IM Marsh Alumni celebrate 100 years of success

31 July 2012

Alumni spanning six decades and from as far away as New Zealand gathered at IM Marsh on Thursday 21 June to celebrate 100 years of academic achievements at the campus.

The evening started in Barkhill House with alumni enjoying drinks, strawberries and cream with the option to take a tour of the South Liverpool campus.

Alumni shared thoughts of their time at IM Marsh before moving to Tiered Lecture Theatre 1 to hear guest speakers Professor Patricia Shenton OBE and Professor Sheila Wigmore FRSA.

Professor Shenton's lecture showed that since 1900, and despite being involved in a number of re-organisations and amalgamations due to the political and social situations of the day, 'IM Marsh' as an organisation, became synonymous with the unique role it played in leading nationally on the education and training of physical education teachers.

The presentation also highlighted and celebrated a number of those key achievements and the impact IM Marsh had on the local and national community during its significant history.

Professor Sheila Wigmore added a light hearted yet poignant reminder of what it meant to be a student at IM Marsh. Professor Wigmore shared thoughts about the difficulties of wearing the uniforms of the time and referenced the 'perils' of being caught out by the lecturers if wearing the incorrect sports equipment.

Feedback included:

"I particularly enjoyed the anecdotal reminiscences and the photographs. The criteria for the purposes of student selection were illuminating. It was lovely to be reminded of lecturers such as Miss Primrose who was my supervisor on teaching practice in a very tough inner city school, the children thought she was wonderful. I hope to remain in touch with an institution and an era I was a very proud participant in."

"A very informative lecture and a good balance of input between Pat and her guest presenter."

"Pat is very engaging as a presenter."

"I wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed the evening. The tour was really insightful and the lectures were fascinating.  Thank you so much for such an enjoyable evening."

"May I thank you for all the work you put into facilitating the delivery of the lecture and the hospitality on Thursday evening. Jim and I both thoroughly enjoyed the lecture and the opportunity to meet with LJMU members of the staff as well as past students of the College. It is good to feel that we have, at last, established a more tangible link between all those people involved in IM Marsh in its century of history. I hope we can all be involved in contributing to the Archives so that its story will have a permanent record. Thank you again for all your help."