The big questions will be how many offers to make and how many will accept?

For the first time this year we also held a pre-test for candidates hoping to join us at 13+ in 2014 – over 250 boys took the examination and we await with interest the results and consequences of it. Since most of our competitor schools carry out this kind of screening, we had little option but to join the majority, thereby ensuring candidates will get a guaranteed place two years before they are ready to come to us.

This term we welcome a new GAP year student, Nick Fenton, from New Zealand who will be with us for the whole of 2012. He is a keen sportsman, debater, dramatist and all round good egg. He was Deputy Head Boy at Wellington College, NZ, until December and is now helping us out in variety of tasks from Games coaching at Grove Park to accompanying boys on trips and visits as well as routine administration and invigilation. He has got off to a splendid start and we are delighted to have him.

We have a lot to look forward to in the weeks ahead including: three concerts, a 6^th Form production of Arcadia in the Winterflood Theatre, the CCF Annual Inspection, the JCC Dinner, Science Week, a full programme of overseas and domestic trips during the Reserve Days, the Model U.N. Conference, the Senior Prefects’ Dinner and a number of fundraising events for this year’s Charity Appeal for Great Ormond Street Hospital (which we last supported 30 years ago – my first year at CLS!).

For more information on any School events, please contact our Alumni Relations Officer or visit our website which has a calendar advertising what is going on and when.

Other news which you may already know is that Lt Col Fred Woodhams, Commanding Officer of the CCF, was honoured with an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to the young. He has been in charge of the CCF for more than two decades and helped to organise our liaison with St Thomas the Apostle School in Peckham. He has, of course, also been the Senior Physics technician for all this time, which is his day job, so to speak. He and his wife, Jackie (currently CCF Adjutant) will be retiring at Easter after distinguished service to the School. The new CO will be Captain Stephen Jones, a member of the History Dept. And he will take over the running of the CCF in the Summer Term. 

Incidentally, that makes four CLS Staff who have received MBEs in recent years: David Martin, (previously Head of Maths), Lionel Knight (previously Head of History), Shelia Gallagher (our Lollypop Lady on Queen Victoria Street) and now Fred Woodhams.

One of our Fifth Formers, Albie Duffy, has been selected for the Great Britain water-polo team to compete in the Ukraine in May. Although CLS has produced many water-polo players who have represented GB over the years, this is the first time a current student has been honoured with this accolade. He will, therefore, be getting a JCC tie in an assembly later in the year. That will make seven boys in the last year who have been selected to represent their country.

The Fifth Form began their mock GCSEs today and the S6th go on exam leave tomorrow for their A2 exams. We wish them all the best of luck, though they shouldn’t need luck of course! We’re very pleased that the second ASLEF tube strike has been called off.

Next week there will be four sets of entrance exams at CLS which will involve somewhere in the region of 1,000 candidates. The School is as popular as ever – and, as you can see, rightly so!

In the following week there were four outstanding performances of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in the Winterflood Theatre and eight of our boys performed in CLSG’s production of Grease. This latter production was seen by your new President, Sir David Walker, who said how much he had enjoyed it.

Of course the biggest and most prestigious event was the Royal Visit of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to the School last Thursday. Along with her Lady-in-Waiting, she toured the “new” building in its 25^th anniversary, having opened it back in 1987.

She was shown around by the Lord Mayor, the Chairman of Governors and the Headmaster. She saw the new Theatre, the Great Hall (where speeches were made and the Chamber Choir sang), the CCF on parade in the Courtyard, the new laboratories, the Library, an exhibition of the School’s history dating back to 1442 and the Concourse where she unveiled a plaque commemorating her visit. She met many Students, Staff, Guests, Friends of CLS representatives, Governors, Corporation Officials and Lord Levene who was celebrating his 70^th birthday! Needless to say the boys rose to the challenge and she saw us at our best.

There is only one week to go before we break up for the Christmas holidays but there is much to look forward to in the next five days: a Christmas Concert on Tuesday (no tickets required), a Mufti Day, Christmas lunch, a Winter Fayre and the annual Carol Service at the Temple Church.

It has been a busy, productive and successful Term and, apart from the 915 reports that I am currently reading, the end is in sight!

 

 

In my next blog I should be able to tell you about the Royal Visit on 8^th December when the HRH, The Princess Royal will be attending the School to unveil a plaque celebrating the 25^th anniversary in the “new” building – fittingly 25 years since her last visit. Plans are well under way, as you would expect.

This will be held at Guildhall as it has been for the past 25 years. It is virtually the last duty of the current Lord Mayor, Michael Behr, before he steps down at the Lord Mayor’s Show next weekend. This year all the JCC Junior Sixth Form prizes have been named after Old Citizens from the Asquith Prize for Politics to the Perkins Prize for Chemistry. This will make the ceremony more interesting but also longer. Speaking as the Second Master who reads out all the prize winners and the prizes they have won, I estimate it will take me an extra five minutes. There will be over 250 presentations this year, including scholarships and academic prizes, Music, Sport and Art awards and acknowledgement of those who have contributed so much to the life of the School over the past year. Nicholas Hulbert, the current Head of School, will make the traditional speech in praise of John Carpenter and the Chamber Choir will be singing some Hebrew songs.

 

Before we broke up, we held the first of this year’s anniversary alumni reunions with over 150 Old Citizens returning to celebrate our 25^th year in the “new” building and the 175^th year of the School’s formal existence. Terry Heard, a former Second Master, gave a talk on the history of the School and the Senior Prefects conducted a number of tours of the building. For some, it was the first time they had ever been to the new School. I think they were impressed with the premises and the modern facilities, though inevitably CLS was very different from the school they remembered in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Much food and drink made the evening suitably celebratory and even the oldest participant – in his 90s – seemed to enjoy himself. There are more reunions planned of the rest of the year and we are currently preparing for the visit of HRH, The Princess Royal, in December. She will be returning to us 25 years after she officially opened the building in 1987.

In my last blog I mentioned how the boys had raised over £60,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Since then they have chosen the new worthy cause for this year’s Charity Appeal, Great Ormond Street Hospital. This will be the second time the School has adopted the children’s hospital for its appeal but is clearly close to the heart of us all. We wish Jake Wiseman (the Charity Committee Chairman) and his team all the best for their fund-raising activities. On the Friday before half term they held a mufti day which raised over £1,000, so the boys have got off to a good start.

Over the half term there have been a number of trips and visits. For example, the Geography Dept have been to Iceland, the GCSE Historians have been to Berlin and the Model United Nations team have been to South Africa. I shall look forward to hearing their stories when they return...