Book of Inspiring Women

JULIANE KOEPCKE

Survivor

The 17 year old Juliane fell out of a plane in a storm at 12000 ft and was the sole survivor. She was strapped to her seat when she finally awoke. Koepcke had loads of injuries. Also she was in the Amazon Rainforest! She knew that if there were any civilizations nearby they would be along the river. She very quickly found it and started to swim downstream. Within a day or two she started collecting maggots under her skin! She soon found a small hut and outside there was a small pot of petrol. She decided that she had no choice but to pour the petrol on her skin! She watched 40 or so maggots drop out of her arm! She was soon found and taken immediately up- stream to a hospital. Her sheer will –power to keep going was EXTRAORDANARY!

You’d be surprised at the amount of self- belief it takes to be the only survivor from a plane crash for 10 days in the Amazon Rainforest when you know that your mother is dead.

©WrongUn on imgur.com

By Honor P, Year 5

KATHERINE JOHNSON

Mathematician

Katherine Johnson (neé Coleman) showed a talent for maths at an early age and graduated from high school when she was only 14!

In 1952 she heard the NASA was hiring mathematicians and so she applied and got it. At first, she worked with a group of 20 women performing maths calculations. One day, Katherine was temporarily assigned to help an all-male research team. Katherine’s knowledge of analytic geometry helped her make male friends because they respected her. Katherine was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings (where no women had ever gone before). She simply told people that she had done her work and that she belonged.

From 1958 to her retirement in 1986, Johnson worked as an aerospace technologist moving, during her career, to Spacecraft Controls Branch. She calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

By Harry C, Year 6

‘Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.’

©NASA

‘Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.’

JENNY LYNE

Rugby Player

Jenny Lyne is a former Rugby Union Player who played at both blindside flanker and lock for England.

Lyne starter her career at the Chichester RFC, before playing for Crawley, Richmond and Saracens first teams. She was selected for her first England match against Wales, where she came on as a replacement to score her first international try.

Jenny Lyne has 38 caps for England. Her height is 1.78m. She was part of the England squad that bean New Zealand Black Ferns at home during an international tour in June 2001, ending a 10-year unbeaten track record for the Black Ferns. Lyne was part of the Five and then Six Nations Grand Slam winning squad in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2006. She played at the 2002 Women’s Rugby World Cup in Barcelona, in the final and again in the 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup in Edmonton, Canada.

Furthermore she is the only woman ever to have had children and return to rugby at an international level.

Jenny Lyne teaches Year 3 pupils and coaches pupils across the Prep school at Westbourne House.

By Hugh F, Year 7

"All the effort, all the commitment, all the dedication, all the pain, sweat and tears - ALL worth it."

DARCEY BUSSELL

Ballerina

Darcey Bussell is a world famous British ballerina. At the age of 13, she went to White Lodge, the lower school of the Royal Ballet. At 16 she progressed to the upper school, before joining the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet in 1987.
She became principal dancer at just 20 years old.

She has performed in many ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, the Nutcracker and Giselle. She retired from dancing in 2007. She now appears as a judge in Strictly Come Dancing. She has also written several children’s books about “Delphine”!

She is my inspiration because she is a beautiful dancer and I want to become just like her.

By Lucy P, Year 5

"Criticism and bullying are part of life. It’s how you cope with it that matters."

ALI SPARKES

Author

When Ali Sparkes was in Prep school they thought that the alphabet wasn’t groovy enough, so they decided to mix it up a bit. Instead of A, she got something like apple apocalypse. So when she moved to secondary school she couldn’t really read, so she was the bottom of her class. Back when she was young there weren’t any video games or iPads or anything like that, so her idea of passing time was to go to the library. One day the librarian recommend a book to her and she loved it, so she got into reading.

She wrote her first book in secondary school. She took it to one of her teachers and he said she should send it to a publisher, which she did. She got rejected by publishers 14 times. She persevered and today she is a top author even after all her let downs. The Shapeshifter series is one of the most popular and was originally called Dax Jones and the COLA Club.

She recently visited Westbourne House during book week.

By Rory N, Year 6