Putney High School

Putney High School is one of the UK’s leading schools, with a reputation for providing the challenge of a rich and inspiring education for bright girls aged 4 – 18. Our ethos is one of putting girls first, with academic excellence, wellbeing and opportunity at its heart.

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The Power of Play - let the adventure begin!

As we welcome children to a new autumn term, we cannot wait to see their excited faces as they discover a new Junior School playground- one with a strong spirit of adventure.

When faced with the task of building a new playground, it was the desire to encourage imagination, curiosity and physical challenge that informed our decision to create a modern playground with a very courageous soul.

Over the summer, the old playground was transformed, creating areas which welcome pupils to challenge themselves and to enjoy different types of play: exploratory, social, physical and imaginative. Pupils were at the very heart of the decision-making process, sharing ideas and views on how to design an environmentally-friendly, ‘natural’ space, but above all, one where they could take risks and challenge themselves, unafraid to try new things.

Outdoor play has become an emotive issue in recent years. We all know the benefits of playing outside and remember with fondness the rickety slides and swings of our own childhoods. But in the modern world, a tendency to wrap children in cotton wool has meant that outdoor play has too often played second fiddle to the endless virtual temptations that are at children’s fingertips indoors.

It is a basic parental instinct to protect our children from harm. But over recent years, the manner in which children have been allowed to play has changed so dramatically that we are in danger of putting their development at risk. The hypnotic attraction of screens and the seemingly endless visual stimuli that can be accessed through them has meant it has become difficult to entice our children “out to play”. How ironic that our efforts to protect children from the dangers outside of the home have introduced a whole new level of more insidious threat from the indoor, online world.

At Putney we are championing a return to outdoor play, well aware of the host of physical and mental benefits that it brings. Our new playground will not only provide hours of fun, but enable children to learn many of the skills that are essential to human development.

Hanging on ropes and monkey bars not only develops young muscles and improves balance and coordination, but teaches young children about  limits and going beyond them – introducing them to the feelings of curiosity, bravery and confidence that result from achieving something they didn’t even know they could do. Skills which they can use both in and outside the classroom.

Adventurous, risky play allows children to practise the independent reflection and decision-making that they will need in later life. After all, a grazed knee is a far more powerful learning experience than simply being told you might fall over if you do not take care. As adults, the thrill-seekers among us will know that climbing high and whizzing fast can give us a rush of adrenalin that is hard to beat. It should be no surprise then that the same is true for children from a very early age. It is this exposure to risk, and even to feelings of fear, that enable us all to know and to challenge our limits.

The cotton wool approach does no one any favours whereas the benefits of playing with friends in daylight and fresh air are almost too many to list. Learning to co-operate, to explore new possibilities and to invent imaginative games with your friends are essential building blocks in any child’s social development.

Let the games begin!

Pippa Page-Roberts

Head of Junior School

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Happy Birthday to Us!

Birthdays come and go and there are always some that are more memorable than others. This year will certainly be one of those - a day that calls for more than just cake and candles, as we mark a very significant milestone - the school’s 125th birthday on Wednesday 19 September.

It was an auspicious date from the beginning, New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote on that day in 1893 and since then, pioneering women have not only founded the GDST of which we are a part, but achieved women’s suffrage and set the foundation stones of a movement which continues to gather momentum as new generations take up the baton for gender equality.

Then and Now

It is hard to comprehend just how much the world has changed since the school, then East Putney High, first opened its doors to 54 fearless young women on 19 September 1893. Education for girls was of course, by no means the norm at the end of the nineteenth century, but you’d be mistaken to think it was all a question of demure study and preparation for marriage. Rope climbing was on the curriculum in the gym and astonishingly, cycling was actually a timetabled lesson at school, held on the tennis courts and by no means an easy feat in the long skirts that were worn at that time.  

From Violets to Oak Trees

Purple has run through Putney’s veins from the very beginning. The school’s original emblem was a violet, but even at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was patently apparent that Putney girls were far from being “shrinking violets”, so in the 1920s, the delicate petals of the violet were replaced with the more robust oak tree logo which we know and love today.

From East to West, and Beyond

From a leafy Victorian enclave in South West London, Putney’s outlook today truly has gone global. As modern, technological advancements make the world smaller and more accessible, there are new frontiers to be explored, packed with exciting opportunities.

The curious and ambitious pupils of the early 1900s would no doubt be intrigued to learn that lessons in Botany, Drill and Elocution have today been replaced with Psychology, Computer Science and recently added subjects: Arabic and Italian - the latest additions (this September) to a Modern Languages department where girls are already excelling at Chinese Mandarin (100% A* at A Level this year). The world is moving east, and our students will be ready for it.

On the other side of the world, five Putney students this autumn begin their further education in the USA and Canada. This year alone, after another astonishing year of A Level results, destinations include Bowdoin College, Louisiana State and Universities of Southern California and British Columbia.  Our US and World Class University specialists are supporting sixth formers in their applications to the finest universities that the world has to offer. Our pupils’ ambitions continue to know no bounds.

 An Eye to the Future

Looking back at old photographs, the Putney spirit has remained the same but both its cohort and also the school itself have expanded and changed almost beyond recognition. It seems only yesterday that (in 2016) our state-of-the-art Performing Arts Centre was opened by alumna and actress, Olivia Poulet. Today, proposals for the delivery of a new state-of-the-art science, music, debating and drama block, are beginning to take shape. The new development aims to support the school’s promise to invest in the future of its pupils and to offer the kind of forward-thinking education that is truly fit for the 21st century.

On Wednesday 19 September I hope you will join me in raising a glass to Putney High School, to the happy home of our thriving school community and to all of those who, through its history, have made it the very special place that is has become, and which I love. I am sure that you are all as excited as I am to see what the future holds.

Suzie Longstaff

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A Positive Approach to Marking

At Putney High School, we are always focused on finding the most compelling way to learn. As part of this commitment, we recently began research into whether using “comment only” marking, in place of giving grades on regular pieces of work, could have a positive effect on a pupil’s learning.

Rather than just focusing on achieving a particular homework grade, can teachers and pupils put the emphasis back on the ‘learning journey’? Could we achieve greater progress, a broader understanding and a more fulfilling learning experience if we removed the numbered grades on individual pieces of work and instead gave more detailed, constructive feedback?

“Snowflakes” I hear you cry... “aren’t today’s children robust enough to cope with getting a bad grade any more?” Of course they are, and they are more than able to bask in the glow of a good one too. But how well do alphanumerical marks on a piece of homework actually offer practical help on how to progress, where to improve, or indeed highlight areas in which a particular piece of work has succeeded? How well does grading prepare children for the realities of receiving criticism in the adult, working world? This is not about easy options; it can actually be harder to accept and take on board constructive feedback than to rack up a series of good grades. Key Stage 3, before the onset of GCSEs, is a perfect opportunity to focus on the pursuit of scholarship, rather than just encouraging pupils to focus on the grade at the top of their homework book.

Putney has always been an exciting place to learn, but also to teach. Our teachers are actively involved in their own learning and a dedicated Learning and Research group is at the forefront of important research in education. With Ofsted raising concerns about KS4 encroaching on KS3, and more worrying statistics about Britain’s school children’s mental health, we decided to undertake our own research and look into this less grade-centric approach to marking, something which had reportedly been a positive development in education.

Our project involved a five month controlled trial at Key Stage 3 and looked at different approaches to providing pupil feedback on homework and smaller pieces of class work. The first thing we noticed was that pupils stopped fixating on their grade and ignoring the feedback provided. Under the previous grading system, attainment was measured with a numerical grade, where 1 was the best, but we found that students were typically more worried about the number than what it meant. Comment-only marking meant they became less obsessed with grades and instead actually read and digested the feedback given to them, incorporating it in their next piece of work.

There is nothing radical here and there is no intention to abolish grades altogether; pupils at Key Stage 3 are still receiving grades at the end of every half term and will continue to do so on all major pieces of work.  Let’s not forget that grades are simply a fact of life from GCSE onwards and getting good ones will be crucial in our children’s futures, but surely, anything we can do to postpone for as long as possible the obsession with test outcomes, can only be a good thing.

Putney is as ambitious as ever, with students and staff enjoying a more holistic and progress-orientated approach to study. They’re inspired, excited and I’m delighted to say, have their minds open to the pursuit of knowledge as never before.

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Making Headway in the Workplace

Guest blog by Putney Alumna, Occupational Psychologist, Kate Godfree

Alumna Kate Godfree (class of 2007) found a love for Psychology whilst in the Sixth Form at Putney High School. After studying the subject at Durham University and completing two masters’ degrees, she is now embarking on a career in the pioneering area of Occupational Psychology.

Kate is now working as a Research Consultant and half way through a PhD at Kingston University. She is currently conducting research into obesity discrimination at work.

I was first introduced to psychology by the then deputy head, Mrs Buckle. My school year group were the first to be taught Psychology in the Sixth Form at Putney and I can credit Mrs Buckle with introducing me to a subject that I found I absolutely loved. She was a fantastic teacher - passionate about her subject and very encouraging – I remember the lessons as very engaging. The positive impact she’s had on my life has been huge. She gave me so much encouragement, had so much belief in me and ultimately started me on my Psychology career.

I work within an area of psychology called Occupational Psychology, where psychology is applied specifically to work; for example, to improve organisational performance, employee engagement, or wellbeing. Specifically, I work within the area of health and wellbeing at work. The business case for managing wellbeing in the workplace is very strong. Would you believe that 12.5 million days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2016/17?  It is estimated that the cost to the UK taxpayer of an unhealthy workforce is over £60 billion a year.

My PhD centres on the study of obesity discrimination at work. Some people have said that discrimination may be viewed as a way of encouraging obese individuals to lose weight, and there is a lot of emphasis in society, particularly in the media, on the fact that the management of obesity is within an individual’s control. This may help fuel the idea that obese individuals are lazy and unmotivated and could also explain the social acceptance of obesity discrimination. But I think it’s important to examine the many complex factors involved in obesity.  Research has shown that there are numerous negative psychological and physiological outcomes of weight stigma, including greater susceptibility to depression. There is also a relationship between weight stigma and obesity, diabetes, anxiety and body image dissatisfaction.

Within the workplace context, my recent review has shown that discrimination towards obese people occurs in numerous forms: from being rated more negatively, to being less likely to be recommended for hire, receiving harsher discipline, lower training expectations and even being less likely to be selected for a supervisory position. I am currently conducting interviews with a range of employees from a variety of sectors and with a range of BMIs. Drawing together evidence from both my systematic review and interviews I will then be designing and piloting an organisational intervention to address obesity discrimination at work.  If anyone is interested in participating in my research, please get in touch.

Putney taught me that it’s good to challenge yourself and not always to do things that you find easy. If there’s something that you are passionate about and you’d like to explore it, reach out to others (including Putney alumnae!) and see if there’s a way you can gain some experience. It may take a while to get into that field, but once you’re in it, it’ll be worth it!

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Female entrepreneurs – the beating heart of business

This week, on International Women’s Day, it was announced that 200 business leaders have written an open letter to the Government calling for measures to boost female entrepreneurship in Britain and to “help close the funding gap which prevents many women from starting their own businesses.”

The campaign (backed by the Telegraph) highlights the enormous and largely untapped business potential of female entrepreneurs in the UK, many of whom are thwarted in their efforts to start a business by the simple refusal of banks, investors and other decision makers to take them seriously. According to the Entrepreneurs Network, men are 86 per cent more likely than women to be venture capital funded.

As educators of young women, I feel very strongly that we must do everything in our power to bring about change. There is no doubt, that today, starting your own business is a really viable and in fact desirable career choice for many, offering enormous benefits to anyone wishing to embrace the challenges and greater flexibility it offers.

With this very much in mind, Putney High School this year appointed its first ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ as part of the school’s desire to empower students with the know-how and practical skills they will need to set up and succeed in their own businesses. The project shows girls that there is so much more to successful entrepreneurship than just having a great idea. There is enormous skill involved in building and scaling a business, and in navigating the associated fields that come into play, from strategy to finance to marketing.

Simply having the right mindset to grow and maintain a successful enterprise is so fundamental to what we teach at Putney – resourcefulness, innovative thinking, adaptability, problem-solving - these are the “real world skills” that will make all the difference to our students as they walk out of the school gates into the working world of the future.

Yesterday, our PIE (Putney Ideas Exchange) lunchtime talk was delivered by Amy Peake whose work with Loving Humanity has led her to set up a factory in the Zaatari refugee camp, eight miles from the Syrian border, making sanitary pads for women and girls and crucially, providing employment, hope, friendship and support to some of the most vulnerable and displaced people in the world.

How did Amy achieve such an amazing feat? Well it turns out that a lot of it was just sheer “bloody mindedness” and the simple refusal to take “no” for an answer. Amy’s message was simple: “In life there is 100% no rule book…It’s so important to call things if you see them”. Amy saw a need and did something about it. I hope that many of our girls will have the courage and the conviction to stand up and follow her example.

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Putney High School - where girls find their voice

It is 100 years since Parliament passed The Representation of the People Act 1918 allowing women over 30 to be added to the electoral role (if they owned property or were graduates voting in a university constituency). As women become increasingly prominent in parliament and the political sphere, it is easy to forget the enormous struggle that brought about that massive constitutional change and the brave women who were behind it.

Many of the suffragettes who fought for the vote were lucky to have benefitted from an excellent education. It was Emily Wilding Davison, an alumna of Kensington High (now Prep) School who in 1911 hid in Parliament hoping to question the Prime Minister over votes for women and famously gave her life for the cause when she fell under the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby of 1913.

1918 was certainly a momentous year for women in politics - the bar on women running for parliament was removed that year and shortly afterwards the first female MP was elected. Putney High School GDST is proud to include Baroness Virginia Bottomley, Baroness Camilla Cavendish, Baroness Olly Grender and Baroness Elizabeth Symons among its notable political alumnae - all very much forces to be reckoned with.  And it is not just behind the privileged walls of the Houses of Parliament that Putney’s women are being heard. Prominent journalists that found their voices at Putney include: Sophie Raworth (BBC journalist and presenter), Melanie Phillips (journalist, commentator and author or The Ascent of Women: A History of the Suffragette Movement and the Ideas Behind It) and Louise Ridley (currently News Editor at Buzzfeed News).

Girls at Putney have always had a voice and the school is proud of the platform it gives them to think for themselves, to question perceived truths, and to debate with their peers in a democratic environment. Putney takes representatives to the English Speaking Union’s Mace competition - the UK's most prestigious debating competition and last week, the school took three teams to the Cambridge Union's schools' competition to compete in British Parliamentary format, debating the merits of plea bargaining, violence in video games, women only tech companies and artificially removing fear from the minds of soldiers.

It is hard to imagine whether opportunities like these would ever have existed without the fearless campaigning of the women’s suffrage movement; as Rt Hon Baroness Virginia Bottomley of Nettlestone, Putney High School Alumna said, “There are two transformational changes in the world, one is technology and one is women.” But we should also remember that we follow proudly in the footsteps of some less well known but very local pioneers: the men who fought for civilian representation during the Putney Debates of 1647, and played a vital role in the history of our democracy. Their debates paved the way for many of the civil liberties we enjoy today.

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Learning should be thrilling - there is adventure to be had in the natural world

Originally Posted on ISC Blog: 22 Jan 2018 by Suzie Longstaff

Suzie Longstaff, headmistress at Putney High School, argues that when it comes to mental and physical health the simple act of being outside, “in nature” can have a hugely beneficial impact on both adults and children.

As adults, many of us will have had the misfortune to spend the day in what seems like a hermetically sealed, artificially lit and climate controlled office. You know what it’s like; you enter a kind of twilight zone with little awareness of the passing phases of the day or the changing weather. The intention is to focus the mind, rather than expand it, and in most learning environments, particularly schools, it is no different. Shouldn’t schools be doing more to literally “broaden horizons” rather than confine them?

When it comes to mental and physical health, it has been proven that the simple act of being outside, “in nature” can have a hugely beneficial impact on both adults and children. Aside from the obvious benefits to fitness, the sounds of nature cause the release of “the happy hormone”, serotonin, and a healthy dose of fresh air and sunlight boost absorption of vitamin D, improve lung function and improve our vision. But what impact do these factors have on a human’s ability to learn?

It is no coincidence that the corporate world makes regular use of terms such as “blue sky thinking” and thinking “outside the box”. The value of having access to the sky and its power to stimulate expansive, creative thought processes are alluded to quite rightly. Perhaps it’s because underneath all our sophistications we are, after all, animals, and since our hunter gatherer forefathers first roamed the planet, we evolved to exist outside, in the natural world.

Anyone who recalls the childhood thrill of “making mud pies” won’t need scientists to champion the benefits of freeing the imagination in a fun and relaxed environment. Why else do multi-national companies spend fortunes on “team-building days” encouraging their employees to go wild paintballing or indulging in physical and even more mud-filled activities like the “Tough Mudder” challenge?

The benefits of outdoor learning have been known about for centuries. Picture the Ancient Greeks storytelling around the fire; their oral tradition of poetic verse passing epic tales down through centuries. They were obviously doing something right, or today, publishers of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey would have very little to print.

In the 1980s, the endlessly progressive Scandinavians came up with a “Forest School” initiative for pre-school children, originally in answer to a shortage of indoor facilities. Happily, the benefit of outdoor learning has become more mainstream since then and is now widely implemented to inform the design and layout of many school buildings. As I write this, I am lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful view from the desk where I’m sitting: a green space with trees, flower beds, a nature trail and even an outdoor stage where pupils can perform their plays with the wind in their hair and a chorus of birdsong to accompany them.

The science really is there. In 2010, choir master, Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys on BBC Two worked with an Essex Primary School to demonstrate the positive impact of taking boys who were falling behind in reading, out of the confines of their class. Children do learn more effectively, show better levels of concentration and are proven to be more relaxed when taken from the scheduled, frequently screen-based world of the classroom, into the natural world.

Fresh stimuli bring enormous benefits to creative thought processes – differences in lighting, layout, temperature and scenery can have hugely positive impacts on the brain’s ability to assimilate information, to retain lessons and to learn. But how can schools implement this during an average day of lessons? Science and geography are obvious candidates, but it should go wider than that. One primary school I know brought history lessons thrillingly to life burying “artefacts” in the mud for children to “unearth”, just like real archaeologists. At Putney High School GDST, we take every opportunity to take lessons outside, portable technology like iPads, making matters so much easier. Our Outdoor Challenge week saw everything from science experiments on the lawn, to large scale drawing on the netball courts, scavenger plant hunts, bluebell planting and even an outdoor dance class.

Learning should be thrilling, and there is adventure to be had in the natural world. Risk taking, problem-solving and co-operating with classmates away from the relative safety of a carpeted classroom world, are valuable confidence builders for young people. Learning both in and from nature offers both teachers and their students a new and fresh perspective and leads to greater sensitivity to their own wellbeing and their position in the world.

So let’s do more than throwing open the windows – let’s zip up our jackets, pull on our boots and let the learning begin!

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STEMming the Gender Gap

Blog by Suzie Longstaff, originally published in HuffPost UK

In 2017, illustrator Adam Hargreaves brought the Mr Men and Little Miss series bang up to date with the creation of Little Miss Inventor. Not a moment too soon. Adam brought his father’s books tearing into the 21st Century with a bold new character ready to challenge the gender stereotypes of the workplace, complete with pencils and a spanner in her hair.

Little Miss Inventor makes a refreshing change from some of her less ambitious friends and has come at the perfect time to spark the imaginations of a whole new generation of girls. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there is a serious shortage of skilled female workers in industry, no doubt largely due to the low number of girls opting to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects at school, particularly at A Level and beyond, and yet these sectors are reportedly crying out for more applications from women.

The engineering sector is responsible for a quarter of the UK’s GDP and in order to remain competitive, it is forecast that we’ll need an estimated 1.28 million engineers in the next 10 years. So where are they to come from? Attracting young women into the industry should be the first place to start, and a top priority for us all. Astonishingly, with what is now the fourth industrial revolution already firmly underway, today only 8% of engineers are women, just a fraction higher than the 6% of a century ago.

Initiatives like the WISE campaign are already making a difference but there is no doubt that engineering has suffered from a bit of an image problem when it comes to attracting women. Going largely unnoticed, how often do we stop to think how engineering is all around us? It makes the world work and yet ironically stays very much under the radar until, heaven forbid, something actually goes wrong.

A recent survey in the Independent newspaper revealed that women and girls are naturally better at collaborative problem-solving than their male peers. Well aware of this fact, at Putney High School GDST we are encouraging the many girls who study sciences to put their abilities to good use, looking at STEM careers with fresh eyes. Part of the task is reinforcing the message that these careers draw not only on skills from maths, science or engineering; their beauty lies equally in the way that they are reliant on innovation, entrepreneurship and creative thinking.

Today’s engineers are just as likely to be involved in sophisticated product design, making advances in robotic surgery, DNA analysis machines and agricultural modernisation, as they are in designing and building bridges. The applications are quite literally endless, and what more exciting challenge than to create and develop the products of the future? We owe it to girls to give them access to 3D printers and CAD in schools, but more than that, we must forge links with the industries that are looking so keenly to recruit. Let’s offer students the opportunity to see the application of science and engineering in some of the world’s most impressive settings. Visits to NASA, Imperial College and Williams F1 have been invaluable for the pupils at Putney High School who have been inspired to go further with their STEM studies, having had the chance to see engineering applied, in a real world setting.

As educators, we must do more to open not only eyes but also the doors to a whole realm of opportunity within these exciting fields. Together let’s make sure that Little Miss Inventor is just the tip of the iceberg and set in motion the radical redress of the gender balance that the world of innovation deserves.

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Seasons of Goodwill

Amid the Christmas traditions of peace and charity, at Putney, our commitment to social responsibility and the community of which we are a part, is at the forefront of our minds. Opportunities to contribute, to volunteer and to collaborate with local schools, hospitals and residents are fundamental to developing our students’ sense of empathy and what better way to learn that academic achievement should go hand-in-hand with moral purpose. Offering a thorough grounding in “life”, being “down-to-earth” and promoting these values throughout the year is something which we all hold dear, but what better time to remember this than during the “season of goodwill”.

CARING

Senior Citizen’s Party

This Tuesday, on the coldest winter day, we welcomed senior citizens from the surrounding area to join us for our bi-annual Senior Citizens’ Party. Men and women from local centres joined girls from Years 8 and 11 for tea, cakes and to chat, sing carols and listen to other musical performances. Good will was felt by one and all as girls distributed the assembled gifts at the end of the afternoon - what better way to welcome in the spirit of Christmas?

Young Readers

Sharing their passion for books and storytelling, pupils in Years 12 and 13 have been promoting a love of reading in younger children, volunteering at Granard and Ronald Ross Primary Schools to support those in Year 1 and above in their reading. Following specialist training, our girls have been improving the children’s skills by developing their understanding of phonics. “It is really rewarding seeing week on week the children becoming confident and improving as a consequence of the support you give them,” Year 12 student.

Environment

This week the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 drew all our attention to the plight of the world’s oceans and the devastating effects of our overuse of plastic. As a rowing school, and now with our own boathouse at Putney Embankment, one keen rower in Year 10 has been taking matters into her own hands, spearheading a campaign to clean up the River Thames. Donning rubber gloves, Darcey Boyle has been removing the numerous plastic bags and discarded bottles that litter the water’s edge. Actions speak louder than words!

SHARING

As educators, we appreciate the enormous importance of sharing knowledge and opportunity.  Throughout the year we seek ways to strengthen our relationships with local schools and the wider community, sometimes through volunteering or outreach projects and often by inviting external pupils to join us at events at Putney High.

Following our successful drama and music workshops, our Cool to be Clever programme, in partnership with Roehampton University, has seen girls from Year 12 mentoring Gifted and Talented children from local primary schools. These children have joined us for masterclasses in everything from Maths code-breaking to prototype building in Design Technology, and even app building in a special computer science class. Watch this space for the next brilliant collaboration.

Earlier this term, local state schools, Ark Putney and The Priory C of E, took part in our PIE₂ day, part of the Putney Ideas Exchange; an entire day off timetable spent indulging our curiosities and learning about “cool stuff” just for its own sake. Our Performing Arts Centre also played host to local primary schools, Granard, Brandlehow and Hotham who joined us to hear an exciting talk from children’s author, Robin Stevens about her latest book, The Gugghenheim Mystery.

GIVING

Charity fundraising opportunities are many and varied at Putney with girls both enthusiastic and adept when it comes to raising money for a good cause. National campaigns such as Jeans for Genes are always met with huge enthusiasm and our Harvest Festivals raise money for Regenerate RISE and Wandsworth Foodbank, local initiatives that we are proud to support.

One of the highlights of the Christmas term, this year’s Sixth Form Fair raised over a thousand pounds to be split between the school’s House charities: 50 cent period, Stop the Traffik, Duchenne UK and Save the Children and this Friday and there will no doubt be much hilarity as teachers and students pay their pounds to don Christmas jumpers and enjoy a Christmas lunch together to celebrate the end of term.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you for a happy 2018.

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Don’t be non-plussed by the 11+

Next week we will open the doors of Putney High School to the hundreds of girls who have expressed interest in joining the senior school. The simple fact that we like to meet and chat with every girl who has applied, before she comes for the exam, is a logistical exercise in itself, but we wouldn’t miss it for the world, as it gives us a real chance to meet your daughter before the January entrance exams.

We’re often asked for our advice on how to make the process less daunting. Here are our top tips!

The interview

1.      Be prepared. Avoid last minute panics by making sure you are familiar with your best transport options. Consider it a dry run of how your daughter would travel to school, and allow plenty of time for unforeseen hold-ups.

2.      Take a deep breath.

Calm parents mean calm children. Our interviews are friendly and informal and we like to think that we’re experts at putting 10 and 11 year olds at their ease, even the seemingly most reticent ones.

3.      Be down to earth. We are looking for girls who will be happy here, and we are as interested to hear them chat confidently about a favourite pet, or a rain-soaked camping holiday, as about an impressive list of hobbies and achievements.

4.      Interested is interesting. Being able to communicate a spirit of curiosity and an interest not only in our school, but also in the world around, is a great place to start.

The exam

1.      No surprises. And no gimmicks! Our exams focus simply on English and Maths – familiar topics that your children will already have been learning at school. The English paper allows children to show us their creative thought and writing ability. The Mathematics paper assesses core skills learned across the curriculum at prep and primary schools.

And finally

1.      Keep things in perspective. We truly believe that the right child and the best school, tend to find one another. If your daughter is inquisitive, keen to learn and has the spirit to succeed, there is a very good chance that she will!

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The world is moving East - time to teach Arabic

Originally Posted on ISC Blog: 28 Nov 2017 by Suzie Longstaff

The world is getting smaller. Advances in digital technology have brought us all closer together, bridging boundaries and offering levels of opportunity that we have never known before. So, as the barriers to the global economy come down, the need for shared language is more crucial than ever in fostering understanding, successful trade negotiation, and even global security, isn’t it? So how ironic that at this crucial time, concern should be growing over what has been called a ‘crisis in the teaching of modern languages in British schools’; language experts warning of a chronic shortage of language skills among young people and new figures showing a decline in take-up at GCSE.

At Putney High School GDST we are delighted to be bucking the trend and from 2018, we will actually be expanding our Modern Language provision to add Arabic (the fourth most important language for job opportunities according to the British Council) and Italian, to an existing offering of French and Spanish, German and Mandarin. Spoken by over 400 million people, Arabic is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is a beautiful, rich and sophisticated language which allows us to explore the incredible wealth of art, literature and science of the Arab-Islamic civilisation, not just in translation, but as it was originally written. Challenging and rewarding in equal measure the study of this complex and poetic language brings not only enormous career advantages, but is a sheer joy as an end in itself.

Astonishingly, as investment and opportunity both move East, Arabic is currently being taught in less than 1% of British Schools, and there is no doubt that Mandarin Chinese, although now taught more widely, needs to be available in more schools. Certainly in the wake of Brexit, being monolingual in a multilingual world is no longer an option if we want our children to succeed in an increasingly competitive job market. Teaching these increasingly prominent languages is surely the first important step to be made in expanding our horizons, opening minds, and promoting a more global outlook in our young people.

There are more than 40 languages spoken in our senior school alone, and with large numbers of native speakers living in the local area we have for several years had a burgeoning bilingual programme to accompany our language curriculum provision. It has been proven that the learning of a foreign language brings enormous cognitive benefits so, unfashionable as Modern Language options may have become, schools must do more to halt this decline where they can.

Let’s give this subject the focus it deserves and champion the specific and transferable skills that language learning has to offer. Languages are key to understanding the culture and history of other societies, and just as the study of history should inform the politics of the present, so the study of languages will be key to the peace and prosperity of all our futures. As the Arabic language boasts 11 words for “love”, I can think of no better place to start.

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Intellectual Curiosity - Digesting the Digital Diet Featured blog by Suzie Longstaff

HuffPost UK (09/11/17) 

Being curious enough to ask the right questions of our 21st century digital world is more important than ever. Having a limitless diet of information at our fingertips is all very well, but it brings with it the potential hazard of consuming media like junk food; unhealthy and lacking in nutrition. How can we help young people to discern fact from fiction, real news from ‘fake news’ and understand how data can be manipulated, misreported and decontextualized? Schools must play a vital role in the development of their students’ intellectual curiosity and help them to learn the skills to question and challenge the ‘truths’ they come across every day.

Credible journalism and academic authority are now relatively loose concepts, as at the touch of a button, anyone can become a published authority on just about anything and, with a little bit of media savvy, make it readily accessible to the masses. School-aged students today have a smorgasbord of resources available to them that go well beyond the confines of the classroom, some less appetising than others and from very dubious origins. Where once we’d head to the library to feed our curious minds, students today can access an estimated 1.8 billion websites and data sources, everything from Buzzfeed and Wikipedia to viral social media content and YouTube “how to” videos; the options are endless. School will always be the most fundamental part of the learning journey, teaching students not only ‘how and what to learn’ but crucially, providing a toolkit of skills with which to properly navigate and digest an increasingly broad diet of information. But how do we develop those skills?

Encouraging inquisitive, innovative thinking is absolutely key. Freeing our minds from the confines of the everyday is one of the best ways to explore intellectual horizons. School initiatives which actually step outside the academic curriculum are essential if we are to stimulate the most expansive and fertile thinking. Indulging curiosities and learning cool and intriguing stuff just for the fun of it, is valuable in itself. It’s the mind-bending, seemingly unanswerable questions like “where in the brain is the self” that really get the synapses firing.

 As one of the most curious intellectuals, Albert Einstein advised over half a century ago “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing”. Einstein’s advice is as relevant today as it was then. Students need to be creative, inquisitive thinkers; problem-solvers, able to keep afloat in the rough seas of digital media, and unafraid to tackle and examine the ‘truths’ that pervade all of our lives. These are the qualities that will give our children the edge to succeed in their future learning, to have real appetite for the lessons life has to offer, and the confidence to consume boldly but with caution.

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US Universities Half Term Trip

At Putney, we pride ourselves on helping our sixth formers find the course and institution that best suits their ambition and talents. Given the academic achievement and intellectual ambition of our girls, it is no surprise that most go on to the best universities in the world and this of course includes the USA.

We have all heard of the Ivy League. Universities like Yale, Harvard and their non-Ivy colleague for STEM subjects, MIT, are names that conjure awe and admiration on both sides of the Atlantic. But you may not know that the United States boasts around 2,000 universities and colleges, in comparison to only around 130 in Great Britain. This of course means that the potential ‘top-tier’ that students might apply for is much larger and for those that think globally in their aspirations, the opportunities are immense.

According to the Fulbright Commission, which fosters educational links between the UK and the US, there are around 11,600 British students currently studying in these institutions and the number is growing thanks in part to an increasing awareness in the UK of what is on offer, combined with a number of enticing scholarships - some of the most well-known American universities offer generous financial aid to make them more accessible.

This October half term, a group of intrepid Putney sixth formers will be venturing “across the pond” on a tour of some of the top universities that the USA has to offer. They will be ably accompanied by our dedicated US Universities Coordinator, Susan van der Linden, who has helped to organise private campus tours and information sessions at Harvard, MIT, Tufts University and Northeastern among others.

The trip isn’t a purely academic one, as the girls attending are all keen rowers and will no doubt be excited to see how the facilities on offer compare with Putney’s own boathouse on a prime stretch of the River Thames. They will be taking part as an eight in the 53rd Head Of The Charles race, an event which attracts over 11,000 top athletes from around the world. But aside from an enviable education, fantastic opportunity and obvious kudos, what is the real appeal of a US university?

‘Not having to specialise too early’ is one major attraction of the US college system, explains Susan. ‘In the first two years, you are able to study an array of subjects before narrowing down to your ‘major’ at the end of your second year’. So called, ‘Liberal Arts’ colleges are a great choice for many Putney students as they offer a strong foundation in skills like writing and critical thinking; their aim being to impart a  broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capacities, rather than simply preparing students to fill more defined professional, vocational, or technical roles.

This is an appealing concept to anyone with broad academic interests and after all, isn’t success at life about finding out, not only who you are, but what you are really passionate about?

What can they expect when it comes to the application process? In its advice to undergraduates, the Tufts University in Massachusetts advises applicants to, “Think outside the box as you answer the following questions. Take a risk and go somewhere unexpected”.

Here are two examples of their recent essay questions:

1.       ‘There is a Quaker saying: “Let your life speak.” Describe the environment in which you were raised – your family, home, neighborhood, or community – and how it influenced the person you are today’. (200–250 words) 

2.       ‘In a time when we’re always plugged in (and sometimes tuned out), tell us about a time when you listened, truly listened, to a person or a cause. How did that moment change you?’

Questions to strike terror into many hearts, but hopefully not for Putney pupils, for whom original thinking is a concept they are entirely familiar with. Last week, the whole senior school took part in PIE₂, part of the school’s Putney Ideas Exchange programme and a day intended entirely to push the boundaries of thought far beyond the confines of the school curriculum. Visitors such as University Challenge’s polymath, Bobby Seagull reminded us all of the importance of curiosity, and how we should strive to be “the best version of ourselves” and above all, to “say ‘yes’ to opportunity”.

The Harvard website champions an education focussed on both knowing and doing, one that “fosters intellectual risk-taking …Our students leave here and exert ripples across the world.” Rakesh Khurana, Dean of Harvard. These are bold assertions indeed, ones that will no doubt inspire Putney sixth formers who are well on the way to becoming independent thinkers in their own right, with the support of fortnightly Critical Thinking lectures from experts as diverse as: adventurer, Anna McDuff and neuroscientist, Dr Bhavana Solanky; designed to stimulate and inspire them to be fearless in their intellectual curiosity.

At our PIE₂ day, one of the many inspiring guest speakers, conductor and music educator, Suzi Digby OBE, reminded us that, “It’s the opportunities we don’t take which are the ones we regret.” So as our would-be American students prepare to pack their bags and venture into an educational Wild West, let’s remind them of an important Putney maxim and one which Suzi summed up so beautifully in her talk last week, “Be brilliant and go beyond your horizons.”

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Digital Technology can be a Force for Good in the Classroom

Featured blog by Suzie Longstaff

HuffPost UK (09/10/17)

“Digital Detox” is a phrase that we hear more and more, instantly conjuring up loss of control, fear of addiction and imposed periods of “cold turkey”. As parents, many of us are still beginners in this brave new digital world and rather than empowering our youth to blaze trails into the modern age, our suspicion of Snapchat and general fear of the unknown lead us to restrict or even reject these influences as we see them encroach further into our children’s lives.

It’s easy to see why the accessibility of technology can be a cause for concern. Bullies, predators and other nasties do exist in the cyber world, just as they do in the natural one. But while some try to combat the influence of social media and the demon “screen time” on pupils (banning phones and switching off Wi-Fi are two solutions that have been tried), at Putney High School GDST we have adopted a more 21st Century approach. We actively embrace technology as a force for good, incorporating technology in many aspects of their learning and wellbeing.

It’s not just about gadgets and gizmos; digital is fast becoming the language of the age and one in which we must all be literate. All girls at Putney High School learn to code and use Swift playgrounds, an incredibly powerful app which brings their ideas to life. It’s the same platform which was used to create applications like Duolingo and AirBnB. In years 10 and 11, students gain experience with professional programming language C# and the whole school gets involved in a “tech start-up” day. High-tech careers have for a long time tended to be male dominated, at Putney High we are aiming to change that.

What of the virtual world? No longer restricted to the realms of entertainment, the applications of VR are enormous, and schools can incorporate exciting technology into their lessons. Learning by doing, is after all, one of the most effective and neglected methods of learning. Just as an airline pilot will train in a simulator before being let loose with a plane full of passengers, VR allows access to global resources and immersive learning experiences with which to experiment, tackle problems, and take risks, in a virtual environment, free from fear. What a wonderful way to help students develop into curious, resilient and resourceful adults.

A recent article in the Telegraph offered “survival tips for parents on the technology battlefield” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/screens-teens-survival-tips-parents-technology-battlefield/. The “battlefield” metaphor is a telling one. As parents we are right to worry about the amount of screen time we allow our children and the teenage years can be fraught with anxiety without the additional pressures of social media, but should blame be laid so squarely at the digital door?

The need to connect in social groups has existed since humans first walked the earth. Most of us want to be liked and to form friendships, and psychologists agree that this kind affirmation is important for our mental health. Social media is just one of many channels through which we all do this and as adults, we must set a good example and equip young people with the information and skills to use technology responsibly. I believe that by teaching good practice and embedding key IT skills in the classroom, we can embrace technology as our friend here.

At Putney, the wellbeing of our students is at the heart of everything we do that’s why we are adopting a positive approach. As part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, we are working with experts in psychological health, the Positive Group, to spearhead the use of an app-based digital toolkit that helps teachers and pupils to monitor and even retrain their emotions, developing positive habits of mind, improved social Wi-Fi and a shared language with which to better communicate both in the classroom, and also the wider world.

When applied in an intelligent way, technology really can be a force for good, improving levels of academic attainment and helping us all to ride the peaks and troughs of everyday life with greater control.

So let’s all engage with the app generation. The online realm is a challenging one but we must equip young people with the skills to explore it with confidence. It is the responsibility of parents and teachers to cast aside their suspicion, and to actively support children as they navigate these uncharted waters, for their own happy futures, and our own.

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The Wonder of Curiosity

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning” William Arthur Ward

Let’s be honest, school is just the beginning, the start of what will hopefully be a lifetime of absorbing and enjoying a wealth of worldly wisdom. Curiosity about life in all its aspects is something to be treasured and encouraged and yet with the pressures of exams it can be so easy to get bogged down with learning, rather than truly excited by it.

Academic attainment is of course a key element of life at Putney High School, but debate, discussion and innovative thinking should all be vital ingredients in every teacher’s toolkit if we are to avoid a one-dimensional, ‘teaching to the test’ approach.

Happily, at Putney, the spirit of ambition is heavily underpinned by a healthy love of learning. Being genuinely open to new ideas and learning to think independently are key elements of that. Yes, our students are bright, bold and ambitious, but we also encourage them to be intellectually curious and genuinely interested to examine the world from a wider viewpoint.

That’s why on Monday 9 October, we will be offering the senior school an opportunity to “bunk off” the usual timetable in favour of a day of learning what can only be described as ‘cool stuff’, and learning it purely for its own sake. Entitled “PIE₂” the event forms part of the school’s ‘Putney Ideas Exchange’ programme and is intended to be an innovative and entirely different learning experience, designed to push the boundaries of thought and the confines of the school curriculum.

It promises to be a truly inspirational day, with all the students and staff of the Senior School freed to indulge their curiosities and engage in a learning experience unlike any other, and it's not just Putney High School students who will benefit; two local state schools (Ark Putney and The Priory C of E) will be joining us in our discoveries.

The morning will begin with a keynote speech by renowned lecturer and broadcaster, Susan Blackmore, expert in memes, evolutionary theory and consciousness among other things. Students will be treated to an array of workshops, panel debates and guest experts from worlds as diverse as Arts leadership, cyber security, Bollywood dancing, investment banking and even sushi making! All the action will be live streamed and there will be an opportunity for students to submit questions via a video booth, as well as a whole host of interactive activities online. Organiser, Pippa Wadey, Head of Learning and Enrichment, said, “We want to cater to the interests and strengths of all our students and present a series of inspirational industry leaders who will introduce them to a range of challenging ideas.”

PIE₂ will give our students the chance to face unanswerable questions and to explore ideas they've never encountered before. It’s about broadening horizons; helping them to become original thinkers: inquisitive, intellectually curious and with a love of learning, simply for the sake of it. These are the qualities that will give our children the edge to succeed in their future learning, and the confidence they will need to embark in a world where facts are there to be challenged and new truths are to be made.

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Those who can...teach

It’s an old adage and one that is so often mindlessly trotted out when discussing the teaching profession: “Those who can do, those who can’t teach”.  We have George Bernard Shaw to thank for this beguiling piece of nonsense, first voiced in his play Man and Superman, 1903 - but quite why it has become such a fixture in commonly used rhetoric is a mystery to us.

At Putney High School  those who can, do in fact TEACH. You only have to look at the extra-curricular achievements of just a few members of our talented teaching staff...

Novel Inspiration

When she is not teaching creative writing at Putney, English teacher and Extended Project Qualification Coordinator, Rebecca Wait is an accomplished novelist. Author of The View on the Way Down (Picador, 2013) and The Followers (Picador, May 2015) Miss Wait is currently working on a hotly anticipated, third novel.

Here are just a few of the comments made about her recent work: ‘Wonderfully written… highly sensitive… thought-provoking… ultimately uplifting.’ ~ The Bookseller and ‘…a great surging shout of a novel.’ ~ Guardian

Olympic Role Models

Not only is our Headmistress Suzie Longstaff an ex-Olympic Cox but did you know that our part--time rowing performance coach, Jessica Eddie is herself an Olympic silver medallist?

She was part of the first-ever GB women's eight to win both an Olympic medal and European title in 2016.

Triathlon Triumphs

This summer, Lori Westcott from our PE Department competed in the Lanzarote 70.3, widely known as the toughest on the ironman circuit (Half Ironman distance Triathlon - 1900m swim, 91k bike and 21k run). She qualified for the World 70.3 Championships in South Africa next summer , not only winning her age group but beating the professionals to come 15th overall.

“Lanzarote was by far the toughest race I have done to date, purely because of the 30 degree heat, 1800m elevation on the bike course and 30mph winds. However, the toughest races make you stronger and challenge you the most.,”she says

Getting Creative

Putney Art Teacher, and practising artist, Nigel Murray studied illustration at Harrow School of Art and Art History at Camberwell. He has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions and will be showing recent paintings as part of the Wandsworth Artists' Open House event on the weekend of the 7 - 8 October at Putney Methodist Church, SW15 6SN. Open 11am - 6pm.     

Award-winning Learning and Research

Putney High School considers itself to be more than just a teaching establishment; it is a centre for learning and research, with teachers who are constantly engaged in their own learning. We have just been celebrating Putney’s success in the Inaugural GDST Impact Awards where Pippa Wadey (Head of Learning and Research at Putney High School) won firstplace in the Senior schools section for a project to encourage collaboration and debate within the classroom. Highly commended entries were also made by Putney’s Justyna Sokolowska (Head of Learning Enrichment and PHSE) for her work on Peer Mediation, Antony Barton (Acting Head of English) on the relevance and impact of the Key Stage 3 grading system, and Jo Jones (Key Stage 1 coordinator) for her project entitled Curiosity, Collaboration and Empathy.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, most of our teachers are  busily immersed in an impressive combination of ‘doing’ and ‘teaching’. A pleasing sign that at Putney, the barometer of success is set reassuringly high.

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Sixth Form Scholarships – Adventures in Beijing

Friday 20 October is the deadline for applications for our Sixth Form Scholarships.

Amongst our scholarships are the innovative Elsa Maud Plant awards, which enable students to travel abroad to further their studies in either Sciences or Modern Foreign Languages.

This summer, Year 13 student and Elsa Maud Plant bequest recipient, Tatiana Cooke travelled to China to volunteer in a Beijing orphanage. Tatiana was keen to experience Chinese culture first hand and to reinforce her A level studies in Mandarin.

She was awarded the coveted scholarship (available to girls studying Modern Languages and/or Science at A level) on the basis of her desire to complete a research project on the impact of China’s One-Child Policy and its relaxation into a Two-Child Policy in 2016.

During her stay in Beijing, Tatiana became an invaluable addition to the staff at the orphanage, assisting the 20 children - many of whom had disabilities - and using her recently acquired TEFL qualifications to give the children English classes each morning, reading to them in both English and Mandarin.

“The best part of my trip was definitely seeing the children everyday who were all so lovely and welcomed me into their family, calling me jiejie (older sister). However, I did have some low points, especially when I accidentally mistook the Mandarin characters on a menu and ordered chicken cartilage instead of chicken kebabs.” Tatiana Cooke

She will be telling us more about her experiences in the next issue of the Putney High School Magazine but in the meantime, if you are inspired by Tatiana’s experience and would like to apply for the next Elsa Maud Plant scholarship, click here to find out more.