OWA/WAA
Old Wyggestonian Association / Wyggeston Alumni Association
The OWA was set up many years ago to bring together Old Wyggestonians for ‘the furtherance of personal friendships made at the school and the maintenance of loyalty to the school’. The school at the time was the Wyggeston Boys Grammar School, which has become the Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I Sixth Form College (WQE).
Whilst membership of the OWA has been available to College leavers over the years, comparatively few have joined. And there has been no alternative organisation for them to join. This in turn has led to an aging population of OWA members and a whole generation of College leavers with no alumni ‘home’.
For the last few years, the OWA committee, along with the College, have been taking steps to rectify this situation.
A free trial membership of the OWA was extended to students leaving the college. This has considerably boosted numbers of members, although to date no activities have been held specifically for these new members.
The committee are now planning the next steps in the development of the Association.
One change that we would like to make is to rename the Association to the Wyggeston Alumni Association. As well as feeling that this is a more appropriate title for those current and recent college leavers, it also reflects the fact that we wish to extend our membership to students (and staff) of all the other former institutions that are part of the Wyggeston family – including the Girls Grammar School, the Wyggeston Collegiate Sixth Form College and Regent College.
It also reflects the fact that we are looking forward to the future, as well as preserving and honouring the past.
The plan would be for the current activities – an Annual Dinner, the Armistice Day Commemoration at the War Memorial, and a Golf Day – to be retained, and supplemented with other activities, as requested by the members. We hope these will also lead to a greater involvement with the college, with opportunities for members to contribute and enjoy its continued success. We also envisage an online presence that will be relevant to all generations of Wyggestonians.
As part of the process, we have drawn up a new draft constitution for the Association, to replace the current rules, which were last updated in the 1970s. The new draft constitution can be found here.
There will be a vote later in the year to adopt the new constitution, and we now invite you to provide feedback by completing this online form.
