School Development & Alumni

We now have a vibrant and growing community of Old Aylesburians spanning a number of generations and through a programme of social events, sporting fixtures and an evolving careers development and curriculum enrichment programme, the majority of our Old Boys decide to stay in

touch. In fact over 95% of outgoing Year 13 students made the decision to sign up to our alumni community before they went off on study leave this year.

Interaction among OAs and other members of the School community, including current and former staff, current and former parents and current pupils, is very much a growing part of life after Aylesbury Grammar School. We were delighted to launch our new interactive database, earlier this year which offers Old Aylesburians the opportunity to build a professional profile, find, message and connect with old school friends directly and read all about our AGS news and events. OAs can also use the new community site to share information about their career, new ventures and job opportunities with the other network members. Many of our OAs have already signed up to this community site and we are using the new facility in the Development Office daily. It has certainly made the way in which we stay in touch with our community very much easier and has given us the opportunity to refocus our energy towards encouraging a more interactive community.

It is important that our School continues to be supported by a thriving and engaged alumni community. Current students and other alumni benefit in many ways – careers advice, work placements, mentoring and inspiration. We have alumni who have gone on to do a vast array of fascinating things, and make a tremendous impact in all walks of life, and by building an alumni network we engage an army of powerful, supportive advocates.

This year a focus for the Development Office has been to continue with our evolving programme of engagement events including Leavers’ Decade Reunions, Anniversary Reunions and the development of a number of programmes to share experiences, including the continuation our very successful Medical Society that included great insight and thought provoking talks by several of our OA medics.

School Development

In April we received some excellent news for the continuous improvement of the AGS site.

As an academy school each year we can submit two bids to improve the School facilities through the Condition Improvement Fund (CiF). Bids are based on the needs of our site and the guidance from the DfE.

The great news is we were successful with our bids both of which were essential to maintain the effective running of our School. The first bid was to replace the majority of poor quality windows across the site and the second bid was to complete essential works on the electricity supply to the School to ensure sustainability and resilience. Work was carried out during the summer 2018 and it means now that the funds raised by The Aylesburian Annual Fund can now be re-directed to the much needed refurbishment of our teaching and learning spaces. There is still so much to do.

Our vision is to build a school with facilities to support exceptional learning, a school to help our students ready themselves to face the demands of the 21st century, and to be successful in whatever they choose to do.

In order to this, we realise we face significant financial challenges. Our School has occupied its current site for over a century and has some rapidly deteriorating learning and teaching spaces. Many are not fit for learning in the modern world and so our Aylesburian Annual Fund which offers an opportunity for every parent, old boy, member of staff, governor and friend to support both current and future generations of students at AGS. Through regular giving, our community can help us to realise projects that urgently need our attention and enrich the educational experience for every student at Aylesbury Grammar School.

funds from The Aylesburian Annual Fund to refurbish the old gym and what a difference it made!

We continue to thank everyone who has supported the School so far. Our students are now benefiting from this fantastic transformation of the Old Gym thanks to the support of parents and OAs through donations to The Aylesburian Annual Fund.

Alumni Relations

Our new community database now has 937 registered Old Aylesburians and 2100 connections on Linkedin. The introduction of the new community site effectively means we have had to take a step back and ask our existing community to re-register. It has been a good exercise and we are delighted with the number of OAs who have chosen to register on the new site. We also use Twitter and Facebook on an almost daily basis.

Our Senior Prize Giving in September was a sparkling evening of speeches, music & presentations for our hard working students. The event was a great celebration of everyone’s success across the year. Special thanks to Wing Commander Lee Cobley (OA and Foundation Governor) who stepped in as honorary guest at the last minute. His words and formula for success (*Ability * Effort * Conditions * Confidence) struck a chord with the audience. Lee spoke to every single prizewinner, who all approached him to collect their prize with a smile. A wonderful celebration for the School.

The traditional curtain raiser to the AGS 1st XI Football Team’s competitive season was a match against the Old Aylesburians, held at the very beginning of the school year.

The 11-a-side OA v 1st XI match in September finished 4-2 to the 1st XI. This was pre-cursor to an undefeated season for the 1st XI which culminated in winning the Bucks Under 18 County Cup for the first time since 2000.

Thank you to our OA AGS footballers, Patrick Murphy (Hampden ‘05), Martin Murphy (Hampden ‘05), Jack Thompson (Hampden ‘05), Matthew Dickinson (Denson ‘05), Dominic Butler (Hampden ‘05) and Marcus Allen (Ridley ‘05) who kindly sponsored our 1st XI Football kit for this season.

Back Row from left to right:

Liam Bell, Earl Atat, Harrison Ambrose, Alex Rice, Luan Ross, Jonny Booth, Euan McDonald, Ore Soetan, Taf Manjengwa

Front Row from left to right:

Chris Atkinson, Matt Cato, Harvey Farrington-Thorne, Tom McElroy (capt), Leo Blackman, Tom Baldwin, Luke Priestley

Our annual Senior Public Speaking Competition held in September was adjudicated by Jamie Patmore (Ridley ’10). Jamie won Senior Public Speaking in his final year at AGS and has since studied Politics and International Relations at Cambridge. He went on to complete work experience on the trading floor for a global investment bank, before moving to his current position as a strategy consultant for a boutique private equity advisory firm. It was great to see him back at AGS.

We held a decade reunion in late September for Old Aylesburians who left the School between 1961-1970. A lively group enjoyed a tour of the School and drinks in the Sixth Form Centre.

Above from left to right: Peter Horlock, John Saxby, Paul Bown, John White, Dee Blount, Roger and Sarah Carey, Robert Brown, Geoffrey Howell, Keith Grout and Peter Dean.

On Friday 10 November our Year 8 and 9 students enjoyed some inspiring words from OA James Chiddention (Phillips ‘12) at our formal Remembrance Assembly. James, Flying Officer at RAF Northolt, spoke about his time at AGS, UCL and in the RAF. James laid the wreath in the Foundation Hall and also shared his thoughts on what Remembrance Day meant to him and how important it is to make the most of life, to take chances and to do your best. On Saturday 25 November we hosted our Celebration of Sport Dinner in the Foundation Hall. Attended by over 150 OAs, Staff, Governors, Parents and Students, we were privileged to welcome Richard Lee (Phillips ’99) back to the School as our guest speaker. Richard is an ex professional footballer, entrepreneur, television pundit and speaker. We also warmly welcomed David Atkinson, Headmaster of Dr Challoner’s Grammar School and Ashley Robson, Headmaster of Reading School. Toby Vintcent (Phillips ’80) also joined the Headmaster on his table; Toby served as an officer in the British Army during the Cold War as part of the NATO Rapid Deployment Force. He subsequently had a successful career at Merrill Lynch and has written three novels. Toby kindly agreed to be our guest speaker at Junior Prizegiving later in the School Year. Our Medical Society has been extremely well attended by our aspiring medical students since the introduction of the society last year and we have received great support from our OA community, many of whom returned to AGS to give thought provoking and insightful talks about the role of a doctor, vet or the commercial side of medicine. In addition to these on going talks we held a very successful Medical School Interview practice session in January where we welcomed back OAs and parents who generously gave up their time to help our current students prepare for interviews for their university places.

On 2 February the School hosted House Music when we were delighted to welcome back OA Mike Paul-Smith (Denson ’05) as adjudicator. During his last year at AGS, Mike formed the band Down for the Count which he now runs fulltime, performing at over 130 events each year.

In March we were delighted to welcome OA David Krause (Denson ‘43) who returned to School for the first time since he left during the 1940s. Although a great deal of change was noticed during David’s tour of the school, he was delighted that his recollections of the high standards set by Aylesbury Grammar School were endorsed by everyone he met and by everything he saw. It was wonderful to meet with David and have the opportunity to show him how his former School has grown with the times yet still maintains its core values.

OA Cricket Match, Basketball and Squash Tournament 27 June

OA Cricket For the past two years the OAs have defeated the AGS 1st XI with relative ease, so this year we decided to try something different and mix the teams. This had the added advantage of being able to accommodate more than 11 OA players. The 14 returning OAs contained 4 sets of siblings – the Burden, Bee, Woodward and Sutcliffe brothers. The current AGS 1st XI provided the remaining 8 players, with the two teams being captained by Jonathan Burden and Will Fisher. We were also grateful that OA Keith Lamdin was able to return to AGS for the first time in many years to umpire.

The match took place during the height of the summer heat wave, so on a small ground and with a lightning fast outfield, batting was certainly easier than fielding. Jonathan Burden’s XI set a useful marker, scoring 202 all out in 29.2 of their allotted 30 overs. OA Will Sutcliffe (36) and Ben Jacobs from Year 11 (39) led the way at the top of the order, although Captain Jonathan Burden contributed a useful 38 at the end of the innings. Pick of the bowlers was Ali Bee who took 3 for 32 in his 6 overs (including the wicket of his brother James). Will Woodward also contributed 2 wickets in a tight 7 over spell?

In reply the Will Fisher XI got off to a flying start. OA Josh Thompson, opening the innings was due at work and was clearly in no mood to hang about. A series of huge shots peppered the Languages Block or landed in the car park, before he retired. He was ably supported by Marcus Connor from Year 12 (45) and Will Woodward (43) as the Fisher XI kept well ahead of the required run rate. Wickets were taken, including two apiece for Sam Morton and James Bee, but the target of 203 to win was surpassed with 3 overs to spare.

It was fantastic to see 14 recently departed AGS cricketers playing with and against the current crop of AGS cricketing talent on a perfect summer’s day.

Joel Barrie

OA Basketball

With the OAs currently holding victory of the last two of this annual fixture, this year’s AGS basketball academy team looked to upset this standing record and take a win back. Before the match started, the OAs needed an extra player, so in his last ever OA match, Coach Lee McCarthy went over to the OA side, who now had two big men on their side, with Tom Edwards returning for the OAs. The coach-less AGS team now had to pull in together and work as a team, using all their combined experience and knowledge to devise a strategy to beat the OAs. Knowing the difference in height and fitness between the teams, the smaller AGS team had planned to outrun the taller, older OA team, expecting in the later quarters the difference in fitness to show.

The AGS team started off well with a few quick buckets, but the OAs also traded back some as well, keeping the game close. After a few minutes

into the game, the OAs’ fitness level showed immediately as they sat in a zone defence for most of the game. Noticing this, AGS called a quick timeout to regroup and figure out how to approach this. They had managed to score a few more after the timeout, but the OAs were still able to maintain the score, and by the end of the 1st quarter, OAs were leading by a few points. In the 2nd quarter, AGS had tough luck scoring as many of their shots wouldn’t go in. Because of these misses, the OAs started to get easy fastbreaks on AGS as they ran ahead of them, anticipating a miss, to get easy points down the other end and by halftime, the OAs had increased their lead much further. AGS started the next half with a quick three and seemed like the start of a run, but this was cut very short as soon, later in the 3rd quarter, we witnessed a sudden shooting showcase from Ben Geddes who made about four threes in a row, drastically increasing the OAs’ lead. To the disappointment of AGS, the OAs had come out with a blowout win this year, winning this fixture three years in a row. The experience of the OAs was too much for the younger AGS team and the presence of big men Tom Edwards and Coach McCarthy made it difficult for AGS to score inside, leading to this loss.

Despite the loss, in appreciation of Coach Lee McCarthy’s last year at AGS, the OAs put together a collage of photos from all the years he has been at AGS as a token for him to remember his time at AGS. As well as the departure of Coach McCarthy, this was the last ever AGS fixture of the Year 13s as they head off to university; Aalim Shamsideen, Tan Chinzowu, Kym Ibragimov and Ollie Mulchay. As well from Year 11, Luke Parry will be leaving AGS and attending another sixth-form and Joslyn McLeod will be taking his basketball talents to Southampton playing for an EABL league team. Lastly, just a thank you to the OA players for taking their time to come down to play this fixture and thanks to Coach McCarthy for all the years of basketball you have done for us. This year’s team are the last to fully appreciate how much you have done for basketball and to keep it a relevant sport at AGS and we wish you all the best that is to come. OA Squash

A total of six matches were played in the OA Squash Tournament with OA Nick Ratnarajah, who has just finished at Nottingham University with a 1st, conjuring up enough energy to play 2 matches on a lovely summer’s day. We welcomed back Nick along with Alex Preston, Iain Digby, Lee Cobley, Phil Yerby and Alex Axford. Very competitive and enjoyable matches whilst reminiscing of past glories and recalling faces on the wall of fame. AGS no 1 Marcus Connor, who also took part in the cricket match on the same day, was beaten by Ratnarajah on court 1 whilst OA Lee Cobley was battling away with Elliott Abdey and eventually succumbed to a 3/2 loss and a groin injury. Next up Ryan Connor played OA Alex Axford and was surprisingly dispatched 3/0 in a less than competitive match. Following on in the next match was OA Iain Digby against Harshi Gupta and the latter, current No 4 in school, won 3/0 and giving present team hope. Next up Darren Withey took on training partner and OA Alex Preston which resulted in another 5 set match with OA taking the decider. Nick Ratnarajah then turned out as special

guest for present team. Nick won his 2nd match against OA Phil Yerby in a game that was closer than the 3,0 scoreline suggests. Final result was an honourable 3-3 draw.

Many thanks to all of those who gave their time and effort to take part which is much appreciated by the school.

Toby Vintcent (Phillips ‘80) returned to the School as our Guest of Honour at Junior Prize Giving in July. An interesting and varied biography, Toby is a published author of three critically acclaimed Formula 1 inspired novels, former commissioned officer in the 16th/5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers, Investment Manager and Marketing Director in the City, a Great British Three Day Event Rider, a Team Manager for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and former Politician. We were interested to hear his words to our Year 7 - 9 students and parents. Our thanks to Alex Mustoe (Paterson ‘15) for taking the time to return to AGS to adjudicate Junior Public Speaking in July. Alex was a committed public speaker when he was here at Aylesbury Grammar School and is now in his final year studying Social Psychology at Loughborough University.

A number of other OAs returned to the School over the year for other events and activities such as the AGS Research Panel (instigated by Deputy Head Boy Adam Woodage (Phillips 13). The idea was to encourage junior and middle students to take part in a learning programme to acquire necessary research skills, delivered in parallel with their own research project and some in-industry perspective was added to this by our OAs. Another great initiative which was supported by our engaged Old Aylesburian community. The Inspirational Speakers’ Programme for our Sixth Form students continued and our Old Aylesburian Fantasy Football League proved popular with over 200 OAs involved. Thank you to Tom Piotrowski (Denson ’05) for setting up it up. The worthy winner was Will Edwards (Hampden ’08).

Mrs A Cox – Development Director