Back to School – Alumni return to Surbiton High After 60 Years | Surbiton High School
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Back to School – Alumni return to Surbiton High After 60 Years

Posted: 12th May 2023

Recently, five Surbiton High School alumni came back to visit after 60 years. Anne Roberts shares her experience…

It’s rare for the five of us to be in the same country, but recently we’ve decided it’s important to find time to meet, so in April this year we came back to an area where we all grew up to have lunch in a restaurant in Surbiton, and then, given the location, for the first time in sixty years, we went back to our old school.   

We formed lifelong bonds of friendship, often at a distance and with long periods of not being in touch, but always connected.  And we have all gone on to have successful and varied careers, working at CEO level in the charity sector, and working in education – leading a Montessori school, carrying out vital support roles in secondary and university education, becoming a distinguished Professor in Canada, as well as running our own businesses, and running marathons, and caring for our parents, partners, children and grandchildren.    

Surbiton High School today bears very little physical resemblance to the school we went to – the only part we really recognised was the old hall – but it was wonderful to be made so welcome by Polly Rumbold and to be able to see how much the school has developed over the last 6 decades.  We would have loved to have such an art room, or dance studio!   

So, in 2023, and on behalf of my good friends Professor Sally Humphries, Rooie Nelson, Sheila Sheehan and Jenny Woodington, we would like to wish every single pupil and member of staff at SHS the greatest success in the future and say thank you to Polly for inviting us back.     

Anne Roberts, OBE 

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