Bulletin. . .S U M M E R 2 0 0 6

Head’s LinesDear Readers

Another summer public examinationseason is drawing to a close, internalreports are being completed andSwimming Galas, Sports and Trips Days,Summer Serenade, Music Festival, HousePlays and summer holidays are justaround the corner. As ever, our sorrow atsaying farewell to all our pupil leavers issomewhat tempered by the excitementof meeting the next generation of Juniorand Senior School pupils at theirrespective recent induction days.Schools’ populations are necessarilydynamic in all areas and details of thosemembers of staff who will not bereturning in September are given herein.They will all be much missed and longerfarewells will be published in the annualNewsletter.

Over the Easter holidays we weredelighted to learn that John Lee, formerGovernment Minister, parent of twoWithington pupils, current SchoolGovernor and Chair of the WithingtonGirls’ School Trust had become a Lord ofthe Realm. Lord Lee of Trafford gave hismaiden speech in the House of Lords onJune 15th; a photo of him and hisdaughter, Elspeth, former WithingtonHead Girl, at the Senior Club House ofLords’ Reception is printed below.

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Editor: Mr Ray King Publicity OfficerMobile: 07768 022 082

A Million PlusWe are delighted to announce that thanks to your generous support, the 100 Plus Bursary Appeal has nowraised just under £1.1 million. We are deeply grateful to all our individual donors and to NM Rothschild,Beaverbrooks, The Zochonis Charitable Trust, The Stoller Charitable Trust and The Garfield WestonFoundation for their significant gifts. Your ongoing support is vital if we are to achieve our £2 milliontarget and ensure that no girl with high academic potential is denied a place at Withington because ofsocial or financial background.

For further information about the 100 Plus Bursary Appeal or to make a donation please contact HelenO’Donnell, Development Director on 0161 249 3491.

The Class of 1956Twenty-six members of the Class of ’56 – ‘girls’ who left 50 years ago – attended a reunion at the Schoolin June and pledged to “put something back” for what they received as pupils at Withington throughdonations to the Bursary Appeal.

Former pupil and mathematics teacher Mrs Val Hempstock, now Archivist and Senior Club representativeon the Governing Body, organised the gathering at the instigation of fellow former pupil Mrs BarbaraThackray (nee Hughes) who lives in the United States but was back in Bramhall for a family reunion. Theold girls were also reunited with three of their former teachers, Miss Brenda Thomas, Mrs Elizabeth Taylorand Miss Amy Morris.

Mrs Hempstock (nee Winstanley) said: “Afterwards I had cards saying the reunion was a highly enjoyableand memorable occasion and how wonderful it was to catch up with old friends.

The old girls particularly liked having the reunion at the School and seeing all the amazing changes; but itwas also nice to see the original gym and the art room still there.

Everyone said this was the best reunion and the end result is we have agreed to couple up with theBursary Appeal and we are hoping to sponsor a pupil in the name of our year.”

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Congratulations also go to the new LordBradley of Withington, who continues tobe a valuable contributor to our PoliticsDepartment.

For the past 18 months, we havebenefited from the knowledge andexpertise of well-known journalist andwriter, Ray King, in his role as part-timePublicity Officer. Ray has kindly donateda signed copy of his book Detonationpublished to coincide with the tenthanniversary of the IRA ManchesterBomb. It is a fascinating account of theday of the bomb, the consequentinvestigation and the regeneration ofthe City over the following decade andhas already received excellent reviews.

As testified by all this year’s bulletins,many wonderful events have occurredand achievements been secured duringthis year. We are delighted that theBursary Appeal has passed its halfwaymark, and we are proud of the successesof our pupils and the commitment ofthe staff who ensure an ever-expandingrange of opportunities for them. We areall looking forward to a break over thesummer and I do hope that for allreaders their holiday, be it at home orfar afield, will provide manyopportunities for rest and relaxation.

ABRSM ExamsCongratulations to the 41 girls across allyear groups who took their AssociatedBoard Music Examinations, 12 of whomachieved distinctions.

Out of AfricaFormer Withington pupil Ann Lipsonmade another welcome return to theschool in May.

Miss Lipson, who attended morningassembly and spent the day in schooltalking about her work as DeputyDirector of the InterChristianFellowship’s Evangelical Mission inKimilili, a rural area in the west of Kenya.

She had originally travelled to theAfrican country in 1974 on a two-and-a-half year British Government contractto teach A-level physics at a girls’boarding school near the Ugandanborder… but taught there for more than24 years.

Staff at Withington have supported twogirls at Lugulu Girls’ School for each ofthe past 20 years. Miss Lipson, fromDidsbury, joined Withington in 1949 as ascholarship pupil aged 10 and left toread physics at Manchester University.Her younger sister Judith, who died ofleukaemia in 1990, was Head Girl at the school.

Later, Miss Lipson taught at a school inthe Midlands and worked for theNuffield Foundation on a scienceteaching project that saw her take partin one of the earliest programmes onBBC2 television.

Now 67, Miss Lipson says: “I alwaysregarded myself as a teacher and, as aChristian, I am living and working whereGod wanted me to be.”

She was among the guests at Reunionfor the Class of ’56 on 10th June (seeseparate article) before returning hometo Kenya.

Engineering FlairKRISTINA Milanovic of the Upper Fifthhas been selected to receive aprestigious Arkwright Scholarship aftersuccessfully passing the ArkwrightAptitude Paper, demonstrating flair andoriginality in solving engineering designproblems and presenting GCSE work to apanel of interviewers.

Scholarships are sponsored by industryand charitable trusts and will beformally presented at a ceremony hostedby the Institution of Engineering andTechnology at Savoy Place in London on27th October. During the day scholarshave the opportunity to meet theirsponsors and other scholars.

Mostly MozartGCSE music students from Trinity High in Hulme and Withington played at the Northern ChamberOrchestra’s Mostly Mozart Concert in the Arts Centre on May 18, part of the celebration of the composer’s250th anniversary.

The concert also marked the climax of a partnership project between the two schools supported by theDfES under the Government’s Building Bridges initiative.

The scheme involved a series of workshops where pupils from both schools collaborated under theguidance of professional classical musicians from the NCO.

At the concert , Chris Li from Trinity played his own composition on the piano and Helen Shaw and HarrietLau, also Trinity pupils, performed the first movement from Mozart’s Flute concerto in G and the Andantefrom Mozart’s Piano Concerto 21 in C, respectively. The Withington students, Imogen Lewis Holland andMadeline Clare were soloists for Mozart’s first movement from Violin Concerto in G and Bach’s Adagiofrom Violin Concerto in E.

The girls also accompanied the orchestra in the performance of selected compositions by GCSE studentsat both schools, written during their joint workshop sessions.

Ballet Good ShowMORE congratulations are due to Junior School pupil Georgina Ashworth Kwasnik of Lower II who hasaccepted the offer of a third year as a Junior Associate at the prestigious Royal Ballet School.

Georgina recently added a first place for her Song & Dance routine from the film Anastasia and a first forher new Character Dance as Jo from Little Women at a Blackpool festival to her growing list of medals andtrophies for dance.

Earlier this year she won first place out of 22 competitors for ballet in the Lancaster Festival and also tookthird place for her Character Dance, incorporating specially choreographed scenes from the famous book.

Georgina has recently performed in The Nutcracker with the English Youth Ballet at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Her mother Fiona says: “We are all very grateful for the support and encouragement given to her by Withington. Without the understanding and help given by the school her dancing success would not be possible.”

Easter ExcursionsThe Easter Holidays saw Withington girls making a series of exciting overseas trips including Paris,Normandy. Berlin, the ski resort of La Plagne and Classical Greece.

Full reports of these adventures will be included in the annual Newsletter later in the year.

Upper Sixth leavers celebrated their last day before study leave with the traditional bouncy castle and a Wild West theme.

Medals GaloreWITHINGTON’S athletes scooped a hatfulof medals in the Manchester Schools’Athletics Tournament at SportCity.

The U17 squad’s crop of two golds, threesilvers and a bronze saw the team comesecond overall out of the 12 competingschools. The U15’s two silvers and twobronze medals put the team in sixthplace.

Charlie Paul’s amazing time of 12seconds won her the individual goldmedal in the U17s 100m sprint andAlana Livesey powered to gold in the800m. Silvers went to Lauren Murray inthe 300m and Charlie Hughes in the1500m.

The 4x100m relay team comprisingCharlie Paul, Antonia Adebambo, AliciaMcKenzie and Antonia Juskiw also tooksilver and Tena Walker won a bronzemedal in the shot.

In the U15 competition, Amelia Coyneand Sophia Szlachetko won silvers in thehigh jump and long jump respectivelyand Lily Vickers and Olivia Sinclair wonbronze in discus and hurdles.

Geography MattersGeography staff and members of theUpper Fifth gave a highly entertainingand informative assembly focusing ontheir research about the transformationsof Manchester’s inner-city district ofHulme from Coronation Street styleterraces to ugly system-built flats, nowin turn demolished to make way fordesirable homes.

Upper IVW Geographers also undertookan audit of multiculturalism in theimmediate area around the School.Further details of this project will begiven in the Annual Newsletter.

Computer languageTHE PTA have donated £10,000 towardsthe cost of converting the LanguagesLaboratory to a fully digitalisedmultimedia facility over the Summer.

Mrs Yorke Menzies, Head of French, said:“We are all delighted about the newfacilities and grateful to the Governorsand the PTA for making it all possible.

We will be able to use audio-visualmaterials and each girl will bedesignated a computer for her studysessions. The equipment will beprogrammed for the core languages ofFrench, German and Spanish and we willalso be able to teach other languages.”

P-Art-nersThe three-day Easter Art Workshop for Year 6, 7 and 8 pupils staged at the school during the Easterholidays produced an impressive and varied body of work across four main fields of activity.The workshop offered ten places for Withington girls and ten from Whalley Range High School as part ofthe DfES-funded Independent/State School Partnership initiative.Techniques included felt making, fabric painting and book binding, three-dimensional work in card andplaster casting.Further workshops under this partnership are planned during the Summer holiday. Lower Fourths areinvited to attend a one-week workshop at Whalley Range and Upper Fourths are set to share a workshopheld at Withington.There are a few places left and the planned dates are: Whalley Range High School: Mon 24th - Fri 28thJuly; Withington: Mon 31st July – Friday 4th August.

War at WithingtonWar broke out at WGS on the 16th May when Civil War enthusiast, Colonel Desmond Thomas arrived withhis musket and his canon to bring to life the realities of the English Civil War. The Colonel drilled theLower Fourth pupils for a full day, even firing the canon in the school grounds.

Dramatic DevelopmentsSCRIPTWRITER Mark Catley, best knownfor his theatre credits including Scufferand currently writing for EastEnders,Holby City and Casualty, hosted aworkshop for Sixth Formers fromWithington and Manchester GrammarSchool in June.

Earlier this year two of Withington SixthFormers saw Scuffer at the WestYorkshire Playhouse and came back firedwith enthusiasm for such an innovativeand exciting piece of new writing.

Fortunately Head of Drama, Mrs JenBaylis had ‘a friend of a friend’ and wasable to get in touch with Mark and askhim to come and give a workshop basedon the characters and structure of hisplay. The girls and boys had a great timeat the workshop and are now planningto perform their own interpretation ofthe piece next term.

Mark has agreed to come and help withrehearsals and watch the opening night.

THE last week of term anticipates HousePlay madness in the Arts Centre. ThirdFormers will take part in plays directedby the Sixth Form House Committees.

This year the event is themed and all thegirls will present their interpretation of aShakespeare play in ten minutes.Highlights will include ‘Macbethany’fighting to win the Miss ManchesterCompetition (Macbeth) and Becks andRooney battling it out for the hand ofSven’s daughter (Much Ado AboutNothing).

Fortunate EventCongratulations to Holly Cartledge ofTransition who won a special weekendfor two in London, courtesy of an onlinecompetition mounted by the publishersof the popular Lemony Snicket books.

Holly, whose mother Mrs SheenaCartledge is Withington’s CateringManager, is an avid reader of authorDaniel Handler’s stories. Her entrythrough the official website, unlike theLemony Snicket tales, will trigger a veryfortunate series of events.

Holly and a friend will travel by train toLondon and stay in a city-centre hotel.Among the visits lined up is a tour ofthe Clink Prison Museum – a one-timeGrim Grotto on the South Bank. Count Olaf would have loved that.

Learn to play an instrument, write the musicand perform it live in concert….all in justfour days.

That’s the challenge thrown down toManchester’s budding musicians aged 14-17by the directors of a new Summer MusicCourse hosted by Withington in July.

Under the guidance of a skilled team ofmusicians, course participants will form theirown bands and, after four intensive days ofworkshops and rehearsal, perform the gig onSaturday, July 30th in the school’s ArtsCentre.

Our usual course for boys and girls agedeight to 13, runs from Monday July 31 toFriday August 4.

Application forms are available from School,can be downloaded from the website or viaemail:willisp@withington.manchester.sch.uk.

Duke of Edinburgh Award52 Lower Fifth pupils completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award expedition on the 24th and 25thMay. 8 further pupils also completed their Silver award practice expedition. Gold and Silver Awardexpeditions are planned in July.

Junior HighlightsHighlights of an activity-packed Spring term in the Junior School included a visit to the school by Starlab, the mobile planetarium; crossed swords at the Fencing Club, readings by poet and storyteller David Horner and an expedition to the Drapers’ Field Centre, Betws-y-Coed inNorth Wales.

Alexandra Blodorn writes: “When I stepped into the inflatable Stardome I couldn’t seeanything. When my eyes adjusted to the vast expanse of darkness I realised that it wasn’t sobig after all.

Chris, our demonstrator, told us that scientists in America think they have discovered a tenthplanet called Xena. He showed us a video of astronauts eating in space, which was hilarious! And he told us that when a liquid is released in space it formed a perfect sphere.

When Chris turned on the projector my eyes went as round as saucers. On the walls of theStardome were hundreds of pictures of the star signs and when he spun it, we felt like we werespinning too….”

Junior School girls are enjoying the Fencing Club where agility, self-discipline and quick footworkare the name of the game.

Each week 26 girls don their protective clothes; lunge and recover, attack and riposte. All the girlshave gained their Grade I awards and are looking forward to working on Grade II.

Isabella Barber writes: “When David Horner visited the Junior School on May 8th, he told eachof the classes a story. In Lower II he recounted the tale of a little boy called Jack who alsostarred in Jack and the Beanstalk. Little Jack had to go to market by himself and finds out thathe doesn’t know very much about money. Just to make sure we didn’t forget the story, wewrote a cartoon strip about it.

Mr Horner told Form 1 about Mr Fox; Transition about Marliang and the Magic Paintbrush andUpper II about the Changing Stone Cutter.

Because the stories were so good we performed each one in Assembly.”

Francis Coggon writes: “Thank you to Drapers’ Field Centre for such an action-packed, excitingweekend. The views and scenery were stunning, the activities fun and the centre was a great‘base’. My favourite part was all of it!

I really enjoyed the rock climbing; the gorge walking was really exciting and we all lovedplanning the route and helping other people over the slippery parts.

At the hill farm we learned about how they cope with the mountain landscape and what sortof livestock they raise.”

TRANSITION and Form 1 pupils paid a fascinating visit to Chetham’s Library and nearbyManchester Cathedral on the first day of the Summer Term as part of their studies of old booksand printing presses.

In the mediaeval library the girls saw chained books, a venerable Bible, works such as a shorthandbook and another with a picture of Manchester hidden under a gold leaf, a printing press and theold room packed with memories as well as books. The party also enjoyed a visit to ManchesterCathedral hosted by Canon Paul Denby and the new Education Officer, Ms P Elliott. They greatlyadmired the fire window in the Regiment Chapel and were thrilled with their ‘Misericord Hunt.’

Strawberry SerenadeThe Junior School Musical Evening – a Strawberry Serenade – openedwith a series of four sketches written by Mrs Monica Hastings based

on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to mark the composer’s 250th anniversary.

Between the sketches Junior girls gave musical performances as soloistsand in ensembles and the first half finale featured Mozartissimo in which

the entire Junior School took part in singing the life story of Mozart.

The second half of the evening in the Arts Centre saw a switch ofmood to famous West End shows. With each of the Junior formscontributing their own favourite number. Transition performed

Getting to Know You from The King and I; Form 1 did ChimChiminee from Mary Poppins; Lower II chose I’d Do

Anything from Oliver and Upper II performedHound Dog from Grease.

The finale featured both Junior and Seniorchoirs singing from The Lion King before

the girls paid tribute to Mrs Hastingswith songs from some of her

previous shows includingGeorge and the Dragon and

Far Have I Seen and Known.

7/7 MemorialA sculpture in stainless steel, designed and builtby Rachel Pratt, one of the School’s ArtTechnicians, forms the centrepiece of thememorial to victims of the 7/7 terrorist bombattack at London’s Edgware Road tube station.

Rachel’s creation, 8ft wide by 3ft highrepresenting the leaves of a climbing plant, wasbeing installed as part of a memorial garden,which includes planters and a floral display,beneath the atrium on July 1st, in time for thefirst anniversary of the attack in which sixpeople and the suicide bomber were killed.

Rachel said: “It’s a great honour to have donesomething of such importance with what isreally my first piece of public art.”

The idea for the memorial originated from thestation stall and Rachel was asked to make thesculpture by the celebrity television gardener,Matt James.

Rachel said: “I met him at an Urban GardenShow at Olympia in 2004. He bought some ofmy work there and contacted me later about theEdgware Road project.”

NATO talksNEIL Thornley, an analyst from theDefence Academy, visited the School inJune to talk to Lower Sixth girls aboutthe role of NATO.

The girls split into groups to discussvarious hypothetical scenarios as part oftheir General Studies course.

Afterwards Mr Thornley praised the girlsfor their “well thought out responsesand demeanour.”

He said: “They were very pleasant towork with.”

Therapy in ActionDr Paul Wallis visited the school in Mayto talk to the A-level Psychology pupilsabout his work as a Clinical Psychologist.

Dr Wallis works in Manchester withchildren and young people who areexperiencing behavioural problems ormental health issues and kindly agreedto share some of his experiences to givepupils some idea about what it is like tobe a working psychologist.

Many of our Lower and Upper Sixth girlsare hoping to study Psychology atUniversity and have ambitions to trainas professional psychologists in thefuture. Dr Wallis gave an interestinginsight into the type of cases he dealswith and the sort of therapies he practices.

The girls found it extremely valuable tohear about therapy in action, rather thanin theory, and to learn about the realitiesof working as a Clinical Psychologistwithin the NHS.

A Chance to SHINETHE School is to open its state-of-the-art science laboratories to up to 26gifted and talented children from localstate primary schools.

In partnership with the governmentinitiative Excellence in Cities, the schoolhas successfully applied to theeducational charity SHINE for a grant of£37,808 to fund Saturday morningsessions for 20 weeks for each of three years.

Hallo aus Berlin!The first Withington/William Hulme jointtrip took place to Berlin during Easter .

Sporting Upper IIUPPER II’s ten-member rounders squad achieveda worthy runners-up spot in the Association ofJunior Independent Schools (AJIS) tournamentstaged at the Grange School, Hartford in June.

All the Withington squad received medals fortheir performance in the competition in which20 schools took part.

Earlier in the month, Rachel Gough and SuzyRodgers of Upper II were competitors in the AJISTennis Tournament at The King’s School, Chester.

Both girls played well and Rachel reached thesemi-finals before bowing out to a rival from the Wirral.

Chemists of DistinctionThe Lower Sixth proved themselves to bechemists of distinction in this year’sanalytical project run by the NuffieldCurriculum Centre and open to hundredsof schools nationwide.

The girls were set the task of working inteams of four analysing unknownsubstances and sending in their resultsfor marking.

Not only did Withington finish jointrunners-up. but all the girls - more than40 of them – received a certificate ofdistinction or merit.

Mrs Jillyan Farrell, Head of Chemistryand Director of Studies, said: “It’s amajor feather in all their caps andreward for their efforts.”

Oxford PrizeFORMER pupil Sally Hughes, now in hersecond year at St Hilda’s College, Oxford,has been awarded the Allen Scholarshipand College Prize in Economics andManagement by the Tutorial Committeein recognition of her excellent work inthe subject.

Sally has also won a scholarship fromthe investment bankers Lehman Brothersand has been awarded an internshipwith the company, based in CanaryWharf, London, this summer.

An accomplished 400m hurdler andathletics and ‘half blue’ at Oxford, Sallyhopes eventually to work for theorganising committee of the London2012 Olympic Games.

The biennial Careers Convention took place on 27th April. All Fifth and Sixth Form girls,with their parents, were invited to the event. 50 different professions were represented andover 80 delegates who were experts in their own field provided individual guidance.TheCareers Department is extremely grateful for the support of the many organisations,including parents, who took part which was enormously beneficial for the girls.

Looking tothe future...

Fond Farewells...THE School bids fond farewell and gives heartfelt thanks to severalmembers of staff who retire or move on at the end of the summer term.

Longest serving is Mrs Monica Hastings who retires after teaching atWithington for 28 years. A former Junior who joined Form 1 in 1954, MrsHastings became Head Girl ten years later since when she has served avirtually unbroken 40-year-stint on the Senior Club committee.

She will always be remembered for her musicals and ‘mad plays’ as shedescribes them. Many were scored by Miss Sasha Johnson Manning, aperipatetic teacher at WGS for many years and now a composer who hasfound great success, particularly in the USA.

Mrs Hastings taught for several years in the English department,returning after she had her daughters to teach English and Italian to theSixth Form. She was still teaching English and Italian at A-level wheninvited to become Transition teacher in 1985.

Mrs Cherry Jackson started at Withington as Head of Design Technology– a subject that had been running just one term – in 1990, and has alsotaught Art to both Senior and Junior School pupils. She has been a FormTutor to the Third Form for more than 13 years.

Together with Mrs Ositelu, Mrs Jackson has been joint link teacher forYoung Enterprise for eight years, has administered the fund-raising forthe School’s official charity, Barnardo’s and for the last two years beenoverall Charity Fundraising Co-ordinator.

Mrs Jackson has also designed and created many sets of scenery andprops for Senior and Junior School productions and for several yearsorganised holidays to Lakeside on Windermere.

Biology teacher Mrs Rowena Owen, who also taught Junior Science,joined the staff in 1991 is taking early retirement but will be back at theSchool in October to manage the Serious Fun on Saturday funded bySHINE and Excellence in Cities (see separate article)

Head of Third Form Mrs Gillian Winter arrived at Withington in 1998 toteach two lessons of Japanese a week to a group of eight Lower Sixthpupils (one, Helen Miller later went on to study the language atCambridge).

Mrs Winter became full time in 2001 teaching Religious Studies, GeneralStudies to the Sixth Form and Drama and English to the Junior School.She is leaving to take up her appointment as an Assistant Head (PastoralCare) at Altrincham Girls’ Grammar School.

Mrs Josiane Packham is looking forward to retirement and a new homein Somerset after 21 years as a part-time teacher of French to the JuniorSchool and French Conversation to the Fifth and the Sixth Forms.

French-born Mrs Packham also taught at Cheadle Adult Education Centreuntil ten years ago.

Mrs Natalie Eaton joined the History Department in 2001 teaching allyear groups, and briefly acting as Head of Lower Fourth to cover amaternity leave. Always involved in extra-curricular activities, sheaccompanied trips to Helmshore, the Lake District and La Plagne and hasalso been involved in facilitating Junior School Discos, the Fashion Showand the Dance Competition. She took a 6-week sabbatical in 2004 totravel extensively in South America and is looking forward to being afull-time mum to Anna, born in 2005 and to a second baby due in December.

Part time Art Technician Miss Katherine Dolman is leaving Withingtonafter four years. A practising artist, she has taught in after-school artclubs and helped organise three holiday art workshops for Withingtonand Whalley Range High School under the DfES ‘Building Bridges’initiative. She leaves to take a teacher training course.

Mrs Monica Hastings

Mrs Cherry Jackson

Mrs Rowena Owen

Mrs Gillian Winter

Mrs Josiane Packham

Miss Katherine Dolman

Mrs Natalie Eaton

Hijack!FIFTH formers found themselves at thecentre of an unfolding hijack dramaduring which special forces stormed aplane that had landed on the M6motorway south of Manchester.

The crisis made huge headlines...their own.

For the exercise was a simulatedscenario in which 24 members of theLower Fifth played roles as governmentministers, spin doctors and journalistsreacting to a story that was developingby the minute.

The exercise, played out while othermembers of the year group wereengaged in a DoE expedition in the PeakDistrict, brought together elements ofcitizenship, current affairs and English intheory and practice.

After a series of simulated pressconferences and news releases from thewire services, four groups of journalistsproduced their on-screen front pagesbased on the hijack drama whileweighing the importance of other storieson the day’s news agenda.

Going the DistanceMore than 120 Withington pupils, staff and parents took part in the 5k Race for Life in aid of Cancer

Research UK at Heaton Park, Manchester, on Sunday, June 4.

The WGS contingent stood out among more than 8,000 all-female competitors in their specially printed

pink T-shirts emblazoned Wonderful Withington Women Race for Life.

Their efforts are expected to raise thousands of pounds in sponsorship for the charity.

The Withington runners were led to the finish line by Ms Jane Maher, Head of History, who finished in

third place overall with a time of just 21 minutes and 34 seconds.

“Not bad,” was the modest reaction of Ms Maher who has completed ten marathons, though none in the

last three or four years. She had, however, finished “quite high” in a 10k event in Liverpool two weeks

before the Heaton Park race.

An injured Achilles tendon had prevented Ms Maher taking part in the 10k BUPA Great Manchester Run

on May 21, but among the thousands of entrants Withington was represented by the Head, Mrs Janet

Pickering, who also ran the Race for Life, and the Bursar Mrs Sharon Senn.

There was All That Jazz…..and then some!Withington’s West End showgirls covered every aspect ofpopular musical theatre in their sparkling revue before afull house in the Arts Centre.

The presentation engaged 150 girls from across theschool performing colourfully costumed, slicklychoreographed routines from a range of hit shows fromFame to Chicago and a thoroughly enjoyable programmefeatured both solo and big ensemble performances.

Lower Fifth girls formed their own rock band withdancers and a Wind band featured melodies fromPhantom of the Opera. The Senior Choir sang favouriteselections from Les Miserables in enchanting three-partharmony, while their Lower School counterparts chosenumbers from Bugsy Malone.

Sixth Formers strutted their stuff after choreographingtheir own version of Singing in the Rain – complete withumbrellas but without the puddles.

Business DayIN a venture new to Withington andaimed at giving girls an opportunity togain an early experience of the businessworld, Young Enterprise staged a specialproject business day in June.

During the day girls from each class inLower V were spilt into five groups, eachbecoming a business for the dayengaged in a range of activities likemaking and selling bracelets; buying andselling shares and writing jobadvertisements.

The winners, having made the mostprofit from the price of their shareswere Georgia Layton LVX, Harriet BonnerLVW, Celia Forster LVW and Pearl vonHerder LVY. The prize is the opportunityto spend a day at HSBC, one of the keysupporters of the project.

Good SportsA bumper collection of 8,558 Sainsbury’sActive Kids Vouchers has enabled theSchool to order a wide variety of sportsequipment including badminton racquets,table tennis bats and nets, large-size kitbags for netballs or goalkeeping kit, lowcompression tennis balls, a unihoc setand non-sting volleyballs.

Head of PE, Mrs Mhairi Ferrol, said: “Theequipment will arrive in September andwe are very grateful to everyone whohelped us to reach such a fantastic total.

And thanks to the girls and staff whohelped to count them!”

The Annual Art Exhibition for GCSE, AS and A2 work took place during the summer term and some of the girls' work is featured below.

The Upper Sixth had a fabulous time at The Lowry for their annual Leavers' Ball

Lords &LadiesA second reunion for former Withington pupils is to bestaged in London after a fantastic gathering of old girlsat the House of Lords in May. Next spring there will bean opportunity to have a special tour of St Paul’sCathedral and attend Evensong followed by a receptionat the Choir School. Priority will be given to Senior Clubmembers who were unable to attend the oversubscribedHouse of Lords event.

At the House of Lords, more than 60 former pupils weregreeted by Lady Jennifer Freeman, Director of theHistoric Chapels’ Trust and an old girl herself. Herhusband, Lord Freeman, led conducted tours round thePalace of Westminster including a visit to observe adebate in the Chamber

The guests’ leaving dates spanned an incredible 68 years– from 1937 to 2005. Mrs Janet Pickering, currentHeadmistress, said: “It was wonderful to see how formerpupils from across the generations got on so well. All those present were excellent ambassadors for the school.”

Mrs Pickering’s two predecessors, Miss Marjorie Hulmeand Mrs Margaret Kenyon, were also at the gathering.

Lord and Lady Freeman

Laura Greene 1998, Amy McKeown 1998

Helen O'Donnell (née Newsome) 1989, Mrs Majorie Hulme,

Val Hempstock (née Winstanley) 1956

Lady Jennifer Freeman (nee Watson) 1964,

Margaret Holt (née Larder) 1963, Diana Harrison (née Hart) 1963,

Mary Williams (née Quilliam) 1964

Melinda Shaw (née Crème) 1987, Mrs Margaret Kenyon,

Susannah Lawson 1988, Juliet Levy (née Crème) 1988

Joy Mellor (née Carlton) 1937, Mrs Janet Pickering,

Beryl Thornton (née Evans) 1938

SEPTEMBER5th Tuesday Staff In Service Day6th Wednesday Term Starts20th Wednesday Third Forms : Parents’ Introductory Evening 7.00pm

OCTOBER11th Wednesday PTA AGM + NAGTY Information Session 7.30pm16th Monday Founders’ Day19th Thursday Charity Fashion Show 7.00pm20th - 27th Inclusive Half Term

NOVEMBER8th Wednesday Sixth Form Open Evening23rd Thursday Open Evening24th Friday Staff In Service Day25th Saturday Open Morning28th Tuesday Parents’ Evening: Lower V Forms 6.00 – 8.00pm30th Thursday Parent Information Session: STIs 7.00pm

DECEMBER7th Thursday Parents’ Evening: Third Forms 6.00 – 8.00 pm11th Monday St. Ann’s Carol Service 7.00pm14th Thursday Junior School Carol Service 6.30pm15th Friday The Gambia Group departs18th Monday Senior School Carol Service 7.00pm20th Wednesday Term Ends

Withington Girls ’ School , Well ington Road, Fal lowfield, Manchester M14 6BL.Tel : 0161 224 1077 Fax : 0161 248 5377

Email : office@withington.manchester.sch.uk Web: www.withington.manchester.sch.ukRegistered Charity No. 526632

DATES FOR YOUR DIARYAUTUMN TERM 2006

DO CALL US[BEFORE WE CALL YOU!]

Pupil absence:Please would all parents use

the following number to inform the school of pupil absence before8.30am on each day of absence.

Absence line:0161 249 3476

Senior Late Room:0161 249 3492

[in the library]

Junior Late Room:0161 224 1077

SPRING TERM 2007

JANUARY8th Monday Staff In Service Day9th Tuesday Term Starts15th Monday Senior School Entrance Examinations (No pupils in School) am20th Saturday Junior School Entrance Examinations am

FEBRUARY16th - 23rd Inclusive Half Term

MARCH30th Friday Term Ends

SUMMER TERM 2007

APRIL16th Monday Term Starts

MAY7th Monday May Bank Holiday28th May - 1st June Inclusive Half Term

JULY6th July Term Ends

AUTUMN TERM 2007

SEPTEMBER3rd Monday Staff In Service Day (provisional)4th Tuesday Term Starts (provisional)

A more detailed School Calendar for the academic year 2006/07 will be posted outduring the summer holidays.

Australian RulesAustralian coach Steve Riley and histeam are hosting not one but two TennisCamps for boys and girls aged from sixupwards at Withington this summer.

The camps will include tennis trainingincorporating fun games, match play,round-robin tournaments and strokeproduction sessions focusing on agilitybalance, co-ordination and generalfitness. In addition there will be theopportunity to play other sports likefootball, netball and basketball.

The first camp runs Monday-Friday July24th - 28th and the second Monday-Friday August 7th – 11 th.

The camps are open to all andmembership is £95 for a full week or

£20 per day with discounts for multiplefamily member bookings. A limitednumber of means-tested Bursary placesare available.

Application forms are available at School.