Annual Alumnae Reunion | Summer 2024

On the last Saturday of term, as part of our whole community end of year celebrations which included the return of the Summer Music Festival to Paddock Field, we welcomed back former students of The Royal School and Bath High School, our two founding schools, and Royal High School Bath for our Annual Alumnae Reunion. Alumnae joined us from a wide range of generations, from those left school in the 1950s and 60s to those that left in the last 10 years. In particularly we helped groups of alumnae from the RS and BHS 1994 cohorts, and RHSB Classes of 2004 and 2014 celebrate their 30th, 20th and 10th anniversaries.  

This year the RHBA Committee were delighted to be joined by higher numbers than usual for their Annual Review which, once the formalities had been dealt with, included a comprehensive overview of school news from 2023-2024 and the myriad activities students have been involved in from Mr Hadrian Briggs, Acting Head. A highlights video of the 2024 Prizegiving at Bath Forum was then shown followed by a snapshot of sixth form life from our youngest alumnae, the 2023-2024 Year 13 cohort: Class of 2024 – our last year of school in film. The Annual Review was rounded off with a rather lively and fun Q&A session with Chloe, Issy, Sennen and Darcy of Year 9 and Elisabeth and Jess of Year 12. The girls effortlessly fielded all sorts of questions informing animated discussions covering a variety of topics from school food (dead man’s leg anyone?!), stories of school trips at home and abroad, to life as boarder and the merits of being at an all-girls school (even if nobody has a boyfriend!). A common theme between our students and alumnae was the strength of friendship gained from school life which our student panel was happy to discover from our guests is clearly everlasting!  

Our guests were also able to enjoy a display of archive material alongside access to the RS online archive and BHS online archive’s test site, not forgetting a quick visit to the Sound Booth where memories were recorded to be added to the online archives as audio clips. 

The reunion itself proved to be a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends, reminisce over their school days and celebrate what it is to be a part of the RHSB family as evidenced by the noise levels emanating from the Rebacca Barrell Room! In particular, members of the Classes of 2004 and 2014 were overjoyed to be able to catch up with Mr Nick Hayward and Mr Nick Evans, both much-loved former members of staff. 

Before heading out into the sunshine to enjoy the Summer Music Festival, our alumnae guests embarked on tours of the school and the Summer Art Show ably guided by some of our students enabling our guests to see what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. For our visiting Bath High Alumnae, this was a lovely opportunity to better get to know the school as it is today. For our Tour Guides, this was a great opportunity to share experiences with those that have gone before them – but hopefully they won’t quite remember all the stories they heard of student pranks played in the past!  

A huge thank you to all those who were able to join us, please come back and see us again soon.