The Electronic Newsletter of St Augustine's Grammar School, Sharston Mount, M22 4PJ | 31
January 2001 Lent Term |
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www.staugs.org | editor@staugs.org | Issue 1 |
From the Headmaster | News | Old Boys | Old Staff |
Looking Back | Miscellaneous | Classified | Births Deaths and Marriages |
Letters to Editor |
Distributed to all old boys, staff and
"Friends of St Augustine's" with known email addresses.
Please (print and) forward to any not on emailing list.
The first issue will also be sent to staff with known postal
addresses.
"From the Headmaster" | Stripes in Magenta | ||||
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News | Stripes in Magenta | ||||||
It is hoped to hold a Grand Reunion late this year. This would include ALL entry years and staff; a formidable undertaking but it will happen . . . There will be an inaugural meeting with a view to organising the Grand Reunion
All interested parties are invited to attend. Just come along! This venue has been chosen for the first meeting because we will be guaranteed seats, cheap drinks and the opportunity to talk. It would be useful to have volunteers from each year
who are prepared to try to locate their class mates. Notices regarding the Grand Reunion will be posted on www.staugs.org Contact: Martin Harding (martinharding@hotmail.com) * Directions, Princess Parkway to the Princess Pub. If heading inwards turn left, if heading outwards turn right. Its then half a mile on the left. The bar area is in the far left hand side of the complex. Davenport Park Hotel - September 18, 1999 It all started at Bag's 40th birthday party in the summer of '98; we were sat about chatting and I remarked that it would 30 years since we started school together in Sep. '99. I got that look from Bag telling me I had just volunteered for duty. Later that summer I persuaded a friend at Manchester Evening News to publish a piece on a thirty year reunion for the Class of '69. Knowing a few people already gave me enough impetus to start to think how to track down others. A few replies to the article got us moving more and having a list of all 'boys' from speech day programs, thanks to Mike Lyne, made the job of remembering a little easier. Meeting up with Mark Brennan and Nick Wall set the trail going in diferent directions and soon we had enough to know that the event was on. I started phoning names from phone books and trawling through Info-CD which claims to list all people in the UK. E-mails, phone calls and letters later we had made contact with around 50% of the class and many of the masters. Finding a room was the easy job, advertising was courtesy of word of mouth etc. and the rest is, as they say, history. A pity that many we contacted could not make it on the night, hopefully next time will be better still. My thanks to Mark Brennan, Peter Fay, Mike Lyne, Trevor Baglin and all others who helped make the first reunion the success it was. Stavors ( Stavors@aol.com ) The Old Boys Website (www.staugs.org )
It was initially conceived as just a contact list for staff and '69 entry. However, memories were awoken, box rooms were turned over and photo albums were reopened; the scheme mushroomed. A messageboard and visitor's book were added. Interest and contributions came from all entry years, parents, staff and even relatives. Initially hosted on personal globalnet webspace with a longwinded web address, it moved to the more prestigious: www.staugs.org Eventually, as sources had come from most entry years and several staff members , I was forced to concede that it was no longer a Old boys web site for '69 entry. It is now simply "St Augustine's Grammar School Old Boys". It is not static and continues to grow. The message board and Visitor's book are interactive, allowing new material to be added without the editor's interference. You can also sign up to the Mailing List to keep in contact (by email).Contributions for the website can be emailed to webmaster@staugs.org or posted to Peter Fay, Gorland, Old Scapa Rd, Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1BB. It would be good to have individual pages for years other than '69 but time and available webspace preclude this. If you have some spare webspace and are prepared to maintain pages for your own year, let me know. Pages can be seamlessly incorporated into the existing site even if held on other webspace. From News North West, December 21 (sent in by Dave Espley)
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Old Boys | Stripes in Magenta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
1965 1966 1968 1969 Fuller personal updates with contact information held on 1969 individual boys pages on www.staugs.org/ 1971 1973 1974 1975 1976 . |
Old Staff | Stripes in Magenta |
Allen Addis is still
teaching Art at St Paul's High School. Geoff Beeley has now retired to Kinsale in Ireland. (Rev) Roger Callan is Head of Religion (Bishop Kearney High School, Brooklyn NY (for girls!) Neil Creighton is Head of Modern Languages in Buxton (his books are still in print) (Rev) Phil Griffin is believed to be in Ireland Tony Hartley has retired and lives in Holmes Chapel Denny Howells has retired and lives in Sale Adrian Jessett is director of the Manchester Boys' Choir Mike Kearney is retired and lives in Heald Green Jim McCabe is Headmaster in Buxton (Rev) Gerard McGuiness is a PP near Shrewsbury Kelvin Paisley is believed to be crofting in Scotland (Rev) Peter Phillips is now PP near Shrewsbury; prior to this was lecturing at Ushaw Richard Scrowston now lives in Bristol Harry Stratton is PP in Macclesfield Barry Thorpe runs the Stockport branch of a charity for the homeless 'Nightstop' Christine Wood runs her own translation agency . |
Looking Back | Stripes in Magenta |
A Staff Member recalls: Ted Hughes was invited to talk to the sixth form. He was on an Arts Council list and with his new wife (Sylvia Plath was dead by this time) a writer of short stories for children, he was touring. The Mons. did not like the look of Ted Hughes. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, while he had long black hair and spoke in a thick Yorkshire accent. I recall that he talked about the ouija board sending him messages from "King Lear" and that some of his animal poems had been written by the ouija board - "Second Glance at a Jaguar" being one. So, the Mons. glided in and out of the library in full regalia - magenta cummerbund, mortar board etc. Finally, at the close of the talk, seeing our evident enthusiasm, he stopped and gave Ted Hughes the full florid thankyou (having failed to greet him at all). Ted was invited back for dinner and he returned
with his wife by taxi from his hotel. The kitchen staff
laid on a full Italian meal (It was that lovely lady who
left to work at Wills Hall). There was plenty of wine and
the evening didn't finish until after midnight.
Apparently they talked about J.F.K. about whose
assassination they shared a mutual
interest *. They also talked about Dante**. Ted Hughes was
fascinated by the Mons.: his knowledge of languages,
theology and music. Most of all (the cook told me) he
could not get over the perfect sentence structures our
Head used all throught the long evening. So much
knowledge, so beautifully articulated despite being high.
They parted in the early hours of the morning great
friends. [RS] I think Terry McSweeny had left,
while Barney Quinn had not arrived from St Ambrose. It
was the guy from On the Monsignor (mun - seen - yur) : At one speechday, he exited from one end to play the organ, lost his way, and came back up on the platform from the place he had departed. What caused us all to fall apart was his admonition to the ladies to "Spread yourselves out among the men, my dears!" He did not see the funny side of that at all. The Mons. had two ways of entering the staff room. He would come in through the inner door, adjacent to his office; pretend to look at the class photographs as we all fell silent; go out the way he had come in; and then, suddenly, reappear through the outer door opening on to the corridor to see if he could catch us talking about him. Incidentally, looking at the photographs, he would often say - I don't think with sexual intent - "Oh those boys, so delicious. I could eat them." I doubt if he would say that if he was alive today. Another saying of his to me was, "Now dear boy for another late Victorian Assembly. I love them." [RS] From our Correspondent in Germany: Who remembers when Father Gerard McGuinness used
to drive to school in his old Renault 4. There used to be a painting on the top floor (I think next to the Biology classroom), called "Whistlers' Mother". It's the famous one of the old woman sitting in the armchair. Someone attached a piece of paper in the corner with the words "Who nicked the telly?!" I also remember the day someone wanted to play a
prank by loosening the top of the salt shaker. [FC] . |
Miscellaneous | Stripes in Magenta |
. In the year comprehensive education was introduced in Britain, St Augustine's Grammar School first opened its doors. From a Latin Dictionary: From our Hong Kong Correspondent: Still time for me to wish you a Happy "Year of the Snake" One of these days, on a trip to Bredbury, I'll raid the attic at my parent's home and dig up the 1L Subutteo League folder! Well, mostly 1L - Andrew Carroll is in there, too. Alas, it's about all I can offer, but it might lightly amuse Ged Battle, John Murphy and various other "Flick to Kick" stalwarts. I won't be back until at least late summer though. [KF] From our Korrespondent in South Africa: I think I'm beginning to get the hint......but not sure if everybody wants to hear how bad my golf is these days?? [GW] . |
Classified | Stripes in Magenta |
Serious and less serious adverts carried free of
charge to friends of St Augustine's Grammar School. Wanted For the website on www.staugustines.org.uk
Situations Vacant Sub-webmasters for entry years 1965-1968,
1970 -1976. . |
Births Deaths and Marriages | Stripes in Magenta |
Nadia - born 21 August 2000 to Kaew and Dave Haworth ('69) Rt. Rev. Mgr. Francis J McGuiness
1980 Brian Kirwan 1979 . |
Letters to Editor | Stripes in Magenta |
All letters should be
addressed to the editor Of particular interest would be feedback on this issue and how you would like to see it develop Dear
sir, Dear sir, Dear sir, Dear sir, Dear sir, SAINT CATHERINES is a special school for Zimbabwe girls and boys aged five to eighteen with learning difficulties, moderate, severe and profound (mental handicap). The official enrolment is 105. In the early 1960s the centre - the property of the Anglican Church, who gave it the name Saint Catherines - was donated as a junior training centre and workshop to Hopelands Trust, an association for the care of the mentally handicapped. Then in 1981 Hopelands Trust was absorbed into Zimcare Trust, an amalgamation of all the countrys societies for the mentally handicapped. At the same time Saint Catherines was registered with the Ministry of Education as a special school. Saint Catherines has boarding facilities for 50 children. These places are reserved mainly for children living outside Harare. The other girls and boys, Harare residents, travel to school each day, Monday to Friday. The school day begins with Assembly, hymns and prayers. Classroom time starts at 8.30 am and goes on until 12 noon, with a half hour break at 10.30 am for recreation. The school provides a drink and something to eat for each child just before break. At 12 noon the children prepare for lunch which is a cooked meal. At 12.30 pm the children have a rest period until 2.00 pm when they get ready for their afternoon activities. At 3.30 pm the children have tea, and the school day finishes at 4.00 pm. Work at Saint Catherines involves the teaching of self-help skills, communication, domestic skills, occupational training and socialisation. When possible the children are introduced to the academic skills of the normal school. The school timetable includes art and craft, music and movement, domestic science, games and swimming, and a variety of special occasions and outings. In the hostel the children have television and films; and often of a weekend a school or church group comes to entertain the children in residence and maybe take them out for a picnic. Saint Catherines has a school committee which has overall responsibility for the centres income and expenditure. Income consists of school fees and some government assistance. However the centre does rely heavily on charity without which it could not manage to maintain its high standards of comfort, care, education and training. Accordingly any support, in cash or in kind, is always very much appreciated. I have recently learned that my son, John, a music student at Columbia Union College in Washington, has also discovered your webpage - I don't know who told him of it - and plans to make an entry in your Visitors' Book. Very best wishes for the planned reunion. Charles J. McGuiness . |
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Sadly, the Monsignor did not live to see the fruition of his work - "From the Headmaster" is, of course, entirely fictitious.
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