We were deeply saddened to learn that long term staff member and former Assistant Head of the Infant and Junior School, Sarah Stevens, passed away on Monday 8 August following a long fight against cancer. Sarah retired in December 2018, with plans to continue her love of travel with her husband Stewart. Sarah passed away peacefully with Stewart and her family by her side.
As well as being a much-loved teacher in the Junior School, Sarah was a keen and generous supporter of our BGS Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, promoting and celebrating the creative flair of the Infants and Juniors in their entries.
Sarah was instrumental in the introduction of the competition back in 2005 and has, always modestly, entered her own photos with invariably high recognition from our guest judges. She always came in to her own on Presentation Evening where she warmly and expectantly encouraged her charges to come forward with confidence to collect their certificates and talk to the audience about their winning photo.
Reflecting on Sarah’s contribution to the competition, Laura Barwick OB and guest judge writes:
The first I knew of Sarah was at the inaugural BGS Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, back in 2005. She definitely had a brilliant eye for composition and detail, however, what struck me that night was her enthusiasm for the creation of the competition and evident desire to involve pupils from what was then the Lower School (now BGS Infants and Juniors) and inspire a generation of budding photographers.
Today, this event draws in entries from across the entire BGS community, in a way few others do. Each award evening hosts children from all year-groups and it is often the youngest members of the audience who provide the most memorable moments as they talk through their images, how they achieved them, how many times they have entered previously, what they intend to do for next year.
This is all credit to Sarah and her initial plans to embed photography into the Infant and Junior School, for the children and their families to continue throughout their time at BGS. And, indeed, so many have!
Whilst sharing her creative knowledge with her pupils, Sarah also never lost her own wish to be outside watching nature and finding the ‘right shot’. Over the years she entered numerous beautiful images and it now seems so fitting that she won the OBs’ category just this year. I’ve never seen a gull captured in that way – wings touching water, tail vertical, feathers spread like bones in an x-ray. I judge blind – but I think I knew it was Sarah’s from that special composition and decision to turn the image into black and white format. It’s my personal regret she was too ill to come to our awards ceremony as I would have loved to have shaken her hand one last time and remind the community of the impact she’s had on the competition and thank her for all her various contributions. I shall greatly miss seeing her art on display as well as her wide smile watching all the recipients go up and talk about their winning shots.
With this in mind, Mr Harford and I would like to propose a special award from 2023 onwards, in recognition of all Sarah gave to the BGS WPOTY competition. It will reflect her enthusiasm for photography as well as her passion for composition. It will be judged by Mr Harford himself, with Sarah’s voice in his head. I can’t wait to see who the first recipient will be.
