A new park bench on the school field at Hugh Sexey’s Middle School in Blackford has been unveiled following the dissolution of a past pupils association.
The bench was provided by past pupils from the time when Sexey’s was a Grammar School, the school having changed to Middle School status in 1976.
The money used to pay for the bench had been left in the account run by the Grammar school’s ‘Old Sexonians Association’ which was set up for past pupils to keep in contact with the school which involved a subscription to a school magazine.
Over the decades the relatively small amount of money created by these subscriptions, with the help of compound interest, rose to over £500.
More recently, the running of the bank account was taken up by a new Old Sexonians Association whose main function was to organise reunions for the ex Grammar school pupils.
Sadly, partly as a result of the pandemic, when reunions were unable to take place, it was decided to dissolve the association and use the funds to purchase something useful for the school.
The idea of purchasing a school bench was decided by members of the ‘Boarders of the ‘60s’ reunion, a small group of around 10 ex pupils who were boarders at any time during the 1960’s.
The idea was approved by the Association committee members and so it was that Martyn James (Association Chairman) has recently passed over a cheque for just over £570 to the school’s Operations Manager, Mandy Collins, with the view to purchasing the park bench and putting any left over money into school funds for future purchases.
Martyn says: “I was very pleased at the large amount of money that interest had added to the account which meant that the school could afford a sturdy, high quality bench which should last for many years. It was decided that a plaque should be attached to the bench and titled ‘The Grammar School Bench’ to remind pupils of the school’s past as a Grammar school.”
Once the bench had been purchased and sited the ‘Boarders of the 60’s’ group were invited to the school to see the bench for the first time and were all very impressed with it and, needless to say, a picture had to be taken with them using it.
Pictured are some of the boarders who started boarding at the Grammar school between 1963 and 1965.
Anyone wishing to know more about the history of the Grammar school and read memories of children that used to be there should look at the website, started by Martyn James in 2008, which can be found at www.oldsexonians.co.uk
