Copy
RIC Alumni Newsletter No.1
View this email in your browser

Welcome back to RIC!

Thanks for signing up to our list of alumni.
 


Much to the astonishment and consternation of some more traditional establishments ‘Rochester Tutors’ has grown since 1984 year on year and as Rochester Independent College is now one of the UK’s most highly regarded alternatives to traditional independent education. We will celebrate our 30th birthday in 2014. The College mascot continues to be the ubiquitous Flying Pig, from which the name of our student magazine is also taken. When Brian Pain and Simon de Belder started the College in 1984 many of their friends used this proverbial piece of cynicism to describe the likely chances of the College being successful. Since then many hundreds of students have passed through the doors of the College on Star Hill and gone on to fly.  

With our 30th Birthday in sight we thought it would be fun to find out what our ex-students have been up to since leaving Star Hill? We'd love to hear your memories of RIC what you are up to now.  
 

Click here to fill in our Survey Monkey questionnaire and please email any photos you think we could feature in future editions of this newsletter jackie.clark@rochester-college.org. We can't wait to hear from you. 

Here's what we've been up to since the very beginning...


Star Hill Makeover

1984 was the year the first Apple Computer went on sale with Ridley Scott’s timely Orwellian ad launching it. Chatham’s Royal Navy dockyards were closed by the Thatcher government, The Smiths played at the University of Kent at Canterbury, the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics, Sevenoaks School went fully co educational and Prince Philip visited Rochester to inspect the improved pedestrianised high street.



Founded in the same year, the development of the College has always been, like the education so many students remember, colourful and vibrant. For those without long memories, the acquisition of properties now occupied by the College ran thus (with just a little rewriting of history in some minor details). In 1984 Brian visits Rochester on the Lady of the Lea sailing barge and finds the most derelict building he can to start a school. He then talks the bank manager into lending him and Simon £40,000 and so Rochester Tutors as the College was then known is born with a grand student roll of 6.

In 1986 no 37 Star Hill comes on the market and incredibly the bank is again impressed by the presentation given to them by the smartly dressed Pain and de Belder. The student roll rises to a massive 40 necessitating the purchase the following year at a frighteningly serious sum of no. 39 Star Hill. In 1988 no.27 is invaded to provide the fire regulation compliant student accommodation needed to house the increasing numbers of residential students some of whom seem to be flooding over from half way round the world drawn by tales of legendary teaching. In 1990 Simon presents himself at the bank with a particularly holey cricket jumper and matching beard to obtain funding for the Good Companions Club on New Road (now known as New Road House - home to the Lower School). During the 1990s numbers 15, 33 and 35 Star Hill are snapped up, as is the Thomas Watson building at 252 the High Street (Finland House - renamed because it was once home to the Finnish Embassy). Into the next millennium and the College purchases 17 and 19 Star Hill, Gordon House and 254 High Street, the former Gainsborough Hotel.
 



Not only do all these acquisitions make sense in creating a connected campus they also surround sufficient land to allow the creation of a very pleasant city garden. The College buildings are almost all listed and provide a wonderfully civilized environment in which to study and work.




Our eco-friendly underground ‘Womble’ building in the College grounds opened in 2012. This exciting development has been designed to house a large lecture hall accommodating up to 100 people. It also provides a new home for the College’s Drama and Theatre Studies provision. The copper canopied roof transforms into an open-air theatre auditorium in the summer months with productions from visiting companies and students. Ground source heat pumps, low voltage electrical installation and modern construction techniques combine to give the building a minimal carbon footprint.

Changing faces

Simon de Belder took a much deserved early retirement in 2002 and left for the Isle of Wight. The College is now run by Brian Pain- still happily destroying calculators and teaching Maths in a shed at the bottom of the garden- with former College student, teacher and parent Pauline Bailey and English teacher Alistair Brownlow as Co Principals and Directors of what is now Rochester Independent College Ltd. Long serving members of staff still involved are Cook now turned Bursar Helen Harlow and teachers Graham Anderton (Chemistry), Brenda Harrison (Biology), Tony Smith (German), Jackie Clark (Art, Marketing and Editor of the Flying Pig since the 1990s!), Pete Gowers (Art), Paul Bucknall (Sociology), Dave Tittensor (Maths) and Jim Mumford (Economics and now Exams Officer extraordinaire). Trevor Williams is still on site looking after the gardens although sadly Ratto the College cat rests in peace and Ian “Mc” Fox returned to Scottyland after 13 years at Rochester. We are lucky to have built up over recent years an excellent team- teachers, administrators and ancillary staff -who are all highly committed to the education and welfare of our now nearly 280 full time students.

The College’s academic credibility was built on the excellence of our Mathematics and Science teaching but we have always been committed to offering a full curriculum and broad education. Our well established Art Department has a first class reputation and many students have gone on to become artists, graphic designers and illustrators.

RIC regularly wins awards for its A level results in subjects ranging from Sociology to Film and Media. We have also won Good Schools Guide awards for A level English Literature in 2011 and Film Studies in 2007, 2008 and 2012.

The College was a pioneer of the Easter Revision course that is now a well established feature of the educational landscape, offered by enormous numbers of both independent and state schools. The College’s work in developing innovative courses for home educated children was at the forefront of the growing trend towards flexi schooling options in the UK.

We are continuing to expand our facilities but have no intention of losing the small, friendly and personal nature of the College environment. We believe education is not just about examination and that this applies to staff as well as students. We hope to create a lasting, dynamic and innovative educational experience that will make a true contribution not only to the education and personal development of the students we teach, but to everyone who works here and more ambitiously to the world in general. The College attracts a fair amount of attention in the local and national press and a feature article by Liz Lightfoot appeared in The Independent last year. The College was featured as a non uniform school on the Channel 4 programme Gok’s Teens: The Naked Truth.

a green school

The College is continuing to develop exciting international and environmental projects, interests that are embedded in our ethos, our curriculum and our programme of trips, exchange visits and charity fund raising work. The photo above shows the lastest addition to our garden structures created by sculptor and garden designer Simon Bernthal.

The College has for example always supported the environmental projects of the Woodland Trust and continues to support and promote the work of the Kent Wildlife Trust. Management decisions about heating supplies made recently have reflected this commitment to environmentalism. We encourage older students to use public transport for their journey to College where possible and those who persistently park their cars in the visitors’ car park are liable to have random cement mixers chained to their vehicles, released only on payment of a punishing fine to a worthy tree planting cause. The College gardens are set to become part of Medway’s new biodiversity corridor and have won awards from The Kent Wildlife Trust.

We also have our own allotment in the garden where the students grow organic vegetables for the College kitchens as part of their DofE programme.
 

The Flying Pig newsletter has had many different guises since it's very first edition (created by students in the early 1990s). It has been photocopied, printed and, as you can see, has now become an e-newsletter. It's name has also changed a few times. There are points for anyone who remembers 'The Pig Issue' and 'Ratto Attax'. We still have copies of them all.

 

In the 1990s the cartoons for the Flying Pig were created by Ray Smith, one of our students at the time. Who can forget classics such as 'Brian, the Calculator Destroyer' (left) and 'Brian goes shopping' (I'll include this in the next edition).

You may be interested to know that Ray is now an internationally renowned illustrator whose clients have included Nike, Absolute Vodka, Nissan, British Airways, Adobe , Vodafone, English National Opera, Transport for London, The Guardian, The Independent , Rolling Stone and he drew all the illustration for our main college website - thanks Ray!
Share
Tweet
Forward to Friend
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter
Twitter
Website
Website
Copyright © 2014 Rochester Independent College, All rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp