On 25 November pupils from the senior school came together to mark the UN day for the Abolition of violence against women with the Reclaim the Night March. Pupil walked together from Horsefair House to the main site and shared speeches, poems and spoken word pieces with each other on the topic of women's safety and gender equality. The event was a powerful reminder of community and the need for these important conversations to continue. 

Below we share an extract from the final reader of the night, and Lead on the Next Gen Women project, Lily Minns.

Sixty seconds.
That’s all it takes for a woman to learn the rule:
be quiet, be small, be careful.

In sixty seconds, a girl is told to pull her skirt down,
not because she’s “inappropriate,”
but because men won’t be held responsible.

In sixty seconds, a joke lands in a room
misogyny wrapped as “banter.”
She feels the punch but laughs anyway,
because calling it out makes her the problem.

In sixty seconds, a woman weighs the risk
of saying “no”
against the risk of what happens
when the man who hears it doesn’t like the sound.

In sixty seconds, a bruise forms,
a threat is whispered,
a door is slammed just hard enough to warn.
No evidence, just fear
the kind that never makes a headline.

In sixty seconds, a colleague’s hand lingers too long.
A stranger follows too close.
A partner raises his voice, then his fist.
Violence doesn’t check the time of day.
It doesn’t wait for night.
It lives in kitchens, offices, bedrooms, buses.

In sixty seconds, a woman practises silence

because speaking brings consequences,
because reporting gets dismissed,
because survival has been mistaken for “strength.”

We’re told to stay quiet.
We’re told it’s not that bad.
We’re told to move on.

So take these next sixty seconds
every one of them
and sit with the truth some women never get to speak
Never getting the chance to share their story.
and feel the weight of every story we only hear once she's gone
because this world listens too late.

As part of my Red Gown project this year, I made it my mission to ensure that Reclaim the Night at Norwich School didn’t happen quietly, or halfway, or in the shadows. I wanted this event to have the turnout, the attention, and the respect it deserves — because these issues cannot be whispered about. They demand to be seen. They demand to be heard. And tonight, all of you helped make that happen. This is exactly what meaningful leadership looks like: a community refusing to accept silence where there should be justice.

We came here to walk — but what we are really doing is carrying a message forward. A message that says women and girls deserve safety without conditions. That our streets belong to us. That our voices will not shrink to make others comfortable. And that the next generation — our generation — will not tolerate the patterns that too many have been forced to endure.

So as we leave tonight, do not leave unchanged. Let this not be a moment, but a shift. Keep speaking. Keep challenging. Keep showing up for each other. Because reclaiming the night is not something we do once a year — it is something we keep alive every day.

Thank you again for being here, for standing together, and for choosing action over apathy. If this is what our community looks like when we stand up — imagine what we can change.