LETTER FROM THE HEADMISTRESS

It was with great sadness that we said goodbye to Mrs Rees last summer, and as some of us watched her car pull out of A block car park at the very end of August for the last time, we felt distinctly bereft and not a little apprehensive: how would we cope without her calming influence, her all-encompassing knowledge of the school and, perhaps above all, her sense of humour?

Mrs Rees served as head for nine years, during which an already successful school not only maintained but even raised its standards. How did she manage it? There are many pressures on a head, by no means all of which are within her direct control: government initiatives, Trust directives, 1,300 sets of parents, 1,300 girls, 100 members of the teaching staff and all the support staff. Balancing the needs and demands of all these is no easy feat, but Mrs Rees negotiated her way through it all in the calm conviction that she was there principally in the interests of the girls: it is after all their futures that are being formed. She always kept faith with them, showed them respect and won their respect in return, and they benefited greatly from her wisdom and experience. Consequently the school has moved on apace and is in a good position to face all the inevitable challenges that await it.

Despite the day-to-day demands made upon her time, Mrs Rees never locked herself behind a “do not enter” sign – her open door policy is not one that is found in every establishment. She was always willing to listen to parents, staff and pupils, and to respond with good sense, often with humour and always with great kindness.

The school buildings changed significantly and very much for the better during Mrs Rees’ tenure: the atrium and new dining hall are great improvements to the fabric of the school, and the Grassington Road site has slowly but surely developed into a facility that enables us to forget for a while that we almost an inner-city school. Mrs Rees has also driven a number of smaller projects, but ones that are certainly of no less significance, creating much needed space within the existing bounds of the building. She possessed a good eye and the ability to think in 3D, and I am sure that, should she find herself bored in her retirement, she could go into property development and be filmed for one of those ubiquitous home improvement programmes!

Mrs Rees is a Yorkshire woman: down-to-earth and strictly no frills. Because of her clear leadership the school can look forward to many more years of success and can offer our happy, settled learning environment to many more cohorts of girls. As a school we thank her and wish both her and her husband a retirement that is as busy and exciting as they themselves would wish it to be.

We look forward to welcoming Mrs Gorham as our new Headmistress in January.

Mrs Debra Sprague

Acting Headmistress

October 2005