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St Paul's helps First Story plan new chapter

St Paul's strengthened its links with the creative writing charity First Story on 8 July when the charity used our facilities to host its second annual conference. A team of 21 writers and teachers joined First Story's executive director, Katie Waldegrave (who left St Paul's in 1999), to discuss how the charity can start creative writing programmes in schools where pupils have limited opportunities for extra-curricular activities.

First Story has already funded eight writers-in-residence at state schools and hopes that 20 schools will benefit from its work in 2009–10. During its first year, the organisation has published anthologies of students' work, taken students to a week-long residential course at the Arvon Foundation and connected its young writers with leaving authors at the Oxford Literary Festival.

Katie studied history at Oxford and joined the Teach First programme before founding the charity in 2008 with the author William Fiennes. "Our meeting glittered with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose," says Howard Bailes, a history teacher at St Paul's. The St Paul's catering team provided dinner for the First Story committee after the teachers and writers had gathered in two of our libraries to plan their next year.

Alumnae rowers take gold at world championships

Two alumnae helped their UK women's eight crew make rowing history on 26 July when they won a gold medal at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships at Racice in the Czech Republic. Zoe De Toledo and Michelle Vezie rowed together in the winning boat, holding their lead throughout the race and beating the defending world champions to the finish.

"It was an amazing race and a great regatta," says Zoe. "The paddling and race times we had achieved during our training camp made us very confident about our speed."

Michelle adds, "We knew that we could win if we focused on the processes of winning instead of the outcome of getting that gold medal. During the race, Zoe made sure we concentrated on getting a really strong rhythm. At the last 250 m, I realised that nobody could touch us and that we were going to be world champions. Everyone in the crew started cheering and crying when we crossed the line."

"The favourites and world champions came second and last year's silver medallists, Poland, came third," says Zoe. "Not only is this the first time the UK has sent an Under 23 women's eight to a world championships but it's also the first gold medal a British women's eight has ever won at any age level."

History meets language on cultural visit to Paris

A shared interest in history and languages took 26 students from year 12 on a cultural visit to Paris between 4 and 7 July. The itinerary took in many eras of French history from the medieval splendour of the Sainte-Chapelle to the chateau of Fontainebleau, the home of France's Renaissance kings and Napoleon Bonaparte. The historians' AS-level studies of the French Revolution also fell into context when they visited important revolutionary locations such as the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her execution.

"Many participants took advantage of their spare time to visit galleries and museums, while linguists found many opportunities to sharpen their speaking skills," says Amanda Triccas, a history teacher who accompanied the visit. "I've never known such a relaxed and enjoyable trip."

Alumnae golfers club together

Five old friends from St Paul's who share a love of golf caught up with each other thanks to the Silver Tassie, an annual foursomes golf competition for girls' school alumnae. Patricia Dawes, Mary Hunt, Claire Biggart and Vanessa Thomas all attended St Paul's in the 1950s or 1960s and made up this year's team with Margaret Porteus, a fellow golf enthusiast, as their non-playing captain.

"I always enjoy playing in the Silver Tassie," says Vanessa. "Even though I usually play with people who were not in my year, we always seem to be old friends. I suppose this must be the St Paul's experience, which even at our more advanced years persists as a strong link."

"We mercifully no longer wear navy tunics or 'sacks', so we are an eclectic-looking bunch," adds Vanessa, "but the common bond of school produces a happy atmosphere and a relaxed shedding of one's mature persona for the day."

"We're a sociable group and very much enjoyed playing the 27 holes at St George's Hill this year," says Patricia. "Next year, the competition will move to The Berkshire on 21 June 2010 and new and younger players would be very welcome."

Linguists recognised for Chinese calligraphy

Six students of Mandarin Chinese have received prizes for excellent or outstanding performances in an annual Chinese calligraphy competition organised by the UK Association for the Promotion of Chinese Education. Josefina Garcia (year 13), Sophie Wardlaw (year 8) and Emily Jelly (year 9) won first prizes in the hard calligraphy competition for non-Chinese students and India Matharu-Daley (year 10), Savannah Murphy (year 7) and Lisa Iwamoto-Stohl (year 8) won second prizes.

We chose the entries to represent St Paul's in the UK-wide competition after holding our own calligraphy contest during the spring term. "Character writing always has a reputation for being impossible for non-native learners," says our Chinese teacher, Jane Zeng, "but every student learning Chinese here took part in the competition. They used Chinese brush-pens and ink to write a classical poem which is well known from New Year celebrations throughout the Chinese-speaking world."

Since we introduced Chinese a few years ago, the language has become so popular an option that a second Chinese teacher, Cong-Xia Li, will be joining us in September.

Farewell to year 13 at St Paul's first valediction

St Paul's first ever valediction ceremony on 26 June represented our official goodbye to the members of year 13 before they move on to higher education.

As keepsakes from their time here, every student received a copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying and Quotation and a silver brooch featuring the 19th-century emblem of the St Paul's schools as often seen in the school's architecture.

Alex Hems, the head of years 12 and 13, introduced each girl to Daniel Hodson, the Master of the Mercers' Company (the London guild that manages the St Paul's foundation), by remembering their contributions to life at St Paul's. Clarissa Farr, the High Mistress, and Harry Palmer, the chairman of the governors, spoke to the group and the outgoing head girl, Laurie Stevens, also gave a farewell address..

"I'd like to express how great it's been that so many of our year group's achievements have come from the year as a whole," said Laurie. "I think these successes are partly a testimony to how well our year has got on. Our group dynamic is perhaps what I'm proudest to have been part of."

Parents of 2009 leavers fund three bursaries

The parents of 2009's leavers have continued the tradition of gathering funds to donate a syndicated bursary place – or, in this case, three.

After four parents (Patricia Benet, Pria Chatterjee, Robert Essex and Jane MacQuitty) formed a fund-raising committee, 45 families contributed a total of £268,646 during the campaign. A matching donation from the HBSC Education Trust enabled the 2009 syndicate to set up three full bursaries. One of the recipients originally got to know St Paul's through the Minimus scheme, where students visit primary schools to teach Latin and help stage a play.

"This funding will support three of the seven new joiners in year 7 who are going to receive bursaries," says Rosemary Torrington, the foundation director. "It's a meaningful step towards widening access. This year, we are supporting 9 per cent of the total St Paul's population – 61 girls. The bursaries for 29 of them come from the revenue fund comprised of donations from syndicates and individuals and the rest of the bursaries come from our endowment."

"We are enormously grateful for the galvanising efforts of the bursary syndicate committee," Rosemary adds. "We would like to thank everyone who has so generously given to the campaign."

Poetry master-classes end in studio recital

Seven poets in years 8, 9, 10 and 12 topped off two weeks of master-classes with this term's poet in residence, Glyn Maxwell, by presenting the results of their work at a poetry reading in the drama studio on 25 June.

"I was sure that the workshops would be valuable and fun when I first heard Glyn read his poetry," says one of the participants, Rose Beale. "You have to be cool to write about a medieval mystery cycle set in Welwyn Garden City. During our sessions with Glyn, we each read three or four of our poems to the group for commentary and criticism. The master-classes were a great way for me to familiarise myself with poets from younger year groups. I found their work really impressive, especially considering my own attempts at poetry a few years ago."

Glyn has spent a fortnight at St Paul's, holding individual sessions to give feedback on students' poetry as well as leading the master-classes. "At first I thought about doing a magazine for the master-class poems but then I thought that was what everyone does," says Glyn. "I decided I'd much rather do a performance. Leonie Rushforth, the head of English, showed me several venues and I chose the drama studio."

"Glyn expertly staged our work and directed us to animate and punctuate our performance by moving between poems," says Rose. "The effect was captivating. We could show our work to our best advantage and it really testified to how much more polished our poetry had become."

Glyn introduced each section of the reading with a verse of his own and, at the end of the event, praised "the wonderful kind of mutual co-operation that the girls have shown over the last two weeks."

Memories of year 7: new friends, activities and food

An exciting new school, dozens of new activities and an ever-changing menu awaited 105 year 7s when they joined us nine months ago. As they prepared to celebrate their first year at St Paul's, they looked back on some of the year's most important moments.

"The school was very big and I really liked how the range of ages made the school feel warm and friendly," Catalina Garcia says. Nadya Kelly adds – "I was able to be more independent than in primary school and I had more chances for activities and music."

The year brought opportunities to get to know other girls inside and outside the classroom, including a popular team-building day at Stubbers Adventure Centre in Essex. "The mix-up of classes for maths and French and the variety of clubs available helped me make new friends," says Marta Chadzynska. Caterina Quadro Curzio remembers, "doing projects in groups and doing activities at Stubbers."

Joining St Paul's also let year 7s try things that they'd never tried before, from learning new sports and musical instruments to eating paella. "I like music and drama – I'm in the choir and in plays," says Catalina. "In the summer, I like playing on the grass courts with friends."

"I've most enjoyed meeting some amazing friends and learning a lot while having so much fun," concludes Bella Hindley.

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