Have any questions about the club, our website, or an event? Please contact me at:
Alumni Officer, Susannah Schofield, Alleyn's School, Townley Road, London, SE22 8SU.
Tel: 020 8557 1466, Email:

ALLEYN'S EXAM RESULTS: THE BEST EVER! Alleyn’s School has announced that its ‘A’ Level and GCSE results this year are the best in the school’s history. An astonishing 84 per cent of GCSE results were either A or A* grade, an increase of four per cent on last year and 97 per cent of grades were either A*, A or B grades. This matches the previous best ever year of 2006. And at ‘A’ Level, Alleyn's showed a massive improvement, with 73 per cent of results at A Grade, an eight per cent increase on last year's previous best ever performance. The number of A and B Grade results was also at an all-time high at 89 per cent. Headmaster, Dr Colin Diggory, said: 'This has been an astonishingly good year for both ‘A’ Level and GCSE results. Our pupils keep raising the performance bar and each year we manage to top the previous year. This year’s performance is going to be a hard act to follow. 'Our increasingly impressive performance in both these exam levels is a tribute to the hard work put in by our pupils, but equally, it could not be achieved without the commitment and dedication of our magnificent staff. It was another tremendous team effort.' Date posted: 28 August 2008 • Full story

NEWS

ALUMNUS TO CO-DIRECT RARE STOPPARD REVIVAL AT NATIONAL THEATRE Felix Barrett (Tulley's, 89-96), artistic director of environmental theatre company Punchdrunk, is to co-direct a rare revival of Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn’s 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'. The play will feature the Southbank Sinfonia, a young professional orchestra created to support promising performers who have recently graduated from music college. The serio-comic drama for actors and symphony orchestra is about a political dissident incarcerated in a lunatic asylum with a man who believes himself to be surrounded by an orchestra. Darkly humorous and provocative, Stoppard’s play asks if denying the truth is a price worth paying for liberty. Felix will be directing with the National's Tom Morris (former artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre). The play will run in the Olivier Theatre from 12 January 2009. Date posted: 19 August 2008 • Full story ALUMNUS AT NORFOLK’S JELLYFEST 02 August 2008 Cass Lowe, aka: Nick Morrison (Dutton’s, 1998-2005), played at Jellyfest ‘a music festival with a difference’ in Norfolk. Some of the best unsigned acts from around the country appeared, playing music hand-picked and tailored for the Jelly festival experience. Cass Lowe has toured with Newton Faulkner, and is billed as ‘guitar-tapping and looping at its best’. Date posted: 01 August 2008 • Full story   NEW BLACKPOOL ILLUMINATIONS DESIGN BY LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN 29 August - 02 November 2008 Alleyn's Old Boy, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, has created 'Venus Reborn' a new design tableau for the 2008 Blackpool Illuminations. It was funded by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) at a cost of £500,000 and will comprise a 15-minute show of sound, lights and water effects. Laurence said: 'I want it to look like something you might see in a festive film,' and added, 'The fact that there's going to be a 15-minute show will hopefully draw the crowds and get people out of their cars to enjoy the whole magic we're creating.' It isn't the first time Laurence has been involved in the Blackpool Illuminations. Last year he added a kick to the display with his Decodance showgirls who lit up the promenade near the tower. This year's Big Switch On will take place at around 9.25pm on 29 August and the illuminations will shine for 66 consecutive days until 2 November. Date posted: 12 August 2008 • Full story BENJAMIN WALLFISCH TO CONDUCT NATIONAL YOUTH SINFONIETTA IN FREE CONCERT 10 August 2008 17:30 Award-winning conductor and composer, Benjamin Wallfisch (Cribb’s, 1991-97), took up his baton to conduct The National Youth Orchestra Sinfonietta through pieces by Adams, Copland and Varese at a free concert held at the Clore Ballroom at the Southbank Centre. For more information about Benjamin Wallfisch, see www.benjaminwallfisch.com Date posted: 28 July 2008 • Full story   DONAL COONAN TEACHES UKULELE AT EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL 30 July - 25 August 2008 Channel 4's 'thisisaknife', Donal Coonan (Tulley's, 1995-2000), teams up with Sam Brown in 'Learn to Play the Ukulele in Under an Hour (How George Formby Saved My Life)'. They promise to show the joys of the ukulele by teaching the entire audience to play the ukulele in under an hour. For more information see www.learntoplaytheukulele.com To read a review of the show, see 'Full story'. Date posted: 09 August 2008 • Full story FORMER DIRECTOR OF MUSIC DIES Frank Kennard, AOB and long-standing Director of Music at Alleyn's (1948-74), died on 16 July 2008. He is survived by his widow, Rosemary. In 'Alleyn's: The Coeducational School' the late Arthur Chandler wrote of Mr Kennard that 'he had guided the School's music through the post-war period and had jealously guarded and upkept the orchestral and Gilbert and Sullivan traditions of the School instilled in it by WJ Smith'. The funeral has already taken place. Date posted: 27 July 2008 • Full story