For Linda Parker, it is a dream come true.

Three decades after her happy days as a Bermuda High School pupil came to an end, the old girl will finally get the chance she has always craved to give something back.

Announced as only the fifth Bermudian Head in the school’s proud history this week, Mrs. Parker is full of excitement as she prepares to take over the reins from departing Canadian Roy Napier.

Her appointment marks the realisation of an ambition which began at a very young age.

“I am delighted, ecstatic, humbled,” she said. “In my career path, I swore that I wanted to be a principal. I wanted to be a teacher from the age of five, and a principal for the past 15 years.

“Bermuda High School is the place I wanted to be. It was a positive experience for me when I was at school here.

“This was my alma mater. I really felt I wanted to come back here and give back to my school.”

She believes her background — 11 years as a BHS pupil and the past four as its Head of Secondary — gives her the necessary knowledge of the school’s culture to succeed.

The fact she will be a woman in charge of Bermuda’s only all girls’ school makes her an even more appropriate choice.

“I feel very honoured to be given this opportunity,” she said. “I know the school, I know the culture of the school and the culture of the country.

“I think it’s very important to have a woman as the Head here. If you have a male at the top, and a female below, you are going back to the traditional role that females can’t get to the top.

“It’s a very powerful message to the girls to see a woman at the top.”

Mrs. Parker says the all-girl environment gives students the chance to shine they might otherwise not get.

This claim, she says, is backed up by increasingly impressive exam results.

The mother-of-two explained: “We are the only single sex school in Bermuda and the girls thrive. Often in a co-ed environment the girls allow boys to get ahead of them.

“Here, girls do well at things like maths, science, technology and reading - perhaps subjects that boys traditionally do well in.

“The girls are so focused. They have self confidence, enthusiasm and self esteem - either on stage, on the field or in the classroom. I find that so rewarding as a woman of the 21st Century.”

She is keen for fellow high-achieving BHS old girls to maintain their links with the school, and allow their experiences to become an inspiration to the pupils of today.

“We have a lot of strong women in the community and many of them have come from BHS,” she said.

“As an old girl, I would like to bring a lot of them back so they can mentor our students, whether it’s by shadowing or wherever their strengths lie.”

Mrs. Parker said this would particularly be aimed at students on the IB programme — a two-year international college preparatory scheme which involves pupils going into the community to do work.

She said: “I would like to see the old girls in the community, helping them — possibly job shadowing — helping solidify their career dreams.

“Like a lot of adolescents, many of the girls don’t know what they want to do yet but these people could help them.”

A number of old girls have already visited BHS in recent months to speak to the students about their time at the school and their subsequent careers.

Bermuda National Trust co-chair Patsy Phillips, lawyer Judith Collis, artist Jo Birdsey Linberg and NABC world super middleweight boxing champion Teresa Perozzi are among the former pupils who have taken turns to visit the school.

Each has provided inspiration in her own way.

Mrs. Parker said: “We have students who are very good debaters and might want to be lawyers — they can learn from people like Judith Collis.

“Teresa Perozzi talked about being a boxer. She explained what it’s like being a woman in a man’s sport.

“I plan to do more of that kind of thing because I think that’s the key. The students can learn about what school was like back then. “They can also learn the paths these people have followed in their own careers.”

Her appointment was announced to the pupils on her 45th birthday this week, and the students responded with a rendition of Happy Birthday — a mark, she says, of BHS’s friendly nature. She acknowledges the efforts of Mr. Napier in leaving the school in an ideal position for her take charge next July.

There will be challenges along the way, but she is certain the support of fellow staff, teachers and the hard work of the pupils will help her along.

“I’m quite fortunate because the school is in very good hands,” she said. “Mr. Napier has done an excellent job.

“We have a very hard-working and well qualified staff who are caring and nurturing. They will give whatever is needed to make a student successful — whether that means giving up their lunch hour or working after school.

“We have understanding staff who are very well qualified, a committed parent body and hard-working students.

“I know there will be challenges but I look at them as opportunities.

“It’s difficult to say what those challenges will be yet but we will deal with them as they come along, in a logical way. I think I’m very lucky — I have inherited a jewel.”