Students from Putney High School met with Sophie Raworth, a Putney Old Girl and high-profile BBC News presenter, last Friday when she made a guest appearance for PIE (Putney Ideas Exchange).

Sophie, who has presented the BBC's One O'clock News since June 2006, spoke to Putney girls about her career highs and lows and the essential characteristics of a successful broadcast journalist.

Putney Ideas Exchange (PIE) is a programme of regular presentations and discussions which give students at Putney High School the chance to learn about varied topics and stimulate them to make inspired and knowledgeable choices about their own future direction and career paths.

Dr Denise Lodge, Headmistress at Putney High School, said:

"We were delighted to host Sophie and she was an inspiration to the girls here who would like to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. She gave us a lively and informative presentation and some great insider tips about how to succeed in such a competitive industry."

Putney High School is part of The Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) which is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, with 3,500 staff and 20,000 students between the ages of three and 18. As a charity that owns and runs a family of 28 schools in England and Wales, it reinvests all its income into it schools for the benefit of the pupils. With a long history of pioneering innovation in the education of girls, the GDST now also educates boys in some of its schools, and has one co-educational sixth form college.