Headmaster’s Newsletter Christmas 2014
Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.
Pope Benedict XVI
He who sings prays twice! St Augustine
Please forgive me for re-quoting from the Carol Service: feedback suggests that I was not alone in having found these words both haunting and uplifting, and the service deeply affecting. The Christmas Term in any school has a particularly poignant feel; it starts with the freshness of newly painted rooms, new staff and new parents and boys, and culminates in the shared joys of our services and end-of-term form plays.
Refurbished Junior House Entrance Hall 2S’ New Classroom
I mentioned to you at those plays that our new CEO had asked me to try to encapsulate the spirit of St. Anthony’s and its uniqueness. Julian was present at the Carol Service, so experienced first-hand that aspect. I somewhat feebly attempted to sum up the atmosphere, creativity, warmth and fun of the form plays. Feebly, because there was just too much to try to say. Feebly, because sometimes words just fall short or one is embarrassed to be seeming to boast about the school or be perceived as sentimental.
But, there was genuine cause for pride and, on reflection, it is possible to avoid sentimentality while celebrating the hope and joy evident in the school and the goodness. Most moving for me has been the quiet way that pupils have come to my office with donations to Mary’s Meals, and another pupil managing to raise a significant sum for a dear friend who was suffering. Others have quietly and unobtrusively raised money in the Senior House. The Christmas Fayre was a great success and we should note that Janet’s recipe book sold out; a second print run was commissioned.
Julian commented on the exuberance and pleasure evident in the choir and the touching way the school said farewell to Karl. So many of the great moments we share as a community flow from our musical activities and so much of that is directly attributable to Karl’s work on the liturgical and general musical life. I know that the applause at St. Thomas More’s, and at the end of the form shows, will echo in his heart for many years and be a treasured memory for us.
Joe Burgess has been his right hand man and becomes Head of Music. Providence sent us Joe in my first year. Joe is an ex-Oxford Organ Scholar himself and you will all know how superb he has been. Providence has blessed us again in our securing a new musician to ensure that Karl and Joe’s vision continues. Nick Morrell joins us formally in January, but has spent two weeks shadowing Karl and Joe.
Nick has an impeccable musical pedigree, and fortunately, also one particularly in tune with the St. Anthony’s traditions. He was a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, Music Scholar at Downside and the Cardinal Vaughan, and then awarded a choral scholarship at Cambridge. Equally thrilling for Karl, Joe and us, is the fact that Nick loves composing musicals and is an accomplished violinist and organist too. Nick has taught at St. Phillip’s and Westminster Cathedral School. I think we can be confident that our musical life will be as exciting in the future as Karl has made it these four years.
The soloists at the service merit special mention. Braden sang with such poise and avoided a certain kind of cathedral preciousness which can make that solo irritating, rather than beautiful. Julien and Michael complemented this with their delightful contributions and the Year 2 quartet (Charlie, Xander, Benedict and Alex) touched us all with their rendition of ‘Oh Little One Sweet’ and evoked spontaneous applause. It is good for the boys and parents to hear our singing teachers, but an added delight this year was the staff choir. With Emily Armour, they added to the poignancy of the occasion. I was particularly proud of our readers and once again Crispin infused his reading of the Newman passage with a depth, as touching as that within the music.
The service was in many ways sublime and, in that great St. Anthony’s tradition, we moved seamlessly to the form plays which are often ridiculous and sublime. There were some very memorable moments: Year 1 performed their play Whoops A Daisy Angel at St. Mary’s, to the delight of Reception pupils and parents.
Teddy’s amazing beaming star, in the splendid Reception performance of A Little Bird Told Me, foretold that he has a bright future!
Caspar’s rapping angel (in Stable Manners) amused and delighted us all. Who will forget Nicholas’ wonderfully nasty exploitative Top-Hatted Villain in A Pudding for the Chimney Sweeps? Ben’s heart-breaking sweep, wrongly accused of theft, provoked just the right amount of sniffling and sighs in the audience. Not only was the music excellent, but, so too, were the beautiful costumes.
Giacomo’s accompanying of the Year 2 play was an unexpected pleasure and merited the special applause he received.
I think all present agreed that the end of term GAW was a triumph and, in particular, the brilliantly ironic and clever film by Stefan, parodying US cable news. (He swopped film making for guitar playing without breaking sweat.) The Year 7 and Year 8 bands took the standard to a new level, and the rock was balanced with some beautiful classical music: Braden reincarnated in his rock guise; Nathanael and William inspired with their drumming; our guitarists, Vasco and Henry also commanded the stage. Lewis and Adam played their second instrument (the piano) and we had delightful jazz too. The weekend before, Lewis was performing with the National Children’s Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.
http://www.stanthonysprep.org.uk/News/Musical-Success-Lewis-Johnston
These are the icings on a musical cake. Christine Cunnold gave a beautiful choral recital.
http://www.stanthonysprep.org.uk/News/Christine-Cunnold-Vocal-Recital-1/
The boys were also privileged to spend time with the Carducci Quartet.
http://www.stanthonysprep.org.uk/News/Carducci-Quartet-Visit/
Such events are wonderful opportunities for the boys to enrich their musical vision. It is no wonder that, with such guidance, and the work of our amazing peripatetic staff so many boys performed in the Junior and Senior House Concerts; the programmes tell the story!
The host of visiting literary speakers, theatre trips, and history trips have been equally enriching for the pupils’ literary and historical sensibilities. Lawrence Sail (FRSL) repeated his praise for the pupils’ receptivity and he noted some are better than sixth formers! We were delighted to welcome London-based children’s author Karen Inglis to introduce and read from her books The Secret Lake and Eeek! The Runaway Alien. She also showed the children her author website and talked to Year 5 and 6 boys about being a writer and some tricks of the trade. She described St. Anthony’s as: ‘Simply, a lovely school.’
Year 5’s trip to The Tower of London was given extra spice since the Queen also chose that day to visit the now famous ceramic poppy tribute to the fallen. Year 6 were taken to National Theatre for a study day and performance of Romeo and Juliet. This will be our play for the Summer term; Crispin is already rehearsing an enthusiastic cast. The LAMDA initiative has taken off; the first exams are next term, with twenty boys now participating.
In the last newsletter, we celebrated the Year 6 boys winning an extraordinary prize from the Wolfson Foundation. The pupils (now in Year 7) were invited to a special reception and lecture at the King’s Cross redevelopment offices.
Our new Year 6 pupils are working assiduously on their entries for this year’s Saatchi Schools’ Competition.
We are at that exciting stage where the Year 8s finalise and create their six simple machines.
http://www.stanthonysprep.org.uk/News/6-Simple-Machines-school-record/
Our recent Computing and Robotics work is developing well, as is Science Club.
One of the remarkably uplifting aspects of the school is that so much of this work is done in school clubs. The pupils’ ability to deal with external examination pressures, while maintaining such rich academic creativity is a tribute to them and their inspiring teachers. Lucas’ recent computing work is symbolic of the real benefit of the new courses.
http://www.khanacademy.org/computer-programming/space-ball/6669338594770944
http://www.stanthonysprep.org.uk/Curriculum/Computing/
We are often described as an arty and bohemian school: this does not really do justice to the other remarkable work the boys also do in Science and DT; and; now computing and robotics. It is not a fluke that the boys are getting into some of the most scientifically stretching senior schools. A number of local heads have complimented me on how good our boys are when pushed on their scientific knowledge and curiosity. Since there are so many English and Maths tutors grooming candidates, and so few in Science, wise interviewers are throwing in demanding, open-ended Science questions. Our boys seem to relish these, rather than avoid them. Sally, Rachel and Sophie are inspiring the boys and give generously of their time. Just as we believe that all boys have an artistic and musical soul, so too do we believe that all pupils should love Science and be stimulated to explore it.
The new sporting season brought with it much excitement and anticipation amongst the boys and P.E. staff in the Senior House at St. Anthony’s; all eager to get the 2014 football fixtures underway. With the fixture card published, many of the conversations amongst the boys focussed on mapping out the season ahead; in particular, highlighting their ‘red letter days’. For the Senior XIs, Westminster School was deemed the biggest and most challenging. For the youngest members of the Senior House, Year 4, this was going to be the season that they wrote themselves into the history books at St. Anthony’s!
Up until this season, the Year 4 or Under 9s have not participated in competitive sporting fixtures against other schools. However, 2014 was going to be the year when this changed and the Year 4s made history. On Thursday 20th November, three teams participated in the York House five-a-side festival. Played on the astro-turf, the boys competed against teams from York House and Harvey Road School. They performed extremely well, doing themselves and St. Anthony’s proud. A very special mention must go to Riccardo, who scored a hat trick against Harvey Road and finished the afternoon with four goals to his name. Five days later, every boy in Year 4, took to the field at Canons Park and competed in a football festival hosted by Arnold House School. The boys competed with passion and enthusiasm; putting their skills on display against Arnold House and Fulham Prep. With history made on the football field, the aspiration is to continue this into the Easter term; involving the boys in more competitive sporting opportunities. Everyone is immensely proud of the Year 4s history-making feat this term!
A safe pair of hands
St. Anthony’s School – history in the making
Throughout the season, the Colts teams often fielded eight teams on a Monday afternoon. All teams put in sterling performances against very strong opposition and displayed great team spirit and sportsmanship throughout. A special mention in the Colts A team must go to Max and Fletcher of Year 6, and Kei of Year 5, who consistently troubled the opposition goalkeepers; netting several goals apiece.
For the Senior XIs, this term the figures speak for themselves – outstanding! The boys across all four XIs have exhibited total commitment to their team and the quest for sporting success, whilst upholding the highest levels of sportsmanship at all times. The teachers have spent many a spare moment sharing some of the delights taken from the games this term; whether the result be win, lose or draw. A special mention must go to Patrick H of the 4th XI and Josh of the 3rd XI for their prolific goal scoring records. Likewise, in the 2nd XI Nathanael, Ben H and Luca R kept the oppositions goalkeepers busy. In the 1st XI, one fixture and result stands proud above the rest – the victory over Westminster School. This was the one back in September deemed the biggest of all by the boys. The victory is encapsulated in the immortal words of Vince Lombardi: “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfilment of all that he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.” For the full 50 minutes, the boys from St. Anthony’s toiled, grafted and stood shoulder to shoulder on the iconic Vincent Square playing fields, reversing a 3-1 down half time score line into an epic and historical 4-3 victory. All were heroes on this December afternoon, but especially Mathew, Sachin, Adam and James who all netted, and William for his penalty save.
1st XI, after their final match of the season.
So, as the final whistle was blown on the 2014 season, with senior fixtures against Aldenham and Hill House, the season’s tally was complete. For the sporting statisticians amongst the readers, the headline figures for St. Anthony’s are thus: the boys played in a total of 98 fixtures this term, with every boy from Year 4 to Year 8 representing the school. They amassed 294 goals and conceded 237, giving a net goal difference of +57. The breakdown by age group can be seen below: