The pressure on places at Westcott has led the Governors to consider plans to build a second boarding house for girls. However, as yet this is just speculation. The only development which is underway is the Phase II of the classroom block, which was mentioned in the last issue of ICOSA News. Planning permission has been granted by the local government authority, and details of the project have now been sent to builders. They will be costing the project and putting in their bids to undertake the project. We shall soon know if we can afford the development as it is currently planned.

The College wants a three-floor wing, containing a new Art room and two mini-laboratories. It should also house the History and Geography Departments, as well as eleven rooms for the English Department, including a resources room. If the bids from builders come in at or below the College’s budget, the building should be constructed in time to be in use by September 2005.

BEst wishes

Travel to Waterloo

Mr Matthias remembers when he first came to the International Study Centre, how confused he sometimes got. On one occasion he was told to escort two boys down to the Sherborne railway station and put them on the train and then return to school. Mr Matthias forgot the last bit and jumped on the train and sat down. Suddenly the train started to move! It was only then that he remembered and – despite the not inconsiderable danger – jumped off the train whilst it was moving!

Mr Stalley did no better once whilst taking students to the airport. In those days we used to normally go by train to Woking and then change trains to get to Heathrow Airport. On arriving at Woking, Mr Stalley alighted from the train, made sure the boys were off, and then went back to get the students’ luggage.

A kind passenger, seeing the door open, shut the door whilst Mr Stalley was still on the train. The station guard, thinking that everyone was off, then waved the flag and the train started to depart, leaving the students on the platform and Mr Stalley on the train! Again, as with Mr Matthias, the door had to open quickly and Mr Stalley had to leave while the train was travelling.

I realise you are now all of you older and wiser but please do not try jumping from a moving train!

School Trips

Mr Stalley remembers a trip to the Science Museum in London. Another member of staff had spent hours organising this trip and making sure that good worksheets were available, students knew exactly where to go,everyone had a telephone number and that a good day was to be had by all. What he couldn’t account for, however, was the traffic to London, which meant that after a five-hour journey, the students had ten minutes (yes ten minutes!) in the museum before having to come back home. Were you on that trip?

Mr Matthias remembers a completely different story. On a nice warm summer’s day Mr Matthias and Mr Walters had told Mr Hardaker that they were going to pay their three pounds, go to the dinosaur museum in Lyme Regis with pupils and fill-in worksheets. Regrettably, the temptation of a particular sign was too much. The sign read ‘Mackerel Fishing only £3’. Mr Matthias looked at Mr Walters and Mr Walters returned the look. Soon all the students plus the teachers were on board the boat, happily fishing when they should have been in the dinosaur museum. Except for one student who suffered from sea sickness, the students had a great time and were able to return home, not only with a great story of fishing, but also with fish to
eat on Mr Walter’s barbeque that evening.

Stories from Greenhill

When Mr Hardaker was Housemaster, there are several stories which come to mind. The first one was the day in the junior dorm when students ran
out of sellotape, blu-tack or drawing pins. The solution – to put all posters up with Vaseline! Needless to say Mr Hardaker was not pleased.

One of Mr Hardaker’s favourite stories however, involved boys disappearing out of the House to visit the Chinese restaurant at the weekend. In catching
one boy doing so, Mr Hardaker decided to punish that boy by asking him to remove barrow loads of leaves, putting them on the compost heap at the bottom of the Paddock. (Remember, we used to play football there!). The deal was that there would be no further punishment provided the boy was honest and took one barrow load of leaves per Chinese meal consumed.

Mr Hardaker also told the boy concerned to pass the message on to any of his friends that may have been involved in similar circumstances and that should they come forward and do the same, no further investigation was necessary.

Mr Hardaker then sat in the Staff Room and watched, expecting maybe two or three boys to remove maybe six or seven barrow loads of leaves. Imagine his surprise when over twenty boys appeared and cleared the whole garden of leaves in less than one hour!

Finally Mr Hardaker also remembers one particular boy who, in not wanting to go to lessons, would hide in his wardrobe. There must be easier ways to avoid going to school!

Do you remember any of these? Were you there at the time? More importantly, do you have any favourite stories of your own? If so, please e-mail them either to Mr Walters or Mr Hardaker and they will consider them (consider not promise!) for publication

Registration News

Iam happy to report that since the last newsletter, the registrations have gone up to 142, but, of course this still leaves room for about 1300 more! What is sad is that I still am unable to put so many people in touch with each other. On this page, you will see the second half of the list of those we have no way of
contacting. If any of you know an address or email address for anyone on the list , please let us
know and try to persuade your friend to register. Registration costs nothing but it does help us to help you. It also means that when Dr Greenfield or Mr Hardaker go abroad they can make contact with you more easily.

I have a list of nearly 100 requests for contact details, which I have been unable to provide because the student has not registered. These include former pupils from all stages of the College’s development. For example. Hosward Chang, Aslan Ghavami and William Cheng from 1978; Okibo Ojukwu, Sani Inuwa, Abdul Kadir. Ali Mutlu and Evert Jan Zondag from the first half of the 1980s; Tarek Arnous, Amerigo Olivetti, Christian Sundt, Edson Do Santos and Gen Tsuchida from the early 1990s and Caspar Seitz, Khalifa Al Misnad, Pavel Machisti and Fiona Park from those who have left more recently. These are,
of course only small part of those whose friends want to get in touch, but if you read this,
PLEASE register.

One final plea, when you ask to be put in contact with a friend, please try to be specific, and give the complete name of your friend. It is very difficult if only part of a name is given and even harder if someone asks to be put in contact with everyone from his or her year. If we had all the information, this could involve up to 100 e-mail or full addresses. The most difficult I have had so far is one from someone who shall be nameless, who asked to be put in touch with ‘everyone’! I’m afraid that was beyond me.

This edition of the news letter may be the last that will be posted. It will in future appear on our web site icosa.org. Those of you that are registered will get advanced notice of its publication by e-mail. Yet another good reason for registering!

With best wishes to you all.

John Walters