Alumnae News

Our new Waterlow Hall will be a wonderful concert venue. 'Come and Sing' in our alumnae choir at the reunion lunch, as our Director of Music, Dr Steve Collisson puts together a concert in a morning. A wonderful opportunity to sing out in our new Waterlow Hall.

As part of our Waterlow Hall Festival Week celebrations, you are warmly invited to hear from academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts on Thursday 30th January - the inaugural Speaker Series event in our brand new performance space.

to send us your nominations for the GDST Alumnae of the Year and GDST Trailblazer award. We have hundreds of amazing alumnae at South Hampstead and this is your chance to recognise them. You can complete your own nomination or just send your suggestions to alumnae@shhs.gdst.net and we will do the rest. The deadline is February 2nd so don't delay.

South Hampstead and GDST alumnae Jilly Moore (1978) and Izzy Tranter (Heathfield 2009) joined actress Gemma Knight Jones to share fabulous advice with our drama students at our Careers in the Theatre forum last term.

Thank you to Notting Hill & Ealing GDST who opened up this event to our alumnae. As networks become increasingly important, we are working closely with fellow GDST schools to provide opportunities for alumnae to meet up and share experiences. Our next networking event will be on media and journalism. If you would like to be involved please contact us.

It is always a pleasure when alumnae come back to work with current pupils. Thank you to: Eva Sampson (2004) for her Drama Workshop; Kate Mennis (2015) for her talk on Classical Literature; Lola Busari (2005) for sharing her writing experience; Talya Sher (2018) for advice on Engineering; Susan Blum (1973) for her invaluable leadership training; and Ada Liebenau (2016) from UCL who helped at a recent spectroscopy lesson with A Level Chemistry students.

Every Friday the Upper Sixth gather to hear from speakers as part of our speaker programme. Last term Vicky Prais (1989) joined us to speak about her work as a Human Rights Lawyer.

We were honoured to be included in a legacy from a local resident who has chosen the South Hampstead bursary fund as her beneficiary. It is a wonderful endorsement of our future plans and her trust in the school.

In October we invited alumnae parents to come and join their daughters for a very special assembly with their former Headmistress, Averil Burgess, in conversation with Mrs Bingham. 

Our 'Renowned Writers' series highlights alumnae who have published books. This term our writers have covered topics as varied as Shakespeare to beer with a healthy dose of science and drama thrown in. Follow the series on the website and do let us know if you would like to be featured.

Each year we ask some of our medical students and doctors to come back to speak on a panel about careers in Medicine. Thank you to Natalia Abramovich (2014), Dr Alyson Elliman (1966), Michal Kelly (2018) and Val Wass OBE (governor) who gave up their time to inspire the next generation of South Hampstead medics.

The GDST Rungway is a careers mentoring app which allows pupils and alumnae to connect with each other and share questions and advice about future career paths.  Watch the video to find out how you could help and benefit from this service - please sign up. 

We want to extend the outstanding opportunities we can offer at South Hampstead to all girls, regardless of their means. Over the spring holiday we will be running a series of consultancy events with alumnae about our bursary programme. If you are interested in being involved and can spare a morning, please contact us.

Thanks to everyone involved for making the Waterlow Hall auction and gala dinner such a success. More than 300 people joined us at the Banking Hall for a memorable evening. Guests included staff, parents, pupils, alumnae and four Headmistresses,  past and present.

We will be hosting an Aspirational Futures Fair on Tuesday 10th March, presenting a diverse range of career and higher education pathways.  If you or your company are able to offer a talk or workshop, or provide a stall for the fair please contact us.

Thank you to all the alumnae who came back to help us with 'mock interviews' last term.  20% of our cohort received offers from Oxbridge this year including one of our new entrant bursary students. We wish them all well with their examinations later this year.

Take a look at our digital archive site. It is early days but there is already a wealth of material including the magazines from the 1970s through to 2010. We hope to add to this site as funds become available.

A local newspaper recently featured an article on former Headmistress, Miss Benton: 'Her standards were high. Insisting that there were no ‘girls’ subjects’, she encouraged her students to study science.'

All alumnae and former staff can receive the GDST alumnae magazine 'GDST Girl for Life' (March) and the South Hampstead alumnae magazine 'Resplendens' (June) free of charge. If you have not had a copy before, it may mean we do not have your correct postal address so do update your details below. 

Over half our alumnae are missing out on this newsletter as we do not have their email address. If you are in touch with contemporaries who would be interested, do pass it on and encourage them to register with an email as part of the GDST network.

South Hampstead has been in the press a lot recently. You can view recent stories about Project Zero, Sixth form choices, awards, STEM subjects and more on the website.

We need you to send us your nominations for the GDST alumnae of the year.; let us know if you can help with future panels or talks.; join us for the alumnae reunion in March; sign up for the Rungway mentoring scheme; update your details and come back and see us soon....