DECEMBER ISSUE 2013 Central Foundation Boys’ School Newsletter

CONTENTS:

Alumni: Law 02 Alumni: Sports 03 Central Foundation Boys’ School is proud of its long history and leg- Alumni: Presenters 04 acy dating back nearly 150 years. This issue of the newsletter takes a look back at some of the success stories to have come through the Alumni: Infrastructure 05 school’s doors. Alumni: Academia 06 Alumni: Fashion 07 We understand the importance of ensuring that our students have Founder’s Day 08 every opportunity to both learn and to progress in life. These alumni Key Project: Awards 10 can be held up as an example of what can be achieved by hard work, determination and desire, and we hope that they can inspire current Key Project: Tutors 10 students to similar greatness in a number of fields. Tower of London 11 The Guardian visit 11 Buckingham Palace 12 DanceQuest 2013 12 Christmas Comedy 13 Table Tennis stars 14 Youth Election 14 Key Dates 16 P AGE 2 D ECEMBER 201 3 Alumni Law

Sir Kingsley Wood

Kingsley Wood was born in Hull in 1881 to a Wesleyan Methodist but soon moved to Islington as his father was appointed minister of Wesley’s Chapel.

Wood came to Central Foundation during the final dec- ade of the 19th Century and by 1903 had qualified to be a solicitor. He acted as a poor man’s lawyer and wrote for the Methodist Times, advocating legal repre- sentation for the poor around Poplar, Bow and Hoxton.

In November 1911, Wood allied with the Conservative party and stood for Woolwich in the London County Council, defeating his Labour opponent by 556 votes in 15,000. During the Great War he continued work relat- ed to pensions before campaigning for a Ministry of Health in the War’s aftermath.

In 1931 he became Postmaster General, evolving the Post Office into a quango that modernised the depart- Lord Grabiner, born 1945 ment with motor vehicles for speedy delivery. His final post was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1940. Hav- Baron Grabiner QC ing to control hugely increased public expenditure be- cause of the Second World War, Wood pioneered Pay Anthony Grabiner came to the Central Foun- As You Earn (PAYE) tax to help with the war effort. He dation School in 1956 and went on to read died in 1943 on the day he was due to announce PAYE Law at the London School of Economics. to the House of Commons.

After graduating with a Master of Laws, Gra- While Minister of Health in Stanley Baldwin’s govern- biner was educated at Lincoln’s Inn before ment, Wood returned to speak at Founder’s Day in being called to the Bar in 1968. He worked 1924. In his speech he advised the boys not to let their as counsel to the Department of Trade be- “wishbone be where their backbone ought to be.” fore taking the silk in 1981 and becoming Deputy High Court Judge in 1994. In 1999 Sir Kingsley Wood (1881-1943) as Secretary of State in 1940 the Queen conferred the dignity of Baron Grabiner of Aldwych upon him.

In 2010 he was instructed by Slaughter and May to lead the dispute over control of Liver- pool FC, winning the case which led to the club’s purchase by Fenway Sports. In 2011 he was appointed chairman of News Corpora- tion’s management and standards committee in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

In 2013 he returned to Central Foundation as guest speaker for Founder’s Day. C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 3 Alumni

Sport Did You Know? Karim Kerbouche Karim Kerbouche and Bola Omoyele were in the same year of Central Foundation and remain in contact. Born in London to Algerian parents, Karim Ker- bouche attended Central Foundation in the mid 1990s. A year into his schooling he began a long love affair with ice hockey after playing it on his Sega Mega-Drive games console.

After school, Kerbouche played for the Haringay Wolves before setting out on his mission to pop- ularise ice hockey in his ancestral home of Alge- ria. In 2008 he achieved this dream as Algeria fielded their first national ice hockey team in the Arab Cup. Kerbouche scored in their match against Morocco.

He has since been signed by the Lee Valley Lions. As President of the Algerian Ice Hockey Federa- tion, he splits his time between England and Al- geria, working in small communities to aide chil- dren’s ice hockey and sports.

Karim Kerbouche born 1982

Bola Omoyele born 1982

Bola Omoyele

Bola Omoyele was always interested in sports and enjoyed PE lessons at Central Foundation, espe- cially football. After leaving school and keeping a keen interest in football, Omoyele turned to mixed martial arts as a fitness discipline.

Omoyele made his debut in 2010 and has an im- pressive 7-2 record of largely first round wins which has earned him the nickname Cashflow.

The highlight of his career was being chosen as one of the eight welterweights (second left, above) chosen to represent the UK in a special edition of the highly rated documentary UFC: The Ultimate Fighter in late 2012. In a themed UK vs Australia version of the series dubbed ‘The Bashes’ (a play on the England/Australia cricketing rivalry The Ashes), he was eliminated in the quarter-finals but nevertheless gained significant exposure. P AGE 4 D ECEMBER 201 3 Alumni Presenting Did You Know?

Both Reggie Yates and Trevor Nelson were instrumental in presenting the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Mr Nelson was one of three people who commentated Dan- ny Boyle’s acclaimed opening ceremony, Isles of Wonder and Kim Gavin’s closing ceremony A Symphony of British Music. Mr Yates, meanwhile, hosted a number of shows that docu- mented the games and interviewed many sports stars.

Trevor Nelson MBE

Born in Hackney, Trevor Nelson attended what was then the Central Foundation Boys’ Grammar School in the 1970s and early ‘80s. After finishing school and working in a shoe shop to get by, he became one of the first DJs on the fledgling Kiss FM in 1985 before becoming station director. An avid fan of urban music, Mr Nelson was a club night DJ and worked for EMI Rec- ords before his innovation saw him scouted by the BBC.

Reggie Yates born 1983 In 1996, he hosted The Rhythm Nation for Radio 1 which was the first national R&B show in the UK. Since Reggie Yates then he has regularly hosted shows on Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra and Radio 2. Nelson has also presented on televi- Reggie Yates attended Central Foundation in sion, again championing R&B on MTV as well as hosting the late ‘90s. He split time between school Five’s NFL UK coverage of the American football and guest-presenting CITV’s Saturday morn- league. He was appointed MBE in 2002 for his charity ing show Diggit. Before long he was hosting work and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award Sunday’s Smile alongside Fearne Cotton, by the Sony Radio Academy. with whom he would later host Top of the Pops. By the time he left school he had al- Trevor Nelson born 1964 ready appeared in The Bill and secured a re- curring role in Grange Hill soon after.

Arguably his biggest honour came in 2007 when his weekend breakfast show with Cot- ton transitioned into The Radio 1 Chart Show. From 2009, he hosted the show alone spanning a five-year stint counting down the week’s most popular singles until December 2012.

In 2011, Reggie Yates returned to the school as guest speaker for Founder’s Day. C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 5 Alumni Infrastructure

Richard Seifert

Born Reuben Seifert, the Swiss son of a cinema manager soon changed his name to Richard; later in life he insisted on being called Colonel.

While attending Central Foundation in the 1920s, he earned a scholarship to the University of Lon- don. In 1960 he made a major mark on the archi- tectural world with Tolworth House in Kingston.

Having established his style he would not con- form to convention. Despite opposition, he built a 36 storey building, bizarrely clad with glass and concrete-framed. This 116 metre tower is now known as Centre Point.

Not satisfied, Seifert set his eye to record break- ing when he devised the ‘NatWest Tower’. Once again he faced opposition and it took him 10 years to build. Upon completion in 1980, Tower 42 stood as the tallest building in the UK for a decade, until One Canada Square overtook it.

Richard Seifert born 1910

Dennis Wesil born c1960

Dennis Wesil

Dennis Wesil attended Central Foundation in the 1930s and though his name may not be famous, his legacy has left a stamp on the daily life of al- most every person in the UK.

In the 1960s, he played an instrumental part in expanding the postal code to serve the entire na- tion. Beforehand, only ten British cities had post codes but Wesil helped devise a way that every road in the country could be charted.

Although this was initially done to aide the post- ing of letters, an increasingly uncommon task, We- sil’s legacy remains intact due to the convenience of post codes for Google maps, smart phones and satellite navigation systems. P AGE 6 D ECEMBER 201 3 Alumni Academia Professor Aubrey Diamond

Aubrey Diamond attended Central Founda- tion in the 1930s leading into the Second World War. He took a hiatus from higher- education to work for the RAF in Canada during the conflict, then returned to London to work on his LLB at the London School of Economics.

As his law career progressed he became influential in customer representation dur- ing a time of burgeoning consumerism.

In 1963 he became President of the Nation- al Federation of Consumer Groups and Vice-President of the Institute of Trading Standards Administration. For this and oth- er work he became one of the first solicitors to be made part of the Honorary Queen’s Counsel.

He retired to America and became a law professor at Notre Dame, teaching in Vir- Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) revisiting the school in 1973 ginia, Stanford and Tulane.

Aubrey Diamond (1923-2006) Jacob Bronowski

Jacob Bronowski moved to the United Kingdom after the Great War, only knowing two words of English. He gained entry into Central Foundation before going onto read mathematics at Jesus College, Cambridge.

In 1935 he gained his Ph.D. before moving on to work for the Department of Home Security. During the Sec- ond World War he applied mathematics to RAF bombing strategy.

From the 1950s onward Bronowski regularly appeared on the BBC on The Brains Trust where he developed a reputation for being able to answer questions from all fields.

This notoriety led him to anchor the acclaimed docu- mentary The Ascent of Man, a thirteen-part series about the history of humanity’s scientific endeavours. It aired in 1973, a year before he died. C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 7 Alumni Fashion

Harry Goodwins Having left Central Foundation only a few years ago, models.com rates Harry Goodwins in the top 50 best working male models. They argue his transformative hair cut put him on the road to Transatlantic stardom, making him very popular with Calvin Klein and Prada.

Harry Goodwins born 1989

John Halls born 1982

John Halls

John Halls arrived in the world of fashion through unusual circumstances and already a very accom- plished individual. Born in Islington, he attended Central Foundation in the mid ‘90s and made use of the close connections to Arsenal by carving himself a youth career at the football club.

After winning the Youth FA Cup in 2000, he trans- ferred to Stoke City in 2003 after being loaned there. In 2006 he went to Reading, where he stayed Hakan Sezer born 1989 for two years. Hakan Sezer He finished his career at Wycombe Wanderers in May of last year as he became more and more inter- Hakan Sezer was part of the first class of the new ested in the world of fashion. He soon established millennium, starting Central Foundation in the the littlefashionbook.co.uk blog to cover on the year 2000. Despite leaving leaving less than a world of men’s fashion. This led him on the path to decade ago, he is already established as not only model for high street fashion chains such as Next. a model, but an accomplished shoe designer. P AGE 8 D ECEMBER 201 3 Founder’s day

On the last Friday of November the school held its 147th Founder’s Day - an annual day when we celebrate our Founder, Rev William Rogers, and the achievements of our stu- dents.

Each year the school welcomes a number of guests from different walks of life. In its first decade the school welcomed many royal dig- nitaries as guests such as the Prince and Prin- cess of Wales (afterwards Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in 1870, the King Leopold II of Belgium in 1872, and Prince Albert and the Prince of Wales (afterwards King George Books, vouchers and trophies were awarded as prizes V) in 1874. In his speech he shared stories of his life at school and In recent years Founder's Day has welcomed how he kept a determined attitude and was dedicated back former alumni as guest speakers; two to working hard. He talked about growing up in the years ago BBC TV and radio presenter Reg- East End of London and then, after his years at Central gie Yates joined us while one year ago Oliver Foundation, deciding to study Law at LSE. Award winning actor Henry Goodman was our guest speaker. Interestingly, he also revealed that he had once deliv- ered a case in the formercourt rooms that have since This year's guest speaker was Baron Grabi- been redeveloped into the school's Court Building and ner, QC. A leading barrister and heavyweight was able to look out onto the playground in his private of the legal world, Lord Grabiner attended chambers and reminisce about school before going Central Foundation from 1956-1963 before into the court. going on to read Law at the London School of Economics (LSE). Derek Nightingale delivers his Head Boy address C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 9 Founder’s day

Lord Grabiner delivering his key note speech, touching upon his memories of the school, to the packed Great Hall

Founder's Day is just as much about looking for- The audience comprised of parents, corporate part- ward as it is about remembering the past. ners, representatives of the Islington Council and Lo- cal Education Authority, governors, trustees and of As well as speeches from Mr Brownhill, the course the guest speaker and guest prize winners. Headteacher and Lord Grabiner about the school's history, the current Head Boy Derek A brass quartet piece composed by Wahid Khan Nightingale delivered a speech while last year's called Ingresso Dei Fondatori opened the ceremony, Head Boy and current sixth former Nat Erickson while Masih Ahmady's violin solo preluded the prize hosted the event alongside Ms Brunton, Head of giving before Music School closed the ceremony Drama. with a rousing rendition of Take That's Rule the World. The hosts were on hand to read out the names of over 80 award winners, who had their prizes To see more photos, visit the school’s website. handed to them by Lord Grabiner.

The awards gave a variety of recognition to the Lord Grabiner awarding the prize winners best students in Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 subjects, as well as extended prizes for progress, excellence and services to the school and community across all years.

Throughout the event Music School's choir and orchestra, comprising 101 Central Foundation pupils who arrive at school at 7:30 in the morning for their lessons and rehearsals, performed vari- ous pieces for the audience. P AGE 10 D ECEMBER 201 3 Key project Teacher-Tutor Partners

At the beginning of December, the Key Project began Opening Doors a new initiative to more closely link external tutors with the school’s teachers.

The Key Project matches motivated students with vol- unteer academic tutors for weekly sessions.

In December, Mr Gricia and Mr Barnes (Science), Ms Harvey and Ms Lough (English), Ms Ashby (French), Mr Stratton (Maths) and Mr Samuel (History) met with over 25 Key Project tutors and discussed the most effective of ways of working together to support students and help them achieve highly at GCSE and A Level.

Resources and contacts were exchanged, with both tu- tors and teachers very happy to have had the oppor- tunity to meet and discuss the progress of their stu- dents.

The December meet-ups were the first step in a wider Deputy PM Nick Clegg hosted the awards effort to increase communication between tutors and On 5th November, the inaugural Opening their students’ class teachers. Doors business awards were held at Lancas- ter House, bringing together 200 young Mr Samuel noted it was “an amazing opportunity to people from across Great Britain. use Key Project tutors as effective teaching aids. They are incredibly committed and very eager to help in the During the event the young people met right ways, I think it is an opportunity we should all business executives and attended work- take.” shops aimed at targeting jobs, then later in the evening Deputy Prime Minister Nick 73 students from Year 10 to 13 are currently being tu- Clegg awarded prizes to the winners of the tored as part of the scheme. four categories. The Key Project provides one-on-one tutors for Year 10-13 pupils For their work in the Key Project, a pro- gramme run in partnership with Slaughter & May and education charity The Access Pro- ject at Central Foundation, Slaughter & May won the Best Outreach Programme award, having given over 810 hours of individual tutoring last year.

George Benson, a Year 11 student who re- ceives maths tutoring through the Key Pro- ject and met Nick Clegg at the event said, “It was a new experience for me, I really en- joyed getting to talk to people from compa- nies that knew Slaughter & May.” C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 11 Other news Terror in the Tower

In the final week of November, Year 8 English literature students took a trip to the Tower of A Day in the Life London in a bid to bring Shakespeare to life.

The pupils are currently studying Richard III, in which several scenes take place at the tower. During the day they toured rooms that were the setting for the play, as well as other places relat- ed to the plot such as where the King is alleged to have kept two Princes locked away.

The boys had a double treat on the day, when they also had the chance to meet Sgt Johnson Beharry who happened to be visiting his regi- ment building that day.

Sgt Beharry of the 1st Batallion, Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment is the only living person to have been awarded the Victoria Cross, the Edits being made to the Supreme News cover first living recipient since 1969. He received the award for saving 45 people while being ex- In late October, Year 12 media students visited the posed to enemy fire. He shared stories with the Guardian Education Centre to gain an inside look on pupils and showed them his medals. journalism and a hands on experience at one of the world’s leading newspapers. Sgt Beharry speaking to the Year 8s in front of the Tower The students spent the day partaking in multiple roles within the organisation. They spent the morn- ing on the wire, receiving news updates and infor- mation from various sources and having to fact check them and prioritise which stories were more pressing or urgent than others.

The sixth formers also created their own unique Guardian front page using professional software. First they acted as journalists, writing copy for each story.

Then they acted as editors, deciding the order of attention and placing given to each story according to their level of importance as well as the word limit on each story. Finally, they acted as sub-editors, proof reading another front page for spelling, gram- mar and editorial consistency.

At the end of the day,The Guardian printed each faux-cover on real newsprint for each student to keep. P AGE 12 D ECEMBER 201 3 Other News DanceQuest 2013

At the end of November, Central Foundation joined Think Buckingham four other secondary schools in the finale of the DanceQuest 2013 project.

83 people aged 11-15 took part in the London project this year, which saw Central Foundation pupils working for seven weeks with artists from the Wayne McGregor | Random Dance company to create a dance routine in- volving every participant.

For seven weeks this term, two artists from the dance company have worked individually with Central Foun- dation, Broomfield, Gladesmore Community, Holloway and The Petchey Academy to create solo and duet dances before combining them into a larger piece.

Ms Brunton, Head of Dance and Drama, explained, “dance is really important because it helps with their movement skills. It’s been good for their team-building, their trust and their ability to work with others.”

As well as participating in dance, the pupils attended two dance performances this term which exposed them to a different side of theatre. They also went on a back- stage tour of Sadler’s Wells, seeing how professional theatre works and also talked to professional dancers to Amari waiting outside the Queen’s residence gain an inside perspective on gaining confidence and staying calm under pressure. On 12th December, Year 12’s Amari Dias made a very special trip as he was invited to To see more photos, visit the school’s website. Buckingham Palace.

Thanks to the Think Forward project, which aims to provide a range of opportunities for young people, Amari met HRH Duke of York who was hosting a careers fair within the pal- ace itself.

“I came away feeling more confident of my- self and fortunate to have experienced such a rare opportunity,” Amari noted after the event.

The careers event gave Amari the chance to talk with various staff who work at or in part- nership with Buckingham Palace and network with professionals. C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 13 Other news Christmas Comedy

A Comedy of Christmas included a self-devised piece by the lower school (left) and A Comedy of Errors (right) In the final week of term, boys from all age groups performed three separate plays as part of the festive gala evening, A Comedy of Christmas.

The evening’s title is lent from A Comedy of Errors, the headline act of the night. As part of the Shake- speare Schools Festival, 16 pupils across four Year groups performed a half hour version of the Bard’s comic farce about confusion and misdirection to a sold out Islington Pleasance Theatre.

During the Shakespeare Schools Festival, the students rehearsed twice with workers from Google, as well as consulting with professional actors and technicians on the performance to boost confidence, ar- ticulacy and self-expression through the performance. The popularity of the show led to this encore per- formance for family and friends.

Also in the evening, the lower school drama club and iC6 drama club performed two self-devised pieces. The first, Christmas Chaos, was a parody of reality talent programming such as Britain’s Got Talent with a festive slant that saw a reindeer as one of the judges.

The Sixth Form play, When Life Gives You Lemons was a preview scene of an upcoming play. Written by Year 12’s Charlie Diver in conjunction with the iC6 Drama Club, the work in progress explores the life of a submarine crew in 1962 and will be performed next year as a full piece.

To see more photos, visit the school’s website. P AGE 14 D ECEMBER 201 3 Other News Youth Election Table Tennis Stars

The election was held under authentic conditions

On Wednesday 27th November the whole student body had a taste of the electoral process when they Ezra, Mohammed, Louis and Robin had the chance to vote in the Islington Youth Council The U13 table tennis team travelled to High- Elections. bury Grove where they competed in the Is- lington Table Tennis tournament. With table Islington Council sent out a ballot box and three profes- tennis being such a popular sport at the sionals to ensure that authentic standards were main- school, two teams were entered for the Year tained and the voting process was as close to adult vot- 7 category. The team Ezra Ndukuba, Moham- ing as possible and 4,917 young people exercised their med Osman, Louis Jackson and Robin Morley democratic right to vote, with Central Foundation hav- beat every other school at the tournament ing one of the highest turn outs at 89% - well above the and picked up their first place medals. 64% turnout across the borough.

Table tennis club is run for all years on Mon- The Islington Youth Council works to give a voice to days from 3:30 – 4:45 in the gym. Football young people and Central Foundation’s Elliot Colley is club is run from 3:30-4:45 on the astroturf on already serving as Deputy Mayor for the 2012-14 term. Tuesday for Year 8, Wednesday for Year 7 and Thursday for both Year 9 (yellow week) In this election, Taiga Asada (pictured left) stood and Year 10 (blue week). against six candidates for the post of Youth Provision and was busy canvassing votes on the day, mainly fo- Central Foundation’s Islington councillor Taiga Asada cussing to raise awareness for existing opportunities aimed at the youth in Islington that may be being missed out upon.

Taiga said of his election promise, “If elected, I will en- sure that young people such as myself, will become aware of the opportunities available to them, and will be encouraged to take part in as many of these oppor- tunities as possible, because you’re only young once.”

The returning officer announced the results on Thursday 5th December, with Taiga being one 12 new councillors elected. Over the next 12 weeks he will receive a com- prehensive induction and training programme before the council elect the next Young Mayor. P AGE 15 N OVEMBER 2013

Year 9 workshops at WSP Group, a world’s leadingKEY engineering DATES and design consultancy

Monday 6th January Spring term starts

Thursday 16th January Year 9&11 Parents’ Evening (2-6pm)

Thursday 30th January Year 8 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 6th February iC6 Parents’ Evening (Highbury Grove)

Thursday 13th February Year 9 Options Evening

15th - 23rd February Half term