Arnold School

Honouring Arnold's traditions

As I enter only my third term as Arnold's Headmaster, part of my job satisfaction is the endless stream of new experiences that I enjoy each working day. In fact, I find myself exclaiming "What a week!" to my wife nearly every evening. Fortunately, she is a patient woman. I had particularly good reason to be joyful last week, with three traditional senior school events to celebrate and the cricket season well and truly underway.

Although only in its fifth year, the Arnold Evening of Swing has quickly become one of our most popular events. In my previous incarnation as Deputy Headmaster, I was totally preoccupied with the mechanics of school events so this was the first time I was able to sit down (at the 'Frank Sinatra' table no less), relax and enjoy the Evening of Swing, safe in the knowledge that Mr Jenkinson and his team were calmly organising proceedings 'behind the scenes'.  

It was an amazing night with some genuine talent to relish. Every year, when our older pupils get ready to leave us, I wonder who will ever take their place, be it on the stage, playing on the sports field or in the classroom, but every year our younger pupils move reliably up the ranks to shine equally brightly and in their own particular ways. So although the school is sad to lose an especially musical Year 13 cohort this summer, there was such exciting music and singing from our younger pupils on Tuesday night that I genuinely cannot wait for future musical events. Well done to everyone involved.

I must pick out James Cave's incredible piano playing as a special highlight for me. In fact, I have been preparing my speeches for the forthcoming Celebration Evenings over the weekend to the sounds of his new CD, 'Snapshot', so I do hope that the joy in his music adds a similar captivating exuberance to my speeches. A special thank you goes to Mr Chandler, our Director of Music, who added his own stamp to his first Arnold Evening of Swing, accompanied of course by his gifted musical colleagues. Tickets sold out within hours of their release so, if you missed out this year, do come along to hear Arnold's Swing Band 'swing in the park' at Stanley Park from 2.00pm until 4.00pm on Sunday 26^th June. Why not bring a picnic and make an afternoon of it?

The annual Prefects Dinner is an important Arnold rite of passage and on Thursday night I enjoyed the company of this year's speaker, Mr David Cam from Blackpool Pleasure Beach. His inspirational advice to our prefects was to find a career that they passionately love and not to settle for anything less. I totally concur. Mr McKeown organised a most successful evening, which was the perfect opportunity for the school to thank our prefects for their service to our community.  

Friday's Founder's Day Service was quite rightly a more solemn occasion, when the school remembered its Founder, Mr Frank Pennington, whose vision for a high achieving school in South Shore has produced more than a century of outstanding achievements. After the service I was honoured to lay a wreath on Mr Pennington's grave, alongside Jimmy and Anne Armfield and distinguished Old Arnoldians. It was a humble reminder for me of the responsibility I carry as Headmaster of this fine school.

Best wishes

Jim Keefe, Headmaster

Posted by: J E Keefe
Date: Tuesday 10/05/2011