Old Petriburgians
The Old Petriburgians Association enables former students to connect and support current students at the school. We achieve this through formal social and development programmes, as well as participating in sports and catching up during school events.
The association supports the school in several ways, with the most important being establishing links with former students to predominantly assist our sixth form with careers advice and guidance. The launch of the Kings Access programme has recently connected our students with those currently in established careers. We welcome many former students back to school to deliver careers sessions and provide UCAS advice and guidance.
We are always delighted to hear from anyone who can offer work experience opportunities to our current students.
The association works diligently to develop the archives of the King's School, where we receive new and exciting historical information on a weekly basis. We are committed to supporting the school magazine, the Petriburgian, and organizing events for staff and former students.
The association hosts a hockey festival once a year, which raises funds for the school. We also support other school fundraising activities and meet at the Peterborough Beer Festival and the Brewery Tap for social engagements.
If you are a former student and would like to get involved with the association, please do get in touch. (OPA Administrator - opa@kings.peterborough.sch.uk)
The purpose of the Association is to provide opportunities for former pupils of the school to meet and keep in touch with one another, as well as with the teaching staff and Governors and to further the interests of the school by giving it every assistance.
DAVID RHYS DAVIES
When David joined KSP in 1970, his previous Head wrote ‘You are fortunate to obtain his services, I shall lose him with very great regrets.’ And my goodness, we were indeed most fortunate. David gave many years of top-quality service to our school community, and to the generations of students he taught, guided and served. Joining as an Assistant Master, as it was expressed then, to teach Geography at £1240 p/a, David and Caryl moved into the Minster Precincts, and he began his long, outstanding career here.
David was a leading figure in the development of King’s. As one of the few staff to have held senior appointments on both the academic and pastoral sides of school life, he played a pivotal role in what the School in the 1970s and onwards set out to achieve, and to become. One colleague wrote – an all-round super man, and brilliant teacher, who made a massive contribution to KSP. He was a tower of strength in every aspect of what a KSP education was then, and building on that, indeed very largely what it still is today.
When I arrived as a young teacher, my earliest recollection of David, the Head of Geography, is a vision in walking boots and anorak, carrying clipboards and OS maps wrapped in rainproof plastic, striding off into the distance surrounded by excited 12-year-olds at Stibbington Outdoor Centre. He was ‘in charge of the environment’, and was off to ‘do the environment’, in the days before ‘doing the environment’ was the focus it perhaps is today. I recall too his love of Geology, obviously directly linked to his beloved ‘Physical Geography’, and being amazed by his collection of rocks and fossils that came out at lunchtimes and after-school in special classes. He was a leader in fieldwork, before GCSE made fieldwork a must. Snowdonia, Scarborough, Swanage saw regular study-visits, often prioritised above family time and his own holidays. Neither must we forget his love of, and enthusiasm for, rugby, his Saturday afternoons coaching and refereeing the 2nd XV, who can forget the green shirt and fetching shorts!
As a Geographer, David was an enthusiast in all its forms, with a breadth of knowledge, hugely admired by colleagues and students alike. He was the guru of tectonic plates and glaciation, and inspired an ongoing love of the subject, and a desire for travel and discovery.
As a Head of Department, he was well-organised, with a wealth, I mean box-loads, and cabinet-loads of resources, a conscientious preparer, for himself and others, and thorough marker, a role-model and a meticulous example of a professional teacher. He was a great support for his colleagues, in terms of materials, organisation and discipline. Nothing was too much trouble, whatever the cost in terms of his own time and effort. Sharon, a former colleague, wrote – ‘I was so fortunate to have benefitted from David’s love and curiosity of geography during the initial stages of my career. A huge inspiration who has definitely shaped the geography teacher I have become. I still make much use of the books he gave me’.
He brought the same strength, energy and attention to detail to his later pastoral role as Head of Sixth Form, and later UCAS Coordinator, post-his first retirement. In this role, he was second-to-none. He dedicated hours to hundreds, if not thousands, of university references, each crafted and amended in several versions, and written out long-hand; this established an exceedingly successful template, still the basis for the School’s system today. Generations of senior pupils have reason to be, and certainly are, grateful to David, to judge by all the comments left in recent time on social media. He supported their academic progress, their personal development and ensured a smooth transition into life-after-school. He had, and made time for them all, making each one feel special. So many have written of his kindness, his calm supportiveness, and how he commanded respect without ever raising his voice.
As a colleague, and as a man, David was gentle, modest, courteous, always considerate of others, he never had a bad word for even the most trying or demanding of us. He had remarkable energy, tenacity and dedication, and total sincerity and integrity. He gave his all for his students, his colleagues and the School, and everyone who worked with him recognises that, and will forever hold him in the highest esteem and greatest respect. A superb teacher and a true gentleman. May he rest in peace
Trevor Elliott
