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Winter 2019
Winter 2019
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Dear Alumnae
I hope that this new publication finds you well.
We have just started a new academic year 2019 – 2020 with 971 pupils on roll! We welcomed a Unitarian Scholar from Koloszvar (courtesy of a scholarship fund from alumna and former Governor, Amanda Davidson, in memory of her alumnae mother and aunt).
The total includes 336 at our Fairseat, our Junior School, which is now two-form entry, and 971 at the Senior School, which is four-form entry with 146 in the Sixth Form.
If you have visited the school recently, you will be aware that we have some wonderful new buildings. Looking on to Highgate Hill, to the right of the Dining Room, set back from the road, you can see the magnificent Arundel Centre, our beautiful Performing Arts Centre that was opened by Channing alumna, HRH Princess Sarvath of Jordan last November.
Behind the Arundel Centre is a magnificent new Sports Hall, opened by HRH the Earl of Wessex in 2016, alongside a new Sixth Form Centre.
The hall many of you will remember as the “Old Hall” is now our Music School, with the hall re-named Founders’ Hall by alumna Mary Burns (née Goodlad) after her ancestor Robert Spears, one of the school’s founders.
There are lovely landscaped gardens, now in full bloom, designed by Peter Reader, father of alumna Emily, from the Class of 2016.
Add to these our extended and refurbished Dining Room, new Science labs and redesigned Library, just to mention a few of the recent projects, and you will begin to appreciate the modernisation of the site to make it fit for the 21st century.
Our sights then turned to Fairseat, where a big project is underway to provide our younger pupils with a new hall of their own, classrooms, changing rooms and facilities for Drama and Music.
We are very grateful to all our alumnae who continue to influence our school in so many ways!
Visitors to the school are astonished at the quality of our facilities and yet all comment on the “feel” of the school. Some things never change! The girls are still in brown, we still skip out after Mark Reading, our Carol Concert at St Michael’s is a joy to witness, and yes, Founders’ Day is still on the first Saturday in July.
I do hope you will be in touch via the Alumnae Department, and if you are in Highgate, we would be delighted to welcome you back to school for a visit.
Yours sincerely
About Channing AlumnaeWe are committed to re-establishing contact with an increasing number of Alumnae: to give them the opportunity to reconnect with the School, to attend reunions and events and to locate lost friends. We aim to enhance networking possibilities between Alumnae and the current pupils who are looking to follow in their footsteps.
We welcome visits at any time. If you would like to arrange for a tour of the school, please contact the Alumnae Office on 020 8340 2328 or via email to [email protected].
If you would like to be involved with the next issue of our Alumnae magazine please email: Miss J Francis of the Alumnae Office at [email protected]
Front cover art by Katerina Kamysheva
Mrs B M Elliott MA(CANTAB)HEADMISTRESS
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Alumnae Updates
We are both proud and privileged to have been loaned part of an exhibition ‘How Do We Remember?’, curated by Adam Forman, which looks to explore the fallibility and longitudinal of memory and memory of fleeting everyday experiences. The pieces showcase some of the wonderful memories kept by Adam’s mother, Lady Forman (née de Mouilpied) (Channing alumnae 1927–32) and are presented through the artist’s own memories. For more information
please visit our website: www.channing.co.uk/about-us/alumnae
Naoko Katayama (née Furukawa, Channing September 1984–July 1988), cherishes her memories of Channing days. She is currently a law professor at Wakayama University and lives in Osaka with her husband, two teenage daughters and a Shiba Inu dog.
Welcome, Channing Alumnae, former staff and friends of Channing to the first edition of your new Alumnae Newsletter.
By way of introduction, my name is Jade Francis and I manage the Alumnae Office at Channing.
This newsletter is a space for former students and staff to share updates, pieces of interest and reminisce about their school days, whether they were here a year or fifty years ago.
We plan to publish a newsletter twice a year to keep you all up to date and provide a window into the lives of those featured.
When this project began, I could not help but think that some of the best memories we have are those from our school days, the place where longlasting friendships are forged and, shall we say, ‘questionable’ fashion choices showcased!
In an age where technology is ever evolving and the quest for bigger, better and newer is omnipresent, I invite you to stop, take a moment and enjoy the flashbacks whilst perusing this publication, in the hope that it will evoke some fond memories and bring a smile to your face or a cheeky giggle!
I believe it is so important to remember where one comes from, in order to know where one is heading and I hope that this newsletter will provide some thought for you to do just that.
In Memoriam
We also take this opportunity to remember the following alumnae, friends of Channing and former staff:
Hilary Jane Turner (née Werner) died peacefully in Kirchen Hospital, Betzdorf, Germany on 16 December 2018 following a long battle with cancer. Hilary fought courageously but had been so pleased in the previous three years to witness the weddings of her two daughters, Janina and Katja, and the birth of her two grandsons, Henri and Piet. Hilary moved to Brussels in her early-20s, where she met her husband-to-be, Klaus Werner, to whom she was married for 43 years. (Channing: 1956–66).
Helen Kindon attended Channing from 1956 – 63 and went on to read History at the University of East Anglia from 1963 to 1966. She will be remembered as ‘a lovely woman, kind, keenly intelligent and good hearted’. (Channing: 1956–63)
Virginia Mary Thomson ((known at Channing as Vedgie!) died at the of 87 in October 2018 (Channing: 1942–47).
Judith (known as Judy) O’Neill (née Rowe) passed away peacefully in hospital on 14 January 2017, (Channing: 1945–55)
Michael Thorncroft was a great friend of the school and Governor in the 1970s, Michael was instrumental in the acquisition of Fairseat.
‘Mr Steve’ (Dorey), Channing Caretaker passed away in January 2019. (Channing: 1988–2017)
The Alumnae Committee Alexia Ispani, Jade Francis, Sarah Harper, Tania Samona, Karen Santi, Tanya Goldsworthy, Daphne Hadjipateras, Natalie Saade
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Hannah Sharpe 2007Hannah writes about how her love of travelling has taken her to all corners of the world.
I started travelling in 2015 when I was 18. I got an internship on a dive boat in the Cayman Islands for three months. From there I went to the Bay Islands, a set of islands just off Honduras. I went to Utila, one of the smallest islands, the kind of place you would find a three-year-old riding on the front of a motorcycle into town and also one of the cheapest places to dive. It wasn’t the most beautiful place; unfortunately they have a huge rubbish problem because it’s a small island but, despite this, the life under water is some of the most incredible I have seen. I spent two weeks there getting another dive qualification.
When I had to leave, I felt I had only seen half the island but, with the rest being mainly rock land and waves, I felt that was okay. Time to go back to the mainland and back home.
I then went on a cooking course so I was ready for when the winter came and I could head to the mountains. I spent three months cooking and cleaning for families of 12 in France. It was a lot of work but good fun, the kind that is good for the mind and body.
However, three months went past and I realised this was not what I wanted to do. I started looking for work in Africa, where my heart really lay. I managed to get an internship in South Africa, Limpopo Province, through a mismatch of family friends and random emails. I did not know quite what it was, nor what I would be doing, just that it was an internship in Africa for a rhino conservation group so, off I went. This was the place that captured me the most and I took the most from throughout my whole year.
I spent three months in Africa falling in love with the land and the wildlife. We would track and monitor the rhino across the 16000-hectare reserve every day. It was incredible. However, poaching is a huge issue there and I quickly learned a lot. Three rhinos are poached on average across Africa every day. They are killed for their horn as it is believed to have medicinal properties. Just two weeks after I had left the reserve, our only rhino bull was poached.
I got completely hooked by the cause and ended up returning for another three months later that year. I knew I wanted to do something in wildlife, but I never thought it would have been this. Four years down the line and I still chat to the guys and try to help how I can. This year I actually ended up running the London Marathon for Save the Rhino (not the organisation I was originally working for, but it all works towards the same goal), and decided to do it in a rhino suit...it wasn’t originally my plan, but when they say they have one going spare, what is a girl to do?
It’s hard not to fall in love with Africa; with every sunset and sunrise something alights your soul. Our joy comes from our new experiences, so to have a changing horizon is one of the greatest joys. I believe we gain so much from these experiences, whether it’s your first trip to the Post Office by yourself as a child, or an expedition to the Arctic. There’s something in it all. But do we only get that something when we take the first step out of the door.
A Passion for Preservation
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Hannah ran the London Marathon
dressed as a rhino, in aid of Save the Rhino
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Interview with David Coram 2000 – 2018
I then went on to teach Greek Literature in translation as an O Level and then Classical Civilisation. When I came to Channing I was lucky enough to be teaching Classical Civilisation at both GCSE and A Level. What I really enjoyed was the wide scope of the courses and the opportunity to compare life in the ancient and life in Britain today. What was also stimulating was that I was continually learning new things about the Greeks and the Romans.
What made you choose to teach as a career?
I very much enjoy working with people, so what better than have the privilege of teaching a subject that I was passionate about and trying to kindle the same passion in others? It is also a career which is full of variety – no two days are the same. It also has its challenges (I could tell you some hair-raising things that happened when I taught at my first school, a large boys’ comprehensive school in South London! Nevertheless I had 25 mostly happy years there).
Looking back at your time as a student/young professional would you have chosen a different career path?
I don’t think I would. There was a time when I thought that I would do more serious music. I nearly read Music at university but I’m glad that I persevered with the classics. There were so many opportunities to perform music at Durham anyway. I sang in many choirs and became organist at the parish church of Saint Oswald there. I have continued to enjoy music-making ever since as a choral conductor, singer and organist. I have many happy memories of the music I did at Channing with the Senior Choir and the wonderful music tours.
What would you tell your younger self, having all the life experiences you have had?
I think I would encourage myself to take more risks as a young man. I have tended to be rather too cautious by nature.
What is your funniest memory from your time at Channing?
There have been so many amusing moments. An embarrassing moment for me at the time that brought mirth to my colleagues was when I was caught out by the then Headmistress, Mrs Radice, sleeping soundly in a staff meeting. ‘Do wake up, David!’ she said. That seemed to do the trick!
If you had to describe yourself in five words, what would they be?
Cheerful, patient, optimistic, quirky, inquisitive.
When and how did you first develop a passion for Classical Civilisation as a subject?
First of all I became a classicist by accident! When I was at school we had to make the choice of one of the three following subject options: German, Greek and Geography. I chose German (we had had a very charismatic and brilliant French teacher, so I thought modern languages was for me). Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, that subject was oversubscribed so I was persuaded to take my second choice – Greek. I did A levels in Latin, Greek and Ancient History and particularly enjoyed Greek and Latin Literature. At Durham University, I was introduced to ancient and modern philosophy and linguistics. However, it was when I began to teach that I developed what you might call a passion for the subject. I started out teaching Latin, and the Cambridge Latin Course was quite a revolution – completely different to the rather dry language courses that I suffered at school. It set the language in its cultural context and I was fascinated by life in Pompeii.
Taught at Channing between 2000 and 2018
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What was your favourite time of the year at Channing?
That’s an easy one – Christmas of course! Christmas lunch, the excitement (hysteria?) of room decorations, the atmosphere of the Carol Concert and the fun of the pantomime (which is behind me now – oh yes it is!).
If you could go back to any time in history what era would you choose and why?
Can I have two choices? I think Athens in the fifth century BC would be amazing. It was a period of great intellectual fervour. Some astonishing buildings were going up, such as the Parthenon; the great tragedies and comedies were written and performed in the theatre; philosophers were breaking new ground as they challenged traditional beliefs. Otherwise, twelfth century France would be fascinating. Another time of intellectual ferment. I got to know the period when I was studying for an MA in Medieval Studies. As a Francophile, I would also be interested in the language.
According to some of your colleagues, every year you planned to hand in your resignation. What made you decide to retire at the end of the academic year for 2018?
Well that’s not exactly true. However, I do remember trying to clean the white board with a remote control on several occasions, causing me to say that it was clearly time to pack it in. I think the girls took me seriously! I always said that I would know when it would be the right time to retire and although I loved the job I was beginning to feel tired what with the hour long commute and the demands of the job. It is interesting to recall that when I first joined Channing all staff had to retire at 60, so I would have missed out on my last seven years of teaching.
Did you do anything to celebrate your retirement, if so what?
Apart from the wonderful parties at the end of my final term I did have what you might call a moment of Schadenfreude by going to Paris at the beginning of September when schools were starting.
What is your daily routine now?
As my alarm is no longer set to go off at 5am every week day, I get up when I feel like it. I do The Guardian cryptic crossword over a leisurely breakfast. I spend a lot of time gardening, try to go to the gym at least four days a week and do an hour’s organ practice. I still have a choral society which I conduct. Rehearsals are 8 till 10 on Monday evenings (how did I manage that when I was teaching?). In addition there is the church choir on Friday and church services on Sunday.
I enjoy reading, especially crime fiction and I now have more time to devote to cooking.
If a movie of your life, were to be made, who would play you?
I think Alastair Sim would have done a good job but as he is no longer with us it has to be Rowan Atkinson (Pictured left).
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What is your current job?
I am a Senior Registrar (SpR) in Infectious Diseases (ID) and General Internal Medicine (GIM). This means that I have two roles as a doctor. The first is to treat patients, admitted to hospital, with infection. Infectious diseases are usually communicable (passed from person to person) and include infections of the respiratory tract (ear, nose, throat, lungs, sinuses), brain and spinal cord (meningitis, encephalitis, spinal cord abscesses), blood (sepsis), bone (osteomyelitis), skin (cellulitis, gangrene, necrotising fasciitis), liver (abscesses), kidneys and urinary tract. These describe, by no means the entire exhaustive list of the body systems that can become infected by numerous bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic organisms and depicts some of the problems that ID doctors are tasked to combat.
High-profile infections that ID doctors are commonly involved in treating include tuberculosis (TB), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), viral Hepatitis, malaria, dengue and infectious diarrhoea.
As an SpR in GIM, I am responsible for looking after patients presenting to the emergency department, possibly requiring hospital admission. In this role I manage a team of junior doctors, deploying them around the hospital to see and treat patients who have been discussed with me by other doctors from the emergency department, community (GPs) and doctors/surgeons from other referring specialities within the hospital. This is a busy role. During a single 13-hour shift I may take in excess of 60 phone calls and discuss between 30 to 60 patients, reviewing and admitting around 30 patients. Patients
often have complex medical needs and can be extremely unwell, requiring surgery and or admission to Intensive Care (ICU). This highly pressurised role is exciting, exhausting and very rewarding.
When did you first realise you had a passion for science and medicine?
My parents have photos of me as a two-year-old standing in rock pools on Newquay beach counting crabs, limpets and sea-anemones. My career as a zoologist was set. At the age of seven, I became a scientist; appointed as ‘Pond Monitor’ for my junior school, I was responsible for recording livestock (toads, frogs, newts, fish, birds) visiting/living in/around the pond. My passion for biological sciences and travel were further fuelled by bed-time stories from Gerald Durrell’s ‘My Family and Other Animals’ and television programmes such as David Attenborough’s ‘Lonely Planet’. I was hooked.
My interest in Medicine came much later. During my undergraduate degree in Zoology I studied Parasitology and Immunology. This ignited my passion for Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine. Intending to undertake post-graduate training, I looked at degree courses with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The only course that sparked my interest was the Post Graduate Diploma in Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, but you had to be a medical school graduate to be accepted for enrolment. So, at the age of 24, I went to medical school.
How did your schooling at Channing prepare you for a journey into the science sector?
At Channing I studied A Level Biology, Geography and English. Interestingly, none of these are prerequisites for studying Medicine but laid the foundations upon which I’ve built my career. Biology and Geography are closely interlinked. Both teach human/population geography, the growth, decline and movement (migration) of nations. I continue to apply these theories in my daily clinical practice, with regards to imported infectious and tropical diseases.
Biology A Level equipped me with two valuable skill sets. The first was knowledge about human biology (including basic anatomy). This, although not essential for gaining a place at medical school, proved invaluable when memorising all 206 bones in the body. The second skill set was practical laboratory skills, including making and growing colonies on an agar plate. As an ID doctor, working in Medical Microbiology, I now use these skills daily.
English A Level taught me how to convey a strong, balanced argument in written (and verbal) format. This skill is probably the most valuable. Undergraduate exams and coursework (even for the sciences) are largely essay based. To achieve
Sophie Roberts 2000Channing Alumna talks about her career path and her tips to budding medics
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good grades, I had to demonstrate my knowledge, concisely and effectively, within a word limit. English A-level equipped me with the skills to achieve this. Also, I loved reading, so I’d effectively been given free rein to read as much I liked, debate and discuss novels and then hammer my ideas home in punchy essays. Win.
Achieving ‘A’s in my A Levels taught me that I had the capacity to learn anything that I applied myself to. I carry this certainty and self-assuredness into everything that I do.
Having left Channing in 2000, would you say there are more opportunities for undergraduates and graduates to gain work experience in this field now?
In March 2017, the Department of Health pledged to increase the number of places at medical schools in the UK to 1000 by 2019/20. Therefore, now, more than ever, there are opportunities to train as a doctor. However, to gain one of these places is no small task. First, you must achieve the requisite A Level grades and later, during your interview, demonstrate your commitment to a medical career. Work experience in the sector is essential. This can be achieved by working as a Healthcare Associate (HCA), providing a supportive role to nurses caring for hospital in-patients. You could organise work experience at your local GP, observing clinical consultations. Take a job as a temporary secretary for the NHS. In this role you’ll be playing a crucial part in service provision, communicating with patients and health care specialists. These are just a few suggestions of ways to gain experience in the field. Alternatively, any work in the voluntary/charitable sector supporting people with care/educational needs can be used to support your application.
You were awarded a school travel scholarship in 2000; how did this happen and where did you go?
Based on my short essay-based questions, I was awarded Channing’s travel scholarship. I used the £200 prize to buy a specialist hiking backpack, which I still own and travel with today.
My first single to adventure was a one-way ticket to Israel. I arrived in Jerusalem in September 2000, on the day that Ariel Sharon stood on the temple mount sparking the Intifada. Against advice I remained in Israel, studying in Jerusalem, working on Kibbutz in the Negev Desert and later in Safed for a year. Both my backpack and I survived, and this was the first of many travels.
My backpack is well loved, well used and exceptionally well travelled, having inter-railed through the Eastern bloc, hiked around south-east Asia, provided medical treatment in Africa and deep-sea-dived in Central America.
What was the most memorable experience during your travels?
Travelling and working in Ghana in 2004–2005 had the most significant impact on how I perceive the world today.
While Ghana is one of the wealthiest and safest West African countries to travel in, there is still evidence of abject poverty. In Elmina, a small township where locals were sold into slavery and shipped out to the Americas, I learned about poverty. The streets stank, with effluence running in open sewerage systems. The beach was so littered with banks of rubbish that you couldn’t reach the sea shore. It made me acutely aware of how privileged I was to think of a beach as a place you holidayed, rather than a place you dumped faeces, hoping it would be washed into the sea and away from your drinking water supply.
What was your journey like to get to where you are today?
My career path has been atypical, meandering and by no means straightforward. But I owe my career success to taking the path less trodden. Employers like that I have pursued my interests and admire my dedication, drive and productivity in everything that I’ve applied myself to.
At school I knew that I wanted to work in global health. I had no idea what my career would look like, I just knew that I had to prove that I could achieve when passionate about my goals. I carried this passion and drive into Zoology (2001–2004), where I learned about infectious diseases. Whilst in Ghana I learned about an infectious disease called Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. I contacted the UK-based specialist, Dr Mark Wansbrough Jones, who was working on BU. Upon my return to the UK, I met him.
As the chair of the BU council, Mark invited me to accompany him to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual BU conference. There I met people with PhDs and clinicians working on BU. They inspired and supported my application to medical school.Whilst at medical school (2006–2011) I continued to work, with Mark, on BU, later (after qualifying as a doctor) returning to Ghana to study the epidemiology of BU. I presented the outcomes of my research at the WHO’s annual BU conference (2014) during my academic foundation training (the first three years of medicine after qualifying as a doctor) in Medical Education in Liverpool.
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Whilst undertaking my foundation training (2011–2014), I was made an honorary lecturer for the University of Liverpool’s Medical School. Whilst in post I also completed a post-graduate certificate in Medical Education.
After completing my foundation training, I achieved the Diploma in Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (remember this was the main driver for going to medical school). I then undertook an internship in the WHO’s Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases. This exciting opportunity further consolidated my knowledge and equipped me for my role as Expedition Doctor for the Science research charity, Operation Wallacea, providing medical support for staff and the local population working on the research base in Honduras (2013–14).
In 2014, I returned to London to undertake training in acute medicine (anaesthetics, ICU, respiratory and emergency medicine 2014–2018). Following this, based on my achievements and commitment to speciality, I was appointed as an SpR in ID. In March this year, I was appointed Education Fellow for the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and University College London Hospital (UCLH), where I will continue my ID training.
What drives you in your work from day to day?
I am driven by my desire to help people, my thirst for knowledge and my fear of boredom. I love learning. I aspire to achieve and strive to move forward, building my knowledge so that I can be a better doctor and do a better job for my patients.
As a doctor, you are in a privileged position to learn about people and facilitate them in their endeavour to achieve and maintain good health. To achieve this, it is imperative to equip yourself with knowledge through education and applied clinical practice. When I am learning and applying learnt knowledge, I am happy.
Do you have an idol, and/or someone who has inspired and encouraged you to become the person you are today?
My first idol was Gerald Durrell, the author. Now my greatest inspirations are the people around me: my parents, my husband and my supervisors. I have had some wonderful supervisors. I attribute my current success to the support and inspiration of Dr Mark Wansbrough-Jones, a Consultant in ID at St George’s University of London, where I studied Medicine.
What are you most proud of?
I am very proud to have been appointed as the new Education Fellow at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD) and UCLH. The HTD is the only hospital in the UK dedicated to treating imported tropical infections. Whilst in post I have been tasked to develop teaching materials and deliver teaching about infectious
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disease for Medical students from UCLH. In addition, I will be seeing patients presenting to the HTD with tropical infections. To have been appointed is a significant achievement.
What is the biggest risk you have taken? Did it pay off? Would you do it again?
The biggest risk I have ever taken was applying and choosing to go to medical school. This might sound rather odd but to undertake a second undergraduate degree, particularly after having already embarked on a career in Science Communication, was risky and financially challenging.
Prior to applying to medical school, I had been working as a Science Educator for the Natural History Museum (NHM), London. The NHM had offered to fund me through a Master’s in science communication at Imperial College, whilst building my working hours around my academic commitments. Therefore, when I accepted my place at medical school, it felt like I had committed myself to financial purgatory. I’d be earning very little (I continued to work at the NHM throughout medical school) while my friends were climbing their career ladders. Simultaneously it felt like I had thrown away what promised to be a wonderful career in science communication.
It was not until I graduated from medical school and started working as a doctor that I felt that the risk had been worth it…that was five years of uncertainty, which made medical school feel like a long slog.
Would I do it againww…over and over. I love working as a doctor. My career has been and will continue to be exciting and varied. I really couldn’t ask for more. I would recommend Medicine to anyone who’s considering it.
What thing(s), if at all, would you have done differently on your career path, knowing what you now know?
I wouldn’t change a thing. Sometimes I’m tempted to say I wish I’d gone straight into Medicine without doing Zoology. But I realise that Zoology gave me the ‘head space’ to think about what I really wanted to do with my life and what my motivators were. Importantly, it also introduced me to the area of medicine that I would later specialise in.
What advice would you give your younger self?
If you can learn from them, every ‘failure’ will actually be a stepping stone to your success…carry on, your dogged determination will get you there…wherever that might be.
If you had the chance to interview three people (dead or alive) who would they be and why?
Charles Darwin I would love to know why he didn’t complete his medical studies and chose zoology instead, bearing in mind that I did the complete opposite.
Gerald Durrell I’d ask if I could come and work and travel with him. Perhaps if I’d met him earlier in my career, I wouldn’t have defected to Medicine.
Kofi Annan I’d like to ask him about his endeavours to treat/prevent HIV/Aids in Africa.
ChanningThe Bank, Highgate London N6 5HF
T: 020 8340 2328
INDEPENDENT DAY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AGED 4-18
Although all statements in this prospectus are believed correct at the time of going to press, details may naturally change from time to time.
