Arnold House Spring Assembly 2015

ASSEMBLYSPRING 2015 From the Headmaster In the second week after half term we underwent a full inspection by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) as part of the six yearly cycle of inspections for schools affiliated to the Independent Schools Council. The new framework for inspections requires schools to send a raft of policies and procedures to ISI for the inspectors to view well before their arrival for the inspection itself. Once here, their first task was to check that those policies and procedures were being followed, especially in relation to Health and Safety, and to the Safer Recruitment of staff. Beyond that the inspectors focussed their attention on how well we are doing; again making the link between what we say or think we are doing to what the evidence suggests is actually happening.

They will make formal judgements on eight areas: the quality of pupils’ achievement and learning; the contribution of curricular and extra curricular provision; the contribution of teaching; the spiritual, moral and cultural development of the pupils; the contribution of arrangements for pastoral care; the contribution of arrangements for welfare, health and safety; the quality of governance; and the quality of leadership and management.

We can expect to receive the official report very soon. Suffice to say that the inspectors enjoyed spending time with the boys, staff, parents and governors during the inspection week and were appreciative of our efforts to be the best that we can be.

Viv Thomas

A snapshot of the Spring Term

AH hosted an U13 Hockey Tournament at Canons Park

A ‘Caps & Hats’ Charity Day was held in aid of the St John’s Hospice raising £1,155

The First XV went on Rugby Tour to Leicester

The Colts As played Newton Prep at the Rugby & Hockey Festival

Author Piers Torday held workshops for Years 3, 4 & 5 and the scholars on World Book Day

The new cricket covers arrived at Canons Park following a donation to the Annual Fund from the AHPA

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Y5 had a lesson via Skype with the Boston Tea Party Museum in the US

Y1 took part in a science workshop on materials

Y1 visited the Geffreye museum

Y3 performed ‘The Wizard of Oz’

THINK

Y4 performed ‘The Wind in the Willows’

Before You Speak

T - is it TRUE H - is it HELPFUL I - is it INSPIRING N - is it NECESSARY K - is it KIND “Bringing someone down will never help you reach the top” Arash Bagheri and Jacob Caroll raised awareness for anti-bullying week in their House Assembly Arash Bagheri, Y8 Anti-Bullying Week 2015

Y6 worked on an Art and Geography collaboration culminating in an impressive exhibition

Y7 visited the Stade de France in Paris

The Chapel Choir performed a concert in the chapel at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth

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Y2 took part in a science workshop on Forces

The AH Gymnastics 1st team competed in the Regional Qualifiers.

Y3 embraced their Egypt projects

Y2 went to Canons Park for a Great Fire of London workshop

Y6 visited the Imperial War Museum

O

n 12th March, 260 parents and staff gathered at the American School for the annual bursary fundraising event.

This year, the theme embraced a Casino style with lounge seating, a live rat pack tribute act, a variety of casino tables which remained popular and competitive throughout the night and a live auction.

Year 8 parent and comedienne Sindhu Hørder took to the microphone to provide us with an entertaining auction which amounted to a fantastic total of £21,950.

Overall, the evening raised £41,000 for the School’s Bursary Fund which will be used to support our next intake of bursary boys in September.

We would like to thank everyone for their continuing support of the Bursary Scheme and the Board of Friends and Bursary Ambassadors for all their help in putting together a memorable evening.

Stephanie Miller Director of Development

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A tribute to AH old boy Colin Winser (AH 1936-39 & 1942-44) It was with great sadness that the Arnold House community heard of the recent passing of old boy Colin Winser.

Colin was very loyal to Arnold House throughout his life and cared greatly for the Colin at AH in 1936 School, serving as a governor for many years and as Chairman of the ‘42 Club since its founding in 1956.

In 2012, Colin was kind enough to recount his memories and reminiscences of his time at Arnold House in the late 30s and early 40s; extracts of which we are delighted to share with you as a tribute to his dedication to the School: “Recollections of life as a small boy aged 4 and 11 months on starting school in April 1936 are inevitably dim but many memories of those years remain. Miss Hanson was the formidable but kindly head, who made a particular impression by being a prolific letter writer and a constant user of green ink. A quirk of the system was that all members of staff, of whatever sex, were addressed as ‘sir’, a practice which caused some bewilderment when pupils later moved to other schools.

The buildings then comprised No 1 Loudoun Road and a semi-detached Georgian house on the corner of Loudoun and Grove End roads known as The Cottage, plus an unlikely structure in the garden housing the senior form of the junior school, known appropriately as Sunhouse. By the summer term of 1936 the School had acquired the use of No 3, a newly built house designed as a family residence, being part of a major project of the Eyre Estate to modernise St John’s Wood, and we were the first to occupy it.

School events, such as Prize Giving, boxing and other competitions, were held at the Rudolf Steiner Hall in Park Road (near Baker Street), Sports Day at a sports ground at Eastcote, swimming competitions at the Finchley Road baths and PT and gymnastic displays in the playground. Games were played on Hampstead Heath Extension and less formal exercise taken on Primrose Hill. On warm days the juniors in No 3 had lessons in the garden - especially appealing when the rehearsals for the annual Hendon Air Display were being held, consisting mainly of slowmoving and noisy biplanes. Spoken French was taught by a large, black-clad, rather facially-hairy mademoiselle of indeterminate age but with a strong voice and matching personality.

Part of the top floor of No I was used as a dormitory for the few boys who boarded and they had periodically to practise evacuation drill by descending through a canvas chute from the top window above the front door.

The house keeper was a severe looking woman, Miss Musson, who wore her hair in a bun and seldom seemed to smile.

By 1938 the threat of war was looming and in September the Munich crisis made London seem potentially unsafe. Those parents who accepted the School’s invitation for their sons to join the exodus from the capital by being evacuated to Scotland saw off a party of boys from Euston to stay at the Panmure Hotel, Edzell. Little school work was done there as the facilities were limited and the small hotel was not geared to the influx of boys with wide ranging ages and a strange mixture of school staff. There were not enough beds at first and sharing was not a popular, even though necessary. The later much reviled triumphant return of Neville Chamberlain from a meeting with Hitler to herald ‘peace in our time’ enabled everyone to go back to London.

Following the German invasion of Poland, war was declared on 3rd September 1939.

The school summer holidays had not yet ended, so everyone was away and the School did not reopen for the new term. Under the new headship of George Smart, the School joined Northaw at Surrenden in Kent which consequently moved to Loton Park at Alberbury in Shropshire, taking Arnold House with it.

Loton Park was a large country house where the combined schools led a basic, rustic, but reasonably contented existence in some splendour. Lessons were held in the impressive hall wing and the staff quarters above the hall, including a small chapel, acted as dormitories. Inevitably, the plumbing arrangements were not up to the demands of such large numbers; there were few bathrooms, so cubicles were erected in an outbuilding and chemical closets were installed – a chilly experience on morning parade in the depth of winter which was a hard one in 1941/42. The lack of heating and the restrictions of rationing (combined with appalling chilblains), together with the inevitable feeling of home sickness, made for a rather grim induction to life as a boarder.

By the middle of 1942 George Smart decided that it was safe enough to reopen the school in London but by then No I had been requisitioned by the Government and was occupied by the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

A large air raid shelter was built for their use at the upper end of the school playground and this remained an imposing presence and reminder of the war for some years after. Only No 3, plus a single storey wooden structure

behind No 1, was available for use when the new term started in September. Almost all of those at Loton Park stayed there, so George Smart divided his time between St John’s Wood and Shropshire. The numbers were small but the School flourished within the confines of the restricted space and the ‘houses’; Wellington, Pitt and Nelson were re-established; games were again played on Hampstead Heath Extension and preparation by the more senior boys for Common Entrance began in earnest.

In spite of a determination to pursue a naval career I failed to get accepted for Dartmouth, so I went to Charterhouse. I expected, as did many others, to see the ending of the war in Europe in May 1945 as a time of the return not only of all those who had been called to serve their country but also of more plentiful food, clothing, fuel and the ability to travel.

This was not to be; the country was bankrupt after five years of desperate struggle, life became in many ways even more difficult and food rationing lasted until 1954, with continued high rates of taxation and severe limitations on the use of foreign currency.

Nevertheless, the popularity of private education persisted and for schools such as Arnold House the demand gradually picked up. No 1 was re-occupied and the air raid shelter eventually demolished; old members of staff came back to join those new to the School; and numbers started to grow again as the population of London expanded.”

The Headmaster, Bursar and many old boys attended Colin’s memorial service at St. Nicholas Church, Compton, Surrey on the 13th March. The sense of tradition at Arnold House and continuity from one era to another is a distinctive feature of our School, so it was not altogether surprising that the hymns that were sung (I vow to thee my country, Jerusalem and Dear Lord and Father of mankind) remain firm favourites with the boys of today. It is safe to say that Colin would have greatly approved.

Colin at the ’42 Club Dinner in 2012

Arnold House School 1 Loudoun Road St. John’s Wood, London NW8 0LH Arnold House School Ltd (Limited by Guarantee). Registered in London Number 889424. Educational Charitable Trust Number 312725

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