Latymer Upper School 400 Year Founder’s Day Anniversary, St Paul’s Cathedral

Latymer Upper School’s 400 Year Founder’s Day Anniversary at St Paul’s Cathedral. 

by Paul Goldsmith, Teacher of Economics, Politics & World Perspectives, and Sixth Form Tutor. 

From the moment I arrived at Mansion House Station and saw the sign from London Underground congratulating the School on its Founder’s Day 400 year Anniversary, I realised that this was going to be no ordinary day.

Sixth Form tutors had been encouraged to meet their form groups for breakfast and walk together towards the magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral, which loomed gloriously in the distance, framed as it was by a clear blue sky.

What was particularly special about that walk was seeing the coming together of Latymer students and teachers from all directions into the gated compound in which the Cathedral sits.

I was determined to be mindful of the sights and sounds of the day, and the sight of hundreds of people I share my life with all in one place, looking smarter than usual, was striking. Even more striking, of course, was the sight of the inside of the Cathedral, which is stunning.

Nothing prepares you for the size of the place, combined with the beautiful decorations and ornate carvings all around. I am old enough to remember Lady Diana Spencer being walked down the same aisle by her Father to marry Prince Charles that I walked down to join my tutor group . To be there was awe-inspiring. As I sat waiting for what would be my fifteenth Founders Day service to start, I considered how lucky I was that Edward Latymer had had such a good idea 400 years ago. My children have had a first-class education, with opportunities in and out of the classroom the children of a teacher and writer can normally only dream of.

But also, because he was so determined to make a difference to the lives of the less fortunate, the ethos Latymer encouraged meant that I now have the honour and pleasure of teaching a diverse range of children. I looked around at the colleagues I love working with and the pupils I love teaching and supporting and renewed my determination to make the most of these privileges.

The service itself was cleverly written. It combined a mixture of the modern with the traditional, the religious with the secular, and showcased what is so special about our community. It was such a lovely idea to have representatives of the diverse communities (religious and ethnic) within our school to give a reading, and also to have representatives of different functions within the school (teachers, nurses, chaplains etc). The Lower School and Upper School choirs sang beautifully, and I must give special mention to Sixth Former Quentin, who took on an extremely tricky solo which must have taken a lot of practice to go with his undoubted talent. But of course, what is Founder’s Day without the hymns, and nothing would stop me belting out ‘Guide me O thou great redeemer’, ‘I vow to thee my country’, and finally ‘Jerusalem’ – the opening chords of which was greeted with the words ‘now THIS is a banger’ from the Upper Sixth boy next to me.

Overall, Founder’s Day 2024 was a day I will always remember. My deepest thanks go to the colleagues who made it happen, who managed an extraordinary organisational feat so well and gave us all the opportunity that everyone there will remember fondly. I have felt extremely lucky to be present throughout the 400^th year of this great school.

Founders’ Day gave me the opportunity to give thanks, and I am extremely grateful to have done so in such magnificent surroundings.

Author: Rebecca Thornton