Ladies and Gentleman, Governors, Staff and Girls

The one and only time I thought I would ever be associated with the Head Girl's speech at St. Mary's was when I had the misfortune to be mentioned in the first one I ever heard.  The Head Girl was recalling an occasion when she had emerged from the library one evening and encountered three very junior girls running around the school in their pyjamas, clearly after their lights out - regrettably I was one of them- and promptly spent the rest of her speech worrying whether she was going to reveal our names to our parents and the rest of the school, which would have undoubtedly resulted in the issuing of a number of lavender tickets on the Monday morning. To my relief I am glad to say she refrained from doing so. I considered however that that would be the first and last mention of me in any Head Girl's speech, let alone actually having the task of writing the speech and addressing you all.

Although each year the Head Girl makes her speech her own, there always seems to be a repeated theme of St. Mary's being a protective bubble with its indescribable ethos. However, I feel that this year, although this might ruin the prime topic for next year's speech .......sorry Rosie, I am going to change the tradition by coming to a conclusion on this question of what makes St. Mary's so special.

For the first time last year I discovered a place where there is a similar unique atmosphere to this school's, and that place is Lourdes. Lourdes is where Our Lady appeared to Bernadette, and where a number of us spent an unforgettable week last July, helping to care for the sick on a pilgrimage organised by the Order of Malta Volunteers. After much thought and deliberation, I have come to the conclusion, that amongst other things, it is the overriding presence of such strong faith that is so individual to both these places. By faith, I am not simply referring to our Christian faith, although that is immensely important both here and in Lourdes, but to our faith and belief in each other.

Faith is a trust, not a certainty, and it is this faith, not only between us girls, but between ourselves and our parents and staff alike, that we will always strive to do our best, putting 110% into whatever life throws at us, that makes St Mary's girls so unique. Furthermore, as St. Mary's girls, you know that the staff will support you all the way, in whatever your chosen field, whether you're aspiring to become the next Marie Curie, J.K. Rowling or Kelly Holmes, St Mary's will do its utmost to allow you to fulfil these ambitions. This will to live our lives to our full potential is one of the many assets that St. Mary's has provided us with and one which will live with us hopefully for the rest of our lives. However, it is by no means the only quality which I believe St. Mary's girls possess, and take with them as they burst through the protection of this bubble and breakaway into the world beyond the green fields and beech trees; because I believe St. Mary's adds many other ingredients to us as its final product.

We have a unique confidence which is measured but not excessive; a degree of compassion and caring which is founded on our faith and reason rather than mere sentimentality; and a strong sense of integrity.

However, the icing on the cake is undoubtedly the friendships that we make here. Spending over half the calendar year at school, your friends become your second family, a source of laughter, a shoulder to cry on, and together we never seem to fail to find fun.  These friendships, which are so strong and seemingly unbreakable, will exist forever and, guys, trust me, will survive even without the aid of Facebook!

It is at this point that I realise that none of what I have said has anything much to do with the academic side of the school, but as Phoebe, one of the Upper VI, so rightly said at our final assembly, if we focused on the academic side too much, we wouldn't be talking about St. Mary's! Academia is undoubtedly important and year in year out St Mary's continues to climb the steady rungs of those infamous league tables. At a national level girls take part in the UK mathematics challenge and Latin competitions. On another level, we are free to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme without being inhibited by rivalry or competition from the opposite sex, and, due to a combination of sheer determination as well as excellence we continue to represent St Mary's at hockey and netball at a county and occasionally national level. For a school merely made up of 315 girls this is a pretty remarkable achievement and perhaps reflects the outstanding level of teaching and support that we are fortunate enough to receive here.

When my older sister arrived here at the age of eleven, she and her fellow new girls were reminded by one member of staff that they had not been accepted into St Mary's due to their academic abilities, rather as a result of their unique and sunny personalities. The importance that St Mary's continues to place upon the individual as a person, rather than as a tool in achieving A grade percentages, in order to satisfy government criteria, means that the final product is an all-round, happy young woman.

Schools perform best when tradition lies at their heart, and St Mary's is most certainly steeped in tradition. Not only does it choose to continually reaffirm the values I have mentioned, which can trace their roots back to the remarkable life and works of Mary Ward, and will always be remembered by me through Sister Campion's, and later Mrs Pennington's, reading of the Velveteen Rabbit, but St. Mary's has other equally important traditions, such as the Rite of Welcome, St Nicks and allowing us girls to enter into the chapel in our pyjamas, probably clutching an all important teddy bear, for a school gathering of night prayers. However small a matter and however meaningless it may appear from the outside, it is these little snippets of tradition and happiness that really give St Mary's its unique quality.

Therefore, on behalf of all the Upper V1, may I take this opportunity to thank the staff, both teaching and pastoral, for all that they have done for us. We know how difficult we have made it on occasions but you have always been there to calm us and support us.  Of course, as housemistress of Mary Ward, I have to say a very special thank you to Mrs. Webb. She has coped admirably with all the challenges presented by a group of girls, originally assigned the title of "the noisy and seemingly uncontrollable year group from hell"! Without you, Mrs. Webb, I really don't know how we would have made it!

For those about to enter Upper V1, not only do you have the comforts and delights of Mary Ward to look forward to, but also Mrs. Boot's irresistible apple cake, and many more evenings dedicated to "Desperate Housewives" and Mrs. James's renowned chocolate cake, which I know is sorely missed by friends at Ascot! On a personal note, I would also like to add a word of thanks to Mrs. McSwiggan for placing her confidence in me to carry out the role of Head Girl and, of course, to Mr. James for his continued support.

I promise I will not keep you any longer but to finish I wish to leave you with one last thought.  Although I hope to have conveyed the uniqueness of St. Mary's a little more clearly, I consider that if you are ever stuck just remember something that made me recall this school.......funnily enough during the homily I listened to on Easter Sunday - may be it was because I was so subconsciously used to listening out for the words 'El Salvador', words we all now associate with Fr Basil, and the fact that they never came, made me listen all the more intently! The priest was discussing the inscription on Sir Christopher Wren's tomb, for the younger ones he was the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral.  It reads "Si monumentum requires, circumspice" which, for those of you not quite as bilingual as Mrs. Clarke and Mr. Daley, it translates "If you seek a monument look around".  I therefore urge you today to stop .......take a moment to do precisely this and look around this marvellous spectacle that is St. Mary's, whether in the middle of your picnic, the final hymn in chapel today, or viewing a piece of work created by your daughter, the buildings and grounds alike, I think you would agree they really do portray a monument of success.

Victoria Conrath - June 2007