A day of celebration: Senior School Prize Giving
On a sunny afternoon on Friday 29 June, Senior School and Sixth Form students and their families gathered together to celebrate our annual Prize Giving ceremony.
Some highlights of the ceremony included wonderful performances by Henrietta McF. and Gerri S. Henrietta McF., who is an Upper Sixth Music Scholar, Music Captain and St Mary’s Young Musician of the Year 2017-2018, delighted the audience with a performance of Méditation from ‘Thais’ by Jules Massanet, and Gerri S., St Mary’s Young Pianist of the Year 2017-2018, gave a stylish performance of Chopin’s Nocturne (Opus 9. No.1).
We were delighted to welcome Joanna Cruse, entrepreneur and Managing Director of The Unreasonables, an organisation that delivers leadership programmes to schools across the country, as our guest speaker. She gave a poignant speech, reminding the students that “we do ourselves a great disservice if we aren’t able to celebrate both our successes and our challenges”. Echoing one of our Mary Ward characteristics, ‘coping effectively with failure’, she embraced “sometimes forgotten moments of triumph”, such as “when you have doggedly persisted at something that truly challenged you, or chose to learn from failure rather than be discouraged by it”.
She started the speech by recognising this in herself; The Unreasonables will sadly be closing down in the summer, but she looks to the future excited about new possibilities. She also empathised with the Upper Sixth regarding the challenge of getting ready to face the unknown, but recognised that St Mary’s gives the girls a metaphorical compass that they can draw upon to help chart their path forward. Citing the School’s “passion for STEM, excellent pastoral focus and integrated approach to education”, as well as the “ways of thinking, interpersonal skills and knowledge” that High Performance Learning has given the girls, Jo explained that St Mary’s gives the students “an extraordinary grounding not just for learning, but for life.”
Jo also praised the strong and loving community of young women at St Mary’s, adding that it will be fantastic for them to leave the School with this powerful network of extraordinary allies at their side. The Mary Ward values of valuing friendship and supporting one another will stand them in good stead going forwards.
Jo stressed that it is important to allow oneself the space to explore new paths, and to remain open to opportunities and possibilities that they “may not even have dared to imagine”, in doing so uncovering the right path for them, and becoming “the fullest and most authentic version” of themselves.
It is precisely these qualities – supporting one another, discovering and nurturing new talents, hard work and resilience in the face of challenges – that the School looks to celebrate at our annual Prize Giving. We award for each year group a Prize for Progress and a Prize for Excellence in each subject, as well as one Governors’ Prize for Excellence in each year group (up to Lower Sixth). Some highlights from the ceremony are as follows:
Governors’ Prize for Excellence
Year 7: Lottie F., Marina B. R.
Year 8: Imogen C., Jenna K.
Year 9: Madeline A.
Year 10: Rosie E.
Year 11: Mariana G. O.
Lower Sixth: Catherine Z.
Special Prizes
Charlotte Goddard Prize for Classics: Sophie Y.
Morag Chapman Creative Writing Prize: Ritu G.
The Kay Dodsworth Award for Dance: Niamh H.
Drama Performance of the Year Award: Lizzie H.
Sr Christina Trophy for Lower Sixth English: Adele C.
Mme Munday & Mme Francis French Cup: Cristina H.-P.
Susan Cattell German Cup: Genevieve H.
Hazel Pritchett Harris Award for Excellence in Mathematics: Selena Y.
Quintus Benziger Music Prize: Henrietta McF.
The Poetry Cup: Ella H.
Sr Prisca Memorial Textiles Prize: Henrietta McF.
Burleigh Cup for Year 11 Sportswoman of the Year: Arabella H. and Lucy C.
Ingrid Hoffman Award for Best All-round Sportswoman: Amelia S.
Sr Prisca Memorial Textiles: Isby S.
Anna Ladds Technology Award: Emma G. O.
Hope Gilbert Cup for Charities: Cecilia R. B., Olivia S., Evangeline R.
Alfred and Helen Jackson Trophy for Contribution to Ethos in Year 8: Esther W.
Judith Marr Memorial Cup for Year 10 Service to the School: Maja S.
Mary Ward Prize for Lower Sixth Personal Development: Aislin McL.
Kodicek Prize for Contributions to the School Community: Jesslyn F., Alice G., Alice S.
Tuley Cup for Service to the School: Jesslyn F.
Grace Deng Memorial Prize for Excellence in academic standards, embracing all aspects of school life and making a positive contribution across the school community: Nazifa Z.
St Mary’s Centenary Award for Exceptional Service to the School: Natasha C.-C.