Head Mistress' Welcome - September 2022

Last week, the whole school came together for a special assembly to mark the life of a much-loved monarch and truly remarkable woman, who has been a constant throughout our lives.

LEH pupils entered the Sports Hall in complete silence and showed deep respect throughout. We held one minute’s silence before departing, again in silence. We know that the girls will support one another, and I hope their older relatives, at this time of sadness.  We are all grieving but, as Her Majesty once said, grief is the price you pay for love.

The nation will mourn Queen Elizabeth also because in her death we see a break from another, perhaps more dignified age of public service. She devoted her whole life to others, and did so without complaint, she pledged her life to the nation at her coronation, and she never retired.  

She remained one of the few unchanging, consistent, principled public figures that personified British values. She stood for public duty, for humility and for a commitment to others, qualities we should all aspire to.  She was a distillation of our national identity, our collective sense of self and was an inspirational role model for all of us.

As is so often the case, our goal is to ensure that school remains a place of peace and safety for all, primarily by continuing as far as possible with business as usual. In due course, we will hold a Memorial Assembly for pupils and staff to celebrate the life of Her Late Majesty.

But for now, as I say, we continue with school life, and it has been cheering to see the new pupils settling in so well and getting to know their way round the school. In their first assembly of the year, I always remind our new joiners that they have worked hard to earn their place here, and that they should allow themselves to feel a real sense of achievement.  Now that they are here, they should relax and enjoy it, take advantage of the many opportunities on offer as well as enjoying their academic lessons.

As we start a new academic year, I remind pupils about Remarkable People at LEH. All our pupils will go on to be remarkable in their own way. Some of them will go on to become remarkable in their family or community, while others will become remarkable on a national or even an international scale.

I encourage students to go and see our alumnae wall, so proudly on display in the Gateway foyer, to see some examples of past pupils who have gone on to be remarkable in their own way. They are joining a long-established and proud community here at LEH, made up of well balanced and impressive people who go out into the world and do well. I end by telling them that their journey to becoming a Remarkable Person starts now.

I’m delighted to say that our newest cohort of alumnae – the Class of 2022 – have launched into life after LEH by achieving our best-ever A* outcomes. There was much media coverage about them being the first-year group to sit exams since 2019 and how their results might be significantly different to 2021’s TAG results. So, I’m incredibly proud to confirm that the results achieved by the Class of 2022 of A*-B at 95%, is higher than the 2019 exam outcome.

The results reflect a huge amount of hard work and endeavour by students, combined with the support they have received from our wonderful teaching and non-teaching staff and, of course, encouragement from their parents.

We were also delighted by the outstanding achievements of our GCSE pupils, with top grades being achieved across the board: again, higher than the last set of examination results in 2019. I am so proud of how our Year 11 pupils responded with resilience and determination. They showed wonderful enthusiasm for returning to ‘normal’ school life and the opportunity this afforded to enjoy the full range of educational and co-curricular experiences once again.

On a more personal note, this academic year will be bittersweet for me as it’s my last before I retire. I have absolutely loved my time at LEH – it really has been the highlight of my career – and I shall be very sad to go.

Each milestone in the school calendar will be poignant, but I’m determined to make the most of it while I can and I’m certainly looking forward to joining the ranks of LEH alumnae in September 2023.

Before then, I hope to see as many of you as possible at our regular alumnae events, starting with the Remarkable Women Lecture on Thursday 29 September, which is being given by our incredible Head of Rowing Abby Johnston, Class of 2007, and Charlotte Irving, Class of 2008, who broke a world record with their Atlantic adventure earlier this year. 

We’ve had a great response to our Alumnae Reunion on Saturday 1 October, our first since the start of the pandemic, and it looks all set to be a really special occasion.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Heather Hanbury
Head Mistress