2008

The Easter gathering 2008 will be held between Friday 21st and Tuesday 25th March.

Easter Programme

A PDF of the programme card is available here.

Booking Information

An electronic copy of the booking form in PDF format is available here.

Booking forms were sent to all members of the association in late January 2008. If you haven't received your copy then please contact the membership secretary so that we can verify we have the correct contact details for you.

The following message was included this year with the forms:

Greetings Easter Gatherer!

Easter 2008 is a long weekend, beginning lunchtime on Friday 21st March and finishing at breakfast on Tuesday 25th March.

In particular, Staff and Old Scholars from the 1980s and 1990s are especially welcomed back by this year’s President, Diana Chadwick, who would be delighted to see pupils and staff who were at school during the time that she was. Anyone from this period who is unable to attend for part or all of the weekend is invited to send information about what they are doing now, with a recent photograph and contact details if possible, to go on a display in Centre Library during Easter Weekend (Please send to Sal by post or email) If anyone from these decades has been thinking about planning a reunion – this year is the year to do it!

As you all know, the school accommodation has changed over the years, and we are unable to put additional beds in rooms due to fire regulations. We use the maximum number of beds that the school can offer us, and often have to remake beds during the weekend. To this end, I urge you to return your booking forms as soon as possible and all forms should be returned to John this year. As the booking forms are received, they will be numbered, and rooms will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, so that the number of unused beds in school during the weekend is minimised – if we receive your booking after we are fully booked, you will be contacted by telephone so please remember to include this on your form. We will do our very best to ensure that we cater for your wishes, but please bear in mind that there is no accommodation on the ground floor, that we only have a few large rooms, and that we may not be in a position to give you exactly what you request.

As last year, the AGM will be on Saturday at 5pm in the Fothergill, but this will be purely a Business Meeting. We aim to keep it short, and head into dinner straight afterwards. After the dinner, there is an After-Dinner Speech, given by our president, Diana Chadwick. This is instead of the President giving her presentation during the AGM. Greetings from Old Scholars and the nomination for the 2008 President will also take place at this time.

Look forward to seeing you!

Best Wishes,

Diana Chadwick and The Easter Team!

2007

Easter 2007 Visitors

A list of those people who attended the gathering in 2007 can be found here.

Easter Accommodation

Please consider the following points if booking accommodation at Easter:

we cannot allocate specific rooms except in extraordinary cases (and have never done so). When the booking form mentions accommodation requests this is so that if people want to be near their peer group, have a need to be in low accommodation or near toilet facilities this can be catered for.
this year the phrase, "first come first served" was used in the letter accompanying the booking form. This is used to mean the following: there are approximately 100 or so rooms to use for accommodation in school and the order that the booking forms arrive will be noted and when the 101st request for accommodation comes in they will be informed that unfortunately the accommodation is full. It should not be inferred that people that book early get first choice of rooms.
the final accommodation plan is always drawn up at the last minute on account that sometimes people book accommodation within a few days of the gathering itself. We have had years in which the only way of accommodating people is to ensure that the number of empty beds is minimised - this has sometimes involved making different families staying for different parts of the weekend share the same room. We therefore attempt to make best use of the rooms available. This means the rooms with three or four beds are kept for groups of three or four etc.
over the last few years an attempt to produce "zones" in the accommodation plan has been made. This is done to try to ensure that friends are placed together and, for instance, that people who might be up late are not placed near families who might be trying to get infants to sleep early. Therefore if you have explicit requests please make them - do not assume that we can remember from year to year.
there is no ground floor accommodation in school. If you cannot cope with stairs then I am sorry but perhaps the accommodation in school is unsuitable for your needs.
Sal is standing in for me in doing the accommodation plan this year. It is her first year doing this, so your understanding would be appreciated and, in particular, please state requests exactly; phrases involving the word "usual" will cause gloom and despair!

I hope to have recovered enough by Easter to either attend for the whole weekend or at least come up for a day or two.

See you then.

Best wishes,

John

Booking Form

The dates for Easter this year are Friday 6th April to Tuesday 10th April.

An electronic copy of the booking form in PDF format is available here.

Booking Form Letter

Dear Easter Gatherer,

Apologies that the booking form is with you a bit later than usual this year.

There have been several reasons for this – Sal moved house just before Christmas (and still has not finished unpacking!) and we have also have negotiated a change to the way the school charge us for Easter. The good news is that hopefully it was worth the wait! You will notice that the prices for Easter 2007 remain the same as they were in 2005. Please also note the cost of meals is now different for residents (those staying in school overnight) and non residents (those people who visit school for the day but don’t stay overnight) so please remember to use the correct prices on your booking form.

We anticipate it being a busy year this year, and already know of some large reunions taking place over Easter. As you all know, the school accommodation has changed over the years, and we are unable to put additional beds in rooms due to fire regulations. We use the maximum number of beds that the school can offer us, and often have to remake beds during the weekend. To this end, I urge you to return your booking forms as soon as possible this year. The forms should be returned to Sal, and not John as in previous years. John is having a major operation in March so we thought it prudent to minimise the workload during his recovery period. As the booking forms are received, they will be numbered, and rooms will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis so that the number of unused beds in school during the weekend is minimised – if we receive your booking after we are fully booked, you will be contacted by telephone so please remember to include this on your form. We will do our very best to ensure that we cater for your wishes, but please bear in mind that there is no accommodation on the ground floor, that we only have a few large rooms, and that we may not be in a position to give you exactly what you request.

One important change to this year’s programme is on the Saturday. The AGM will be at 5pm in the Fothergill, but this will be purely a Business Meeting. We aim to keep it short, and head into dinner straight afterwards. After the dinner, there is an After-Dinner Speech, given by our president, David Bunney. This is instead of the President giving his presentation during the AGM. Greetings from Old Scholars, and the nomination for the 2008 President will also take place at this time. Following on from the After-Dinner Speech will be the Barn Dance.

There is once again a full programme of events and activities taking place throughout the weekend and hopefully there is something for everyone! Sports Ladders will be coordinated for the more active Easter Gatherers, along with the usual Rounders, Cricket, Hockey, Badsworth, Walking, and there’s plenty to do if you’d prefer a more relaxing Easter – Board Games, Art, T’ai Chi, Poetry! We also have the return of Ackworth Pictures, a presentation about Book Art Making, School Today, and Live Music, and due to popular demand, a Barn Dance Workshop in preparation for the evening dance! The final programme can be posted to you before Easter if you send Sal a Stamped Addressed Envelope, or she can email an electronic version. A provisional programme has been included on the website, but please be warned that this is only provisional at this stage - some items are likely to change, new items likely to be added, and possibly some items taken off!

Please bring:

your bicycles to take part in “Peddlar’s Peddle” – Geoff kindly agreed to lead us all up the garden path again this year! The route has been modified to make it very difficult to get lost (there are even photos to help navigation!) so all ages can take part, preferably on bikes, but it is also possible to walk this route.
a musical instrument to take part in the “Bring ‘N’ Busk” impromptu music session! All instruments welcome (with a prize for the most unusual instrument to take part!) and all abilities welcome – the more the merrier!
acts for POP and come along prepared with ideas for this year. Geoff Sharpe has spent many years every Easter chasing people to do acts and twisting people’s arms to take part. It would be a lovely surprise if, for his final POP, he could do less chasing and arm-twisting during the weekend!
your old school ties. Colours will be on sale as usual in the shop which will be in the Visitors Room again this year and there will be an “Old School Tie” exhibition!

Look forward to seeing you,

Best Wishes,

David Bunney and The Easter Team

Provisional Programme

FRIDAY 6TH APRIL 2007

1250 : Lunch
1400 : Board Games
1400 : Film Matinee!
1600 : Refreshments
1630 : Easter Egg Hunt
1815 : President’s Welcome
1830 : Dinner
1915 : Children’s Film
2000 : Quiz
2100 : Nominations Committee
2200 : Adult’s Film
Pool Times : 1400-1700

SATURDAY 7TH APRIL 2007

0820 : Breakfast
0930 : Devotional Meeting
1000 : AOSA Committee Meeting
1000 : Rounders
1000 : Ackworth Pictures
1030 : Coffee
1100 : Barn Dance Workshop
1250 : Lunch
1400 : School Today
1400 : Easter Egg Painting & Bonnet-Making
1500 : Tea
1530 : Ackworth Pictures
1530 : Peddlar’s Peddle
1700 : Children’s Party, Tea & Film
1700 : Annual General Meeting
1800 : Dinner
1930 : After-Dinner Speech
2130 : Barn Dance
Pool Times : 0730-0830, 0930-1300, 1400-1630

SUNDAY 8TH APRIL 2007

0850 : Breakfast
0930 : Easter Egg Painting & Bonnet-Making
1045 : Meeting for Worship
1130 : Coffee
1145 : T’ai Chi
1250 : Lunch
1300 : Depart for Local Walk
1400 : Roll Me Over!
1530 : Tea
1600 : Easter Bonnets Parade
1720 : Dinner
1900 : Evening Reading – Address given by Cath Bunney
2015 : An Evening of Music
2130 : Coffee
2200 : Film
Pool Times : 0800-0900, 1000-1300, 1400-1700

MONDAY 9TH APRIL 2007

0820 : Breakfast
0930 : Devotional Meeting
1000 : Depart for Local Visit
1000 : Badsworth
1030 : Coffee
1100 : Hockey
1100 : “Book Art Making” Presentation
1250 : Lunch
1400 : Sports Finals
1400 : Bring ‘N’ Busk!
1530 : Refreshments
1600 : Cricket For All
1700 : Poetry Hour
1700 : Kick ‘Em In!
1800 : Dinner
1930 : Pop!
2030 : Grand Finale, including Bunneys!
Followed by Coffee
2130 : Adult’s Film
Pool Times : 0730-0830, 0930-1300, 1400-1700

TUESDAY 10TH APRIL 2007

0750 : Breakfast
Final Swim : 0700-0800
NB : All residents must be off school premises by 9am at the very latest

Easter Gathering