Coping with and responding to the challenges of contemporary society needs to be an increasingly important part of the role of education today. I believe it is the most significant way in which we help prepare girls to 'respond to the needs of the age' in true Cornelian fashion. This year has seen us working more closely with the Self Esteem Team. We have been involving primary and prep schools, together with current girls, staff and parents to look at ways in which we can help girls deal with the challenges they face today. They are bombarded by the media, social networking and ‘fomo’, not to mention the prevailing superfluity of choices and the undermining and or challenging of hitherto unquestioned certainties. We want to give our girls the tools to support themselves and each other and be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to awareness of mental health – from understanding triggers and early signs, to looking after themselves and others.


Mayfield continues to sponsor the Charleston festival and this year we were offered Tamara Rojo as our key note speaker. I have to admit that initially I was sceptical: a girls' school sponsoring a ballerina seemed a little clichéd. How wrong I was and how completely misplaced my concerns. Tamara Rojo, artistic director and principal dancer of the English National Ballet, was a revelation! Far from being predictable about rote learning, hard work, commitment and pain, she outlined her frustration at the lack of vision and creativity in ballet. She bemoaned the fact that, although dancers were very good at copying the moves and mimicking exactly the classic roles, when Tamara wanted them to embody their own version of the characters, to give them a modern and personal interpretation, her dancers struggled. She wants them to understand the history and inspiration of the ballet in which they are performing: to learn about its political, artistic, and musical context. That, it would appear, is outside a dancer’s comfort zone.


Having failed Grade 2, I do not consider myself a dancer, but I felt she was a kindred spirit! She shares many of the challenges we face dealing with the current education system. Britain is in danger of producing a generation of students who are good at jumping through hoops and while able to replicate perfect sample answers, can’t necessarily think on their feet and adapt the knowledge and skills they have to respond to new situations. We have to fight against this. Girls need to make mistakes. Too much focus on the final, polished product and not enough on coping with failure and rejection, restricts real progress and doesn’t prepare girls to respond to the needs of the age. Which is, after all, one of the reasons why Mayfield is here. This is the reason why we will continue to place so much emphasis on creative and performing arts, and humanities complementing sciences at Mayfield. Cornelia was ahead of her time in celebrating the importance of art in the curriculum.


One of the reasons she placed so much emphasis on drawing is because it requires us to take the time to look, to look in great detail and to look beyond ourselves. It doesn’t matter so much what you produce: there is greater value in the process of observation. Cornelia also valued creative and performing arts (and it is equally applicable to sport) I think, for the potential they afforded to make mistakes: to produce a great piece of art - be it drama, ceramics or music - you have to go through many iterations, different approaches and hours of practise, but even that does not guarantee success. Understanding that is more useful than a clutch of A*s.


It was a delight to welcome a number of creative and entrepreneurial OCs to our Charleston event and to see different generations building relationships – both personal and professional – and sharing experiences. It always gives me great pleasure to see how well you all get on together. The scale and diversity of your achievements never fail to impress me and I am very much looking forward to our next meeting! Until then……


Miss Antonia Beary Headmistress


The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2017


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