The Minerva Circle

Remembering the school in your will is one of the most personal and significant ways you can help future pupils at South Hampstead. The Minerva Circle was set up to recognise all those who have made a commitment to the school through a legacy gift or pledge and, earlier this year, we welcomed Elaine Willis (Class of 1970) to the circle.

Elaine’s decision to support our bursary funds stems from her own very personal experience:

‘In the 1960s I was fortunate enough to get a local authority bursary place at SHHS. To achieve this, I had to pass my 11+ and also an entrance exam. But I was blissfully unaware of what the consequences would be.  A classical education makes for rounded individuals and provides solution focused tools for addressing life and work’s conundrums. I have benefitted from learning ‘how’ to think and knowing that there is always more to learn. I love travelling because there is always more culture, people and history to explore.

But such an education can also separate the learner from her family. If you come from a lower middle, or working class, family, you can then be seen as ‘posh’, or ‘above us’, and you enter a world which delights but which you often do not understand both socially and intellectually.  My friends’ families had bookshelves full of books. I had a set of encyclopaedias and eight novels. I spent a lot of time in the local library and did my homework at the galley kitchen table with the grill on for warmth in the winter.

But at SHHS, worlds were opened up to me which I knew nothing about. The arts expanded my imagination and love of language. My study of religion laid bare the sources of spirituality and the joy of rituals. I was never good in science subjects, but optional music appreciation opened my senses to composers I never knew about. I found a lot of my time at SHHS hard work but there was always encouragement, opportunities to do what I enjoyed, and a self-discipline developed which has seen me through a lot of challenges since.

I have not had a traditional career path, but I have aspired to give of and be my best; something SHHS always inculcated in me. It taught me to have both ambition and aspiration and humanity for which my family and workplaces have respected me. This is why I am supporting SHHS’s bursary scheme by leaving a legacy. I would like to support someone else to have the opportunities I did and to reach towards their own fullest potential.’