Oluwatobiloba Apesin (Head Girl) and Scarlet Stokes (Deputy Head Girl, Operations)

On Monday, our new Girls’ Leadership Group (GLG) attended a Leadership Day delivered by inspiring members of alumnae community, who are all leading professionals in their sectors.

During the Leadership Day, we had a morning workshop and engaging talks from BGS alumnae, Rose Gledhill (DAHS 1979), Ros Ball (BHS 1996) and Fiyin Faye (BHS 2002), who gave us valuable insight into leadership skills, public speaking and how to work well as a team. We also heard from previous members of the GLG who reflected on their time and shared their words of wisdom with us all: many of us remembered them and looked up to them when we were small.

We are so grateful that these women gave up their time to help us prepare ourselves for the GLG journey. In the evening, we met with the students who previously had our roles, this was a great opportunity to learn more of what the job entailed, and what they had achieved in their tenure. The day was a great time for the GLG to better get to know each other and discuss how we would like to leave our mark on BGS. It was really encouraging to see everyone’s enthusiasm for their roles and we cannot wait to work alongside them all.

Prior to our activities afternoon at Cople on Thursday, we had to organise an afternoon for the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and outgoing GLG. Incoming Head Girl, Oluwatobiloba Apesin, explained the task at hand: “We were excited about the huge task of delivering an afternoon tea in such a short space of time. We planned out what we were to have, deciding on kebabs, samosas, fruits, cake, sandwiches and mini pizzas to have for the day. I then meticulously budgeted what we were going to buy, creating an incredible, and may I say impressive, spreadsheet detailing what was to be bought and from where. Thankfully, the spreadsheet was followed and we managed to get everything whilst staying on budget, in fact being almost £10-£20 under budget for what I had initially calculated for food. We were all happy and excited for the final day to arrive."

“On Thursday we set off to Cople, ingredients in hand. The moment we got there, we began prepping for the afternoon tea. We then took a little break and did some zorbing, which was really fun and really brought out some healthy competitiveness. Soon after we were serving the afternoon tea to the outgoing GLG and SLT and although slightly worried about how they were going to react to the food, it was really nice to find that they enjoyed what was made." 

“Overall, this past week has been both insightful and fun and has made me really look forward to the year ahead. I can’t wait to work alongside the amazing GLG and this is only the start to what will be a fantastic year!”