President 2008-2009 : Christopher Rengert
President 2007-2008 : Diana Chadwick
The AOSA President 2007 to 2008 is Diana Chadwick.
The following has been taken from the 2007 AOSA Annual Report:
Diana spent eleven years at Ackworth as Deputy Head having previously been Deputy Head of Devizes School in Wiltshire. Her earlier teaching posts were held in grammar and comprehensive schools in Kent, Derbyshire and Sheffield so coincided with a period of considerable educational change at secondary level. Her increasing contact with Friends over the years and her sympathy with their basic philosophy mean that Ackworth, which she joined in 1986, present an especially interesting challenge.
Her own school education took place in the 1940s and 1950s in south-west Sheffield, a city to which her parents had moved just before she was born. Abbeydale Girls’ Grammar School with its cohort of well-qualified staff and fine facilities provided ample stimulus for energetic and curious youngsters. The local area, adjacent to the Peak District, undoubtedly contributed significantly to her great interest in landscape and the many influences that affect it.
Later studies took her to the University of Hull to read for a degree in Geography specialising in Geomorphology (including past climatic changes!) and to the University of Reading where the Education Department was headed by the well-known Quaker, Professor Charles Dobinson. It was in Reading that she first encountered the boys of Leighton Park School attending the local Quaker Meeting, as well as other Friends.
Teaching Geography in Grammar Schools dominated the sixties and the subject was popular at all levels. By 1970, within a Sheffield School that was becoming comprehensive, she was also involved in management as a Head of House, devoting much time to the integration of local thalidomide youngsters and to pupils who had recently settled into the city from overseas. It was during this period that, appalled at the loss of so much of the region’s architectural heritage, she helped to establish the Hallamshire Historic Buildings Society and learned much about campaigning in the process.
Devizes School in Wiltshire brought a wider range of management responsibilities in a setting that required the integration of two groups of pupils and two groups of staff. Pupils’ awareness of places north of the M4 was limited so Diana soon realised she owed it to them to extend their field studies. At Devizes she worked closely with three Heads (as she did at Ackworth) and learned to cope with some interesting situations, including major emergencies, in both locations. She is not convinced that large secondary schools really fulfil youngsters’ essential needs; those the size of Ackworth, given adequate resources, may well achieve considerably more in aiding their development and maturity.
She valued the outlook of youngsters whose growing awareness of others’ needs – whether in medical, social, animal welfare or environmental matters – was so apparent at Ackworth. Since retirement Diana has had more opportunity to pursue her special interests in health services (she is a governor of Sheffield Hospitals’ Foundation Trust) , farm animal welfare, vernacular architecture, music and gardening. Attractive Derbyshire walks beckon daily.
She very much hopes to see many former pupils and staff over Easter 2008.
Previous Presidents
President 2006-2007 : David Bunney
David Bunney was born on 18th April 1952 at Burton on Trent General Hospital, the eldest child of John W. (scholar 1934-39) and Margery, nee Wilson (scholar 1941-45, President 1997-8). After an upbringing on the family market garden 10 miles east of Birmingham David went to Ackworth in September 1963, continuing the family connection by following Uncle George (President 1986-7) and three aunts, Elizabeth, Margaret (nee Scaife) and Helen. His grandmother Helen M. Bunney also served on the School Committee.
Andrew (1967-74) and Catherine(1973-7) followed David to Ackworth. He became a day scholar when Andrew entered school and Margery joined the staff as Domestic Bursar.
In his time at Ackworth (1963-70) David had an undistinguished academic career but enjoyed the sporting opportunities. After Ackworth David attended Whitwood Mining & Technical College in Castleford, concentrating on Business Studies and some A levels rather than mining! As one of the older students he did achieve some academic success prior to attending Sheffield Polytechnic, again with Business Studies. It was during this period from 1972-76 that David first encountered the heavy engineering industry. One academic year and holidays were spent at the River Don Works of British Steel in Sheffield and David has worked there almost ever since!
He started full time employment as a graduate trainee in August 1976 in the forging sales department, not the forgery department as some have described it! Since then he has seen privatisation, booms and slumps, mergers, continual job losses and faced a lot of challenges. There has also been some fun. He left what became Sheffield Forgemasters in 1986. David spent 3 ½ years at Walter Somers, a forging company in Halesowen on the edge of the Black Country and nearly back to Midlands roots. It was good to see what a profitable company was like from the inside!
Tina and David were married in York on 12th April 1982 having met on a skiing trip to Spain. Theirs was the second Bunney wedding involving Mount staff, (after Andrew and Frederique) Tina being Head of PE. David and Tina lived in York for 8 years during which time Nick was born in May 1984 and Simon in April 1986. The family moved to Ackworth in April 1990 when David returned to Sheffield Forgemasters. He is now a senior sales manager responsible for international sales for a group of products and he has been fortunate enough to visit on a regular basis to Europe, USA, Brazil, China and Japan.
Sport has played a big part in the family life. David has played hockey every season since 1970, mainly for Wakefield but also for York, Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Veterans having been captain of several teams. As the boys grew so the playing career seemed to extend with the addition of cricket in summer. David has really enjoyed playing alongside Nick and Simon and then watching them go to higher levels.
Retirement is not an immediate prospect!
President 2005-2006 : Geoff Pedlar
Where to start, that is the most difficult part, especially when you are not too good with this "I" word. Nevertheless tradition (actually only from 1976, previous to then presidents' past exploits were apparently shrouded in a cloak of secrecy !) dictates that I must tow the line. Well actually, it's the editor bullying me !
Born during the war (so long ago that it is now taught as part of history, so I had better say "born during the second world war") I was brought up in a period of serious, if not extreme, scarcity, making thrift very much the order of the day. A personal quality that has stood me in good stead for much of my life.
Life at Ackworth School in the 1950s was not a hardship in the way that it must have been in the 1700s & 1800s. Nevertheless it was a great deal harder than today; an unsatisfactory situation measured by today's standards, although ironically it developed in many of us a range of personal qualities sadly uncommon today.
Indeed, in spite of, or perhaps because of, these circumstances I enjoyed my time at the school, having mounted obstacles and met challenges (more of that in my address at Easter) and succeeded in leaving my name in (and on) several annals of the school's history, mostly sporting.
So what to do next now became the great quandary. Here I can identify with modern youth; I could go to Uni so I might as well make that the next thing. What I wanted to study, space engineering (yes, in those days this country really did have a space industry), simply wasn't available at Uni. So, without any careers advice available to guide me to go directly in to industry, I went to Glasgow to study aeronautical engineering (the nearest substitute), didn't like that so switched to metallurgy at Sheffield.
Then eventually I could no longer escape the real world. I remember the job advert clearly "are you a round peg in a square hole ?". Well, I guess most of my contemporaries would answer "yes" to that question, we were a bizarre bunch. Much to my surprise it got me onto the bottom rung of BT's management ladder, with whom over the next 18 years I learnt most of my organisational and business skills.
That kept the "roof over our heads" whilst I indulged myself in typical male activities of sport and motorcycling. I did pretty well at hockey, played squash too; and became involved in the running of the motorcycle club I had joined. That took me to many European countries including those "behind the iron curtain" except Russia (several of which we are now partners with in the EU. What an enormous change of regime that is).
During this period I married and we had two sons Daren & Ashley, both of whom are now with partners. Daren now has children of his own, so I am also a proud grandfather to Stacey & Jamie.
Life after BT was rather different, to say the least. From one of the largest corporations in Europe at that time to a one man band, you can't get a much more dramatic work change than that. So now this really is survival of the fittest; will all that resolve gained at school come in to play again ?
Just what does a one man band do ? Well, not a lot if you can help it ! Otherwise, run your own management and business consultancy (some would say unkindly that amounts to the same thing).
Finally we get to the third career, still taking place (ideas for a fourth career gratefully received !). All I wanted was a decent cover for my very nice, and by then quite old, car. So when I was unable to find anything that I thought had the right quality and was available at the right price, I decided that I couldn't be much in the way of a business consultant if I couldn't get a business going to meet that need; others must surely want the same ! Well it so happens that they did, and still do.
It seems that resolve has paid off again; 15 years later & I've created jobs for 10 people, and we make covers for anything from 3 wheel Morgans & double deck buses to motorbikes to aeroplanes; plus a variety of industrial uses.
That's it; see you at Easter.
