I have just come back from a glorious holiday and chose to return to work two days early, not because there was too much to do or the Foundation couldn’t manage without me, but because I wanted to be part of a celebration. The end of year awards at the Girls’ School celebrates the progress, attainment, consistent effort, exceptional contribution, or leadership of over 200 students. The moment I walked in I knew it was the right thing to come - the anticipation in the room as I arrived was wonderful – chatter, excitement, pride – and being part of something so tangible about the student experience put my everyday work into context.  As a Foundation we provide support to the schools, fund additional curricular programmes, provide student grants and awards, access to opportunities and, currently our major development programme is the expansion of the Girls’ School 6th Form. All of these have significant impact, yet we are behind the scenes, so it is rare I get to see what it means to students to be part of this exceptional education experience. I had the added delight of handing out the awards for contributions to Central Plus, the schools extra-curricular programme for which the Dulwich Estate are a generous supporter and funder. The Foundation also instituted three new awards this year in recognition of the contribution of some amazing people who have contributed to school life and the Foundation.

The new Clive Arding Award for the greatest contribution to the life of the school in CFGS6 was created in thanks to Clive Arding for his service to both schools as we have planned and navigated major building expansion programmes at both schools. He is a governor at the Girls’ School and served on the Foundation’s Board for 12 years volunteering hundreds of hours of his expertise and energy to help create facilities fit for a 21st century exceptional education.

Irene Buckman was born in east London. Her parents ran a sweetshop and delicatessen on the Mile End Road and she attended Central Foundation Girls’ School. Irene won a state scholarship to University College London, where she studied French and Spanish. In 2005 Irene made a generous donation to the Foundation and we created an endowment which supports girls who go on to higher education. This year, we formally named a prize in her name to recognise her immense contribution and support to future generations of students. With the expansion of the Girls’ Sixth form in process and the architects undertaking extensive student consultation to develop the outside spaces, it is fitting that this year’s award has gone to a student who is studying architecture at university.

The new Clarke-Heath Prize recognises the contribution of two former staff members who, between them, served the Foundation for nearly 60 years. John Clark was clerk and bursar to the Foundation joining originally to help out, yet so drawn in to the work and impact of the charity he stayed until he retired at the age of 81! Pat Heath was the Foundation administrator for over 40 years, see generations of students thrive and often meeting them again as parents or teachers always with a very warm welcome. When she retired at the age of 76 an era felt like it had ended and to recognise the immense contribution both she and John had made, a new prize was awarded to the student showing outstanding development and progress during their time as a student.

Huge congratulations to all two hundred students whose progress, attainment, consistent effort, exceptional contribution, or leadership were celebrated. And thank you for making my first day back from holiday so uplifting and joyous. Work in the week since then has been a joy, even in audit week!

Read more on the Girls’ School Award Event.