Triumphant Return: MGGS Annual Speech Day Celebrates A-Level Success with Special Guests and Honours!

Maidstone Grammar School for Girls held its annual Speech Day on Friday, 5th January and welcomed former Year 13 students back to MGGS to celebrate their A Level successes.  They were joined on this special occasion by parents, carers and other distinguished guests.  We hope they enjoyed seeing their daughters and sons receiving their certificates.

We were very honoured to welcome Professor Vari Drennan MBE. Professor Drennan is an alumnus of MGGS, completing her A levels in 1974. She read Sociology and Social Policy at Southampton University, at the same time as qualifying as a Registered Nurse and Health Visitor. Her subsequent Master’s and Doctoral degrees were in the field of the Sociology of Health and Illness. 

She has held jobs in the NHS as a Specialist Nurse, Health Visitor and Senior Manager of Community Health Services, before taking up a post as a Senior Lecturer at University College London Medical School. She was appointed Professor of Health Care and Policy Research at St George’s, University of London in 2007. She now works part-time at Kingston University London, leading research studies which investigate questions of how best to staff the health services and how best to provide health and social care services to changing populations. She has authored over 140 research papers in journals and edited four textbooks. In 2016 she received the award of MBE (Member of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace from Prince William, for her services to health service research and nursing.

Our thanks go to Councillor Gordon Newton, the Mayor of Maidstone along with Lindsay Horne, Chair of the Governing Body, who also honoured us with their presence.

 Miss Stanley, Headteacher commented, “I was very pleased to see last year’s Year 13 students back at MGGS to collect their certificates and prizes.  They worked incredibly hard to achieve their academic success in last summer’s examinations and we are very proud of all of them.  We now look forward to hearing how their careers develop in the future, as they keep in touch with MGGS through our Alumni.”