About 3 years ago Oakwood Park Grammar School in Kent (OPGS) started to compile a list of names and email addresses of former pupils on their website. Demand from the School's former pupils was high and the Head of ICT took on the responsibility of manually keeping the list updated.

The web-address (URL) for the list was only given away to those who wanted to be on the list. This was done to prevent non-alumni browsing the School website finding personal information not really intended for them.

However, as the list grew and grew, the school was surprised at how demand kept on increasing, and the amount of work required to maintain the list became too much for a full-time teacher. The School had to look for a different solution.

At the same time, OPGS decided to go for specialist status. Raising the required £50,000, in order to be eligible for the government funding, was not a trivial task. Many local schools were also going for specialist status, and the same local businesses were targeted by most schools for financial support.

Raising money through alumni, as Oxbridge colleges do, is not so easy when a school has to delete pupil records after two years of leaving. Therefore, to kill two birds with one stone, OPGS decided to try FX Alumni. This would give the School the much sought after contact details of its alumni and free up more of the teacher's time.

Headteacher
FX Alumni has given us a professional web presence towards our alumni, and we are happy to provide a similar service as FriendsReunited.co.uk to our former pupils — free to them — while maintaining full control of the content.

We are enjoying keeping in contact with old pupils, and value their comments. Now that we have a much larger and fresher database of alumni, we are planning to tap their broad range of experiences to enrich the life of the School.

We have found our former pupils are very pleased to be able to contribute something back to the School, not just financially, but also in areas such as careers advice for current pupils.

Head of ICT
FX Alumni goes far beyond what we could develop in house. It means that I can provide a top class service to our former pupils without letting it eat up any more of my time.

Since our FX Alumni website is outsourced and well hosted, it means that the availability of our alumni site is not dependent on the reliability of our own in-house computer systems. Moreover, I can easily do user validation from home whenever I want, and especially when the school system is down.

As the system supports more than one moderator, I can now share the task of approving new applications to be on the list with other teachers — who don't have to be technical experts!

OPGS Alumni
It's been great to be back in touch with Oakwood Park again. The new website makes it quick and simple to have a look round and catch up on the latest news.

The member's area is fascinating to search around and remember all the old names. I'm especially pleased with the way I can be contacted by other members from the list, without having to first share my email address with everyone, which I would be reluctant to do.