Message from Development Manager and OH President...

Many of you will know Jen and Vikki, we are a close-knit team, all of whom find our work incredibly rewarding. Our alumni network is at the very heart of what we do; getting to know each other better, sharing stories and memories, as well as sensing the warmth you feel towards Hymers.

Our ambition is to speak to many more of you and hope that you will re-engage with us and your former peers. You will notice an upgrade in our website over the last 12 months with many of our archives now categorised digitally, new country clubs for alumni living overseas and mentoring support for all of our OH community. We hope that there is something for everyone! This year we have also introduced some very popular new events namely The Presidents Cup, City Drinks in London and at the time of going to print we have been to Newcastle and have plans to visit our alumni in Leeds, Manchester and Cambridge in 2023.

From John Hymers founding to the present day, the School has championed social mobility for the bright children in Hull and East Riding regardless of their families’ ability to pay through the bursary programme. Founded with one Legacy in 1893, Hymers has been providing an outstanding education for nearly 130 years. Our history is built on benevolence, we are proud of our humble beginnings. Our own history is also clearly influenced by national history. Under the Direct Grant Scheme (1944-1979) a significant percentage of Hymers students paid no fees at all. When this was replaced by The Government’s Assisted Places Scheme (1979-1997) - one third of students received funding. Following the withdrawal of state funding, in 1997, the demographics changed. The School made the decision to continue to support our bursary students. Since then, our support for bursaries has been supported by income from school fees, local trusts and foundations and a number of generous Old Hymerians and parents.

Hymers has put social mobility on the map and thanks to our supporters continues to build a culture of diversity and inclusion as we prepare our students for life beyond school. Thank you to those of you who are supporting us with our Bursary Fund we have been able to make a transformational impact to young people’s lives with our fundraising so far but we want to change so many more. We do not want to turn away talented young children who we know would thrive on a Hymers education as so many of our fantastic alumni community also did.

As well as fundraising for the Bursary Fund, the Development Team are responsible for a full alumni events calendar, mentoring, careers support and more. Your support with our current students is extremely valuable to us; be it a careers talk, work experience for a student or support with our Sixth Form Societies, each and every one of you is a huge help to us. We are extremely grateful for all of the time you give us many years after you left.

As OH President too, I feel honoured to chat to so many of our alumni community each week and learn about your time after Hymers. I have attended Golf Days, Rugby Matches, Hockey festivals, Lunches, Dinners and drinks and what an absolute honour to be part of that. One of the highlights has to be hearing from Old Hymerian Richard Barton, OH 1936-42, he left school for the summer holidays in 1939, he did not expect that day to be his last day of lessons in the buildings that are Hymers College. He never returned to study in those buildings due to the outbreak of World War II, which saw the students of Hymers College evacuated on 30 August 1939 to Pocklington. Richard has made a recording for our archives which you can hear on our website. If you are interested in finding out more about our work and how you can support the school please contact myself or the team on 01482 347492. Emily

Pennack

Whilst in post as Old Hymerian Vice President I joined the Development Office in September 2020 as the School’s first Development Manager. Since then The Development Office has grown to a team of three.

Get in Touch …

November 2021 saw a new event for the OH events calendar namely The Presidents Cup. Pocklington and Hymers 1st team date was in the school calendar and this seems an ideal opportunity to get our alumni with a love of rugby back to the school. We enjoyed lunch in the old gymnasium before heading off to watch our teams and hear many memories of “when we played Pock”. We hosted over 30 guests from age 18- 80 with a couple of former captains and will host again in November 2023 as a bi-annual event at the school as we host alternatively with Pocklington. The matches will also include Hockey fixtures too. At the time of going to print Hymers has retained the cup for two years!

Our annual Remembrance Service was Zoomed into classrooms for another year. However, we enjoyed hosting many former military alumni for lunch in the Gore. Old Hymerians joined us to reflect on the lives lost in conflict, particularly of those who were part of the school community. During the service, the names were read out of the 208 Old Hymerians who have lost their lives fighting for this country.

Our OH Southern Dinner was attended by 80 guests from across the country and we heard from our new incoming OH Southern President, Bansari Patel after Martyn Green handed over the reins after 23 years. Thank you, Martyn, we have been so lucky to have you.

Welcome to Bansari Patel who has taken over the role of Southern President. Thank you Bansari. Thanks also to Guest Speaker, OH, Damian Johnson, BBC Broadcaster who entertained our guests after dinner with his football stories and much more!

The annual Hull Dinner date was moved to September after many years of waiting for us all to be able to meet up again. A September balmy evening added to the atmosphere with drinks on the West Drive before we sat down for dinner. Thank you to our guest speaker, OH, Professor Amitava Banerjee and OH, Rob Vickerman,