AGM 2018 I


t’s lovely to see you all today, both regular


visitors and new faces. Long may this continue, especially the recent leavers whom I personally would like to welcome to SOSA. Which brings me on to my thoughts for this address: Why are we here? Sibford School, why do we


return? Well, unlike now, when


I was here in the 70’s, the school was about 300 boarders and 60 ‘day kids’. We had friends from all over the world, and even Hook Norton, by the time we left! There’s a big difference in the school between now, and then, but we keep coming back. The Manor was my ‘home’ for


PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS by Harriet Langridge


Harriet Langridge is pictured with young old scholars Honor Parker, Fiona Neil, Emily Gibb, Molly Jones (who all left the school in 2018) and Charlotte Bryan (who left in 2016)


one of my friends. So, it must be the friendships


five years, in all its Hornton stone glory, but, sadly, it was slipping down the hill towards the Gower, and sold off. The Hill, however, has stayed, but has had additions to it. The Sports Hall, Orchard Close and Art and Music Block more recently, and I do remember this dining hall replacing the dark one at the Manor whose roof was kept up by acro props!


But all this is just bricks and


mortar – it could all be replaced. Like the rule which stated that pupils couldn’t use the front door, only the Scholars’ entrance. It seemed really weird seeing a green blazer going through the front door the last time I was here. So, it can’t be the bricks and mortar – those that we have left on top of this rather draughty hill, are actually, quite unremarkable. And apparently the amount of green fields and countryside around here doesn’t do it either, according to


26 / The Sibford Rocket


that are forged within the time that we are bound together with the Sibford twine. I had good times and bad times, but most of all I had ‘times’ here. I’ve kept in touch with some of my friends, and lost touch with others. When we left school, if we moved and didn’t tell anyone, or didn’t write the letters we promised to write then we fell ‘off the radar’. Some wanted to leave their schooldays as precisely that, and got on with their lives, after all wasn’t Sibford preparing us to do that?


But you can bump into a


Sibfordian practically anywhere in the world. During my Overlanding in Africa


we were in Nairobi, in the Thorn Tree Cafe, where traditionally messages are left for fellow travellers, and I met Katherine Stewart completely out of the blue. I also did a ‘women’s rock climbing course’ in Wales years


ago, and one of the other climbers had been to Sibford and told me she hated it! Now, fast forward to the last


few years ... and the internet. This has made rekindling friendships easier, I have met up with several of my housemates whom I hadn’t seen since 1980! I came back for reunions, they didn’t! Distance that was a problem in getting to the reunions before, means that keeping in touch is easier through the internet. I’m glad to say that this has


encouraged a few Lister Girls (and others) to come back this year for the first time in years. They have been meeting up for lunch for a while though! It’s been great to meet up with them at The Trout and now see them back here. Now, of course, with the school


currently mostly having day pupils and with the influence of the internet, gatherings of recent leavers can take place anywhere and with ease. So, it’s all about the friendships and people that mean


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