The 103rd Annual Dinner took place on Saturday 17th November from 6:30 pm for 7:30 pm until 11:30 pm in the Oldfield Hall, King Charles I School, hosted by President Ann Mullard.
This year, the Annual Dinner was a particularly auspicious event, held for the 100th Anniversary of the Association's founding and the 100th Anniversary of the foundation of the High School for Girls, and chaired by the Association's first-ever female President, Ann Mullard.
There was no musical event to welcome members but they were soon into the spirit of it, with reunion conversations by the score before Association Secretary Colin Lloyd called them all to order and they sat down. Canon Owain Bell said grace and a photographer from 'Worcestershire Life' took an estimated 1000 shots of all and sundry. The meal, supplied by Plyvine, was up to its usual high standard and the speeches, now restricted by the bell to ten minutes each, began.
Alan Neal, a Past President and now Chairman of the Governors, proposed the toast to the School and Association. He gave reference to Martin Humphries, the previous Chairman of the Governors and Secretary of the Association, who was recovering slowly from a major stroke. Martin, he said, had been a fantastic servant to both institutions; his audience agreed.
After a review of his 25 years as Governor, he said that the current aim was to move the School forward to an 'Outstanding' rating from Ofsted. The toast was duly made.
Tim Gulliver, in reply, related the recent examination results, which he described as 'excellent', before going on to describe School trips to China, Ecuador, France, Belgium, Auschwitz and others in the UK. Fifty Sixth Formers were going to New York in February 2013 and there was also a planned trip to Russia.
In 2012, the School gained Eco-Ambassador status, the first secondary school in the county to do so.
He listed Business and Enterprise developments, specifically mentioning Engineering as a target.
Thousands of pounds had been raised through charitable events, and worthy of mention was the increased disability access with a new ramp built this year. The School had gained the Mike Oborski Award for its work in this field.
He went on to talk about the Academy, with little change thus far. Of particular interest was a new tie, returning to the original Boys' Grammar School design, but with house designation, via a large stripe across the centre.
Finally, he said that a move was afoot on the Honours Boards. He was working with Norman Broadfield and a local agency to produce replicas of the Woodfield boards, which would be installed in the Oldfield Hall. Some of the original High School boards were already in place there.
Ann Mullard began the first female presidential address by recalling that, back in the Seventies, the thought of the pupils at Kidderminster High School for Girls, when they heard of the impending merger, was: 'Boys! Why do we have to have boys? It won't be the same with boys. Oh, no. We don't want boys at school'. In an entertaining speech, well-received by all the audience, she described the way life was before the big event and the way it developed afterwards. She covered a full range of experiences, from Domestic Science to Bunsen burners, from Latin noun declensions to hockey goalkeeping, from the arrival of hormones to the power of 'Jackie' magazine.
The years rolled by and they got used to being in mixed classes, strange new buildings that popped up over the summer, strange new teachers, strange new subjects, being organised by houses not forms... 'All very disconcerting.'
School became very sociable: plays, concerts and shows galore. Tenors and basses in the choir meant 'HMS Pinafore' and 'Pirates of Penzance' were now viable. And more excuses for parties on last nights. They were drafted in to organise Christmas discos for the younger kids, during one of which (and she took as her text her diary of 1978) 'Mr Combes did a John Travolta impersonation with the remedial teacher and everyone cheered'.
She started to appreciate sport a little more – men's hockey and rugby were far more fun than netball, mainly because she didn't have to play. In another 1978 quote, 'Lynne and I have a new game which is spotting nice legs, male of course. We have identified several excellent specimens. We do our research in General Studies library lessons gawping out of the window as the teacher yacks on and the leg-owners play football or hockey. It is a very interesting pastime'.
She says that they never got the idea that Maths and Science were boys' subjects and music was really only suitable for girls. She didn't think it struck them that their subject choices should be affected by their chromosomes.
She, with many of her friends, applied to university and got in. She came back to the School as a newly-qualified maths teacher before moving on to greater glories.
Coming out of the mists of the past into the realities of a cold, wet November night, she thanked the Committee who had been unfailingly helpful to her since she joined. She was honoured to be President of an organisation that celebrated excellence, educational opportunity and having a good laugh while you're at it. She was only a proper Carolian for two years, but they were two years which changed her life immeasurably and for the better.
Cathy Harris gave a review of Ann's life and times. She commented that, in the month that America re-elected its first black president, we were making history in Kidderminster in swearing in the first woman President of the Carolians.
Barack and Ann had more in common than we might imagine. Both were born in 1961, both have Irish roots and both share a love of Bruce Springsteen and chocolate. Not surprisingly, both did very well at school. Ann had bags of initiative. As well as teaching, she wrote features for 'The Daily Telegraph', bids for educational funding and will soon publish her second novel. Yet, she still found time this year to organise for them to do a road trip across America, and, when they got back, she volunteered for the Olympics.
She was a grafter, with a string of letters to her name and had a mind like a steel trap. She holds a season ticket for Bletchley Park, and, if she'd been born at the right time in history, there was no doubt that she would have been a code breaker. She does, however, have a frivolous side. She loves karaoke, 'Hello' magazine and shopping, especially for shoes, which at the last count totalled well over 100 pair, so probably more than the total of shoes owned by ALL previous presidents, but probably fewer than Michelle Obama!
She had no doubt that Ann's year in office would prove to be ground-breaking and that we could look to her to lead us through next year in very stylish footwear. She asked members to raise their glasses to toast the first, 'but not the last' woman President of the Association. This, the meeting did with great enthusiasm.
The Dinner closed without a pianist so the National Anthem and 'Auld Lang Syne' were sung a cappella again, led by the Association's resident crooner, Campbell 'Buddy Holly' Slater.
'To the bar' was the cry and conversations, interrupted by the arrival of food, were completed. A very successful and entertaining evening.
Norman Broadfield, News Correspondent