ADA NewsSheet - Winter 2006

THE ASHCOMBE DORKINIAN ASSOCIATION

Welcome to this Winter NewsSheet which mainly concerns the recent Annual Reunion/AGM, and gives you details of the new Committee where you will see that Lionel Harris has been elected Chairman and John Campbell is a welcome newcomer.

Mike Nicholson-Florence (who asks you to see his footnote to the Membership Secretary’s Report) invites you to view AGM & Reunion Lunch photos on our website, and would welcome contributions, at:

www.ashcombedorkinian.com

The 15^th Annual Reunion/AGM – October 14th

The Acting Chairman, David Mountain, opened the meeting, welcoming forty eight Members and supporters. Thirty five Members sent apologies for absence, including the retiring Chairman, Keith Verran.

Acting Chairman’s Report

The retiring Chairman had given a full report in the Autumn Newsletter. David Mountain repeated his own thanks, already expressed in the Newsletter, to Keith for his contribution to the Association, and also thanked again Anthony Lockwood and John Hardy on standing down from the committee. John's last action for us had been to persuade the Dorking and Leatherhead Advertisers to print an article (in full, without any alterations!) publicising the Association, and the AGM/Reunion activities. During the past year the Association had sadly had to report the deaths of several members and non‑members: Miss Coney (at last we discovered that her first name was Cicely!), who was remembered with affection, and sometimes in awe, by many; Philip Blake; Bryan Lawrence; Tony Luck; Yvonne Martin; Mike Scotcher; Alison Williams; Jill Williams; John Wright. Also we had recently been told that Sandy Murrell, otherwise Campbell Murrell, had died in August. David regretted the omission from the Newsletter of a reference to John Wright's death, and apologised to Valerie for the oversight. He then called on Hazel Smith to say a few words about John; Hazel would be providing a full tribute for the Spring 2007 issue. Lastly on the sad side of things, the Association would as usual place a wreath on the Memorial Gates at the School on November 11^th. Robert Miller would handle this by reusing the existing wreath, with the Association donating an appropriate sum from its funds to the local branch of the British Legion.

Regarding the ADA Archive, we had at last made progress over what to do long term with the historic items passed to us since 1992, and looked after by Mike Dobson in recent years. Mike was thanked for his duties as Archivist. Following discussions with the Archivist at the Dorking Museum it had been agreed that the Museum would consider our items for retention, returning to the committee anything not wanted, leaving the committee with the final decision. The committee would keep members informed, including the original owners where known. David read out an extract from an email from the Archivist at Dorking to clarify the matter further:

'I don't know if I have already sent you a Museum Offer Form for your ADA Archive. You will see that the important thing at this stage is for you to say what should happen to any duplicate items & other things we would not want to keep ‑ the options are to return them to you or to throw them away. At the end of the day I would let you have a list of any unwanted material before finally throwing it out, so there is a safety‑net. I can understand that there is some concern about signing away your archives, but rest assured they will be available to everyone who wants to see them at the museum and you will be allowed to "borrow" them for special events at the school. If the worst comes to the worst and the museum ever ceases to exist we would offer everything in our library to the Surrey History Centre at Woking. "

We would hope to take up the offer to "borrow" material for a special display at the 2007 AGM. David thanked all the surviving committee, especially Ted Hazelden, Maureen Meier, and Mike Nicholson‑Florence, for their tremendous efforts with the Autumn Newsletter and the AGM and Lunch arrangements. He also made a further reference to Mike for the expert and time‑consuming work he had done on the Ashcombe Dorkinian website, and emphasised the value of looking at it for those who had not yet seen it. Finally, donning his hat as Newsletter Editor, he thanked again all the contributors who made the job worthwhile.

Treasurer’s Report – Maureen Meier

Maureen thanked Membership Secretary Ted Hazleden for his sterling work which had made her task that much easier. We had been able to close the Barclay’s account and just hold the one current account at Lloyds TSB from which we earned £86 interest during the year. We were in a comfortable position but that assumed all stays as it is, with balances in excess of £6300, which was £1500 more than last year. Our major expense is the printing of the Newsletters but Ted had found us a good value printer in Guildford.

After the Accounts were adopted the Acting Chairman thanked Ray Alexander for his work as Auditor and for agreeing to be re-appointed for the year 2006-2007.

Headteacher’s Report – David Blow

Last year we had been treated to a report on China, this year we were shown slides of a visit to Tanzania by a party from The Ashcombe School, explained by Ed Blunt and Emily Heuvel. They had flown from Heathrow to Dar es Salaam. The school there was basic; books locked away in the Library with empty shelves. They stayed one week with excursions and various sports activities. They then lived on a Uni campus, visited markets and beaches with local students, some of whom had never seen Zanzibar before. They sat in on English lessons and saw that education was valued. They went on safari to Serengeti National Park, with early morning starts for viewing the native animals, lions, rhinos and elephants. Ed and Emily concluded with a photo of everyone at the last-night party.

David Blow then told us that the Tanzanians would be coming over here in February 2007, the fares being paid by The Ashcombe, including funds from a mufti day at school. He thanked Peter Thompson, the Deputy Head, for his work on this.

Mr Blow then looked back over the last academic year and said the A Level results had been of high quality. He emphasised that all students were given the opportunity for A level study, whatever their academic prospects; all had gained at least two Es. GCSE results showed an excellent 82% - 21 students had attained 5 grade A* - even those who were not keen on school had bothered to turn up for the exams and achieved worthwhile results. They got qualifications in spite of home environments; there was good monitoring and a range of activities to which staff contributed.

There will be a China visit next year and Romania also which has been visited every year since 1992. The School had been awarded first place in the Euro award for International Business Week. Year 10 contributed in Italian and Chinese. In spite of the heat in July they all turned up smartly dressed for the day. During the World Cup in Germany, the School had had competitions between tutor groups variously assigned to the nations competing. A six-a-side competition was staged in the Sports Hall and guest of honour Peter Mills had presented the trophy at the end with Mole Valley’s Head of Sport. It even had a penalty shootout to match the real thing. Years 9-10 had Netherlands as the winner, earlier years had Japan the winner. Tuition groups sponsor an awareness of the wider world. An open evening at the School resulted in the School being oversubscribed for the coming year.

Mr Blow then introduced Mrs Janet Housden who had been a Governor for the past 18 years, and Chairman for the past 2. She referred to the ways in which the School developed its pupils, including her own daughters, one of whom was now a British Airways Jumbo pilot. She thanked the ADA (with a special mention for David Mountain) for its support for the School, with the annual Bursary Award and other prizes, and in various other ways, noting that some of the committee members had been regular visitors to School events for many years.

Membership Secretary’s Report – Ted Hazelden

Ted welcomed two new members present, James Spiring former teacher at the School, and Rita Monk. There were two overseas members present. Membership numbers had been maintained. 52% had email addresses. Standing orders were now more common; the number of cheque payers was reduced from 30% to 10%. Ted had emailed Friends Reunited’s list of old School members and had received 193 replies. The updated members’ list available to members at the AGM included names of those from FR who had expressed interest but were not yet members; any help in recruitment would be much appreciated. 80% of current members were in the 1940s-1960s school years bracket. Fewer members came from the 1970s to 1980s. He asked for members’ assistance in recruiting more and younger members.

Mike Nicholson-Florence told members of the need to have an email address registered with ADA to be able to register with the Ashcombedorkinian website in order to gain access to an area reserved for members. It was the only way to be sure that the person accessing was in fact a member.

Lunch at Betchworth Park Golf Club

A very good lunch was enjoyed by 52 Members and guests. Gerry Moss was MC, Grace was spoken by Rosemary Dale, and Toasts were proposed by Patsy Cottrell (Absent Friends), Chris Smith (The School), and Mike Dobson (The Association). Mike had the added pleasure of being able to announce that Sheila Sandford had been elected an Honorary Member of the Association for her outstanding service over many years.

Sad news

We are very sorry to report the recent deaths of Valmai Scrivener and Barry Dye. We hope to have tributes in the Spring Newsletter.

Diary Dates for 2007

The Annual Reunion/AGM: will be on Saturday 13th October, with lunch at Betchworth Park Golf Club

Copy for the next Newsletter: by 1^st March 2007, please

NEWSLETTER EDITOR:

David H Mountain, 65 Broadhurst, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 1QD

Tel: 01372 – 273 227 e-mail: david@davidhmountain.demon.co.uk