FORMER pupils of Kingswood Grammar and its successor schools gathered last month for a final time as the Kingswood Old Scholars Association.
The group held its first reunion in 1984 and has been putting people in touch with old school friends ever since. KOSA has held lunches twice a year with some people travelling from as far as the United States, Canada and Australia to attend. The last lunch was at Lincombe Barn on October 12.
Key to KOSA’s success has been the 32-page newsletter produced twice a year by Mike Bendrey, from Downend. The publication includes news, updates and obituaries and many memories of school days. Among the tales in the final edition is a recent chance meeting of former pupils on the terrace of Sydney Opera House earlier this year.
Many tributes to Mike’s 32 years as editor have been included in the final KOSA News, including one from the organisation’s president David Lewis, a former headteacher at Kingsfield. He told how he used to explain the school’s motto, Esse non Videri – to be not to seem – as ‘be true to yourself, be honest and truthful’, which he said would have meant a lot to the group over the years.
KOSA members made a presentation of gifts to Mike and his wife Eileen at the Lincombe Barn event. Copies of all 64 editions of KOSA News can be found on the King’s Oak Academy website. Mike also has back copies as well as some duplicates of Kingswood Chronicles, the annual school magazine, from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Kingswood Grammar School started as Kingswood Secondary School in 1921. It became a grammar school in 1927 and Kingsfield School in 1967. The main building was destroyed in an arson attack in August 1976.
Kingsfield School was rebuilt in 1977 and in 2011 became King’s Oak Academy. A primary on the site opened in 2015, enabling education from the ages of 4 to 16 on the site at Brook Road, Warmley.