Development

Dear extended Channing family

Most of you by now will have received a letter from me by mail – along with a Christmas card from the Headmistress. It brings home the old adage – ‘Post early for Christmas’! For those of you who didn’t receive a mailing, please give us your updated contact details so that we can keep in touch.

I am now one month into my new role as Channing’s first Development Director and it has been wonderful living a School life once again, returning to Channing after many decades! The School has a warm, inviting atmosphere. Savouring the enthusiasm of the girls is a great privilege.

The major School event to celebrate the 125th Anniversary will be the concert at the Barbican Hall on Friday 5 February 2010. This will be a wonderful evening of music, drama and dance performed by girls from both the junior and senior schools, hosted by Dermot Murnaghan – TV presenter and parent of girls at both the senior and junior school.  We also have a surprise guest performer, celebrated on the international opera stage, West End as well as on our TV screens, who is a current parent! The show will chart the School’s history through the ages. Tickets are selling fast at £12.50 or £25 for a VIP ticket, which includes interval drinks in a private room. If you would like to be there, book quickly by phone on 020 7638 8891 or online at www.barbican.org.uk.

I would encourage those of you who have not as yet bought a copy of our new ‘Channing School – A Chronicle of 125 years’ to order one as it gives a snapshot of the School from its foundation to the present day. It is complemented by the Exhibition ‘Channing Past’ at the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution from 25-29 November and I hope that some of you will be able to visit. Opening times are 1.00pm-5.00pm Wednesday to Friday, 11.00am-4.00pm Saturday and 11.00am-5.00pm Sunday.

The bricks are selling fast. There will be a Pathway to the Future both at Fairseat and Channing in these red bricks engraved with your name. There is space for up to 16 characters on each of two lines. They are sold on a sliding scale of £30 for one brick, £50 for 2 or £100 for a family offer on 5 bricks. That suited the Shrager family (I was Jill Shrager) as 3 siblings, one daughter and one cousin will be immortalized in our equivalent of a Hollywood Walkway of Fame!

I hope to get to know you all better and meet you in person. I will shortly be sending you a new questionnaire so that I can establish a database with more information about you and your careers – to offer more specific and relevant communications to you and to see whether there is more that you can offer girls here from your personal experiences and career knowledge.  The new direct line to the Development office is 020 8347 2725.  My email address is jsegal@channing.co.uk.  Please feel free to email me, or Nicole Sharman, the Development Secretary, nsharman@channing.co.uk at any time and please drop in when you are in the area.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and successful 2010.

Yours sincerely
 
Jill Segal
Development Director

 A VIEW FROM THE FISH TANK

The idea of ‘A View from the Fish Tank’ sprang from a chance remark of a girl on the stairs who referred to the new Development Office which appeared on the 1st floor landing of Haigh House during the Autumn Term as ‘the fish tank’. In my new role as Development Director I am like a fish looking out of my tank at the activities and excitement of Channing life. And so the blog began...

Please click here to read the 'View from the Fishtank' blog by Development Director Jill Segal