Many of you will know that I have a long standing connection with this little belter of a Scottish Boarding Prep School, in that I was appointed as a part time teacher of music here 13 years ago. Having ‘moved up through the ranks’, filling numerous roles and teaching many subjects, Ardvreck has become very much part of me and I feel proudly protective and passionate about its heritage and, of course, its future.

The step-up from Deputy to Headmistress last summer, whilst in many ways a seamless transition, also happened to perturb me much more than I had anticipated. Those who know me will acknowledge that I have always been ‘a people person’ but nothing had prepared me for the huge responsibility that I immediately felt weighing on my shoulders. Suddenly, the future of this incredible institution lay in my hands and with it the livelihood, wellbeing and happiness of a plethora of people about whom I care very much indeed. A quote from Shakespeare’s King Henry the Fourth, Part Two, began to resonate deeply with me: uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

As well as running the school to the very best of my ability, I was also required to make my workplace my home which necessitated being separated from my family. As politically incorrect as it sounds, unlike my predecessors, there was no-one to fill the ‘Headmaster’s wife’ role and, despite my husband’s best efforts to come over and help whenever he could, there were times when I  felt desperately in need of a wife!  Yes, that first term was tough. Having our old, family collie put to sleep in September and, moments later, attempting to contribute effectively to my very first board of governors meeting with my dear, freshly dead dog at the bottom of the stairs was particularly challenging. Breaking eight ribs in one go whilst locking up the school one black Saturday night in November was also a significant inconvenience.

Nevertheless, none of this deflected my utopian, Enid Blytonesque dream to make Ardvreck the happiest, kindest, and most mischievous school in the land.

I wanted to nurture an ethos where courtesy was at the forefront of every human interaction. A school where working hard and playing hard were of equal importance and where good humour and fun permeated every undertaking. I knew that this would be no mean feat, not something I could create alone; it had to be a shared vision and so I began to work on what the current sixth formers dub my ‘dream team’.