National Anti-Bullying Week is being observed from today in all schools, and the Headmistress spoke to us in assembly, highlighting the campaign slogan: Being Different, Belonging Together. We expect JAGS girls to show that background doesn’t matter; demonstrated by the diversity of our own pupils, and by what we do. 30% of JAGS pupils are from ethnic backgrounds and we celebrate the richness of our cultures (look out for this year’s Multi-Cultural Evening in January). 103 pupils are on our assisted places scheme, 86% of whom have all their fees paid.

This Saturday, fifteen sixth-formers from JAGS and Dulwich College have been teaching English to 40 children, ages 6-16, on the Aylesbury Estate, on a scheme that wouldn’t run without them: there is no funding for trained teachers. (Other weeks they teach Science and Maths).

A young choir sang extracts from Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat  beautifully in Southwark Cathedral on Wednesday in a concert organised by Southwark Schools’ Learning Partnership, a collaboration of nine independent and state schools. (Matilda Longfield will be writing about this soon; look at the SSLP part of the JAGS in the Community).

And JAGS teachers spent Saturday training others; the Spanish department ran their popular annual Spanish ICT skills workshop, helping teachers from more than 20 state and independent schools, from as far away as Devon, to master the art of powerpoint and the interactive board.