Rhubarb 2024

Congratulations on completing the London Marathon this spring. How did it go? I’ve always enjoyed running. I ran the London Marathon in 2014 and gained a ballot place to run it 10 years later. It was satisfying to see my time improve by over 25 minutes. Maybe in another 10 years, who knows?

What was Annabel’s experience of Teddies?

She loved it and absolutely thrived, throwing herself into all aspects of school life (she was Head Girl, Head of CCF and Head of Choir – a lot more accolades than I ever achieved!!). It was fully co-ed by then and quite a different school in many ways, but I also recognised that the Teddies spirit and values remained strong.

INTERVIEW

Annabel benefited from receiving bursary support, and I suppose I felt emotionally invested in the school and keen to give back by being involved in the school generally and, more recently, by sitting on the OSE Committee.

Now, as President, what are your plans?

I think many of my generation, and previous ones, lost touch with Teddies and part of my interest and drive in being President of the OSE Society is to understand why and what we can do to reengage with OSE who haven’t been back recently.

I now see better opportunities for

Tell us about your time at Teddies.

engagement with OSE, building on the strength of the Beyond Teddies Team which I am so grateful the school has invested in. I see we have massive potential engagement opportunities and some fascinating and successful OSE out there.The range of events that we now put on can be seen in this magazine – from social occasions to professional networking to sport and, most recently, MADD (Music, Art, Dance & Drama) means there is genuinely something for everyone.

It’s interesting – I have happy memories from my school days, but I find it strange that I lost touch with many people and the school itself for so many years. It took 26 years to come back to School, and when I started to get involved in the community again, I genuinely enjoyed that bond and hadn’t realised I had missed it before.

I want to find other OSE who have disengaged with the School and find the ‘hook’ to reengage them.

My parents lived in Kenya, and looking back, I had a lot of freedom in those days and didn’t fully commit to school life. When I started at Teddies, it was all boys and we were pretty feral. My HM, John Donald, was a wonderful man – he really was loco parentis and even came to my wedding – but when I left, I moved to London before going to the Royal Agriculture College in Cirencester and then Sandhurst commissioning into the 13/18 Royal Hussars (QMO). After the army, I ended up in the City and I didn’t keep in touch with many OSEs. It wasn’t until about 2011 that I bumped into Warden Stephen Jones at Henley Royal Regatta and I thought about Teddies as an option for my daughter. I started to think of it as my old school, which I hadn’t, so much, before and started to regain pride in it.

If you want to get in touch with James and discuss any of the above, please contact him directly at: ose @ macdonald-smith.com

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