THE KING’S SOCIETY
LENT TERM 2017
The King’s Society Lent Term 2017 The King’s Society aims to provide opportunities for the enhancement and enrichment of the King’s community. We hope to enable members of the Society to enjoy social events together and appreciate the educational and cultural facilities that the School, the Cathedral and Precincts have to offer. We organise a variety of events here in Canterbury, London and further afield. We liaise closely with the Visitors’ Department of Canterbury Cathedral and have arranged many tours within the Precincts. There are frequent theatre trips, visits to art galleries and guided walking tours in London. We enjoy our garden visits and have visited Highgrove, Kew Gardens, Sissinghurst and the Chelsea Physic Garden amongst others. We liaise closely with the PSHE department here at King’s and host talks which we open to all King’s parents on matters relating to pupils’ teenage issues. We hold regular lectures, craft and culinary workshops, wine tastings and dining evenings. Over the years, we have had guided weekends away together in Seville, Florence, Paris and Berlin. In addition, we regularly organise battlefield tours and recently spent a weekend staying in Bayeux visiting the beaches of the D-Day Landings in Normandy. The Society has over 310 members. We are a non-profit making organisation and the Society exists solely for the benefit of its members. There is also a branch of The King’s Society in Hong Kong and events for the King’s community in Hong Kong are held on a regular basis there. The Society is run by Mrs Ali Huntrods, an ex-parent of two daughters at King’s, together with a committee made up of current parents, OKS and members of staff. We try to cater for a wide range of tastes and interests on all social, cultural and educational fronts and can assure you of a very warm welcome.
Cover images Main: Shutterstock/Mark Bridger Right (from top to bottom) St James Palace: Shutterstock/Claudio Divizia; Flaming June by Fredrick Leighton (1830-1896); Dance Movement D by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917); The Last Ring Home courtesy of Minter Dial.
The King’s Chorus
Thursdays from 5th January 7pm
Peter Stone Room, Edred Wright Music School The Music Department warmly invites any singing enthusiasts to come and sing with the King’s Chorus to rehearse for the performance of Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor on Saturday 4th March 2017 in the Cathedral. We look forward to the widest possible inclusion of singers from across the school community to join the King’s Chorus. The Chorus meets every Thursday throughout the Lent term under Chorus Master Nicholas Todd (Assistant Director of Music) and rehearsals will take place on Thursday evenings, 7-8pm, either in the Shirley Hall or in the Peter Stone Room, depending on the needs of the orchestra. More information is available from the Music Department Administrator on 01227-595556 or by email: music@kings-music.co.uk
Rodin and Dance: The Essence of Movement lecture and exhibition at the Courtauld Institute of Art with Art History UK Wednesday 18th January 10.30am
Black’s Club, Soho W1 4QH This lecture coincides with the hotly-anticipated Courtauld gallery exhibition devoted to the sculptor Auguste Rodin and his interest with movement and dance. Rodin’s visit to Cambodia in 1906 resulted in a fascination with the aesthetics of Khmer dance and the Cambodian Royal Ballet. This provided the artist with a liberating alternative to the histories of European art and culture that had been grounded in the visual traditions of Ancient Greece and Rome. We will consider Rodin’s sculptures and drawings of dance as well as exploring the wider cultural relationship between the visual arts and dance in Paris in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; from Degas’s representations of the dark underworld of the Paris ballet, to Matisse’s joyous The Dance and the the involvement of Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Coco Chanel with Diaghilev’s dramatically avantgarde Ballets Russes. We will meet for our private lecture by Catherine from Art History UK at Black’s Club, (67 Dean Street, Soho, W1 4QH) having enjoyed breakfast together first. During the short walk to the Courtauld, Catherine will provide us with a commentary on our surroundings en-route. Cost per person £48 (which sum includes breakfast at Black’s, lecture fee and entry to the exhibition). Places limited to 20. Website booking available.
The King’s Society prepares perfect puddings! Tuesday 24th January 10am – 2pm
Birley’s Pavilion Join Olivia Wacher who runs her own business Just One Cook for a pop-up ‘cook-along’. Olivia will host this demonstration during which she will show us how to make three stunning puddings. We will prepare the perennially popular decadent chocolate pudding, a pudding to cater for those with dietary requirements and a third pudding which Olivia promises will be truly ‘out there’! We will all leave with examples of these delicious delights to take home and enjoy. Olivia is an OKS (MR2003-08) and trained at Tante Marie, the Culinary Academy where she studied for a Cordon Bleu Diploma. She worked as a chef before setting up her own business which is based in Canterbury. Those at the King’s Society’s Samba party in the summer will have enjoyed her delicious Brazilian inspired canapés. We will meet for coffee in Birley’s Pavilion at 10am. Olivia has kindly offered to make one of her fabulous macaroon towers to accompany our coffee. Places available 10. Price per person (to include all ingredients) £46. Website booking available.
King’s Society’s winter walk in Knole Park, Sevenoaks, TN13 1HU Wednesday 8th February 10.30am
Brewhouse Café, Knole Park Knole Park is home to Kent’s last medieval deer park and home to a herd of 350 wild deer. The park has remained substantially unchanged since medieval times. These deer are descendants of those hunted by Henry VIII and roam the 1,000 acres of parkland year round. Its parkland is vast and unmanaged, trees lie where they fall and the bracken is thick with protected wildlife. We will enjoy a bracing 4.5 mile walk along a mixture of grassland and paths. Our walk will take us past the Knole ice-house, through the Gallops; a valley that was used in medieval and Tudor times for show hunts and we will be able to see fallow and the Japanese sika deer en route. Our walk will take about 2 hours before we return to the Brewhouse Café for a warming lunch of hot soup. We will meet for coffee at 10.30am at the Brewhouse Café before setting off. Places available 20. There is no charge for this event but entrance to Knole Park is £4 per car (but is free to National Trust Members). Website booking available.
The King’s Society visit to the Shepherd Neame Brewery in Faversham, ME13 7AX Saturday 25th February 10am
Visitors’ Centre Shepherd Neame is Britain’s oldest brewery. We will meet our guide in the Visitors’ Centre before we embark on our 80 minute guided behind the scenes tour at this busy working brewery. We will learn a little of the ancient art of brewing, see the traditional mash tuns,
taste natural mineral water from the brewery’s well and try some malted barley and smell some locally grown Kentish hops. We will also visit the Old Brewery Store and conclude our tour with a fascinating tutored tasting during which, audience participation is encouraged. We will then all enjoy a two course lunch together in the cosy bar area. We will finish lunch by 2pm to ensure that those wishing to go to Birley’s to watch sport can do so. Places available 20. Price per person including lunch £24. (Please note this includes beer at lunch but wine and soft drinks need to be paid for.) Website booking available.
King’s Society screening of The Last Ring Home and Q&A with the film’s producer, Mr Minter Dial Tuesday 1st March 7.30pm
Schoolroom In conjunction with the History department, we have great pleasure in showing The Last Ring Home, an award-winning documentary film that made its TV debut on PBS in the USA and History Channel in Australia and New Zealand. The film is a tribute by Mr Minter Dial, a current parent and the producer of this film, to his grandfather and all those who fought in WW2. The film centres upon the magical journey of the class signet ring of an Annapolis Naval Academy graduate Lt Minter Dial. Dial, a southerner and son of a Senator, captained the USS Napa in the Philippines at the outbreak of WW2 and earned the Navy Cross before being captured and killed as a POW of the Japanese. It is a moving story of deep love, courage and honour. This event is free. Drinks and nibbles will be served. Website booking available.
Kings, Queens and Courtesans: Viv Haxby’s Guided Walking Tour of St James’s Tuesday 7th March 10.45am
Trafalgar Square, London WC2 Join Blue Badge Guide Viv Haxby to walk in the footsteps of Kings, Queens and royal hangers-on. We will consider the flamboyant lives of some of our more colourful monarchs; hear about their homes and the shops they patronized. Viv will regale us with tales of the Gentlemen’s Clubs of St James’s and tell the story of the birth of the London square. We will finish with a visual scoot around Parliament Square taking in the royal palace of Edward the Confessor and the Coronation Church. We will meet at 10.45am in front of the main portico to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. Places limited to 20. Price per person £12.50. Website booking available.
King’s Society visit to Leighton House, with Art History UK Thursday 16th March 10.30am
Holland Park Café, Ilchester Place, W8 6LU Now is the perfect time to visit Leighton’s stunningly eclectic house in Holland Park. His great masterpiece and one of the world’s most reproduced paintings, Flaming June, has returned home for a limited time only. Part of this tour will be spent discussing this iconic work of art and the aesthetic movement. We’ll also spend time looking at the house – a piece of art in its own right. The building vibrates with organic decoration, including an indoor fountain, a sensuous Arab Hall, gold gilded ceilings, stunning Damascene tiles and beautiful drawings and paintings by Leighton and his circle. Embodying the Victorian ideals of aesthetics and ‘art for art’s sake’ this meticulously restored building is an absolute must-see. To get a feel for the area, the tour will begin in Holland Park, where we’ll discuss some of the other ‘studio-houses’ that belonged to artists who followed Leighton to Kensington. We will meet for coffee in the Holland Park Café first and enjoy a guided walk on our way to Leighton House. Places limited to 15. Price per person £37. Website booking available.
King’s Society visit to see Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Tuesday 21st March 7.30pm
Harold Pinter Theatre, SW1Y 4DN Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill will star in this highly anticipated production of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Albee’s play examines the breakdown of the marriage of a middle-aged couple living in American academia. George is an associate history professor married to Martha, the daughter of the College president. Late one evening, following a university faculty party, they invite a younger couple Nick and Honey back home for drinks. They are unwittingly drawn into George and Martha’s bitter and explosive relationship and observe as the pair spat and fire verbal abuse at each other throughout the evening. It’s a profound and explosive example of theatre of the absurd mixed with powerful realism. Imelda Staunton returns to the West End after her triumph and Olivier Award-winning performance as Mama Rose in Gypsy. This brand new production of Albee’s seminal classic is set to become one of the most explosive theatrical events of 2017. Places limited to 20. Price per person £65. Website booking available.
Advance notice of events next term
Three-day trip to Berlin with Dr Andrew Thomson 27 th-30 th April inclusive
On Friday 28th we will visit the Checkpoint Charlie area for guided city-centre walking tour taking in the route of the Wall, the Brandenberg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler’s bunker, the ex-Luftwaffe building, and the outside of the Reichstag. After lunch we will be taken to see the surviving traces of the Berlin Wall in Bernauerstrasse. We will see the Wall, visit the free city museum-the Berlin Wall Centre, and follow the routes of escape tunnels used in this neighbourhood during the years 1962-64. On Saturday 29th, we will visit Potsdam about 20 miles outside Berlin. We will have coffee in the Dutch Quarter, then on to visit the Cecilienhof Palace-the site of the 1945 Potsdam Conference, followed by Sanssoucci Palace and Gardens. We will return to Berlin for an afternoon choice of either:(a) visiting the excellent Allied Museum in the former U.S. sector which tells the story of the 1948-49 Airlift, and the continuing Allied presence up to the withdrawal of all troops in 1994, or (b) visiting Museum Island-time for the Pergamon and other museums, or (c) free time having been dropped off in Mitte district or the Kurfurtsendam On Sunday 30th we will visit the Reichstag for a morning rooftop visit to enjoy the history and the view. We will then visit the Glockenturm clock tower overlooking the Olympic Stadium. We will have lunch in the Kurfurstendamm area for lunch before heading back to the airport. Available places 15. If you are interested please email Ali. Website booking not available.
The Friends of Junior King’s Indian Summer Charity Ball
Saturday 17th June, 7pm
Milner Court, Sturry The Friends of Junior King’s, Canterbury will be hosting a fabulous charity ball in a marquee in the heart of Milner Court in Sturry. This will be a particularly special evening as Mr Peter Wells will be retiring after 17 years as Headmaster. Money raised from this event will support three charities, Holding On Letting Go, a local charity supporting bereaved children and their families, Future Hope, a charity providing homes and education to some of the most vulnerable children from the streets and slums of Kolkata, India and the Dean’s Fund which provides bursaries at Junior King’s. A champagne reception will be followed by a three course dinner, live auction, entertainment, dancing and a cash bar. Tickets are expected to sell quickly across the King’s community. If you have any queries or require any further information, please contact Junior King’s parent Tanya Montague on 07598 479839. Black Tie. Ticket price per person £85. Tables of 10. Website booking available.
King’s Society events are open to all members. Most events can be booked using the school’s online booking facility at www.kings-school.co.uk which is the easiest and most efficient way of booking tickets. If you are paying by cheque, it should be made payable to The King’s Society and sent to Ali at The King’s School, Canterbury, CT1 2ES. Please note, payment is required prior to an event as places cannot be guaranteed until payment has been received. If an event is full, it is always worth your name being put on Ali’s waiting list as spaces do often occur at the last minute.
Committee Members Manager: Treasurer: Parents:
Mrs Ali Huntrods Mr Andrew Bruce Mrs Caroline Bagshawe, Mrs Claire Burns, Mrs Eloise Coulson, Mrs Alison Streeter
Staff:
Mrs Lisa Cousins, Mr Richard Ninham, Mrs Liz Worthington
Hong Kong Committee Members Parents: Mrs Rosanna Chan, Mrs Amanda Snow OKS: Mr Darrin Woo
For all King’s Society Enquiries re membership and events Please contact the King’s Society Manager Mrs Ali Huntrods Tel: 01227-595774 Email: ah@kings-school.co.uk Mobile: 07825 016282