162 ELLE.COM/UK^ May 2020
MY SCHOOL LIFE
On...
BBC RADIO 1’S CLARA AMFO GETS
NOSTALGIC ABOUT HER SCHOOL DAYS
AND HER FAVOURITE FRENCH TEACHERClara Amfo can’t stop crying. ‘Oh, God, this is so embarrassing.’ Thankfully,
it’s not anything we’ve said. She’s just met up with her favourite teacher- Madame Cargill, who taught her French from Year 7 to Year 11 – for
the first time in nearly 2O years. ‘French is just a gorgeous language and
Madame Cargill made it fun to learn,’ Clara remembers. ‘She was so
glamorous and she’d always welcome us into her lesson with a singsong
“Bonjour, la classe”. She was strict, but I really enjoyed her lessons.’
We’re sat in the reading room at The Holy Cross School in New Malden, Clara’s all-girl secondary
school, surrounded by Judy Blume novels and students’ book reviews (The Notebook gets five stars.) She’s
back at her old school to talk about the teachers and experiences that shaped her into becoming the
successful DJ, confident presenter and outspoken role model she is today. ‘Coming back here is so
surreal,’ Clara admits. ‘In a lot of ways, it feels like I never left. It’s like muscle memory. I knew where the