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Drapers' Academy Gets Final Go-Ahead
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, signed the Funding Agreement in early December 2009 signalling the establishment of Drapers' Academy in Harold Hill. It confirms that the Academy will come into being on 1st September 2010, ready to accept its first students when the Academy opens for the autumn term next year.

"This marks a big step forward in the provision of secondary education for the children of Harold Hill," said Schools Minister Vernon Croakers. "We are particularly pleased to have secured the support of these two sponsors. The combination of the Drapers' company, with a history of supporting education over many centuries, and Queen Mary University of London, one of the country's leading universities, promises to bring really top class education to the area. The specialisms of this Academy - mathematics and science - will help encourage greater numbers of students to focus on these subjects."

It is expected that the students of King's Wood School will provide the core of the Academy, along with the majority of the teaching staff at the school. Matthew Slater, who was recently appointed as Principal (Designate) is keen to implement the vision of the Academy's sponsors. "There is a lot to be done over the next twelve months", he says, "but I am looking forward to implementing the exciting plans we have for a top class secondary school in Harold Hill. We are determined to make Drapers' Academy into a school which will be a source of pride to the local community." As soon as the Academy opens its doors in 2010 work will start on the brand new buildings which the students and staff will occupy two years later. Everything will be done in the meantime to ensure that as little disturbance as possible for them occurs during the school day. Over the coming few years the Academy will expand to its full capacity of 1,100, including 200 sixth form students.

Commenting on the signing of the Funding Agreement by the Secretary of State, Adrian Lyons, Chair of the Drapers' Academy Trust, said, "We are delighted Ed Balls has given his go ahead for us to open the Academy in September next year. From Day one our core purpose will be to ensure that all our students achieve highly and our key priority will be to provide an environment which excites, motivates and challenges them. We have a great partnership with the London Borough of Havering, as well as many on Harold Hill, particularly those at King's Wood School. These partnerships have been the key that has allowed us to make such successful progress."

 

Election of Master and Wardens

Following the elections by the Court of Assistants the newly elected Master and Wardens were sworn into office on 21st July 2009 prior to the Election Dinner that evening at which they were ceremonially crowned in one of the Company's oldest ceremonies.

Professor Graham Zellick CBE has been elected Master for the year ensuing.  Graham has been President of the Valuation Tribunal for England since January 2009, following five years as Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.  Before that, he was Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of London, an Electoral Commissioner and Principal of Queen Mary and Westfield College.

He was educated at Cambridge (where he read law and obtained a PhD) and Stanford universities.  For the first 20 years of his career, he was an academic lawyer at Queen Mary College, becoming Professor of Public Law at 34 (the youngest professor in the UK at the time), Drapers’ Professor of Law, Head of the Department of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Laws.  He chaired the Committee of Heads of UK Law Schools, was Editor of Public Law and founding Editor of European Human Rights Reports.  He is a barrister and associate tenant of chambers in Gray’s Inn.  He has been a Visiting Scholar of St John’s College, Oxford and twice a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto. He is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Birmingham and Visiting Professor of Law at Queen Mary, University of London.   

Public appointments have included membership of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Legal Aid; South Thames Regional Health Authority; East London and the City Health Authority; and the Criminal Justice Council.  Earlier judicial appointments included membership of the Data Protection Tribunal; the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel; the Competition Appeal Tribunal; and the North Westminster Bench as a JP.  

Bodies he has chaired include Leo Baeck College; Richmond, The American International University in London; The Tel Aviv University Trust Lawyers’ Group; and the Prisoners’ Advice and Law Service; and he was President of the West London [Reform] Synagogue, Marble Arch, London.  He is currently Chairman of the Reform Club Conservation Trust.  

He holds four honorary degrees and six honorary fellowships (including Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Society for Advanced Legal Studies); is Emeritus Professor of Law in the University of London; Master of the Bench of the Middle Temple; an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences; and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.  He was appointed CBE in 2009 for services to the Administration of Justice.  He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Society of Medicine.  

Professor Zellick has been married since 1975 to Jennie (Professor Jennifer Temkin LLD, AcSS, FRSA, Barrister and Bencher of the Middle Temple, Professor of Law, University of Sussex).  They live in London and Rutland and have two children, both graduates of Caius College, Cambridge and both Drapers (Adam, who is a Liveryman, practises at the Commercial Bar in London; Lara, a Freeman, is a solicitor at Freshfields in the City).  

The four Wardens elected are: Major-General Adrian Lyons CBE (Master Warden), Anthony Walker (Second Master Warden), Peter Bottomley MP (Renter Warden) and Gareth Clutton (Junior Warden).


Drapers’ Hall, Throgmorton Avenue, by Francis Farmar
The Drapers’ Company is delighted to announce that it recently commissioned Liveryman, Francis Farmar to paint a watercolour depicting Drapers’ Hall. The resulting painting was unveiled to much acclaim at the Election Dinner in 2003.

The painting is characterised by Francis’s technique of using a bird’s-eye panorama, a technique that has a long tradition stretching back to the sixteenth century.

Limited edition glicée prints of this painting are now available for purchase. All prints are hand signed and numbered by the artist.

The Painting
With the exception of the buildings in the right hand foreground, all the buildings shown in detail in the painting comprise the island site bounded by Throgmorton Avenue, Throgmorton Street and Austin Friars that has been owned by the Drapers’ Company since 1543. The buildings include both Drapers’ Hall, with its courtyard and garden, and other late 19th century office buildings that are held as property investments.

The Artist
Francis Farmar has been a Liveryman of the Drapers’ Company since 1973. His father, Hugh Farmar, was Clerk to the Company from 1952 to 1973.

After training in Italy, then St. Martin’s College of Art London and the West of England College of Art, Francis abandoned painting for fifteen years, to work for the auctioneers Christie’s, becoming Director of the Modern British Picture department.

In 1986, Francis left London to live in Scotland and began painting again. He later moved his base to the Wiltshire/Dorset border from where he travels extensively abroad. He has had one-man exhibitions in London each year since 1992 and has also shown work at many mixed shows in the UK and abroad. Latterly many of his works have been paintings of houses and estates commissioned by private or corporate clients.

For further information about commissions and exhibitions, please refer to Francis’s website: www.francisfarmar.com

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Glicée Print Details
Size:
18" x 18"
Edition Copies: 250
Format: Unmounted
Medium: Limited edition glicée on paper
Price: £95.00

60% of the profits from the sale of the prints will go to the Company’s Gift and Legacy Fund.


For further enquiries and how you can purchase please
tel
020 7588 5001 or
email mail@thedrapers.co.uk

For further information about A Valued Treasure | A Proctour for the Poore click here