I was a boarder at Rye from 1986 – 1995. Those nine years had a very strong impact on my life – though there are very few photos of that time as I didn’t have a camera. While I remember teachers and lessons, many of my strong memories revolve around boarding life. I was young for my year so I was just eight years old the day I arrived, which was same day as the official opening of the King House, with its funky globe lighting. There were just four of us boarders in that first year, one child representing each of the forces (my father was in the Royal Navy) and Selim from Ghana whose father worked for the World Bank. Normal weekends were packed. Saturday mornings often had us going “shopping” into Headington – walking neatly in pairs. We would then peel off into groups so as not to overwhelm other shoppers. Lucky people were allowed to choose which film we would watch that evening from the tiny video rental shop in Headington. We also crowded into the pet shop on the Old High Street to buy food for the various small pets that we were allowed to bring and keep in the Pet Shed beyond the Music Block. 
But sometimes we went further afield. Saturdays meant trips to the ice rink where we drank blue slush puppies and gave record requests to Trevor the DJ, or to Cotswold Wildlife Park or the gardens at Blenheim Palace, or sometimes a Shakespearean matinee in Stratford upon Avon. All of these expeditions were sartorially challenged as we were all dressed in red cagoules and jeans no matter what the weather! They were usually accompanied by brown paper bag lunches – a roll, a packet of crisps, a Tuc sandwich biscuit and a dairylea triangle! On Saturday nights if we weren’t watching a video, when we were older, we sometimes had “socials” – these were chaperoned dances with boys’ schools – Douai Abbey, The Oratory and Cokethorpe school in particular and some others also managed to do Ballroom Dancing with The Dragon school – I wonder what their footwork is like these days…
Sunday mornings usually saw us all trekking down the hill in pairs again in a long crocodile to St Anthony’s in Headley Way for mass. Then on Sunday afternoons we sat in a classroom for letter-writing. Housemistresses wrote up reminders of things we had done to make our letters more exciting – you had to write a minimum of one letter home a week but could write to other people too. The arrival of the post was always an exciting moment, though when receiving offers or rejections from university in sixth form, seeing so many envelopes we soon learned to tell the difference just from the outside of the letter! Those who aren’t far from their smartphones these days won’t be surprised to hear that the phone played a big part in the life of the house too. But for us, this was the payphone – chatting in the queue waiting to use it, sprinting to answer a ringing call and then racing around the house to find the required recipient or just hanging out to see who was calling whom. The two big highlights of the year were the annual trip to Chessington World of Adventure and camping in the New Forest – there was always a huge build up and plenty of excitement about both.
We were one of the first years to take computer studies- and Dr Rosser who was the head of department had a great influence on me. I remember for my GCSE coursework writing a match-making programme in the coding language Basic that was akin to Tinder – based on the dating companies who used to advertise in the Sunday supplements. If only I had continued down that vein! With Dr Rosser’s help I ran the tuck shop which sold plenty of Chomp bars at just 10p each from the back stairs of the Rendall Building. I also cut my event-planning teeth at Rye. In a world where a prom was only ever in a movie, we held end of GCSE and A’Level parties that were red-letter ticketed events which I loved being a part of – complete with “branding” and colour schemes and even a bouncy castle! I remember Miss
Sumpter leaving and one of the English teachers writing an amazing play to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee called “Dear Alice” which told the story of Rye through letters home.
Teachers and old girls alike may remember me as particularly loquacious. I recall school reports saying things like “her energy and enthusiasm is infectious”. It may come as no surprise that I have ended up working in communications. I worked in magazines for a while and then ran the community at Mumsnet while my four children were small. I now manage social media strategy for small businesses. At the start of the Covid pandemic a friend roped me in to help create an online antenatal platform and community to help women access information on pregnancy and breastfeeding where they were unable to do so in the usual ways. We have taught 60,000 parents since March 2020.
Since school I am still in contact with many Rye girls (outside of family – we have four in my family and my sister in law is one too.) I am godmother to two old girls’ children. I am Facebook friends with many other Rye girls and know that if I was in need the they would help in any way they could – and vice versa. Those formative years and memories we have shared are so important. Rye was very much a core part of my childhood years and that love of community remains an influence on my life today.
Olivia Vandyk (nee Lane-Nott)
