Director of Development From our

As we approach the end of the summer term at AKS, it has provided an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made for our alumni since the new Development Office was established last September.

Our new alumni platform oaksconnect.com was introduced at Christmas and the online network continues to grow, with nearly 800 people joining from across the globe. This is a valuable and free resource for alumni and former teachers from our heritage schools, as well as parents and grandparents of AKS today and we look forward to you joining this growing community if you haven’t already. It’s a great way of reconnecting with former friends and colleagues, seeing school photos from your past, booking onto events as well as keeping up to date with all your alumni news.

To recognise our heritage, we have installed a new Notable Alumni Gallery in the Sixth Form to recognise former pupils of the heritage schools and to inspire our current and future students. There is also an online version of the gallery on oaksconnect.com.

In May, the Upper Sixth Celebration Evening was a great opportunity to welcome the Class of 2023 to the OAKS alumni, with over 90% of our Year 13 students joining oaksconnect.com.

We also held a successful launch event at the school for the AKS Lytham Foundation on Friday 5th May.

110 guests attended, including our Foundation Patrons as well as alumna and alumnus featured in our new Notable Alumni Gallery. Our patrons represent notable alumni and leaders from each of our heritage schools who will support us to share the vision and

In March, Development Officer

Mike Rhodes made the difficult decision to move on from AKS and relocate to the Lake District.

Sarah Shepherd now joins me on a full-time basis in the Development Office as Development and Alumni Relations Lead. As a QMS alumna, Sarah brings a huge amount of experience to the role alongside her marketing expertise.

We are both looking forward to working together and OAKS will be at Lytham Club Day in June with a heritage tent and at the Headmaster’s Cricket Match in July at the PTA Summer Festival.

We also have more developments planned this summer with the introduction of OAKS LinkedIn and OAKS Instagram, as well as enabling opportunities for our alumni to support AKS students with careers education and mentoring from September 2023.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for your alumni, then please do get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you.

Sarah Walton Director of Development

01253 376040 sarah.walton@akslytham.com