Service celebrating the founding of Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School – a tribute to retiring Barnet head teacher Violet Walker

Violet Walker led her final commemoration day service as head teacher of Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ ahead of her retirement at the end of the summer term.

Pupils walked in a procession up Barnet High Street to the parish church of St John the Baptist for the 138^th celebration of the founding of a school which is one of the oldest and most successful all girls state schools in the country.

Mrs Walker reinstated the commemoration day service the year after becoming head teacher in 2015 and her final service featured another celebration of the past – the school’s chamber choir sang the original QE Girls’ school song which had not been performed since the 1960s.

Its title was the school motto – Ever in the presence of God – which used to be printed in Greek lettering around a symbol of a Tudor rose.

Resurrecting the song and getting it performed once again by the chamber choir became a personal mission for the school’s director of music, Cosima Rodriguez-Broadbent (left) who with Mrs Walker’s help managed to track it down.

“We hunted through the school’s archives and found a manuscript with the music and text,” said Cosima.

“I had to transcribe the music and with the help of the organist Jonathan Gregory we began rehearsals. The choir had to sign the chorus in Greek, so it was a real challenge.”

Guests at the service, who included the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Danny Rich, congratulated the choir on a brilliant performance of what Jonathan Gegory said was a “robust song” which the pupils liked to sing.

Lines from the song reflected the school curriculum:

“Sing we the song of day that are,

When in this school those dreams come true,

When science in her heart reveals,

This old world ever new.”

The service was conducted by the Reverend Cindy Kent who thanked the choir for reflecting on the school’s past – a reminder dedicated to Mrs Walker’s service as head teacher and whose inspiration it had been to reinstate the commemoration day service.

“Mrs Walker will be greatly missed, and I know the whole school community is so grateful for dedicated service to QE Girls.”

In her address, she advised pupils on how best to tackle tough times in their lives.

“Do try to be calm when things go wrong. Nasty things can happen and people can be unkind but do try to be nice to them.”

There was a chance for a chat with the pupils of today for three former QE Girls’ pupils – from left to right, Margaret Peart (Youngs), Val Mulder (Townsend) and Gill Williams (Rees) – who described what times were like when they started at QE Girls in the 1950s.

All three were present when Queen Elizabeth II visited the school – her first official visit to a school after her coronation.

“Remember in those days we were a grammar school and there were only around 500 pupils – far fewer than the 1,200 today,” said Margaret Peart.

“Back in those days all the girls wore Panama hats, and the police stopped the traffic for the procession from the school to the church.”

When Mrs Walker became head teacher in 2015 it was a case of coming home.

Not only was Mrs Walker a former pupil at QEGS, but she later returned to the school to complete her post-graduate training as a mathematics’ teacher.

From the start she said she intended to be resolute in her conviction that QEGS’ role was to continue to serve the Barnet area as a local community girls’ comprehensive, committed to reflecting the school’s history and traditions, while at the same time embracing the latest technological advances in teaching and research.

Mrs Walker (Violet Hamid) was a pupil at QEGS from 1969 to 1976 and has fond memories of the headmistress of her day, Miss Marjorie Payne, who was head teacher for 17 years and was widely respected.

QE Girls was established in 1888 and shares foundation trustees with QE Boys’ School, Barnet, which was created in 1573 by a charter from Queen Elizabeth I.