Fifty years gone by in a flash...

Saturday 16 March’s reunion for the Class of 1974, celebrating 50 years since leaving school, was a great success, thanks to the sterling efforts of alumnae Sara Nathan and Trish Reeves who marshalled a lively crowd of 1974 leavers through the Wimbledon High gates once more.

By special request, our guests of honour were former staff Averil Burgess, Second Mistress and Head of History at Wimbledon from 1969 – 1974, before going on to be Head at South Hampstead High School and receiving an OBE for services to Education in 1994 and veritable WHS institution, Enid Thornton- Smith, former Head of Prep, who was at Wimbledon from 1960-1993 and taught the Class of 1974 soon after arriving at WHS. Whilst many guests have remained in regular contact, partly thanks to previous reunions, it was wonderful to see several new faces, some of whom had attended the school since the age of four and had great fun identifying themselves as youngsters in old school photos.

A special thanks, as always, to our Year 12 tour guides, who learned a great deal (too much!) about life at school in the ‘70’s and were fantastic ambassadors for the school.

In the words of our guests:

“Thank you for a memorable and delightful afternoon… It was so interesting to hear about peoples’ careers, the things they’ve done, and their families, and of course it was a special pleasure to be told how my lessons all those years ago were enjoyed! Wimbledon …was, and clearly still is, a very special school. The transformation of the premises is astonishing, and we all marvelled at it- but the lovely girls who guided my group demonstrated that the essential ingredient, the girls, are still the same Trust pupils, confident, friendly, articulate, and very proud of their school, determined to show it off.“

Averil Burgess

"Having mentioned to friends that I attended our reunion at the weekend I now realise how remarkable it is that so many of us still wanted to meet up. Most people say that they are not in touch with people in their year at school although they think it would be interesting to meet up. The fact that I gave a lift to Mrs Thornton-Smith, my kindergarten teacher at age 4, is considered even more remarkable! The fact that we remember each other and that there is a photo with both of us in it is extraordinary too. What stability! Following our reunion in 2014, 40 years after we left school, 12 of us now keep in touch by WhatsApp. It says a lot about community and friendship. It was a surprise to find we had the netball team present at the reunion and great that everyone looked as if they were still up for another match!"

Patricia (Trish) Reeves

"It was a very jolly event and worth the not-huge effort of making it happen. Nikola and the WHS home team took so much of the organisational load. Singing the school song again was only mildly excruciating and I was grateful to the Year 12 girls who boosted that as well as conducting us around the school. It’s odd how some people are instantly recognisable after all the years and others not so much. The school is the same: the Hall instantly recognisable but everything else so altered. We couldn’t believe THREE Chemistry labs and the same for other sciences, when we had one of each and just not enough space. Science for girls is just a higher priority now."

Sara Nathan

VIEW THE PHOTOS HERE>

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