From Recipient to Trustee: Belinda's Life-changing Bursary

At this month's 150th Anniversary Bursary Trust committee’s meeting a new face joined the call. Old Waconian Belinda Walmsley, Class of 1994, shares her reasons for supporting her old school in this new role:

“In 1987, when I was 11, I received a life-changing letter. On the stiffest Basildon Bond it announced I’d won a full scholarship to Cheadle Hulme School.

In addition to full fees, free school meals and bus fares, I vividly remember the grant of £50 towards my uniform. This stretched unbelievably far thanks to the school jumble sale and never looking particularly fashionable. If the trend was for cardigans and long skirts you’d always find me in the bobbly jumper, trying to let my hems down.

Winning my place was utterly transformative. In particular the incredible kindness of my friends, my friends’ families and my teachers. I was never made to feel an outsider - the poor girl with nothing to wear, who could never go anywhere, afford to do anything or invite friends home.

Friends regularly let me borrow clothes, have hot showers at their homes or ferried me round to parties, parents treated me to cinema tickets and meals or paid me over the odds to do small jobs for them, whilst teachers also offered support and kindness every day. I particularly remember Mrs Badger coming in with a small portable heater for me when it was especially cold at home.

I was so grateful to be at school every single day as it gave me an instant escape from a life that was often very tricky and a long-term opportunity to build something more secure for myself. And so, I am beyond thrilled to have been asked, 35 years later, to become a Trustee of the CHS bursary fund. That owl-faced 1st year in the old coat could never have imagined that one day she’d have the opportunity to help transform more lives (and perhaps even ‘up’ the budget for cardigans).”

You can find out more about the CHS Bursary Fund here.