President’s Message 2021 has been a tough year for everyone one way or another. But in spite of Covid, your OB Council has not been idle. There has been a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes, and once restrictions were lifted, we were of course very happy to be able to restart activities and events again.
Our events Our events started at last in September – beginning with a very successful Derek Whitehead Fives Day. So lovely to see the generations mixing as Prep School pupils played with an array of OBs, who have a growing Fives Club membership and have thrived in the latter months of lockdown when only outdoor sports could be played. We have enjoyed catching up on our reunions – the 10-, 11-, 20- and 21-year reunions took place in the Michaelmas term, making up for those postponed in 2020.
Our Questionnaire In the summer we reached out in order to hear your views. Lockdown was the perfect time to get this out. A lot of work went into its preparation and analysis, so thank you to all who took the time to respond. It has been very helpful to see what we are doing right and where we can improve. (See the report summarised later in the magazine and on the Connections website). The key message that we wanted to convey is that we are here for you, all former pupils of Berkhamsted School, and if there is a group who would like to set up a club, arrange a trip or a reunion, we are here to help you. All you need to do is contact us at TOB office. We now have more 2 | The Old Berkhamstedian 2022
than 7,000 Old Berkhamstedians on our database, spanning several generations. It is never going to be possible to please everyone all the time, but we will try our best!
Our Website Connections is growing and evolving all the time. Only launched in April 2020, at the start of lockdown, we now have more than 2,000 OBs signed up. It helps us to communicate with you and for you to communicate with each other. With improved systems it is much easier to identify where OBs are and we are in the process of setting up and supporting more regional groups, both in the UK and abroad.
Our Clubs It has been a tough year for our sports clubs, but those that have been able to play have made the most of opportunities. With the help of Connections we are expanding our clubs to include many more, and not just sport. In fact, many of you told us in our Questionnaire that you want more arts, music and drama to be provided, and we are working on this. We have also introduced networks for certain industries, universities, entrepreneurs and more. Please take a look if you haven’t recently, as the website is evolving and updated weekly, if not daily in term time! And if you are one of our members who has not yet signed up, you can do this at any time. Just contact the office for help or use the link shown on the back cover of the magazine.
Our Mentors Huge thanks to those OBs who have offered services to other OBs and to the current Sixth Form as OB mentors. Several have given ‘Enrichment lectures’ to the current Sixth Form by Zoom – starting in lockdown and continuing due to their
