Anna Lapwood (Class of 2013) is a renowned organist, conductor and broadcaster. During her degree at Oxford University, she became the first woman awarded the prestigious Magdalen College Organ Scholarship. A passionate advocate for women in music, Anna leads organ workshops and champions new compositions by female composers. With over 1 million social media followers, she inspires a global audience, promoting diversity and innovation in classical music.

Miriam Margolyes (Class of 1959) is one of Oxford High School GDST’s most celebrated alumnae. A passionate actor during her school years, she played Gertrude in Hamlet in the first dramatic performance staged in the new Belbroughton Road Hall. She has since returned many times, most memorably to open the Miriam Margolyes Drama Studio, describing it as one of the happiest days of her life.

After leaving Oxford High School, Miriam read English at Newnham College, Cambridge, performing with the Cambridge Footlights and appearing in the first series of University Challenge.

Her distinguished acting career spans stage and screen. She won the LA Critics’ Circle Award for Little Dorrit and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Age of Innocence. Audiences worldwide recognise her as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, alongside roles in Babe, James and the Giant Peach and Romeo + Juliet. On stage, she appeared in the original London cast of Wicked.

Renowned for her wit, intellect and outspoken advocacy on LGBTQ+ rights and her Jewish heritage, Miriam Margolyes remains a fearless and distinctive voice.

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Class of 1992) is Chair of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group and serves as Deputy Head of Department for Research. 

Her research focuses on adolescent brain development, social cognition, and decision-making. She co-authored the influential study The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education with Uta Frith and is the author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, winner of the 2018 Royal Society Prize for Science Books.

Professor Blakemore began her career with an international postdoctoral fellowship in France and has held prestigious Royal Society fellowships. She actively promotes public engagement with science, contributing to BBC programming and giving talks to schools and communities.

Her research and contributions to psychology and neuroscience have earned numerous honours, including election as Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the American Association for Psychological Science, alongside multiple national and international awards for research excellence. 

Charithra is an actress known for her roles in Alex Rider (2021), Bridgerton (2022) and How to Date Billy Walsh (2024), after studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford.

She has been vocal about colourism and racism in the film industry, openly discusses her experiences as an actress of Indian descent and advocating for change.

Emma Bridgewater (Class of 1979) is one of the UK’s most recognisable homeware designers and a leading entrepreneur. She founded the Emma Bridgewater ceramics company in 1985, creating iconic designs such as her famous polka dot range. Inspired by a search for a birthday gift for her mother, Emma crafted her own distinctive pottery, establishing a business that is now one of the largest UK-based manufacturers, with most products made at the Stoke-on-Trent factory.

Beyond her business, Emma has served as a former Oxford High School and parent, consistently supporting the school’s community and initiatives.

Professor Samaya Nissanke is a leading astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam, known for her work on gravitational waves and cosmic events like neutron star mergers. She was instrumental in the groundbreaking discovery of GW170817, the first neutron star merger observed through both gravitational waves and light.

Her achievements have earned major awards, and she is also a passionate science communicator and advocate for women in STEM, inspiring diversity and inclusion in science.

Amy Isles Freeman is an artist and wood-turner who has been making beautiful objects – and attracting substantial acclaim for doing so – since 2014.

Amy left Oxford High School in 2010 and finished her studies at Falmouth University in 2014, having concluded that her real passion lay in making things as opposed to drawing them. Amy’s next lightbulb moment came while visiting an exhibition by the artist Dorothy Iannone, whose irreverent humour and vibrant style provided Amy with a way of talking about gender and identity without the aggression she saw in the work of her favourite female artists. As Amy says, ‘I went away from that show thinking about so many things I’d never thought about, all because I laughed! That initiated my current thought process, which is that if I can make stuff that makes people smile and feel welcome, then I can communicate without anger.’

Asma is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in immigration, asylum, deportation and European free movement law. Her practice includes refugee and human rights claims, cases involving vulnerable clients and matters related to the Points Based System.

Committed to pro bono work, Asma regularly volunteers for Bail for Immigration Detainees, Rights of Women and the Article 8 Deportations Advice Project. In 2018, she won a ProBono award at the Lexis Nexis Legal Awards for her work on the Refugee Legal Support Athens project.