Between 16 July and 4 August, our fantastic team of 12 callers spoke to an incredible 550+ Reigatians. They loved hearing about what former students used to get up to when they were at school – not to be repeated, apparently! 

It has been five years since the last RGS Telephone Campaign and it was wonderful to connect with our community in such an interactive way again this summer. Unfortunately, one of the consequences of having such a large, engaged community is that we were unable to speak to everyone, so please accept our apologies if you didn’t receive a call this year.

From advice about university courses and career prospects, to the best pubs in Oxford, reading-book suggestions and gap-year recommendations, our call team certainly benefitted from the wealth of knowledge our community has to offer. Callers made notes on the conversations they had and we also received a number of follow-up emails, and we wanted to share a few of these to give you a flavour of the pleasure felt by both parties:

• We spoke about our careers in medicine. I expressed my interest in going into plastic surgery and he told me he is training to become a plastic surgeon right now and offered me advice, which was great. He told me to get in contact as he would love to help me out with my future career decisions and any help I need. (Aurora)
• We spoke about his time at the school and about his career and degree in Economics. (India)
• Had a lovely chat about his time at RGS and how he studied English, French and Spanish. One of the friends that he met at RGS ended up being the best man at his wedding and he really enjoyed the 50th anniversary reunion where he said he was able to recognise lots of people despite them having a few grey beards and hairs! Talked about being in the CCF and also playing croquet on Broadfield Lawn. (Tom)
• Said the one thing that stuck out about RGS was that he has made life-long friends who he meets up with in Reigate every Christmas Eve. Talked about how he really enjoyed drama at RGS. (Hana)
• Really lovely chat, she works at GSK first in communication, then the commercial industry. Gave me book recommendations, she likes visiting family and friends – she now lives in the US. (Mawadda)

• Hi Olivia. Thank you for your kind words about my stories. I hope the campaign continues to go well and that you have a fantastic years 2, 3 and 4 at uni. You’re clearly going to smash it!
• Hi Jasmine. Thank you for such a mature, knowledgeable  and intelligent conversation – you represented yourself and RGS  extremely well, something to be proud of. Good luck in the future with Geography at Bristol, but more importantly, make the most of and enjoy your gap year.
• Dear Tom. Thank you for your email regarding our conversation yesterday evening which I also enjoyed. I wish the RGS Changing Lives campaign continued success and I wish you all the best at Durham.

As well as having some incredible conversations, the Telephone Campaign raised over £62,000 for the Changing Lives bursary fund. We want to extend a huge thank you to all those who shared their insights and advice and to those who generously supported our fundraising efforts.