Last Saturday we marked our 141st anniversary in style at our annual whole school reunion. It was a wonderful afternoon with alumnae attending across the years from 1955 to 2024! Our Head Beth Dawson gave a lovely welcome back to all attending which was followed by a fantastic trip down memory lane by archivist and former Head of History Mrs Sue James.
Mrs James has written up a short overview of the day below …
“It was lovely to welcome back alumnae from a wide-range of years, from Miss Charlesworth’s time to Mrs Dawson’s. The older ones were able to browse the artefacts from the archive to find references to themselves and everyone could reconnect with friends and former class-mates. There was a warm atmosphere as they chatted over a delicious tea and were guided round the school by sixth formers who impressed with their knowledge and their kind manner. The modernisation of the school buildings was admired as they reminisced about their own experiences of eating in what is now the staffroom or learning in wooden “swift-plan” classrooms.
Two groups who attended were the classes of 1975 and 1982 and I was able to share a selection of their school council minutes in a short talk. Some of the items for discussion fifty years ago may be recognisable today: uniform and school lunches being the hottest topics. Yet, the detail may be a little different; a campaign for changes to the style of the summer dress, for example and repeated requests for cheese and biscuits on the menu. Perhaps the most amusing entry, with hindsight, was the behaviour of younger girls on the buses in 1975, smoking and playing cassette recorders!
Thank you to all those who attended, both alumnae and past and present staff who made the occasion such a success.”
