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APPLY NOWWord from the Head – 1 May 2026
Dear Parents,
We are officially heading into exam season and it has been a week of high emotions here at school. Yesterday, we held a deeply moving Leavers’ Assembly for our Year 13s, and this morning, Year 11 filled the sports hall with laughter and celebration before heading off for study leave. It’s a very special time of year and one that fills me with pride about the confident, focused young people we develop here at Channing.
You will know that your child came to school this morning wearing something red in honour of Rosie Peto, a Channing girl who sadly died from cancer at the end of Year 10, eleven years ago this year. There is a bench (‘The Awkward Bench’) in her name which sits among the roses overlooking the pitch at the back of the school site, and our annual remembrance of her passing always coincides with the Friday closest to her birthday. The Rosie Peto Award was established in her name and is given each year to a girl in Year 11 who embodies the characteristics which defined her:
- Someone who’s constantly caring and cheerful
- Someone in the year who is always willing to cheer someone up when they look down and willing to listen to their problems
- Someone who always has a positive attitude
- Someone who’s kind and generous
- A team player that always supports their year group.
I am delighted to have presented the award this morning to Grace O.
However as we head into the intensity of exam season, not just for our leavers but for every year group, I want to share a piece of advice that might sound a little counter-intuitive. On Wednesday, I attended a GSA Education Committee meeting where we heard from Katharine Radice, a former school leader and author of The Parent’s Guide to Exam Stress. She said something that really struck me: “Don’t worry, it will all be fine” is often the least helpful thing we can say to a child.
As she explained, when we tell a child not to worry, we inadvertently send the message that their anxiety is abnormal. It makes them feel like there is something wrong with them for feeling nervous, which only adds a second layer of stress to the original worry. They start thinking, “If I’m not supposed to worry, but I am, does that mean I’m not prepared?”
In my assembly this morning, I gave the girls a different message: Do worry. It’s normal.
Worrying means you care. It means you are paying attention to the task at hand. It is a natural human response to doing something important. By normalising that feeling of butterflies in the stomach, we take away its power to paralyze. I told the girls, you will be fine because you care enough to feel this way. You are more than your academic results. And there’s always a Plan B.
I reminded the students of the start of year assembly I gave about learning mode versus performance mode a couple of years ago, and the difference between wearing their ASICS and their Nikes. Whether it is in Year 7 or Year 12, these internal end-of-year exams aren’t a final judgment. They are a continuation of the learning process and are designed to help us – and the students – identify:
- What do you know?
- What don’t you know yet?
- Which techniques have you nailed, and which need more work?
However for our Year 11s and Year 13s, it’s finally time to put on their Nikes and get into performance mode. They are ready. They have put in the miles, and now it’s time to put that training into action.
Whether the exams are internal or public, this season is as much of a marathon for you as parents as it is for your children. Instead of trying to talk them out of their nerves, Katharine Radice suggests that we try acknowledging them and offers some great ideas about how parents can play a different, but complementary, role to that of school. If you’d like to know more, do have a look at Katharine’s book here.
We have every confidence in our wonderful students and our dedicated teachers. To everyone sitting exams this term, good luck: we are behind you all the way.
Before we head into the long weekend, a final word to congratulate the cast and crew of James and the Giant Peach, our Year 7 and 8 production, which played to packed houses for three nights and two matinees this week. The story was beautifully told with fabulous performances from the cast, and a wonderfully creative set and costumes. My enormous thanks to Miss Vince, Mrs Maliphant-Gray and Mr Maliphant-Gray for all their hard work in bringing this production to life, and well done to all the students involved both on stage and behind the scenes.
With warmest wishes
Lindsey Hughes
Headmistress
