During Autumn Half Term, ten FHS girls headed to New York for an exchange with Hewitt School. Here’s what they got up to!
Please scroll down to see photos.
Weekend
The girls were welcomed and settled in with their host families. Take a look at @FHSSloaneSquare on Twitter to see the amazing welcome they gave us!
Monday
The 10 FHS girls visited the Museum of the City of New York to see an exhibition on “Beyond Suffrage – A Century of New York Women in Politics”. We saw a white dress that a suffragette campaigning for the vote wore in order to look respectable, back when women belonged to their husbands and when domestic abuse was legal. One theme of the exhibition was that different groups need to collaborate in order to effect social change.
Tuesday
This morning the FHS girls left their buddies behind in classes at Hewitt and set off in a packed subway for the real New York commuter experience. Our destination was Fulton Street and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It was a deeply moving and thought-provoking hour as we saw pieces of wreckage, shocking images of the strikes on the twin towers and perhaps most upsetting of all, listened to recordings of phone calls made by loved ones on high-jacked planes or stuck in burning buildings. A film of the reconstruction project, as well as the serenely impressive north and south pools, offered some degree of comfort in that they conveyed a sense of hope and endurance in the face of such atrocity.
On our return, the FHS girls presented their videos about the four inspirational women who lend their names to our houses. Lily Leaver chaired this impressively, engaging the attention of her American peers by explaining our house system with frequent reference to Harry Potter and Hogwarts. She and Mariasole Stewen also fielded the host of questions with great confidence and humour.
Wednesday
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty!
Following plummeting temperatures and an icy wind yesterday, we were treated to sunshine, blue sky and warmth this morning as we took the ferry across the bay to Ellis Island. We marvelled at the mighty Statue of Liberty ahead of us and the gleaming Manhattan skyline behind.
The film and exhibits at the Ellis Island museum brought home to us the desperate plight of so many of the immigrants who arrived here. Several Hewitt girls found the names of great grandparents who had passed through the facility around 100 years previously and it was a fitting moment and place to reflect upon immigration today and our own attitudes to it.
On the bus and heading back to Hewitt, the FHS girls were particularly taken by American snacks: cheesy popcorn and oreos!
