Wiltshire head wins top national award

Tatler magazine’s annual Schools Awards are an important part of the educational calendar as winners of the awards are selected after a vigorous research programme which sees each school thoroughly vetted. A wide variety of people are quizzed about the school and its Head including parents and past and present staff and pupils.

The new guide says of Dr Wright: "You won’t find a more impressive role model for your teenage daughter than St Mary’s head Dr Helen Wright."

The guide, which is released with the October edition of Tatler, also praises the school and its pupils in glowing terms, saying:  ‘These girls, and this school, are definitely going places.’

Dr Wright said that winning the award was a tremendous personal honour and a huge honour for St Mary’s Calne, its staff and its girls:

"It is testament to the fantastic work everyone who works here puts in to make this such an extraordinary school of which I am rightly proud.

"It is truly wonderful to see that recognised in such a public arena."

Dr Wright attended the awards ceremony, alongside Heads and educational figures from across the UK, with the school’s Head Girl’s Team who were delighted when she was announced as winner of the top award.

Dr Wright said that the girls were absolutely delighted on behalf of the school:

"They insisted on presenting me with the trophy again in chapel this morning. I am very honoured that it means so much to all the pupils!"

Tatler Schools Guide Editor, Issy Von Simson, said the guide has always been a huge fan of Dr Helen Wright and St Mary's Calne:

"Since our launch in 2004 we have sung the school's praises, and indeed so does everyone we speak to, parents and pupils, staff and spies alike. Dr Wright is doing a super job as headmistress (not to mention as a mother) and we thought it was high time we honoured her with the trophy."

Congratulations."

Dr Wright, 40, is no stranger to public attention. Earlier this year, she hit the headlines nationally and internationally when she went back to work only seven hours after giving birth to her third child, Jessica.

A rising star in the education world, she is also President Elect of the Girls’ Schools Association, the leading body representing girls’ schools in the UK. She takes up her full presidency in January 2011.

St Mary’s Calne is recognised as one of the leading girls’ schools in the UK. Old girls include Charity Commission Head Dame Suzi Leather, author Eva Rice and designer Jade Jagger.