Concordia

Concordia Winter 2023

Development and Alumni Relations Update

their special variant of the OMT tie at events. We were delighted to welcome members of the 1561 Foundation to school in June for a special lunch hosted by the Head Master. It was the first of these events since before the pandemic and was a lovely afternoon. The Careers Department, led by Sue Grice, have begun a series of large careers fairs. This began with a Humanities Fair and continued with a Financial Services Fair in November, and they have proven to be a hugely successful formula. Over 400 pupils and parents have attended the two events so far, and it is thanks to the fantastic range of volunteer speakers from the OMT and parental communities that we have been able to run such valuable events for the pupils. The programme continues in 2024 with a STEM Fair. If you would like to be a speaker at one of these events, please do let us know. Volunteering, whether to support our careers programme, sit on a committee, or organise events, is so valuable. This generosity enriches the life of the school and we are so grateful to all who help. We look forward to the opportunity to thank our volunteers alongside our generous donors at our annual Benefactors’ Day. We were really pleased to relaunch our Clubs and Societies’ Fund this year. This initiative is all about enhancing the experiences our pupils

back on site since leaving; others have barely stayed away! Quite a number now have sons at the school, so are seeing it through a different lens. As well as regularly asking when their next reunion will be, groups have told us that their WhatsApp groups are still active long after their reunion, and some year-groups have held gatherings since. We are delighted to have played a part in making this happen and look forward to another full summer of reunions in 2024. As well as these reunions, our regular programme of events has continued. You can read more about the array of events we have held, as well as forthcoming events, on pages 52 to 57. We are excited by the return of the City and Business Network in January, and by the newly-launched City Drinks, an informal pub evening for OMTs. The latter was a very successful first event and is a format we hope to repeat termly, and also replicate in other cities in the UK and beyond. If you are interested in being one of our ‘hosts’ for these events (not as daunting as it might sound), please get in touch. Thank you so much to those OMTs who have joined our 1561 Foundation this year. This group is our legacy society and exists to thank those who have made provision for the school in their will. The group is growing, so look out for members wearing

It has been a busy and exciting year for the Development and Alumni Relations team, with a huge amount of activity, particularly with the Cricket Centre campaign and our events programme. The campaign for the Julian Hill Cricket Centre has progressed well, and we have been delighted with the positive response from the whole community. It is wonderful that, on our thank-you board in the building, we will have names of OMTs, parents, MTP parents, parents of OMTs, Governors, staff, and even members of the local community with no direct affiliation to the school. It speaks to the broad appeal of the project and to the generosity of the Merchant Taylors’ family. A the time of writing, you have given over £2.2m, and we are hopeful of reaching our £2.7m target by the time the building is officially opened in April. You can read more about the project and campaign on page 24. On the events front, our reunion programme, launched in 2022, has continued to prove very popular. Over the summer we welcomed back the Classes of 1983, 1990, 1993 and 2003. Each group returned to the school for tours, drinks in the Inner Quad and a barbecue at the OMT Clubhouse. It was so nice to see such warmth, as friendships were rekindled and OMTs reminisced about their schooldays with one another as well as their former teachers. Some hadn’t been

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442 Donors

1607 Volunteering hours

129 volunteers

Development