Full steam ahead at helm of Queen Mary’s

The forward-thinking new head of the independent girls school, near Thirsk, is, however, looking to prepare students for the demands of the 21st century.

Sandra Lewis-Beckett, who worked in the banking sector before launching her teaching career, has taken over at Queen Mary’s from Robert McKenzie Johnston who retired in July.

She told the Yorkshire Post that although the school would retain a traditional education it would also look to equip students who can adapt to a changing world.

Mrs Lewis-Beckett said: “We are preparing pupils for their future – but we don’t know what it will look like so we have to make sure that we teach them to be flexible and adaptable learners.

“If you look at people who are now working as geneticists, when they were at school the job that they are doing now simply didn’t exist. If you look at what is happening in China it could be that we all need to learn Mandarin. China is expected to become the leader of the world’s economy over the next 20 to 50 years so it could become standard in our education system.

“It is about being flexible and being prepared to move forward with the times and not rest on your laurels.”

Mrs Lewis-Beckett said that pupils in the school would be moving into a more global economy and said she would love it if “one of our girls went on to become a chief executive officer in Moscow”.

She joins the school from Downe House, an independent girls’ boarding school, in Berkshire, where she was senior mistress.

Her first job, though, was as a bank clerk for HSBC. “I could have had a career in the bank but when I was looking down the barrel of forty years of doing this and doing the job in my 60s and I thought ‘this just isn’t me’. I went back to university and retrained to be a teacher. I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to hop around different types of school.

“I have worked in girls’ schools, worked in independents and state schools. I wanted to work in the independent sector because it gives you time, it gives you flexibility and it gives you physical space.

“When I arrived at Queen Mary’s the first sounds I heard were someone singing and someone laughing, and I thought then ‘this is the school for me’.”