'I first clapped my eyes on Pate's Grammar School in the Spring of 1969. It was an Open Day and I and 200 other aspiring 11 year olds were shown around by adults in long gowns and prefects with spotty faces. My first abiding impression was of the outside. The school looked like a futuristic ship that had run aground in a huge sea of grass.'

'I feel privileged to be able to pay forward some of what was invested in me by teaching at Pate's now. The school still allows students a huge amount of independence and autonomy encouraging learning through collaboration and taking risks and the core ethos that together we can learn and grow is unchanged.'

'I've looked back at my teachers and realised that the women forged a career path for themselves through the 1950s and 60s when they would not have had the support services that my generation of feminists fought for – no childcare, nor maternity leave. Many were unmarried and some were stereotypically spinsterish, but they were strong women who had earned themselves a degree at university.'

'I feel that being a pupil at Pate's was so important - a grammar school education was greatly valued. We were girls of similar backgrounds and there was no obvious inequality or bullying. I think we had a good work ethic and knew what was needed to succeed. This carried on after leaving school with all the girls who were in my year having successful careers. '

'I had Mr Beale for more than 50% of my lessons. His encouragement of my writing and acting, even in the face of my teenage apathy and rebellion, kept me going at Pate's. His passion for his subject, and his faith in his students, is something that I hope I can learn from. However, the irony of me being permanently situated outside of the Headmaster's office, albeit in a photograph, is not lost on me.'

'My love of languages started in the first few days at Pate's. Before starting secondary school, I hadn't been anywhere where English wasn't spoken and the idea of conversing in foreign tongues was, well, foreign to me. This all changed with my first German lesson, when a young, lively German teacher breezed into the classroom with her guitar, covers of Eurovision winners ('Ein Bisschen Frieden' anyone?) and taught us incredibly long, tongue-twisting German words that seemed to open up a new world of excitement to me.'

'There was no sense of thinking people to be odd or boring for being interested in 14th century Spanish poetry or the philosophical implications of quantum physics, and I believe that it was this organically cultivated atmosphere which made Pate's as intellectually a stimulating environment as it was.'