We are delighted to announce that our 2025-26 Laureate is Lucy (Year 11).
Lucy marked her new role by reading her inaugural piece to the whole school as a welcome back to students during Michaelmas term.
The St Helen’s Laureate is a unique and prestigious student role. Each year, the post-holder writes creative pieces to mark key moments in the school year and national and global calendar. These are recorded in the Laureate Book, which is passed down from Laureate to Laureate over the years, charting a journey of St Helen’s, its students, and the changing world.
Reflecting on her new role, Lucy said, “I am so excited to be this year’s St Helen’s Laureate! I was always so inspired by listening to and reading the words and reflections of the other Laureates when I was younger (and still find myself returning to some of their work today), so I am now really looking forward to this opportunity to bring my own style to the role and present people with fresh angles and approaches to well-worn topics.”
She continued, “This was what I aimed to do in my poem for the start of the year, in which I tried to convey something of the strange liminal nature of September – caught between the pleasant but ever fading memories of summer and the long autumnal period of school that now stretches out before us.”
Please enjoy an autumnal extract from ‘Serving suggestions for the in-between’.
Serving suggestions for the in-between
It is best to enjoy the sweet swelling strawberries
Of a midsummer night’s dream
Before the flaccid December mornings bear in their
Bitter, shrivelled crop from far-off lands.
Somewhere in the midst of the in-between,
Where the pleasant impression of summer taste
Still lingers like a recent tender memory,
Before the other flavours obscure it
With their subtle hints at future-time.
Too often one neglects to savour the in-between –
The time when the strawberries are perfectly tart,
So as not quite to jolt you from the half-asleep
Of an unfinished dream, when your ears are too deep
In the pillow to half-hear the harsh morning’s ‘awake!’
We would advise you to consume the apples whilst static,
Somewhere between half-past-waking and quarter-to-one.
Steal a bite in the second before a step, or after the next,
Or whilst waiting in a trance for a bus that’s gone.
Between the seconds of the watch that hangs loose
Off your wrist – summer bought, winter warmed to,
September just testing.
Or in the spaces among the familiar squeaks of last year’s shoes
– not quite grown out of.
It is recommended that the apples are eaten
After the first whispers of red merge out of green on crisp skin –
Their eloquent language of crunches the soundtrack
To the noise of hasty reunion chatter.
The hazy bubble of the in between, pierced
As tooth pierces fruit with that first morning bite.
But soon every trace of in between taste
Should be wiped from the mouth with a baggy crimson sleeve,
Still fresh and ripening on its owner’s arm.
The pumpkins come later – never quite orange enough
But should still be consumed with the same consideration.
When a moment lies empty amidst October fullness,
We would recommend the silent contemplation
Of sallow flesh where you’d hoped for gold
And an adequate flavour, below expectations.
The pumpkins can be relied on to half-fill your stomach – but
The other half still belongs to the wisps of a dream
That you had last night of the in-between.
And in these weeks before your mind’s been fed
Enough on winter imports to forget the fresh before –
On some days, the strawberries still linger on your tongue
Like a distant tender memory.
And we anticipate it will be this faint in-between flavour
That you will long all year to savour, rather than
That of the fruits of your labour.
You can also read some poems by our 2024-25 Laureate, Izzy (Upper Sixth) here.
