You are reading the online edition of the Old Camdenians Newsletter, December 2023.

Dear Old Camdenians

I want to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy holiday season. It has been a very long term and our staff and students need some time to rest and recuperate. With all the terrible things happening in the world at the moment it is really important that we continue to highlight our values. What I admire most about our school community is our diversity and willingness to help others. These values will carry our youngsters a long way in life as they have done with you; and those values start at home with their families. So a big thank you as your generosity towards our school community ensures our youngsters are well versed in how to support others. It is our firm belief that it does not matter who you are, nor where you come from, you will always be able to find a place in our school community. Believe. Belong. Become.

Our school council asked that we raise money for Save the Children https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/ in support of the children affected by the conflict in Gaza. The children in Gaza have been living through a nightmare; one that gets more distressing by the hour. Children in Gaza and Israel have been killed and subjected to unspeakable violence. Hospitals and schools sheltering civilians have been destroyed. Our school community recognised that the children caught up in this terrible conflict, who had nothing to do with causing it, urgently needed our help. So on Wednesday 20th December we held a non-school uniform day. We also had a fundraiser earlier this term for the charity Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) https://www.theredcard.org/ This is the UK’s leading anti-racism educational charity. It was established in January 1996, thanks in part to a donation by then Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop. In 1990s Newcastle, Shaka was at a petrol station near St. James’ Park when he was confronted with a group of young people shouting racist abuse at him. After one of the group realised that they had been shouting at Shaka Hislop, the Newcastle United football player, they came over to ask for an autograph.

https://youtu.be/Yd9C46ygmdo It was from this experience that Shaka realised he could harness his status as a professional player to make a difference. Coupled with the power of football and his status as a role model, Shaka thought education could be an effective strategy in challenging racism in society. With the current rise in islamophobia and antisemitism it is even more important that we take a stand against racist behaviour. Our school identifies ‘Respect for everyone’ as one of our core beliefs.

In other news our Year 11 students have completed their autumn term mock exams and we are so pleased with the way they have conducted themselves during their exams. This is really encouraging ahead of the spring term mocks in March. They will receive their mock grades when we have moderated the marking in early January.

I thought that I would also let you know that the Islington Futures Federation comes to an end on 12th December. Beacon High will be a standalone local authority school for the foreseeable future. We have gained a lot from working in partnership with other local schools during a time of change for our school. Beacon High is now in a position of strength very much because of our community who are the best advocates for the school and its commitment to inclusion. We are confident that in January, the school will be in a much stronger position to move forward. We have expanded the Governing Board with more parent and staff Governors and we have recruited new community Governors including Panos as a co-opted governor and OCC representative. We are now ready to really focus on our school, which will be of great benefit to students, staff, parents, and the local community. Alan Streeter

Thank you, Alan, for that uplifting report on the school’s recent activities and achievements. At a time when world events seem to give the lie to this being a season of peace and goodwill, the school continues to be, as it were, a beacon of light for its community and we as Old Camdenians will continue to support it for as long as we can.

I have to own up and say I couldn’t make the Annual Lunch this year owing to family commitments in Australia, but as Ray reports below, it was a hugly enjoyable occasion, thanks in large part to the presence of our distinguished alumnus Laurence Marks, as well as the unveiling of a memorial to George and Pam Ives. The lunch actually made a small profit, though it has to be said that unless more people support it, its future in its present form remains on the line. Anyway, barring any misfortune, I shall definitely be there in more than spirit next time.

As Alan Streeter has indicated, over recent months much has changed in the way the school is governed. One of the appointments to the new board of governors is our own committee member, Panos Nicolaides, who reports below on the scope of these changes.

Old Camdenians continue to send in reports of their activities, and requests to link up with old school pals. Do read on for the delightful message from Ted Ling, whose school blues band, the Exeats, lives on to this day. I find the band’s name evocative (the word may not be used now, but in my day an exeat was a precious thing – official permission from the school to be absent).

On that note, I would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2024. Denis Piggott

On the 12th of December 2023 Beacon High had the inaugural meeting of its new board of governors. Until then it was part of a federation of three schools that shared a board of governors. Given the challenges faced by schools, this arrangement proved to be unsatisfactory, no school was able to command the amount of time needed to focus on its issues. So the board was dissolved and each school now has its own board.

The new boards have a main committee with three sub committees. The sub committees are

a. Inclusion and Safeguarding
b. Finance, Risk & Resources
c. Curriculum and & Standards

At the inaugural meeting the members of each committee were appointed and from now on they will attend two sets of meetings, the overall ones and their allotted sub committees.

The Governing board will have the following types of governors

• Parent governors
• The Headteacher
• Staff governors
• An LA governor (local authority representative)
• Co-opted governors (These are people who are not connected to the school and usually bring in useful life experiences)

What do Governors do

A google search suggest that school governors are about helping the school set its vision and direction, whilst being in touch with the ethos of the school. It is not about interfering with the day to day running of the school. The key concerns are about:

• Holding the school to account for its educational performance
• Overseeing the school’s financial performance and trying to ensure that money is wisely spent.

It is very much a role where the governors use their life and business experiences to help the school move forward. In these difficult days of austerity schools face a very challenging time. So it is important for schools to make and implement good decisions. A governor must be prepared to contribute to the ongoing discussions and at the same time be sensitive to the pressures which the school and its staff work under. They should, in addition, have a care about the welfare of the students.

Beacon High is a school that has challenges and is now negotiating its way through these in positive and creative manner. It meets its challenges in a sensitive and successful way. It strives to provide a positive and enjoyable educational experience for its students. I now am, in a small way, part of this process having been appointed a governor and look forward to contributing. Panos Nicolaides

Jacky Nickless and Dr Jane Steele (George and Pam Ives’s niece in law and niece)

A picture says a thousand words. Jacky and Jane were our guests at the annual lunch and unveiled Uncle George and Aunty Pam’s memorial.

Rosa, Maria, Chenyi, Yaseem, Dan, Hassan, Brendan, Harvey, Ray, Wail, Owen, Adhum and Hamid at the 96th Annual Lunch

Our new generation of Old Camdenians, all of whom were Headteacher’s Ambassadors during their time at the school. They joined us for our 96th Annual Lunch. Each received £100 to spend towards their college studies. Brendan Harrington-Cutter returned this year and had a great time. Let us hope that more Old Camdenians will return to next year’s reunion and lunch at the school on Friday 25th October 2024. A date for your diary!

Laurence Marks reading extracts from his schoolboy diaries.

Laurence Marks is a screenwriter and one half of writing duo Marks and Gran (with Maurice Gran). Prior to becoming a sitcom writer, he was a reporter for a local weekly paper, the Tottenham Weekly Herald, and also worked as writer/researcher for Thames Television’s current affairs programme, This Week. Laurence and Mo are the authors of Prudence at Number 10, a fictional diary written as though by a P.A. of UK prime minister Gordon Brown. Also, Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, The New Statesman and Shine on Harvey Moon. Their theatre works include Dreamboats and Petticoats, Von Ribbentrop’s Watch, Love Me Do, Playing God, Save the Last Dance for Me, and Dreamboats and Miniskirts. Laurence is an Arsenal fan and wrote the book A Fan for All Seasons (1999), a diary of his life as a writer and an Arsenal supporter.

Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley wrote in the Financial Times on 3rd October, 2023:

“On January 28 1965, Laurence Marks, a 16-year-old schoolboy, bunked off school with three friends to queue for hours in the freezing cold in order to file quietly past Winston Churchill’s coffin in Westminster Hall.

Laurence was surprised by the length of the queue, which reminded him of cup final day at Wembley and by the woman ahead of him who was sobbing (‘I don’t understand her tears because it isn’t like she ever met Winston Churchill’). On the day of Churchill’s funeral, two days later, Laurence sympathises more with his father, who has seen his great war leader buried on the same day that his football team, Arsenal, has been knocked out of the FA Cup by Peterborough United.

This story appears right at the end of David Kynaston’s magisterial A Northern Wind, but as a vignette it is characteristic of the book in a number of ways. Drawn from the private diary of an ordinary British teenager, the story is personal, funny and a little bittersweet.”

Laurence made us all laugh when he read from his diaries that included the above extract, plus a teenager’s fascination with Christine Keeler, whom he interviewed many years later when he wrote the film about the Profumo affair, called ‘Scandal’ (1989). Laurence told us that one of the joys of his life has been to meet many of the people he wrote about as a schoolboy in his diary. Thank you Laurence for sharing them with us and let us hope that the new generation of Old Camdenians start their own diary record too.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Sarah Evans, ex- Chair of Governors, Islington Futures Federation, for all her hard work and support in making the transition and the setting up of the Beacon High School Governors.

Also, a hearty congratulations to Panos Nicolaides in his new role and keeping up the tradition of an Old Camdenian as a school Governor.

We say good bye to Iain Parkhouse, our OCC Financial Adviser for the Bill and Nora Wraight Old Camdenians Memorial Fund (B&NWOCM Fund), on his retirement and thank him for all his help and advice. We welcome Tony Bass, our new OCC Financial Adviser for the B&NWOCM Fund. Indeed, Tony joined us for our annual lunch – welcome on board Tony. We currently have four trustees for the B&NWOCM Fund: John Maskell; Panos Nicolaides; Martin Quilter and myself. Ideally, we are looking for a fifth trustee to join us. If you think you could assist please contact me.

I wish to congratulate Emeritus Professor Philip Patsalos, a stalwart supporter of the Old Camdenians, on the success of his ‘Patsalos Prize’, which was set up in 2005 to encourage young upcoming clinicians/scientists to excel in the increasingly important clinical discipline of TDM (Therapeutic Drug Monitoring). The award is Euros 5,000 and the money is awarded to the individual not the institution. If you log on to PubMed (National Library of Medicine) and search either Patsalos or TDM, you will find much to read. Well done Philip and all the best for the future.

A big thank you to you all for supporting the school’s Uniform Fund – providing school uniforms for disadvantaged secondary school pupils (see below) – well done! The school council is seeking to raise money for Save the Children https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/ in support of the children affected by the conflict in Gaza. The children in Gaza have been living through a nightmare; one that gets more distressing by the hour. Children in Gaza and Israel have been killed and subjected to unspeakable violence. Please see our President’s comments above.

Also, I would like to thank Ted Ling for his positive comments about our newsletters. Our quarterly newsletters are a window on the Old Camdenians for all to share. I am very grateful to those of you who have contributed to this month’s newsletter – thank you.

You will remember that Reg Prentice was unable to attend the AGM & Annual Lunch, however, he gave his apologies and best wishes to all from his bed in Whipps Cross Hospital, via video, which I recorded. You will be pleased to know that Reg is a lot better, fitter and stronger. With no lasting affects from his fall. He has booked his place for next year –  best wishes Reg.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year in 2024.Ray Rowe

Old Camdenians Sports Bursary

Melina and Isla

Melina and the team

Update from Henry T Gaspard, Black Arrow Badminton Club

Melina’s focus over the past two months has been on maintaining a good record while representing Middlesex County U17’s team in the county league. To date she has played four matches with Middlesex, winning two and losing two. Melina has however won most of her individual matches contributing to the team’s overall scores. Melina has also played two tournaments but failed to make the final stages, despite good performances against seeded players. Her main tournament goal is to improve her speed and on court coverage and getting through to the medal stages. Melina won the Black Arrows Christmas Inter-Club tournament yesterday, partnering Isla May-Spence.

Hopefully 2024 will be a more rewarding year for Melina with tournament wins. I have included a few photos of her and Middlesex County Team and Inter club tournament. Henry

Sports Leaders at Year 2 Mini Olympics

The first sports leader event of the academic year took place in the sports hall with the Year 2 Mini Olympics. Six primary schools came (three in the morning and three in the afternoon), taking part in seven different activities, which were explained, demonstrated and run by 26 sports leaders. Able to apply for the position of sports leader, most were making their first leadership appearances, with many coming from Year 7 for the first time, but all years 7-10 being represented. They did a fantastic job and were praised by event organiser Michael Peat for how well they took to the tasks, working with some very excitable 6 and 7 year olds! It was an excellent way to kick start another busy year of leading sports for the new look team. Bill Wood

From the Beacon 24th November 2023

The club is very grateful for any and all donations that we receive to make our donations to the school. However, since we do not have a members’ subscription fee our only other source of income is through the George Ives 50+ Club membership. Please help us to realise future causes and help change a life by joining the George Ives 50+ Club, which is £60 per year or a standing order of £5 per month. A number between 1 and 59 is selected and that is entered into a monthly draw which is determined by the first two numbers drawn in the National Lottery. Prizes are £100 (£200 in November) and £20 (£50 in November).  For more information contact us here.

This term’s been a weather-induced rollercoaster for me, impacting my morning motivation. Dark wake-ups are a challenge, but the uni’s wellbeing team and my support network have been real game-changers. I also got a new audio for my alarm that is quite funny to hear when I wake up so it’s also been helping get up on time. Currently navigating the end-of-term chaos with all the assignments and tests, and I’m especially nervous to get my Chinese test results back. I did really well on my half term test (received 78%) but this recent one I did yesterday was slightly more difficult. However I’m excitedly anticipating holidays with the family as this year will be spent in Bristol. Wishing everyone and their family happy holidays and good health! Marta

You too can request details from our members to locate friends from school – just ask!

Holloway School 1965/66

I’m 9th from the right, top row, you can see the school emblem on my jacket pocket. Somewhere in there is Charlie George who went on to play for Arsenal. Also, our headmaster, Mr Lewis.

My first school was Tufnell Park Primary which was just across the road from Holloway.

I don’t think my year was known for its intellectual prowess, but the sports were superb. I played in goal, Charlie George as centre forward. I remember fantastic days out playing golf, sailing, horse riding, football, cricket and in later days, rugby and hockey. We had regular visitors from the football world such as Bob Wilson, Arsenal goalkeeper, and Mike England for Spurs. Our sports master I’m sure was Alan Wright.

I found the website by searching for a particular pupil and adding the words Holloway County Comprehensive, Google did the rest and pointed me in the right direction. I live in Herefordshire now so getting to London is a three-hour drive but I will keep in touch via the website.

I did teach swimming for a while, but then work changed. I travelled abroad for a few years with Thomson Holidays. For some years i have been helping my daughter with her company which specialises in horse sales. We have our own horses and I support her in show jumping and eventing competitions. The names of many of my contemporaries have unfortunately been forgotten, apart from the few I mentioned earlier. Bryan Hardy

I live in Switzerland, but I still have contact with a few boys from my class back then (1959 to 1965). During that time there were two “beat” bands comprising mostly guitarists and I had the pleasure to play bass in one of those bands, playing rhythm’n’blues and blues. Some of us got back together in 2010 to talk about the old times and the Blues. In 2012, we recorded fourtracks on CD pjust to give to our families. But we found a very appropriate name for the band:The Exeats. We have recorded two more albums under the Holloway School emblem; “Back To Our Roots” in 2018 and “Love Don’t Call Me” in 2020. Alas, our beloved drummer Mike Denyer passed away from Covid on New Year’s Eve 2020 and we all understood that the magic of our friendship could not be topped with a substitute drummer. And so the story of “The Exeats” ended.

Here is a note about my father, Thomas Norman Jones, who was, briefly, an Old Camdenian.

TN Jones, or Norman as he preferred to be called, was born in Leeds on the 12th of June, 1920. His father was a teacher in Leeds but was of Welsh extraction. Norman attended Leeds Grammar School until 1929, when he became a student of French and German at Leeds University. He graduated on July 4th 1932 with a Double First in French and German. This was two separate degrees, not a Joint degree as came to be the norm later. During his time as a student he had also attended both the University of Breslau (as it was then) in Germany, and the University of Strasbourg in France. I assume he joined the teaching staff of Holloway School as a Modern Languages teacher straight after his graduation. Certainly he was evacuated, with his young family, to the Towcester area with the school in 1939 at the outbreak of WW2, and while there also served in the Home Guard as long as he was able.

He married Margaret Haslop in December 1935 in Leeds, and had one daughter, born in May 1939. He died at Leeds Royal Infirmary in December 1941 from acute myeloid leukaemia.

My mother, his widow, remarried in April 1943. Her second husband was RJ King, also a master at Holloway School. Kathleen Maxwell

Here are two snaps from a Holloway School visit to Germany in 1936. In the Cologne photo my father, TN Jones, is 2nd from the left of the photo, and my mother 2nd from the right.

Holloway school visit to Cologne in 1936

Holloway school visit to Cologne in 1936

And here are two of the photographs from that album of the 1930s mentioned above

R.J.King, staff and 6th Form camp 1930s

The 114th AGM was held in the Camdenians Hall at the school on Friday 27th October 2023. For the first time, it was Zoomed live to our members who could not be there. The AGM was followed by an unveiling ceremony of our memorial plaque to George and Pam Ives in the school’s meeting room by Alan Meyer, Honorary Life Vice President, and Dr Jane Steele and Jack Nickless, Pam’s and George’s niece and niece-in-law. This was followed by our 96th Annual Lunch under the stewardship of Ann Tennant and her team that included Headteacher’s Ambassadors.

Laurence Marks, one of our school’s most celebrated alumni, read from his 1963 diaries, which we all found very amusing and there was much laughter -well done!

We do need your support to keep this yearly tradition going. So please put it in your diary for Friday 25th October 2024 and if you cannot come donate a seat so our new Old Camdenians at college can attend. The format for the day includes a tour of the school, followed by a reception with drinks, the AGM and then a sit-down meal with friends. Also, if you are interested in attending an evening event during the year, such as the quiz night or formal dinner please let us know and we will see if we can organise something for you. Use the ‘Contact’ button or drop me an email.