Winter Assembly 2011

ASSEMBLYWINTER 2011 From the Headmaster

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thought parents, old boys and friends of the School might be interested to read the new entry for Arnold House in the 2012 Tatler Schools Guide for the top Prep and Public Schools in the UK.

“While other schools shower us with reports of sporting victories, scholarship triumphs and outstanding inspections, Arnold House keeps resolutely shtoom.

Although we admire their modesty, they’ll have to forgive us if we sing their praises for them. This is one of London’s pre-eminent boys’ preps, which scores resounding successes at Common Entrance and dispatches its leavers to the likes of St Paul’s, Westminster and all the top boarding schools. There’s an impressive array of prizes to reward endeavour: ‘citizenship

bars’ for contributions to the life of the school and a wealth of special ties and industry badges for hard work. Big sporting achievements too – boys are bused out to seven acres of playing fields in Stanmore. A well-mannered, charming school with plenty to shout about.”

I have yet to decide whether I should shout more loudly or not!

Viv Thomas Headmaster

New Arnold House Intranet

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his autumn saw the launch of our brand new intranet. The aim was to create a site which could share what’s going on at school as well as provide information areas for our staff, parents and boys.

creativity in the way they share what the boys have been up to, including interviews with newly crowned ‘golden boys’, trip photographs, activity videos and ‘locker leagues’!

The site allows all parents, boys and staff to access an interactive site using a username and password. The simple interface means that staff can easily update information on different pages as well as upload photographs, videos and audio. The homepage provides a two week calendar overview, important daily notices, and links to the School website, school email, In House and termly calendar.

Boys can find different subject resources such as syllabus notes, reading lists, website links and homework details - no longer can they use the excuse of forgetting what the homework was or ‘leaving it at school’! Some preps are also set as online assignments which can be completed and then submitted directly back to the teacher.

Parents can see term dates, lunch menus, download letters and check different timetables such as class, homework and music lessons. There is even a parents’ corner for adverts and messages.

Our staff can access special admin areas where important day-to-day documentation can be found. They are also responsible for different areas of the site and have been showing plenty of ASSEMBLY

All users can also explore events, activities, subjects, form groups and class sections where they can read about and see what’s going on at Arnold House. There are already hundreds of photos and more

videos are being added week by week.

The intranet has been a great success and has grown enormously over the past ten weeks. There are currently 735 pages and it has had over 15,000 hits! We look forward to seeing it develop even more over the next two terms and in coming years.

Rekha Ruda Head of ICT and Director of Studies In addition to the launch of the intranet, the Arnold House website received an overhaul over the summer. The navigation is now more user friendly, all the images have been brought up to date and the general look and feel of the site is now in keeping with the rest of our branded publications.

No3 undergoes refurbishment

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he search for more room in the School and to maintain our site here in St John’s Wood continues and some more innovation occurred last summer to provide increased space and facilities for the boys.

The day after School broke up for Easter, the builders moved into the music floor of No 3 to build 2 new classrooms and 2 new smaller rooms for multipurpose in the old loft, redecorate the music suite and convert a store room into the Director of Music’s Office/practice room.

The project was completed on 2nd September having been well built by Newland Construction Ltd, project managed by Bob Phillips (appointed by the Governors to act on the School’s behalf ) and architecturally designed by Marianne Davys who has advised us for over 10 years. Her novel design of a glass connecting walkway from the Art corridor really opens up the new building.

One of the new classrooms is Mr Matthews’ base as maternity cover for Mrs Bahra and is well used as a larger Greek room due to the popularity that Miss Panaretou has encouraged on her arrival. The other is Mr Lester’s base when he is in school and has been used for games, IT and Compass lessons to save teachers leaving their own classrooms when necessary.

The smaller rooms have been used for parent meetings, administration meetings, personnel interviews for Accent and Trinity our outsourced catering and cleaning teams, and more recently, for small group scholarship lessons.

Before

During

Second Floor

New Rooms

New Roof

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At the same time the music floor was redecorated with more ergonomic desks and chairs for the boys with new streamline keyboards. An additional music practice room has been created and the boiler replaced with new radiators and washroom facilities.

Overall, the project has been deemed successful and of good value.

Richard Fletcher Bursar After

The Music Room

Before

The light and space will provide a much needed lung to enhance the boys’ studies as the years go by.

During

After

“A charming production”: The Tempest

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n Wednesday 2nd November, many of our Year 8 boys performed in an amazing production of ‘The Tempest’ at the Unicorn Theatre. The performance was part of an annual national celebration of Shakespeare’s works, ‘The Shakespeare Schools Festival’ The ‘Shakespeare Schools Festival’ is a charity that teams up with the National Theatre and the National Youth Theatre to offer the largest youth theatre event in the UK. Since 2000, it has provided over 100,000 pupils with the opportunity to engage with Shakespeare’s work and perform in professional theatre venues.

The charity welcomes involvement from all schools and promotes variety and equality as some of its most important attributes.

Taking over some of Great Britain’s leading professional theatres is an expensive undertaking, but with our involvement, other more disadvantaged schools can also take part and grab hold of this amazing opportunity. It was Arnold House’s third year of involvement in this fantastic event which brings together pupils of all ages from hundreds of schools across the United Kingdom.

The cast and crew are to be applauded for their sensational work both on the evening, and in rehearsals leading up to the night.

Partaking in such an event requires an

met this challenge and threw themselves into the process. Our cast members regularly squeezed three rehearsals a week into their already very busy schedules!

The boys exhibited a real sense of ownership over the production. They took care to work productively with their peers in rehearsal time and to refine their own characterisation to ensure the end product was something they could be truly proud of. When reflecting on their involvement, some of the boys remarked that ‘learning all those lines was tough’, as was ‘keeping focus and staying in character on stage...when the focus wasn’t mainly on me’. Despite these challenges, they also said that ‘taking part changed [them]... [they are] much more confident now’. The boys heartily said they would recommend taking part as they felt that the process has made them more ‘mature, and better at working with [their] peers.’

On the big night, the boys performed superbly after their two months of concentrated rehearsals and received very positive feedback from the event organisers.

Our evening was special indeed, with professionals in attendance to provide a valuable critique of the performance. The maturity of the boys’ performances, their strong grasp of Shakespearean language and the way they so clearly told the story were all mentioned, and a visiting professor said the performance was engaging and reminded her of the ‘wonder’ of Shakespeare’s productions. The evening featured four high quality performances from four different schools and was lauded as the ‘most entertaining evening this year’ for the program director, Chris Grace.

Feedback received from the organisers of the festival articulated that the entire cast were ‘disciplined in keeping their focus’ and ‘a professional group of young actors...a real credit to the School’. Special mention was made of the authentic portrayal of a challenging female character by Luca Perper.

His scenes with fellow performer Andrew Railton were described as ‘tender and moving’. Also mentioned was the excellent comic timing exhibited by Eklavya Sharma and Omar Zakaria, and Harry Orwell’s portrayal of the monster Caliban was described as ‘brilliantly monstrous’.

enormous commitment. Getting our play ready for the stage involved auditions and casting in July, and boys were then issued with the task of learning their numerous tricky Shakespearean lines by our September return for this academic year. I was so impressed by the disciplined way the boys ASSEMBLY

The cast included: Bruno Pujos, Luca Perper, Nicolas Markantonis, Andrew Railton, Harry Orwell, Eklavya Sharma, Omar Zakaria, Sajjad-Ali Mohadjerani-Irvani, Douglas Law, Harry Flatau, George Jones, Danny Weller, Sachin Oberoi, Jack Snell, and Robert Keith.

The cast was supported by a technical

team including Jacob Dicker (lighting), Alfie Murray (sound), Zac Cutner (publicity), Tom McMahon (publicity) and James Wallace (publicity). A special mention must go to Arthur Donald, who maturely and efficiently led his peers as Assistant Director.

It has been such a pleasure working with this year’s cast and crew on ‘The Tempest’.

Allie Baker Head of Drama “I was nervous at the start but the way we worked together and became a team really reassured me before I had to step out on stage” Andrew Railton, Ferdinand “It was really reassuring to see how much everyone liked the posters we’d created” Zac Cutner, Publicity “The teamwork between the cast and crew really made the performance, and all of us, supported one another.”

Arthur Donald, Assistant Director “It was really fun to do the professional workshops and I learnt a lot of drama skills.

I learnt how to project my voice. I’d very much recommend it - great fun.”

Eklavya Sharma, Stephano “This was one of the most amazing things I’ve done in my time at AH” Douglas Law, Sebastian

Junior School Review

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he autumn term always seems to fly by in Years 3 and 4. From that first day in September, when the arrival of the boys is heralded by excited, yet somewhat nervous chatter in the courtyard, it hardly seems a moment until we are gearing up for the end of term. The move up to Year 3 is, perhaps, the first major transition point within the School, but the boys emerge from Year 2 extremely well prepared and ready for and excited about everything that lies ahead.

This term there has been much to get excited about. Year 3 have had trips to the Bloomsbury Theatre to see the Horrible Histories ‘Awesome Egyptians’ show, and to London Zoo where we had a fabulous day in the autumn sunshine. Games afternoons, too, and the first opportunities to play competitive matches against other schools would probably appear on many boys’ lists of highlights. Life in Year 4 has been equally action-packed; their trip to Verulamium,

r 2 because “Year 3 is different to Yea d get more we have more subjects an homework.”

Akshay Khemaney, 3J

“Year 3 is great because we play games and learn interesting stuff.”

Jake Sinclair, 3O

“Year 3 is different but better because we have extra-long lessons and homework!”

Jack Jacobs, 3O

where they explored the Roman ruins, was much enjoyed by all. Now at the top end of the Junior School, we expect much of our oldest boys and, it is only fair to say that this term they have more than lived up to these expectations and are on track for a super year.

Lizzie Jones Head of Years 3 & 4

“In Year 3 we have to learn all of our times tables!”

Joshi Naggar, 3O

joyed going on trips, “This term I have really en nds with boys who and also making new frie t year.” were in the other class las Saxon Stacey, 3J

“ The bes t thing ab out Year Games a 3 is havin nd doing g more diff subjects.” erent

Kaan Aky ol, 3J

r 3 because it’s a “Year 4 is different to Yea is harder.” big step up and the work Milton Gibney, 4B

I moved “I felt a bit nervous when really up to Year 4, but now I am you 4 r Yea in enjoying it. Being u have yo d feel more grown up an bigger responsibilities.”

James Enraght-Moony, 4B

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“In Year 4 the Maths and Science lessons are really fun” Harry Marchant, 4C

much stricter “In Year 4 the teachers are as much!” and I can’t get away with Joel Toledano, 4C

“I love being in Year 4 because I get to be the head of the Junior School!”

Flash Mitra, 4B

“My hig hlight th is t Mr Cox for six in erm was hitting t he play Jude Fris ground by, 4C !”

Armistice Day

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he Armistice Day service takes place annually either on 11th November, or the closest date to it, at St Cyprian’s Church. That date of course marks the end of fighting in 1918 and has been the focus of Remembrance ever since. While the date may need no explanation, the location of our service may need a few words of background detail. The School’s founder, Miss Amy Hanson, as well as being active in the world of education was also heavily involved in the High Church movement within the Church of England. This movement restored much of the beauty in worship and architecture that had been lost at the time of the Reformation; many churches

were built at the end of the Victorian era to reflect this more Catholic and less Protestant form of Anglicanism. Miss Hanson was one of the main contributors to what is generally acknowledged as the most beautiful example of the style: St Cyprian’s Church, near Baker Street, which was opened in 1904. When Arnold House was founded by Miss Hanson the following year, it was natural that school services should take place at her own church. For many year’s St Cyprian’s served as the School chapel, before that role was taken on by the more conveniently located St John’s Wood Church. St Cyprian’s was still in regular use when our two war memorials were commissioned and are located in that building to this day. Therefore when the School observes Armistice Day we return to our “foundation” church once a year.

The service, in its current form, has only been held for the past ten years; for a variety of reasons the connection with St Cyprian’s was lost, but both Arnold House and St Cyprian’s are very happy at its restoration.

The order of service contains all the traditional elements from those services held around the UK on Remembrance Sunday: the reading of the names of the dead, the laying of wreathes, the Last Post and the Two Minutes Silence. In addition, ASSEMBLY

there are extra Arnold House touches – the Holy Books are placed on the altar, the Communion Plate made from melted down sports cups is also on the altar and since last year an additional wreath has been blessed

at the service. This wreath is taken back to School and hung underneath the statue of St Michael, which has a list of the war dead at its base; in the Summer it will be taken by Year 8 on their battlefields tour and placed on the grave of an Arnold House Old Boy. This year we were privileged to have an address from Mr Rick Martin, who has been working on the School archive. He has done a fantastic job is researching the School’s general history, but has found the names of some boys who, although they died during the wars, are not recorded on the memorials. While more research needs to be done into these boys, Mr Martin was able to share some information on an RAF pilot who was killed during World War Two. Anthony Mills, an Old Boy, was involved in a bombing raid on Germany and was returning to his base at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, when his plane was shot down in August 1941 – sixty years ago this year. He was an experienced pilot who had the

rank of Flight Lieutenant and had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross medal for his bravery. Rick had also learned in his research that in the past Arnold House had its own symbolic flower – the red carnation. He had a wreath made up of these flowers to place at the memorials in St Cyprian’s, and the following Sunday he went to Lincolnshire to visit the grave of Flight Lieutenant Mills and placed a flower and cross on his grave in a churchyard near RAF Scampton. This act shows that Arnold House continues to hold its war dead (9 from World War One and fifty plus from World War Two) in our collective

memory and will continue to work to ensure that the record of sacrifice is complete and known.

Only boys in Years 6-8 attend the service at St Cyprian’s as we feel it is important that they understand the solemn significance of the event. Year 6 boys spend this term studying World War One and are encouraged to find out about their own family history and the wars, as well as being taught about the Old Boys of Arnold House.

The Form captains of the Year 6 classes play a symbolic role in the service as they, not the Head Boys, place the wreaths at the memorials in St Cyprian’s – this is to remind us that it is young men who always pay the highest price in warfare. Although Years 1-5 do not attend the service, they still observe Armistice Day, with a special assembly and Two Minutes Silence on the Yard during break time.

It is indeed a moving experience to see how well behaved and dignified all the boys of whatever age are on this important day in the School calendar.

John Hill Head of History

School Archives

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t has been my pleasure during this, my final term at Arnold House, to try and put into some sort of order and record the archives the School has accumulated since 1905.

There are many gaps, especially from the 1950’s through to the 1980’s so if anyone has any old magazines, photographs or any other memories of AH please share them with the School. We will copy and return any memorabilia. Please contact Stephanie Miller at smiller@ arnoldhouse.co.uk

The ‘42 CLub Reunion dinner

Rick Martin Archivist

Will take place on 21st May 2012 at ARNOLD HOUSE SCHOOL 1Loudon Road, St Johns Wood, NW8 0LH

The dinner is for Old Boys who are 18 or over.

INVITATIONS AND BOOKING FORMS WILL BE SENT OUT IN THE NEW YEAR.

Annual Fund 2011

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ontributions towards the Annual Fund make an immediate impact on the quality of our facilities and the education we can offer the boys. As always, your continuing support of Arnold House is greatly appreciated.

To date the list of items purchased through donations towards the Annual Fund have included • • • • • • •

There are still a couple of items available on the list; if you would like to make a donation, please contact me on 020 7266 6989 or email smiller@arnoldhouse.co.uk Stephanie Miller Director of Development

New software and PC in the library LCD touch screen in the Pre-prep A3 printing press for the Art Department Video recorders for the Science Department 2 satellite navigation devices for the minibuses 9 new Casio CTK-4000 keyboards for the Music suite Photoshop Software for the iMac computers

Arnold House School 1 Loudoun Road St.John’s Wood, London NW8 0LH Telephone: 020 7266 4840 Facsimile: 020 7266 6994 Email: office@arnoldhouse.co.uk Website: www.arnoldhouse.co.uk Arnold House School Ltd (Limited by Guarantee). Registered in London Number 889424. Educational Charitable Trust Number 312725

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