It’s lovely to be back after a refreshing week’s holiday. In the middle of this hectic term, it was really special to be able to spend some time with my family. I hope that you had a chance to relax together. Many of our Italian students spent the week in Sorrento, honing their language skills and sampling the wonderful culture and cuisine.

With just five weeks until we break up for Easter, this is an especially busy period at Queenswood. International Women’s Day is approaching, and we have been thinking about gender equality, with particular emphasis on the workplace. I would like to thank the many parents and Old Queenswoodians who took the time to complete our anonymous ‘Dads4Daughters’ survey. The results have been shared with over 20 GSA schools that are participating in the initiative, and we look forward to publishing the findings at our forthcoming Careers Convention on Wednesday 15 March. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the parents and OQs who will be giving presentations on a wide range of professions at the convention.

As I’m sure you’re aware, Thursday 2 March is World Book Day, and Mrs Truran (librarian) and the English department are organising a fantastic range of activities to celebrate over the coming weeks. There will be writing competitions, a contest to design a book token, a special poetry workshop, sales of books old and new, and a promotion to launch the Carnegie Medal longlist in the Library. I am so pleased that Queenswood girls and staff are such enthusiastic and voracious readers.

As ever, it’s a busy time for our sportswomen. The Inter-House swimming competition on Tuesday 21 February was a real success, and I was honoured to present the trophy to Clapham North. Meanwhile, our Tennis team are making their final preparations for the World Schools Tennis Finals in Brazil. They fly out to Recife on March 8, and they have been gaining plenty of coverage in the press and on local radio. We are so excited for them as they look to build on the success of the 2013 team, who made it all the way to the final against Turkey. Look out for the latest news from Brazil on Twitter, Instagram and the website.

Earlier this month our musicians were extremely fortunate to visit the world-famous Angel Studios in Islington to record tracks for a new CD. I have now heard some of the rough mixes, and the standard of performance is incredible.

Following the great success of last month’s House Performing Arts Competition, I’m looking forward to many more theatrical performances this half term. The GCSE and A2 Drama students will be presenting their final practical assessments in the next couple of weeks, and our many talented dancers will be in action in 1,2,3…Dance on Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 March.

Finally, it has been a real pleasure to meet parents of Year 11 girls at our informal breakfast sessions, and I am really enjoying the dinner parties for parents of Year 10 girls. I’m also delighted to be visiting St Joseph’s in the Park, one of our feeder schools, on Friday 24 February to deliver an assembly. I love getting out to our feeder schools and meeting as many children, families and head teachers as possible.