Further information on Key Events
The weekend revolves around fixtures against the School in a number of different sports, as well as an OO rugby match on the Two Acre. For the last five years we have had over 100 participants playing eight different sports, and similar numbers again of those who come to watch and catch up with old friends.
Tuesday 21st March 2006
All School Concert at Birmingham Symphony Hall.
Parents and friends of the School are cordially invited to the Oundle 450 Concert which will feature an exciting and varied programme involving the Symphonic Wind Orchestra, the Concert Band, Chapel Choir, Schola Cantorum and the Jazz, Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. The provisional programme is available here (12 KB .pdf file).
Birmingham Symphony Hall is a very fine venue and Oundle’s musicians are relishing the opportunity to perform in the magnificent auditorium, regarded as one of the finest in Europe. This is a whole School event and all pupils and staff will be attending.
There will be no charge for pupils but tickets for visitors will cost £5. We anticipate that demand will be high. Tickets will be issued in the latter part of February.
After the concert the Oundle Society will host a special drinks reception at the Symphony Hall. We hope parents and former parents will join us to make this a really special afternoon. Tickets for the reception, priced at £10 per head, can be purchased from the Society (contact details here).
March 2006
Drama Tour: The Hired Man to New York and Washington DC.
The Hired Man is a stunning musical, written by Melvyn Bragg and Howard Goodall, based on Bragg’s novel of the same name. It is a very British piece of work, following the fortunes of a family at the turn of the 19th century in Cumbria, through farming, mining and the First World War. It is a gritty play, with wonderful choral music and surprisingly unknown outside the theatre world.
This main School production plays at the Stahl Theatre, Oundle, from February 28th to March 5th, and then tours to The United States, playing at Thomas Jefferson High School, Washington on March 28th, at Stuart Country Day School, Princeton on March 30th and at Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, New York on March 31st and April 1st.
Saturday 16 September 2006
Festival Day will be the highlight of Oundle’s 450th celebrations for all Oundle Society members – OOs, current and former parents of Oundle School children and friends of the School - and will offer something for all the family. There will be a full day of activities, including a Chapel service, House and School tours, hog roast lunch, a chance to watch Oundle excel at sport, a stone laying ceremony for SciTec, a delicious tea, exciting sideshows, an exhibition of 450 years of Oundle, and a thrilling grand finale.
Tickets cost £20 per person (£5 for children 13 and under) and are available from the Oundle Society (Tel: 01832 277291). Tickets will be despatched later in the year.
Wednesday 27th September 2006
The match will be between a select Old Oundelian team from the last fifteen years versus The Public School Wanderers: a high profile invitation team. The match will kick off at 4:00 p.m. and will be played on the School's famous Two Acre rugby pitch. Many outstanding Old Oundelian rugby players have agreed to play, and the day will culminate with a dinner in the Sixth Form club after the game. For futher details please contact cjo@oundle.northants.sch.uk.
Saturday 14th-21st October 2006
Oundle 450 Celebration Cruise in the Aegean.
Open to OOs, parents, all staff, pupils, and governors, the cruise will utilise hand-built wooden 16-berth yachts, and visit sites including Ephesus, Miletus, Didyma, Halicarnassos, Knidos and Iassos, accompanied by guest lecturer and retired member of the Classics department, Mr V. Northwood. There is also an option available to join an additional excursion for four days to Istanbul. The full brochure is available for download (requires Adobe Acrobat reader: 350 KB .pdf file), or visit the website www.imatravel.com.
Friday 1st December 2006
Service of Thanksgiving, St Paul’s Cathedral (2:30 pm).
A year of celebration will draw to a close with an opportunity for reflection at a Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in the presence of the whole School.
Demand for tickets for the service, and the tea that will follow it, has been unprecedented and it is now oversubscribed. We regret that we will not be able to accommodate all those who wish to attend, but would encourage as many people as are able to attend to join us on Festival Day, 16th September at Oundle.
December 2006
School Science Trip to Antarctica (30 pupils and accompanying staff).
In December 2006 a party of thirty pupils and staff will be travelling to Antarctica as part of the 450th anniversary of the School's foundation. Flying to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego the group will embark on a Russian trawler which will sail to the Antarctic Peninsula, stopping at various points and using small boats to go ashore to explore the terrain and spend some time camping.
The expedition will carry out science investigations, including monitoring ultra violet light levels, and looking for evidence of glacier recession. On returning to Ushuaia the party will spend a few days in Chile exploring a completely contrasting environment such as the Atacama Desert.
The ethos of the trip is to celebrate Oundle’s spirit of adventure
and the choice of Antarctica, is particularly appropriate as geologist Hartley
Travers Ferrar- an OO - was a member of Shackleton’s first expedition
in 1902, and now gives his name to the Ferrar glacier.