A welcome return to Speech Day and Founder's Day

After a three-year hiatus it was a joy to welcome alumni back to Townley Road for a fully-fledged Speech Day and Founder’s Day.

The 2022 School prize winners attended their traditional service and ceremony at St Barnabas, with Anna Reynolds (Brown’s 1998) invited as the guest speaker for Speech Day. Writer and art historian, Anna, is currently Deputy Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures at the Royal Collection Trust and addressed the assembled students and their guests in an engaging and well-received speech. Anna spoke of the life long friendships she made at Alleyn’s and that there are lots of paths to get to where you end up, and that it is ok not to know what you want to be while you are a student at Alleyn’s.

Fun, games and togetherness were the order of the day at School for Founder’s Day. From splat the teacher to abseiling, a dog show, fairground rides and the beer mat raffle drop there was plenty to keep all entertained.

In the Quad we were entertained by a brilliant Netball match between an alumni team and the School. Despite trailing 6-1 at one point, the alumni team, that included leavers from 1993 all the way to 2021, showed that experience could trump youth and they rallied to claim a one goal victory. Keep an eye out for news of an EAC netball team that we are planning to start later this year.

In the annual alumni cricket match, played for the Christian Berglund trophy, it was the school 1^st XI that took the victory by 15 runs. Captained by Abe Wood (Cribb’s 2021) the alumni team couldn’t quite chase down 135, despite a man of the match innings of 63 from Ben Cook (Brown’s 2021). Particular mention must go to Martin Stringer (Spurgeon’s 1997) who was back at Alleyn’s, visiting from Australia.

The Pimm’s tent, the traditional gathering point for alumni, saw a slight extension and we had Pimm’s on draft all in aid of the Alleyn Benevolent Fund. A record-breaking day saw essential funds raised to provide Upper School bursaries, allowing students to stay on at Alleyn’s when they might otherwise have to leave at a critical juncture of their School career. It was wonderful to see so many alumni back at School; some of whom having not missed a Founder’s Day since leaving School originally!