This morning, we had our usual end of term whole school assembly to which I invited Maitri and Vish, Manasvini’s parents. With great bravery and courage they were with us whilst we went through our usual end of term matters.

The second part of our assembly was devoted to remembering Manasvini and celebrating her life. We heard moving tributes from two of Manasvini’s closest friends, her Head of Year, Miss Swaine, and we heard songs that were written by her friends in memory of her. We also heard a song by members of Palmer House, which was part of their entry in the House Music competition earlier in the year which Manasvini was part of. Here are some tributes from our assembly this morning:

Miss Swaine - Manasvini was and will continue to be awe inspiring. She had an infectious personality and aura about her, which will be greatly missed but never forgotten. The following words I believe summarise Manasvini best: Happy, Ambitious, Self-Less. Happiness and joy poured out of her. She embraced everything with open arms and she didn’t just show happiness with her beautiful smile, her happiness could be seen in her eyes. This can be seen in the various photos we have of Manasvini.

Ms Kattirtzi - It is clear that Manasvini was a lovely person, she was small but known to lots of people because of the very long hair she had. I think she could sit on her hair! Maitri tells me sorting out her hair and hair styles was a major campaign in their household! Manasvini had lots of friends in and outside of school and had an infectious personality which made people instantly like her. She was also so very kind and caring. She liked to get involved in so many things in school and

out of school. We know that Manasvini loved Basketball and went to her club in Bracknell every week for two hours training. She never missed a training session. We know that Manasvini loved the colour blue. We know that Manasvini loved life and lived it to the full. This is what we are remembering of her today and celebrating her life which was full of love, light and kindness.

We ended the assembly with the following reflection which I would like to end my weekly message to you today.

This week we have all experienced the worst that life can bring, the death of one of our wonderful students, Manasvini, who has left our world too young, with unfulfilled dreams and ambitions. Each person in this room will, over the next few weeks, months and years, try to process and understand what has happened; this will not be easy.  What we do know is that in her short life, Manasvini, touched us all - she made us happy, she made us laugh, she made us dance, she made us sing - today she is making us cry, but we must make sure our sadness for her death is replaced with a joyousness for her life; the smallest girl with the biggest heart, a kind, unassuming child – let this be her lasting legacy to us.

Ms Christine Kattirtzi, Headteacher