The 93rd Annual Dinner took place on Saturday 16th November from 6:30 pm for 7:30 pm until 11:30 pm in the Oldfield Hall, King Charles I School, hosted by President Pete Guy.
This was an excellent event with more than 100 members and guests attending. Our principal guests were Dr Richard Taylor, Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest, whose daughter is a previous pupil of the School, and Cllr Ken Stokes, Mayor of Kidderminster.
The President had spent several months leading up to the Dinner tracking down many of his contemporaries from all over the world, and with some success. He managed to drag together a fine body of men, including Keith Bunn, Anthony Bunn, Martin Wall, Patrick Cox, John Preece, Colin Lloyd, Peter Guy, Martin Willison, Bob Charteris, Peter Vaughan, Brian Clarke, Clive Teale, Mike Wilson, Paul Frampton, David 'Daz' Slater, Ted Cronin, Peter Handley, Roger Perrin, Chris Page, Robert Wood, Neville Davies and David 'Campbell' Slater.
The President introduced the guests, who responded in the traditional manner.
Dr Taylor gave an entertaining set of reflections on the 2001 General Election with some insights into the methods of modern Parliament. In proposing the toast to the School and the Association, he reported that he had also been present at Speech Day and had been impressed with the general approach. He wrote later in his column in The Shuttle that he was delighted to attend the Dinner. 'It is impressive that this Association has transferred its allegiance to the new [since 1977!] King Charles I School and that it now welcomes female members. This is a breath of fresh air when compared with organisations which resist a helpful and appropriate response to change. The Association goes from strength to strength and I wish it well.'
In his response, Headmaster Alan Brooks recalled the appearance of the Ofsted inspectors the previous year, and the very favourable results achieved. All of the inspectors – some 16 of them – would have been happy to send their child to King Charles I School. Overall performance in the national tests for 14-year-olds was above the national average, and well above that in similar schools. Pupils were achieving well and making good progress. The School was again oversubscribed for admission in September 2002 and, with a Sixth Form of nearly 200, this will mean that approximately 1000 students are able to access the very good education provided.
He went on to report on the new School website, which was now up and running. On it, you can take a virtual tour of the School and check up on what's happening at the School now.
The School had had its very best results at GCSE level and improved further on last year's Advanced level results, which were themselves the second best results ever! Teachers and students should be congratulated for their achievements. King Charles had been awarded the status of 'Investor in People', and Mr Brooks concluded by saying that the School would intend to make good progress, even with another Wyre Forest Educational Review in the background. Standing still is not an option. A billboard that he had seen in the United States that year captured the essence: 'Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there'.
President Peter Guy replied on behalf of the Association. He welcomed visitors from around the world, and reminisced about his early days at School, wearing the school cap on the back of his head, when marbles were the craze. Pupils came from all over the local area in those days, but it was quite a thought that there were now more Old Carolians from the Comberton Road site in the past 25 years than had gone out from Woodfield in the whole of the last century.
The President's School contemporary, Prof Paul Frampton, was the chosen one, both to propose the President's health and, as tradition requires, dish the dirt as 'assassin'. Not only is Paul, as Chair of Physics and Astronomy at a university in North Carolina, a world authority on his subject, but he also appears, as you might expect, to be capable of some sort of time travel. He arrived from the USA on the morning of the Dinner, made his required hilarious speech on the night, and flew back to North Carolina the following day. We wouldn't be surprised if, by some manipulation of E=mc2 known only to him, he got back to the States before he had left! He compared and contrasted John Drake and Peter Guy – both fine leaders of men. The former was impeccable, always setting a good example; the latter was perhaps better at leading people astray, perhaps in a pub crawl. Long may it continue! Thanks, Paul, for making all that effort to be with us. A great evening – one of the best!
Attending were: John Atkinson, Davina Bason, Foley Bateman, Beryl Bedford, Andy Benton, Arnold Beresford, Naomi Bishop, Tony Bishop, Eddie Blount, Ray Blount, David Booth, John Booth, Paul Booton, Keith Bowkett, Trevor Bradley, Norman Broadfield, Lisa Broomfield-Harrison, Anthony Bunn, Keith Bunn, Robert Charteris, David Christopher, Brian Clarke, Derek Cooper, W N (Bing) Cooper, Pat Cox, Ted Cronin, Neville Davies, John Davis, David Drake, Bill Doolittle, Don Durham, Martin Easton, Allan Elcock, Ray Evans, Ben Ford, Paul Frampton, Martin Gallagher, Ken Garbett, Brian Gittins, Mike Godbehear, Dave Guy, Peter Guy, Charles Hadwell, John Hall, Mike Hall, Peter Handley, Geoff Hayes, Mel Hayward, 'Knob' Hingley, John Hobson, Martin Hobson, Roger Hobson, Terry Holland, Peter Hooper, Martin Humphries, Derek Jansen, Bob Jeffries, Mark Jones, J S Kemp, Tony Kidd, Joanne Knight, John Knott, Colin Lloyd, John Longmore, Theresa Loveridge, Mike Massey, Geoff Mathews, John Meadows, Terry Morgan, Melvyn Morris, Mike Mulvey, Chris Page, Garth Payton, Norman Peacock, Roger Perrin, Peter Picken, Charlie Pratt, John Preece, Tony Ray, Ian Robinson, R G Rutter, Royce Sandall, John Sanders, Stuart Shepherd, David Slater, David Campbell Slater, Michael Slater (our newest member at the time – joined 4th November!), Brian Smith, David Spokes, John Spokes, Clive Teale, Bob Timmis, Peter Vaughan, Doug Wall, Martin Wall, Ray Wall, Keith Weston, John Whittingslow, Martin Willison, Michael Wilson, Robert Wood, Richard Woolley and Pat Yarnold.
Apologies were received from: Duncan Groves, Ken Jones, Arthur Miller and Tony Newbould.