The phrase 'hitting the ground running' comes to mind in relation to my first week back at School. As well as making the final arrangements for the annual dinner, there has been the next edition of The Gazette to complete and the first edition of the School's Citizen newspaper to produce. I am also involved in liaising with the Parents' Bursary Committee, who are organising a fundraising concert by parent and world-renowned cellist, Robert Cohen, in February, so I've been busy on that front also. Meanwhile, I help organise our major Gala Dinner at the Tate Modern in June, which is our biennial fundraiser for the School's Bursary Trust. The early months of the year are spent preparing materials for our table hosts, selecting menus and organising the evening's entertainment.

As always, we have a packed programme of networking events for Old Citizens between now and July, and a number of excellent school productions, to which you are all most welcome to attend, so I hope to see some familiar faces and plenty of new ones too in the next few months.

I wish you all a happy and healthy 12 months!

Last week was a particularly exciting one for the school, with the visit by HRH The Princess Royal, whom I was fortunate enough to meet, in my role as a member of the CLS25 anniversary committee. While her visit marked one of the high points of the School's anniversary year, there are more events to come, including two further Old Citizen receptions, the Tate Modern bursary fundraising dinner, and a number of visits by authors and Old Citizen Ben Haggarty (CLS 1972 - 76) in February. There is also, of course, the JCC Annual Dinner on Tuesday 14th February, which has deliberately been planned to take place at the current school to coincide with the anniversary celebrations.

The week prior to HRH's visit  I enjoyed the school production of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' which featured some excellent performances by CLS boys in the main and supporting roles.

This week promises to be equally exciting with tomorrow's Christmas Concert and Thursday's Carol Service at Temple Church, where I hope to see some of you enjoying the best CLS has to offer in terms of musical entertainment.

It was great to see many familiar faces and some new ones too at the AGM and dinner. Hopefully those Old Citizens who attended for the first time will be encouraged to return to some of our forthcoming events. The actual business of the evening was very brief, which meant an earlier than anticipated start to the networking over drinks on the concourse. During dinner, the two Davids - Walker and Levin - spoke briefly about the good health of the JCC and the school respectively, followed by Head of School Nicholas Hulbert, who gave an eloquent introduction to his 'team', the five 'wise men' and the sports captains who'd been invited to attend.

Last night was my second late finish this week, the first being (not so late) the law careers workshop after school on Tuesday. Ten Old Citizens formed the expert panel for the workshop, which was attended by 30+ fifth and sixth formers, contemplating law as a profession.

The alumni encompassed a wide range of experience within the legal profession, including barristers, tax partners, in-house legal professionals, and a solicitor specialising in providing legal aid for asylum-seekers. 

One of the key messages which came out of the question and answer sessions was that boys should ‘study a subject they enjoy at degree level and do it well at a good unversity.’ It is not necessary to do a law degree to pursue law as a career. About half of the Old Cits attending had read history, classics or international history and politics, among other subjects, at university, and then took a law conversion course. 

One Old Citizen said that analytical skills, commercial awareness and problem solving are all skills which law firms look for when recruiting, regardless of the degree subject studied. 

Many thanks to those Old Citizens who attended. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

      

 

Old Citizens past and present were remembered at this year's Prize Day, held on Monday, when the 21 JCC Junior 6th form Prizes were awarded during the ceremony. Each prize bears the name of an eminent Old Citizen, renowned in a particular field, such as Steven Isserlis for music and Sir William Perkins for chemistry.  Head of School, Nicholas Hulbert, made a great speech in praise of John Carpenter, and it was heartening to see so many boys receive prizes, despite having sore hands with all the clapping!

The week before last we held the first of our three Old Citizens' receptions in celebration of the School's 25th/175th anniversary. More than 100 OCs who left CLS in the 1960s and earlier arrived for the drinks reception, followed by a talk about the history of the buldings from Terry Heard, tours, and exhibition and videos. Thanks to those of you who wrote in saying how much they enjoyed the evening. Here are some of your comments: