WELCOME TO THE EASTBOURNIAN SOCIETY
The Eastbournian Society brings together our extended family of Old Eastbournians (Eastbourne College), Old Androvians (St Andrew's Prep), Old Aschamians (Ascham Prep), parents of both current and former pupils, current and former staff, and local people and businesses and other friends and supporters. Our aim is to maintain close links with any person or organisation who wishes to be associated with Eastbourne College and St Andrew's Prep.
Through a range of events, we keep in touch with and support our members, offering cultural, social, sporting, career and networking opportunities. We also look after those benefactors who so generously support our schools.
LATEST NEWS
6 September 2021 - Eastbournian Society September newsletter
Development Director Emma Garrett writes:
It’s a very busy time for us here at Eastbourne College.
New teachers were in last Monday, staff were opening up their classrooms on Tuesday, pupils were back on site on Wednesday, and school started in earnest on Thursday. Old-style uniforms have been phased out completely and we are trying hard to get back to some sort of normality. Covid restrictions have eased, for now, the sunshine is shining and it all feels rather wonderful!
It is full speed ahead in our new offices at Craven Cottage for the Michaelmas Term and there is much to tell you.
First and foremost, an enormous welcome to Helen Medlycott who has joined us as our Alumni and Community Engagement Officer. She is extremely well-qualified for the role and could not be a better fit with her own career journey as well as the added bonus of being married to an OE who teaches at the school, with a daughter at St Andrew’s and a son who has just started at the College. Not only that but her experience in retail makes her the perfect person to spearhead our new merchandise campaign, and her insatiable appetite for new challenges and adventures (and good coffee and posh biscuits) means she fits in well with the rest of the ES team as we move forward. We hope that those of you coming to our reunion on Saturday will make a point of introducing yourself to her.
We have had a truly fantastic response to our Reunion Day invitation for 11 September and many of you have booked, thank you. We hope that those of you who are visiting the school on Saturday will make the most of Tim’s Café, situated in Old Wish Road opposite the Cabbage Patch car park (in what was the old School Shop). It really is a lovely addition to the school facilities and is open to all visitors.
We also hope you will join us for the chapel service and particularly to come and sing! There will be a scratch rehearsal before the service at 5.45pm for half an hour – JT and I will be there, please come and keep us company in the choir stalls – it must be 35 years since the two of us sang in chapel choir together so we’ll need all the help we can get. No need to tell us you are coming to sing in advance, we sincerely hope you will turn up on the day.
The other thing I need to make you aware of is the updated visitors policy regarding lateral flow tests, details of which are in the reunion listing on our Events page.
And now a message from JT. We hope you will join us for the Annual London Walk on Saturday 25 September. I understand this event usually attracts about 25 people and I am really looking forward to this exploration of the streets and green spaces of historic Greenwich. We will meet our London Walks Guide at the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station at Cutty Sark at 11.00am. The walk will include a visit to the Painted Hall and Chapel at the Old Royal Naval College, and is expected to take up to two hours in total. The cost, inclusive of the guided walk and entrance fee to the Painted Hall and Chapel, is £21 per person. We are also planning a lunch after the walk at a nearby hostelry! If you have missed such gatherings in recent months, or never joined the ES for one of these walks before, please do book, it is a lovely opportunity to explore a stunning historical part of London and all ES members are very welcome. There are many new parent members of the ES with the recent new intake of pupils at St Andrew’s and the College and this is a great opportunity to meet other members of the ES family. Just contact JT on JT@eastbourne-college.co.uk to book.
And now a very quick round up of recent events:
On Friday 27 August we held our reception at the Waldorf Hotel for our 2020 and 2021 leavers who had missed out on the traditional Cornflower Ball celebrations due to the restrictions in place because of the pandemic. It was a joyous occasion with parents, staff and alumni delighted to be able to dress up and gather in the stunning Palm Court. Much fun was had in the photobooth and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the young OEs and find out what they had been up to since leaving school. I was so impressed by them all – from fashion aficionados to veterinary students and young entrepreneurs to enthusiastic gap year adventurers and bio chemists – who all demonstrated the charm, appreciation and quiet confidence that epitomizes our alumni.
Yesterday morning I joined members of the Old Eastbournian Golf Club at Cooden Beach for a breakfast ahead of their game. I almost choked on my hash brown when a certain David Dunn (Powell 1968-73) told me that my mother had taught him everything he knew about sex! After further interrogation, it became clear that as the wife of a young teacher at the school, she was roped in to offer some evidently rather rudimentary (but clearly very memorable) sex education to David and his Lower Sixth colleagues. My daughter has just started in the Lower Sixth herself; it will be interesting to see how her sex education compares! If you aren’t yet a member of the OEGS but are interested in joining, they would love to hear from you. You can find out more on their website http://www.oegolf.uk or just email them at: secretary@oegolf.uk. Membership for recent leavers is very heavily discounted and the club is extremely active, playing some stunning courses. Next year they celebrate their 90th birthday so there is much to look forward to.
I went into school after the golf as I wanted to get some semblance of order in my new office and as I left I had to take a snapshot of College Field, which you can see at the top of the page. It made my heart sing to see the groups of boys and girls sitting on the grass in the early evening light, chatting, laughing, hanging out together, no masks, no bubbles, just a bit of normality. Long may it last.
RECENT NEWS HEADLINES
> Click here for all 2021 news headlines and our news archive
Opt in to emails from us
Under new data regulations we need to confirm that you have actively consented to receive emails from us.
So if you haven't opted in yet, please visit our opt-in page at www.eastbourniansociety.org/opt-in - all you have to do is enter your name and email address and click the 'Opt in' button. You will then be sent an email to confirm your email address. Please respond to this by clicking the confirmation link and we will receive your 'opt in' direct to our database.
Alternatively you can send an email to es@eastbourne-college.co.uk saying that you would like to opt in to receiving emails and we will update your record on our database.
If you later wish to unsubscribe from receiving emails you can do this at any time.
Eastbourne College: 150 years in pictures
A new fully-illustrated souvenir book, Eastbourne College: 150 years in pictures, is now available to buy from the Eastbournian Society.
Exploring the history of the College with a series of themes, covering art, buildings, the cadet force, chapel, charity, drama, houses, personalities, science, sport, the war years and much more, the book is packed with photographs and drawings sourced from the College archives.
With a soft cover and 108 pages it is available to buy for just £5.00.
You can buy it in person from the Eastbournian Society office or the school shop, or order a copy to be posted to you.
The price including postage and packing (UK) is £7.70. For postage costs outside the UK please enquire for details.
Contact David Blake at 01323 452262 or drblake@eastbourne-college.co.uk .
You can pay by credit card over the phone or send a cheque, made payable to Eastbourne College Incorporated, to Eastbournian Society, Headmaster's House, Old Wish Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4JX.
Forthcoming events
We organise social and cultural events, including lunches, dinners, theatre trips, walks, talks and visits to places of interest. These are for all Eastbournian Society members: Old Eastbournians, parents, pupils, staff and other friends of the College. In addition there are career and business networking events where OEs, parents and current pupils can meet to offer and receive advice and build up business contacts.
Comprehensive details are in the listings on our Forthcoming events page.
Members area
Our members area has additional news and photos of recent events not available on the main website. It also gives you access to the contact details we hold for you on our mailing database and allows you to update these online.
To get access to our members pages you will need to register on the website first and set up a username and password. For more information, please visit the members area pages.