July 2008 select here for a full pdf version of the document.


Dear Parents,

A major high point of the School year at JAGS is our Sixth Form Leavers’ Ceremony on the morning of Founder’s Day.  We take this opportunity to thank the girls for all they have given to the school and community during their time at JAGS and to wish them every happiness and success in the next stage of their education. Our guest of honour this year was Ms Dharshini David, a JAGS’ alumna and business broadcaster.  The sun shone brightly on the afternoon of Founder’s Day, giving us a wonderful opportunity to display the very best of the school.  It was a pleasure to see so many families and friends enjoying the entertainments, quizzes and exhibitions.  Thank you to all our grounds staff and Botany Gardens’ manager for their hard work in the preceding weeks, as the grounds looked magnificent.

Our Music Department has continued to inspire and entertain.  The Junior House Music Competition provided a most enjoyable Final Concert and a hotly contested and highly entertaining Form Song Competition.  A great variety of talent was also on show at the Chamber Music Concert in early May, where small groups of girls performed superbly together on a variety of instruments.  Congratulations to all the girls who played under Miss Caroline Davis’ direction at Buckingham Palace in May.   Harriet Godwin, Jennifer Lanigan, Maggie Lund, Eleanor Makower, Frederica Onslow, Jessica Tang, Alice Taylor, Madeleine Taylor, Emma Van Oss and Harriet Wedmore provided the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award World Fellowship 21st Anniversary Dinner with a brilliant musical interlude.  Those parents who attend our classical concerts may not realise the wealth of talent in jazz and popular music amongst JAGS girls.  Jazz Night in late June proved as lively as ever, with another excellent display of the richness of our musical talent in an informal party atmosphere.  Our Founder’s Concert in the last week of term maintained its usual excellence; a rich musical feast was provided by recorders, cellos, choirs and orchestras and many congratulations go to the soloists, our Year 13 Music Scholars Joanna Michell and Saskia Rubin.  We have had many other community concerts and events this term and have raised some £400 for Dulwich Helpline.  The campaign for our new James Allen’s Community Music Centre is gathering pace; please do remember to sign up to attend an Information Evening in the Autumn.  News about the progress of this exciting project will soon be on a special section of our website.

Our Drama production for Years 7-9 this year was a magical interpretation of Hiawatha.  The performance, much of it in the school grounds, was enchanting and our talented young actresses spoke, sang and moved as a true ensemble.  Many thanks to Mrs Billington, Mrs Norton Smith, Mrs Venn and Mr O’Hara for their inspirational work on this production.  Well done, too, to the girls from Year 10 who acted so well in a captivating performance of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors at Dulwich College. Once again some of our Sixth Formers and ex-pupils will be appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in particular in Upstart Crows.  Do try to catch their performances if you are at the Festival in August. 

Following their successful South African hockey and netball tour in the Easter holidays, our Sports players have had another very good season.   Our rounders teams have played numerous matches and in the St. Dunstan’s tournament the U14 and U15 teams won and the U12 team came 2nd in their age group - well done!  The tennis teams were not to be outshone and recorded some first class wins.  Congratulations to Alicia Johnson-Cole and Elise Goodwin (Year 9) who reached the semi-finals in the doubles competition in the Surrey Tennis festival.  In athletics all age groups won their respective Southwark championships this season.  Thirty-five girls were then selected from these competitions to represent Southwark in the London Schools’ competition.  Congratulations to all of the following girls who were placed in the top three in London: Ashleigh Campbell, Eliza Chereau, Grace de Rome, Bee Eldridge, Lydia Garratt, Francisca Hamilton, Alicia Johnson-Cole, Lauren King, Nkechi Nwobani, Angharad Seaton, Katherine Snowden, Laetitia Ward, Imogen Watson,  Elinor Webb, and Julia Wedmore.  The Junior and Intermediate teams have performed superbly in the English Schools’ Team Athletics competition this year.  Both teams won the first round and therefore qualified for the South East Regional round of this event.  After excellent performances from JAGS’ girls, both teams narrowly missed out on the National finals. The Intermediate team finished the season 13th in the country and the Juniors 15th.  Several JAGS’ athletics records have been broken this season with some exceptional performances by Alicia Johnson-Cole, Emily Watson, Celine Mudhar, Nkechinyere Nwobani-Akanwo, Julia Wedmore and Katherine Snowden.  Special congratulations to Katie Snowden who is currently the number one 800m runner for her age group in the country.  Congratulations also to Hattie Robinson who has been named as Surrey U17 hockey player of the year.

The Modern Languages Department has continued to be very active.  The trip to Russia at Easter was a great success, in spite of Terminal 5 managing to mislay many girls’ luggage on their return home.  This summer sees our last German exchange with our partner school in Nuremberg, as the staff concerned are retiring, and our Year 12 girls visited Paris and Year 7 Boulogne in June.  JAGS’ girls met with great success once again in this year’s ‘Free Spirit Poetry and Song Competition’.   With 1000 entries from 90 participating schools, only 12 prizes and 55 commendations were awarded: JAGS won 3 prizes and 4 commendations.  Congratulations to Emma Simmons, Clare Silverleaf and Lauma Kalns-Timans (Year 9) who won first prize in the Russian Song section, to Holly Hearsum, Victoria McNish and Beatrice Gentilli (Year 8) who were runners-up in the Spanish Song section and to Catherine Stone (Year 8), the runner-up in the Spanish Poem.  Louise Hufton (Year 8) was given a commendation for her Spanish Poem, Anjuli Kumar and Hannah Tilson (Year 8) were commended for their Italian poem and Amelia Tudor Beamish, Beatrice Natzler and Crystal Pang (Year 9) for their German poem.  The prize winners performed their poems and songs at the Goethe Institut and on Founder’s Day.   In June, the French department organised a French Fun Day for all Year 8 girls, with 80 girls from one of our state partner schools, St Saviour’s and St Olave’s.  The girls were involved in music, drama and games workshops and they had a very productive day. 

Ten JAGS’ girls had their work selected for the 18th annual ‘Young Art’ exhibition in aid of Cancer Research UK at the Royal College of Art, on the theme of ‘As I See It’.  Jessica Austin won Third Prize in the 14-16 year group; Florence Ashworth was Highly Commended by The London Sketch Club; Rose Stair was Highly Commended and Sophie Strong, Amelia Walsh and Madeleine Owen-Smith were Commended. The Art department is delighted that our new set of Year 12 and 13 AS and A level examination pieces can now be seen on the ‘Kids 101’ website, www.kids101-art.co.uk.  The works featured are highly varied and include prints, paintings, constructed and embroidered textiles, batiks and felt compositions. 

We are delighted to announce the first JAGS Art Fair, which we hope will become an annual event.  We have spaces for 37 artists to sell their work (priced £50-£5,000) and will be auctioning online some donated artwork by famous artists as well.  The Art Fair will take place on the weekend of 22-23 November: if you wish to apply for a space or to donate a piece for the auction, please contact Jenni Holman or Myles Rusak at JAGS.  The proceeds will go towards our Community Music Centre Project.

Well done to the JAGS’ girls who received 21 Gold, 50 Silver and 68 Bronze certificates in the UK Schools Junior Mathematical Challenge 2008.  The ‘Best in School’ certificate went to Sian Evans (Year 8), who also qualified for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad.  This is a notable achievement for Sian as only very high scorers are invited to participate in the next round of the competition.  In the follow-on rounds for the Intermediate Challenge, Katrina Ferron (Year 11) participated in the Olympiad; Beatrice Natzler and Melanie Duncan (Year 9) received certificates of merit for the Grey Kangaroo and Harriet Conner, Kitty Kent, Roshni Mahtani, Rosemary Ware and Julia Wedmore (Year 11) received certificates of merit for the Pink Kangaroo.

A team of four pupils from Year 8, Poppy Baron, Marissa Freeman, Alexandra Nawrat and Freya Turner, represented JAGS at the London South Bank University in the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry in association with the Royal Society.  They successfully carried out two practical challenges and were awarded the second prize – well done!  We would also like to congratulate the following Year 13 Chemists who achieved excellent results in the Olympiad competition: Sotiria Manou-Stathopoulou gained Silver: Yosra Albeyatti, Elizabeth Coker, and Jessica Szekely, Bronze, Katherine de Rome, Abigail Mountain and Lauren Noel received a Commendation.  Well done, too, to Poppy Simon (Year 12), who has been awarded a Nuffield Science Bursary and will be working on a neuroscience project this summer.

Congratulations to Tintin Stutter (Year 7) who won a mountain bike and safety helmet in the RAC Streets Ahead National Poster Competition, which aimed ‘To encourage children to find alternative, safe means of travelling to school that does not rely on them being driven by their parents’.  Well done to the Sixth Form girls who have passed their European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) this year: Elizabeth Coker, Chandni Mahtani, Sotiria Manou-Stathopoulou, Charlotte Mehta-McDonough, Abigail Miles and Nadia Osman.

Many trips and events have taken place this term.  At the end of the Easter holiday most of Y9 experienced the annual History department 3 day trip to the Battlefields of World War 1. They visited both the Somme and Ypres during a packed itinerary.  Year 7 had a fun day of mathematics puzzles, enjoyed a Greek & Roman Day and were enthralled by the Medieval Experience company.  Year 8 pupils visited a Sikh Gudwara, and Year 9 girls explored modern Chinese design at the V & A under the auspices of the design technology department.  Year 11 pupils undertook their week’s work-shadowing placements while Year 12 students planned their university applications.  Year 12 students have also enjoyed their ‘Bridge to A2 programme’, including a Politics TEAM Conference, a one-day History conference, a Biology fieldtrip and events in French, Italian, History of Art, Classical Civilisation, Drama and RS.  Practice and final expeditions for the Duke of Edinburgh’s awards have continued.  These and all the other outings would not be possible without the unfailing energy and enthusiasm of so many staff, both teaching and administrative.  My sincere thanks to everyone involved.   This summer, once again, Mrs Askew will be leading a group of Sixth Form girls to work with children with special needs in Romania – many thanks to the Greenwich Lions for their generous donation to this trip.

JAGS girls give extraordinarily generously of both time and money to a huge range of charities – their efforts are much appreciated.  We are pleased to have developed strong links with the Sparrow Schools in South Africa.  Their choir will be visiting London again in early October.  Full details are on their website:  www.sparrowschools.org. 

At this time of year, we inevitably have to say farewell to several members of staff.   Retiring this year after long service to the school are: Mrs Jenni Holman (Assistant Head & History of Art – 36 years’ service), Mrs Elena Crompton and Mrs Charlotte Griffiths from the German department,  John McClafferty, English Department, Alice Hicks, Sixth Form Administrator and Mr Ernie Elkerton from the Grounds Department.  Mrs Kate Clanchy, Head of MFL, is moving to be Deputy Head of St Paul’s Girls’ School, Dr Paul Dawson, Philosophy, is moving to a full-time post at UCS and Ms Farida Affalouad is leaving the French Department.  We wish all of these members of staff a very happy future.  Mrs Gillian Oxbrow will be taking on the position of Assistant Head and Mrs Emma Mayo will become Head of Years 7-9.

Our building project is making good progress and we are expecting to be able to move into the new teaching block in September.  Much training of staff and pupils will need to be undertaken before we finally move into the new dining room, but this will happen during the Autumn Term.  Meanwhile refurbished locker rooms and a new ICT room in our basement are being prepared during the summer.  We are trying very hard to keep our website up to date with all our news and events - please do keep looking at www.jags.org.uk.

Sincerest thanks to all of you who have supported and helped the school in so many ways throughout the year, from expert advice and counsel, to involvement with careers talks and work shadowing, and backstage assistance and audience support at so many performances and events.  I wish everyone a very happy and relaxing summer.

Your Sincerely,

Reminders for Parents

The school nurses are still encountering problems when they do not have the relevant medical history, or medication for girls who are unwell in school. This is most common in the case of pupils who are asthmatic. It is vital that the nurses are informed of any medical problems that may manifest themselves during the school day and that prescribed medication is handed into them clearly labelled with name and dosage instructions.  Pupils who use an asthma inhaler should carry it at all times.

We are taking a firm stance over school skirts next year.  Please make sure that your daughter’s skirt is regulation length.  Those with unduly short skirts will be made to change into something more seemly and letters requesting a new skirt will be sent home.

Key Dates

Tuesday 2 September
Introductory day for Year 7 and Year 12

Wednesday 3 September
Term begins (full day)

Half Term Holiday
Monday 20 - Friday 31 October

Friday 19 December
Term ends (12 noon)