Central High Alumnae Newsletter | 2019/20

A HALF BAKED IDEAHow baking saved writer and Alumna Olivia Potts from the grip of grief

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Paddington is back!

A very familiar bear is returning to our screens, at the hands of a familiar face! Sarah Caisley, Class of 2009, is leading the team of animators responsible for bringing the lovable Paddington back to the small screen. Sarah tells us more on how she landed her dream job in digital animation.

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Olivia Potts

CHNS Alumna and Head Girl (2006), Olivia Potts, has written a memoir, A Half Baked Idea. After a family tragedy, she tells of the difficult decision to leave her career as a criminal barrister and retreat to the comfort of the kitchen.

News From GDST and NHSG

School News Achievements of NHSG girls

NHSG Results Success GCSE and A Level

Features

Russell House A new lease of life

STEMinism Anna Ritzema - women in STEM

The Children’s Tailor Roya Manouchehri - sartorial success

Central High Reunion 2018 Over 100 ‘Old Girls’ reunited

Bursaries A gift of education

Dame Catherine Cookson Her lasting legacy

Events and Getting Involved Dates for the diary

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CNHS Time Capsule

We were sad to see the demolition of the CNHS site on Eskdale Terrace. The building, which holds so many fond memories, contained one last surprise for us - but this one held memories of a very different era!

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I hope you enjoy reading this latest copy of the Central High Alumnae newsletter. It is one way of keeping in touch with you all and demonstrating that we value our links with you.

This newsletter also details opportunities for you to link with each other, your shared histories and with the School.

I look forward to welcoming you to Newcastle High School for Girls for reunions and events which will happen during the coming year as well as, I hope, to our first out-of-Newcastle gathering which we plan to hold in London later next year.

With best wishes

Michael TippettHead, NHSG

We hope you find this newsletter informative and stimulating. We do appreciate readers’ contributions and comments.

I wonder, however, if there is anything in particular you would like to see included?

Are there aspects of the life of the School or the activity of Alumnae which we are missing?

Please do let Amy Rodway know, Marketing Officer, at a.rodway@ncl.gdst.net

Welcome to the latest edition of the Central High Alumnae magazine.

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A BRIEF NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Friends, Once again we are delighted to publish this year’s annual Alumnae newsletter, sharing news of both School and our Alumnae. I do hope you like our ‘new look’ and new size newsletter; our aim is to create a more modern style while still sharing the news you love. Thank you to Amy Rodway who has worked to bring our vision for the newsletter into being.

Thank you also to everyone who has contributed content for the newsletter. We begin with news of the School and some interesting updates on the former Central High site on Eskdale Terrace. We also feature some fabulous articles from our Alumnae including Anna Ritzema (Hayes), Olivia Potts and Sarah Caisley. I know you will relish reading these.

Please do continue to send your news and messages and we hope you see you at one of our reunions in the near future - the next Central High Alumnae Reunion at school will be on Saturday 5th October 2019 and we are planning a London Reunion too! We will be sending news of this to Alumnae via email so if you are interested please make sure we have your latest email details!

Warmest wishes,

Janice GravesDirector of Marketing, NHSG

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All Girl We are very excited to announce that we have launched a new look for the Newcastle High Autumn 2019 marketing campaign, one that champions a very traditional sentiment.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted one of our adverts on the first page already! The new ‘All Girl’ campaign celebrates the values and benefits of an all-girl education, something we are extremely proud of here at NHSG, and the essence of what makes our school community so special. We feel it is more important than ever to shout about our status as the leading school for girls in the North East, especially as the drive for gender equality has gained so much momentum.

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GDST Brand CampaignHave you spotted the GDST’s advertising campaign?The GDST recently launched Regional campaigns across the UK to celebrate GDST girls, their confidence and their spirit. But more importantly, this new phase of the campaign featured pupils from Newcastle High School for Girls. Kristiana Beasy, Year 8, and Rachel Tsang, Year 12, were selected to feature in the campaign and attended a high-profile photoshoot in London.

The campaign is part of the GDST’s strategy to raise awareness of the organisation as a whole and generate interest for the individual schools across the country.

The adverts appeared on poster sites, in the press including maga-zines and on digital platforms. The results showed that the campaign reached and inspired new parents and girls to think about a future with GDST. Current parents, pupils, teachers and Alumnae were ex-tremely proud to see the ads and belong to a group that champions the education of girls.

Mentoring for every Sixth Former

To enable every GDST Sixth Form girl to connect with their Alumnae family, we’ve teamed up with rungway.com, the mentoring app. Now, at the touch of a button, our pupils have a way of asking some of the burning questions they have about study and life after school, anywhere and at any time. If you’d like to find out more, or join the Rungway mentoring community, visit the following website www.gdst.net/ Rungway-mentoring-app.

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INNOVATIONIN THE DIGITAL AGE

The digital and tech sector was the focus of a recent dinner held at NHSG. Hosted by the School’s Governors, the annual dinner, now in its third year, has been firmly established as a key event in the North East calendar.

Guests at the NHSG Governors’ Dinner included many of the most influential people in the region who were welcomed by the chair of the NHSG governing board, Patricia Alexander, Managing Director of the North East-based social lender Shared Interest (pictured below).

Patricia said: “The aim of the NHSG Governors’ Dinner is to enable the school to showcase its fantastic work as well as to look at ways that business and schools can work together to nurture young people in the region. Guests very much valued being able to hear the views of the next generation and NHSG

Sixth Form pupils who were seated at each table, providing the girls with an impressive opportunity to learn from some of our region’s best talent.

“Our theme for the evening was Innovation in the Digital Age and we were delighted to welcome Jim Mawdsley, CEO of Generator and head of Digital Union as our guest speaker.

“Jim is an outstanding ambassador for the digital and tech business in the region, and at the forefront of many ground-breaking projects.”

Before Jim took to the floor, guests at the dinner heard from Michael Tippett, who was appointed as head of NHSG in September 2018. Michael set out his vision for the school explaining that “the School’s mission is to educate the future leaders and shapers of the world”.

Turning to the digital and tech industry, Michael expressed hisfrustration at the very low percentage of women currently working in the tech industry and how schools and businesses must work together to bring about change.

He reflected on the evening:

“I see the role of NHSG as educating the women

who will have the drive and capacity to shape this sector. I don’t just want our pupils to go on to be the end users of tech; I want them to be at the forefront of shaping its development.”

He added that the role of the school was to “encourage more girls to follow their interest in technical and digital areas so that they can have an equal voice and place at the table”.

Jim, in his address, talked of the enormous change in the digital and tech sector in recent years and that of how he is blown away by the technical and digital innovation in the region. He expressed that all businesses were now built on tech, citing END clothing as a phenomenal local example of how digital and tech platforms have been the key to “astronomical growth”.

Talking about the next generation of innovators, Jim impressed upon the guests the need for creativity. He said: “Being creative and employing free thinking is the key because the reality is that if you don’t disrupt yourself, someone else will.

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A Way with WordsCaitlin Pyper was one of fifteen talented winners invited to London to receive a prestigious 2018 Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.

With over 11,000 entries to the competition from over 80 countries, Caitlin’s creative flair for poetry writing is demonstrated by this fantastic achievement. Her moving poem, titled ‘Mrs Richard’s Year’, was inspired by her transition from Junior to Senior School and began as a piece of work in the classroom.

Speaking about this year’s winning entries, Caroline Bird, Foyle Judge 2018, described the works as “politically brave and socially aware; much braver than I remember feeling at that age. As long as they hold on to that wisdom, humankind might be all right.” A glowing review, of which all winners should be extremely proud.

As if this wasn’t enough to celebrate, on 1st October Caitlin was interviewed by BBC Look North about her fantastic achievement. Caitlin read a short excerpt from her poem and described her total surprise on finding out she was a winner. How did she celebrate, you might ask? There was only one thing for it: cake, cake and more cake!

Cait l in’s poem is published in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award anthology which includes the poems from the 15 winners of the competition. As well as attending the prestigious awards ceremony at the South Bank Centre, London, Caitlin has the opportunity to attend the prestigious Arvon writing course, led by highly acclaimed writers.

NHSG are GDST ChampionsWe are pleased to report that our Senior Netball Team brought home the GDST Netball Trophy in March, the first team to do so in the history of NHSG.

The competition took place at Bromley High School and girls competed against their fellow GDST school teams from across the country, in what can only be described as very gusty conditions! The final game against some dauntingly tall Royal High School Bath players finished with a strong 8-2 win; a fantastic result and a phenomenal achievement overall!

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Ines top 10 in London Mini MarathonInes Curran came 10th in the London mini-marathon on 28th April, an absolutely amazing feat. She was representing the North East in the Under 15 girlsteam. Each team consists of six selected athletes com-peting against teams from all over the UK and all the boroughs of London. She was first finisher for her team and completed the three mile course (the last threemiles of the London marathon) in a time of 17.20. As a result of her top ten finish, she has been selected to attend a summer camp where she will meet eliteGB runners like Mo Farrah.

A Great British Record for rower, Lucie HarringtonLucie Harrington, Year 8, has recorded a monumental time of 3 minutes 40.2 seconds for rowing 1000 metres on an indoor rower, confirming a new British Record. This is Lucy’s latest accolade in a string of rowing achievements, including recently placing 3rd in a Northern Regional Rowing Competition. Mr Tippett congratulated Lucie in a whole-school assembly on Monday 13th May so her phenomenal record could be recognised by all at NHSG.

NHSG’s First Mother and Daughter Science Fair

STEM Discovery Week 2019 took place on 6th-19th March. This international initiative encourages projects, organisations and schools across Europe and around the world, to celebrate careers and stud-ies in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Deputy Head and STEM Co-ordinator at Junior School, Miss Williams, couldn’t let this fantastic initiative pass us by and so came about our very first Mother and Daughter Science Fair. Girls and their Mums were invited to work on a Science project of their choice and display their findings at an afternoon exhibition of all-things Science on 8th March.

The variety, and quality, of the research was fantastic, covering a vast number of topics in great detail; from chemical reactions, electricity-producing lemons, homemade hovercrafts and everything in-between – it was clear that girls and their Mums had invested a huge amount of time and energy investigating their topic. It’s safe to say the Science Fair is going to become an annual event!

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Gold Champion Status for NHSG from NCSNational Citizen Service (NCS) has awarded ‘Gold Champion’ status to Newcastle High School for Girls, thanks to its consistent commitment to working alongside NCS to build awareness of the NCS programme and having exceeded expectations in promoting the programme as well as recruiting students to take part.

The NCS programme supports young people’s transition to adulthood by developing their strength of character and life-skills which enables them to contribute to society with a greater sense of purpose, optimism and belonging.

Open to young people aged 16-17 the NCS programme takes place in school holidays and includes outdoor team-building exercises, a residential for participants to learn ‘life skills’, a community-based social action project and an end of programme celebration event.

Jo Cooney, NCS Recruitment Coordinator for Newcastle says:

“We always receive a warm welcome from staff and students at Newcastle High School for Girls so I am delighted to present an award to mark their NCS Champion status.”

Esther heads to the House of CommonsEsther Kirk, Year 13, had the opportunity to debate in the House of Commons in November, as a result of being elected as the Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for Newcastle in February 2018.

Talking about her experience, Esther said: “Hearing young people truly impassioned by what they were debating for, and against, and having the wonderful Right Honourable John Bercow chair the event was an experience I will never forget.”

During the day, key politicians dropped in to listen to the various debates, including Jeremy Corbyn who was present for the Knife Crime debate. Esther spoke on the debate around the issue of Equal Pay and is fortunate enough to be returning to the House of Commons next year in her role in the Procedures Group (PG). PG makes the decisions that guide the development of the organisation, and agree on the arrangements for each sitting.

Pictured above: Esther Kirk at the House of Commons with fellow MYPs

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Alumnae inspiration for International Women’s DayThanks to the generous donation from parents of an Alumna for an annual prize, NHSG has been celebrating the outstanding achievement of trailblazing women across the years through an excit-ing competition for our very own future trailblazers.

The International Women’s Day Prize encourages girls at NHSG to submit en-tries about the female they felt has done the most to empower girls and advance women’s rights in the last 100 years.

We were delighted to welcome Mrs Vane, the prize donor, and Alumna Helen Dalby to judge and present the prizes to the girls at a special event on International Women’s Day.

NHSG girls had submitted a superb range of films, poems, essays and dance choreography. Some were of women that most will have heard of and others were modern day change-makers.

Connie Hayward, Year 9, was crowned the winner for her moving entry on suffragette Lady Constance Lytton. Connie, also a talented violinist who was recently awarded a coveted prize from the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music, produced a 6-minute film with a moving soundtrack, about the life and work of Constance, an influential suffragette activist.

Other winners in the competition included an emotive dance in honour of ‘Every Woman’ that has contributed to women’s rights, a poster and essay on the achievements of sailor Susie Goodhall, and a beautiful poem on Civil Rights Movement pioneer, Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus.

As part of our IWD event, Helen Dalby, who is now Senior Editor and Head of Digital at Reach plc which includes the Chronicle, Jour-nal and Gazette, also spoke to the girls about how her education has shaped her climb to success in what is a very male dominated field.

We only need to look to our own Alumnae for so many inspiring stories of women who are making their mark on the world.

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NHSG brought the Oomph! back to Oliver! This year NHSG Senior School ditched ribbons for rags to perform one of the most beloved British musicals, Oliver!, bringing to life Dickens’ timeless characters with its infamous story of the orphan boy who asked for more. Nearly 100 girls took part in the hit musical (in January at Northern Stage), which originally premiered in the West End in 1960 and ran for an impressive 2,618 performances. Those of you that were able to come and watch will know that the performances were a triumph, with the cast wowing nearly 1500 people over four shows, including sell-out performances on Friday and Saturday evening.

Many audience members remarked that our production was at least as good as, if not better than a West End performance! Girls embodied their characters with ease and demonstrated their acting, dancing and singing talents like true professionals. The cast and orchestra had been tirelessly rehearsing from October last year but the reaction from the audience at each of the four shows ensured that their efforts were very much rewarded.

Many of the NHSG Alumnae who enjoyed theatrical triumphs at school have gone on to tread the boards in theatre productions. Among their ranks are Alice Stokoe, who took the lead in the West End production of Mamma Mia in 2015; and Laila Zaidi, a graduate from the Arts Educational School who performed on BBC 1’s Shakespeare Live event, played Maria in West Side Story and is now appearing in the new series of Benidorm.

We’re confident that this year’s cohort of aspiring performers will go on to achieve such success when they leave NHSG to embark on the next stage of their educational journey. With just under 6 months to wait before the next production, its fair to say, the girls have definitely left us wanting more!

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Remarkable golfer Rosie wins Rising Star AwardTalented golfer Rosie Belsham, Year 13, won a Rising Star Award after being nominated by NHSG PE teachers for this accolade. Rosie, whose home club is Whitley Bay, is currently ranked number 4 in the country and 22nd in Europe with a handicap of + 1.4. Rosie became the youngest ever Northumberland Ladies Senior Champion at the age of 15, which put her firmly on the sporting radar. She was lucky enough to be picked to represent England’s Under 16s in the National Cup, finishing runner-up.

Rosie attended the Awards Evening in February and said: “I only realised the calibre of the event when I arrived and I saw the famous and very talented athletes in attendance, along with presenters and sponsors. It was a fantastic night and I am very proud to have won the Award for Golf.”

Rosie took home the Bronze Grant Award which entitles her to a £250 grant to help support her sporting successes. We know it will be money well spent and Rosie has a very exciting future ahead of her. Most recently, Rosie has been selected by England Golf to play in the Duke of York Champions Trophy in Northern Ireland. We wish her the best of luck.

Over £6k raised for NECCRGirls from Junior and Senior School have raised a collective £6014 for the North of England Children’s Cancer Research fund through individual sponsorship for completing the Children’s Cancer Run in 2018 and 2019. The money raised has gone towards helping children to overcome cancer and live long, happy and healthy lives.

Three girls from Year 6 who completed the run, Charlotte Hardie, Robyn Leck and Sarrah Khushnood, were invited to attend an awards presentation at Metro Radio’s studios at 55 Degrees North to accept a trophy and framed certificate on behalf of the School.

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It’s been a great Summer for the girls at NHSG, and especially for the girls who, this year, are joining the ranks of the Alumnae Network.

We were able to report a sharp increase in our performance at A Level compared to 2018 and have been delighted to see NHSG soar back up the league tables.

Over half of the A Level grades achieved by the pupils at the School are at A* and A, and an impressive 80% at grades A * to B. Both of these statistics represent a rise of 20 percentage points on

results reported in 2018.

Appointed as Head in September 2018, Mr Tippett has spent his first year in post focusing on academic attainment for all the pupils.

He said: “Our A Level results show an increase of 20 percentage points at both A* - A grade and A* to B grades. With 51% of grades at A* to A and 80% at A* to B, the effort and sheer hard work of the girls has been recognised in this outstanding set of results.

“Underpinning the girls’ achievements is the excellent teaching and support they receive at NHSG and I would like to congratulate our staff, as well as the girls.“

There were some phenomenal individual performances from girls at NHSG. Alice Larsen (pictured above, middle) who was Head Girl at NHSG achieved four A*s and is now going to St Mary’s in London to study Medicine.

Rosie Hurcombe (pictured left) was delighted to learn that she too had gained four A*s. She is now looking forward to embarking on her degree at Sheffield University where she will be studying Aerospace Engineering.

Meanwhile Amal Hashmi saw her place confirmed at Oxford’s Corpus Christi College to read Classics.

Girls studying the Creative Arts were also celebrating with Emilia Cooke and Annie Frost winning places on the highly competitive Art Foundation course at Kingston University in London.

Mr Tippett added: “For the girls who attended NHSG, these results will mean that they will now be following the university and career paths of their choice. I know they have exciting futures ahead of them and we wish them every success.

NHSG has reported excellent results across all subject areas ranging from Dance and Geography to Maths and Science and this is testament to the new approach taken by the School over the past year.

Following the success of the girls at A Level, results issued a week later demonstrated that the School was on the ‘up’ at GCSE level too. An outstanding 130 grades were awarded at the coveted top grade of 9, an increase of five percentage points compared to 2018.

There have been improved results across all grades where an impressive 38% of grades at GCSE have been awarded at grades 9 – 8/ A* and 62% at grades 9 – 7/A – A*.”

15 girls at NHSG achieved all 9 – 7/ A* - A grades across their 10 GCSE subjects and three girls achieved a stunning clean sweep of ten top

RESULTS SUCCESSAT NHSG

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grades (Grades 8 – 9 or A*).You may know that the grading system has changed at GCSE, so while some subjects are still being marked with the traditional A* to G grades, most subjects are now graded 9 – 1 (grades 9 and 8 are the equivalent of an A* grade, with grade 9 being introduced to allow for greater distinction of the very best candidates, while Grade 7 equates to an A grade).

There were strong results across the whole range of GCSE subjects offered at NHSG, from the Arts to Sciences and Humanities to languages. – once again demonstrating the strength of breadth across the School.

Mr Tippett said:“We are especially delighted to be reporting improved results at GCSE level with even more girls at our school achieving the highest possible grades.

“The girls should feel extremely proud of their achievements; they have performed phenomenally well. I look forward to seeing them continue to excel in their A Level studies.

“Our 2019 GCSE results, combined with the excellent A Level results we received, highlight the success of the work we have undertaken to focus over the last year on academic attainment. We will continue to build on this to ensure that every girl at NHSG achieves her very best. I am a passionate believer that an all-girl school provides the perfect environment for girls to achieve without limits and I am looking forward to a bright future for NHSG and all our pupils.”

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ONE YEAR ON

It was delightful to welcome back last year’s Year 13 leavers, now NHSG Alumnae, for afternoon drinks and a light buffet before they headed into Jesmond for an extended Reunion evening. The girls, some of whom started at our founding schools Church High and Central High, delighted in exchanging updates about their first year of university with school friends and teachers. There was certainly no shortage of stories to catch up on!

It was lovely to hear that the girls have all kept in touch since leaving school and being back in the Sixth Form Common Room was a great reminder of all the fun times they had shared together over the years at NHSG. Many of them commented on how they missed school and felt they could ‘walk back into school tomorrow and feel they never left’.

The girls requested that they be allowed to attend next year’s ‘One Year On’, so it seems like we will be seeing our NHSG Alumnae even more regularly than we anticipated!

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Any mischief?Nothing I’d like to print in these pages…

Favourite teacher?Mr Tippett – but he never actually taught me, so Mr Newman!

Let’s talk about the food…It certainly changed a lot! Some of my first memories from school are serving other girls in my class in the West Avenue dining room – those were classic school dinners, and Barbie Cake was always a favourite. When I was in Chapman House the food got so much better, and nowadays in Senior School, Nick (Mr Hearfield), never fails to impress – I don’t think the girls at school realise how good the food is now in comparison to what it was! That’s not even mentioning the cookies in the Common Room, which made Sixth Form worth the exam stress.

Where was your favourite place at school to hang out?In the old school, under the Science stairs – nice and close to the lunch hall so we could get in first!

Sporty or outside field lingerer?Sporty! Some of my best memories at school are from GDST trips around the country for various events.

CATCHING UP WITH EMMA CARRIE

It’s been a year since NHSG Head Girl 2018, Emma Carrie (also CNHS Alumna), left NHSG to study at Edinburgh university. We caught up with her to reflect on her time at school and see how she’s getting on...

Describe your school experience in three words?Wouldn’t change anything! Who was your best friend?I had lots of different friends over the years, which came from our Year Group as a whole being quite tight-knit. Still, some of my closest friends now are those who I’ve known since Nursery!

Other than Head Girl, did you win any prizes or awards?Over the years I won some academic prizes at Prizegiving, and won the Sports Person of the Year prize in my final year. What advice would you offer your younger school-age self ?Say yes to everything! And don’t take for granted all the people who are there to support you in school, it won’t be the same after you leave!

What are you studying now and what do you like most about it?I’m studying Physics at the University of Edinburgh. My favourite thing about it is that it covers such a wide range of topics so you are always learning something new – and something challenging!

What are your plans after university?No idea! I will probably do a Masters and want to travel at some point, but apart from that I’ll just see where post-uni life takes me. I like the idea of being an eternal student – not sure the parents would approve though!

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NHSG STAFF LEAVERS

Sadly we said goodbye to some of our long- serving staff this summer. We wish them all well.

Christine Chapman After 34 years of service to NHSG and Church High before it, Miss Christine Chapman has decided to leave the School. Miss Chapman joined Newcastle Church High School as an English Teacher in 1985. For 12 years she was Head of Key Stage 4 before becoming Head of Year in Newcastle High School for Girls, where she guided one cohort from Year 8 through to 11 and also led Year 8 during the 2018-2019 academic year. Christine has a passionate interest in the history of Church High and we thank her too for her many contributions to the Alumnae magazines over the years. We wish Christine every happiness for the future.

Emma Davie

Miss Emma Davie joined the PE department in September 2016. She made a really huge contribution to the PE team and helped inspire a love of sport, especially hockey, among the girls. We wish her luck in her new teaching role in Newcastle.

Carol Elliott

Mrs Carol Elliott joined in 2000 as the School’s Librarian and has ensured an excellent provision at Central High and then NHSG for the past has 19 years. She has during these years developed and maintained the School’s archives, leaving a lasting legacy for us all. We wish her every happiness in her retirement.

Toria Harrison

Mrs Toria Harrison has chosen to retire after 40, extremely happy, years in teaching. The last 17 of these have been spent in Central High and then more recently at NHSG teaching History. As Mr Allender, her colleague, would say, ‘this seems like a logical place to end’.

Jennie King

Mrs Jennie King joined Central High in September 2010 as Head of Modern Foreign Languages and became the Head of the Languages and Digital Literacy Faculty when NHSG was created.

In recent years, Mrs King has SWIRE Chinese Language Centre Newcastle to successfully develop our Mandarin programme in partnership with a number of primary and secondary schools in

Newcastle and South Tyneside. We wish Jennie every success as she moves on.

Paul Mogie

Paul has been with NHSG as teacher at the Junior School for four years, having joined in September 2015. Paul came to us with a huge wealth of experience – 19 years of teaching before NHSG - and he put that to good use in the Junior School. He has been much appreciated by girls, parents and colleagues alike, for his calm and dedicated approach.

Roger Newman

Mr Roger Newman started as a Physics teacher at Central High in September 2003 and has taught at Central High and NHSG for 16 years. Roger has inspired a significant number of girls with a love of Physics and girls have valued his knowledge, experience and care. His dedication to the promotion and organisation of the School’s Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme has supported so many girls to develop as resilient individuals. We wish him every happiness in his retirement

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Zoe Robinson

Mrs Zoe Robinson joined Church High as an Art Teacher in 2004 and continued to teach Art until the end of the Summer Term in 2019. Zoe has decided to take the opportunity to focus on her individual work as a practising artist next year. We wish her well with her endeavour.

Dianne Smith Mrs Smith joined Central High in September 2001 and has completed her 18th year of service to the School. She started with us as a Biology teacher and in 2010 became the Head of Biology at Central High then Assistant Head of Faculty in the Science and Maths Faculty at the merged school, for one year 2014-2015, after which she continued steering the success of the Biology department as Subject Leader from 2015-2017. Dianne is one of the most caring persons that you could wish to meet, and is utterly devoted to ensuring the girls get the best possible experience.

Kay Thew

Kay joined Church High in the Junior School in September 1998 and has completed 21 years of service to Church High and NHSG. Her career started in the Junior

School but Mrs Thew also taught English in Church High Senior School from 2007 and moved across to the Senior School permanently in 2009. She became Head of Year 7 at NHSG in 2014. We wish her all the best as she moves to her new job as Head of English at Mowden Hall.

Jill Tiryaki

Mrs Jill Tiryaki joined NHSG two years ago as our Home Economics teacher; her positive and energetic approach to her role and school life have left their mark on us all.

Edyta Weronska-Bowles

Mrs Edyta Weronska-Bowles, as Senior Technician, has provided excellent IT support to the whole School since October 2015. We wish her and her family every happiness as they make their move to Italy.

Marguerite Wiggins

Mrs Marguerite Wiggins joined Central High in the Science department in September 2009 and has taught Chemistry, Biology and Science from Year 5 to Year 13 ever since, at Central and in NHSG. We will miss her and wish her well in her future plans.

School but Mrs Thew also taught English in Church High Senior School from 2007 and moved across to the Senior School permanently in 2009. She became Head of Year 7 at NHSG in 2014. We wish her all the best as she moves to her new job as Head of English at Mowden Hall.

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CENTRAL HIGH TIME CAPSULE: UNCOVERED!We were all saddened to see the beautiful old School building on Eskdale Terrace demolished earlier this year. So many happy memories were made there. Memories, of course, live on in people not in buildings but it was hard not to feel a sense of sadness about its demise. It was therefore a delight to discover that Eskdale Terrace had one more surprise, in the form of a farewell gift.

We had asked the current owners to preserve a number of items for us as the buildings were being demolished, including the original foundation stone which was situated to the right of the famous front doors of the School.

The foundation stone was laid on 13th December 1898, by Earl Grey, and the building opened two years later. Central High had been operating in Newcastle since 1895 as an offshoot of Gateshead High, with a temporary school on Park Terrace, and the Newcastle school proved so popular that, when the permanent building was established, the Gateshead school gradually decreased in size and closed a few years later. In 1900, when Central High opened, it stood proudly on Eskdale Terrace, with no immediate neighbours.

As the builders carefully extracted the foundation stone, they discovered a space beneath in which was resting a large glass bottle, seemingly laid under the foundation stone and untouched since 1898. This was

totally unexpected, nowhere in our archives was the mention of the lying of this bottle which we strongly suspected was an early ‘time capsule’. The glass bottle, with only some slight damage, was carefully removed from the demolition site and returned to NHSG. Everyone was hugely excited to have discovered this piece of school history.

Unsure how to open it, we asked for help from Tyne and Wear Archives conservator Christina Stephenson who was able, after quite a struggle, to open it and extract the documents inside.

The capsule contained two newspapers both from 13th December 1898: the Newcastle

Daily Leader and Newcastle Daily Journal; an order of ceremony for the laying of the stone; a silk school badge and a document badly damaged by damp, which was sadly unreadable even after drying out. The silk school badge was designed by one of the teachers and pinned to clothes for special occasions as there was no uniform at that time. It is described in the school archives as showing “a plant growing up from a seed of truth and goodness in the heart to provide in the end a shield of defence for the young life.”

We will be preserving the time capsule in our archives, and perhaps it will inspire us to make one for our new school.

We’ll be posting more photographs on the contents on CNHS Alumnae Facebook page very soon! @centralhighalumnaeandfriends

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While we wait with bated breath to see what will rise from the rubble on Eskdale Terrace, we were recently delighted to attend the opening of Byzontine House, better known as Russell House to CNHS Alumnae.

The building has been re-purposed as residential apartments. It was so interesting to see how our wonderful Art Studios (and at one time Kitchen and Dining Room) had been transformed. The building originally served as a synagogue for local people when it was built

in 1915 until the school purchased the building in 1986, serving as the Central High’s Art Department from 1986 – 2014 and NHSG’s from 2014-2016.

The history of this beautiful synagogue was also celebrated at the event with Felicity Mendelson, CNHS Alumnae from 1964-1971 and Local Councillor for South Jesmond Ward (which includes Eskdale Terrace and Tankerville Terrace). Felicity liaised between the developers of the property , Provenance Group and the City

Council to ensure that there was a plaque to commemorate the fact that the building had been a Synagogue.

Felicity explained: ”The Synagogue, designed by local architect Marcus K Glass is a really beautiful building as well as playing an important part in the development of the Jewish community in Newcastle. My dad’s family – (the late Sydney Mendelson who also served as a City Councillor)– was one of a number of Jewish families who moved to Jesmond from the West End in the early 1900s, which necessitated the building of a new Synagogue in Jesmond. When I became a Councillor in South Jesmond in 2012, I visited the then Art Department and was blown away by the beautiful stained glass windows and so impressed that Central High, and subsequently NHSG, had preserved these and the external features of the building. When the school moved premises it was fortunate that Provenance Group ,who have developed the building so tastefully into flats, recognised the potential of the building as a heritage asset. It is locally listed which is one of the reasons why planning permission included the need to preserve these striking original features.”

NEW CHAPTER FOR OLD SYNAGOGUE

L-R: Janice Graves (NHSG), Cllr Arleen Ainsley, Cllr Felicity Mendelson (Alumna), Michael Tippett (NHSG).

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and STEM learning; their culture is over 30,000 years old and it is a privilege to learn from them and understand the value of this culture and its impact on Science progression over time.

I am about to embark on my PhD with a focus on Aboriginal children’s understanding of Science.

I recently watched the NHSG video showing a Mother and Daughter Science Fair at the Junior School and thought how my sister, Nicola, and I were so incredibly lucky to never have faced prejudice in our fields, to never have had anyone tell us we couldn’t do something.

It is so important to support #womeninSTEM and much of my time is spent working with other female STEMinists to ensure all girls have these opportunities.

Last month my daughter was the youngest entrant in a Robocup competition; she came 4th out of 60 teams competing. She’s six. So, here I take my teacher hat off and become a proud mum; knowing that the influence of wonderful women I had growing up will help me raise my daughter. It is important to know that you can be respected and admired in your field, be incredibly successful in

CNHS’ SUPER STEM SISTERS

We were delighted to hear from Anna Ritzema (nee Hayes), Alumna of Central High, who reached out to us after watching a video of the NHSG Mother and Daughter Science Fair on our School Facebook page. We asked her to write an article on how she came to be so immersed in the world of STEM.

In January 1986 I stepped through the doors of Central High Junior School on West Avenue. I sat in a Kindergarten class with Mrs Barnes and her advice after week one, was “you don’t need to write The End after every piece of work”. I smile now, because I look back and think of those words and how important they have become.

I come from a Science family, my sister is a Veterinary Lecturer at Sydney University and my parents are both in the medical field. I resisted Science as much as possible! I graduated from Durham University and went to teach at The Dragon School in Oxford followed by Church High School and Thomas’ London Day schools; along the way I had become a Science and IT specialist and I’m not quite sure how that happened! I found coding, programming and

mathematics relatively easy and I have always been in the pursuit of Why?

In 2015 my young family and I made the move to Western Australia. I took a break from teaching and took up a post as a Consultant for a Science Centre. My role was to tour the state (it’s very big!) and upskill teachers in STEM. I began speaking at conferences, writing publications and resources for the Department of Education and I guess finding my “voice”. Along the way my own child was diagnosed as “twice Exceptional” and I began sharing my experiences; this culminated in being asked to present on a National television panel for “gifted” children.

I missed teaching and my husband was beginning his career in teaching after his cricket career ended, so we decided to head up to rural West Australia to a place called Karratha.

I now teach in a full time classroom capacity, run the STEM Network program for all teachers in the region and am the Program Coordinator for the Graham Polly Farmer STEM centre. This is a new centre by Rio Tinto for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and is my absolute passion. It was recently launched by the Minister for Education. Aboriginal children have a deep connection to Science

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your pursuits but also raise a family and be a Mum.

When I graduated, I vowed every child in my care would make progress and if they didn’t I would fight for them. 16 years ago I had no idea how much those children would teach me and how much progress I would make.

So, Mrs Barnes was right; there is no The End with learning, and how lucky we are to have schools that promote lifelong learning in us all.

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SARAH BRINGS PADDINGTON BACK TO SMALL SCREEN

Sarah Caisley, Class of 2009, is part of the animation team responsible for bringing backing to our screens, Paddington, the adventure-loving bear who spreads love and marmalade wherever he goes. Sarah tells us how she came to be the Lead Animator for such an iconic character...

Having loved animation since I was very young, I have always wanted to become an animator and am now fortunate enough to have worked on several preschool shows including Go Jetters and Numberblocks and most recently as a lead animator on the upcoming Paddington.

After leaving school, I studied animation at University and then moved down to Bristol with some friends where I took a job in a coffee shop whilst doing the odd

freelance animation project. In 2015, I was accepted into Aardman Animation’s intensive Character Animation course for graduates. This put me in an excellent position to be able to learn from the many expert animators from within the industry and give me the opportunity to pursue my dream job. Afterwards I was offered an internship and then a contract at Blue-Zoo Animation in London where I have been ever since.

Making an animated TV show takes a lot of collaboration among a large team of people, each with their own specialism. At the start of each episode, myself and a small team of animators will sit down with the director and watch through a very early version, a moving storyboard set to the episode audio, showing roughly what has to happen and when. The episode is divided up into chunks and we are each assigned our own section.

We then have creative control over our own sections and need to deliver a believable and appealing performance through our characters. To do this, we use computer software to manipulate a digital puppet to create and move between a series of poses. Though simple on the surface, this process requires a great understanding of how people think and move as well as an eye for design and

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cinematography; the foundations of which I was taught at Uni and which I have had to constantly seek to improve. Observation through people watching, life drawing and studying acting choices in animated and live-action movies are invaluable in this regard.

I was recently promoted to the role of Lead Animator on Paddington (working title), a television series for pre-schoolers which follows the adventures of a younger Paddington bear. I have been working on the series since February and loving every moment of it.

The series will air on Nickelodeon’s

networks worldwide in 2020, while local broadcast partners will be secured in France, Canada, China and Japan. Each episode will open and close with Paddington’s letters as he tells Aunt Lucy what he has learned about life through the day’s new exciting adventure. The series will invite a new generation of fans into Paddington’s world full of heart, kindness, slapstick humour, fun and generosity.

As well as my usual responsibilities, I’m now also in charge of overseeing and giving help and guidance to the other animators in my team, liaising with the other departments that are working on the episode and

keeping everything organised so we meet our deadlines. It has been an exciting and challenging experience so far and working with such an iconic character is amazing.

We have been putting in a lot of effort to make sure that Paddington stays true to the classic bear we all know and love, but still putting our own mark on the character.

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OLIVIA POTTS:FROM COURTS TO KITCHENS

Olivia Potts, Class of 2006 and Head Girl 2005-2006, was overwhelmed by grief when her mother died unexpectedly at the age of 54. She summarises her journey for us in this article but you can read the full story in Olivia’s newly-released book, A Half Baked Idea.Thirteen years ago almost to the day of writing this, I stood outside Central High having just received my A Level results. I had my future planned out: I was going to go

to Cambridge to read English Literature, and then I was going to convert to Law and become a criminal barrister. This plan was so concrete, so ingrained, that it was part of my identity. It was in my very bones.

And that’s exactly what I did. Fast forward five years, and I was working as a criminal barrister in London. My days were spent in the magistrates and crown courts defending and prosecuting.But then something happened that changed everything: my mother died. And suddenly, the plan that had provided such structure and purpose seemed to be built on weaker foundations than I first thought. I was desperately unhappy, hollowed out by the loss of my wonderful, beloved mother, but also refusing to face the grief that had hobbled me. I channelled my anxiety into my job, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I dreaded every hearing, fixated on each upcoming trial, convinced I was going to screw something up.

As a means of distraction, I began cooking – something I’d never done before. I was very, very bad at it. But in those quiet moments in my little kitchen (one that I shared with two girls from Central High), following recipes and turning raw ingredients into more than the sum of their parts, I found solace. Slowly, I got better, and that solace turned into a happiness I didn’t

think I’d see again. A few years later, I quit. I swapped my wig and gown for chef’s whites, and took a place on Le Cordon Bleu’s professional patisserie course. I learnt how to pipe macarons and blow sugar like it was glass and make every type of custard known to man. Now, I’m a food writer and private chef. I cater weddings, run supper clubs, bake towering and elaborate cakes, and write about cookery and food for a wide range of publications.

My book, A Half Baked Idea, tells the story of my journey from courtroom to Le Cordon Bleu, as well as the story of how I lost my mother, and found love. I wanted to write about what happens when whatever underpins your identity is dislodged, or lost. If you’d told me when I was at Central that I would abandon my legal hopes and ambitions to bake cakes, I’d have laughed in your face. There’s a lesson there. Life can take you in all kinds of directions, good and bad, and the best laid plans can change. The thing that really matters is to find happiness where you can, and cling to it.

Olivia Potts, A Half Baked Idea: How grief, love and cake took me from the courtroom to Le Cordon Bleu is published by Fig Tree (Penguin).

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THE CHILDREN’S TAILOR

Roya Manouchehri attended Central High between 1994 and 2006. Born and raised in the North East countryside, it was inevitable that an adoration of her environment would provide the main source of inspiration for her series of truly special designs. She furthered her love of fashion on family holidays to Italy - the style and culture of locals who dressed to impress sparking the dream of pursuing her own fashion business.

As a child Roya used to love dressing up and was always jotting down her designs in the notebook she carried with her.

She went on to study Fashion Design at Northumbria University - always imagining that childhood dream would lead to a career in eveningwear. However, after researching childrenswear she identified a neglected market: inspired to create elegant children’s clothing she established the Manouchehri brand and opened up boutique store Ralph & Mimi in the Northumberland market town of Hexham.

A scrupulous eye for detail and an addiction to creating timeless, classical clothes have put Roya at the forefront of the new children’s clothing revolution. Communicating childhood innocence through beautiful designs, her tailoring remains a cut above the rest.

The clothing line, recently featured in an editorial within Tyne Valley Living Magazine, has already caught the attention of fashion conscious tastemakers at Vogue and Tatler. Manouchehri’s aesthetic is deeply rooted in traditional English style with a love for timeless elegance and heritage fabrics. Designs are made to be passed down without the worry of garments going out of fashion.

Manouchehri reflects the countryside and nature but its core designs are also influenced by timeless museum pieces, the history of fashion and a desire to put a modern-day slant on traditional favourites.

The vast majority of the fabrics used to create Manouchehri’s extra-special collections are sourced from British mills. Access to a year-round Liberty collection adds a touch of class to specific pieces and no two garments are exactly the same: personality and individualism are of paramount importance.

You can visit Ralph & Mimi online! www. ralphandmimi.com/manouchehri/

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CENTRAL HIGH REUNION 2018

Saturday 6th October saw another successful Central High Reunion at Newcastle High School for Girls. Over 100 Central High ‘Old Girls’ joined us for an afternoon of reminiscing and renewing old friendships. The event provided the first opportunity for Alumnae to see Mr Michael Tippett in his new post as Head from September 2018, although he was certainly a familiar face for most of our guests having taught at Central High for many years, prior to NHSG.

We were celebrating a range of milestones for different Reunion groups, some having left school 60 years ago, some as recently as five years ago and many in-between. It was clear from animated discussions that experiences at Central High have evolved quite dramatically over the years! After a short speech by Mr Tippett,Old Girls and former Central High staff were very keen to beescorted round the facilities of NHSG by our enthusiastic Sixth Form prefects.

The afternoon concluded with adelicious lunch in the Dining Hall,which continued well past our anticipated end time of 3pm. Many of the Old Girls were extending their Reunion in Newcastle city centre. If they were as lively as they were over lunch, we’re sure they would have had a fantastic time!

Our next Reunion will take place on Saturday 5th October 2019. Book your tickets today! www.trybooking.com/uk/book/event?eid=6222&

Check our CNHS Facebook page to see all the photos from the day!

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Each year we invite Alumnae to provide

their most up to date contact details as well as any personal news

they would like to share with us. Here are

some updates from your fellow ‘Old Girls’!

Eleanor Atkinson Class of 2013Has just finished Graduate General Management programme at Zurich Insurance. Now a compliance consultant at Zurich, working and living in Swindon. Really enjoying it, very happy.

Eloise Sludden Class of 2013Still doing Medicine at Keele University. Catching up with the girls was amazing and seeing the staff. Can’t wait for the next reunion!

Molly Bell Class of 2013 (née Garsrud)Now a trainee solicitor at Ward Hadaway.

Stephanie James Class of 2013Living in Newcastle and working for SSD Concerts (music promoter) and Gigs North East. This involves organising events such as Hit the North and This is Tomorrow and gigs in Riverside Think Tank etc. all year round.

Sophie Knowles Class of 2013 Learning and Participation at Rambert Dance Company after graduating with First Class Degree at University of Surrey.

Rachel Kirk Class of 2013In final year of Sheffield Dentist School, hoping to get a job here too.

Joanna Jennings Class of 2013Completing a PhD in Plant Science in Norwich.

Catherine Sandelands Class of 2008 (née Stringer)Married Mr Kenny Sandelands this Summer at Newton Hall.

Trish Turnbull Class of 1978Trish retired from social work five years ago and is now making and designing jewellery which can viewed on cargocollective.com designed by Trish Turnbull. She also looks after hens and travels in her mobile home as much as possible. She doesn’t know how she had time to work!

Sue Branch Class of 1978 (née Rendall)Living in Potters Bar, still working full time for the Civil Service/MHRA (Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) at Canary Wharf. Happily married for over 30 years, son 23 – environmental scientist, daughter 20 – neuroscience undergraduate.

Kathleen Mais Class of 1978Working as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Head and Neck Oncology at The Christie in Manchester. In preparation for retirement and am studying Horticulture with the Royal Horticultural Society.

Margaret Lillian Ranson Class of 1966Is now very fit and well, no longer suffers from mental illness. Keeps in close touch with Judith Phillips. Has a rescue cat called Willow. Extremely active in pensioners’ activities and Church. Attends a rambling club and likes going to the cinema. Planning her first holiday for ten years.

Check our CNHS Facebook page to see all the photos from the day!

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No longer locked in the safe recesses of our school, our archives are now open to all through this excellent website which gives you the opportunity to explore some of our schools’ archives from anywhere in the world with internet access. You can explore our school magazines and conduct searches by name or special word too which we know will be a great advantage and save much research time.

We would like to provide a comprehensive digital archive of Central Newcastle High School. We will be drawing on material held in the Discovery Museum archives, our own archives and, we hope, contributions from Alumnae like yourselves.

It costs on average £100 to digitise each year which will include the school magazine at an average of £1 per page and photographs which cost up to £4 each. We have been able to fund the digitisation of some of our archives through the generous support of our Alumnae and we hope you would like to help.

Our aim is to digitise the whole archive when funds become available to do this. We would like to appeal to you, our Alumnae to support this project, either individually or collectively in class groups and each digitised year will acknowledge the source of funds.

If we receive funds over and above what is required for that year then we will pool them to fund years that have no Alumnae to contribute or for extra material that falls outside a year group.

I hope that you are as enthusiastic about this project as we are. The digitisation of these archives will enable us to preserve this fascinating and evocative material and make it accessible to everyone. You can donate by contacting Polly (contact details below) or browsing to the following link: https://bit.ly/2kbwH1H

In the meantime please do go and have a look at the Archives so far: newcastlehighschoolforgirls.daisy.websds.net/ (click on the ‘Browse’ tab at the top left to explore the archive material).

For more information please contact: Polly DeGiorgiDevelopment Managerp.degiorgi@ncl.gdst.net 0191 201 6549

ADD TO YOUR ARCHIVES

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Since 1872 NHSG and our founding schools have been educating the young women of the North East. With a combined history of over 270 years, Gateshead High School, Church High School, Central High School, and now NHSG, have played a crucial role in the emancipation and advancement of women.

Women’s lives have changed radically in the last 100 years and education has been a fundamental part of this transformation. We have come a long way from home delivered lessons in basic Latin, Greek, Music and etiquette designed to make girls ‘decorative, modest, marriageable beings’.

Now, we are offered equal educational opportunity – almost. Women’s education always conformed to class expectations. Educational reform for women was occurring from the late 19th century but it remained the privilege of the middle and upper classes. Working class girls, if they were educated at all, were taught the very basics of reading, writing, arithmetic and domestic skills such as needlework. Bright, talented girls of this class had no prospect of social mobility through education. Opportunities for working class girls remained

limited well into the 20th century, right up until the 1980s, where grammar school places for girls were restricted. It is now estimated that without the quotas, in mixed grammar schools, two thirds of all the classes would have been occupied by girls.

Opportunities for bright boys from all backgrounds on the other hand, were more readily available. From as far back as 604, independent boys’ schools, established by charitable endowments from religious institutions, merchants and wealthy nobles, allowed boys to be taught free of charge. Many of these schools survive today and their early philanthropic founders paved the way for them to continue to be able to offer educational opportunity regardless of financial circumstance. Philanthropy is woven into the fabric of their schools and old boys understand that it is a fundamental part of belonging to their school that they contribute to providing an equal

opportunity to future generations.

Independent girls’ schools were able, in some measure, to balance the scales by providing bursary places to those girls denied grammar school places but in far fewer numbers than the independent boy’s schools. Lacking the culture of philanthropy embedded in these schools, and the fact that most Alumnae did not have control of their finances and were restricted by the

expectations of family life, funding for

bursaries at girls’ schools has traditionally been significantly less.

However, times are

THE POWER OF EDUCATION IN DRIVING EQUALITY

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Institute shows that nearly 50% of female donors support causes for women and girls and are 84% more likely to invest their donations in sustainable social initiatives. Now that women have control of their resources we have a unique opportunity to establish girls’ schools as equals in the field of offering life- transforming education regardless of financial circumstance.

Here at NHSG, we are working towards establishing a significant endowment fund that will enable us to offer this remarkable opportunity to as many girls as we can.

Our founding schools and our Alumnae changed the world for

changing. In the 140 years since our founding schools were established we have seen our society transformed.

Education is the agent of basic change in the status of women and has enabled us to grasp the opportunities the suffragettes and two world wars opened up for us. Gateshead High School, Church High School, Central High School and now NHSG have all been at the forefront of girls’ education. We have educated thousands of young women from across the North East and our Alumnae – doctors, educators, lawyers, scientists and politicians to name but a few – have all played a part in transforming the lives of future generations of women.

Education has given us access to the job market and financial independence.

Women now control 40% of global wealth and Forbes statistics show that women give almost twice as much of their wealth as men (3.5% vs. 1.8%).

Furthermore, empirical research by the Women’s Philanthropy

future generations of women, and we continue to shape the future of all who pass through our doors. There’s still so much do be done though. We can’t yet meet the demand for places at our school through our current bursary funds and to be able to do so we need to demonstrate that women are equally powerful in supporting one another as the Old Boys network of old.

A gift of education is, we believe, is one of the biggest you can give.

“Education is liberation. Knowledge is power.”

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CATHERINE COOKSON

Newcastle High School for Girls is built on a strong tradition of philanthropy. The belief in equality and social mobility through education is woven into the ethos of the School.

Social mobility is a core theme throughout many of Catherine Cookson’s stories. Set against a background of poverty in the North East in mines, shipyards,

farms and the surrounding rural areas, her heroines overcome their class restrictions through education. Catherine Cookson’s escape from a life of grinding poverty through education and determination are a convincing example of the transformative power of education and a strong reminder that a child’s level of competence should not be presumed by their social background.

The life of Catherine Cookson could have been lifted from the pages of one of her novels, an illegitimate child raised in the North East in the early 1900s, who dreamed of a better life, married a school master and eventually became one of Britain’s wealthiest women.

Catherine Cookson had a tough upbringing. Born in 1906 in South Shields, Catherine grew up in one of the poorest communities in the Western Word. The illegitimate daughter of a domestic servant, her childhood was marred by alcoholism, unemployment, and poverty. Trips to the pawnshop, scavenging for wood and coal on the banks of the River Tyne, picking up coke from carts, cinder-sifting and other penny-saving devices were commonplace features of everyday existence. The description of her early life in her autobiography Our Kate does not make easy reading, there’s not

much to be said for growing up coal poor in Tyneside in the early 1900s when the North East was a derelict region in a period of deep depression.

Catherine was scantily educated and left school at 13 to work in heavy domestic service for a wealthy family. It was here that the differences between the classes were made apparent to Catherine and her determination to better herself through education and hard work was born. Borrowing books from South Shields Library and saving every penny she made, she began the transformation from working class waif into one of Britain’s most prolific and wealthy writers.

During her lifetime Catherine Cookson wrote 103 novels which sold more than 123 million copies and were translated into at least 20 different languages. She was awarded an OBE and later a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, received the Freedom of the Borough of South Tyneside and an honorary degree from the University of Newcastle. Catherine amassed a great fortune during her lifetime and, loyal to her roots, insisting that she had always been ‘a child of the Tyne’ she left a lasting philanthropic legacy in the form of the Catherine Cookson Trust which continues to enrich the lives of the people of the North East.

For over seven years, the Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust has supported Newcastle High School for Girls in our endeavours to make an outstanding education available to the young women of the North East regardless of their financial circumstances. We are delighted to have recently received our third tranche of funding from the Catherine Cookson Trust and we hope that she would have been proud of the fact that her legacy to the North East is giving the opportunity of a transformative education to bright, determined and deserving girls.

We are enormously grateful to the Trust for their support.

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IN MEMORIAMSince the last newsletter we have been advised of the sad news of the following Alumnae who have passed away.

Brigid Ackerley 1935-2018 We received news of the death of Miss Brigid Ackerley in February this year. Brigid taught Classics between 1969-1996, and was duly promoted to Head of Classics during her final years with CNHS.

Brigid was also the timetabling genius behind the smooth running of Central High’s many academic departments. As a teacher of Latin and Greek she was outstanding, with a genuine excitement at the daily opportunity to share her knowledge and understanding with students. Her attention to detail brought her Greek A Level Class of 1982 up to high levels of accuracy and linguistic style. She engaged fully with all her pupils. She had an exceptional gift for dramatic delivery of Greek and Latin literature, coaching girls during morning break for verse-speaking competitions at both local and national level. This pursuit of excellence was the driver in her whole being. She enjoyed going to concerts at the City Hall, and parties with friends and colleagues. She was a good friend to my mother, Mrs Smart (Head of Modern Languages at around the same time as Miss Ackerley). I can still hear her distinctive laugh when I think of Miss Ackerley!

Brigid was very sociable and kind to her former students. Penny Jeffries

who also studied Latin and Greek for A Level with me in the early 1980s visited her some years later to drop off some books to pass on to the next generation of CNHS Classicists . Penny arrived with a small baby in tow and remembers the great warmth of Brigid’s welcome and interest she showed in both of them.

Brigid loved the isle of Arran and had a house there which she shared with a friend, Joan. On retirement she moved there full-time but we believe that she developed dementia which became quite severe, needing full-time care. She spent her final years in a care home in Edinburgh.

Written by Alison Fisher (née Smart).

Liz Wilkins 1949-2018 Liz Wilkins sadly died on 3rd September. In her long career at CNHS she was a much-loved colleague, an inspirational teacher, friend and nurturer to very many girls and their parents. There was a gathering at NHSG on Saturday 17th November in Liz’ honour. After the announcement of Liz’ death we received dozens of messages from Alumna about their fond memories of Liz, many citing her as their favourite teacher who had an infectious enthusiasm and passion for teaching. One particularly touching tribute read:

“Liz was my absolute mentor and the one who set me on my way to life. Her love of Geography inspired me, and her belief in me drove me to my interview and subsequent place at Cambridge University to read Geography. She was one of the first people in my world to fill me with confidence and passion about something, and for that I am eternally grateful.” Jayne Fleet 1958-2018

We were very sorry to hear that fellow CNHS Alumna Jayne Fleet, Class of 1976, passed away on Sunday 19th August 2018 from pancreatic cancer. She leaves her husband John and two grown up daughters, Laura and Rebecca. The service of Thanksgiving for her life was held (after a private family cremation) on Saturday 15th September 2018 at Whitley Lodge First School.

Dorothy Prichard 1926-2019

Dorothy Prichard (nee McIvor) sadly passed on 20th June, aged 93 years. She joined Central in 1939 and was Head Girl 1943/44. Her sister Jean was also Head Girl at Central in 1945/46. She met her husband, Michael, whilst teaching in Cambridge and they had two children. She was dearly loved and her funeral service was held in the Chapel of Gonville and Caius where Michael is the Senior Fellow.

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EVENTS & GETTING INVOLVED

Inspire lecture series

Newcastle High School for Girls is proud to announce the launch of an exciting public lecture series. The series has been introduced to offer opportunities for our girls, their family and friends and the wider community, to attend engaging and captivating events talks within our school theatre space starting from September 2019.

NEW Leaders ConferenceOur biennual NEW (North East Women) Leaders Conference is taking place on 16th September 2019 at Northumbria University. The conference aims to inspire 16-18 year old girls from across the region, focusing on leadership characteristics and skills. The event will involve our region’s high flying women and emerging talent coming together to offer guidance on routes to success and getting to the top in their chosen field._____________________________

Want to get involved? Please get in touch with our Co-Ordinator of Co-Curricular and External Links, Miss Sarah Penny. s.penny@ncl.gdst.net

Charity Golf Day Spring/Summer 2020We are hosting a Close House Charity Golf Day to raise money for our all-import bursary programme. To book places (teams of four) please contact p.degiorgi@ncl.gdst.net.

London Gathering Summer 2020Keep your eyes peeled for an invitation to a Central London Alumnae gathering! We want to stay connected with those that have moved away from the North East and what better excuse for a celebration in our Nation’s capital. We hope to share more details with you very soon via email.

You can update your details here:newcastlehigh.gdst.net/alumnae/central-high-old-girls/

Central High Reunion Saturday 5th October 2019 11.00 a.m.

Join us for our annual Central High Reunion on Saturday 5th October for an afternoon of reminiscing with delightful old friends and delicious food. Everyone is welcome, whether you’re in a special Reunion group or want to join us for the first time!

We’ll be sharing the link to book your tickets via email very soon! If you do not use email and would like to come along, please telephone Amy Rodway on 0191 2016 599.

Christmas Fair Saturday 30th November 2019 10.30 a.m. Join us at Senior School for to enjoy a range of stalls from local businesses, a raffle, a guest appearance from Father Christmas and much more festive fun!

Christmas Carol Service Tuesday 17th December 2019 10.00 a.m.You are warmly invited to Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at The Parish Church of St George, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne. Afterwards, you are all welcome back to Senior School for mulled wine and mince pies.

@centralhighalumnaeandfriends

newcastlehigh.gdst.net/alumnae

Get In Touch...

Janice Graves Polly de Giorgi Amy Rodway Director of Marketing Development Manager Marketing Officer j.graves@ncl.gdst.net p.degiorgi@ncl.gdst.net a.rodway@ncl.gdst.net

History Book We have a small number of copies of ‘An Illustrated History of Central High’ available, written by archivist, Carol Elliot. If you would like to purchase a copy for £5 please call 0191 2016 599.