The President Speaks

St Michael's School started in 1946 and finished in the summer of 1969. I have no doubt that for my father during the whole of his extraordinary life it was the most wonderful, satisfying and fulfilling working experience and at the core of it all it was not the cars, not the buses, not the buildings, not the uniform, not the canes, but the pupils and staff who made the whole thing so worthwhile for him. That just occasionally he may have been irascible, that now and again he shouted, that just possibly he could have been unreasonable and all the other facets that made up his character comes to nothing against the affection and pride that he felt in the people that made up the St Michael's School experience! He died ten years ago and I have said to a number of Old Michaelian's that it was the most touching experience of his life to see large numbers of former pupils and staff returning annually for the Old Michaelian weekend. Right up until the end of his life he looked forward to the weekend enormously and always with that slight concern that there might be those former pupils whom he might not recognise perhaps because they had changed the colour of their hair, put on weight, become bald or whatever other reason! Very many members had of course married and would bring their spouse to meet the people who had formed them into the characters that they had become and I always imagined that that must have been quite a daunting experience for some of them!
Of course the Old Michaelian Association has been running since 1953 and therefore for very much longer than the school itself. That the Association continues is entirely down to a small number of dedicated people but as I am now privileged to join the committee meetings I have enjoyed the fun which flows from the meetings and I urge that you might think of supporting the committee by coming to the Reunion Weekend at Old Hunstanton on the 25th & 26th October this year. Being the golden jubilee reunion a special effort is being made and we are delighted already to have firm commitments for people coming from the USA, Australia, South Africa and other parts of Europe. Undoubtedly there will be something for you, be it a friend that you may not have seen for 40 or 50 years or a memory that you can share with us at the dinner of what happened at the school and just how wonderful, terrifying, dreadful or life-enhancing that experience might have been!
For those of you who have not done so please visit the OMA website on www.oma.org.uk and there you will get a flavour of those involved and the format of the weekend.
And do I have memories of St Michael's? Do I have memories of St Michael's! But to find out about those memories you will have to attend in October....

Simon Pott