THE great, the good and the naughty were welcomed back to their old school with equal enthusiasm to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding and the end of its 100th academic year on the same site.
With class reunions going back to 1942 there were plenty of stories to relate at Ranelagh School - trophies won, sporting and academic success, and dramas - both staged and improvised.
Current headteacher Kathy Winrow has been at the helm for 16 years and was proud to show off the new Centenary building to hundreds of visitors on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
She said: 'This has been a fantastic weekend within a celebratory year when Ranelagh has achieved so much in so many different directions.' High points of the year included the students' silver medal-winning garden at the Chelsea Flower Show and an outstanding Ofsted report.
The school was founded at Cranbourne Hall near Winkfield by the first Earl of Ranelagh, Richard Jones, a devout Christian who also helped build Chelsea Hospital next door to his London home, Ranelagh House.
In September 1908 the school opened on its present site partly thanks to funding from the Ranelagh Foundation which had been involved with the school since its foundation in 1709.
Among the guests were Mrs Winrow's predecessor Richard Allen and his wife, Pam, who moved into the school house in Ranelagh Drive in 1972, making Mr Allen at 32 the youngest headteacher in Berkshire and earning him the nickname 'Flash' by students.
Speaking at Sunday's reunion, which included sports matches, picnics and a concert staged by current pupils, Mr Allen, now 71, said: 'It's the rogues you remember best as a headmaster - the students who spent most time in your study and whose parents you had to keep writing to.' On Saturday Mr and Mrs Allen joined more than 500 people at a celebratory service at Oxford Cathedral on Saturday which included music by Ranelagh's senior school choir and on Friday former students, staff and parents, along with Bracknell Forest Mayor, Cllr Bob Wade, were invited to tour the school.
The Sun gardening columnist Peter Seabrook unveiled the school's new quiet garden and a new sculpture was unveiled at the school's entrance. Brian Matthews, a pupil from 1958-65, now a retired research assistant in biochemistry at Oxford University, recalled a burning issue during a science lesson.
He said: 'It was very cold in the physics lab and we lit the Bunsen burners to warm up but it was burning with an almost invisible flame and as Mr Gough leant over the bench the sleeve of gown caught alight.
'It's a totally different institution now. This is the first time I've been back in 45 years.'
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