In our semi-regular series of alumni profiles, we recently caught up with Georgia Moss who joined Richmond School in the early 2000s. She tells us about her journey through sixth form college, university, the Teach First programme, to her current role as a Strategy Consultant specialising in education and training. She also tells us about her two cats, her love of rugby and her upcoming wedding – read on! 

RS: Describe your time and your memories of school and college.  

GM: When I started Richmond School as a terrified 11-year-old - I knew absolutely nobody when I joined Lower School! - I couldn't have imagined how much I would come to love it. I can honestly say I made friends for life, and I have some very fond memories of my time at Richmond. A highlight was being Charities Prefect in sixth form - a responsibility I took very seriously! I loved Maths, and still do - thank you to Mr Dalgleish for his hours of patience as I nattered away. I was also super sporty back in the day (less so now!) and really enjoyed my time captaining the tag rugby team and running around hockey and football pitches. I think one of the biggest challenges for me was deciding to take both French and German for GCSE and trying to shift between the languages not-so-seamlessly. Similarly, for A-level I took a real range of subjects - Maths, French, Geography and History - which I found a real challenge to juggle, though do not regret! 

RS: What did you do straight after college? 

GM: After college I went to the University of Sheffield to study Maths with French. I soon realised that the French element of it wasn't for me and switched to straight Mathematics at the end of the first year. My friends and family still tease me about my 4-year 3-year maths degree! The hard work paid off though, and I graduated with a 1st in 2015. For me, a real highlight was the History of Mathematics course - yes, I am a nerd! If I could have done a masters in this, I would have. Funnily enough, there isn't much demand.  

RS: What did you do next? 

GM: In my final year, I was feeling a bit lost. Everyone I knew was applying for graduate accounting roles, but I knew this wasn't for me. An email landed in my inbox about a Teach First internship and, late at night after a Tom Jones concert, I found myself submitting an application. Roll on a year and I was starting my intensive training to become a Maths teacher in Birmingham. Whilst I left teaching after two years, I have so much respect for people who choose to do the profession. It was perhaps the most challenging two years of my life, but also the most rewarding time with many fond memories and funny stories to tell. 

RS: What are you doing now? 

GM: After teaching, I moved to London - something I said I would never do! - to become a Strategy Consultant. I specialise in education and training and work with investors, providing commercial advice on potential transactions, and universities and corporates on their strategies for growth. I love that my role has allowed me to stay close to the world of education. I'm now a director on our team, having been here for nine years. 

RS: Do you have any other interests or roles?  

GM: I have two cats, Cecil and Winston, who love to make appearances on work calls with clients. They're a big part of my life, and my personality! My time is currently consumed by wedding planning, which I'm really enjoying and is providing a really good excuse to visit my family in Yorkshire more often. I'm a big fan of rugby, though my playing days are long behind me, and I love to read a crime novel. I'm currently working my way through the Jack Reacher series, which I would definitely recommend! 

RS: What are your plans for the future?  

GM: I'm currently very busy with moving house and planning the wedding, both of which are taking up a decent amount of my time. As for the future, who knows? 

RS: Looking back, what advice would you have for our current students?  

GM: Work hard but make sure you have fun too. The friendships you make at school will stick with you for life - don't wish the time away. 

This April, Richmond School is proud to be celebrating the Month of the Military Child, embracing this year’s theme: “Winds of Change.” 

Throughout this week, every year group has listened attentively to an assembly exploring what Winds of Change means for our service children and the vital support they provide to their Armed Forces families. Central to this message is the dandelion – a symbol closely associated with military children. Just like a dandelion seed carried by the wind, service children often move from place to place, showing remarkable resilience, adaptability and strength as they put down roots wherever they land. Four of our service students volunteered to share their lived experiences of military life, offering honesty, insight and inspiration to their peers.  

The celebrations continued with a poetry workshop led by Charlie Dixon, a poetry practitioner from the charity Never Such Innocence. Much to the students’ delight, Charlie was joined by her mobility dog Pickle. During this session, Year 7 and 8 students produced moving poetry reflecting on Winds of Change, capturing the realities, emotions and resilience that define the lives of military children.  

In the afternoon, Year 9 and 10 students took part in an art workshop led by Mrs Cheesbrough, Angela Campbell (Service Children’s Champion for North Yorkshire) and Stacey Smith (Youth Voice and Engagement Officer for the Council). Staff were deeply inspired by the students’ openness as they shared their experiences of moving house, forming new friendships and navigating both the highs and lows of military life, and created some wonderful pieces of art to represent this. 

We are incredibly proud that all poetry and artwork will be submitted to the charity’s national competition, with any winners being invited to spend a special day at the MOD building in London. Watch this space – we’ll be sharing some of this fantastic work very soon! 

The celebrations don’t stop there. Our restaurant is also joining in throughout the month. From Tuesday to Friday next week, students can enjoy a different themed menu from bases around the world each day, celebrating places our service children may have lived or called home. The full menu will be shared at the end of the week – so keep an eye out! 

With such a large number of our families being part of or connected to the armed forces, Richmond School is proud to be celebrating the resilience, voice and community of our service children. Thank you to Charlie, Angela and Stacey for helping us to share this important message with our students. 

Thanks to Mrs Carruthers for the following report: 

“The Richmond School Year 10 netball team competed at Queen Mary’s School recently, playing against schools from across the Hambleton and Richmondshire area. 

The team demonstrated excellent attitudes throughout the afternoon, showing resilience, teamwork, and commitment in every match. Performance improved with each game, with players growing in confidence and applying feedback effectively as the fixtures progressed. 

It was encouraging to see such strong teamwork, determination, and sportsmanship on display. The girls represented Richmond School superbly and should be very proud of their efforts and development. 

A great team performance and a positive step forward for the season. 

Stokesley won the tournament with Queen Mary's coming second.” 

Thanks to Steffy Cappleman, key member of the YES@ Areté Learning Trust Inclusion Team, for the following report about the continued success of their Swimming for All programme: 

“The Swimming for All programme, a cornerstone of the Activities for All initiative led by YES@ Areté Learning Trust, is celebrating continued success since its launch in 2019. Generously supported by the The National Lottery Community Fund, the programme has opened up vital opportunities for children and young people who might otherwise face barriers to accessing swimming. 

Delivered in partnership with Richmond Dales Swimming Club, the programme offers small-group swimming sessions tailored to meet a wide range of needs, including social and emotional challenges, coordination difficulties, and other barriers to participation. This personalised approach has enabled participants to build confidence, develop essential life skills, and experience the many benefits of being in the water. 

A key strength of the programme is its strong and longstanding relationship with the club and its dedicated coaching team. Their expertise and commitment have been instrumental in creating a supportive and inclusive environment where every swimmer can thrive. 

Importantly, the collaboration also provides a clear and meaningful pathway for progression. Participants are given the opportunity to continue their swimming journey by joining club squads or progressing into the club’s highly regarded Inspire to Swim programme. Following the most recent block of sessions, which concluded just before the end of last term, two swimmers successfully transitioned into the Inspire to Swim programme—an achievement that highlights the programme’s lasting impact. 

Swimming is not only a vital life skill but also a powerful way to support both physical and mental wellbeing. Through Swimming for All, young people are not only learning to swim but are also gaining confidence, resilience, and a sense of achievement. 

This success would not be possible without the dedication of everyone involved. Congratulations to the young swimmers for stepping outside their comfort zones and embracing new challenges, and heartfelt thanks to the coaches and staff whose encouragement and support continue to make such a difference. 

The Swimming for All programme stands as a shining example of how collaboration and community support can create meaningful opportunities and lasting positive outcomes for young people.” 

To find out more about the Activities for All programme, email the YES@ Areté Learning Trust Inclusion Team at yes@arete.uk 

Izzy was nominated by Mrs Gleave who said: “Izzy has worked incredibly hard over the 2 years of her English GCSE courses. Every piece of Independent Learning has been completed in meticulous detail – often above and beyond the task set. Every task in class is completed thoughtfully and with great attention to following advice, models and success criteria. The thing that has impressed me most about Izzy has been her absolute resolution to keep on improving. Rather than being satisfied with the (very creditable) grades she got at the beginning of the two years, she has constantly sought to improve her work, particularly in timed conditions. As a result, she has developed a lovely critical writing style and an impressive knowledge and set of ideas around our texts. This is underpinned with revision which is well-planned and detailed, so she knows which quotation and language analysis to reach for no matter what the essay title. I wish Izzy all the success she richly deserves in her upcoming GCSEs, and a lovely summer of rest afterwards.” 

Myles Fairhurst, Year 12 student at Richmond Sixth Form College, has been a committed and active student of all things historical and archaeological from a very young age. As well as working hard in college to achieve the A level results he needs to study archaeology at university, he is also very much involved in the history and archaeology of his local area and community. He recently gave a talk to his local archaeology group, Altogether Archaeology, about a site that he has been working on for well over a year.  

Thank you to Myles for providing more information:  

Information about the site:

The site I have been researching is a small village in County Durham. The village, amazingly, has a 1900-year history, spanning right back to the early 2nd century during the Roman occupation of Britain. It also has a church which dates back to the Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) period, but the current church is the Victorian re-modelling, like many churches across England - very annoying! At the site there has been several finds including from the Roman period, Early Medieval and Medieval periods. Between the Tudor Period and the Victorian period, the village seemed to have declined in population and size. As previously stated, the Victorians re-built the medieval church on top of the original foundations, making it very hard to dig the original church!  

Information on my research: 

I started my research 18 months ago after I found the earthworks of buildings and medieval ploughing, called ridge and furrow. I found this using data from a technique called LiDAR which is where lasers are fired down from a plane or helicopter and the lasers bounce off every lump and bump in the ground, even the ones that aren’t able to be seen by the human eye on the ground and in the air. From this point I spent nearly every weekend doing some form of research on the site, up until my talk.   

Information on Altogether Archaeology: 

Altogether Archaeology is a volunteer archaeology group based in County Durham and Teesdale. The group started in 2015 and has researched and dug at several sites across Teesdale, such as Blanchland, Brignall Old Church, Plover Hall and Gueswick. Their website states: ‘The aim of the group is to promote awareness of the archaeological heritage of the North Pennines and the surrounding area by the involvement of its members of all ages in archaeological fieldwork and research.’  

Information about the talk: 

The talk was refined from a large research document, as I only had 45 minutes to cover the key information. I talked about examples of medieval villages and their layouts, then covered the periods of occupation of the village, the archaeology associated with them and finally what can be done to protect the site and how excavations could be carried out. The talk was very well received by those who attended, and they asked some fantastic questions, giving me many other areas and angles to explore at the site. I can’t thank everybody at Altogether Archaeology enough for this amazing opportunity!”  

Altogether Archaeology’s website can be found at the link below: 

https://altogetherarchaeology.org   

Their Facebook page can be found at this link:  

https://www.facebook.com/altogether.archaeology/ 

Thank you to Mr Oliver for the following report from the Area 7-a-side tournament just before Easter: 

"The Year 9 boys arrived at the Area 7-a-side tournament in Bedale with ambitions of winning the competition for a second year in a row. This would not be an easy task as the tournament featured many talented teams, and a format where dropped points could quickly become very costly.  

We started our defence of the title in a positive way with a 1-0 victory against Thirsk thanks to Freddie Curtis' first goal of the day after a good ball from Harry Coyle. This was followed up with an impressive 2-0 victory against Bedale with both goals coming from Harry with Seth Bell assisting the first and Connell Lacey the second.  

Early momentum was starting to build, but the next game was a tricky fixture against a determined Northallerton team. Freddie scored to give us an early lead, but Northallerton fought back, managing to equal the scoreline. Our opponents then wrestled complete control of the game and created many chances, but we defended brilliantly to deny them a breakthrough. Northallerton did find a goal, but it was disallowed as the central whistle had already been blown, confirming a point for both teams. 

Next up was a clash against an Easingwold team that had started the tournament in good form. Richmond knew that this game was crucial for our title hopes due to multiple dropped points in a row being costly. We started the game very well with an excellent finish from Kai Morfoot after good play from Connell to set him up. Easingwold found an equaliser after their striker rounded Junior Latcham in the Richmond goal to finish into an open net. Richmond restored their lead through another goal from Freddie with Kai assisting. We then managed the rest of the game brilliantly to confirm a 2-1 victory.  

The final game of the tournament saw us play SFX in another tightly contested game. The first goal came from Olly Middlemiss after combining with Seth. Shortly afterwards, Owain Hyatt doubled our lead after some brilliant play dribbling through the entire SFX team, then volleying the ball with his weak foot into the net. Finally, Archie King got a deserved first goal of the day after he rounded the keeper from another Seth assist, his second of the game. This result sealed our tournament victory and gave us the retention of the Area 7-a-side cup we set out for at the start of the day. Brilliant work from everyone involved - well done!  

Player of the tournament - Seth Bell (pictured) 

Back row: Harry Coyle, Archie King, Connell Lacey, Seth Bell, Owain Hyatt, Oliver Pickles, Freddie Curtis, Olly Middlemiss, Kai Morfoot 

Front row: Junior Latcham 

Thank you to Mr Moore for the following report: 

“The Year 9 rugby team delivered an outstanding performance to be crowned champions at the Ilkley Grammar School Rugby 7s tournament, showcasing determination, teamwork, and resilience throughout the day. 

Facing a strong field of competitive schools, the team progressed confidently through the group stages, demonstrating excellent ball movement, disciplined defence, and a real understanding of space. Each player contributed meaningfully, with impressive support play and communication evident in every match. 

The final proved to be a thrilling and closely contested encounter against a very well-organised St John Fisher side. Both teams displayed high-quality rugby, with strong defensive lines and quick transitions in attack. Our team showed great composure under pressure, maintaining structure and discipline even as the game remained on a knife edge. 

The highlight of the final was surely Charlie Miller finding himself with space on the wing, before making a 50m dash to the corner. A real feather in the cap of anyone in the front row union! 

In the closing stages, with the score finely balanced, the players dug deep and demonstrated tremendous character to edge ahead. A crucial score, followed by determined defensive work, ensured a narrow but well-deserved victory by just three points. 

This result is a testament to the squad’s hard work, commitment in training, and their ability to perform as a cohesive unit. Every player should be extremely proud of their contribution to what was a fantastic team achievement. 

Well done to all involved on an excellent tournament victory!” 

Thank you to Mr Shami for the following report: 

“Richmond School’s Year 9 and Year 10 girls recently faced strong opposition from Wensleydale and Thirsk schools in an exciting set of fast-paced rugby sevens matches. Throughout the games, the girls demonstrated confidence, determination, and excellent teamwork. 

It was particularly impressive to see the players take ownership of their development. They organised their own warm-up and, after each match, took time to reflect on their performance. They then worked together on specific skills they felt needed improvement, such as tackling and hand-offs, showing great maturity and commitment to improving their game. 

The results were as follows: 

Overall, it was a fantastic day of sport, with all players showing determination, teamwork, and a positive attitude throughout. Well done to everyone involved!” 

We recently heard from Izzy Lundberg, an ex-student who left Richmond Sixth Form College in 2023 to study French and Russian at Somerville College, Oxford University. 

Izzy was a very keen rugby player when she was at Richmond, and it was this she had news about. She told us that she had just played in one of the most prestigious university rugby matches in the country – the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity match, helping the Oxford team to a convincing victory. Izzy also mentioned that she had continued her rugby during her year abroad in Estonia, playing with the national team in tournaments in Finland and Latvia. She said that she had seen a recent article about the success of the Richmond girls rugby team and offered to come into talk to and train with the squad – something we are very keen to arrange for next season. It was great to hear of Izzy’s success and achievements after her time at Richmond, but we wanted more detail! She was kind enough to take time out of her very busy schedule at Oxford to provide the following insight into her rugby, her Oxford experiences and her year in Estonia – thank you Izzy! 

“My rugby journey started aged 16 with the Wensleydale Heifers. The team had just started some months before with no one having ever played previously. This meant the atmosphere was very encouraging and perfect for beginners, as we all improved together. With two years under my belt as scrum half with the Heifers, I was in a great place to go into university rugby once I began my studies at Oxford. However, I did get a bit of a shock due to how intense our training and fitness schedule was! I played for the first team in my first term, but my degree grew more demanding meaning I was unable to play a lot of matches that year. Nevertheless, I went to as many training and gym sessions as I could, knowing I’d be back to play for the Blues (Oxford 1st XV) after my year abroad.  

The Modern Languages course at Oxford is a bit different to courses elsewhere, if you study Russian or Arabic from scratch. Usually, a languages student would go abroad in their third year, but Oxford choose to send you in second year, after one year of very intensive teaching – they aim for you to be A-level standard by the end of first year. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Oxford students have been going to Estonia, to study in a language school in Tallinn.  

I was extremely lucky that my Oxford rugby coach knew the coach in Estonia, Graham Smith, former England Red Roses and world cup winning coach! I landed on the Saturday in Estonia, met Graham and the girls on Sunday, and by Tuesday I was at training! For August and September, we played outside, but once the cold winter set in we were playing indoors in sports marquees, which can still get incredibly cold but at least the ground doesn’t freeze! With this team, I played in 7s tournaments in Latvia and Finland, and we even did a training camp with Sweden’s Malmö team.