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As we bid farewell to this cherished building, let's reminisce about the wonderful memories made within Progress House.

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Lisa Buttler and Kirsty Newton Christmas 2022

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Lisa Buttler and Kirsty Newton Christmas 2022

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Paul Rendall, Kirsty Newton, Karen Smith and Lisa Buttler - Christmas 2023

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Paul Rendall, Kirsty Newton, Karen Smith and Lisa Buttler - Christmas 2023

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Panel Management Team Bowling winners - November 2023

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Panel Management Team Bowling winners - November 2023

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Deployment & Allocations Team Selfie 2018

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Kirsty Newton enjoying a gigantic meringue!

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Kirsty Newton enjoying a gigantic meringue!

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Celebrating the 2018 World Cup - Kirsty Newton and Kerrie Galvin

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Celebrating the 2018 World Cup - Kirsty Newton and Kerrie Galvin

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2019 Away Day - Kerrie Galvin, Mel Evans and Kirsty Newton

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2019 Away Day - Kerrie Galvin, Mel Evans and Kirsty Newton

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Halloween 2019 - Winner of best pumpkin! Kerrie Galvin

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Halloween 2019 - Winner of best pumpkin! Kerrie Galvin

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Halloween 2019 Fancy Dress - Victoria Ashton, Nicola Bennett and Kerrie Galvin

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Halloween 2019 Fancy Dress - Victoria Ashton, Nicola Bennett and Kerrie Galvin

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Christmas 2019 - Kay Mallabone, Louise Buckley and Elise Miller

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Christmas 2019 - Kay Mallabone, Louise Buckley and Elise Miller

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Christmas 2019 - Karen Schofield, Debbie Carey, Steve Parsons and Mel Evans

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Christmas 2019 - Karen Schofield, Debbie Carey, Steve Parsons and Mel Evans

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Christmas 2019 - Mel Evans, Kirsty Newton and Kerrie Galvin

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Christmas 2019 - Mel Evans, Kirsty Newton and Kerrie Galvin

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Christmas 2019 - Kerrie Galvin, Debbie Carey, Debbie Wattis and Kirsty Newton

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Christmas 2019 - Kerrie Galvin, Debbie Carey, Debbie Wattis and Kirsty Newton

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Visiting potential new office sites - Kerrie Galvin and Rachel Steele

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Visiting potential new office sites - Kerrie Galvin and Rachel Steele

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Christmas 2022 - Kerrie Galvin, Victoria Ashton and Cherisse McAllister

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Christmas 2022 - Kerrie Galvin, Victoria Ashton and Cherisse McAllister

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Christmas 2023 Steve Parsons, Vaneesa Mistry, Claire Smith and Paul Rendall

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Christmas 2023 Steve Parsons, Vaneesa Mistry, Claire Smith and Paul Rendall

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Coventry Compliance Team circa summer 2016

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Coventry Compliance Team circa summer 2016

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Steve, Lorraine, Hilary, Lucinda, Ranjit, Charlotte, Rachel

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Michelle, Hilary, Steve, Lorraine, Lucinda, Ian

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Back row - Hilary, Kim, Sara, Katrina

Front row - Lucinda, Sally, Jane

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Mark Garrett, Geoff Keys, William Unwin, Adam Prior, Paul Davies

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Emily, Kerrie, Hansa, Claire, Michelle, Rowena

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Rosanne started work here on 10 Dec 1990 and the snow was so bad on her first day that she couldn’t get into work.

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Oct 90 - HRH Prince Philip opened Progress House

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Oct 90 - HRH Prince Philip opened Progress House

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Progress House was opened by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in October 1990. He toured the offices and warehouse and met, and spoke to, many members of staff.

Prior to the visit the Police and security guards were on site in the days before to ensure every security provision had been made, there were even dogs sweeping the drains for security.

For the Duke's visit, everyone wore their name badges for the first time so that he could see their names. One of the Gents toilets was closed off for the personal use of the Duke.

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Oct 90 - HRH Prince Philip opened Progress House

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Oct 90 - HRH Prince Philip opened Progress House

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Progress House was opened by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in October 1990. He toured the offices and warehouse and met, and spoke to, many members of staff.

Prior to the visit the Police and security guards were on site in the days before to ensure every security provision had been made, there were even dogs sweeping the drains for security.

For the Duke's visit, everyone wore their name badges for the first time so that he could see their names. One of the Gents toilets was closed off for the personal use of the Duke.

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Typing team – Office Services was led by Jill Green and provided typing services to the teams, e.g. a handwritten memo was submitted with a form for typing, it was produced and returned to the originator and then put in the internal post for delivery.

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Brian Swift, Deputy CEO, had a strong ‘clear desk’ policy and would think nothing of sweeping a desk clean with his hand, even for senior managers.

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At a Christmas party Greg Watson (who worked for Ron McLone), knocked a glass of red wine over Ron (then OCR CEO) and Ron then had to spend the whole evening with his jacket buttoned up – he was not amused!

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Expense claims - to check mileage for a route everyone had to go to Stephen Hunt as he was the only person who had access to the AA Route planner to calculate the mileage.

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Christmas parties were held in the warehouse with a buffet and drink; these were great fun especially as the entertainment was provided by staff members playing games like Blind Date etc.

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Staff remember viewing the eclipse from the gardens in Progress House.

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As we approached the end of 1999 there was a lot of concern nationwide regarding the possible implications of the 'Millennium Bug' as we turned from 1999 to 2000. Experts had warned that many computers wouldn't cope when the date flicked over to 01/01/2000.

Much testing had taken place nationwide for the Y2K bug and Lucinda had been busy with pre-testing for the bug; luckily all fears were unfounded, probably because Lucinda had tested it so well.

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Contingency plans were put in place for use in the unlikely event that we were unable to use Progress House. The plan was to use the Daisy Recovery sites to maintain access to systems and critical staff would be transported to the nominated site in Birmingham. When this really did happen when Covid struck in March 2020 the contingency sites were no longer needed and preparations were made for all able to work at home on laptops.

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Time capsule buried in the east courtyard to celebrate 25 anniversary

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Data Processing team – Val Chamberlain and Julie Lomas dealt with all data, anything needing to be inputted had to be sent to Cambridge for processing and certification. Certificates were sent back to Coventry for sending out by the warehouse.

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Sara Coldicott spent a huge part of her working life at RSA/OCR and had a big influence on Progress House and vocational qualifications. To celebrate her 25 anniversary, she took the whole directorate to a hotel for lunch.

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Everyone departed for the annual Christmas party which was held at one of the hotels on the other side of the city, and the building was locked up. Sometime later there was a frantic call from Jane Devoy saying that she had been locked in the building and someone from the Premises Team had to go back to let her out! After this, everyone always made sure Jane was out of the building.

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The building was evacuated on 2 occasions for real emergencies:

Stephen Hunt's printer caught fire

Sara Coldicott's heater caught fire:

In the early 2000's we had to vacate the building when the fire alarm went off. Unfortunately it was snowing at the time, and we were all standing outside freezing for ages. We were marched to the building next door for shelter (by one of the Deputy Directors who was formally in the army John Deacon!). I later found out that it was my fault that the fire alarm had gone off because I switched on a radiator in one of the glass meeting rooms - I didn't realise it would cause such commotion! Lindsey Taylor

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Twin Towers – this devastiating event shocked the whole world and as the news broke staff were glued to their screens watching the tragic events take place in complete disbelief. I remember the management team being in a meeting and when the level of the devastation became clear I had to go and interrupt and let them know what was happening; this all took place before regular use of mobile phones or tablets! The initial reaction was one of shock followed by concern for any staff with relatives or friends in USA.

Carol Edmonds

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Christmas parties at various venues – Mr & Mrs, The Weakest Link, Blues Brothers and Play Your Cards Right to name just a few. These were organised by the staff entertainments team and the contestants were all staff members, some took their responsibility seriously and dressed up in fancy dress costumes.

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The specially commissioned stone sculpture of the Hand and Keyboard was delivered by a massive crane and lifted up and over the roof and lowered into the courtyard. The cost of the hand sculpture was said to have cost £16k and delivery and erection was an extra £2k then! Everyone stopped work when the crane was lowered into the courtyard and they all gathered around the courtyard windows to watch.

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In the early days of batching paper based entries and certification claims ready to send to bureau for keying, a team of Administrators worked a twilight shift to help the day time staff with these tasks. They used to come in around 4pm for a handover of work.

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The Training and International team were based in Unit 19 in the small business village over the road from Progress House. The Manager had an office on the ground floor and on occasion, she would bring her dog to work with her which slept under her desk.

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In the late 90's you would find several Apprentices working around the building, most stayed on as Administrators after their apprenticeship and were here for many years and progressed to higher roles.

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Well I remember the beginnings of OCR and my first visits to Progress House as the new CEO! Always made welcome at reception and a very happy and positive staff - so glad that at Cambridge we knew what an excellent addition the qualifications of RSAEB would make in forming OCR. Seems such along time now since I retired in 2006., but some very welcome return visits. Thank you all at Progress House (CEO Ron)