Mount Girls Can Do Anything

Later this month, Rosalind (pictured, in her Sea Cadet uniform) will embark on a residential course with a difference through the Sea Cadets, part of the UK’s oldest nautical youth charity. She will spend most of the course at sea training on board the 24m John Jerwood motor vessel, learning skills in seamanship, navigation and catering while travelling around the coast off Gosport. The qualification counts toward the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
Over the summer break, Rosalind earned a Silver CREST Award while taking part in a residential Girls In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) course with the RAF at their Leeming base, joining 30+ other girls from across the country to learn more about aviation engineering and career opportunities for women and girls. In 2014, the Royal Academy of Engineering released studies announcing that the UK will need to train and employ over one million engineers by 2020, and their 2017 manifesto aims to ensure that intake is diverse and inclusive.
The Mount has a very well-earned reputation for girls excelling in STEM studies, with over half of last year’s Upper Sixth going on to study STEM topics at University. In 2016 they launched their initiative to ‘Turn STEM into STEAM‘, by putting creativity (Arts) into the heart of innovation.
Asked how the military component of these activities meld with The Mount’s Quaker ethos (Quakers are renowned pacifists), Adrienne Richmond, Principal of the all-girl Quaker Senior School, said, “The Mount’s Quaker ethos is central to who we are as a School, promoting the Quaker values of peace, equality, truth, simplicity and social justice.
“Rosalind’s activities here chime perfectly with The Mount’s own values which encourage the girls to think and live adventurously, to be open minded, to dare to think differently and have the confidence to challenge ideas, to make a difference in the world around her and to respect and value every individual.
“When applying to universities, it is becoming increasingly important for pupils to demonstrate their extra-curricular abilities. Many of our GCSE and A-Level girls pursue an impressively broad range of interests outside of their school studies.”
Rosalind, who is also an accomplished musician, joined The Mount in Year 9 from York’s Minster School.