EAC Magazine - Alleyn's School

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C l u bn e w sReunion of the decadesWriter Rohan Candappa (Brading’s, 1973-80)attended this summer’s Reunion of the Decadesto meet up with his class of 1980. Rohan is theauthor of many books including The Little Bookof Stress, The Little Book of Wrong Shui, andperhaps pertinent to this particular brief,Growing Old Disgracefully.I left the school thirty years ago.Going back always brings back memories. Going back in thecompany of people you haven’t seen since you departed bringsback a whole lot more.As we wandered round the school premises, guided by currentsixth formers, the questions came readily to our lips.‘Do you remember when...?’ , ‘Isn’t this where...?’ ,‘Whatever happened to...?’It was an answer I hadn’t expected. But the more I thoughtabout it, the more it was an answer I valued having. It was adifferent perspective. Maybe I valued it because one of thethings the school encouraged in me was my desire to think formyself. To consider situations from more than one viewpoint.And there was a group of ex-students returning after twentyyears. Strangely, a smaller group than the other two. But one inwhich there were far more women than men. It would havebeen good to get their views. For them the school had alwaysbeen co-educational. For us, girls were a miraculous arrival whomade us awkward, spotty boys become more mature.Though, obviously, not as mature as we liked to think we were.Teachers, of course, were also there. Teachers who I now lookedat as a 48-year-old man, and had to resist the urge to call ‘sir’.Teachers who, much to my amazement given how many studentsthey must have taught, actually remembered who we were. Orpretended to remember which, in some ways, is just as flattering.1970s 1980s 1990s‘You haven’t changed atall’ we lied to each other.But, of course, we hadchanged. How could wehave not? Thirty years is alot of water under a lot ofbridges. Less hair, morewaist. Definitely older,maybe even wiser.But then the school hadchanged too. Newbuildings, with newfacilities, ingeniouslyslotted into gaps I’d nevernoticed. And otherbuildings, ambitious bothin imagination and execution, transforming a space I had onceknown so well.Standing in a crowd, in a foyer, with a glass in my hand, while theHeadmaster welcomed us, I turned to a friend who asked ‘Do youknow where we are?’ And I smiled, and nodded, at the absurdityof drinking champagne in what had been a block of toilets.But there were other people at the reunion. Some had left theschool forty years before. Which meant they would have startedin 1963. (Between the end of the ‘Chatterley’ ban and The Beatlesfirst LP, perhaps). I wondered what they made of it all. So as welined up on the school steps to have our photo taken, I askedone of them. And he told me that he had hated his time at theschool, and that he’d only returned to lay a few ghosts.All the decadesAll in all it was amarvellous day. A day thatmade me laugh a lot.A day that made me thinka lot. And one of thethings I thought was this:Time is linear. One thinghappens, then another,then another. And as wemove forward throughtime what happened inthe past should get leftfurther and further behind.Only if the thing thathappened was important, itdoesn’t. It still existssomewhere inside us. And given the right circumstances we canonce again access it.So go back to school with your friends, long years after you allleft, and you can find yourself back at school in more waysthan you can ever imagine. Ways that are for the most partgood. Ways that can make you thankful that you went to aschool as good as Alleyn’s.I left the school thirty years ago. But it turns out the schoolhas never left me. And for that I’m grateful.The date of the next Decades Reunion – for those who were inthe (and who taught the) Alleyn’s classes of 1964-71, 1974-81,1984-91 – is on Saturday 18 June.4
C l u bn e w sAlleyn Benevolent FundFollowing the appeal in the last magazine the trustees aredelighted to report that they received enough donations fromreaders to enable the Fund to cover its deficit for the year to31st July 2010. The trustees wish to thank most warmly thosedonors who responded to that appeal.Several donations came from former pupils and others whodonated in memory of Sidney Incledon, a man who, in the wordsof one of his former charges, was ‘a one-off diamond-geezer’.The work of trying to maintain the two bursary awards inmemory of Derek Fenner and Sidney Incledon continues but withthe recent increase in <strong>School</strong> fees there is likely to be a furtherdeficit for the year to July 2011.The present Incledon bursary award ended in July 2010 and theFenner award runs from September 2009 to June 2011. Each ofthe awards allows one pupil to remain in the sixth form for thefull two years to pursue their A level courses instead of havingto leave Alleyn’s early.Despite – or perhaps because of – the straitened times we’re allexperiencing, the trustees have taken the bold step of agreeingto make the Incledon bursary award available from September2010, even though there is no guarantee that the money willbe raised in time to fund it. The knock-on effect will be thatthe trustees will have some difficulty in funding this bursaryaward for a further two years from 2012. The trustees seek£1,500 to make up that shortfall.The trustees will, therefore, welcome further support from formerpupils to enable these in memoriam bursary awards to continue.In terms of making these awards continue in perpetuity, thetrustees are grateful to the Edward Alleyn Club for its generousdonation of £9,000 (taken from the sum given it by the DulwichEstate for the surrender of the lease on the Clubhouse andgrounds) to start building up the ABF’s reserves. In addition, theFund has received a generous bequest from the estate of RussellVernon AOB. It is hoped that eventually the ABF’s reserves willfinance all future Fenner and Incledon bursary awards.If you are able to assist by making a donation please do so toeither of the undermentioned trustees:Chris Nelson,Lingcroft,Pyrford Road,West Byfleet,Surrey,KT14 6QSDennis Lomas118, Kent House Road,Beckenham,Kent,BR3 1JYBats, balls and barbecuesThe Club traditionally holds a welcome evening for new leaversat the Clubhouse to introduce its various sections in their lastyear at Alleyn’s. However, setting a date for this event hasalways proved to be a nightmare given the pressures on theUpper Sixth’s schedule of exam coursework, field days, studytrips, jobs, university interviews, not to mention the veryimportant run of 18th birthday parties to celebrate. So for thisyear’s leavers, we thought we’d experiment by holding awelcome event after they left <strong>School</strong> but before they all wenttheir separate ways to universities and Gap year itineraries.We held a Clubhouse open day and barbecue on Saturday11 September. All the different sections of the Club wererepresented and the only ‘organised’ part of the afternoon wasa couple of games of rounders, all in the name of good fun andfrivolity. It was a lovely, relaxing afternoon spent in thegrounds of the Clubhouse and amongst friends. One leaversweetly wrote in to say ‘Thank you very much for making suchan effort for us all, it was great to see everyone before we allgo our separate ways!’We hope to repeat this event for next year, perhaps extendingthe guest list to include more recent south London-based alumni.www.edwardalleynclub.com5
Page 1 and 2: Edward AlleynSeries 7 Number 10Octo
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Page 26 and 27: S p o r t sN e w sCricketIt was a s
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