A FORMER head girl at Altrincham Girls Grammar School is to address members of Bowdon Ward Conservatives at their spring supper.

Brought up in Wythenshawe, Katherine Fletcher, the new MP for South Ribble, loved school.

“I am a big old geek. I drove the staff to distraction when I forever asked them ‘why’?’ I’m grateful to the teachers who helped shape us, especially David Welsh, the headmaster

Katherine experienced her first election when staff and students voted her head girl from 1993-4.

She loves nature. At school she joined the Young Ornithologists’ Club at Sale Water Park.

“When at Sandilands Primary School, I braved the traffic at Brooklands roundabout to see some ladybird larvae. Not something I would recommend!”

She is an ardent Manchester United fan, the fifth generation of Fletchers to follow them

She was the first member of her family to go to University and gained a B.SC Honours in Biology at Nottingham.

“My school inspired me to realise that the sciences suited girls.” This included technology which she started as a graduate.

Katherine spent six months helping to set up the Northern Power House.

“The North of England has an opportunity to increase growth and help close the UK’s productivity gap,” she said.

Between 2008-9 she qualified as a Field Guide aka a Safari ranger. She did driving tours and led bush walks in South Africa and Mozambique but warned not to cross the path of an angry elephant!

Katherine said: “A big hi to all my old friends who might not know I have been elected an MP…and will now be laughing at this sentence. Get in touch if I can help you.”