Vanbrugh Castle School

The Vanbrugh Chronicle

Vanbrugh Castle School,
London SE3 7RD
December 1971

Dear Parents,

The boys' offerings for their Chronicle are again rather brief and not worth the expense of a separate publication, so I am incorporating most of their information in this Newsletter.

The term has been placid enough and therefore happy. What the doctors call a 'virus infection' has kept the Sick Room and Matrons fairly busy, but the disease was short-lived and boys were in and out again pretty quickly. That tiresome head infection has now been ended, thanks to the constant care of the Matrons, but I hear that it still exists elsewhere, so mothers must please watch out for any irritation in their boys' scalps, and not allow them to wear other childrens' hats.

I have already mentioned the urgent matter of dental inspections in the holidays, and for these to be asked for every school holiday, i.e. three times a year. Here are the dates of the coming terms :
12 Jan - 28 Mar
27 Apr - 22 Jul The date of the September term has not yet been fixed, but will certainly be during the week beginning 10 Sep.

Since September we have intercepted nine sums of money arriving in boys' letters. Please ask your relations to send any money gifts to Mr. Morton or to me for the boys' bank accounts.

Among the various guests the boys have entertained to lunch this term have been :

Mr, Custance, our Bank Manager,
Miss Wentworth, a former Housekeeper at the School,
Mr. Bill Locke, Editor of the RAF News,
Mrs. Thomas, a friendly neighbour,
Major White of the USAF,
Flight-Lieutenant Roberts and Flight-ileutenaat Woodward of Odiham,
Mrs. Wiseman-Clarke,
Mr. Paul Cutting,
Captain Charles Hammer, R.N.
and Mrs. Hammer,
Sir John and Lady Cordingley,
Colonel Freeland,
Alan Wilson,
the Revd Bruce Gordon,
George Waterman,
Mrs. Marjorie Blythe and her ever popular German sheep-dog.

The term has been interrupted less than usual with outings, but the boys have asked me to mention the following :

Press Day at Biggin Hill before the Battle of Britain Display,
Science Museum (2nd Form),
Cutty Sark (2nd Form),
Morden College (1st Form and 2nd Form and Her Majesty the Queen!),
Royal Institution Science Lecture (5th Form),
Festival Hall concert (various boys),

and also to thank the members of the staff who accompanied them.

The adult members of the Royal Naval College Choir have also arranged to take our boys to a pantomime early next term. (I think they mean the choirboys.)

The Band now consists of these boys :

K.Webb, N.Buxcey, P.Condon, M.Baker, A.Webb, C.Jones, M.Hughes, S.Orme, S.Harris, G.Butler.
There are also a few probationers working away on recorders. Because of damage done to instruments in the holidays recently, I am no longer letting boys take their instruments home.

We have just run off our annual Cross-Country races . The senior was won by S. Fisher with K.Webb and K.Walsh 2nd and 3rd. The junior was won by M.Blake (in record time) with B.Kelly and A. Webb 2nd and 3rd.

The craze for fungus collecting still continues, and our isolated Dell is an excellent breading ground. Many different varieties have been discovered there in the past term, and many of the edible kinds eaten - after a preliminary test on Mr Morton!

The term's football has produced a mixed bag of results. We beat Westminster Under School soundly, even though they have half as many boys again as we, but the Abbey Choir boys, with only 36 boys, beat us!

Here are the results :

Westminster Under School	Won 6-2
Carn Brea 11nd XI	Won 3-0
Westminster Abbey C.S.	Lost 4-6
King's House, Richmond	Lost 0-7
Carn Brea 11nd XI	Won 6-2
Solefield School	Lost 2-10

Next term we have a match against King's College Choir School at Cambridge. This is always a popular whole-day excursion.

These boys have played at least once : R.Firman (Capt.), K. Webb, K. Walsh, M. Davidson, C. Cummings, B. Kelly, A.Webb, I. Nethercott, N. Buxcey, S. Fisher, H. Baker, S. Harris.

The Under 11 team had the following results :

Carn Brea	Drew 1-1
Solefield	Lost 1 - 3
Christ's College	Won 2 - 1
Homefield	Lost 2-3

and these boys played: A.Webb (Capt.), S. Kelly, M. Blake, M. Olner, P. Jones, C. Jones, H.Daly, G. Smith, T. Parker, R. .Baker , S. Orme and N. Walker.

The teams wish to thank Mr. Bouteloup and Mr. Dyer for their enthusiastic support and coaching.

As usual, we have enjoyed a full-length film every fortnight, and are grateful to Mr. Morton and Mr. Dyer for working the projector, and also to the organisation that supplies these films to us without charge.

The Christmas Party was the usual success, and seems just as popular with the guests as with the boys! At any rate, we had eighty guests to fifty-eight boys this time. Cordingley House put on an adaptation of the Pyramus and Thisbe episode from The Midsummer Nights Dream that went down very well indeed, thanks to the enthusiasm of the boys and the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Dyer. The United States officers brought their usual largesse with a Santa Claus to give it away. They have been supporting this Party of ours for at least twenty years!

On the last, day of term a boy climbed on to the top of my cupboard to bring down the objects I had confiscated this term for one reason or another, and found:

1 transistor radio	1 microscope
1 Hockey ball	2 water pistols
1 miniature jet-engine	1 magnifying glass
1 pocket knife	3 spud guns
14 catapults	20 comics

He thought you might like to know. This gave him the idea of examining the contents of the desk belonging to a particularly untidy little boy, but I would blush to reveal what that contained!

As I write, the School is in a state of delicious silence, my telephone is off the hook and I am looking forward to twelve hours of sleep. But before long the place will become positively spooky, and I shall be longing to see the noisy tribe back again!

Very few mothers make any comment on these news letters, and I don't know whether they are welcome or not. They take up much of my time. Shall we discontinue them?

With best wishes for a happy Christmas,

Yours sincerely,