Former Newlands student visits school with crew in Chinook helicopter

Students and teachers at Newlands Girls’ School watched on as a former student flew her all-female Chinook helicopter crew into the grounds on Tuesday morning.

Flt Lt Jennifer Boyd is a Chinook pilot and for the first time in her 14-year RAF career her squadron had enough women for an all-female crew, with two pilots and two rear crew.

To mark the occasion, Flt Lt Boyd and the flying team took to the Chinook on Tuesday to tour the country and visit some of their old schools.

Having studied at the school in Farm Road between 1998 and 2005, Flt Lt Boyd went on to join the Royal Air Force after university in 2010.

She got to the Chinook front in 2017 and has been flying the aircraft for around seven to eight years.

Excitement was building on Tuesday morning as the whole school came out to watch the crew land on the field.

There was clapping and cheering as Flt Lt Boyd and the crew were welcomed to the school.

After landing the crew greeted students, teachers and headteacher Jo Capon, before taking groups of students into the helicopter to have a look around and learn more about the aircraft and the RAF.

Speaking to the Advertiser at the school, Flt Lt Boyd said: “It’s really exciting, it’s so lovely to come back.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about trying to do for a while and luckily all the variables just came together in our favour today and obviously it’s me and three other girls flying the helicopter today, which is the first time I’ve ever had that in my career.

“[So I’m] very excited and happy to be here.”

Flt Lt Boyd shared hopes that the visit ‘broadens everyone’s horizons’ and will see ‘a few more ladies flying’.

She added: “It’s a real privilege, especially knowing that I just had no idea about the military or anything like that when I was at school.

“So hopefully coming here just broadens everyone’s horizons a little bit.

“I just think it’s really important to have that awareness of what goes on and what they can do if they want to.”

Head girls Shruti Raja and Niamh Walsh said they were ‘very excited’ about the visit and felt it was inspiring – especially to have an all-female Chinook crew attend.

Shruti said: “We were looking forward to this throughout last week and it’s very exciting, especially when there’s an ex-student.”

On feeling inspired by the visit, she added: “Definitely, especially [as there are] so many females here.

“Like you can do anything, it’s just about how hard you work and how determined you are.

“There’s endless possibilities and opportunities out there, it’s just about how you go, your mindset towards everything.

“[It’s] very inspiring.”

Niamh added: “I totally agree –it’s really inspiring.

“We haven’t quite had a visit like this at Newlands before so we’re very grateful to Miss Capon for organising this for us.

“It’s a very special day here at Newlands. It’s really lovely to see female empowerment.

“Seeing what we can be capable of, it’s really quite special.”

Miss Capon said: “[We are] incredibly proud. This is a moment I don’t think that our students will forget.

“[It was] absolutely phenomenal watching the Chinook fly in, knowing that you’ve come here and just bringing the whole school out and [they were] cheering, waving as you came down.

“I feel very proud that the school came out together and we had this opportunity, and I hope that it has inspired some students and definitely what a wonderful thing to do in the run up to Christmas.”