Peter Kendrick (ON 1941-1948) and Peter Harkness (ON 1937-1948)

We enjoyed catching up with the two Peters at the Class of 1945-1955 reunion. They hadn’t seen each other since they left Nottingham High School in 1948.

Peter Harkness shared this story of his time during the war, shortly before joining Nottingham High School.

I actually missed the Autumn term of 1939 at NHS due to the fact that I had been staying with my grandmother that summer, and when war was declared the family thought a North Yorkshire village would be safer than an industrial city. I was therefore officially counted as an evacuee, and spent that term in the village school, where two teachers did their best to cope wjth an age mix of boys and girls from 5 to 13 in two classrooms.

I well remember a girl named Carol who one morning came in but did not take her place in class. Miss Dodds told us to wish Carol a happy birthday, as today she was 14 and would therefore be leaving school. And off she went. The school soon received dozens more children from Gateshead, and as it did not have enough exercise books we all had to make do with slates. I found this irksome, but when given sixpence for helping with something I called at the village shop, bought two exercise books at a penny ha’penny each, and treated myself to a twopenny bar of chocolate and two sticks of nougat. Grandma was very cross with me. ‘Fancy spending all your money at once. You must learn to be provident. You won’t have any pocket money for two weeks!’

I thought this unfair but later in life I learned that Grandma’s father had been lost at sea aged 39 in 1876, leaving a wife and six young children. Her mother ran a shop from home to make ends meet. It follows that to indications of a spendthrift nature she was understandably sensitive. For me, the lesson was not to tell grown ups what you were about.

Peter Kendrick has been working with the Development Team to create a digital archive- more on this to come later on in the year!

Class of 1980 and 1981 Reunions

In June we had the pleasure of welcoming the Class of 1980 and Class of 1981 back to the school.

Class of 1980 Reunion

17th June 2023

“I just wanted to write to thank yourself, Kamala and Geri for such a wonderful afternoon in the presence of former school friends on Saturday. It was both inspirational and very informative. It was a memory box day for me which I shall reflect on very fondly in the future.”

Jeremy Smith (ON 1970-1980)

“The 35 or so ‘old boys’ who attended the various events over the weekend were hugely impressed - not just by the facilities and status of the school but also by the professionalism of the Development operation and by the efforts which had been made to make them feel welcome and remind them that they are part of a ‘community for life’. ”

Mark Dillon (ON 1973-1980)

“Many thanks again for organising such a great event. It was very special indeed.”

Peter Lanyon (ON 1974-1981)

“Our Reunion was just a delight, from start to finish. So nice to see all the old places and all the old (or at least slightly older) faces, many of whom I had not seen since we left the School in May 1980.”

Robert Hurt (ON 1970-1980)

“The reunion organisation was a credit to you and the School and possibly the best tribute that I can offer for the day was that my wife, who has no connection to Nottingham or the school, commented what a thoroughly enjoyable time she had. Geri was a fantastic host and it meant so much to have someone from the staff we remember to be part of the day. I was left regretting that we had not done this before but hopeful that we might be able to do it again in a few years!”

Simon Maxwell (ON 1970–1980)

Class of 1981 Reunion 24th June 2023

“It was a wonderful event and I really enjoyed seeing so many old classmates. It’s amazing that I haven’t seen many of them since the last day of school in 1981 but we all reconnected quickly and were soon exchanging our stories from days of old!”

Andrew Dillon (ON 1974-1981)

Further photographs from these reunion can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ nottshigh/albums/