by Kelly Harrison

The idea for our reunion started in January 2022. I was very saddened to hear about the passing of Miss Bateson. We were her first Classics class when she joined WGGS all those years ago. It made me think about my old school and I realised that 2023 would be 30 years since we left. I spoke to school friends, Vicki Jearrard and Sam Wright about whether they thought people would be interested and got a Facebook event set up. The alumnae team also sent out an email to all old girls to encourage attendance. I spent a year updating the events page and many old girls joined the event page even if they weren't able to come; sharing stories, memories and photos.

The day arrived and we had 30 confirmed attendees. For the majority of old girls it was the first time they had been back to the school since we left in 1993 (and for some alumnae 1991). We had drinks and nibbles, and started trying to condense 30 years of our lives into 5 minutes! The caretaker Keith gave us a lovely tour of the building, focusing on areas that we remembered (as there have been many changes and improvements over the years). I think the highlight for most of us was going back to Lady's Close, where we would have started at the school in 1986. It was a lovely afternoon and the time absolutely flew by. Fortunately we took lots of photos that are now shared on the Facebook page. We have said we would like to do another at the school in ten years time and will look at doing something less formal before then. I really recommend organising a WGGS reunion at the school and catching up with old friends.