Minutes of the 2024 AGM

Colchester County High School for Girls Old Girls/Alumnae Association

Annual General Meeting, held in the CCHSG Dining Room, Norman Way, Colchester

on 27th July, 2024, at 11am

Meeting preceded by tea/coffee and biscuits.

In attendance – 19 members and Kate Stubbs of CCHSG

1. APOLOGIES

Jenny Crewdson, Jennifer Pennick, Jane McMillan, Vivienne Springett

2. MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM AND MATTERS ARISING

Minutes of the last AGM have been provided to members in the newsletters sent out earlier this year. Monica pointed out that under item 11. Any other AGM Business, Vivien’s daughter is Ruth Baldry, not Rue. She also advised that she did not agree to write a piece for inclusion in a future Newsletter. There were no other comments or matters arising and the 2023 minutes were agreed by a show of hands of all present. Mary signed these minutes on behalf of Liz, who has broken her wrist.

3. CHAIR’S REPORT – Liz White

All relevant matters have been covered in Jo’s report (see below).

4. SECRETARY’S REPORT – Jo Edwards

Well, to misquote a misquotation, rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated! We have actually had another good year. All things are, of course, relative! We will never achieve the extraordinary success of the Grammar School’s Old Colcestrians or Chelmsford’s King Edward VI Grammar School’s Old Chelmsfordians but we soldier on. Did you know that the Old Chelmsfordians have a superb social centre with function rooms, bars, professional kitchens, etc, plus enormous playing fields? How the other half live! I digress. It is, however, with some relief, that I can report that the School’s new networking platform, CCHSG Connect is proving very successful and will provide an excellent way of keeping OGA in touch with the School and each other. I will leave Kate to explain in more detail. Last year, we discussed the possibility of a memories project. Again, I will leave Kate to report back.

We have had several events this year. The first following last year’s AGM was, of course, the Garden Party in Liz’s garden. It was, as always, a wonderful afternoon. I do love people watching and sitting quietly enjoying the reactions to the array of gorgeous cakes always amuses me, as does Jean’s face when the sausage rolls appear! The Garden Party was followed, a few weeks later, by our customary Coffee Morning at Greyfriars. Then, in the Spring, we returned the Officer’s Club for another Coffee Morning with cakes, which was particularly well attended. We did, of course, have our Chinese Lunch at the Bamboo House. The food just kept coming but there wasn’t a lot left at the end! We slotted in a new event, Breakfast at the Lexden Crown on a Saturday morning. We will be going again very soon!! We must, as usual, thank Jean for arranging all these events as well as keeping us financially on the straight and narrow. She does an amazing job. We must also thank Liz for catering for us, both at the Garden Party and here at the AGM. This year, things might be a little different because of her broken wrist but she wasn’t going to be fazed by such a ‘minor’ inconvenience. We will still have lunch today and afternoon tea at the Garden Party! Di and Alan, Liz’s husband, are, as always, helping and Committee members, too. We thank them all. Liz, of course, chairs our meetings.

Committee meetings are usually held at Jean’s and are ALWAYS huge fun. Mary takes amazing Minutes and also deals with the School Leaving Award Fund. Tina is our Membership Secretary and looks after our social media. Thanks, both of you! Kate comes to as many Committee meetings as she can for which we are really grateful. She is so good at keeping us in touch with everything that is happening at the School. We are SO lucky to have her. If I send an email to her I can absolutely guarantee that I will receive an immediate answer with a full, detailed, response to my questions. She is the reason we are back here at the School for our AGM. She made the arrangements for us! We really appreciate all you do for us, Kate.

Thank you. Liz, as our Newsletter Editor, tries to include news of the School in each edition. Very sadly. the next Newsletter will carry the report of the unexpected death of Latin and Classics teacher, Beverly Hodgkinson, who had taught at the School for over 40 years. She will be remembered with affection by generations of Old Girls. Liz has produced two Newsletters this year. She relies on copy from Old Girls, so, if you have memories, news of Old Girls, information about reunions etc etc, please let Liz have them. Contributions for the next Newsletter should be with Liz by the 30th September but if you miss this deadline, don’t worry, your contribution will go into the next. We would particularly welcome contributions from our much younger members.

Speaking of reunions, please let us know if you are having one for members of your year group. We might even be able to help with tracing some of your old form mates as long as you give us a bit of warning. Liz attended the Leavers’ Assembly to present the School Leaving Award to Megan Gray Cullem. This is an occasion that Liz really enjoys. It is good to be able to wish those leaving girls the best of luck for the future and to encourage them to follow their dreams. This year’s exam results are not yet available but, if they are like last year’s, they will be quite extraordinary and we can all say, yet again, I went to that school!!

5. TREASURER’S REPORT, 2022–2023 Accounts – Jean Johnson

Copies of the accounts have been passed around (and are appended). Although our funds are getting lower, we have only had to transfer £100 from our Saver A/c this year to tide us over until fees could be collected and deposited. This year the cost of all our events has been covered by the money collected for that specific event. We continued not subsidising the Greyfriars Coffee Morning so we didn’t lose money and as the price of £10 didn’t affect the numbers attending we will acknowledge that members are only too happy to return to Greyfriars regardless of the price. You will see the corresponding figures in the Income and Expenditure columns don’t always correlate. This is because we offer events for the year, but our accounts are written from end of June to the beginning of July the next year. Although your Committee made a decision several years ago to offer the newsletter free to all members over 80 who wished to receive a printed copy, this decision has somewhat been overtaken by inflation. We will, therefore, be adding a note to the next newsletter to appeal for assistance to our OGA funds, hopefully to receive donations from our not so local members. As last year, can I appeal, as the School Leaving Fund is in a healthier state than our Association funds, that any money donated today can be taken by the OGA Treasurer rather than the School Leaving Fund Treasurer! No questions were raised by members.

6. OGA MEMBERSHIP AND WEBSITE – Tina Powell

Although we have both of the above, we are finding that the younger members tend to access news of their fellow students via social media or the School website, rather than through the OGA’s resources. Technically, all new leavers automatically become members of the OGA. Comments - Monica has forwarded to Jo details of two people from her village who are eligible OGA members.

7. SCHOOL LEAVING AWARD 2023/24 – Mary Softley (Rickard)

Every year, the School is asked to nominate a student who has made extra effort outside their studies, or has who supported fellow students, overcome personal difficulties, or displayed some similar qualities of merit – this is not an academic achievement award. The Association currently awards £100 to the chosen student, presented by Liz White at their end-of-year Leavers’ Assembly. This year, the School chose Megan Gray-Cullum. She was nominated in acknowledgement of her many contributions to the school community, citing in particular: her sustained and wide-ranging contributions to the school societies, such as Law Society and Debating Society. She has undergone significant challenges over the last few years, but faced them with positivity and strength, providing an inspiration for others. Megan will be reading Law at Cambridge University in September. Megan has sent the Association a lovely letter of thanks:

“I would like to say a huge thank you to the OGA for awarding me the OGA’s leavers award as I feel truly privileged to have been awarded this. The last two years for me have been a whirlwind to say the least but the community of CCHSG and support of the school has been instrumental in making me the person I am today. I am so grateful to become part of the Old Girls Alumni and continue being part of the community. Once again, I am truly appreciative for the award and would love to keep in touch with the OGA in the future. Thank you, Megan, “

Thanks to the much-missed Pauline Millatt’s bequest, the School Leaving Fund is now looking much healthier, and we will be able to continue to reward worthy students like Megan for quite a few more years. As of 7th June 2024, the School Leaving Fund sits at £2050.52.

8. REPORT FROM THE SCHOOL Presented by Kate Stubbs, Marketing & Communications Manager, CCHSG

Firstly on behalf of the school I would like to thank the OGA for continuing to present the Leaver’s Award and to Liz for speaking at the Leaver’s Assembly and making the presentation.

This has been another busy and successful year here at CCHSG. Ofsted In January we were visited by Ofsted to undertake the first inspection of the school in some 14 years. The inspection found CCHSG to be an exceptional school and outstanding in every aspect, with no areas for improvement. The school continues to be heavily oversubscribed. There are 6 forms of entry, with 192 students in each Year Group from Year 7 to Year 11 totalling 960 in the lower school. The Sixth Form has around 240 students. Places at CCHSG continue to be applied for through the Local Education Authority and allocated to students based on performance in the 11+ selection test. The test is administered by the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex, CSSE, allowing students who may wish to apply for several selective schools, to take one centralised test. The test is hosted here at CCHSG on a Saturday in September each year with 3 sittings, one kindly hosted by St Benedict’s, for some 600 students, across the day. The changes to the admissions policy come into force for the next intake of students (Sept 2025). The allocation of places is quite complex with particular access arrangements for students who qualify for free school meals, pupil premium payments or Service Pupil Premium, due to a parent being in the armed forces. There is now a priority area of 25 miles, which applies to 154 of the places. The remaining 38 places are then allocated in descending order from the Rank Order of Merit List, highest scoring first, regardless of where the girls live. The full policy is available to read on the website. https://www.cchsg.com/admissions/year-7-admissions/

Languages are an expanding area of the curriculum, with Spanish newly introduced in Year 7 and Chinese available as an additional option. This year we will have French, Spanish, German and Chinese language assistants, in school to work with students. This is organised through the British Council. Colchester Teacher Training Consortium You may be aware that we are the lead school for the Colchester Teacher Training Consortium, which operates from the training centre on our site. CTTC annually trains around 80 primary and secondary teachers to achieve Qualified Teacher Status (QST). Trainees combine classroom-based learning with school experience alongside colleagues in one of the many local schools who form the training consortium. Many of the trainees go on to be employed in consortium schools. CTTC was also inspected by Ofsted in June this year – and the provision was found to be outstanding.

Past Students: The school is keen to involve past students in our careers programme, to support students with their progression post-18 and potentially as mentors for current students. For the past year we have been working with education charity Future First who have helped us to set up an online platform that we call CCHSG Connect. We also have a CCHSG Connect LinkedIn page. This has been reasonably successful, with around 250 past students now signed up to be involved. A very successful progression day was held on 1 July with 8 past students who are now working in a variety of fields hosting a morning of progression workshops for Year 10 and Year 12 students. Alumni also came back to contribute to Oxbridge advice sessions and give lunchtime talks to the student run Medical Society. We are also inviting alumni to feature on progression posters, outlining their pathways since CCHSG. These will be displayed around the school from September. Members of the OGA are very welcome to participate and I will be forwarding information for the next newsletter.

CCHSG Archive The school is keen to curate and share the historic CCHSG archive. I have collated all the materials that could be found in school. I would also like to thank members of the OGA who have donated additional items in recent years. We now have a substantial and complete collection of year books and various other items which will ultimately be digitised and shared online. The “History of CCHSG” section of the website is expanding all the time, with the aim of having the majority of the existing materials on the site over the next academic year. https://www.cchsg.com/about-cchsg/history-of-cchsg/ 20 Year Group photos from 1920 onwards have been digitised and are now on the website. The intention is to display these photos in the main school hall, alongside the honours board. I have displayed some of the archive materials and photos – if you have not yet had a look – please do.

Comments - Liz and members present were pleased to hear that the school catchment criteria were being adjusted to favour more local students. Monica asked if the 25-mile catchment included Southend. Kate thought not and advised that the radius is strictly drawn and adhered to. Monica has provided Kate with a few items for the school’s archive. She has been busy with her own memories project but has carried out 3 recordings of memories with Old Girls, including talking about how they travelled to school, and about their mothers. Monica is happy to share these recordings with the school. She has also put together a consent/copyright form, signed by participants: Monica is willing to share this with Kate in case it is of use in relation to the school’s archive project.

9. MOTIONS - None received.

10. ELECTION OF OFFICERS - There were no new nominations or expressions of interest. The existing Officers confirmed that they were willing to stand in their current posts for another year.

CHAIR – LIZ WHITE (BAILEY) (1960-66)
SECRETARY – JO EDWARDS (MABBITT) (1960-68)
TREASURER – JEAN JOHNSON (CUTHEW) (1951-56)
COMMITTEE – TINA POWELL (1968-75), MARY SOFTLEY (RICKARD) (1969-76)

This was unanimously agreed by show of hands from all present. The members present thanked the committee for all their hard work over the last year.

11. ANY OTHER AGM BUSINESS No matters raised.

12. DATE AND VENUE FOR THE 2025 AGM

It was agreed that the committee would discuss suitable options at their next meeting and agree a final date with the School. Members will then be notified. All present thanked Liz and Di for all their hard work preparing such a delicious lunch, especially Liz, given that she had recently broken her wrist (and despite the ‘assistance’ from various committee members!).

Signed by (Chair): Dated: 27th July, 2024 .

Return to Menu Next