Whitgift School Development and Alumni Office
It is very positive to be able to write to you all following the excellent news that we will be welcoming the boys back onto the School site on the 8th of March and that there is the semblance of a “road map” back to normality.
As I do, I can also relay the news that the Development and Alumni Relations team has expanded with Alison Goveia joining us as Development and Stewardship Officer and Sarah Fretwell as Regular Giving and Legacies Officer. Some of you will know Alison from her time in the Admissions Office and through her son Taino, who left Whitgift in July 2018 and joined the Grenadier Guards in October 2020. Sarah was at Trinity and then Durham University, where she studied Music and has most recently worked at Equity. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them to my team. They join Zohra Jeraj and will be collectively responsible for the ambitious alumni relations and fundraising campaign we are about to undertake.
As I mentioned in my last message, the School will be formally assuming responsibility for Alumni Relations and Development from July, including production of this Newsletter which will be available to all OWs electronically on a Termly basis.
This also includes launching Whitgift For All which has an initial target of £5MM for seven new means-tested Bursary places at Whitgift for talented and deserving boys from the local area. Any support you are able to offer the School in this will be very gratefully received.
We will be having an event to launch this formally as soon as we are allowed whilst adhering to government restrictions and guidelines. We will also be organising a series of OW events both nationally and internationally, including reunions, dinners and networking events. Please do get in contact with Zohra (alumni@whitgift.co.uk) if you have specific ideas that we might be able to take up.
Please also join our dedicated alumni platform, Whitgift Connect, (www.whitgiftconnect.co.uk) where you will be able to be part of our growing online community.
As lockdown continues to ease and we are able to host more events on site I very much look forward to being able to meet as many of you as possible.
Thomas Northcote
Director of Development
