The Old Paludians Association - Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is the Old Paludians Association?

It is the Association of former pupils and staff of the following schools:

Slough Secondary School	(1912-1936)
Slough Grammar School for Boys	(1936-1982)
Slough High School for Girls	(1936-1982)
Upton Grammar School	(1982-1993)
Slough Grammar School	(1993-August 2002)
Slough Grammar School (Language College)	(September 2002-date)

Why so many schools?

All one school really. Founded in 1912 under the name of Slough Secondary School, it was sited in William Street and was co-educational. By 1936 the school had outgrown the buildings and was split into Slough Grammar School for Boys in Lascelles Road and Slough High School for Girls. The girls could not move to their new building in Twinches Lane until 1939 and so stayed in William Street for a further 3 years. In 1982 the Twinches Lane site was sold for redevelopment and the girls moved to Lascelles Road. Slough Grammar School for Boys and Slough High School for Girls were merged, and the combined school, once again co-educational, was renamed Upton Grammar School. This School reverted to the former name Slough Grammar School in 1993, and remains co-educational. The School was granted specialist Language College status, but continues with its broad curriculum. On 1 September 2002, the School was renamed to Slough Grammar School (Language College).

What is the purpose of the Association?

We are a not-for-profit organisation which exists for the benefit of our Members, and to undertake the following activities:

Annual Reunions - continuing an unbroken tradition since 1940, bringing together each March former pupils of all the above schools historically making up today's Slough Grammar School (Language College)
Annual Newsletters for Members - with news of former pupils and staff
Membership Support - trying to put former school friends back in contact with each other; there have been spectacular successes, sometimes after more than 45 years
Voluntary Work and Support for the current School and its activities - e.g. Industry Week, the setting up and recording of the School Archives
Website - giving news and information, not least a trip down memory lane with over 240 archive photographs there for the viewing
Generous donations from members allow an annual gift to be made to the School in the name of the Association
Books presented to the School Library in remembrance of former members - a special name-plate is placed in the book with the name and years at the School

You may wish to read our Constitution.

Can anyone join?

Yes, if you were a pupil, Staff Member, Governor at any of the above schools

How much is it to join?

Former Staff are offered complimentary Life Membership.
Former Pupils are offered Life Membership for a single payment of £5

Am I too old to join?

No, we have members from every era - pupils from the Slough Secondary School days onwards. It is never too late to join

How do I join?

Please see our Membership webpage for further details of Life Membership at a very reasonable cost

I paid for a Life Membership some years ago. Am I still a Member?

Some years back, there were two separate organisations:

Old Paludians Association (Boys Section or Sports Section), which was reconstituted in 1955 as Old Paludians Ltd at Taplow, and since 1998 is also registered as Taplow United Football Club
Old Paludians Association (Girls Section), which became in 1988 the Old Paludians Association, organises Annual Reunions and has created and maintains this website.

If you paid your Life Membership to the Boys or Sports Section, then you will need to contact the Old Paludians Ltd / Taplow United Football Club to determine the current status of your Life Membership. We understand that they moved to an exclusively Annual Subscription basis a few years back, but we can not and do not speak for them.
Please note that we (Old Paludians Association) are always pleased to hear from all former pupils, Staff, Governors and friends of Slough Secondary School, Slough Grammar School for Boys, Slough High School for Girls, Upton Grammar School, Slough Grammar School and Slough Grammar School (Language College), and we hope that you will consider joining our Association.

If you paid your Life Membership to either the Girls Section or the Old Paludians Association after 1988, then you are still a Life Member of the Old Paludians Association and you should still be receiving annual newsletters from us. If you do not receive such newsletters, then it is possible that we have not kept up with your changes of address. Please let us know

who you are
your years at which school
how we can contact you
if possible, approximately when and where you paid your subscription

and we will recheck our records.

I don't live in UK. Can I still join or is it more costly?

We have members all over the world - and for the same cost.

How do I get any news?

An Annual Newsletter gives news of members - it is produced for the Annual Reunion each March and is either handed (if you attend the Reunion), posted or emailed to all members. In addition, our 'Former Pupils' webpage gives details of those former pupils who have authorised their details to appear on the Internet

My contact details have changed. How do I notify the Association?

If your address or contact details have changed, please use our Update Membership Details Form to inform the Association, or else email the

What is the Annual Reunion?

On a Saturday each March a get-together is arranged at Slough Grammar School for members and non-members to come along to meet up with old friends. Obviously, Old Paludians meet each other every day of the year, but this occasion brings together many Old Paludians in one place at the same time, and is a wonderful way to locate or meet up with old friends, and renew acquaintainces.
The schedule can include morning coffee, a light lunch, a short AGM followed by afternoon tea - depending on your wishes. All day, there are opportunities to view the current School, displays of our archives, and of our website.

How do I search for a former classmate?

Contact the with all your details; details of your friend; your years at the School, etc and tell us whether and how much you want published on the website. All other information is held on file. We welcome any information you wish us to publish in our Annual Newsletter. No information - personal or otherwise - is published on the website or in the Newsletter without your express permission.

Supposing someone is searching for me?

Once a match is made from our files (We have many details on file. Someone always knows someone, who knows someone), we contact both parties usually by post. We have managed to link up friends after 50 years!

Where is Lascelles Road - I can't remember?

It is on the eastern side of the town, postcode SL3 7PR forming one of the link roads between the London Road and Upton Court Road

What happened to the Slough Secondary School?

Following the departure of Slough High School to their new Twinches Lane site in September 1939, the former Slough Secondary School (SSS) buildings were used to accommodate Upper Latymer School, which was evacuated from Hammersmith for the duration of the War. After the war, the SSS buildings were used to house the new Slough Technical School (which subsequently moved to a new site in Northampton Avenue, changing its name to Herschel High School and is now Herschel Grammar School). Part of the Slough Secondary School site had been used for the construction of the Tonman Mosley School for juniors. However, after the Second World War, this school was also closed. The SSS and Tonman Mosley buildings were then used for a variety of purposes, including Night Classes, before being demolished to make way for the building of Slough College. In turn, Slough College became the Slough Campus of Thames Valley University but it still stands on the original Slough Secondary School site in William Street

What about Twinches Lane?

The buildings were demolished. A housing development was built on the far side of the hockey pitches, and alongside Twinches Lane itself there is the late 20th century phenomena - the Retail Park. Maybe the sound of girlish chatter can still be heard at midnight!!

How can I get any news of Slough Grammar School itself?

There is an excellent school website at www.sloughgrammar.berks.sch.uk

Technical FAQ

Why is there banner advertising all over the School Photo webpages?

Although most of our website is hosted using standard webspace, this webspace is limited in size. In order to display several large School & Class photos, we need access to almost unlimited webspace, which we have been fortunate to acquire from http://www.wikispaces.com Part of the agreement with Wikispaces for this free webspace is that we will allow them to add advertising banners at the top right of each page. If you do not use an advert blocker, we trust that this is not too obtrusive.

I use Mozilla Firefox as a web browser. The appearance of your website can be different to Internet Explorer in places.

The original design intention for this website was to produce webpages that could be enjoyed by any version of the most popular web browsers. As a result, we took care to use the simplest web facilities, to ensure that most people could see the results.
However, our website grew and we needed to use menus and sub-menus to provide structure to the subjects within our website. We decided to use Javascript to produce the left-hand menu frame, and this works well in most Microsoft web browser versions. However, other web browsers may not display Javascript correctly.
We do bear in mind how the website looks in different web browsers and will look to minimise any adverse effects.