Last Friday 16 Year 13 girls received arts, sports and academic honours awards at the Combined Honours Assembly.

Academic honours were awarded to Ruby Anderson, Elizabeth André, Adeline Chau, Ailing Liu, Sophie McClean and Milly O'Brien.  Ashleigh Benson and Katie Ellis received an additional award for academic honours after also receiving honours last year.

For sport Charlotte Bush received honours in touch, Katie Ellis in archery, Lucy Jenkins in rugby sevens and touch, Amelia Persson in athletics, cross country and multi sport and Mia Thomson in volleyball.

In the arts, Ruby Anderson  for drama, Poppy Cox in dance, Virginia Macdonald in drama, Sophie McClean for dance and Emily Stewart and Izzie van der Hoorn  for drama. 

SMC Old Girl Kirsten Aldridge was the guest speaker. Kirsten left school in 1997 and has recently returned from 14 years in London where she built a successful career leading teams of HR professionals in some large global organisations. She spoke to our Honours Assembly about her experiences and offered some invaluable advice to the girls - 

"When you don't have a team around you to answer your questions, the ability to guide yourself through a series of steps to articulate your objectives clearly and then drill down into all the questions that might be relevant to the problem you are trying to solve is invaluable. In fact, I would argue this is a skill that is beneficial to everyone and will be useful throughout your education and future career.  You can do this effectively on your own or working with a friend. Simply ask each other lots of open-ended questions that help you describe your goal - this might be deciding which subjects to take next year or how to approach an english assignment. Once you have clearly defined your goal you need to understand the current situation - what do you know about the problem? What's happened so far? Are there any limitations to be aware of?  Next, list and understand your options, making sure you have all of the possibilities listed and then set out the next steps. The next steps won't always be heading off to find the answers - often you will need to go back and revise your original goals because a better approach has become clear.  I've used this method of coaching throughout my career with my clients and team members and I have consistently found, as noted by Eugene Ionesco, that it really is the question that enlightens - not the answer."