From the

From the Development Office

Despite our school being in a permanent state of flux in the past year, it has remained as busy as ever, if not busier, and the same has been true of the Development Office. In September, we were delighted to welcome Catherine Massie who has joined the team to support with the administration of the school archive and Churcher’s Community, the online portal for Old Churcherians, which was launched last November.

We have been delighted with how the OCs have engaged with Churcher’s Community. At the time of writing, over 750 of you have created an online profile enabling you to connect with one another, read all the latest news from school and your peers, hear first about events you can attend and access all the content available through the website. We will be updating functionality over the coming months, including mentoring support through our ‘Professional Connections’ initiative, the launch of new OC clubs and a business directory. If you have not already, I urge you to explore the portal and sign up.

You will also have noticed the introduction of new branding in our communications, a nod to the Churcher’s uniform colours of yesteryear, which provides the Old Churcherians with its own distinct look and feel.

For everyone, COVID has changed how we go about our lives, devastating for some, presenting challenges to all of us and for others, a chance to try new things. Thank you to all of you who have shared your lockdown stories. We hope you enjoy reading some of these. For our part, this has been a year for rescheduling events – thank you for your patience with this… We did manage to host a virtual gathering for the 1722 Society, comprising of those individuals who have pledged a gift to Churcher’s in their will. I think we have proposed at least four dates for the Golf Day at Petersfield Golf Club during the past 18 months and now have our fingers crossed for 8 October. You can sign up to this and any events through Churcher’s Community.

The much anticipated Churcherians’ London Dinner will have to wait until next year now, as will the revamped OC Day, incorporating the reunion lunch and the Eaton trophies. Following the recent absence of opportunity, we do hope that you will want to engage back with these key events in 2022,

a landmark year with the 300th anniversary of Churcher’s College.

The Development Office will be keeping you up to date with plans for the tercentenary celebrations through Churcher’s Community and our Connect newsletters. Towards the end of the summer, we will be getting in touch to let you know what is in store and how you can get involved.

To that end, thank you to all of you who have responded to the recent “stay in touch” communication to update your contact details and communications preferences. For those of you who missed this or are still yet to respond, please visit Churcher’s Community or contact the Development Office. Our main objective is to give you plenty of opportunities to stay in touch with the school and one another. So please do keep the ideas and feedback coming. We all have our fingers crossed that things are starting to get back to some kind of normal which will also hopefully mean that we all start to see one another again.

With very best wishes,

Nick Smith Head of Development

Explore the new portal at Community.ChurchersCollege.com.

“Our main objective is to give you plenty of opportunities to stay in touch with the school and one another.”