“Music is a huge passion of mine, and I have been able to embrace that at Dame Allan’s.”

My family and I had some awareness of Dame Allan’s before I came here - we’d seen ads and had family friends who were at the school, so it was definitely an aspiration for my parents for me to attend. We’d heard good things about the pastoral care too, so it was very exciting to learn I had been offered a place, especially with a bursary award.

I joined in Year 7, from a state primary school. It was unusual for someone from my area to go to a private school, but as soon as I arrived I felt part of the community. 

Music is a huge passion of mine, and I have been able to embrace that at Dame Allan’s. The teachers and support here have helped me to take my music from a hobby, to something more that I have been able to use in my personal statement for university. I played piano and I sang before coming, and the school has given me the opportunity to perform in lots of concerts and services, sing as a leading chorister at Newcastle Cathedral, and to learn a new instrument - the oboe - as part of the Endangered Instruments programme.

The opportunities that Dame Allan’s has given me have been amazing. I volunteer at the junior school every week through the Sixth Form community service programme, I have access to my choral scholarship and I am taking part in the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award too. I’ve been on school trips abroad, which wouldn’t have been possible without the bursary.

I’m currently studying maths, music and psychology, and my ambition is to study psychology at Cambridge. I’d say that my time at Dame Allan’s has definitely encouraged me to develop myself academically, with the unwavering support from my teachers. 

To anyone who is thinking about making a financial donation to support bursary awards, I’d strongly encourage them to do so. Students flourish here - I often think that there are so many people at my primary school who could have grown into something incredible, if they had had the support to attend a school like Dame Allan’s. 

This is why access to bursary awards is so important.