School Reunion 2026

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It’s late July, and that can only mean one thing! My annual School Reunion & AGM! 👍

Yikes! When the train system works here in Kettering – it really works well! Sadly, today, wasn’t that day! 😮

Getting there! 🥴

Last year, heading for the Reunion by train, I stood all the way to London – ON A SATURDAY! 🥴. That wasn’t a great start!!! Surely, it would be better today?

Well, things were certainly more varied. Short story long: Recently, at minimal notice, East Midlands Railway announced that their newly introduced advanced train fleet was being withdrawn with immediate effect. Something to do with ‘unreliability’ (really?) but not the propulsion part, this time it was much more personal – toilets and air conditioning. After the removal of all the affected trains, they ‘sealed the deal’ with the inevitable restricted timetable to/from the capital. Thanks, EMR! 😮

And, just to keep things interesting, they also reduced the number of carriages on some of the remaining fleet! 😡😡

So, as expected, I stood (again!) all the way to London, where even on this ‘working’ train, the AC was struggling (I didn’t dare try the toilets!). Carriages were packed, as were the areas in between (where I was sardined!). Not the most pleasant of trips, especially as I was flanked by two groups of cackling women who had the volume set to 12! I haven’t heard noise like that since the “Great Macbeth Train Reunion” back in May 2022! Luckily, there was no sign of that other modern travel irritation – a hard-of-hearing ‘yoof’ watching TikTok, feeling it was appropriate to share his tastes with the whole world!

Oh wait! Surely not!! “Come the revolution, young man, you’re first!” 👎

And if that wasn’t bad enough, for reasons unknown, the train managed to arrive late into St Pancras International by about 10 minutes.

A spirited dash down the escalators towards Thameslink was now required, but first I had to get through EMR’s exit barriers. Cue (for no reason at all) the mother of all queues! Where did all these people come from??? 😳😳

I made my next connection (with minutes to spare) heading for East Croydon! Thankfully, this was much more relaxed, mainly due to far fewer people – and no sign of any Witches either (or the TikTok twat!). Thirty minutes later, I was at East Croydon Station (now about 100 times the size than I remember back in my school days). I then grabbed a Cab and was soon at my destination.

The Venue

The venue as usual, for this year’s event, was the famous BRIT School! It’s better known these days for ex-pupils such as Adele, Amy Whitehouse, Raye and even actor Tom Holland, (amongst others!), but back in the day, it was simply ‘Selhurst Grammar School for Girls’.

Compared with how it used to look, today’s School is ‘shinier’ and feels more open and airy! 😊

By the time I eventually arrived, it meant that there wasn’t much left to help with in terms of setting up. The Committee are a ‘well-oiled’ machine and it was good to be able to have time for a leisurely chat with John C, Valerie, Caroline, Richard, John W and, of course, Cortland (Chair). Bob‘s recent passing was felt by us all 😪

The 2026 Reunion

The main event was about to officially begin! With tables and chairs in position and various AGM-related paperwork distributed, 2026’s event was in rude health.

With plenty of time for meeting new friends and catching up with familiar faces, we were all here for the same reason – to relive and reflect on the education that Selhurst gave us! Happy days (well mostly, apart from the Latin homework and the ‘joys’ of being ‘just’ a first-former almost 60 years ago!) 😮

As usual, Lesley was on catering duties (ably assisted, for the first time by Alex) and had created a varied and delicious spread (so much so, we were too busy consuming it to photograph it!) 😉😋

Sadly, Ashley and Keith, whom I’d got to know quite well at last year’s event (we all hailed from ‘Stalag’ New Addington) were not here this year, but a few other familiar faces from the past were. Roy W, who was in the same class as me in later years, Mike C (who spent a short time assisting me on the Centenary Celebrations Sub Committee). It was good to see ever-reliable Tony T and his wife, Hazel too – Tony had been a great supporter of the Magazine when I was Editor.

However, the face that really surprised me (and probably the Committee too) was Ian H. Ian briefly served as my replacement as ‘Chair’ before Roger and Valerie took over to stabilise the ship after Ian’s sudden departure. Ian hadn’t been seen at one of these events until today! 😮

These days, attendance is a smaller affair where today being in the low 30s. However, in spite of this, it was more than made up for with its positive atmosphere. Fewer people means it’s become a more intimate affair, more relaxed and informal. In short, we’re a happy bunch! It seems that the somewhat formal atmosphere of my era in the Chair has happily given way to a much more relaxed event – and in my book, that’s a good thing! 👍

…and it was good to see so much memorabilia being brought along too! It certainly brought back some memories of days now long gone.

Guest Speaker

The highlight of the annual Reunion is often the guest speaker – and this year was no exception!

Will Noble, author of Croydonopolis entertained and educated us about the rise, fall and potential rise of Croydon. What a great history lesson about the town that aspired to be a city (but never quite got there!).

Heading Home

Sadly, due to my patchy connections going home, I had to leave early and miss the AGM. Cortland has streamlined this part of the Reunion into something much more efficient and productive, compared with my day leaving much more time for people to actually ‘reunite’! 😁. A pity I couldn’t be more a part of that today.

Expecting to meet my pre-booked Uber outside the BRIT School was just fanciful! The allotted slot came and went (unlike my Uber!). I booked another, and it arrived in double-quick time where the price turned out to be half of the pre-booked one! I think that’s called dynamic pricing. Whatever!! I arrived back at East Croydon Station, having only lost about 20 minutes. Luckily, I’d allowed for a bit of wriggle room. Fully wriggled and with the previous Kettering train being cancelled at the last minute, meant that a significant proportion of those passengers were now transferring to mine at 4.45. Oh, the joy of travel!! 🥴

An hour or so later and with Ann acting as an unpaid Uber, I was home just after 6pm, saying hello to a doughnut.

What a day! What a great Reunion! Thanks to all for another successful event👍. See you in 2027! 😊