The latest Old Roedeanians' Association AGM was held at the Caledonian Club on Monday 3rd October. Mary Henderson, President of the ORA, welcomed 29 ORs who were taking part in person, by zoom and by phone.

Erica Faircloth, ORA Treasurer, presented the Accounts of the ORA. She pointed out the significant cost of printing and postage of the AGM notice and papers to ORs who do not provide an email address for communications – nearly £4,000 for approx. 1,500 members. (Postscript: while we do appreciate that many of our older members prefer to receive hard copies, we do appeal to our younger members to provide us with an email address. We can save a significant amount of money in this way).

Trustee Emma Smellie presented the report and accounts for the OR Scholarship Fund. There are now four OR Scholars at the school, two in each of the 6th form years. Further awards for two girls were announced in November 2021 to commence in the Autumn Term 2022. Emma informed the meeting that without additional donations, the awards would have to return to the previous “status quo” in terms of frequency and amount.

Jane Aldred, ORA Membership Secretary and a member of the Editorial Board reported on the OR Magazine. She eloquently described the varied articles in the 2021 issue which was published earlier this year and encouraged ORs to take the opportunity to log on to the Roedean Community Network where the magazine was available for free to read online or download.

Vice President Noëlle Chase updated the meeting on the ORA Heritage Projects. The Appeal had been launched at the beginning of September. She was delighted to report that sufficient donations had already been received to start work on the conservation of the Sylvia Lawrence Frieze in No.3, and that we were well on the way to raising the funds for the Astrolabe – needing only a further £4,400 to reach that project’s fundraising target. The process for obtaining Listed Building Consent for the Astrolabe is underway.

In the 18 months up to the launch of the Appeal the ORA had funded the upfront cost of obtaining condition reports and estimates from wall painting, paper and textile conservators, stone masons, fountain experts and ceramics conservators to the tune of £6,945. This, together with the cost of obtaining listed building consent, forms the ORA’s donation to the Appeal.

Noëlle reminded ORs that they would only receive personal communication, brochures etc about the Appeal if ORs had “opted-in” to receive fundraising communications.

Reports were received from Amelia Balthazor, Noëlle Chase, Caroline Bowen and Mary Henderson about OR Sport – now encompassing Netball, Golf, Tennis, Hockey and Sailing. They were delighted to report the involvement of many of the younger ORs in these activities.

98 new Members were elected to the ORA together with 6 former staff who were elected as Honorary Members. We also welcome Di Wu who was elected as a new member of the ORA Committee.

Oliver Blond later addressed the meeting giving a report on the summer’s excellent exam results, the wide and varied activities at the school - academic, sports, the arts and co-curricular. He also looked back at his tenure which has seen the number of girls at the school grown from 360+ in 2013 to 700+ in 2022, where over time the focus on the experience and opportunities at the school, word of mouth and the quality of the staff has served to create a virtuous circle as the school grows in popularity and more and more girls (and their parents) want to come to the Roedean.

After the meeting, those who attended the meeting in person were able to retire to the Library at the Caledonian Club for Drinks and Canapés.