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PHOSA Presidents Speech 2011

POLAM HALL OLD SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION – SATURDAY 18 JUNE 2011
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS – KAREN HIRST

Thank you Gail for the work you did last year as President and for handing over to me.

I am delighted to have been elected as President of Old Scholars. In my address I will cover what Polam meant to me, what I did with that grounding and what I intend to do this year and support the school, the profile and encourage more old scholars to participate.
I started Polam at the age of 7 in 1975, a long time ago now! The first thing that struck me was the uniform, green and yellow, not colours I wear now! I am pleased to see this has been improved significantly with white blouses and the girls and now boys always look very smart. Thankfully the junior school girls no longer do PE in their yellow aertex and big green knickers which Bridget Jones made famous and they now wear scorts or skirts/shorts.
It is lovely to see Mrs Elliot here who was the Junior School Head when I was there and Mrs Blackburn who followed her before Mrs Foster became Junior Headmistress who was Miss Eastwood when I started at Polam.

Polam offers a wide range of subjects and certainly gave me a good academic start to life. My favourite subject was maths which I think was helped by having some great teachers.
Just as important to the academic subjects are the other activities which Polam offers and I certainly entered into most of them.
Sport – I played in a number of the teams over the years; lacrosse, netball, rounders and lunchtime practices did mean you could jump the dinner queue which was always an advantage!

Music – I learnt the piano and thanks to Mrs McVitie I reached and passed Grade 6 which certainly pleased my Mum and Gran who wanted me to learn. I was also a member of the choir and amazingly the Chamber Choir. The only singing I do now is occasionally in church and the odd karaoke after a few drinks! I still have my piano but I do not play it very often.

Drama – Polam always did and still does some excellent plays and productions. I was quieter in those days but everyone played a part even if it was back stage or in a group chorus which is what I usually did.

Houses – I was in Swale and the 4 houses; Kent, Tees, Skerne and Swale created some healthy interhouse competition with the House Plays, gaining House Points and Sports Day.

Polam is a school for ‘young ladies’ and boys now and at school we were all taught good manners which are so important and what to do and what not to do?

In the sixth form I was voted in as Head Girl. A surprise to some of the members of staff but the sixth form girls vote helped which was equal to the staff. Also the night before votes were made, my brother was at Julia Crosier’s 18th birthday at a night club in Darlington and not to my knowledge was campaigning ‘Vote Hirst’!

Careers Advice – the careers advice at Polam was helpful and gave me and others the opportunity to work in different places on work experience which helped me decide what I did not want to do as well as what I did want to do.

After O Levels and A levels I went off to University near Cardiff and I did my degree in Urban Estate Management and 2 years later I qualified as a Chartered Surveyor.

In my first job after graduating a Managing Partner of a London Surveying Practice commented on my good manners and said that they would take me a long way. Something that Polam helped with. I had different jobs in different places in the private and quasi public sector and I was made a Director at the age of 29.

I have moved around the country a lot with work; London, Cardiff, Chester, North Wales and now Manchester/Salford. My love of sport has enabled me to meet people and make friends easily with sport being the common interest. Playing lacrosse in Chester and for Cheshire also meant I bumped into some old Polamites in matches or tournaments. I also carried on playing tennis, squash, golf, swimming following the teaching at Polam.

Team playing is an essential skill for business, play and home. I now work in an organisation of 11,000 people so I certainly need that now.

A number of my contemporaries have gone on to do a wide variety of things;
Ruth Gemmell – Actress and has featured in many dramas, Eastenders, Fever Pitch with Colin Firth and has done a Royal Shakespeare Company Tour, the one I saw was King Lear.
Kay Bellwood was on the radio and is now the Parliamentary Assistant for Eric Pickles MP
Yasmeen Jaleel – Marketing Manager for Insurance Company in London
Lavinia Wilson now Youlden is a lecturer at Newcastle University
And many others....

I am delighted my nieces are at Polam and Philippa is in Upper 4 and Jenny in Lower 4 and my sister in law Sarah Hirst teaches at Polam and is very popular. My cousin’s children are also here - the Harts with Giles in Middle 5, Richard in Upper 4 who came across from Hurworth House and Lucy in Year 4 in the Junior School.

My programme for the year and dates for your diary are;
President’s Lunch on Saturday 24 September 2011 in or around Darlington – venue and time to be confirmed.
President’s Evening on Thursday 22 March 2012 – time to be confirmed. This will be open to all the children, staff, old scholars, trustees, friends and relations. There will be judges but they may not be Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell but there will be good stand ins! This will be to support my good cause and the fund raising element will be by charging to see the performances and for the drinks and nibbles. Entries will be free with prizes for the best acts. Having seen the talent in Polam this may be over-subscribed so I may need to do a pre-selection before the evening?!


My ‘good cause’ is for 2 things;
A small marquee/large gazebo for days like today when the weather is mixed and to enable events to be held on the terrace so we are able to admire the beautiful gardens.
Sports equipment – sadly not floodlights which my nieces wanted as I do not think I will raise tens of thousands of pounds but I can try!
I would also like to go into the Junior and Senior School assemblies to chat to the children in terms of future opportunities and what you can do in life. I will obviously work with the respective Heads regarding this.

There is a new era for Polam with boys and a new Head. Marie Green has worked hard to keep the school going during challenging economic times and has done an excellent job to hand on to John Moreland.

I would make a plea for you all to get involved which you are but there may be other friends and relations who want to support the school and play a part in old scholars as a trustee, making donations or to come along to events. Polam did a lot for us and we need to put something back.

Thank you for listening.

Karen Hirst
President – PHOSA – June 2011 to June 2012