21st September 1996
On returning to the School we might reflect on how the institution has evolved over the ninety years since its foundation in King Edward VII's name. Formerly a public school represented at the Headmasters' Conference, grammar school status was adopted under the wide reforms of the Butler Education Act which were then pursued with vigour by the Atlee government as a means of engineering social change.
Direct comparison with the past is disingenuous but the School still draws its intake from across the city and has this year obtained its best ever GCSE results; some 144 pupils took A Levels: or their equivalent and most have secured a place in tertiary education. This is a most creditable performance for which all concerned should be warmly congratulated.
The Anniversary appeal has raised a good deal of money but I would like to look towards the future and focus our attention on the Upper School. Here I believe the Old Edwardians Association may positively help today's generation of sixth formers by targeting those areas of School life which central and local government can no longer fully support and may never do so again. For example, the scale of issue of computers for pupils' use and the provision of library facilities now fall below accepted standards and, as you will observe when walking around the building, the very fabric of its fine structure and detail continues to deteriorate.
By 'pump priming' work in even these vital areas, what the Association may do now is assist the efforts of the School Governors and the Headteacher, Michael Lewis towards the. redressing of the balance in favour of our successors in title and bestowing upon them some measure of the advantage that we perhaps enjoyed in our time.
Please continue to help the School by supporting the activities of the Old Edwardians' Association – I shall keep you informed of our progress.
The purpose of the first issue of The Edwardian is to give members of the OE's Association, many of whom may have lost touch with old friends from School, information which may help them. It is a kick-start for what we hope will become an informative and entertaining publication in future years.
It
is intended to publish and distribute the newsletter annually in July from now
on. Its content will keep members of the OEA in touch with what people are doing,
what is going on in the School and what the Association is doing for the School.
Obviously we need comment and stories from you about what you are up to: either short biographical notes or full-blown narrative. It seems that if OEs really are running the country as often seems to be the case, we might want to keep in contact with each other.
Through the sterling efforts of Adrian Belton in raising £1,000 in sponsorship, we are purchasing a new computer for Ann Smith, the Headmaster's secretary, to keep just such a database of OEs and their interests. So if you want to get in touch with someone just ring Ann (0114 266 2518) and the contact can be made. In order that only bona fide contact is made, it is not our intention to publish a list of members' addresses or telephone numbers.
We will also publish articles on the activities of the sports Association's Football and Cricket Sections. extracts from past School magazines, social information and anything else that might be of interest to members. The richness of the content depends to a large extent on you, the members, so please stay in touch.
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OE Norman Adsetts draws the curtains to unveil the commemorative
plaque in the company of
RIGHT John Cornwell (Chair of Governors), LEFT Councillor Viv Nicholson Chair of Education), and Councillor David Heslop (Lord Mayor of Sheffield). |
I am delighted that the impetus generated by our 90th Anniversary and Appeal has prompted the Old Edwardians' Association committee to produce this newsletter. All of us connected with the School today wish the venture well.
You will be pleased to know that the School is flourishing. For the first time ever, our numbers in the Sixth Form exceed 400. Examination results are excellent; on the sporting field, the School has won the City of Sheffield Firth-Vickers trophy for Athletics for the 4th consecutive year. Our new building, still awaiting a name, preferably of an Old Edwardian benefactor, has greatly enhanced facilities. The generosity of Old Edwardians has contributed more than £40,000 to the Appeal.
The School is in good heart as it prepares for the millennium. We are always pleased to welcome former pupils back to the School and to hear of their news.
Published elsewhere in this newsletter are details of recent academic success. We look forward to hearing from you.
The new as yet unnamed building (the first extension at Glossop Road since the 1960's) was opened by OE Norman Adsetts OBE, AN, on Wednesday 15th September 1996.
Funding came back to the school via Sheffield Education Committee, after the sale of Melbourne House (once both a teaching and a boarding element of the school) to Tom Cobleigh, the pub company.
The new building, erected by Wildgoose Construction, lies on two floors. and incorporates two rooms for those of the sixth form: a common room and a 'quiet' room. Subjects taught within the building at some time within a week comprise music, history, languages, politics and sociology.
Many of you will probably have heard of the death of Mr Waghorn back in 1979. You may not have seen the retirement story that appeared in the school magazine reproduced here verbatim.
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Oh the tragedy! Whiteley Woods
sports fields still beautifully maintained
(for the use of a private school in Sheffield) but minus the wooden pavilion. |
"WAG"- Mr Waghorn, the groundsman at Whiteley Woods, who is shortly to retire, had the dubious distinction of being born in the local hostelry at Robertsbridge, Sussex where his father was known as "Old Wag", his elder brother as "Big Wag" and Mr Waghorn himself, as "Little Wag". However, for many years he has been known to almost everyone, including his wife as simply "Wag".
"Wag" joined Sussex CCC at the age of fifteen and played for the County for five years before joining the staff at Lord's, where he bowled at many distinguished cricketers including Larwood, Rhodes and the great Bradman. While there "Wag" broke his knee playing football and it has been held together ever since by silver wire. It was feared that he might never walk again and "Wag" was advised to walk as much as possible. Thus, he has walked between Whiteley Woods and his home four miles every day since he became groundsman on April Fool's Day 1935 and in doing so has clocked nearly 53,000 miles.
There have been many changes at Whiteley Woods since "Wag" first became groundsman; the roller is no longer pulled by a badly behaved horse wearing football cases on its hooves and neither is it necessary to clear "cow flops" off the cricket pitches which were originally in a farmer's field. Furthermore, it has rarely been necessary in recent years, for "Wag" to remove goal posts from Wire Mill Dam after they had been put there by vandals.
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King Edward VII Upper
School.
Still a little room for outdoor activities. |
"Wag's" exploits on the cricket field have been of a varied nature. On one occasion, while playing for the OE's at Rochester, he dared a fast bowler to bowl a ball at him, which although driven strongly enough, stuck firmly to his bat... On another, the school's opponents failed to arrive and "Wag" played and defeated the First XI single-handed.
In addition to being a groundsman and a cricketer, "Wag' has filled many other roles ranging from rescuing rotund obstacle racers from barrels and pig-nets to explaining why the showers fell down on the head of one of the school's previous headmasters, Mr Graham. Members of High Storrs school who took short-cuts across Whiteley Woods lived in mortal fear of "Wag's" huge dog, one Jasper, and soon scurried away when he threatened to call it out. Indeed, he was still scaring boys by threatening to call the dog out for four years after it died.
During the war "Wag" was a fire-watcher with the lady teachers of KES, but the potential dangers of the Luftwaffe never prevented him from coaching the ladies' team in the middle of the night.
And so with the retirement of "Wag", the school has lost one of its great characters and will be the poorer for it. The good wishes of all who have known him go with him when he retires to a house only a quarter of a mile from where he was born in Sussex.
That was, perhaps, the natural and inevitable demise of one of the enduring images of our youth. Just as sad perhaps is the loss of the pitches and pavilion at Whiteley Woods itself. Their decline and eventual loss is recorded in the minutes of the Association and it makes grim reading. Paradise Lost. Over the years, team games as many of us knew it, has largely disappeared from the curriculum of schools nationally.
The Whiteley Woods ground is currently owned by the City Council and their hoped-for building plans have been thwarted by planning constraints. Could paradise be regained? Should the Association take an interest? How could we as the Association encourage the renaissance of team sport in the School? Perhaps as individuals we could help? Pass your thoughts to the publisher and we will summarise the debate in the next issue (July 1997).
It may seem a bit keen to harp on about the need to help the School when so many of you have given generously to the Anniversary appeal, but the needs will not simply go away and it seems appropriate to look to the future.
Things have changed since many of us left School. Public sector spending cuts have left their mark in many areas of society but, as any of you who are parents will be aware, local education authorities have had to prune much routine spending and almost all capital expenditure. As a consequence, many of the resources that we took for granted in our days at KES are simply no longer available so there is an opportunity for OEs, either collectively or individually, to now put back into the system a little of what the system gave to us.
I'm sure we are all generous of spirit, but I also feel that some of us would rather not see our contributions, either in kind or in money, simply disappear into a general fund to be disposed of by people we don't really know, towards causes with which we have little sympathy.
It seems sensible, therefore, in order to let you as individuals know where some of the holes in the School's infrastructure are, so that if you want to help plug them, you can do so through a donation that you may wish to make directly to the School expressly for a specific purpose.
Here is a list (by no means exhaustive but showing some of the most glaring needs).
If you have an area of interest and you feel you would like to help, please make direct contact with the Headteacher, Michael Lewis (0114) 266 2518.
Those of you who have noted the significance of this year's school activities will have spotted that in ten years time it will be the hundredth anniversary of KES' foundation in its present incarnation. If you have enjoyed the celebrations this September (and more particularly. if you haven't) why not start throwing in ideas for 2006' We think it a suitable focus for future planning.
The school's own published target for fundraising stands at £250,000, a sum designed to secure the school as a centre of excellence "far into the future”.
The three elements put forward by the Headteacher this spring comprised the Premises Fund, the Learning Resources Fund and The Science and Technology Fund. Three themes with which to face the millennium while celebrating a century of KES - in just ten years time.
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Ben Killingley |
First class Honours in Pharmacology, Liverpool (continuing medical studies) |
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Kevin Slack |
First class BA in. Law, Emmanuel College, Cambridge |
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Mark Bennett |
First class BSc in Maths, Birmingham |
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Matthew Fisher |
2:1 BSc in Maths, Birmingham |
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Victoria Andrews |
2:1 BSc in Maths and Psychology, Birmingham |
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William Vale |
First BSc in Maths, Durham |
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Caroline Sephton |
2:2 BA in Languages, Aston University |
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Emma Nicholson |
2:1 BA in Languages, Aston University |
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John Bentley |
Distinction, First Public Examination, Modern History and Modern Languages, Keble College, Oxford |
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Richard Marsh |
2:1 BA Modern Languages, University of Bradford |
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Jeremy French |
MB BSc BMed Sc, University of Newcastle |
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Peter Ould |
2:2 BA Economics& Social Studies, University of Manchester |
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Simon Nicholson |
2:1 BSc Maths, University of Newcastle |
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Paul Wrigglesworth |
2:1 BSc Environmental Science, University of Bradford |
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Martin Varley |
2:1 BSc Geology, University of Durham |
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Louise Yeardley |
2:2 BSc Biology and Maths, University of Leeds |
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Helen Brownlow-Smith |
2:1 BA Media Studies & Business Management, Warrington Collegiate Institute |
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Vanessa Eaton |
2:1 BSc Biology, University of York |
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Mary Behagg |
2:2 BSc Science, University of Leicester |
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David Briggs |
MB ChB Medicine, University of Leicester |
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Kirsten Quirk |
2:1 BSc Psychology, University of Leicester |
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Kathryn Wragg |
2:1 BSc Geology, University of Leicester |
Old Edwardian 1996 Year Representative - Elizabeth Holden.
The nation declared better than average school results this year and KES proved no exception.
Beating its all time GCSE score since the year of their introduction in 1988, the statistics make interesting reading: 64.9% of the results were A-C, an achievement 11% above the national average. 144 took A Levels, of which a third scored A or B. The overall A-E pass rate was 86.5%.
100% pass rates were achieved in Design and Technology, Geology, German, Further Maths, Music, Sociology, Spanish and Theatre Studies. Five students achieved four passes at Grade A and three achieved three grade A passes.
Pupils sat GNVQs for the first time this year, over half the candidates (56.2%) achieved distinctions or merits.
This fund-raising evening takes place on behalf of both cricket and football sections. representing an excellent evening of sporting fellowship. The evening will take place in January.
A small Badminton Section of seven (elderly) members exists. Secretary is Mike Blagden - telephone 01709 378216 (home)
A recent committee meeting under the new presidency of Philip Skinner directly tackled the thorny question of subscriptions to the Old Edwardians' Association.
The difficulty lies in the past tradition of offering life membership at a fixed fee, which to our certain knowledge was two guineas in 1955 rising to just £3.00 at the present day - hardly keeping pace with the rise in RPI! This practice dooms the Association to inactivity at all levels, since incoming funds do not even cover the cost of mailing all members annually. Consequently, a proposal was put forward at the recent committee meeting, which is to be discussed fully at the AGM next year. The principle though, is quite clear. to allow the introduction of an annual subscription at revised rates. For a modest annual fee, this newsletter may continue to be published, members will be contacted regarding events, and critically income may be assembled for the benefit and improvement of School facilities. No backdating of life members will be practicable. If our proposal is approved, existing life members would simply be invited to become annual subscribers.
All views regarding the issue are invited by the publisher.
The Old Edwardian's Football Club today consists of around twenty members, most of whom have played together regularly for years. Their immediate hope is for new young blood - welcome at training (Thursdays) and matches (Saturday).
This season sees a new ground - the Davy Sports Facilities in Darnall. Enjoying full changing facilities and a bar, with food served, the players now feel they have arrived! The club plays in the Wragg League for over 35's - a safe haven since the average age is around 39. Rob Dance is the club captain, with OE team members including Paul Roebuck, Ian Moore, Paul McFarlane and John Speight.
There are approximately twenty-two league games per season, plus matches within the region's Junior Cup.
A sponsor for the veteran side is clearly desired, so funds can offset play and strip costs. Supporters are welcome at every match, and the club's wish to introduce a junior team could only emerge with another strong year group or two, in the way the existing members are close in age.
Contacts for all club matters are:
Robert Houson 0114 270 1811 (Work) 0114 248 3946 (Home)
Robert Dabbs 0114 267 9669 (Work)
Today game sports at KES are played here at one of Darwin Lane's two sports fields.
The section runs two elevens which play in the Yorkshire and Derbyshire league. The section is well supported, with over 30% of the playing membership currently OEs.
The first XI has had a good season finishing close to the top of Division One, ahead of Sheffield Collegiate and runners up in the League Cup.
The Section plays at Abbeydale Sports Club on Saturdays and mid week next season.
The Cricket Section dinner is to be at Abbeydale. Saturday 19th October bringing up to 150 cricket enthusiasts together. New players are always welcome. Contact Andy Leiper, club secretary - 0114 2301926 (home). 0114 272261 (work). Supporters of the Cricket Section can contribute via a monthly Draw 200 Club. The £1 a month draw can be secured by annual cheque or standing order.
Annual Reunion Dinner Friday 4th April 1997. Cutlers' Hall 7.30 for 8.00 pm dark lounge suit/black tie*
OEs Rugby Match, late April 1997. Sheffield Tigers. Dore Moor
OEs v KES Cricket Match. June 1997. Abbeydale Park
Cocktail Party Friday 19th September 1997, Cutlers' Hall.
*NB This is not Maundy Thursday as before, but the Friday of Easter Week.
When it was finally decided to plan for a major activity in the year of the school's 90th anniversary, a meeting was arranged at the Headteacher's behest.
As a sign of the significance of the event, letters came from one of the city's most famous businessmen, acting in his role as an Old Edwardian.
Norman Adsetts, former chairman of Sheffield Insulations, assembled a wide-ranging locally-based team around him, including past teaching staff, PR guru David Pollard and redoubtable BBC Radio Sheffield sports supremo Bob Jackson.
The various advices submitted culminated in a major research programme to identify past scholars, and the establishment of the planned 90th Anniversary open weekend.
No-one should be identified as the prime energy behind the event more than the incumbent headteacher Michael Lewis, who demonstrated his initiative and understanding of the advice proffered as the events drew nearer. His secretary, Ann Smith, the tireless co-ordinator of the 90th Anniversary celebrations should also be acknowledged as the event's lynch pin.
Elsewhere in this issue, is recorded the results of the 90th Anniversary appeal. However, as far as staff, pupils and Old Edwardians descending on the School from the four corners of the globe are concerned, it is the ‘home coming' weekend that has caught the imagination.
The Old Edwardians' Association proposes to build on the success of the event by identifying more active proponents of the School from amongst the visitors and gaining support for the planned improvement in the level of support the Association might provide the School.
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150 Old Edwardians reunited at Glossop Road last April.
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The September weekend has been upstaged more than once within the past twelve months by Old Edwardians staging smaller reunions on two separate occasions.
The first took place in September last year, pulling together representatives of the 1975 leaving year. Musical stars Graham Fellows and Joe Elliott were amongst some fifty people who congregated at a venue within the Health Authority headquarters in Fulwood. The catalyst had been a plug for the reunion on Radio Hallam.
The second event, as recently as this April, took place at the Upper School, reaching up to 150 Old Edwardians via the pages of The Star and The Gazette.
The event was well organised proffering live music from Philip Prince's band, and food/drink within a £5.00 fee.
"This year group represented Old Edwardians concentrated around the 1974 leaving year of flour bomb fame. It was great. There was quite a spread of ages, made up of people who had seen The Star story," says Christine Moore, one of the organisers.
The Star ran a picture of a King Edwards VII form, confronted by a dog, during what was clearly meant to be a formal photo shoot.
"Seeing people for the first time in twenty years was an eye-opener. Some had changed a lot, and put on weight. Some hadn't changed at all."
Contacts were co-ordinated by Robert Dodds Tel: 0114 268 2342 and Christine Moore Tel: 01909 772697.
Adrian
Belton, (1967-73), Area Director of Barclays Bank, returned this year to Sheffield
in time to support the school's 90th Anniversary Appeal.
Adrian's contribution culminated in his participation in the city's Marathon earlier this year, where his sponsorship, matched £ for £ by Barclays, has meant a major IT contribution to the School.
Not only did the School administration gain a new top of the range computer, but pupils now have access to five redundant 38$6 computers which were presented to the School at the same time.
The new pc goes to Headteacher's secretary Anne Smith. Her assembly of the 90th Anniversary invitations on behalf of the school utilised limited resources which have now happily been updated through Adrian's efforts. We are most grateful for this contribution on behalf of the School and the Association.
The Old Edwardians' Association hopes also to be a beneficiary of the new technology, as membership details may become accessible employing a modern database.
HAVE YOU NEWS?HAVE YOU PICTURES?DO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE?Contact the school or any named committee member. We will be pleased to hear from you. |
"Roll up, Roll up" for the Old Edwardians' Association Annual Reunion
Dinner. An institution that has survived the worst ravages of time and is now
in a major upward cycle, the Annual dinner is the largest assembly of OE's each
year.
Outgrowing Baldwin's Omega leads us next year to the elegance of the Cutlers' Hall, on Friday 4th April 1997 at 7.00 for 7.30 pm. Cost of the four course dinner comes in at £18.00 per head with dress code lounge suit or black tie.
A discount is available of £3.00 to those in full time education. This evening is mixed, and guests are encouraged to attend.
Tables or individual tickets can be ordered now, with cheques payable to the Old Edwardians' Association and sent via Ann Smith at the school. In answer to the obvious question, tables are encouraged and seating arrangements are managed according to years when at the school.
A wide spread of years are represented and the evening is graced by the Association's cricket and football clubs.
Mathew Bannister (1967-74), the Controller of Radio One, has accepted our invitation to speak after dinner, promising a fascinating insight into the core of the BBC's current and future strategy.
Published by:
Inform PR. Aizlewood's Mil,l Nursery Street, Sheffield S3 8GG; Tel: 0114 282
3313
on behalf of
Old Edwardians Association, King Edward VII School