Old Oakhamian News

Old Oakhamian Jack van Poortvliet (’19) has been called up to the men’s England Rugby squad for the summer tour to Australia.

The Oakham School community celebrated being back together again in the first Speech Day event since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian, Matthew Ramshaw (’18), who has made his senior International debut for England in the Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) Pro League against France last weekend.

In celebration of 50 years of co-education, Oakham School has launched its first podcast series for the Oakham community to enjoy.

As part of its 50 years of co-education celebrations, Oakham School has been sharing with Lower 1 (Year 6) pupils what life was like in Oakham in the 1970s.

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian (OO) Matthew Ramshaw (’18) who has been selected for the 2022 Great Britain Hockey Senior Squad. Matthew has been selected in the men’s training squad and hopes to feature for Great Britain over the coming year, in particular the Commonwealth Game and the FIH Hockey Pro League.

In our latest edition of The Old Oakhamian Magazine, we caught up with OO and Director of Admissions Anna Steiger to discuss her return to the School. 

On a frosty, and occasionally foggy, day, the Ed Farmer Trophy returned, with two teams of Old Oakhamians facing the 1^st & 2^nd XIs. Cancelled last year due to Covid, the trophy is dedicated to the memory of Ed Farmer, who tragically lost his life while at university.

A long-serving Oakham School Textiles Teacher is celebrating 30 years of her work with a local art exhibition in preparation for her retirement. 

Oakham’s alumni have been enjoying the spotlight recently in the world of music, drama, art and sport.

Old Oakhamian Anna Gonzalez has recently launched her new classical art print business ‘Aster&Selene’ and has donated two of her beautiful prints to Oakham’s Classics Department. 

Last weekend saw two alumni scrum-halves captaining their Premiership clubs, and another Old Oakhamian make his senior Premiership Rugby debut.

Oakham School is delighted to introduce its first-ever full-time Archivist, Miss Aurore Guillomot-Bonnefond.

Congratulations to OO Rick Shouler ('95), who has won the most coveted Target Rifle shooting trophy, the Queen’s Prize.

Oakham School welcomed back four Old Oakhamians - Becca Malyon (‘21), Hannah Moursi (‘18), Sassy Norton (‘18), and Ella Turner (‘21) - last weekend, as they joined our Form 7 netballers for some valuable match practice.

The first week in September saw Oakham rugby players attend a four-day pre-season training camp at Greshams School.

We recently marked a major milestone by celebrating 50 years of co-education with a special event for our Old Oakhamians.

On a beautiful August weekend, The OO Club hosted our first in-person alumni events of the last 18 months.

The Late Summer Drinks, traditionally the Mid-Summer Drinks, saw a decent crowd of all ages come together on Friday 13 August. It was a lovely affair and a great chance to reconnect with those who hadn’t seen each for some time.

On Saturday 14 August, we welcomed back the Class of 2016 for their 5 Year Reunion. IT was a lively affair, with over 80 OOs coming together to catch-up and share memories, as well as a drink or two.

Retired Director of Outdoor Activities and teacher of IT, Steve Gorman and his wife Ali have taken on a gruelling charity cycling challenge to raise money for a local mental health organisation, Pepper’s- A Safe Place.

Old Oakhamian Emily Nagel recently trialled with Great Britain SailGP for a place on the team, which is looking to include female members for the first time. 

Old Oakhamian Alex Stadler (15) will be representing Germany at the Olympics in Tokyo, as goalkeeper for Germany’s Men’s Olympic hockey squad. The contest starts this weekend, and the team will play five group matches, with the top four in each pool qualifying for the quarter finals.  Their first game will be against Canada this Saturday.

Oakham School welcomed four entrepreneurial Old Oakhamians, Jess Armitage (13), Ivo Nanev (14), Tia Naneva (17) and Tom Home (14), to talk to seventh formers about entrepreneurships and different pathways.

We send our hearty congratulations to Peter Lawson (60), 1584 Society President, who has been recognised for his years of service to Rutland and beyond with a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The past weekend saw success for both OOs playing in the U20 Six Nations, with England and Wales both winning their matches.

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian Alex Stadler (18) who has been called up to play for Germany’s Men’s Olympic hockey squad as their goalkeeper in the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Last weekend saw three Old Oakhamians playing in the same Cricket County Championship match held at Trent Bridge with Tom Fell (12) representing Worcestershire and Lyndon James (17) and Stuart Broad (04) representing Nottinghamshire CCC.

Last night saw three Oakhamians, four Old Oakhamians and an Oakham teacher play in the Repton Cup, a friendly league tournament.

Walkers Book Shop has a very special place in the heart of the English department so they decided to catch up with owner Tim Walker about his experience of Literary Lockdown and his relationship with our School.

OO Dr Navin Leanage (07), junior registrar (ST3) in emergency medicine, recently joined Oakham’s Doc Soc meeting online to give his perspective on the A&E ward during the current pandemic to pupils in Forms 6.

The Matthews Society welcomed its second guest speaker of the term on Friday, this time Gwyneth Cook (OO 17), who explored the topic of ‘The Male Gaze’ in Art.

The Matthews Society moved online this month with a talk from OO Ella Norgaard Morton (16), former Matthews Society President and now a medical student at the University of Manchester.

The countdown to this year’s BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards, which features Old Oakhamian Stuart Broad, is now on! 

It’s been a busy, successful year for OO Claire Bodanis (nee Windsor, ’92), and her husband, David, with both publishing books to great acclaim.

On Monday 14 December at 6pm, a guest list of over 100 OOs from the classes of 1960 – 2016, all got together to celebrate Christmas in a very different way. In true 2020 style, the Christmas Drinks took place on Zoom and it was wonderful to see the OO Community come alive online, sharing memories and enhancing the festive spirit together, despite the current restrictions.

A Year in the News like No Other

It was great to catch up with our OO President, David Gilman (89), to discuss his role at Sky News. Sky, like many other organisations, have had to find new ways of working to adapt to the recent COVID time. Having recently directed the U.S. Election, David explains how directing the news in 2020 has been an experience like no other.

It was, if my memory is correct, Friday 14 December 1990. It was the last full day of the Autumn Term and I had been the Housemaster of Rushebrookes for just over three months.

Old Oakhamians continue to make national news, particularly our sports stars - with Stuart Broad being nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2020 and Lyndon James securing a new two-year deal with Nottinghamshire CCC.

Live theatre returns to Oakham School this week, with the Scholars’ production of Decky Does a Bronco by Douglas Maxwell.

Headmaster Henry Price was delighted and honoured to be invited to take part in the popular Legally Speaking Podcast, hosted by Old Oakhamian (04) Rob Hanna.

The Oakham School community would like to extend their warmest congratulations to Old Oakhamian Lyndon James (17) who has signed a new two-year deal with Nottinghamshire CCC.

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian and illustrator, Libby Armstrong (18), who has launched her new business, “Libby Armstrong Illustrations”, during lockdown

The Oakham School community are all delighted to extend our warmest congratulations to our former teacher of Physics, Helen Pollard, who has been awarded an MBE for her services to Physics education.

Old Oakhamian Cameron Jordan (’18) is in line to make a premiership debut from the bench for Gloucester Rugby in their match against Saracens tonight after joining the club this Summer

On 30 August 2020, OOs James Beanland (04) and Ben Turnbull (12) are taking on a cycling mission to raise funds for The Matt Hampson Foundation.

Both James and Ben still play rugby locally and are going to tour rugby clubs and grounds where they have previously played in a one-day biking bonanza. They will begin and end their journey at Oakham RFC and will pass a number of clubs, including Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Leicester Tigers, Syston, Melton Mowbray and many more. The route will take them at least 140 miles (222K), climbing 6,500+ feet and passing 18 rugby clubs in total.

Old Oakhamian Stuart Broad has firmly secured his place as one of the world's finest cricketers after taking his 500^th wicket in Test Cricket.

Oakham’s sporting alumni galvanised during this difficult time, offering sporting advice and guidance in the form of a unique series of interviews held with Director of Sport, Iain Simpson.

Members of Oakham’s Biology Society enjoyed a virtual ‘café scientifique’, where they listened to four accomplished Old Oakhamian scientists discuss their broad experiences working in science, and to reflect on their post-Oakham journeys. The online event, hosted by teacher of Biology, Dr Andrew Nicoll, was attended by Form 6 pupils from Oakham School, Harrington School and the Loughborough Schools Foundation. Dr Nicoll was joined by Dr Lotty Brand (09), Florence Schanschieff (14), Abi Mustard (15) and Dr Jamie Blaza (06) whose expertise extended from molecules to ecosystems, and spanned from laboratory research to the commercial world via field work. 

At the end of May, Emily Nagel (12) joined Sir Ben Ainslie CBE in a virtual race viewing event to discuss their recent success with Team GB at the inaugural race of SAIL GP Season 2. Together they did a post-race analysis of the two days of racing in Sydney, answering a range of questions about their preparation through to the decisions they made throughout the two days of racing.

Finding herself with plenty of time her hands due to the lockdown, Ella Deregowska (17) decided to put her talent and passion for painting towards a valuable cause. Inspired by various fundraising activities, and spurred on by friends and family asking her for portraits, Ella started to take commissions - with all proceeds going to the NHS.

Old Oakhamian Abigail Mustard (15), Information Officer for the Rutland Osprey Project, has been keeping everyone up-to-date with video commentary and blog posts as part of the Rutland Osprey Home School initiative.

A new composition by Old Oakhamian, Morgan (18), will be sending a message of hope to BBC Radio 3 audiences as part of the BBC’s ‘Culture in Quarantine’ arts festival.

Members of Oakham School’s Medical and Biology Societies were privileged to participate in a special seminar where Old Oakhamian Dr Navin Leanage (07) talked about his first-hand experience battling Coronavirus on the NHS frontline.

The School community may not have been able to gather together to mark the 75th Anniversary of VE Day, but that certainly doesn’t mean that this important date went unmarked at Oakham.

Oakhamians past and present are raising money for Rutland Foodbank by running or cycling the equivalent distance from Oakham Cricket Club to The Grange in Edinburgh in just 7 days.

David Gilman (89), Old Oakhamian President and Senior Director at Sky News, visited the School on Friday and spoke to the Form 5 iMedia class about his journey from Oakham, to the studios of Sky News.

On a crisp, sunny winter’s afternoon, a perfect day for football, the Old Oakhamians claimed the Ed Farmer Trophy with a clean sweep of the Oakham School First, Second and Thirds XIs. This event is to celebrate and commemorate the life of Ed Farmer (15) a talented and able sportsman.

Old Oakhamians gathered from across the UK to attend the annual Old Oakhamian President’s Dinner, which this year took place in the Barraclough Dining Hall at the School.

Kat Klohe (OO ’07) visited the Social Science Faculty on Friday before the OO President’s dinner to share her experience of Oakham School, her life experience after Oakham and to raise awareness of neglected tropical diseases and how they hamper the development of Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs).

Oakham School welcomed back 9 Old Oakhamians last weekend to take on the current 1st VII netball team in a battle of ‘youth versus experience’. 

Since leaving School, students from the classes of 2015–18 have been busy forging successful careers in their chosen sport. 

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian Sam Wolstenholme (17) who has signed a two-year contract as a professional with Wasps Rugby Football Club.

Oakham School was delighted to welcome back Annie Whitehall (11) to speak to current students about her undergraduate study and career in politics, business and communications.

Oakham School is delighted to both celebrate and commemorate Old Oakhamian Dolores Sanders’ success in being named one of Innovate UK’s ‘Women in Innovation Award’ winners – with a fantastic plaque unveiled in her honour outside the Smallbone Library!

It was wonderful to welcome back a number of younger OOs from the classes of 2012 to 2017 on Saturday 19 January to give a charity concert in aid of the National Foundation for Youth Music. 

Oakham School was thrilled to welcome back Old Oakhamian and Volvo Ocean Race veteran, Emily Nagel, to speak to students, staff and members of the local sailing community.

Current Old Oakhamian President, Ben Walsgrove (87) and OO Chairman, Jon Wills hosted a magnificent Black Tie Dinner for over fifty guests with a Back to School theme on Saturday 24 November.

Two Old Oakhamians have been selected to represent Great Britain at the World Championships of Full-Bore Shooting.  

A gathering will be held in the Chapel tonight to mark the centenary of the final OO casualty of WW1, John Henry Heathcote Bradley (Oakham 1913-1917). 

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian Matt Ramshaw (18) who has won the Sultan of Johor Cup 2018 with the GB U21 side and as part of the Elite Development Programme.

Crista Cullen captained a specially selected OO squad against a team of current students in an ‘All-Star’ hockey match played on the newly opened Crista Cullen Astro!  

‘Well-rounded’, ‘open-minded’ and ‘fun loving’ are familiar attributes among Oakhamians, but it would be a challenge to find a person who encompasses these qualities more than Jon Wills, who is retiring after 38 years of service to the School.

Old Oakhamian Kathryn Lane (13) and her former Oakham PE teacher Ellie Watton are featured in the powerful England Hockey #BehindEveryGreatPlayer campaign, which celebrates the importance of supportive role models in achieving sporting success. 

Congratulations to Old Oakhamian and Rugby legend, Tom Croft (04) who has just won Leicester Tigers’ Outstanding Service Award. 

On Sunday, OO and critically acclaimed actor Richard Hope (71) led a workshop in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (QET) for some of the Drama Department’s scholars and GCSE students.

OO Club President 2017-2018 and MD of I-Design Furniture Limited Ben Walsgrove describes how three friendships he formed while at Oakham have been integral to shaping his post-school career.

As Old Oakhamian, Leicester Tiger, England player and British and Irish Lion, Tom Croft this week announced his retirement from professional rugby, his former coach, Ian Smith, reflects on his many achievements.

Featured on Forbes Magazine’s ‘30 under 30 2017’ list, Phoebe Gormley (12) the founder and owner of Gormley & Gamble recalls the journey that has led her from Kilburn Road to Savile Row.

Old Oakhamian and GB's Olympic Gold medallist Crista Cullen talks about her time at School, her pathway to sporting success and plans for the future.

We are absolutely delighted that Old Oakhamian Kathryn Lane has been named as part of the Tokyo Olympic Hockey Squad.