Llewelyn Jones (1983)
When we leave school, for most of us, we keep in close contact with school friends and acquaintances for a few years and then, as life takes us in different directions, those contacts thin out. Connections become less frequent. Our parents who paid the school fees were often more interested in what was happening at the school and reading the Plus Ultra Magazines than we were. The personal contacts when they happen are sometimes surprise encounters or milestone reunions.
Then you get to that stage in life when you are putting your own kids into school. That stage seemed to come around pretty fast! And if you are putting your kids into the Almer Mater, it’s quite likely the first major contact with St Peters since you left the place all those years ago. This time it’s a different dynamic because you are the one paying the fees. Real ‘skin-in-the-game’! Additionally, these days, parents are expected to be way more involved than how it was. We are hanging out at the school more than ever, and the car seems to get there on autopilot.
So, last month it was a real pleasure to meet fifty current school parents who are also Old Scholars. Folks who are in the intersecting middle of that Venn Diagram of the school community. Doubly connected to St Peters. We enjoyed a very civilised wine and cheese in the Performing Arts Centre Amphitheatre, with live background music from the Senior String Quartet.
SPOSA is looking for ways to bridge the gap in those years of missed connection between leaving school and finding the school again later in life. We are getting there with mentoring and tutoring programs, with Old Scholar vs Current Student matches and concerts and events at the College which are open to our Old Scholar community. We have also reached out to all Old Scholars to seek endorsement for an amended SPOSA constitution that expands our committee with positions for younger old scholars and recognises final year students as Associate Members of SPOSA. Old Scholars-in-waiting. The amended constitution was passed with an overwhelming majority. Thank you everyone who wrote in. We embrace inclusion for all Old Scholars and look forward to working on more ideas to connect and support our SPOSA Community.
