EDITOR: Historically, education institutions have established alumni associations essentially for the purpose of past students to maintain links with these institutions for their development, growth and success. Our 113-year-old Girls’ High School (GHS) has been particularly good at maintaining these types of linkages.

The GHS, as part of the build-up to the 2024 Sports Day scheduled for March 3, 2024, organized a “House Assembly” competition. For four consecutive Mondays, the GHS assemblies were literally alumni events, also incorporating the present student body and staff.

The competition was called The Randy Kennedy Most Spirited House Assembly, with the following guidelines – punctuality; dynamic musical accompaniment; student-centred assembly; excitement; clarity of theme; strong presence of house colour and creativity and talent of the four Houses. Right away, and with no official prompting from management, the alumni became involved. In this context, the significant diaspora alumni were visibly connected.

The various Houses created WhatsApp group chats with the objective of mobilizing past students to attend the assembly in order to be counted. Being counted ensured that their Houses would get the points towards securing The Randy Kennedy Most Spirited House trophy. The count started with Grimble House, first in the G-H-S-M line-up, amassing 50 points and progressed steadily, culminating with Moffett House with 313 past students contributing this number of points.

Such a vibrant alumni body provides tangible benefits to the school, and this could be the same for all schools.

The build-up to the event was enjoyable and entertaining, and the event itself was dynamic. The call is for the alumni to use the magic and synergy of the moment as a propeller to continue their assistance to their Alma Mater. The call is also for the other Secondary Schools not just to follow suit, but to adopt it as a motivation to effect togetherness and camaraderie to impact positively on their respective schools.

Evern Daisley