22 past students and teachers from all over the world gathered in a much-anticipated school reunion last weekend that has been three years in the making.  

From Hong-Kong, to Australia, America to France, the ex-schoolboys travelled thousands of miles for a weekend in Ascot with old friends.

Sixty years after leaving the school, the group of men met up for the first time to reminisce over fond memories during their time at Papplewick School.

The instigator of the reunion, Mike Watt, was inspired to get the group back together after finding an old group rugby seven-a-side team picture from 1958.

Watt moved to England after his father was transferred from America as a PAN AM pilot, and soon after he joined the fray at the Ascot school.

He said; “The headmaster at the time was very accepting to international students and it became known as a good school that welcomed boys of all nationalities.

“It started when I begun to try and find the seven boys that were in the old picture, and then I decided to extend it to the boys in rugby XV team in 1958.

“It was brilliant that out of the seven in the original picture we have managed to get five together in one place at the same time.”

From the beginning of Covid-19 two years ago, the group have planned weekly Zoom sessions to re-introduce themselves to each other again.

Mike explained; “We rebuilt what we had all those years ago, and re-ignited that common bond.

“The Zoom sessions weren’t merely to find out what each of us have been doing over the years, it was to establish and find out made each of us tick and who we were as people again.”

Old pictures of school productions and sporting events were displayed in the school foyer and many memories and laughs were shared throughout the day.

Peter Halliday, who left the school in 1959 said that his time at the Ascot school gave him a good solid grounding for his career in education.

“As a past headmaster and Ofsted inspector, my time at Papplewick gave me insight into what a great education should be,” he explained.

“The school has completely changed, but we haven’t. There is still the gentle one, the sarcastic one, the funny one, and the school still has the same atmosphere and values.”

The men that attended the reunion were some of the first students to walk the halls at Papplewick School after its beginnings in 1947 and even remember the founding head teacher Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen.

Mike Watt added: “What we created back then was magic and I feel so privileged to have been able to revive some of that magic that Papplewick brought to our lives.”