Centenary

In 2021 we celebrated the 100th Anniversary of Halliford School. Reaching our centenary year is a major achievement, one we wanted to share with our amazing Hallifordian community who has supported the School throughout the generations.

Halliford School continues to be a warm-hearted School based on strong family values where we are proud to know and be respectful of every student as an individual. We were very excited to welcome the students who made history by being our 100th intake.

We marked this special anniversary with a programme of events. At the centre of the centenary plans was an ambitious new building on the school site. The Woodward Building houses our magnificent new Learning Resource Centre and six additional classrooms above. It is a development that has transformed our current offer and be an asset for many years to come.

Autumn Term 2021 Centenary Events

We started the academic year by gifting every student a Centenary tie in their House colour to wear during this special year. Mr Davies visited each classroom one morning in September to personally present the ties to the students.

We kicked off our Centenary Programme of Events with our Centenary Lecture on Wednesday 3rd November, presented by Nick Pollard, Chairman of Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society. It was a super evening and our huge thanks to Nick for such a fascinating insight into the history of the School.

Wednesday 10th November saw the official opening of Halliford School’s new Woodward Building. The building has been named in recognition of our Chair of Governors, Mr Ken Woodward QPM, who has dedicated so much to Halliford over many years. Ken has served as a Governor for over twenty years and has successfully led the School as Chairman for the last eight years, plus his son attended Halliford School.

Mr Davies led the ceremony with a moving speech about ensuring the best possible facilities for our students. Ken followed by thanking Halliford for the honour of having this wonderful new building named after him. He encouraged the staff and students to use and enjoy this facility which houses a fantastic new Learning Resource Centre on the ground floor, plus six classrooms and offices for the English and History Departments. Ken unveiled the building’s name plaque at the ceremony attended by the Mayor of Elm bridge, several local school Heads, the School Governors, and local friends of the School. He then cut the ribbon and officially opened the building, inviting guests to see the new build for themselves. Guests enjoyed refreshments prepared by our in-house catering team and had a chance to tour the new space. Every student, teacher and guest was given a Centenary paperweight as a commemorative gift to mark this special occasion in the School’s rich history.

After the opening of the Woodward Building, our rugby teams headed to London Irish for our Centenary rugby match, and the Rugby Extravaganza at Weybridge Vandals was a fitting end to the season with some super wins across our Halliford teams. Our thanks go to our amazing Sports Department and Mr Slocock.

Unfortunately, we were unable to host our Centenary Concert in person due to rising cases of Covid in the area. However, we still wanted to share the musical talents of our students. Our thanks to Mr Wright and Mr DeZilva from the Music Department for recording and editing the performances to create a Centenary Concert that we posted to our website so that we could enjoy the music from the comfort of our own homes.

As the Autumn Term drew to a close and we started to think about Christmas, we headed to St Nicholas Church in Old Shepperton to record our Centenary Carol Service. Led by the chamber choir with support from the staff choir and readers throughout the School, we celebrated the Christmas story together. Our thanks go to all those involved and to the wonderful team at St Nicholas Church for their support in allowing us to use our beautiful parish church to record the service. While it was sad that we were unable to enjoy this service in person for a second year running, we were pleased that we could share the recording with our Halliford families and the wider community.

Spring Term 2022 Centenary Events

For the Spring Term, we had planned our Halliford 100 Weekend which was jam-packed full of exciting events. We had Rugby Sevens on Friday night, followed by Talking Heads on Saturday, with former Headmasters speaking about Halliford, lunch and tours of the school, and a Hall of Fame Evening.

Unfortunately, Covid meant we had to postpone our Talking Heads event, lunch and school tours. However, we were still able to head down to London Irish on Friday 18 March and enjoy watching our rugby team lift the Floodlit Sevens Cup for the first time since 2014.

We were delighted to welcome many Old Hallifordians to our Hall of Fame Evening on Saturday 19 March, to celebrate our great sporting Hallifordians over a delicious dinner prepared by our in-house catering team. Our guests included students and teachers who represented many different year groups, and it was a joy to see them catching up and discussing their happy memories of Halliford. Congratulations to our raffle winners who took home a Centenary rugby shirt, a Centenary print of the school and a bottle of champagne. All our guests signed a Centenary rugby shirt which we will have framed as a memory of this special event. Mr Slocock gave a short speech, and Sixth Former Chris Cole presented his sports report, which covered the school’s rich sporting history.

It was such a great evening that many spoke of making it a regular event in our calendar. Old Hallifordian teacher, Mr Mike Nicks, commented, “I enjoyed the evening very much, and happy memories were discussed with lots of Old Hallifordians. You could probably tell how much I enjoyed my 20 years of teaching at Halliford School, particularly my 16 years taking care of the Sixth Form.”

Old Hallifordian student Alistair Kinder added, “I had a great evening catching up with old mates and teachers. Thank you very much for the hospitality and for organising it all. You did an amazing job of it. I look forward to hearing about future events.”

Summer Term 2022 Centenary Events

Our Summer Term Centenary Events kicked off with our PTA Outdoor Cinema Night. This was a wonderful event hosted by our PTA, who had organised a large outdoor screen to play the 1980’s classic Back To The Future. Families congregated on the back field and enjoyed the popcorn and drinks served by the PTA while enjoying the movie.

The Richard Talbot Memorial MCC Cricket Match took place on Wednesday 15 June, and how fitting it was that we had a positive result for our first MCC Cricket Match in honour of former Deputy Head Richard Talbot. Congratulations to our cricketers who achieved a thrilling draw for the first time ever. This is a prestigious event on our fixture list, and our students made us proud. We had a Year 9 student and a Year 10 student who also took part (playing against adults who play at a good level!). Will Hamilton had an exceptional knock of 42, and Felix Porter faced the last over and kept his nerve to hold out for the draw. Chris Cole retired with his knee problem at 66, but who knows what would have happened as he was pretty much on song. Fantastic work by Mr Shales and Mr Greggor, a good day all round! Thanks to the staff who made it down for a bit and those who brought students down and supervised them.

The Halliford 100 Golf Tournament on Saturday 18 June at Pine Ridge Golf Club in Camberley was a brilliant day where Mr Slocock and Mr Fulford were joined by Old Hallifordians, young and old, and current parents and students. Well done to the Baker family, who had a hugely successful day. Mr Andrew Baker achieved nearest the pin, and his son Richard in Year 8 did the longest drive. We look forward to an even bigger event next year.

The PTA did us proud with the amazing Centenary Summer Ball on Saturday 25 June. With thanks to Mr Simon Rabett and Mrs Wendy Luiz for the huge efforts pulling this event together and, of course, to our wonderful catering team for the most delicious dinner. All our guests commented on what a super night they had, and they danced away to the early hours to music from our live band.

Our Old Hallifordians Weekend with the Art Exhibition and Summer Concert was a huge success, and it was a joy to welcome back many Old Hallifordians to the school to celebrate the exceptional talent of our students.

The final week of term saw us host our Centenary Sports Day and our Centenary Speech Day. It was a real pleasure to welcome Old Hallifordian Toby Penty, who has gone on to enjoy huge success on the badminton court, becoming England No. 1 and going on to represent his country as a member of Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics. It was also an opportunity to say goodbye to our Upper Sixth as they leave Halliford this year. This drew our Centenary celebrations and events to a close. It has been a super year celebrating the school’s rich history with our brilliantly supportive community. Thank you to everyone who attended our events and made it a year to remember.