Natalie Orringe

“I was incredibly fortunate to secure an assisted place to Croydon High School. I was challenged every day to be the very best I could be which left me with lasting ambition and a desire to learn. I went on to study Geography at Jesus College, Oxford University, gaining experience that helped accelerate my career in marketing and communications.”

Natalie Orringe is Chief Marketing Officer at Access Intelligence PLC. Since leaving Oxford, Natalie has been a trailblazer in the world of communications. She distinguished herself at Teamspirit, a prestigious communications agency which is part of Chime, rising to the ranks of Deputy Managing Director and Group Innovation Director. She is now a member of the executive team of Access Intelligence Group with responsibility for marketing strategy across a wide range of clients. Natalie lives in Brighton and is Chair of the Brighton and Hove Charity Together Co, which exists to tackle isolation and loneliness in the city. 

“I remember being terrified on my first day at Croydon High School. It was a much larger school than I had ever been in before and I felt a real outsider because I hadn’t gone to the Junior school. Happily, this quickly passed once I joined the tennis and hockey teams where I met people who became life long friends. I look back now and realise how lucky I was to have teachers who constantly encouraged you to think big and be brave. Whether my PE teacher Miss Plant or my brilliant geography teacher Mrs Lee, they instilled a real confidence to try new things, however great the risk of  failing. Overall, the biggest lesson from CHS was how to manage time pressure. It was intensely busy at school between friends, sports, music and study but I was determined to do everything as well as I could. I became really good at doing homework quickly and asking for help to share the load. This made a huge difference to me being able to cope at University.

Being at a GDST school helped me by giving me the support to excel academically and in my sports. I recognise now that this gave me huge confidence that in turn had impact on almost every aspect of my life – not least of which is in my career. The GDST has become a real marker for quality education. I’m proud to be a part of the network and support the GDST as it expands. Funding schemes that make it possible for people from all financial backgrounds to attend fee paying schools are important because they result in private schools being more diverse and reflective of society than they might otherwise be. It leaves students with a more rounded view of the world”.

Natalie Orringe
Chief Marketing Officer at Access Intelligence Plc
Alumna, Croydon High School
Class of 1998