Looking back to pay it forward – The Hayhurst Scholarship for Sport

We’re delighted that former pupil and Head Girl, Vicky Hayhurst (class of 1998) has created our very first named scholarship – The Hayhurst Scholarship for Sport.

The scholarship programme at Hulme Grammar School fosters excellence and passion, offering secondary and Sixth Form pupils unique opportunities in areas like Art, Drama, English, Music, Science, Sport and more. Recipients, selected through an application and interview, access experiences, projects, trips, and competitions they wouldn’t normally have, enhancing their learning pathways.

These scholarships help students stand out in university applications and the job market. Donating to the Hulme scholarship programme unlocks top-tier opportunities that boost pupils’ future potential, creating advantages that extend beyond the classroom. A Hulme scholarship offers a distinctive edge in today’s competitive educational and employment landscape.

Beginning, Middle, End

Vicky shares her memories of Hulme and her story as to why she’s giving back to school.

“My name’s Vicky and I’m from Rochdale”.

“Erm, your name is Victoria and you’re from Bamford!”

And with my mother’s ‘suggestion’ for how I would introduce myself to my new classmates on that first daunting day at Prep School, my Hulme days began. It was September 1987, and I was seven years old.

What I couldn’t have imagined at that time was what the next 36 years would have in store for me. During this time, I would mostly be Vicky (sorry, mum) but I would be from Bamford, Rochdale, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and England. I would go from being Head Girl at Hulme to President of the Communications Society at the University of Leeds, where I would have the time of my life studying a subject that I loved in a city which would become my home. Thank you for that life-changing introduction to Leeds, Lucy Morgan, Emma Cropper, Sonja Butterworth and J’Ogden (so cool she needed only one name).

I would build a career in marketing and communications which would see me progress from Assistant Manager to Manager to Director to Chief Strategy Officer and finally to CEO when I set up my own consultancy, Hayhurst & Co, in 2023. Like my parents and grandparents, I would graft hard and enjoy my jobs. And I would find my passion working in the transformational higher education sector which would enable me to travel regularly (but unglamorously) to all corners of the UK and to four continents across the globe.

But I’m not here to talk about my career – I’m here to talk about the reasons I’m giving back to Hulme by funding a scholarship for a current pupil. In short, I’m giving back because I loved the school, and the people in it. Please, take a coach trip down memory lane with me as I explain why.

Coach trip down memory lane

Back to 1987. I’ll never forget the trepidation I felt when my father dropped me off at the bus stop to get the Bywater coach from Rochdale Bamford to Chamber Road. I was nervous of starting a new school when I’d loved my primary school so much. It felt daunting to make friends and fit in again, but waiting for the coach in my starched, navy blue Hulme blazer I also felt proud.

As soon as I stepped onto the coach, two girls in the year above me, whom I instantly admired and looked up to, immediately put me at ease and gave me my first feelings of acceptance and reassurance – thank you, Kate Clough and Natalie Simon. Another comfort on that first journey to school was seeing Jonathan Wild who had been one of my best pals at primary and who was starting at Hulme boys’ prep on the same day. His uniform required him to wear a little stripey yellow and navy cap – thankfully the girls had stopped wearing straw boaters many years before! In future years we would be joined by Emma Lees – we also met at primary school and Emma remains one of my best friends today, almost 40 years on. After that came Charlotte and Matthew Ashworth, with whom my sister, Sarah, and I became inseparable throughout the whole of our Hulme days, both in and out of school. The Ashworths lived across the road and we were unbelievably lucky to grow up with them.

Even though this daily trip took 45 minutes each way and the coach was perennially late in picking us up from school every Friday, all I cared about was how grown up I would feel when I would be old enough to sit on the back seat. Oh and also in gaining the ‘power’ to play my own cassette tape (remember tapes?!) into the coach – I’ve listed some classic “Bywater Bangers” for you at the end of this trip.

There were so many other friends I made from that coach journey and also from joining my class at Estcourt. I remember each and every one of those girls with absolute fondness. I also remember how much I liked their parents and how they kept us entertained at weekends and at various birthday parties through the years – McDonalds parties, magicians in church halls, Roller City, Laser Quest, Alton Towers, sleep overs. When we got to senior school, many of us graduated to hanging out parentless on Friday nights behind the billboards at The Roxy cinema, pretending that we’d seen Ace Ventura, Pet Detective for the fifth time when the rents came to collect us…

Those friendships and experiences gave me fun, belonging, growth and alternative perspectives – all elements of a powerful network which I’ve replicated in my life and career ever since. “It’s who you know, not what you know” as my dad always says.

This desire to grow and build friendships and networks continued throughout my 11 years at Hulme. From stepping on that coach as a seven year old to getting off it for the last time as a 17 year old with a driving licence who had reached the heady heights of being able to park on the crater filled, battleground, track next to Thornycroft, I felt like I had found my place.

Competition and Camaraderie

Hulme gave me and my sister opportunities for which we will be forever grateful. We loved playing sports and being part of talented teams who enjoyed much success and camaraderie. It also provided me with the opportunity to play for the England Rounders team along with my pal, Rachael Burgoyne. A very proud, “pinch me” moment.

I was always inspired by the girls who were brilliant at sport – many of these girls played or swam at county level and made me want to up my own game. Some of the sporting legends I can remember are: Keely Smith, Vicky Hampson, “The Fogos”, Sarah Lever, Lisa Lang, Helen Priest, Lynsey and Rachel Burgoyne, Helen Jamison, Ruth Dunkerley, Laila Veidi, Emma Aitkin (my school bestie who became a housemate and a rock for me at university, along with Hayley Turner), Kathryn Hill, Natalie Chesney, Clare and Fran Grainger, Nadine Merabi, Helen Broadbent, Liz Graham, Rachel Rudd, Gill Tetlow, Charlotte Ashworth and Lesley Beddow. I’m still friends with many girls on this list. And thankfully, many of the other girls I remember from Hulme I’m connected with on social media, where I can see that they are all just as awesome now as they ever were (sorry I can’t name everyone I remember – there are hundreds of you!).

Sporting success was one thing but being part of a team and growing my friendship groups with girls from other years were what I loved most. As a typical extrovert, more friends meant a richer experience – playing sport was one way of me building that experience.

Being a member of Hulme’s sports teams also meant that I got to spend even more time on coaches (!) chatting, laughing, listening to music, celebrating and commiserating together as we travelled around the North West playing against other schools on week day evenings and Saturday mornings. How we EVER managed to go out drinking and dancing in Henry Afrikas in Oldham and Sankeys Soap in Manchester and then still play hockey in the sleet, wind and rain after five hours sleep feels totally beyond me now!! We also hosted wayyyyyy too many faux 18^th birthday parties in the Traveller’s Rest in Rochdale on Friday nights, thanks to some counterfeit work done on Oldham Sixth Form College ID cards to ‘prove’ our age. But we and still made it to athletics or tennis the morning after – there was no way we would have wanted to disappoint the two greatest PE teachers that ever lived, Mrs Greer and Mrs Hampson.

I was also lucky enough to go on three ski trips and played volleyball for a year – two of the only things that the school allowed us to do jointly with “the boys” at the time. Well, those two sports, and hanging around with the boys during lunch break on the drive surrounding the school building – not standing too close to the opposite sex though, on pain of receiving an order mark. In the end, my days of having crushes on boys were short-lived, turns out it was just a phase.

These are just some of the reasons that the scholarship I’m funding is to support a pupil in her sporting endeavours. I want to help someone else to make the most of all the opportunities that playing sport gave, and is still giving, to me. And for the first time in my life I’m in a position to pay it forward.

More than sport

But funding a scholarship is not just about showing gratitude for Hulme sport. It’s about a range of other experiences that I was lucky enough to have, including how the school set me up for life academically.

It could be said that the teachers were more strict than they needed to be, and there wasn’t always a lot of future thinking when it came to career advice. I was once told that I would never be able to study law because my handwriting wasn’t tidy enough – LOL. But overall, I thought that the teachers at Hulme were incredible and totally committed to the school and to us. Sure, their teaching methods could be slightly unorthodox at times, or just very entertaining – thank you Miss Hatch, Mrs James, Mr Bibby, Miss Priestley, Mrs Maders and Mr Cook! But I remember the teachers with great respect.

The most truly exceptional teacher I had the privilege to know and to be taught by was Mrs MacLellan: English. More than being a kind, talented and dedicated teacher, she also supported me tirelessly to get the school radio set up in 1997. In both of us working together on this, she also (unknowingly) taught me about critical thinking, building a business case, getting tricky stakeholders on board and the power of mentorship; life changing skills to have learned at any age. I honestly don’t think I would be the person I am today without having had Jackie as my teacher and mentor at such a formative stage – I owe her more than just my A Level in English!!

Another crucial piece of the jigsaw of my time at Hulme was when my little sister, Sarah, started. Three years younger than me and full of confidence and an element of irreverence for the teachers, I admired Sarah’s courage to be herself and not get too hung up on the more archaic rules of the school. In these ways we were quite opposite and I felt even more safe and secure just for having her around – not that I ever told her that at the time, of course! But I knew that, even though she was younger than me, she was braver, and she would always have my back – it’s still the same now.

I remember when I was summoned to Head Teacher, Miss Smolenski’s office the day after the votes for Head Girl in my year had been cast. “The votes from the girls in your year and the year above, and the teachers, have been counted. We’d like to offer you the position of Head Girl” she said. Having a slight moment of self doubt and disbelief, I responded with “Can I think about it?” Smolenski looked baffled, then incredulous: “Well, erm, well…no one’s ever asked that before! But yes, okay, you can have until the morning break!”

With that I shot out of her office (after yanking open that ridiculously huge door) and went to find my sister to consult her – she was playing hockey in a PE lesson in the rain (as per). Now, anyone who played on those shale pitches will remember how it felt to be pelted with tiny stones when somebody attempted to strike the ball but missed, taking up half the pitch with their hockey stick which subsequently embedded itself into your thighs, just above your knee socks and below your PE skirt turning your freezing cold legs into ‘corned beef’. Anyway, back to the story…I beckoned my sister and told her what had happened and asked if she thought I should accept the position. She looked at me, equally as incredulous as Smolenski and just said “Sister! Are you crazy?! Of COURSE you should accept it! Go back now and tell her you’ll do it!” And with that extra encouragement and belief from my little sister, I headed back up to school and accepted the job of Head Girl – still one of the proudest achievements of my life.

Thanks for the memories

The above memories are literally just a drop in the ocean of what I remember and am grateful for about my time at Hulme. I know the school is making a new difference to its current pupils. In many ways it’s a very different school to the one we attended in the 80s and 90s. But I’m not funding this scholarship because I want Hulme to be like it was when we attended. I’m giving back because the things the school gave me are priceless – safety, belonging, open doors, confidence, skills, knowledge, friends and the most important gift of all (to quote my mum)…”the gift of a good education”.

So that’s why I give. I give for all the people who were part of my amazingly privileged experience. I give to acknowledge what the school gave me and my sister. I give for every time I walk into a meeting with a new client and we find out we both went to Hulme and there’s an instant connection and a glint in our eye. I give for the lifelong friendships and inspiration I will always have. I give for gratitude.

To all of the girls who made my Hulme experience as rich as it was, especially those of you I’ve seen in REAL LIFE in the last couple of years – good times Lisa Hughes, Maxine Brown, Sasha Webber; those of you who I don’t see any more but whom bring me daily joy on social media and random conversations on Facebook Messenger (I love you all for this); and my Hulme lifetime loves who I see regularly always have such special times  – Clare Grainger, Emma Lees, Jane Pugh, Kathryn Hill, Natalie Chesney and Onyinye Ebizie – thank you all so much.

Now, enough of this emotional rollercoaster – it’s taken me months to write this as I’ve cried all the way through it! Give these tunes a whirl on your cassette player Spotify and put your hands in the air:

• Baby D, Let Me Be Your Fantasy
• Corona, The Rhythm Of The Night
• N-Trance, Set You Free
• Snap, Rhythm Is A Dancer
• Rozalla, Everybody’s Free
• 2 Unlimited, No Limits
• SL2, On A Ragga Tip
• Sandy B, Make The World Go Round
• Kim English, Nitelife
• Loveland, Let the Music (Lift You Up)
• Shanice, I Love Your Smile

If you would like to learn more about creating a named scholarship for a subject area that you’re passionate about visit our scholarship pages or email the development team development@hulmegrammar.org