazette 2020-2021

Music

Music Lunchtime Concerts

Carol Service

Archer Concert Recital

Clarinettist, Emma Johnson, plays at Wycombe Abbey

Gazette 2020-2021

Lunchtime Concer ts

he Wycombe Abbey lunchtime concerts have certainly been amongst this year’s musical highlights. These provide valuable performance opportunities for pupils spanning from UIII to UVI to come together and perform to peers, staff, and parents. Although this year has been full of challenges, lunchtime concerts have remained a constant and popular opportunity to showcase musical talent and ability. There was an atmosphere of general excitement at the star t of the year with the realisation that live concer ts would be allowed to go forward. The Autumn Term consisted of a concer t for each year group, star ting with the LVI. These received an overwhelmingly positive response; the audiences were larger than ever before and the concerts more popular as people rallied in suppor t of their year group bubbles. Despite some of the setbacks that came with a period of remote learning in the Spring Term, the Music Department was

Music

able to produce two remote concer ts either side of half term, with content spanning from baroque to contemporary music. I very much enjoyed listening to what others had been working on and was delighted to be able to par ticipate.

There was an atmosphere of general excitement at the start of the year with the realisation that live concerts would be allowed to go forward.

In the Summer Term, a combination of remote and live concer ts took place allowing for everybody, whether learning remotely or in person, to engage in lunchtime concer ts. Overall, it has been exciting to watch lunchtime concer ts grow in popularity. I am looking forward to seeing them continue to thrive in the future.

Charlotte LVI

Carol Service 2020

n early December, the School Choir was lucky enough to be able to professionally record a magical Carol Service. Despite the disappointment of a lack of a face-to-face Christmas service this school year, we were all so excited to experience what it was like to be involved in the creation of the first virtual Carol Service that Wycombe Abbey would provide. We were not disappointed! The evening of 4 December was packed with filming all of the songs and carols we had been rehearsing for the past term, with UVs singing a traditional Spanish Carol, Riu Riu Chiu, the Sixth Form singing O Holy Night and Clarence singing Gabriel’s Message. Performing our reper toire in Chapel in front of cameras was definitely a change, but the festive mood shared by singers, staff and a camera crew still remained high. It was amazing to witness how the film crew created the incredible atmosphere in the final copy of the vir tual service by using smoke machines, lighting and decorations accompanying us in Chapel. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Mr Reid to organise such a spectacular event, the choir could become familiar with how it feels to be involved in the ar t of film whilst simultaneously helping to create our unique Carol Service of 2020. The magic of our Christmas service could not have been shared to the whole of the Wycombe Abbey community if it were not for the inspiring dedication and commitment of Mr Reid and his Music Depar tment. Special thanks must go to Dr Goddard and Mrs Little for the huge amount of work they put in behind the scenes working with the film company, looking after the performers and for their keen eye in the post-production process. Their determination and perseverance before, during and after the filming process truly encompassed what it means to believe that the show must indeed go on!

Sophie LVI

Gazette 2020-2021

The Archer Concer t

ast Autumn Term, music staff and pupils joined forces to record an online Archer Concert, with performances from different year group bubbles due to Covid-19 restrictions. It was an excellent star t to the concer t with the LVI chamber orchestra members performing an elegant and mesmerising rendition of the Cinema Paradiso theme by Morricone. The concer t also included three other chamber ensembles from other year groups: a duet of UIV violinists, Adela and Isabella performing Dance in the Sand by Basa, another duet by LV violinists, Yau Yau and Caitlyn who performed the first of Four Duos by Geminiani and a trio of UV violinists, Iris, Claudia and Charmaine, performing Kleine Music, Movement 1 by Gieseking. Three UVI pupils stepped out into the spotlight, performing solo pieces. Cate sang Widmung by Schumann beautifully, capturing the essence of love with her voice. Oboe Sonata, movement 1 by Poulenc was performed by Ellani on the oboe, who created a serene and wonderful atmosphere. Katie performed Sonata No.1 Movement 2 by Devienne, the interplay between the flute solo and the piano accompaniment overall creating a sense of tranquility.

Music

The penultimate piece of the Archer Concer t was perhaps the most ambitious yet. A recording of Beethoven’s Symphony 1, Movement 1 was completed in the Spor ts Hall, with social distancing between all performers. The last performance was the American traditional song, Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child, arranged by Neaum, performed by UVI Chapel Choir members in their last ever Archer Concer t. Recorded in Chapel, the acoustics fur ther enhanced the rich harmonies and solemn melody, and bringing a gentle end to the concer t. This was only possible thanks to the hard work and dedication of our beloved music staff, who rehearsed with different year groups each week and ultimately combined all our effor ts into a lively and vivid Archer concer t.

Rosalie LVI

Renowned Clarinettist, Emma Johnson, plays at Wycombe Abbey A

fter a long drought of live music due to lockdown, we were delighted to have Emma Johnson, an internationally celebrated and renowned clarinettist, as our first visiting musician at School. She was accompanied by Mr John Lenehan, one of our visiting piano teachers. To a small group of socially distanced pupils from UIII to LVI, the pair performed a preview of a concert they were giving at Wigmore Hall on 12 June. Emma began with Mozar t’s classic Clarinet Quintet in A, delivering a playful rendition of the Allegretto con variazioni, accompanied by Mr Lenehan’s flair on the piano. This was followed by Weber’s Grand Duo Concertant in E flat, which showcased their stunning technical exper tise and sublime attention to detail. Next was the first movement of Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet and piano, where Emma and Mr Lenehan beautifully expressed the sentiment of Allegro tristamente, a testament to their sophisticated musical sensitivity. Finally, in their own

arrangement of scenes from West Side Story by Bernstein, their hear tfelt and tender delivery of Somewhere almost drove a few girls to tears, though perhaps this was owing to the fact that this piece had brought the concer t to a close.

She has been a huge inspiration for our music teachers, and, after watching her play, has certainly become one for me as well.

It was such a wonderful experience to see Emma perform live – not only does her immersion in and passion for the music draw the crowd in, but her rich tone and brilliant musicality bring life to every single piece. She has been a huge inspiration for our music teachers, and, after watching her play, has certainly become one for me as well.

Kelly LVI

Gazette 2020-2021

Sport

Sport Sports Report

Sports Leaders

Aspiring Athlete and Performance Athlete Programmes

House Games

Athletics 97 Cricket 98 Dance 98 Fencing 99 Football 99 Gymnastics 99 Lacrosse 100 Netball 101 Rackets 101 Rowing 102 Swimming 103

Gazette 2020-2021

Spor ts Repor t T

his year has been one of resilience, innovation and adaptability. Everyone was glad to be back on site in September and looking forward to face-to-face lessons.

Following a return to School in the Autumn Term, we were eager to make a start introducing the girls back into sport and ready for competitive matches - which was long awaited. Unfortunately, a second closure of schools in the Spring Term meant adapting again to the new world we were finding ourselves in, but never daunted by a challenge, staff and pupils alike, threw themselves into the remote PE programme. This consisted of live KS3 class PE lessons, focusing on performance, nutrition and fitness, PE values, target setting and introducing aspects of GCSE PE theory to UIV. Alongside these lessons, live year group workouts were delivered each week by members of the PE Department; the PE Video Vault was created, a resource of

Sport

recorded videos by members of the PE Department focusing on skills, fitness, wellbeing, coaching and challenge videos that all pupils could access at a time to suit them; and a weekly activity log to assist pupils to plan physical activity and exercise into their week. We were delighted to be back at School for the Summer Term with a great programme for PE lessons, Sports fixtures with other Schools and a variety of sports talks from professionals in the sporting world. The highlight of the term was Sports Day in June where girls competed in their Houses for the Sports Day trophy. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm for sport and taking part in a much anticipated event.

It has certainly been a challenging year for everyone to stay active and healthy, but the pupils have remained engaged and positive throughout. Despite the many obstacles they have had to overcome, there have also been some important lessons learnt and it has allowed time to prioritise aspects of physical activity which often get overlooked or undermined. There have been many positive changes that have also taken place over the past year, and it is these that we will be reflecting on as we look forward to 2021/2022.

Mrs S Bryett-Windle Director of Sport

Spor ts Leaders

upils on both the Level Two and Level Three Sports Leaders courses have further developed their knowledge about what it takes to be a leader in sport. In LV there was a high uptake at the start of the year. They have developed their knowledge of the importance of communication and teamwork to become effective leaders and have been planning their own sessions ready for assessment. Unfortunately, the LVI were unable to commence their volunteering within the community. They have, however, attended weekly meetings to discuss the values of a Sports Leader and will now look to lead sessions in the future. The Summer Term has seen the Spor ts Leaders take an active leadership role to hone their skills in communication, motivation and working with others. They have led each other in a variety of spor ts and compared to leading in vir tual situations, the progression has been clear to see. All pupils should be proud of how they have developed this challenging

year and should continue to look to develop their skills either by taking the Level Three course or by going out into the community.

Miss L Smith Teacher of PE

Gazette 2020-2021

Aspiring Athlete and Performance Athlete Programmes T

he School’s performance programme has been remodelled and relaunched this year. The programme is two tiered: The Performance Athlete Programme is for pupils competing at regional (or equivalent) level, or who are part of a talent pathway in their chosen sport(s); The Aspiring Athlete Programme is for those pupils who demonstrate potential to access talent pathways or who are committed all-round athletes competing across a range of sports. Pupils on both programmes have benefited from, and enjoyed, weekly strength and conditioning sessions run by our S&C coach, Mr Lewis Hawkins, and have had access to our programme of visiting speakers, which has covered a range of topics from many sports. We are looking forward to welcoming visiting speakers into School again in the Autumn Term 2021 for girls on the programme and in senior teams. Next term’s speaker programme will feature talks on netball performance and nutrition for sport. Athletes have met with their mentors to set shor t and medium targets based on their long-term goals and have been completing their performance profiles, providing information about coaches’ feedback, training schedules and programmes. Both programmes are

testament to the breadth and depth of talent at Wycombe Abbey with 87 girls competing across 14 different spor ts. We have also run additional stick skills sessions for lacrosse players on the performance and aspiring athlete programmes and have launched a stick skills programme, for all year groups, that will require players to complete wall ball routines and a range of tests and challenges to accelerate the progression of their stick skills.

Mrs A Earnshaw-Punnett Head of Sport Performance

House Games

he House Games programme has continued to offer pupils a wide range of competitive opportunities this year. In the Autumn and Spring Terms these have ranged from Football and Rugby to Tug of War and QR Code Orienteering, and in the Summer Term: Tennis, Rounders, Cricket, Athletics and Fitness. House spirit has been high with both pupils and staff commenting on the enjoyment of completing House activities within year groups. This is something we had not considered previously, however, it will be one of the changes that we will retain in some form next year. The period of remote learning did not dampen the competitive spirit seen in many Houses. Each week the girls, and House Staff, were set a challenge to complete. The tasks have varied from fitness challenges to photo bingo. It is evident the girls enjoy competing for their House, earning vital points as they vie for top place in the overall House Games

Sport

competition. The Housemistresses also showed their competitive side each week when the updated leader board was sent out. At the end of the Summer Term, Spor ts Day saw the culmination of the House Games competition.

Mrs F Gee Assistant Director of Sport

Spor ts Round-Up Athletics

e have had a large number of girls across all age groups attend winter Athletics training on a Wednesday evening with our external coach. The girls have focused on specific event technique and general endurance training. We also launched a Running Club in the Autumn Term which proved to be incredibly popular. With many pupils taking up running during lockdown periods, they are now continuing to run at either a recreational or competitive level with programmed sessions every Sunday morning. After missing a whole term of Athletics last summer, the girls have really enjoyed training and being able to compete again. We entered two vir tual athletics competitions across all year groups, and were place second and third which was a great star t to our season. We entered the District competitions, where the LIV, UIV and LV all finished in first place. We have had some excellent individual results and personal bests across all year groups, especially at the Individual Track and Field County Championships where Jasmine (LVI), Liza (LV) and Arolape (LV) were all placed first in High Jump, Triple Jump and 300m, respectively.

We finished the season with a bang at the Team Track and Field Cup with both Junior and Intermediate teams.

Miss R Smith Assistant Director of Sport Miss R Stevens Teacher of PE

Gazette 2020-2021

Cricket

ttendance at winter training showed excellent promise for our first full Cricket season. This took place after a staff inset at the start of the Summer Term, led by Bucks County Cricket.

Cricket has been introduced into the summer sports curriculum for UIII - LV and we have launched Junior, Inter and Senior squad training throughout the week. As this is the first time many of the girls have played cricket, we introduced soft ball in lessons and hard ball in squad training. Both of these versions have been well received and the girls have enjoyed taking part. We have entered the School Sports Magazine national U15 cricket competition and played schools in a regional league in this competition, giving the girls some excellent match experience. We also have some talented players throughout the year groups playing at club and county level and several girls on the Performance Programme for cricket. These girls have been fantastic role models for their peers.

Mr N Greenall Teacher of PE

Dance Many of our dance clubs run across year groups and this has taken some reorganisation to ensure that we are still able to offer a good dance provision to pupils outside of their paid extras. We have set up UIII – UIV Dance Clubs where pupils have enjoyed taking par t in a range of different dance styles and learned about choreography. A more advanced dance club has also been set up for older pupils in collaboration with the Dance Captains and a group of LVI street dancers

Sport

performed at this year’s GlastonAbbey. UIV House Dance was a successful day star ting with a variety of workshops; the afternoon was then spent choreographing and the evening consisted of recorded performances. This year’s theme was ‘Music from the Moves’ and the winners were Rubens.

Miss S Ross Visiting Teacher of Dance

Fencing

encers have continued with their one-to-one lessons this year. We returned to year group sessions in the Summer Term, running in a slightly different format. This has allowed the new starters to have a proper insight and understanding of their weapon, and indeed their sport overall. As well, they have all enjoyed the opportunity to spar with their fellow Fencers. A special mention must go to Natalie (LV) who this year competed in the USA for the Luxembourg Foil Fencing Team and successfully qualified for both the Junior Olympics and Senior Summer Nationals, an amazing achievement.

Mrs S Bryett-Windle Director of Sport

Football After an inauspicious star t, the proactivity of the Football captain, Olivia (UVI), enabled us to set up a Clarence only session on Tuesdays, which has allowed for the UVI to let off a bit of steam. It’s been great to see them developing their basic skills; there is less bunching in the middle of the pitch and flowing passing moves are much more in evidence. The football is fast-paced, with goals galore!

Mr O Murphy Teacher of Classics

Gymnastics While competitions have not been able to happen, we have been able to run skills-based training sessions for gymnasts this year. It has been wonderful to see the new UIII joining these sessions with enthusiasm and we have been practising a range of skills including handstands, cartwheels, rolls, jumps and leaps. The girls have also enjoyed choreographing group routines, including the skills they have learnt.

Miss S Toogood Assistant Housemistress of Wendover and Weekend Activities Co-ordinator

Gazette 2020-2021

Lacrosse

e had an exciting two-day pre-season camp before the start of the year for the LV - UVI in preparation for the season ahead. The girls were very adaptable and committed to training despite not being able to prepare for a ‘normal’ fixture programme and build on their successes from last season. The girls have thoroughly enjoyed the internal fixtures that were set up across all age groups and abilities; all squad members have been assigned to a team and played competitively since October half term in a highly contested test series. Several girls from U13 to Senior level have attended England Regional and National academy training sessions with many girls being selected with fur ther training in the summer holidays. We also have pupils involved in other international squads including Wales, Scotland, Spain, Italy and Ireland which is a fantastic achievement.

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As our winter spor ts season was still very disrupted, we took the oppor tunity to offer some recreational summer Lacrosse during the Summer Term where the girls have really enjoyed playing in scrimmages. We have also added in a specific Aspiring and Performance Athlete Lacrosse skills session; athletes have been attending regularly to keep developing their skills in preparation for next season.

Miss R Smith Assistant Director of Sport and Head of Lacrosse

Netball

he Netball season began with all teams working incredibly hard to develop their fundamental skills; increasing their knowledge and understanding of injury prevention techniques and exercises to ensure a safe return to Netball. In the latter half of the term, each year group progressed onto participating in internal fixtures, which were designed both to challenge and accommodate all abilities. Overall, it has been both educational and challenging in different ways. I am proud of the players’ abilities to adapt, enabling them to develop their game. We look forward to getting back into our regular competitive programme in the future and to support this we ran a summer netball provision. This was offered to all year groups over the course

of the Summer Term and sessions have allowed pupils to refine their skills and apply them to match situations. We also offered a shooting workshop on a Monday to all current and aspiring shooters in preparation for next season.

Miss L Smith Teacher in Charge of Netball

Tennis

t the start of the year a Tennis league, opened to all girls in the School, was set up; this was to allow pupils to catch up on a missed Summer Term of Tennis. The uptake was positive with over 70 girls signing up. The girls were given the responsibility of communicating with their opposition to arrange their match time, to aid them in developing additional organisational skills, and to balance their match play across their week as to best suit them. After a slightly wet and cold star t to the Summer Term Tennis season, training and matches soon got into full swing. Over 150 girls took par t in competitive fixtures against opposition schools including Stowe, Marlborough, Haileybury and St Mary’s Ascot, with many more playing in internal competitive training matches.

The introduction of the assistance of Living Tennis coaches to Squad training sessions has been beneficial to aid the development of the pupils’ tactical and technical knowledge alongside providing additional guidance and suppor t to the PE Depar tment. This year we entered two teams into the LTA Aberdare Cup.

The girls played exceptionally well in the National Competition, however, were knocked out by tough opposition. The LTA Team Tennis players have begun their county league matches with six out of seven teams currently unbeaten.

Mrs F Gee Assistant Director of Sport

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Squash Following the retirement of Mrs Ann White, who worked at Wycombe Abbey for over 20 years, Mr Scott Handley has now taken on the role of Head Coach for the Squash squads. Girls have been able to attend a weekly training session for their year group. They have used this time to practise and develop their routines. Competitive match play has been taking place during these sessions with the introduction of an internal league.

Mrs F Gee Assistant Director of Sport

Badminton Badminton has proved popular again this year. There are almost 100 girls who attended attending badminton clubs. We increased the provision for this sport following the high demand with two hours midweek and three hours available to the girls at the weekend. Badminton club players took par t in an internal ladder league, which was aimed to provide them with competitive match play and training.

Mrs F Gee Assistant Director of Sport

Rowing During the Summer Term, the Wycombe Abbey Rowing Club initiated a land-based training programme which occurred each Saturday afternoon. Pupils worked to develop their technique, fitness and understanding of the spor t ready to transfer into the boat. The purchase of the new ergometers has proven to be most beneficial to the rowers’ development. The club has both new and old members and all seem to enjoy the challenges set each week. Overall, all our rowers are making good progress and we look forward to getting back onto the water as soon as possible.

Miss R Franks Teacher of Classics

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Swimming

he swimming programme has continued to operate throughout this year, albeit with some alterations to sessions. The girls have been very adaptable, and the attendance rates have been high. Following the appointment of two experienced visiting coaches we have been able to offer morning and evening sessions for each year group. All girls have had the oppor tunity to par ticipate in vir tual galas and they have all swum very well in their time trials and have come out on top in most age-groups. Alongside the competitive swimming squads, pupils who have been assessed as non-swimmers or weak swimmers were given the opportunity to attend an additional swimming session during their school day. These have been led by Miss Caroe (RT) who recently gained

her Level 1 Swimming Teachers’ Award. We are striving to ensure that all pupils in KS3 at Wycombe Abbey are able to complete our deep-water safety assessment with confidence by the time they finish UIV.

Mrs F Gee Assistant Director of Sport

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House Reports

House Reports Junior 106 Airlie 107 Barry 108 Butler 109 Campbell 110 Clarence 111 Cloister 112 Pitt

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Rubens 114 Shelburne 115 Wendover 116

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Junior House T

his year, Junior House has been a lively and exciting community filled with fun, happiness, and friendship. We started the academic year with the Headmistress’ Unicorn themed picnic where the pupils had the opportunity to get to know each other and spend time with the House staff, tutors and prefects. Junior House have had the opportunity to be involved in a wide variety of events including the Hollywood Movie Night, where pupils watched and won prizes for short films they had worked in groups to produce. They have taken part in multiple Roller Discos and regular high energy sessions of Laser Tag and Archery Rampage. The whole School joined together for Bonfire Night giving Junior House one of their first chances to experience a whole School event; the amazing fireworks display was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Lockdown did not dull our House spirit, and the girls continued to attend group activities and par ticipate in weekly House challenges vir tually. Daily lunch clubs run by House staff and the weekly book club gave pupils the oppor tunity to connect. House competitions included baking, mask and den making to name but a few! On return to School in the latter part of the Spring Term,

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we continued to stay connected through collaborative dorm events, vir tual quizzes and bingo. With most of the pupils back in the Summer Term, House activities have kept spirits high with events such as the Bin Bag Fashion show, Pyjama Party, in-House-disco, water fights and Movie nights. Students enjoy a range of activities in House from Ar ts and Crafts, playing music to enjoying the outside play area. Junior House has shown great resilience this year whilst still maintaining a joyful outlook. They are a caring and resourceful group of girls who can take the lessons learnt over their time in Junior House with them to their Senior Houses.

Miss Crampton and Miss Holland-Bright Housemistress and Assistant Housemistress

Airlie A

s I move to Clarence and begin to think of a future beyond Wycombe Abbey I have begun to reflect on my last five years in Airlie and all that it has given me. I have gained life-long friends and have learnt so much not only from older girls in the House but also through being a support and giving advice to the younger years. Having taken over from Alyssa when she became Deputy Head of School last term, I have been able to represent Airlie as Head of House. It’s been an eventful and challenging year with periods of online learning and Covid-19 restrictions but nevertheless we have been able to enjoy a wonderful year. Given the restriction on year group dorms and the isolation of online learning in the summer we were keen for the Autumn Term to be a time of bonding and getting to know each other. The term star ted with the activities such as the Egg Drop competition, chatting over a hot chocolate and smoothie evenings, as well as holding an evening about mental health to help raise awareness among the younger pupils in the House. Unfor tunately, our term was cut shor t due to Covid-19, but we still managed to have a wonderful time. Despite hopes that we would be able to return we spent the majority of the Spring Term online. Therefore, it was impor tant that we maintained House spirit and suppor t even during online learning through a variety of activities. We held online Teams calls every week at tea for the House to get together and maintain contact throughout lockdown. Fur thermore, we introduced a ‘What Made You Happy’ initiative where Airlie girls shared photos of what was bringing them joy so that we could spread positivity during the last lockdown. For tunately, some of us were able to make a return to School at the end of the Spring Term and it was a wonderful time for the House to bond after time apar t with many movie nights and some of us even learning how to crochet.

Then came the Summer Term which despite being overshadowed by exams we still managed to enjoy ourselves. A personal highlight for me was Eurovision where we all gathered together to watch the contest with everyone in the House being allocated a country to support. We also began to get to know the new pupils from Junior House, something that I enjoy every year as it is so lovely to welcome new people to Airlie. I think as I leave Airlie what I will miss the most is the House community, from being in mixed-age dorms in LIV to now being in Mons and being a support to the younger girls. I have learnt so much from everyone and this is an experience and knowledge that will always stay with me.

Tor Head of House

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Barry T

he return to School after a long summer in lockdown was incredibly exciting for everyone in Barry. We welcomed many new pupils into most years, and it was wonderful to see everyone all back together. Starting in October, the LVI held weekly tutoring sessions for the younger girls providing guidance and advice on their new academic courses and lessons. These were very successful, both in helping with small preps, and with revision for important exams. The move into year group dorms meant that community activities such as baking on Thursday nights became more important than ever. Unfor tunately, we star ted the Spring Term in lockdown, returning to online lessons, activities, and House orders. Using Zoom, we held online House meetings, updating us on School affairs and celebrating the achievements of the Barry girls. Our LVI team organised activities for the House, hosting a quiz in which we saw Athens dorm win! Sadly, at the end of the Spring Term, we said goodbye to Mrs Meadows-Smith, who had been our Housemistress for the past four years. We will miss her greatly and wish her all the best for her future.

playing swing ball! At the end of the term, we gathered for our House inning, watched the new Cruella movie, and enjoyed pizzas and snacks. It has been a pleasure representing Barry as Head of House this year, and I will miss it greatly!

Elizabeth Head of House

In the Summer Term, we welcomed Ms Hurribunce as our new Housemistress of Barry, who introduced fun new activities such as toastie Thursday, herbal teas and fruit nights. Despite stressful exam weeks, everyone remained positive by being outside and

Our LVI team organised activities for the House, hosting a quiz in which we saw Athens dorm win!

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Butler A

fter a tumultuous six months of separation, September was a welcome opportunity to re-ignite our famous Butler spirit (albeit in a socially-distanced fashion). Despite the limitations of year group bubbles, the Lower Sixth and Miss Lowther masterminded activities to maintain our House cohesion, from outdoor House Family catch-ups to bin-bag fashion shows. There was also huge competition for the title of ‘cup-stacking champions’ between House families and, though Butler was never able to defend the trophy against other Houses, the stellar performances left no doubt about which House would have triumphed. Weekly Spiritual Sundays, filling the space of usual Sunday Chapel, and Book Club, both thoughtfully organised by Lower Sixth, were welcome periods of reflection during a busy Autumn Term. While January ushered in a term of online learning, we were encouraged to engage with weekly Butler challenges, ranging from photography to ‘creative breakfasts’, and we relished the oppor tunities for inter-year catch-ups on Wednesday mornings. Butler girls’ commitment to each other shone through during the Head Girl Team’s ‘Charity Exercise Race’, in which Butler amassed almost 1673 kilometres in only one week to earn ourselves a respectable third place. However, our greatest triumph was undoubtedly announced at the end of term: Butler won both the House Commendation Shield, which we have retained since Summer 2019, and the House Games Cup, which we earnt through regular and enthusiastic par ticipation in House Games challenges. The return to Butler for Summer Term was, as expected, a joyous reunion. While online House Orders and regular Covid-19 testing persisted, Toastie Tuesdays, periodically sunny weather and suppor tive staff boosted our morale throughout various hectic exam seasons. Our Butler House chapel service, based on the Parable of the Talents and meticulously prepared by our House Almoner, Edith Oborne was one memorable success of many. Our House Charity Representatives enterprisingly launched

the initiative to compile a ‘Butler Book’ of inspirational sketches, which is based on Charlie Mackesy’s bestseller The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and suppor ted Action for Children. For our recent Spor ts Day, Butler donned our usual parade of orange clothing to substantiate the nickname of the ‘Butler Army’ for our suppor ters. Speaking for the Lower Sixth, it is incredibly painful to leave behind our home of the last five years. A great consolation is that we leave Butler in very safe hands - we are infinitely grateful for the suppor t of Miss Lowther, Miss Gardner, Miss Holland and of all the House staff. We may only hope that the incoming Junior House girls (soon-to-be-Lower-Four ths) are as lucky as we have been.

Dilly Head of House

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Campbell A

lthough there have been many challenges in my role as Head of House, it has been an honour and wonderful opportunity to work with both the girls and staff in leading Campbell this year.

In the Autumn Term we decided that a fitting theme to focus on this year in Campbell would be compassion, both towards oneself and most impor tantly towards others. During this first term with mocks in full flow we focused on compassion towards oneself in the form of self-care with a highlight being the giving of self-care packages to the UV before their exams. Although the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Spring Term meant moving online, Campbell remained a close community. Despite the physical distance, House orders and family tree teas were as lively as ever on Teams as they are in person. I must make a special mention of the staff of Campbell whose extreme effor ts to catch-up with each girl every week was crucial in keeping the Campbell spirit strong. Returning in the Summer Term brought both academic and spor ting success such as the winning of Sports Day. For many, this year has been par ticularly difficult in many ways but the challenges we have faced through Covid-19 have demonstrated our perseverance, resolve and strength of character. I am so proud of Campbell and all the girls for creating such an inclusive community.

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As I move on to Clarence, I am excited to see what Campbell will grow to become next year and know that Pia (UV) as the new Head of House will be successful in strengthening the community fur ther and upholding Campbell traditions and principles.

Diana Head of House

Clarence T

his was certainly an unusual year for Clarence. As the girls arrived in September, we all needed to learn some new ways of living together and keeping each other safe from coronavirus. It also sadly meant that many of the usual privileges that the girls in Clarence enjoy, were not able to be exercised. However, that did not dampen the girls’ spirits and creative ways of enjoying social times and celebrating 18th birthdays together emerged. The House staff worked with the Clarence Chairmen to put together a programme of weekend activities such as pub quizzes, bingo, bake offs and a Mama Mia night which included each house performing one of the songs whilst dressed up as their favourite character.

The girls displayed resilience and courage as they faced many changes and needed to adapt quickly as their academic landscape shifted throughout the year : no external examinations, online university interviews and, for many who were unable to return to the UK during par ts of the year, online lessons. However, the year was celebrated in true style with the Clarence Leavers Ceremony and Ball. This was held at the end of their time at School with a moving ceremony in Chapel followed by a champagne reception in the Cloisters before heading into Big School for a gourmet meal. The evening was rounded off with some impressive dance moves from the girls and members of staff as we enjoyed a live performance from The Kicks.

Rev P Nash Housemistress

From the higher education perspective, the girls are going on to study a huge range of subjects from Ar t History to World Philosophies and Architecture to Veterinary Medicine at a wide range of world class institutions. The dispersal around the globe is striking; Clarence girls will be pursuing higher education in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. There was a threeway tie for the most popular destination: Durham, King’s College London, and University College London. All perennially popular institutions at Wycombe Abbey. Perhaps buoyed by the stunning A level results achieved by the year group, over 15% of the cohor t have decided to take a gap year and to apply as a post-qualification applicant, many of whom made the decision very late in the cycle. We, of course, wish all the girls the very best in their next steps and we look forward to seeing all the wonderful things that they achieve.

Dr N Carrier Director of Sixth Form

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Cloister D

espite the turmoil and irregularity of the past year, Cloister has still managed to be better than ever! We found copious ways of staying in touch and engaged whilst online, and definitely managed to make the best of the time we’ve had back at School. With our weekly newsletter to family tree calls, the staff did an absolutely amazing job of making sure everybody stayed connected. From ‘Toastie Thursdays’, ‘Fruity Fridays’ and Daws Hill rounders, we’ve tried to keep the House socialising and integrating as much as possible, making sure everybody feels happy and at home with the shift back to normality. We tried to get as many people involved as possible by having fun, relaxing activities in the evenings and weekends so that everybody can have some down-time and chat with people they may not otherwise see. It has to be said that what makes Cloister so great - some may even say the best - is the people. The sense of community and positivity in Cloister has definitely been my favourite thing about my time at Wycombe Abbey. Especially as we are one of the smallest Houses, it really feels like I’ve got a second family at School and have made life-long friends across a variety of year groups. Although unfortunately not possible due to Covid, it’s been an absolutely unique experience being able to share dorms with older and younger girls. It has meant that wherever we are, there’s a friendly face around School or someone to strike up a conversation with. It’s also allowed us to take on more responsibility as we get older, making sure all is well with the younger years and learning from our time lower down the School. A definite highlight has been our House Christmas mornings, where we would sit around the panelled room in families,

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sing carols and exchange secret Santa presents - definitely the most wonderful time of the year. Staying up past midnight and decorating the entire House to surprise everybody for our annual fairies is also a firm favourite - despite the laborious hours spent preparing! My main goal as Head of House this year was to try to ensure that everybody in House felt included and welcomed. I’ve tried to do this through smaller actions such as the weekly ‘Act of Kindness’ that I set up to make sure that on a weekly basis everybody felt appreciated by a random person in House, with the aim of forming new friendships at a time where mixed-year integration proved difficult. Moving on to Clarence in a matter of months, I’m confident in saying I will definitely miss Cloister’s warm and encouraging atmosphere very much - although perhaps not the walk up the hill day… None of this would be possible without Miss Joseph and the amazing House staff - thank you so much for all that you do for us and for making our time in Cloister something never to forget. We know it’s not always easy putting up with us!

Anna Head of House

Pitt D

espite the obvious hurdles of this year, as a House we have managed to make it memorable and as ever, enjoyable. Adjusting to the year group dorms was a necessary action but one which altered a key element of boarding. Throughout the course of the year we have had to adapt as a House whilst still remaining a unit. Towards the end of the Autumn Term as the novelty of new restrictions began to settle, Darcy and Heloise (our trusty House Sacristans) produced Pitt’s first online chapel service. Covid could not stop us from arranging and recording a House anthem either. Thanks to the musical virtuosity of Charlotte and Priya in the LVI, we recorded a memorable rendition of Owl City’s Fireflies, each year from LIV to LVI separately taking on a verse. Special mention must go to the LIV who absolutely mastered their par t. The end of term had a near-normal send off, with dorm feast and Christmas festivities going ahead more or less undisrupted. Pitt has always been especially lively around Christmas time, when streams of tinsel line the banisters and one can always hear the distant sound of Christmas songs being played. The last days of the Autumn Term were shifted online due to Covid-19, and it was unfortunate that we ended up learning remotely for much of the star t of the new year. However, lockdown inspired some good ideas. Mae, our House Librarian, set up Pitt’s book club around the end of February. The first few meetings were arranged online where we discussed ar ticles instead of books to make up for the fact that the distribution of materials would be limited. Thus far, we have aired a range of topics such as the ethics of placebo medicine, whether it is wrong to read the diaries of the deceased, and we explored the double standards of women versus men in sports. Our formal return to School after Easter saw our book club gaining many more members. Miss Warden’s unwavering commitment

must not go unappreciated, along with her always insightful commentary and of course - snacks. April saw the second Pitt Chapel Service, with Darcy and Heloise once again raising the standards for the other Houses. They both dedicated a significant portion of their evenings to teaching the rest of the LVI British Sign Language, so that we could sign the Lord’s Prayer as it was deaf awareness week. My time in Pitt is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. I have had the oppor tunity to make the most wonderful friends in my year group, the years above me and the years below me. Since LIV I have always felt an atmosphere of camaraderie and passion in this House, and it is what I hoped to maintain as Head of House - despite the few blips which limited my ability to physically be with all my fellow Pittians. Our enthusiasm shines through in times such as House Games, when, irrespective of how tall or athletic our opponents are, we put up a considerable fight and prove ourselves as the winners we are! Of course, par t of this is down to talent - be it musical (as demonstrated by our House Anthem), in spor ts (never forget our noble defeat of Rubens House at tug of war) or academically - Pittians are destined for success and are ever spurred on by their community in House.

Uma Head of House

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Rubens W

hat a year it has been in Rubens! Despite the obvious challenges of bringing the House together, we have managed to have an eventful schedule of House activities. To name some highlights, making the most of the late summer weather, we kicked the new school year off with a whole House scavenger hunt. Working in teams of House family trees, the hunt involved a hectic period of running around the grounds frantically taking selfies and collecting obscure items. As Halloween approached, we again brought out our competitive side, as year group teams progressed around the House taking part in different activities, ranging from the mummy catwalk to spooky cookie decorating. A mention must go to the UVs for best dressed, absolutely dominating their theme of Clueless. The jam-packed term came to a close with festive celebrations and decorations covering the entirety of the House, an undertaking which I was proud to be a part of with my fellow LVI team.

Even through the period of online school this year, the pink spirit lived on. During this time, we hosted a virtual Just Dance session, a House Kahoot quiz and yet another scavenger hunt, this time calling on people to collect typical House items and send in pictures. A personal highlight would have to be the Easter Egg Hunt. As the LVI team, we dressed as bunnies (taking any opportunity to dress up!) and hid the eggs, before chaos broke out and the search began. More recently, we have found ourselves in the midst of a whole House human Cluedo. Taking place over several weeks, the task was to catch your assigned person in a particular room with a particular item, and if successful, you inherit their person, place and item. So, the Rubens population has steadily been decreasing... I cannot go without mentioning some of the little things that have made Rubens so special this year. The fruity Fridays, tea and biscuits, outdoor games, indoors games (most notably the many games of Ar ticulate.) Of course, the ar ts, crafts and food-related activities run by our wonderful RT, Miss Harper. This year, Miss

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Hoyle contributed many pink fluffy friends: the much-loved Percy Pig toys, adding even more pink to our already very pink House. Finally, despite our long-lived Rubens chant consisting of the lines “Rubens, we are quite good!”, our major successes this year would suggest that we are quite a bit more than that. We were all so proud of the UIVs for winning first place in the UIV Dance competition. On a whole House level, we dominated the Inter-House “Race to Vienna” charity event, winning first place and travelling a collective distance of 2211 miles! Finally, as ever we have shown our skill and team spirit in House games, being positioned consistently high in the leader board, and, if I am allowed to show off a bit, the LVI team has been undefeated. I have absolutely loved working alongside Miss Hoyle, Miss Rowley and Ellie (Deputy Head of House) to make this another great year of spirit, fun and success for Rubens.

Alice Head of House

Shelburne I

t has been an honour to be Head of House of Shelburne this year. For the past five years Shelburne has been my home and I have enjoyed every moment of it. The atmosphere and enthusiasm that Shelburne has is unmatched and even this year with the struggles of Covid-19 we have still managed to create such a wonderful environment in which to live. The Autumn Term star ted with such excitement as it was the first time, we had all been together for five months. The giggles from the landing and the constant hum of conversations showed how happy we were to be back at School with our friends. The Autumn Term as always was the busiest term, although everything had to be modified due to Covid restrictions. We star ted with the Lower Sixth having hot chocolate with the different year groups. This gave us the oppor tunity to meet the new girls and catch up with everyone. There was also a dorm competition where the dorms competed against each other in a bunch of mini activities. Although the dorms changed half-way through the competition to same aged dorms, we decided to keep the original mixed dorms to allow the girls to form new friendships between years and strengthen the ones they already had. The winners of the competition were Mercury and Triton. Dorm decks for the Upper Fifth during their mocks was also a success as the younger girls were able to go into their dorm and decorate it for them.

In the Spring Term we were online; however, we kept spirits high and welcomed a new member to Shelburne! We have sponsored Murphy, a beautiful golden Labrador puppy who will begin his training to become a guide dog. We are excited to be updated on the progress Murphy is making because he really is the cutest dog! Coming back for the last two weeks of term meant that we would celebrate an end of term - something that we hadn’t done for a year! We were able to have dorm feasts although not the traditional way, but we ordered pizzas from dominos and ate them on the top landing. The Summer Term was also a great term, especially when the weather improved. In the afternoon we played rounders and croquet and many girls sat outside and read their books or just listened to music. We also had hot chocolate with the younger girls this term as one of my goals as Head of House was to strengthen inter-year friendships. As the dorms were no longer mixed years it made this goal harder, so more effor t had to be put in to achieve it. The sense of community in Shelburne is what makes it such an amazing House. I am so thankful to have called it my home and I know that I will miss it dearly when I leave.

Sofia Head of House

‘This year more than ever we have really valued the supportive and positive community of our staff and pupils, Shelburne really is our home away from home’. Miss G Taylor Housemistress

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Wendover D

espite a pretty disjointed year, our Wendover spirit has prevailed. Not even mask wearing or year group bubbles could disrupt our Wendover family.

It goes without saying that this year has been tough for everybody. We have all had to adapt and grow in unexpected ways. Even with the distance that lockdown put between us, the Wendover suppor t has been stronger than ever. As a Lower Sixth team of nine, we have been so proud to lead a House of kind and independent girls. Staying up all night decorating the House for fairies reminded us all how much we will miss the comfor t of our Wendover crew. Throughout lockdown we stayed connected with weekly chats and a Galantines baking competition, but it was clear everyone was dying for a cup of tea and biscuit in long corridor or a cuddle with Luna. Since our return to School in March, Wendover has been its usual vibrant self. Weekly Daws Hill rounders was a highlight, it really does bring out our famous competitive House spirit. Evenings have been filled with sunflower planting, milkshakes, fruit skewers and movie nights. The most popular event however, was most cer tainly our themed Sunday baking. Great teamwork goes into the creation of Oreo cookies and Easter nests but what’s more impressive is the speed at which they disappear afterwards.

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House-Mothers’ Day tea was another highlight of the year. Invaluable time spent with our House families made the day so special (the piles of scones and Victoria Sponge were pretty great too). All of this fun just adds to the hard work and success of Wendover girls. In every aspect of School life, from House games to lunchtime music concer ts, it is so nice to see the commitment of girls and the support from their friends. Wendover has been our home for the last five years but the memories we have made will last a lifetime. Wendover can only be described as our safe haven and this is all as a result of the wonderful House staff. We couldn’t be prouder to be a par t of such a wonderful House.

Carys and Bea Heads of House

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Seniors

Seniors The Seniors’ Office

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Seniors’ Carol Service

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Seniors’ Spotlight: Jo Hilditch

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One Year On

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Interview with a Senior: Pippa Bagnall

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Philanthropy at Wycombe Abbey

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The Seniors’ Office

he Seniors’ Office caters for the 4500-strong dynamic and modern network of Wycombe Abbey alumnae across the globe, acting as the main point of contact between Wycombe Abbey Seniors and the School. Seniors are engaged with the School’s Careers Office and higher education guidance activities, appearing as guest speakers and offering work experience and internship opportunities for pupils, alongside providing alumnae mentorship throughout the year to our Sixth Form pupils. Throughout this year, Seniors have been warmly welcomed to return to the School, by attending a number of events virtually. During 2020/2021, events were held exclusively online under Covid-19 restrictions. The two annual events, Seniors’ Day and the Seniors’ Carol Service were hosted via Zoom alongside a variety of new events including a Digital Music Concert and Live Cooka-long. Throughout the pandemic, Seniors have continued to stay in touch online through the Seniors’ website and social media channels, and have received the Seniors’ Supplement and The Dove digital magazine. This past year, the #WycombeWomen social media campaign was developed, celebrating the professional achievements of Wycombe Abbey women throughout history,

showcasing the breadth of talent and remarkable, history making women that have travelled through the School. This year, members of the Seniors community have continued to support the School’s development priorities, from the Bursary Fund to capital development projects. This enables the School to offer a breadth of opportunities to current pupils and partnership schools, and to develop our magnificent 170-acre conservationlisted site. The Seniors’ Office continues to celebrate the range of Seniors’ personal and professional achievements and life experiences, taking each and every opportunity to welcome alumnae back into School life.

Seniors’ Virtual Carol Service O

n Sunday 20 December 2020, the Wycombe Abbey Seniors’ Office hosted the first ever virtual online event for alumnae: The Seniors’ Carol Service. Owing to ongoing lockdown restrictions, the School was unable to host alumnae on site for this long-standing festive tradition. Staff and pupils worked hard to produce an authentic video production of the Carol Service, whilst complying with social distancing rules and regulations, aiming to make all within the Wycombe Abbey community feel as welcome as if they were sitting in Chapel watching the service in person. The Seniors’ Office organised a live virtual event for over 600 alumnae and their families attending this event with welcome speeches from the Headmistress, the Chair of the Seniors’ Consultative Committee, the Director of Music and the Director of Development and External Relations. The Carol Service video was then played with guests singing along to the Carols, having been sent a printed order of service via post prior to the event. A lucky dip was held alongside the event, with over 150 winners receiving either a box of mince pies or a Wycombe Abbey gift set to enjoy during the service. Many Seniors shared photographs of themselves and family watching the service remotely, with mince pies and cups of tea in hand! At the end of the service, Seniors were treated to a specially recorded and edited rendition of the Charterhouse Carol sung by both Seniors and current pupils dressed in festive outfits. The rendition of this famous Carol was self-filmed by Seniors from across the globe, and edited together by the School to produce a seamless remote ‘performance’.

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We are grateful to all Seniors who were able to attend and make this first virtual event such a wonderful success. We were touched by Seniors’ feedback and were pleased to have continued with this festive tradition in an unusual year. We look forward to hosting more virtual events for our global Seniors’ community in the future.

Miss K Tyler Seniors’ Officer

First published in The Dove, Seniors’ online magazine, summer 2021

SENIORS SPOTLIGHT

Jo Hilditch (C147) J

o Hilditch is a fourth-generation farmer, mother and entrepreneur, as well as Chair of the Blackcurrant Foundation and the Herefordshire Agriculture Club and High Sheriff of Herefordshire.

Tell us about your company, White Heron Drinks. White Heron Drinks is a small drinks company that I set up as a diversification from my farming business. In the main business we supply around seven million chickens for the supermarkets, blackcurrants for Ribena, cider apples for Bulmers and Aspalls, an arable business, 60-bed holiday let business, proper ty development, environmental land management schemes, grassland, and woodland management. White Heron Drinks’ primary focus is on the ar tisanship of batch-made liqueurs and was a business I set up in which I could use my skills of public relations and marketing where my relationship would be directly with the consumer rather than where I supply a product into the commodity market. I star ted with British Cassis when I realised that there was a significant amount of annual fruit wastage. I thought I could at least use some of the excess, and so the business began. The heritage of the company lies around my farming background, the provenance of the product, the quality, deliciousness and Britishness of the product. There is no doubt that the branding has allowed us to get into prestigious markets like Waitrose, For tnum and Mason, Harrods and Harvey Nichols. What were the most useful skills or advice that you received at Wycombe Abbey that have helped you during your career? I think independent thought, critical thinking and even back in the 1980s, the confidence in being a woman. I have recently done a lot of presentations around women in business and I think the confidence that I gained from being at a school where the environment was one of pride in success has driven me on in much I have done. Tell us about your time on Dragon’s Den, what was this experience like? It made me find the discipline to write a business plan and develop a strategy which wasn’t something I’d really thought about before as I grew the business organically. The show is

designed as enter tainment and as long as you enter the Den with your eyes wide open and your preparation done, not much can go wrong. Turning down three offers was easy, they just weren’t good enough, and I knew that I had enough skills to make a success of the business without a small contribution. What has been the most challenging thing you have faced? How did Wycombe Abbey help you prepare for this? Probably being a working mother. I love my children and balancing their needs and being a good mum whilst ensuring that the business ran smoothly with the oppor tunities to grow it, was sometimes difficult. Although I know they would see me as a good role model, I hope that they won’t ever resent the time I spent away from them on a daily basis. This year you generously offered your time on our Seniors mentoring programme to support current pupils, what inspired you to do this? Young people are our future! They are adventurous in their thought and their lack of experience means that nothing has an agenda or necessarily an influence. However, as you grow older, I think you realise that humility is impor tant and that you won’t always be right – these are good lessons, and I think the best realisation is that they will learn from their elders and that they will make mistakes along the way. Admit when you are wrong and change direction if you come up against a roadblock. I think if you are a people person like me, and a connector and entrepreneur helping others to see a similar path is always stimulating. If I am honest, knowing that Wycombe Abbey is still one of the most recognised academic schools in the country, and also knowing that my school career was not one of the most successful, I wanted to come back and prove to myself that I was better than I thought (or perhaps the teachers thought I was) nearly 40 years ago. You can succeed when you find your confidence and dispel those limiting self-beliefs as I believe I have finally done - In Fide Vade rings very true.

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One Year On I

t has been a really special year and it is lovely to continue to maintain my relationship with Wycombe Abbey. It was sad to leave so abruptly at the end of the Spring Term last year. I hope we will be able to have a proper send-off soon. However, I do have some happy memories of my last actual day in School which strangely coincided with my 18th birthday, being able to say goodbye with Prosecco, Papa Johns and cake to all those still in School.

I spent the summer volunteering at the YMCA hostel in Watford and Welwyn Garden City, which involved cleaning and then being promoted to baking cookies and chatting to the residents. I spent a lot of time trying to see all my friends before we went our separate ways and, as many people did during lockdown, there was a lot of Netflix watching, long walks with family and friends and anticipating the star t of a new chapter. I was so excited to star t university and it was just as good as I had hoped, despite all of the setbacks. All nerves disappeared when I realised how much Wycombe had prepared me for university life (unfor tunately that’s not true of some of my contemporaries who are still living off pasta and ketchup). I star ted one week early to join lacrosse pre-season. It was great as I was able to settle in well after spending the week with familiar faces. I then began studying Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford in October and have just come to the end of my first year. Although I haven’t had the ‘normal’ fresher’s experience (and have only been here for two terms), I have absolutely loved it. Drama has always been a passion of mine which developed tremendously whilst at Wycombe with the chance to participate

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in incredible performances and work with a supportive team. Whilst at university I am lucky to have been a part of various plays, podcasts and music videos, both performing and working behind the scenes as a producer. There are so many exciting opportunities at university (as there are at Wycombe) which I would enormously recommend throwing yourself into during your first year.

The skills and experiences that you gain from Wycombe are invaluable and I urge you to treasure and make the most of your time there.

Breaking away from the Wycombe bubble has been so exciting, meeting lots of new people and experiencing new things. However, I am indebted to the School for setting me up so well for this year and years to come. The skills and experiences that you gain from Wycombe are invaluable and I urge you to treasure and make the most of your time there. What has been so special this year has been the way we have all kept in touch.

Despite not being physically close, it has been so lovely to hear about everyone’s different experiences, whether that’s life-changing gap years or isolating in universities across the world; the bonds created at Wycombe are everlasting. Time apar t hasn’t changed anything, and it is so nice to meet up with friends after months and still be able to reminisce over our special time at School. Looking back over the last year with a different perspective, after the difficulties faced, it has been refreshing to find a new appreciation for the suppor t of family and friends and a large par t of that is Wycombe Abbey. Making the most of your time at School, knowing that there is a suppor tive community around you and remembering you are not alone is vital. Whatever you choose to do next year (whether that’s going into your next year at School, heading off to university, going on a gap year etc) dedicate yourself to whatever makes you happy! University has been an amazing experience so far and I am truly grateful for how Wycombe has prepared me for this stage of my life. Good luck to everyone after a chaotic year!

Charlotte Baxendale Senior and Head Girl 2019/2020

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First published in The Dove, Seniors’ online magazine, summer 2021

Interview with a Senior:

Pippa Bagnall BA, Nurse, Fellow of the RSM and QNI

uring the pandemic, Senior, Pippa Bagnall (C127), became the Department of Health and Social Care Lead for Mass Testing for Covid-19 in Schools and Colleges. Pippa has worked closely with the Secretaries of State for Health and Education and senior academics and scientists, providing briefings for the Prime Minister and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) committee. A highly experienced national and international health and wellbeing strategist, and a change-management exper t in health and social care policy and reform, Pippa remains an active member of the All Par ty Parliamentary Group for a Fit and Healthy Childhood. She has worked for the UK Government, the Supreme Council for Health in Qatar, and the Government of Western Australia. Are any characteristics you developed at Wycombe Abbey used in your current role today? Wycombe Abbey gave me confidence. Curiosity was encouraged, oppor tunities to explore activities in and out of the classroom were multiple, team work was nur tured and valued. I learnt how

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thoughtful leadership as Head of House and School Prefect can make a difference. Undoubtedly, I learnt the ar t of selfdiscipline and self-motivation. One teacher who has left a lasting impact on me was Miss Tate. During a recent visit to 10 Downing Street, I walked through security and saw three rather imposing policemen. One of them asked me “What is the capital of Paraguay?” Thanks to Miss Tate’s lessons on South America I was able to say “Asunción”. A little bemused I built up my courage and said “Does everyone have to answer a general knowledge question when going to meetings at Number 10?” They burst out laughing and said “Oh no Madam, we are just stuck on the crossword puzzle!”

What has your role as Department of Health and Social Care Lead involved during the pandemic? In September 2020 I became the Government Lead for Mass Testing for Covid-19 in Schools and Colleges. I had just three days’ notice and no job description. My role was to set up pilots to design, implement and evaluate the Lateral Flow Test session and subsequent bubble management. Our target was to minimise exclusion from school and contain the spread of the virus. I have worked closely between the Depar tment of Health and Social Care, Depar tment for Education and Public Health England. Self-nominating intrepid Head Teachers helped shape the pilot testing programme,

evaluate the learnings and outcomes, and contributed to repor ts submitted to the Secretaries of State for Health and Education. The pace was relentless with keen collaboration and shared dedication, we met tough deadlines and kept pace with an exacting agenda. School leaders were at the receiving end of these plans. It required hours of planning, preparation, consultation, communication and reorganisation of teaching timetables. Consent forms were collected, PPE deliveries received, school halls transformed and the workforce trained. The disruption of mass testing was considerable but it worked. When schools reopened in March 2021 they were ready to roll out mass testing across the UK. What inspired you to work within Healthcare policy and reform? I am driven by making a positive contribution to people’s lives. I have worked closely with homeless organisations; shaping the Mayor of London’s strategy to end homelessness in the capital city, and also being Chair of the Depar tment of Health’s steering group “Find and Treat” initiative, which took mobile x-ray units to hostels to identify homeless people with tuberculosis and manage their treatment. Working in the political arena is competitive, tense and fast moving. I approached roles with

impar tiality, knowledge and experience and avoided conflict as much as possible. It can be exciting and frustrating at the same time. I adopted the cardinal values of prudence, temperance, justice and for titude (resilience) which I learnt about at both Wycombe Abbey and The Nightingale School of Nursing. Have there been any particularly challenging moments in your role during the pandemic? What have been among the most interesting experiences? Every day was a challenge. I was working in an environment where there was no guide book. Each morning’s meetings were influenced by the latest statistics and scientific knowledge; policy decisions were made quickly and people were anxious about dealing with the unknown. The most outstanding experience was observing the way school leaders responded to the pandemic. They faced a clinical pandemic sweeping through their education system; lockdowns created challenges on a scale never known before. Their dedication and achievements have been phenomenal. What has been your proudest professional achievement to date? Professionally, my proudest moment was being awarded the badge of the Florence

Nightingale School, St Thomas’. I have taken my brooch round the world me; this achievement was the launch pad for a wonderful career. Do you have any advice for Seniors or pupils looking to embark upon a career in your field? The image of Nursing can suffer from outdated perceptions. However, it offers multiple opportunities from a variety of clinical specialities, teaching and research to leadership and political activities. Compassion and energy are essential. It has been the most rewarding career. I have met amazing people, helped them through loss and grief, celebrated recovery and travelled the world. I would be more than willing to meet with individuals and groups to give insights into Nursing today and to answer questions for those contemplating a career in Nursing.

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Philanthropy at Wycombe Abbey

ycombe Abbey has a strong philanthropic culture that is supported by our core values of mutual respect, encouragement and trust. Our donors’ support is vital in helping the School to achieve its strategic aims in preparing our girls for bright futures through an outstanding school experience. Since its foundation in 1896, Wycombe Abbey has been a ground-breaking School that equips girls with the knowledge, skills and confidence to excel in the demanding and everexpanding global workplace. Our long history of philanthropy dates back to the vision and generosity of our founder, Dame Frances Dove; such a culture of giving has continued to this day.

The School is not suppor ted by a large endowment and consequently, our ambitious plans for academic, recreational and pastoral advancement can only be achieved with the financial suppor t of our community of Seniors, parents and friends. We continue to be touched by the generosity of members of our School community. Thank you for your suppor t.

“ It has been a challenging year for all and one that has, in some ways, changed the way we work irrevocably. I am very proud of how we have pulled together and shown resilience and determination, and the kindness of others has been more apparent than ever. The philanthropic culture at the School is very much alive and we sincerely thank our donors and supporters for leading the way.” Mrs J Duncan Headmistress

The Wycombe Abbey Bursary Fund

ycombe Abbey’s Bursary Programme is at the heart of our School community. Happy people are successful people and it is our aim that we provide a physical, social and cultural environment responsive to the dynamic times in which our pupils live. Our aim is to provide a world class education for all our pupils, not only academically, but also in the development of skills of communication, creativity, emotional intelligence, teamwork and leadership, which are so important in 21st century life. Every girl is empowered to make the most of her own personal abilities in preparation for the exciting oppor tunities that lie beyond School. The Wycombe Abbey Bursary Fund allows us to offer talented young women who would benefit from an education at Wycombe Abbey the oppor tunity to thrive at the School, no matter what her family’s financial circumstances are. In the last few years, we have seen a significant increase in Bursary applications. Two-thirds of bursaries awarded in the 2020-2021 academic year were awarded at 100%.

The total value of bursaries last year was £942,000. The School saw an increase of 24% in the number of bursary applications this year. This increase reinforces the need for Bursary suppor t at Wycombe Abbey. We endeavour to widen access to as many pupils as possible. We will do this by strengthening and developing our Bursaries programme, working with local primary and secondary schools and individual families.

“ In 1963, I was very fortunate to be given a bursary. Tucked away, I still have my boater; Shelburne tie and boot bag. Attending Wycombe Abbey has been of such unquantifiable benefit, I’d like to think my gift will go towards helping another pupil whose parents need financial support, a means-tested bursary, in order that their daughter might also reap the same lifelong benefits of an education at Wycombe Abbey.” Trish Walker (C118)

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Capital Development Over the next decade, we are committed to investing in a transformational site development plan across our 170 acres of magnificent conservation listed grounds. Through this plan, we will provide world class, contemporary facilities for the immediate and direct benefit of every pupil at Wycombe Abbey. Fit for purpose and built to last, these new facilities will ensure that the Wycombe Abbey experience will be preserved for generations to come.

How to Suppor t Us One-time donation

Thank you for considering suppor ting the School. A one-time donation can be made via bank transfer, credit or debit card, or cheque.

Regular gift by Standing Order An ongoing contribution through regular instalments will help us to achieve our vision now and for years to come and affords you the convenience of giving over time.

The Dove-Bowerman Society - A gift in your will Our benefactors help to secure the longterm vision of the School. By remembering Wycombe Abbey in your will, with either a lump sum or all or par t of your estate, you have the capability to suppor t the School’s ambitious plans as they evolve over time. All those who pledge to suppor t Wycombe Abbey in their will are invited to become members of the Dove-Bowerman Society.

Updated fonts with new corporate colours ( Dark Blue and Clarence Rose )

The suppor t of donors, who invest in Wycombe Abbey’s future at the leadership level, and who inspire others to give, is critical to the success of the School. We are delighted to invite our most loyal and generous supporters to join the 1896 Society. Members of this group are invited to events and gatherings at the invitation of the Headmistress and Chair of Council. To discuss your gift to Wycombe Abbey, please do not hesitate to contact Clare Flynn-Scarcelli, Director of Development and External Relations, at flynnscarcellic@wycombeabbey.com

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Staff Leavers Naomi Cozens

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Alistair Goddard

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Anna Hassall

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Elizabeth Lee

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Nick Massey

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Mairéad McKendry

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Wendy Meadows-Smith

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Eva Piqué

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Sarah Tullis

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Philippa Whittle

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Sally Wright

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Naomi Couzens

Assistant Housemistress, Campbell

rs Cozens joined Wycombe Abbey in September 2015 as a Resident Tutor, she was known as Miss Gale then. She was attached to Junior House and worked closely with both the English and Drama Departments. From the beginning, she was passionate about promoting Drama for junior pupils and created a Drama Club for the UIII. They devised a piece of theatre based on Romeo and Juliet, called The Inhouses and Paws Hill which they performed to parents. In the following year, Mrs Cozens became a Junior House Deputy Housemistress. In this role, she created a Christian Union for the UIII and directed their Christmas Enter tainment, alongside caring for Junior House pupils. In 2017, Mrs Cozens joined Campbell to be the Assistant Housemistress and star ted to teach LAMDA. When creating a Word Ar t for Mrs Cozens, Campbell pupils described her as kind, understanding, approachable, warm and caring. We have been so lucky to have such a dedicated

Alistair Goddard

member in the House team over the last four years. Alongside her LAMDA teaching, Mrs Cozens continued to direct UIII productions including Disney’s Aladdin Jr: The Musical and Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations by Alan Ayckbourn. This academic year, Mrs Cozens provided Drama maternity cover, and taught UIII and LIV classes. Following this experience, she has decided to follow her passion and become a teacher. Mrs Cozens will be going off to the University of Bedfordshire to do her teacher training in September.

of the WASAMUN conference for over 200 visiting delegates held at School each year. This showcased not only the pupils’ debating talents, but also Alistair’s creative vision and skill at managing high-end events.

r Goddard joined Wycombe Abbey in 2016 as Director of Sixth Form (Enrichment), alongside teaching History, Government and Politics. For the past two years he has been the Director of Co-curricular Activities and overseen the broad range of trips, extras and societies that have taken place, as well as ensuring that this side of the School was nurtured as far as possible during the pandemic. A well respected teacher, delivering inspiring lessons and engaging classes across all years, Alistair has been a valued colleague with the History Department. His work within the Sixth Form saw the creation and development of the Carrington Award. The unique content bespoke to Wycombe Abbey, professional presentation, dynamic collaborative conferences, and high calibre lecture programme were all conceived by him. This was recognised in the 2021 TES Creativity Award which spotlighted the Carrington Award. As Head of Model United Nations (MUN) he rapidly made a positive impact within the School community, and MUN

Staff Leavers

Dr A Yuasa Head of Boarding and Campbell Housemistress

Director of Co-Curricular Activities

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We wish her all the very best in her training and career as a Drama teacher.

numbers rapidly grew under his skilled leadership to become one of the most popular activities at Wycombe Abbey. His in-depth knowledge of debating protocols and his ability to coach and mentor pupils to become fine orators and quick thinkers has been evidenced by the phenomenal success of the MUN teams over the past five years. This culminated in a highly successful trip to New York for an MUN competition where the team were recognised with the Award of Excellence, the highest prize possible. Another notable highlight was the creation

Alistair has done much work to develop the School’s trips and event procedures as Director of Co-curricular Activities. Despite the challenges of Covid-19, he has led the Operations Team successfully and the whole School community is grateful for the creative ideas and elaborate events that we have enjoyed courtesy of his work. He does all this with consummate professionalism and a dry wit that is much loved by all. I always recall him getting the whole School to chant his favourite catchphrase in unison of “M-U-N is F-U-N” and then commenting that this was the closest to mass brainwashing that Wycombe Abbey would ever get! A much-loved teacher, colleague, leader and friend; we wish you all the very best.

Mr J Mercer-Kelly Senior Deputy Head

Anna Hassall

Careers Administrator

nna joined Wycombe Abbey in 2011, working first in the School Office and then moving to the Careers Department where her energy and enthusiasm made a real impact. She was instrumental in setting up many work-experience placements, both within the local community and fur ther afield, and organised highly successful careers events with her characteristic calm and detail-focussed approach. We wish her every success in her new role at Talking Talent, a company promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace through consultancy and coaching programmes.

Mrs A Kiln Head of Economics, Enterprise and Careers

Elizabeth Lee

Senior Lab Technician

lizabeth joined Wycombe Abbey ten years ago as Senior Science Technician. Highly qualified and based mainly in the Physics Department, she also spent much time working in the Biology and Chemistry Departments to gain a clear understanding of the different skills required, pressures and quirks of the different areas. She led the science technician team with vision, creativity and empathy, facilitating collaboration to ensure that workloads were manageable. Elizabeth’s organisational skills were legendary; she juggled health and safety protocols, training, budgets, equipment and chemical orders with all of the additional administration tasks for a whole range of science trips and activities. Where others may have been at least a little apprehensive, Elizabeth loved the challenges of new ideas, such as working with other schools to deliver masterclasses and extra science activities. Initiatives such as

STEM Olympics simply would not have happened without Elizabeth putting in the hours of liaising with other schools, collaborating between depar tments within School, staffing, risk assessments, gaining sponsorship and general logistics, which resulted in such successful events. She could turn her hand to pretty much anything; she set up tracks for rocket cars, helped plant a willow arbour, organised and accompanied many trips to “GCSE Science Live!”, set up demonstrations for, and attended, open days, and co-ordinated landing a helicopter on midget pitch (several times). Thoughtful and caring, Elizabeth was always there, suppor ting all the staff in the Science Depar tment. We miss her very much and wish her well in her new role at Brunel University.

Mrs S Buxton Director of Science and STEM

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Nick Massey

Second in Modern Languages

ick joined the School in September 2019 as Second-in-Department with responsibility for visiting Modern Languages teachers. Charismatic in his approach, his sense of humour was a unifying force. He soon became an invaluable member of the Modern Languages Department bringing a wealth of experience to excel in his teaching of German literature and Russian. He took on the full range of Lower School teaching with characteristic readiness and professionalism, and in his desire to stretch and challenge every pupil, introduced the highest levels of linguistic prowess to every class. Pupils who might not find the prospect of learning verb paradigms very appealing have never theless discovered the pleasure

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of wielding idiomatic expressions and subjunctive phrases. Nick has been a suppor tive and collaborative member of the team and will often find a quirky YouTube clip to add a new slant to an old topic. His own enthusiasm for Big Flo and Oli in his French lessons has ensured a new following of this group amongst Wycombe Abbey girls. Having added the teaching of French up to GCSE to his already very impressive skill set, Nick is that rarity in a Languages Depar tment, a teacher able to teach multiple languages up to a high level, and Westminster School is extremely fortunate to have him. We wish him all the very best for this next chapter in his life.

Ms E Piqué Head of Modern Languages

Mairéad McKendry

Second in English

side from being a highly accomplished English teacher, whether marvelling at Milton with the UVI or scrutinising similes with the UIII, one thing that will always mark Mairéad out is just how deeply she cared for the girls of Wycombe Abbey. It was therefore so wonderfully fitting that this year’s ‘Teacher Appreciation Day’ video featured a full minute of love being lavished on the dear Doctor by her grateful tutees, expressing what so many of us have felt: how fortunate we have been to have had Mairéad in our lives. Her legacy in the English Depar tment is indisputable and it will be a long, long time before these corridors stop whispering her name. Her fingerprints are all over the wonderful work that has been done to inspire a love of literature and nur ture a passion for discussion and creativity.

Wendy Meadows-Smith

She exudes enthusiasm for the texts she teaches, delivering dynamic lessons that are intellectually stimulating and culturally enlightening. Beyond the classroom, she has been the driving force behind the annual poetry competition and the inspirational ‘Wycombe Booker’ event, while running countless theatre trips and organising enrichment opportunities for all year groups. We are grateful to have had Mairéad with us and she leaves with our sincere blessing and unanimous suppor t, confident that she will excel as Head of English at Headington. She has been a superb Second in Depar tment and colleague who will be dearly missed and forever treasured.

Mr S Lenton Head of English

Housemistress, Barry and Teacher of Maths

t the end of the Spring Term 2021 we said goodbye to Mrs Wendy Meadows-Smith, Housemistress of Barry House, and a Teacher of Mathematics. Her warm and welcoming manner quickly endeared her to pupils and to her colleagues alike and she will be missed. Mrs Meadows-Smith joined Wycombe Abbey in 2017 as Housemistress of Barry having previously been a Housemistress at Queenswood School. She quickly settled into life in the House and the School and worked exceptionally hard to create a warm and friendly environment in the House. An excellent listener and always generous with her time, Mrs Meadows-Smith was known to her pupils as someone who they could trust, someone to whom they could turn and someone who was always there

to support them. During the periods of lockdown Mrs Meadows-Smith adapted quickly to allow her to continue supporting her pupils whilst they were at home and was able to lead her Barry House team with confidence and clarity. As a teacher of maths, Mrs MeadowsSmith was known as an excellent practitioner. Her ability to explain complex mathematical topics to pupils and to engage them in their own learning was well known throughout the School and a part of her job that she greatly enjoyed. Mrs Meadows-Smith’s new role is something that she will greatly enjoy and will allow her to return to her home county of Suffolk. We wish her all the very best for the future.

Mr J Jones Deputy Head (Pupils)

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Eva Piqué

Head of Modern Languages

va joined Wycombe Abbey in 2011 as Head of Spanish and was soon well established as a key member of the Languages team. She was the obvious choice to take over as Head of Modern Languages when the role became available in 2019. Eva’s pupils knew that she combined academic rigour with a sense of fun in the classroom. She set high expectations for the girls and they respected this, and thrived on it. A fluent speaker of five languages (Spanish, Catalan, French, English and Italian), Eva believed strongly in the ability of all her pupils to succeed in learning a language, whether that was an UIII trying Spanish for the first time, or a near-fluent Sixth Former. Eva loved teaching about the hugely varied culture of Spain and the breadth and depth of her own learning inspired pupils at Wycombe over many years. Her aim was always to give her pupils an experience of the colours, flavours and sights of Spain and they have valued her expertise and knowledge. Eva organised many exchanges and trips to Spain during her time at Wycombe, a mammoth task. Always able to keep a cool head and to deal with the unexpected, she enjoyed the Salamanca trip in particular, and came back with some interesting stories to tell of the girls’ experiences. The staff in her department also very much valued Eva’s support and guidance over the years, recognising that she always put her pupils first and tried to deal with every situation calmly and fairly. Outside the Languages Department, Eva contributed to many areas of School life. She was a dedicated tutor of the Fifth Form in Shelburne, and her tutees really appreciated her kindness and her generosity with her time. She once memorably took part in an extremely muddy survival experience with the UIVs in the woods, coming out of it

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with her characteristic wry smile and sense of humour intact! Eva was highly visible around the School site as she lived in the Abbey building for several years, and could often be spotted walking around with her beloved little dog Chicca, whom she used to take with her on camping trips. Eva made the decision to return to her home country of Andorra earlier this year. She is excited at the prospect of building a new life there, spending time with her family and taking up new pursuits. We are grateful to her for her constant commitment and contribution over a decade to Wycombe Abbey and we wish her every happiness in the future.

Miss E Boswell Deputy Head (Academic)

Sarah Tullis

Head of History

arah joined Wycombe Abbey as a teacher of History and Politics in September 2006 and she was appointed Head of Department five years’ later. Instantly notable was the absolute passion she has for her subject and this has inspired countless pupils over her time at Wycombe. There is always a huge buzz around the History Department; it is a place where girls love to learn and want to talk about what they have read. A superb teacher right across the age groups, Sarah has a knack of identifying the first glimmer of interest for History in her youngest pupils and turning them into gifted historians by the time they leave in the Sixth Form. She makes History fun, with History Bake Off competitions, quizzes and debates with other schools all featuring under her leadership. Sarah has run trips to Russia, Berlin, the Chalke Valley History Festival and Warwick Castle, amongst others, but will best be remembered for her organisation of the Trenches trip every autumn for all pupils in UV. Many girls have described this experience as life-changing, where they have been able to see the impact of war in gritty reality. Sarah’s thoughtful assemblies in Big School meetings following up from the Trenches trip each year always drew in the rest of the School too. She has an amazing ability to capture attention and to tell stories, and this is what has made her such a successful teacher. Sarah has a strong interest in international matters and visited our sister school in China as part of the inspection team. Her contribution to School life has also been invaluable closer to home: she has been a key member of several working parties and has been a wonderful tutor in both Butler

and Barry. Many years ago, she was one of the initial gang of Sixth Form tutors, before she left to take over as Head of Fifth Form. In addition, she has had a great impact on her team in the History Department. Her positive leadership has been extolled by each member of the department to me on many occasions in different ways. She has built a hard-working, committed group and their loyalty to Sarah speaks volumes. Sarah is excited to be moving on to a Deputy Headship at The Abbey School, Reading. We will miss her enormously and thank her sincerely for her 15 fine years at Wycombe Abbey. The final word goes to Major Martin Featherstone, the guide with whom she worked for many years on the Trenches trip. He says, “In my role as a Battlefield Guide of 20 years’ experience, I come into contact with many schools and I consider Wycombe Abbey to be by far the best. Whether on trips to Berlin or

the Somme, the girls are always eager to learn, well-motivated and a delight to be with. I consider this happy state of affairs to be mainly due to the character and leadership of Dr Tullis. Constantly cheerful and friendly with the students, she has the happy knack of being able to discipline them with a glance. She leads by example and seems unfazed by any setback. She is knowledgeable, very well organised and altogether a delight to work with. As you no doubt know, the girls adore her and treat her with the respect she deserves. In Army terms ‘she’s got it’.”

Miss E Boswell Deputy Head (Academic)

Gazette 2020-2021

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Phillippa Whittle

Teacher of PE

ver the five years that Philly has been with us at Wycombe Abbey she has not only demonstrated her passion for the subject, but also developed strong pastoral links with both pupils and peers. Her enthusiasm for both netball and rowing in particular, have seen these sports go from strength and strength, with a huge increase in participation and local and regional success across a range of competitions. She is a diverse and talented teacher who has turned her hand to all manner of spor ts and activities. None more so than in House Games where she has run both Quidditch and Danish Longball and she can always be seen cheering for Pitt

Sally Wright

House, for whom she has been a House Tutor for since starting at the School. Philly has been a vital member of many staff teams running trips and tours within the depar tment, leading trips to both France for Skiing and South Africa for Netball. Philly went on maternity leave earlier this year, and now she leaves Wycombe Abbey with her daughter for warmer climes as she joins her par tner and takes up a new post in Abu Dhabi for which we wish her the very best of luck.

Mrs S Bryett-Windle Director of Sport

Teacher of Biology

ally joined Wycombe Abbey in 2006 after a break away from teaching to have her daughter, Alice. She was employed as a part time teacher of Biology, but quickly became an established member of the Science Department and has, over the past 15 years, taken on a truly remarkable number of roles. From Bronze Duke of Edinburgh, to running the staff invigilation timetable, to initiating the first set of paper recycling bins around the site, Sally has cer tainly kept herself busy over the years! She was an extraordinary Head of Fifth Form and the girls always knew they were in a safe pair of hands during her eight year tenure. Within the Biology Depar tment, she quickly became a respected font of knowledge and her attention to detail is second to none. She is an outstanding proof reader – nothing gets past her! – and has put this skill to good use

in compiling school repor ts, checking examination papers and polishing UCAS references. She has been a dedicated member of Campbell House and her tutor groups love to feel supported by her in all of their endeavours – her departure from House will be greatly felt. As a teaching colleague, Sally’s reliability can never be faulted. She is always the first to volunteer for any extra roles or responsibilities and genuinely cares about whoever is in her charge, be that pupils or staff. We all know that Sally is a friend for life and are sorry to lose her from the Biology Depar tment – her shoes simply cannot be filled. Sally’s tenacity has been truly tested during these periods of remote learning and we are so happy to know she will shor tly settle Alice into university before joining her husband, Steven, in Hong Kong, to star t the next par t of her life. Not one to ever stand still, we have no doubt that she will be

busy again in no time, and send her the absolute best wishes for the new adventures with her family.

Ms E Wallace Head of Biology

We are sorry to say goodbye to Jeff Wagland and Diana Hudson who have taught in Learning Enhancement. We wish them well in their retirement.

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Staff Leavers

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