Having now spent a year as headmistress of St Helen and St Katharine, Abingdon, it is a good time to reflect on my first impressions and compare them to my subsequent experience of the school.

Immediately, the buildings and facilities took my attention. Bright, well-designed, stylish, immaculately maintained and presented, the grounds and buildings are undoubtedly impressive.

Soon to be enhanced by the ambitious, beautiful new £6m library and ICT centre — due to open in January — my feeling continues to be that the girls are extremely fortunate and very well served by their outstanding surroundings.

However, my overriding sense of St Helen’s was of a school full of enthusiastic, lively girls who were interested in learning both within and beyond the classroom.

But there was more to this. I asked one sixth former what she thought might sum up a ‘typical St Helen’s girl’ and, after some consideration, she said she thought St Helen’s was ‘a school that refused to stereotype’.

This remark, more than any other, has stayed with me, not only because it illustrated that St Helen’s girls have the confidence to state their own opinion clearly and concisely, but because it has proved to be true.

Pupils are guided by open-minded staff who encourage girls to express themselves through an interesting curriculum and a host of extracurricular clubs, ranging from modern dance to debating and jewellerymaking to natural history.

Every girl is given the space to be their own person and to find their own niche. Yes, the school achieves excellent academic results, produces outstanding musicians, sportswoman and actors.

But behind that is a breadth of activities and flexible approach to teaching that makes St Helen’s a school full of broad-minded, independent young women with the confidence to make their own way in the world beyond school.

I do hope you would like to look around for yourself. I am sure you will be impressed.

Rowan Edbrooke, headmistress