Headmistress: Mrs Caroline Jordan MA (Oxon)

                                               Prize Giving Speech 2019

Members of Council, Ladies and gentlemen, pupils – welcome to our annual Prize Giving
ceremony.

It has been a truly fantastic year at Headington and, as always, there is a huge amount for us to
celebrate together today.

This time of year can be a nervous one for girls who’ve sat their public examinations. The wait will
be over tomorrow for our IB girls – our largest ever cohort of 36 – and we are confident they have
achieved results they can be proud of. Our A Level girls, too, who will have to wait until August to
find out how they have fared, have put in an immense amount of hard work and should enjoy their
summer knowing they have done all they can. I am pleased to be able to tell you that our leavers
this year have received an impressive 550 offers from 87 institutions around the world, covering
more than 60 subjects. These include 70 for Economics, Management and finance-related
degrees, 31 for Psychology, 20 for Architecture and 13 for Medicine and Veterinary Science. Over
a third of the cohort will go on to read STEM subjects at university and overseas offers include
Hong Kong University, UCLA, Rutgers and Groningen. We are particularly pleased, in our Year of
Languages, that our leavers received 25 offers for Languages and Linguistics. We are excited for
each and every one of them.

Last year we took the unusual step of screening a Football match during our Foundation Day, as
the men’s team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup. We are again in the midst of a world
championship and it has been fantastic to see the England Women’s Football Team reaching the
semi-finals for a second consecutive World Championship. It is so exciting to see so much
attention and engagement around top-level women’s sport. When I look at your daughters, I see so
many passionate, gifted young sportswomen. Individually we have seen girls competing at a
national level in Netball, Hockey, Swimming, Biathlon, Karate, Show Jumping, Rowing and
Fencing. Our U13 Football team headed to the national finals for the second year running,
finishing eighth in the country. Alongside these elite athletes I see more girls taking part at all
levels, finding a sport they love and which will help keep them happy and healthy throughout their
lives. They have even inspired some of us as staff to get involved.

In a school like Headington, which draws girls from all over the world, from different cultures,
religions and communities, there are, unsurprisingly, lots of contrasting and conflicting views on
issues which are really important to the girls in question. It is vital that your daughters learn to hear
from those who have a different standpoint and treat their views respectfully, regardless of whether
they agree with them or not. This could be about issues here in Europe – where we certainly have
lots of wildly different opinions on the future of the UK going forward - or in the Far East or indeed
anywhere in the world. With continued uncertainty over Brexit – when it will happen, what it might
mean now and in five or ten years’ time, what our future relations with both the EU and the rest of

Headington School, Oxford OX3 7TD
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