Page 56 - OO_2018

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The Director
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2017 –2018
Matthew Dear, the Oundle Society’s Director of Development, outlines the reasons behind the appeal for the Sports MasterPlan
It’s quiet. There’s something of a ‘calm before the storm’ quality in the air. The sun is streaming
through the window of my office, which used to be a place of both work and rest for the stablehands serving Cobthorne House. Tomorrow marks the culmination of a maelstrom of activity across Oundle School as another year draws to its formal close. The town is full of pupils and parents catching up on all that has gone before. I have just bidden farewell to the School’s biggest benefactor of modern times, after an enjoyable breakfast of eggs benedict and a visit to the ‘field’ \[sic\], which he is helping us turn into something really rather special.
He’s not alone. If he was, then
however great his own generosity, fields would remain fields and Oundle would remain a closed book for many of the wonderful pupils who depend on the Foundation to enable them to be here. The School’s mission – indeed, its constitutional purpose – is “to provide an education of the highest class”. Our own mission in the Stables is, like the stablehands of old, to serve. We serve to make the School the very best it can possibly be and we serve to ensure that it can be accessed by as wide a demographic as funds allow. It’s a very great joy to do this job: to see buildings being built and to see children utterly flourishing whilst they are with us. Only yesterday I spent time with a Fifth
Former of particular promise, energy and vivacity, who is only here thanks to our facilitation of a 100% bursary.
In the book of Exodus, God said to Moses: “Tell them \[the Israelites\] to make me an offering...you are to accept the offering from everybody whose heart prompts them to give.” It’s deeply reassuring to know that professional fundraising is not, contrary to popular belief, a new phenomenon. I don’t know how we compare to the Israelites, but the Oundle community is one which responds impressively to the call. We – or rather you – have raised some £3million for bursaries over the past five years. Our need in this area continues – as does our hope that OOs will subscribe to the wonderful