CHAIR OF OVA WELCOME MESSAGE

Dear OVs,

Welcome to the end of year 2022 Veseyan. Thankfully a year less badly affected by the coronavirus. It is quite hard to imagine it still made Christmas last year difficult. Good to have some concerts and events happening again. The OVA has been pleased to support the music department with a new digital mixer that is a great help at live performances and will be of benefit to many. We are looking to upgrade the speakers in Big School.

The biggest event the OVA organised was the annual Old Veseyan Dinner on the 12th November attended by over 130 OV's and guests, aged from 17 to 93 years! Brilliant to welcome current and ex members of staff, most notably Rex Wallbank aged 93 years who taught from 1952 to 1984. He was with a jolly table organised by Karl Ward. There was also a reunion of old boarders, one of whom - Brian Izzard - had not met his old school friends or been back to school for over 60 years. Also, superb to have Dan Powell as a guest. Dan won a gold medal in judo at the Commonwealth Games. As far as we can establish the first OV to win a gold medal at CWG and how special to do it in Birmingham. One other attendee was John Ratledge, 91, who was the only diner who was a pupil during the headship of Abel Sylvanus Jones. He was joined by son Jonathan who organised 3 tables from his year group.

Unfortunately, a number of OV's have passed during the second half of the year and many thanks to Nick Hammond for contacting families and producing obituaries.

As always, I am grateful for the continued support of hundreds of OVA members and we are looking to support some very worthwhile projects in 2023 - some much needed work on the Old Sports Pavilion and the Biology Department greenhouse to name two.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas,