www.alumni.fhs-sw1.org.uk
From the Co-chairwomen
Audrey Mitchell
Welcome to this 2024 edition of the
Old Girls’ Newsletter. We start the year
by welcoming the new Head of Francis
Holland, Sloane Square, Mrs Alexandra
Haydon. Mrs Haydon is only the eleventh
Head in the School’s 143-year history.
She comes with a glowing reputation
from Millfield School in Somerset and
has arrived with an abundance of
passion and energy. We look forward to
welcoming Mrs Haydon at some of our
events this year and we wish her all the
very best from the alumni community
for her new role.
As Co-chairs of Francis Holland Old
Girls’ Society, our aims are to support
the extended FHS network by helping
our alumni stay connected. We bring
together previous staff and pupils
of the School through networking,
lectures, visits to theatres and other
social and cultural events. We do
this in conjunction with our Alumni
Relations Officer, Claire Brazer, and our
dedicated website, the Alumni Network
Homepage, FHS Sloane Square Alumni
(fhs-sw1.org.uk), which helps all our
members stay in touch with each other
and the School, facilitating a professional
and social network.
Why is this important? Networks are
what open our world to new ideas,
possibilities and connections, as well
as celebrating existing ones. The FHS
alumni community is built on more
than 3000 former pupils and staff,
and growing all the time. Many of
our alumni have enjoyed huge and
varied successes around the world, and
whatever stage of your career you are at,
whatever new interest you want to
pursue, we can guarantee you will find
Anne Cyron
someone in the Network who can help
or who shares your passions. Current
Sixth Formers who are about to embark
on their first career often find mentors
within our network; others who are
embarking on their second, third or
fourth careers can find new contacts
and opportunities. We can all support
each other in some way, no matter
when we left the School - even if it’s just
for reminiscing or hearing news of old
friends.
Our next school birthday celebrations
will be held on Thursday 7th March
at 6.30pm where we will be hosting
our biennial alumni drinks party. As
always, the drinks party will be a nice
opportunity to meet some new friends
as well as old, and to hear about the
School’s plans. We also look forward
to showcasing this year’s Business
Enterprise Award winners at the
birthday drinks.
We hope to inspire more of our alumni
to take those first steps in bringing
business ideas to life as we start the new
year. After the success of our second
Business Enterprise Awards, we will
be inviting applications for our next
round of business start-ups, and we
look forward to seeing more innovative
ventures from our community.
As part of the Old Girls’ Lecture series,
we were excited to host alumna, Sarah
Esdaile who pursued her passion for
theatre, which she developed at FHS,
and has achieved great success as a
director both in theatre and of popular
TV programmes such as EastEnders. Her
inspirational story touched everyone
who attended, and we all learnt
something new from her career and
personal journey. We also enjoyed a
theatre trip to see Rebecca the Musical
and welcomed over 100 alumni and
guests at our second ever Private
View at V&A South Kensington of the
Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto
exhibition. We enjoyed seeing this
without the crowds and the morning
included a lecture which really brought
the extraordinary story of Gabrielle
Chanel and her designs to life.
Finally, we would like to welcome
our Honorary member, Former
Headmistress, Mrs Lucy Elphinstone, and
we can’t wait to see her at some of our
upcoming events and lectures.
We wish both the school and all our
alumni a successful and happy 2024.
Best wishes,
Anne Cyron and Audrey Mitchell (née
Wiggin)
Co-chairwomen of Francis Holland Old
Girls' Society
Below: the Old School House was
full to the rafters at the Alumni
Association Party for Mrs Banks and
Mrs Elphinstone.
The Class of 1992 enjoyed reuniting
recently at the recent Chanel event