Education Secretary Michael Gove in Parliament today
Michael Gove today cancelled Labour's school building
programme, suspending projects for 715 new schools as part of the
coalition's latest tranche of spending cuts.
The education secretary,
Michael Gove, today announced the scrapping of the Building Schools for the
Future (BSF) programme as part of a £1bn cuts package.
This is an excerpt from the
full list of the affected projects.
Trafford
St Ambrose
College
Unaffected
Yes, St Ambrose College is unaffected.
The rebuild is going to happen.
This is truly fantastic news for the school
and our Community.
"It was close!" - Mr
Michael Thompson
Are you up for it?
To celebrate the
good news, how about a Helicopter Ride
before the 2010 Dinner?
Take off from the first team
pitch and see the new and the old St Ambrose school sites from above!
It's another big landmark
for St Ambrose College.
For the first time in its history, the school has three former pupils who
are now UK Members of Parliament.
Greg Mulholland MP for Leeds North West, re-elected May
2010 (LD)
Damien Hinds MP for East Hampshire, elected May
2010 (C)
Paul Maynard MP
for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, elected May 2010 (C)
As it turned out, all three are part
of the Coalition.
So, for the first time, St Ambrose former pupils are part of a serving British
Government.
St Ambrose educated three out of the 361 coalition MPs currently in Government ...and that's 0.8%: not bad for a state
school!
in alphabetical order:
Congratulations to
Damien Hinds MP
elected May 2010
Damien Hinds, MP for East Hampshire
Damien Hinds attended St Ambrose
1981-1988and studied Politics, Philosophy
and Economics at Trinity College Oxford (where he was also elected president of the Oxford
Union).
Fatal Fear joined the Korean-metal scene almost ten years ago. They
are the hosts of the ongoing and regular “24-hours of Bullsh*t Fest” for
extreme and metal music, as well as the more recent “Youth Anthem” fest with
a more mixed line-up.
Featured in Metal Hammer magazine
In 2006 the band took on St Ambrose Old Boy Edward
"DreadEd" Campbell, a British metal “veteran” and ex-vocalist
for Manchester band "Severed Fate", on guitar. Campbell was later replaced with
Min-Yong, then returned in 2007 on vocal duties, following the departure of
singer Wan-U.
In 2009, the band released the EP, "Apocalyptic Crusade." The
tracks layer vocalist Ed's earth-shattering snarls with blazing guitars, booming
drums and biting guitar solos to generate an effort bursting at the seams with
sludgy anthems. With standout tracks like "White C Virus",
"Apocalyptic Crusade" and "Hopeless." They have a good
balance of Heavy and Melodic riffage with a positive deficit of melodic vocals
and a constant deathcore groove throughout."
Campbell explained:
"It's a concept album about a zombie apocalypse. You can take it as
socio-political commentary or its a simple, brutal, death-fest with hints of
melody and a sprinkling of guitar solo action."
Vocalist Edward "DreadEd" Campbell
Ernon Edward Campbell attended St
Ambrose College between 1992 and 1997
Ed Campbell emails:
"It's an honour to be in such good company and to be from a
school that I hold in high regard.
"Mr "Sam" Wilkinson taught me Biology and was one
of, if not the most inspiring educator I have ever known. I am the vocalist in
the band, which is quite successful having played some high profile shows out
here (e.g. we played with Arch
Enemy in Seoul on their world tour). We were also the first Korean band to
EVER get published in the UK-based, international magazine "Metal
Hammer".
"I guess that all those years of playing music in the St
Ambrose practice rooms and attending the school choir has paid off! Mr Arthur
(my favourite Chemistry teacher) was not too keen on my long hair - that I kept
under my shirt collar, only to cut off a few months prior to leaving - only to grow
it all back again in college afterwards."
"Also, along with Korean friends, I started an independent record
label and live club to showcase the talent (this also has a recording
studio attached). Although some of the bands on our label are in Europe,
many are in Asia and we hope to expand further as time goes on."
"As for being in a "death metal band" with a
Catholic background all I can say is that despite the death core genre, I mostly
write about spiritual, moral, peaceful philosophy (and penance / karma) - which
goes hand in hand with the best interpretations of Catholicism ...and most
religions, in fact."
Screen Writer whose work
includes Channel 4's"Shameless"
Phil Noddingattended St Ambrose
1969-1976
After St Ambrose, Philoriginally worked as a journalist in
Nottingham
then as a location manager for Carlton TV. He took up writing full-time in
2005 after completing a MA in Screenwriting.
Phil worked on locations for
feature films like ‘The Haunting’, ‘Room for Romeo Brass’,
‘Enigma’ and for TV shows including ‘Playing the Field’ and
‘Peak Practice’.
Given his first break by Paul
Abbott on series 2 of Channel 4's 'Shameless',
Phil went on to write for the BBC1 Kay Mellor drama ‘The
Chase’ and develop stories for ‘New Tricks’ and ‘Hotel
Babylon’. He collaborated last year with Steve Chambers to write
‘High-Lites’ an afternoon play for BBC Radio 4. The two of them are
currently developing a series based on the same characters. Phil has recently
written his first feature, a romantic comedy. He is developing the project
with the independent production company HotBed Media and is writing a stage
play with the Theatre Writing Partnership.
The
infamous Gallagher family
Phil won an RTS New Talent Award in 2006 for his first episode of Shameless
and won the BBC Writersroom ‘Inside
the Box’ competition the following year.
Phil established the internet
film site www.britfilms.tv ,
exec-producing a slate of short films under the ‘Three Minute Warnings’
banner. Phil has also lectured in screenwriting at Bournemouth,
Newcastle
, Leicester,
Lincoln
and
Nottingham
.Apart from writing he spends
his time playing golf (badly), football (slowly), cycling (almost as slowly)
and travelling.
Architecture practice Sheppard Robson is preparing to
submit a planning application for the £20m St Ambrose Voluntary Aided College
in Trafford for builders Balfour Beatty.
Sheppard Robson's design features a central area that includes the chapel,
dining, social and assembly areas. Cantilevering platforms on the upper levels
support staff areas, library and ICT areas. The central space is visible at all
points within the school, and all teaching areas are accessed directly from this
space, shelving the need for internal corridors.
Inside the central space
Tony O'Brien, design director at Sheppard Robson, said: "Our primary
considerations when designing St Ambrose were to provide a high performance
school with cutting edge teaching facilities, and to ensure that the building
reflects the schools Catholic faith, expressing a strong sense of community.
"St Ambrose is comprised of four houses, with each student allocated a
house for the duration of their time at the school, reinforcing this sense of
community not just in the physical appearance of the school, but also in the way
it operates."
St Ambrose will also boast sports facilities, with the sports hall suspended
over the swimming pool.
The building is expected to be submitted for planning permission in May 2010,
with completion in 2011. The project is being funded by the government's
National Academies Framework Part 1.
From the air the floorplan resembles a circular cross
Sheppard Robson has designed the center space of the facility in such a way
that it represents the heart of the community. It features a chapel, dining,
social and assembly areas. The central space is visible at all points within the
school, and all teaching areas are accessed directly from this space. This is
done to eliminate the need for internal corridors.
Cantilevering platforms on the upper levels are designed to support staff
areas, library and ICT areas. Tony O’Brien, design director at Sheppard
Robson, stated that the firm aimed to create a high performance school with
cutting edge teaching facilities, and tried to ensure that the building reflects
the schools catholic faith, expressing a strong sense of community.
St. Ambrose features four houses designed to reinforce sense of community.
Each student will be allocated a house for the duration of their time at the
school, hence underpinning the sense of community not just in the physical
appearance of the school, but also in the way it operates. The school will
feature sports facilities, with the sports hall suspended over the swimming
pool.
Planning application for permission will be submitted in May
2010, with a
slated completion in 2011. The project is being funded by the government's
National Academies Framework Part 1. Balfour Beatty Construction has landed a
contract from Trafford Council to build the new St. Ambrose Voluntary Aided
College.
Adapted, with thanks to "Place North West"
SAOBA see the plans
On 19 April, Mr Michael Thompson kindly gave SAOBA a detailed overview of the
plans for the new school.
The paving of the school drive will spell out the motto "Vitam Impendere
Vero". We were impressed at the carefully thought out and
integrated design, with a plan resembling a Celtic cross, and functions
reflecting the family nature of the school community, organised around a large
central “heart space”.
The four wings will reflect the school house and
departmental structure. The design features minimal use of corridors, maximum
visibility and openness, with the use of natural light and transparent glass
walls.
It includes several multi-use areas with great future potential, and a
25m swimming pool overlooking the sports pitches through one-way glass. There
will be a sixth
form area with a balcony overlooking the playing fields, a sports hall, an all weather pitch and numerous other
features. It is hoped that the design will help to encourage supportive links
between different year groups. It is certain to transform the working methods of
the school.
The heart space capacity will be 1050 (or 450 dining),
lecture theatre 250. Further flexibility will be provided by folding walls, and
multiple uses of rooms. Mr. Thompson’s presentation was illustrated by large
and detailed plans and a video. He promised to let us have the video to
introduce our dinner and for this website afterwards. An interactive question and
answer session followed.
Funds were apparently “guaranteed” by the present (Labour)
government, although the forthcoming election (May 7th) could
potentially disrupt this.
The crucial planning meeting will be held in late May*,
and work could start in July 2010, with an 18 month build time (completion in
December 2011). We are keeping our fingers crossed.
Tony
Dixon
*ST AMBROSE'S PLANNING APPLICATION WAS APPROVED
IN MAY 2010
The ten selected Classic Album Covers to be released as
stamps
(L to R by Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Blur, New
Order, Rolling Stones, Clash, Mike Oldfield, Led Zeppelin, Primal Scream and
David Bowie)
- numbers one and four on the upper
row are by St Ambrose old boys
Peter Saville
and Keith Breeden attended St Ambrose 1967-1974 and studied Art to A level with
Mr Hancock
The Division Bell, Pink Floyd's last album, cover design by
Keith Breeden
Former St Ambrose pupil Peter Saville's cover
art for New Order's 1983 Album, "Power, Corruption and Lies", and
Keith Breeden's cover design for Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell" have been
selected as two of a group of ten classic album covers to be made into Royal
Mail Stamps
in 2010.
Fact 73: Peter Saville's 1983 cover for "Power, Corruption and
Lies"
Peter Saville's design for the album had a colour-based code to represent the
band's name and the title of the album, but they were not actually written on
the sleeve itself.
The decoder for the code was featured prominently on the back cover of the album.
The cover is a reproduction of the painting "A Basket of Roses" by
French artist Henri Fantin-Latour, which is in the National Gallery of London's permanent
collection. Peter Saville intended to create a collision between this overly romantic and
classic image which made a stark contrast with the typography based on the
modular, colour-coded alphabet he created solely for the band.
It is also said that the owner of the painting (The National Heritage Trust)
at first refused Factory Records access to it. Tony Wilson, the head of the label, then called them up to ask who actually owned
the painting and were given the answer that the Trust belonged to the people of
Britain. Wilson then famously replied, "Well, the people of
Britain now want it."
Keith Breeden's cover Design for the Division Bell,
1994
For the Division Bell, long-time Floyd collaborator
Storm Thorgerson developed the album artwork from Keith Breeden's original
concept. He erected two large metal heads each the height of a
Double-decker bus in a field near Ely. The sculptures were positioned close
together, and photographed in profile, to give the illusion that not only were
they either facing or talking to each other, they also presented the viewer with
a third face. The sculptures were devised by Keith Breeden, and constructed by
John Robertson. Ely Cathedral is visible on the horizon. The sculptures are now
in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
The album was released in the UK and US on CD, vinyl,
and Compact Cassette, each with its own format and label-specific design. Two
7.5-metre (25 ft) stone sculptures were made by Aden Hynes for the cassette
releases, and photographed in the same style as the metal heads. The artwork
inside the CD lyric booklet revolves around a similar theme, with the image of
the two heads formed by various other objects, such as newspapers ("A Great
Day for Freedom"), coloured glass ("Poles Apart"), and boxing
gloves ("Lost for Words").
Keith
Breeden
attended St Ambrose until 1974 and studied A level Art with Mr Hancock
Graphic
design until 1994: Album Art
for ABC, Duran Duran, Scritti Politti,
The
Mission, Roxy Music, The Cult, Pink Floyd
Music
Week Awards: First Prize for Album Sleeve 1986
Music
Week Awards: First Prizes for Single Sleeve
1985 and 1986
Since
1995, Portraitist, elected to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
"Malcolm Garrett is a British
graphic designer who worked on a number on iconic album and single sleeves of
the 1980s from acts including Duran Duran, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, The
Buzzcocks and of course, Magazine."
Malcolm, Peter . . . and Keith
[EXTRACT]
Over the years, Malcolm Garrett and Peter Saville have often mentioned in
interviews that they studied together at Manchester Polytechnic in the 1970s.
Less well known, though it sometimes comes up in passing, is that they also
attended the same school, St Ambrose College, an independent Catholic grammar in
Hale Barns, Cheshire. Barely remarked at all, however, is that Keith Breeden, a
third, not so renowned contributor to Britain’s graphic ‘new wave’, was a
member of the same A level art class. At school, as both Saville and Garrett
affirm, Breeden was a significant influence on them. The only known photograph
of the three fledgling designers in the school art room is printed tantalisingly
small in Saville’s recent monograph, "Designed by Peter Saville".
It’s odd, in a way, that more has not been made of this surprising confluence
of talent. In a class of just six teenagers taking Art, half of the group went
on to devote their efforts to album cover design and two became leading figures
with national and international reputations. Where many once-celebrated new wave
design teams of the early 1980s – Rocking Russian, Shoot That Tiger, Town and
Country Planning – are all but forgotten now, Saville and Garrett have stayed
the course. The national press coverage generated by the Saville monograph and
the Design Museum’s retrospective – even the ultra-highbrow London Review of
Books was moved to break its usual silence on design – confirmed just how
deeply his work affected those who consumed it at the time.
It’s still too early, though, to determine with any precision how significant
the impact of Garrett and Saville was for British design. Saville’s book and
exhibition excited impressionistic claims by journalists that his designs had
ignited a taste revolution in the high streets of Britain and, not surprisingly,
Saville was ready to agree . . .
"He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to
get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We
all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man." -
Paul
McCartney
McCartney, Harrison, Donegan and
Starr
Paul McCartney, Lonnie Donegan, George Harrison & Ringo Starr
The Beatles' faces show how
delighted they were to have their picture taken with Lonnie Donegan
Photographed at the wedding of Eric Clapton to Patti Boyd (former wife of
George Harrison) May 19th, 1979.
Quite a girl!
Patti Boyd, who first met Harrison on the set of the movie
"A Hard Days Night" was the inspiration for the Beatles' song
"Something". She also inspired Clapton's song
"Layla" (and the entire album "Layla and Assorted Love
Songs" by Derek and the Dominoes), as well as Clapton's solo songs
"Wonderful Tonight" and "Bell Bottom Blues".
He was the first British Artist to
have had his first 5 records in the top 5 of the top 20
"Woodeaves"
Anthony Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire in 1939, aged 8.
He attended St Ambrose at Dunham Rd and then at Woodeaves (now the
Brothers' House). He was mentioned in "The Ambrosian" school magazine
in 1945 (writing an article and winning the form prize for Form 3 in
1945).
The Easter 1945 issue of "The
Ambrosian" (the St Ambrose College school magazine at the time) records
that Anthony Donegan won the First Prize in Form III in 1945. He also wrote an
article reproduced below.
(copied from "THE
AMBROSIAN", Easter 1945):
FORM 111.
"Looking back over the last
term, it appears to have gone by very quickly, I suppose the concert was mainly
responsible for this. Be that as it may, few, if any, regret it.
Shortly after the concert,
Brother Director brought in for our admiration two brand new footballs and a set
of football jerseys for the first XI. There are four boys of our class in that
team, so this affected us directly.
Something new in the way of
books has been acquired by our form this year: Verse to Remember, one of the two
set books required for the summer exams. We are still short of the other,
Dickens' Christmas Carol, but this shortage has not been keenly felt as a bright
lad had an idea of bringing a copy from home and Brother Hilary reads out the
story to us. Christmas is a thing of the past just now, or perhaps should we say
of the future, but this book has made it very present for most of us, and there
were yearnings and waterings of the mouth when we read of the Ghost of Christmas
Present conducting Scrooge through the streets where the fruit shops were
situated.
In January a number of lessons
were missed owing to the bad weather, but I don't think any voices were raised
in protest. We are constantly told that when we grow up we shall regret the time
lost in class. Perhaps some day we shall understand this truth fully, and before
it is too late.
To conclude, I think this term
has been most successful and I hope we shall have many more like it"
A. DONEGAN.
Anthony Donegan left St Ambrose in 1946, and took his first job in a Stockbroker's
office. After National Service he originally toured as the Tony Donegan Jazz Band, but adopted the name
"Lonnie" in tribute to the great American blues
guitarist Lonnie Johnson, who was playing on the same bill at the London
Festival Hall in 1952. The compere confused their names, and introduced him as
"Lonnie Donegan". He kept the name, and invented a new form of DIY music called
Skiffle. It was massively successful. In 1956 he sold 3 million copies of the
"Rock Island Line" single. John Lennon's first group, the
Quarrymen, was a Skiffle group. Donegan's single "Gamblin' Man"/"Puttin'
on the Style"was number one in July 1957 when Lennon met McCartney. They
have both declared that Donegan was a major influence. McCartney saw him play in
Liverpool. He was impressed to see that although Donegan arrived late for
the lunchtime show, he took time afterwards to personally write notes for the
factory girls in the crowd to give to their bosses, to explain why they were so
late returning to work.
Donegan has
been described as Britain's first musical superstar and his skiffle music swept
through the country in the 1950s.
He
quickly became a star, although he had only ever wanted to be a jazz banjo
player. Lonnie
Donegan had over twenty UK
top 30 hits, including three number one records and was known as " King of
Skiffle".
Elvis
Presley recorded one of his songs, I'm Never Gonna Fall in Love Again. In 1978
Sir Paul McCartney was the driving force behind a tribute album. In 1997 he received a
lifetime achievement award at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 1999, a
collaboration with long-time fan Van Morrison resulted in Lonnie's first
album release in 20 years, Muleskinner Blues.
In
November 2000 Lonnie collected an MBE from Buckingham Palace in recognition of
his musical contribution to his country. He
had a special edition Martin guitar (the make Lonnie has popularised the world
over) created in his honour.
He played Glastonbury in 2000, at the age of 69
Lonnie Donegan with Richard O'Connor and Peter
Mulhern, Stockton-on-Tees, 2000
1931-2002
"He really was at the very
cornerstone of English blues and rock." — Brian May of Queen
Dire
Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, who played with Donegan in London, called him
one of his greatest musical influences.
"Lonnie was a stunning entertainer and musician" -
Rolf Harris
"A terrific force" - Sir Cliff Richard
"So
for those of us there, in those early days, he was the man.
In
later years I grew to know him as a friend and was not in any way let
down.
He
is a great guy with a true love of good music and many of us owe him a huge debt
of gratitude.
England's Winning Tenor: Martin
Toal sings for England
Martin Toal, former St. Ambrose French Teacher turned Tenor is
known as “England’s Winning Tenor” as the England football team has won
without conceding a single goal every time he has sung the national anthem
before the game – now 5 times! In February, Martin was invited to sing Nessun
Dorma at Wembley at a special event for the England football manager Fabio
Capello!
Martin Toal attended St Ambrose 1975
- 1982 (first time round) and came back to work at the school teaching French
for a total of fourteen years, before becoming a professional tenor
singer.
