‘An education should inspire, and that’s exactly what mine did. It taught me to believe that I was just as worthy as anyone else of success in any field I should choose.’
Our annual Speech Night is an evening designed to celebrate and acknowledge the outstanding achievements of our girls. This year at our 125th Speech Night we celebrated as a community all that has been built over the School’s proud history and looked forward with anticipation of what the future may hold.
Our guest speaker for the evening had a familiar face to many in our community. Old Grammarian Grace Joel was the School Captain in 2015, and her first official speech as School Captain was at Speech Night 2014.
Grace is in her final year at Oxford University reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Balliol College. Her time at Oxford has solidified her strong passion in development economics and public policy, which she hopes to pursue in a Masters Degree next year and in her career beyond education.
She has been an active participant in the Oxford Union during her time at University and also took up rowing at Oxford, going on to row in the Lightweight Women’s Oxford-Cambridge Boat Races this year.
Grace travelled from her home at Oxford University to provide the address. She left the audience in awe with her speech touching on issues of gender equality and empowerment.
We are delighted to share with you a video of her speech from the evening, as well as her presentation at Speech Night 2014 – as you’ll see, though she has matured and developed over the years, Grace’s passion, conviction and beliefs are unwavering.