“My Girls”

When you ask LWC Houseparent, Lesley Radmann, how to explain what she does for a living, she smiles broadly.

 

“You basically have 81 girls in your head all of the time,” she reveals. “It’s wonderful having an insight into all of these lives, even if you sometimes feel as though your head is going to explode!”

 

To mark International Women’s Day, it’s worth exploring the experience of leading an all-female boarding house in 2026. This year’s theme for IWD is ‘Give to Gain’, encouraging a mindset of generosity and collaboration in a bid to forge equality. Both qualities are at the heart of the LWC ethos and it soon becomes abundantly clear that generosity and collaboration are also firmly at the centre of the Gosden House experience, under Mrs Radmann.

 

Lesley refers to the students in her care as ‘my girls’ throughout our conversation – a term that reveals so much about the relationships built between them all.

 

“The joy for me is watching a group of girls move through 3^rd Form all the way to Upper Sixth,” she admits. “You see them grow from nervous 3^rd Formers who may be new to the school, to dancing with them at the Leavers’ Ball when they are absolutely gorgeous and ready to head out to do great things. It’s wonderful to see them develop like that.”

 

Lesley is in her sixth year at the helm of Gosden House, but she was no stranger to the experience of running a boarding house before that. Her husband (and now Head of English), Chris, was Head of Sutton House for seven years when the couple’s children were young.

 

“When the opportunity to run Gosden came along, the children were much older and I decided this was my time to do something that I really wanted to do,” Lesley explains. She admits that this interview, reflecting on her time as a Houseparent, allows her to consider what has been built in her time at Gosden.

 

“You are like a mother figure. You are caring for these girls, but you’re also disciplining them as you would with your own children. When you see them getting ready to leave LWC, you think, ‘How did that happen?’

 

When asked about her highlights as a Houseparent, Lesley reels them off as though she’s flicking through the accompanying photos. “The Christmas parties when you’ve got the whole House gathered in the Common Room, opening Secret Santa presents,” she smiles. “Or sitting with Sixth Form, chatting and listening to them starting to talk about where they’d like to be, their plans. This job keeps you young. Being with these young people keeps you excited about what’s out there in the future for them.”

 

“In a girls’ boarding house, it’s about talking. Talking things through, listening, cajoling, preventing them from catastrophising and keeping things on an even keel with friendships.” 

— Lesley Radmann

 

It’s clear that watching ‘her girls’ progress all the way through the College is important to Lesley. “I feel a little bit cheated if someone leaves before Sixth Form,” she admits. “Because that’s where the magic happens. The foundation has been laid, but this is where they begin to make choices, reflect on what they’ve achieved for personal statements and have the confidence to move forward. One minute they’re eating around the kitchen table on Takeaway Tuesday and the next, that isn’t so important, and they’re sitting around that same table revising together.”

 

With GCSE and A-level exams starting to come into sharp focus, keeping the House calm is one of Lesley’s many responsibilities.

 

“I always feel oddly chuffed when someone wakes me up to tell me how they’re feeling,” Lesley continues. “One year, one of my girls decided to drink a cup of coffee the night before her GCSE History exam. She ended up working herself up, so we sat and had (decaf) tea for a couple of hours to talk it through. But when I see five or six of my girls around a table, with the big whiteboard out, planning politics essays, asking each other if they want tea and a biscuit – I feel pride that they’re motivated and they’re helping one another.”

 

On the flip side, some of Lesley’s other responsibilities can be infinitely more bizarre. “I’ve often found myself spending £400 on tuck at Tesco and having to answer all kinds of questions from the cashiers,” she laughs. “I do it online now!”

 

Guiding 81 girls through teenagerhood in an era of social media can’t all be tea, biscuits and tuck, though…

 

“I think building resilience in girls is the biggest challenge,” Lesley admits. “In a girls’ boarding house, it’s about talking. Talking things through, listening, cajoling, preventing them from catastrophising and keeping things on an even keel with friendships.” But it’s clear that the mix of year groups across LWC’s senior Houses is something of a blessing in this regard.

 

“When they come into the kitchen and make toasties together, you have 3^rd Form chatting to Upper Sixth and there’s a lovely feel in the House,” she continues. “If I have a 3^rd Former struggling with a friendship problem, I’ll have a chat to them and then ask one of my Sixth Form girls to talk to her about what she remembers from moments like that. They help one another. We’re all a family in that sense.”

 

And just with any family, there are frustrations over the most domestic of duties… like loading the dishwasher. “I had a Sixth Former who once asked me if we could bring all of 3^rd Form together because she wanted to teach them how to use the dishwasher,” Lesley laughs. “They occasionally put bowls full of cornflakes in upright and I point out that it can’t perform miracles.” But on a serious note, it’s this rubbing alongside each other that Lesley believes equips the girls for a life beyond LWC.

 

“Particularly the girls who board here will just fly at university,” she admits. “They’re used to sharing a room, they’re used to living with people who might be tidier or messier than them.” Ironically, what Lesley describes is girls leaving LWC with the resilience they may have lacked upon arrival.

 

And the one day that Lesley has to dig deep for her own resilience and composure?

 

“The moment after Speech Day when we all come back to House for a picnic,” She explains. “My girls are here with their families and I spend some time talking about them, before getting them to talk about each other. We’re all in bits by the end, but it’s great for our 3^rd Formers to see what’s ahead of them and the kinds of friendships they’ll have established by Sixth Form.

 

“They will be friends for life, my girls.”

 

Read more about the LWC boarding experience here.