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This is where you can report interesting news or announce  forthcoming reunions, you may be planning.
 

Many of you have inquired where the update talked about below has got to. Regrettably I have to inform you that I have given up trying to arrange it with the new school management.

Despite the offer made by the school head Mr Phillips, I have not been able to make contact with anyone to organise it. These attempts have included some six emails, five phone calls and a direct appeal to Lesley Smith ARK's Director Communications. She kindly agreed to help facilitate this because of the work load Mr Phillips was under. This was 2 months ago and since then nothing has happened and my emails have again been ignored.

I hate to say that those who predicted that the new management would have no interest in those of us associated with the old Elliott where right, but I am now coming around to that point of view myself. So many of us wanted to follow the new schools progress and I had especially wanted a chance to record the old building, before the refurbishment had taken place. Regrettably I suspect that opportunity has now gone for ever.   

Andy Lambert Webmaster and Pupil 1958-63.

The erection of the temporary school structure is well underway, ahead of the work to be carried out on the main building.  It is being constructed at the South West end of the site, where Pullman Gardens meets Hayward Gardens.

The webmaster has requested and obtained permission to make a photograph record of the new temporary building, once completed, so that everyone can see the progress. The school principal Mr Phillips has also kindly offered us the chance to photograph the old building, before restoration.

Come back early next year for the result of this visit.

Edmund went in to "the Ark" on the 8th of December, in response to the Architects Consultation invitation and was quite amazed at the progress that has been made. A three storey temporary building has sprung up on the front lawn and Staff Car Park area. From the School Keeper's entrance, it looked as big as the Assembly Hall.

He chatted with two members of the Team of Architects, Hawkins/Brown, who were interested to have someone from 1958 - to ask things like original fascia colour and use of building and spaces, not that he can remember clearly the original exterior colour, beyond the Maroon of the Assembly Hall.  You can read his full report here

The Elliottonian Website has been contacted by APA (Elliott School) consultation inviting all interested parties to a public consultation. This will take  place on the 5th December 5pm-9pm and 8th December 10am-2pm at ARK Putney Academy, Pullman Gardens, London, SW15 3DG. There will be an opportunity for all to discuss the proposed plans and leave comments. They also say you can  e-mail them at APAconsultation@lendlease.com

There is a PDF giving more information available by Clicking Here

There is also more information on the Wandsworth Council website Click Here

After another get together of some of the pupils who were in 1b 1h 1r and 1s in 1958 on the 10th October 2012, it was agreed that it will become an annual event. The date for 2013 will be Wednesday the 14th Of August.

In the picture L-R Andy Lambert, Don Freeman Chas Otway, Sylvia Bouquet, Pat Elms, Graham Eyre, Jean Woollett and Tony Irving.

If you would like to attend in 2013 and were in those classes please contact the webmaster Andy Lambert (Pupil 1958-63) who will add you to the email list.

At the start of the School academic year in September 2012, the Elliott School name sadly passed into History. The building hence forth will be known as ARK Putney Academy.

A press release from the school said "The former Elliott School in Pullman Gardens, led by headteacher Mark Phillips, celebrated its best ever GCSE results this summer with 63% of children achieving five of more GCSEs at A* - C including maths and English and an increase in A* - B grades across the board. Building on their GCSE success the school welcomed an expanded sixth form cohort back to school today. The has also been undergoing a transformation in preparation for conversion to academy status and joining the ARK Schools academy network which took place this September".   The full release can be found here

Those protesting about the proposed name change and selling off of the school's grounds to raise funds to repair the school,  have had their story picked up my a number of papers including the Mirror and the Guardian. 

Their official government petition (to force a debate in parliament on the subject) is growing at a steady rate. The petition can be found here   

More information and a Facebook link are here

Once again some of the pupils who were in 1b 1h 1r and 1u in 1958 are meeting up, on the 10th October 2012. As of today (10th Aug) they includ Sylvia Bouquet, Graham Eyre, Don Freeman, Andy Lambert, Tony Irving, Chas Otway, Jean Woollett, Carole Symonds, David Buse and John Webster. It is anticipated the final number will be around 18.

If you were in those classes and would like to attend please contact the webmaster of this website ASAP. The likely location will be the Marquis of Granby in Esher (by the Scilly Isles on the old A3).

It is becoming clear that after many years of neglect the old school is to at last get a face lift, but some are asking at what price? The first causality would appear to be its historic name, with the School likely to be renamed ARK Putney Academy! It is also seems the much loved Gyms and workshops will also be sacrificed. . As a result some people think there maybe a better way to do this and have started a Facebook campaign to try and change these plans. 

More information and a Facebook link are here

Some of the pupils who were in 1b and 1u in 1958 decided to meet up on the 31st of August 2011. They were Sylvia Bouquet, Graham Eyre, Don Freeman, Andy Lambert and Tony Irving, who attended all the way from his home in California. Irving, Eyre and Freeman can be seen left from 1960. Several others from those two classes were also planning to attend, but in the end were not able to, due to a number of reasons.

After a great meal at the Marquis of Granby in Esher (which included much laughter and reminiscing) the group attended the Green Man, for a 'swift half'. On the way they stopped by the school and were very kindly invited in, to have a look around the old place.

Some pictures from the day are here

Vaughan Melzer sent us some photographs from when she meet with some class mates recently on the common. She says "Peter, Derek, Bibi (Barbara North), Val, (Boxall), Sally (Hill) & myself met up at the Green Man and had a lovely lunch under shady leaves in the garden. We caught up on everyone's life story and recent events, then went for a lovely walk on the Common before all going our separate ways".

The pictures are here

During September a small group of pupils from the wartime Elliott recently meet up again at Guildown House Guildford, the location where they spent some of the war, while the school was closed.

June (Austin) sends us this report

This is a report by Mr. Hodges who attending the meeting on behalf of the Ex Pupils website:

"Having taught at Elliott under Heads - Holmes, Davies, Rospigliosi and Burgess, I had not been impressed by what I saw of more recent Heads. Having attended the Parents’ Forum I came away feeling very hopeful that, with the new Head Mr Phillips, Elliott is at last on its way back to the status it once enjoyed.

Mr Holmes inaugurated a fine building but always insisted that The School was The Pupils.
The School Spirit was sadly missing by 2008 and morale was very low. This situation has been dramatically changed by Mrs Peacock and Mr Phillips outlined the changes he was making to build on this and restore in Pupils and Staff a pride in belonging and achieving.

He mentioned Pupils commenting that they felt scruffy in Tshirts beside local Primary Pupils in Blazers and they look forward to the return of uniform shirts, ties, jerseys and blazers in September. I understand the School will supply the blazers initially to be collected in the first School Days in September. I think there will be one tie, not four House ties, in red and black.

Elliott became a Language Centre, but strangely it is the Language Department that Ofsted at present feels is weakest so I was interested to hear Mr Phillips say that his priority will be to ensure a good balanced education for every pupil before worrying about the School’s special Language status. In fifty years the Grade 2 Listed building has sadly deteriorated. It really looks shabby as you approach. Under "Building Schools for the Future" a bold plan was made to restructure the interior to cope with changed teaching methods. Those of us who shivered in the winter glasshouse will applaud the scheme to double-glaze the building while opening up the teaching areas. With the Financial Crisis this project all seemed doomed.

However, Bovis were practically contracted to start as soon as Easter 2011 and negotiations are ongoing, with some hope that Wandsworth Council and the Government will find a way to proceed with the work, urgently, accommodating the pupils in several blocks of temporary classrooms on the tennis courts while the building is gutted and the Sixth Form block demolished. We were assured that the temporary classrooms will be better to teach in than many of the present classrooms. The Sixth Form is being brought back into the School from its rather segregated life and will interact more with younger pupils".

Further information will be forthcoming on a revamped School Website.

For those that did not manage to attend, a report from Edmund Hodges: The Launch of Eric Sanders' book took place, as announced, on the 17th June and was well attended by an impressive array of family, friends and associates of Eric Sanders. Excerpts from the book were read out, sampling the extraordinary lifestory from childhood in Vienna, persecution as a Jew and refugee status in England, change of name, acceptance into the Army and enrolment for Special Service behind the lines during WW2.

When Eric was a Teacher at Elliott we knew none of this and his book, first published in German in Austria, has come as a revelation to Pupils and Teachers alike, who were among the ninety or so gathered with the Austrian Ambassador, Eric's MP, Andy Slaughter and many friends from England and Austria to meet Eric and his Publishers on this occasion.

Orders were taken for copies of the book, further orders and enquiries about the book, "Special Operations, From Music to Morse and Beyond" should be directed to ericsanders@dsl.pipex.com or you can order a copy here
 

Former Elliott School Teacher Alan Morrin has passed on an invitation to the Book Launch of Eric Sanders fascinating autobiographical publication. It will take place on the evening of the 17th of June 2010 in Central London

Those wishing to attend or just interested in more information, should down load the invitation from this Link

On Tuesday the 2nd of March 2010 The Daily Note carried an interesting article reminding its readers, of the musical heritage of the Elliott School.

There have of course been other newspaper reviews of the school eminence in the field of producing great musicians (anyone doubting this should look at our Notable Pupil Page to see just a small percentage of those turned out by our school), however this one is clearly written by someone with a good understanding of the Musical Arts industry .

 The Daily Note newspaper is a daily 'Freesheet' running alongside the Red Bull Music Academy this year, in London.

Click here to download your own copy of the newspaper

Warning a PDF reader is required and the file is a little large at 3mb

Elliott Theatre Reborn - February 2010

The following communication has been received from the new Head of Drama, at the Elliott. Let us hope that this is a positive indication of the Schools new direction. His email address is JKennedy@elliott-school.org.uk

"My name is Jerome Kennedy, I’ve been Head of Drama at Elliott since September 2008. We’ve come quite a long way in the last year or so clearing the theatre and getting it from being a fairly derelict, forgotten looking place to something that is increasingly well-used. We’ve just about got everything running properly and are investing a bit of passion and aspiration into our future programme of events. Generally we’d love contact and support from old Elliottonian's at any level for our events so we can build up an even tighter community and hopefully encourage more things to happen down here, not just from our current staff/student body but also from alumni and the wider community. I wondered if it were possible to include some news and images of our events on your site. Click here to download full size poster

Now Showing - BERNARDA - On Thursday 25th February we’re having a one night only revival of “The House of Bernarda Alba”, a show we originally ran very successfully last term. This night is a charity event for the Haiti fund and we hope to achieve at least as many people coming as we got in the original run. The show is a new “Elliottised” musical comedy version of the Lorca classic, with more Cockneys, Mexicans, pop tunes and accordions then anyone might expect in a Spanish tragedy! It should be a lot of fun. I’ve attached a flyer above – if you could possibly it on your site somewhere it would be very much appreciated.

In Production - THE LEGEND OF LADY DAY - Beyond that, in preparation for the 2010 outdoor Summer Festival, we are developing a production based around the life of Billie Holiday, the chief motivation being that our jazz band here is developing into quite a decent little group and also because we have a number of female performers throughout the school population who are exceptional both as singers and actresses. The idea is that we stagger the story into ten to fifteen minute chunks with a different girl playing Billie at different stages in her life. Also each chunk, consisting of a dramatic scene with a couple of musical numbers (some including dancing) will be directed by a different individual, thus getting as many people involved as possible.

If any Old Elliottonian's are interested in getting involved in any part of this, directing/choreography (that includes joining the band – we could particularly use some more wind/brass elements) then we’d be delighted, the Summer Festival being a community event after all.

Planned – UNTITLED DRACULA PROJECT - For next year, the Drama Department are developing a new production loosely based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and focusing on the character of the lunatic asylum inmate Renfield. The level of student participation will be fairly unprecedented – we’re not simply putting on an existing well-know show like Grease or Bugsy Malone – students are writing their own storyline and script, designing their own costumes, props and scenes as well as working out the lighting, sound and media tech. The music will also be live and involve more than than one student band. Again, anyone interested in supporting or participating, we would appreciate hearing from them."

The following article has appeared in Brightside the civic magazine of Wandsworth Council. Edmund Hodges quit rightly points out their incorrect use of grammar - It should read restore not transform

Action plan for Elliott School

A radical plan to transform Elliott School in Putney into one of the borough's best performing schools has been unveiled.

New leadership will be introduced - with a new head teacher and a new governing body. Plans are also well advanced for a £35m refurbishment of the school under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. This money would see a complete overhaul of the site to improve classrooms and other facilities. Another key element will be for the school to achieve National Challenge Trust (NCT) status, which will secure additional Government funding and allow Elliott to collaborate much more closely with other high-achieving educational establishments.

Potential partners include universities plus school foundations and trusts which run some of London’s highest-achieving independent schools. Elliott is also likely to benefit from a new working relationship with Graveney School in Tooting, which is one of the best performing state schools in England. And to ensure that the voices of parents are heard clearly, a Parents’ Forum will be created to enable them to provide regular feedback on the school’s performance.

Sharon Ferrell head teacher announced her resignation on Wednesday (6th) following an Ofsted inspection in March where the inspectors concluded the school (which had been rated as inadequate), was not improving enough and their special measures report is expected shortly.

Councillor Kathy Tracey, executive member for children and young people, said: "This is a completely new start for Elliott. "Once all the changes have been introduced it will, in essence, be a brand new school. "There have certainly been some improvements at the school in the past year, but progress has not been as quick or as solid as we might have hoped. "The council and it partners are determined to remedy this and provide the best possible education for children at Elliott."

Last week 39 teachers threatened to hold a one day strike on Thursday over staffing restructuring, but cancelled it after negotiations on Friday. Fears of compulsory redundancies have now been abated, but the National Union of Teachers (NUT) is waiting to see how the new action plan will affect teachers

David Wilkinson invited all ex pupils to join him on a Routemaster Road Run. Rex Motley has sent some pictures from the day Click here to see them

Attendance at the reunion was poorly supported. On the plus side those attending, got to see a very hushed and peaceful school. A nice collection of pictures and other memorabilia were brought into the school and where possible copies were taken. A short presentation was given by Michael Tucker on the future of the School Building and although the news was not good, it is clear everyone concerned is trying to preserve as much of the original building as funds will allow.
 
It is likely that once its future is decided, the main building will be closed within a few years. Those attending the  presentation, agreed that there should be another reunion open to all, at that time. This website will keep you informed of those developments. More detailed report

We have received information from Zanir Ebrahim (1977-84) that Dawn Bunel is organising a reunion for students who started in 1977 (give or take a year) and teachers who were at the school from mid-seventies to mid-eighties. It will be on the 4th October at the Green Man Pub on Putney Heath and will commence from midday. Zanir can be contacted on his mobile  07967 118 628 or at work, 020 8969 5733 and Dawn can be contacted via Friends Reunited.

The "Old Elliottonians RFC" are having a reunion Lunch on Sunday 28th Sept 08 at "Heston Blumenthal's" restaurant, "The Hinds Head Hotel", Bray, Berks

Anyone interested in more details please contact: Richard Browning. Click Here

To commemorate fifty years since the Elliott opened its doors to the 'Bulge' of pupils born after the war, a reunion on the school site is planned. Information on this special event will appear in the Elliott E Group, but if you are keen not to miss out, also email the webmaster (address on the main page), to have your email address added. Although the event is primarily for those who joined between 1956 and 1960, all ex pupils and teachers will be welcome on the day.  Outcome Here

On the 13th June 2008, Some wartime pupils meet up again Read here

On 10 February 2007 Two former Elliott pupils meet at Cannizaro House Hotel in Wimbledon.Stephen Alambritis (school nickname Sooty) was there with his wife, in his capacity as a local councillor attending the Mayor of Merton's Charity Ball. Staying at the Hotel was fellow Elliottonian and film star Pierce Brosnan (school nickname Irish).

Read here

On Thursday the 18th of January the School had to be vacated, as a result of the dangerous weather conditions. A number of windows were blow in and sections of scaffolding (been used by building contractors) were seen to be "flying about".

Read here

On Saturday the 4th of November 2006 a reunion was held at the school site Read here

August 2006 the local paper carries this story Read here

Saturday the 6th of September 2008 has been proposed as a date for a 50 year reunion Read here