60 Year Reunion

- Easter at Ackworth 2023

I was aware of the year group 1956-63 when I first started as an Ackworth pupil. They were in the Lower 6th and seemed almost like adults to us. Some were to as the school is now a Steinway School and most of all, gone are the dormitories of 20+ pupils replaced by smart, twin, en-suite study bedrooms!

We spent an enjoyable, leisurely weekend catching up, some now enjoying retirement, others still looking forward to it, friendships formed more than 50 years ago rekindling as though not a day had passed.

The weekend was the perfect opportunity to catch up with friends without the busyness of a School Open Day which is full of school activities (although several of us also attend this event). I recommend the Easter Weekend as a perfect opportunity to arrange your year group reunion – if you have a 10-year reunion coming up, contact the school to arrange it now.

Janet Blann (née Green)

become prep supervisors and prefects, leaving us with positive memories that were rekindled by meeting them once again during the Easter weekend.

These Ackworth Old Scholars are five years older than my own year group, so it follows that the “50 years on” group members are five years younger than us. One of that younger group remarked of the older ones: “I hope we look as good as that in ten years’ time”. Indeed, despite being in their later 70s, the 60-year Reunion group members were remarkably dynamic in mind, body and spirit.

Both groups included Old Scholars who regularly revisit the school, as well as others who had never been back since they day they left, up to 60 years ago.

David Wood

1 Anne Kenyon (Gibson)

2 Cath Jones (Lilwall)

3 Pamela Paget (West)

4 John Speirs

5 Judith Jones (Lister)

6 Anthony Lodge

7 Bill Wicksteed

8 Martin Smiley

9 Helen Smiley (Nicholson)

10 Melissa Wragg (Baxter)

11 Mick Osgerby

12 Annette Dickinson-Flint (Alonso)

13 Charlotte Pendlebury (Dakin)

14 Martin Wragg

Where are they now?

I came to visit UK for a graduation ceremony in March, it was a visit of six days, for the first time after leaving Ackworth. I had a chance to re-experience England from a new, slightly distanced perspective, and while everything else seemed even more extravagant than I’d remembered, coming back to Ackworth felt as homely and heartwarming as I could dare to expect. The experience has left me overjoyed and I am beyond thankful for the warmest welcome there could’ve been.

Ksenija, (AOS 2016 – 2018)