Presidents Blog
OW Dinner 2018
Posted on: December, 3rd Dec 2018
In Category: Presidents Blog
The dinner is always a top notch event. From the exquisitely presented apéritifs to the mouth-watering courses that follow, topped off by coffee and home-made petits fours, the whole meal is worth it in itself. To eat so well in such good company is a fantastic bonus. Many thanks to Clare Kneebone and the School’s wonderful Catering Department for ensuring such a great
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Speech Day 2018
Posted on: December, 3rd Dec 2018
In Category: Presidents Blog
I know that a couple of hours in the Dome at Woodbridge listening to speeches and applauding the year’s prize winners is not everyone’s dream Saturday morning. But now I am retired I can choose not to attend, except that as OW president I am invited and so it seems churlish not to
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1993 Leavers Come Back to School
Posted on: December, 3rd Dec 2018
In Category: Presidents Blog
Anna Crawford always had lots of energy. At school, in the CCF, medical degree then army career beyond. She certainly needed it and all her sense of humour when trying to liaise with a good number of her year group, the King’s Head, and me. The simple plan was to have a tour of the school then repair to the King’s Head for refreshments and ultimately a buffet
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President’s Blog May 2018: On The Royal Navy, OWs, their Parents and Even Children!
Posted on: June, 18th Jun 2018
In Category: Presidents Blog
I bumped in to Emma Gray (almost literally) in the Seckford Theatre doorway after a performance of the school’s musical, The Sound of Music. (If you haven’t seen a musical recently, try one at Woodbridge as they are real, top-end shows but sadly only every other year.) Emma, who left in
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President’s Blog January 2018: Another Catch Up in the Pub!
Posted on: February, 1st Feb 2018
In Category: Presidents Blog
A short trip to the Greyhound public house in Ipswich, favoured haunt of Adam Hedley and Benjamin Hoyer (2005 leavers), was an excellent way to end 2017. They were in good form and a jug or two of excellent Adnams ale was consumed as Ben had some catching up to
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President’s Blog: OW Christmas Drinks December 2017
Posted on: January, 4th Jan 2018
In Category: Presidents Blog
It is sobering when an OW who left school in 2010 says that he feels old. The Christmas Drinks event at the King’s Head just before Christmas usually attracts OWs who have left fairly recently and are still at university, in the middle of an apprenticeship, or have just started out in the world of
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President’s Blog November 2017: So why did you go into teaching?
Posted on: November, 16th Nov 2017
In Category: Presidents Blog
“So why did you go in to teaching?”
Usually when you ask that in an interview or socially the response is often “Because I love the subject I studied at university and wanted to carry on using it.” Now that is laudable but given that teaching in a school requires that you attend to all sorts of things apart from your
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President’s Blog October 2017: Storms, ‘Self-Reliance’ and Tents
Posted on: October, 16th Oct 2017
In Category: Presidents Blog
It is 16 October 2017 as I write. A Facebook post by Rob Turner, Chair of the OW Liaison Group, reminded me that on that fateful Thursday in October 1987, he was an excited CCF Army Section cadet in the fourth form (Year 10 for those under 40) about to do his self-reliance
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President’s Blog: The OW Dinner Saturday 9 September 2017
Posted on: September, 22nd Sep 2017
In Category: Presidents Blog
Can you ever enjoy a dinner even when the food is excellent and the wine deliciously tempting, if you have to deliver a speech afterwards, without a microphone? Well in the case of the OW Dinner 2017, yes. This attracted a particularly convivial crowd, mostly from those who left in 1992 and 2007 (25 years and 10 years since leaving
Read MorePresident’s Blog Monday 4 September 2017
Posted on: September, 4th Sep 2017
In Category: Presidents Blog
Almost déjà vu, but I have been a president once before but that was of the University of St Andrews French Society in 1977: a mere four decades ago. As the new President of the Old Woodbridgians, to follow luminaries such as Mike Weaver, Mark Mitchels and Huw
