OV Carolyn Comes back to King’s

It was lovely to welcome OV Carolyn Evans (née Thake, Co 78-80) back to King’s for the first time since leaving the School.

Carolyn had come to King’s from St Mary’s Convent, predominantly because King’s was one of the few schools offering A-level Computer Science at that time, a subject which Carolyn was keen to study. In addition to Computer Science, Carolyn took Maths and French for her A-levels. This decision stood Carolyn in good stead as she went on to a successful career in IT as a result!

The Sixth Form at King’s was quite different in Carolyn’s time, as girls were still relatively new to the School, which meant the ratio was quite small and only about 10% of the year were girls.

Carolyn was joined by Trish Webb from the Alumni Team and together they re-traced Carolyn’s steps from her time at school. In the Maths block, known by some OVs as the New Block and, more recently, the Annett Building, Carolyn recalled her former headmaster, David Annett (HM 59-79) with some fond memories. They met Maths teacher and Hon OV Andrew Swarbrick in one of the classrooms and had a great chat about some of Carolyn’s former teachers, including the late Marc (Boggy) Roberts (Hon OV).

College Hall brought back a swathe of memories for Carolyn, including playing in the Orchestra. She was delighted to spot a friend’s name on the Scholars’ Board in the hall too.

A professional musician, Carolyn was keen to see Castle House, which is home to the King’s Music School. There they met Director of Music, Simon Taranczuk (Hon OV), and Carolyn was greatly impressed by the music facilities available to current pupils at King’s.

Carolyn added, “I really enjoyed my time at King’s but had forgotten so much until walking into the different rooms, then it all came flooding back! I don’t think much has changed, but those new buildings really do make great use of the space.”