Inspirational Alumni

Are you, or do you know of any alumni who may be inspirational?

If so, please e-mail alumni@bostonhighschool.co.uk

Since starting in 1921 and expanding from 112 to a current 800 pupils, Boston High School has produced so many successful and inspirational students. Some of who have been featured below. If you are an ex-pupil, consider joining the BHS Old Girls' Association. They hold regular social events and more details can be found here.

Rebecca Guthrie

Private secretary to former Prime Minister Tony Blair

Her advice to High School girls is to pursue their ambitions, saying she was neither ‘one of the most dedicated or brightest pupils in the school’, and ‘more interested in being mischievous than studious’. “if there’s anything they really want to do you can work to make those opportunities become available rather than wait for them to come to you.”

Harriet Housam

Team GB Rower

Harriet started rowing on the Witham with the Boston Rowing Club. She quickly excelled and was ranked 16th in the country for under 18 single skull rowing by the time she was 16. Harriet entered in the Team GB rowing trials, placing fourth, securing a place on Team GB. 2013 took her to Switzerland where she took Bronze in the Junior European Championships, beating rowers up to 3 years older than her. Following the event, Harriet took a break from rowing to focus on reading Natural Sciences at Durham University.

Nesta Baxter

Team GB kickboxer

Nesta’s training consists of 16 hours of drills and fitness a week, with weekends being devoted to sparring at different clubs across England. She recently became the Lincolnshire sports woman and captains the Team GB kickboxing team. Her main achievements, as listing all would take up the whole board, include becoming European champion for under 18’s in Light Continuous style, while placing second and third in two other disciplines. In 2017 Nesta was ranked the under 18’s world number 1 in Light Continuous and aims to continue her success into adult leagues upon leaving sixth form. Nesta credits her achievements to her family, coaches and her golden rule of fitness: “Do that extra rep, do that extra set. Always keep pushing when I think I can’t”

Hilary McKay

Author

Hilary is an author of multiple award-winning children's books and was the winner of the Guardian children's fictional prize (1992) and the Nestle Smarties Book Prize (1994). “It was an all-girls school in the 1970s, when I attended, under the rule of the head mistress, Miss Webb. She was quite a woman, and looking back, I don’t know if she was more than we deserved, or we were less than she deserved. Perhaps her methods were unusual, but she certainly tried to raise us from our centuries old Lincolnshire clay. I came from a largish family, with very little spare money, and we lived in a tight, too small house. I thought Boston High School terrifically posh. I had never seen such large rooms before, nor such parquet corridors (they were cherished- those corridors- indoor shoes, and no sliding!). I cycled across town to get to school, as I suspect many of you still do, although hopefully better dressed for the winters than we were. It was all navy blue skirts and (I am sorry to say) American Tan tights in those days. A hideous combination, especially when added to ‘brown low heeled shoes’. Miss Webb, that ever dedicated woman, was not above stopping you in the corridor with a ruler in her hand and measuring the heels of those shoes. I remember with great pleasure the magnolia tree in the quad, and the round rose garden at the front of the school, and most of all the library. I hope you still have that wonderful library that over looked the school drive. It was the most lovely room I had ever encountered, with blue cushioned window seats and solid polished tables and such a wealth of books, that I never, in seven years of hard reading, ran out. Boston in those days was an all-white, insular, backwards looking town. I found it intensely bleak. I remember thinking ‘no one thinks new thoughts here, ever.’ I am sure, even with all the difficulties that come with change, the present multiracial community that Boston is becoming is a far more positive environment. I wish you all the best, in the library, and in the world. I am absolutely sure that it is no longer the place where an eleven year old can stare out of a window and think ‘no one thinks new thoughts here’ anymore.””

Lucy Dillamore

Illustrator

Illustrator who has recently had her debut picture-book published in the UK, USA and Australia, “Nipper and the Lunchbox.” “from a young age I have always loved drawing and I decided to follow my passion for children’s books and apply for a place on the prestigious MA Children’s Book Illustration course at Cambridge School of Art where I graduated from in 2017. My work is full of painterly shape and colour bought together by drawn line. I often work in gouache, watercolour paint and pencils and ink. I love creating characters (especially animals!) and conveying gentle humour.” 'Nipper and the Lunchbox' has two co-editions in Danish and Dutch, and was published by Child's Play Books. Lucy's agent is Caroline Walsh, who also manages children's literature authors Jacqueline Wilson and Cressida Cowell!

Katie Mottram

Mental health

Katie is an Author, Speaker Campaign Founder, Film Producer and Project coordinator with a background in mental health.

Katie was drawn to work in the mental health field after her mother's suicide attempt, but the negative conceptual framework led her to try to take her own life due to the feelings of shame and unworthiness it generated. She was then led to seek a different perspective when she experienced a profound spiritual awakening during a meditation in 2012.

She was one of the Founding Directors of the International Spiritual Emergence Network, providing a collaborative platform for the global networks that exist to support people going through the spiritual emergence process. Her personal story is featured in the publication by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Spirituality and Narrative in Psychiatric Practice: Stories of Mind and Soul, 2016, and in her own book; Mend the Gap, 2014.

Katie founded the International anti- stigma campaign in support of those experiencing a difficult transformation process; #Emerging Proud: www.emergingproud.com and the Emerging Kind; a project training Peers to hold 'Safe Space' support groups.

Her current project is creating the ‘KindaProud’ series of ‘Pocket Books of Hope’ for people experiencing different themes of mental distress. KindaProud empowers passionate Peers to tell their stories and be validated in doing so by a growing community that values authenticity, vulnerability, equality and honouring of differences. This helps build confidence and reciprocity of support. The project is empowering Peers to bravely speak out, own their story, and in doing so offer HOPE of not just recovery, but transformation to themselves and others.