Recently I was taken completely by surprise by an 11 year old young lady from Shanghai, Lily Z, who overwhelmed me with her knowledge and understanding of Burgess Hill Girls.
By Liz Laybourn, Head of Burgess Hill Girls
The best part of being Head is meeting and chatting with wonderful young people. Sometimes they can be a little reserved but generally they want to share with you all the exciting things that they have done and love to do. Recently I was taken completely by surprise by an 11 year old young lady from Shanghai, Lily Z, who overwhelmed me with her knowledge and understanding of Burgess Hill Girls. We’re thrilled she will join us in Year 7 in September. During our chat she told me how much she liked our school motto, going on to recite it beautifully and tell me how it would help her do her best. The motto is very close to my heart too, so it was a very special moment for me. I gave her my business card and asked her to write down all her thoughts on the school and the motto. Below says it all!
Dear Mrs Laybourn,
I am Lily Z from China. First of all thank you very much for your time yesterday and I really appreciated your sharing with me your own experience in Burgess Hill Girls. It’s a great honour for me to share with you my understanding of the school motto.
I learned the school motto ‘I am, I can, I ought, I will’ when I looked through the website. It reminded me of my first year in Shanghai. As I told you yesterday, I’m living in Shanghai now. But my hometown is in another coastal city. My family moved to Shanghai in 2015 because my father set up a company in Shanghai. On the first day in my new school, I found it so frustrating because all the textbooks in Shanghai were different, my classmates started to learn English when they were in Grade 1 while I started in Grade 3. I could not understand a single word in my first ESL class! Fortunately, my teachers, classmates and parents helped me a lot. I caught up with my classmates when the school year was over. I was one of three“Merit Students”in the class. To be honest, I’ve never thought I can do that.
The school motto makes me reflect my experience of my first year in Shanghai. And I further think on, every student has her own characteristic. That is ‘I am ‘. When we are in Burgess Hill Girls, its education will inspire us the things that we can’t do before. That is’ I can’. After we know what we are capable of,we will further think on what I ought to do to myself, to my family, to the community and society . It will produce a sense of responsibility. That is’ I ought’. Finally I know what I will do in the future. I will have the vision of my life. That is ‘ I will’. So from ‘I am ‘to’ I can ‘, to ‘I ought ‘, to ‘ I will’, that is the power of education in Burgess Hill Girls. I’m looking forward to that.
Mrs Laybourn, your story is just like the school motto. you never thought of being the headmistress one day since you came to Burgess Hill. You worked in Burgess Hill for 31 yeas and in 2017 you succeeded. It demonstrates your school motto vividly.
Oh by the way thank you for your Freddo. It is really nice. Do you know there is also a very interesting frog from China which is quite similar to Freddo called SAD FROG . Although the name is not positive but it looks so funny. There is a picture of sad frog for you. I drew this by myself. I hope you will like it.
Lily Z.
