2012 - Lent Term

Welcome to the Friends of FCHS website, where we mark the 86 years of Finchley Catholic High School's history, and celebrate the success of the School today in the classroom and on the sports field.

We start 2012 with the sad news that Finchley's second longest serving Head Teacher, Stephen Szemerenyi OBE, died on New Year's Day following a short illness. Even if you are not one of the students, parents or teachers whose experience of FCHS coincided with Mr Szemerenyi's Headship, all those who love FCHS and what it stands for have cause to thank him for the vital role he played in turning the School around in the 1980s, and steering it onto the path of success it enjoys today.

In this letter to all Friends of FCHS, the current Head Teacher, Mr McKenna, and the Chair of Governors, Jane Inzani, pay tribute to Stephen Szemerenyi and his legacy. Over the coming weeks, we would be delighted to receive your own tributes and we will add these to the website in due course.

Elsewhere on the website this term:

* We provide details of the School's fundraising campaign for a new Sixth Form Centre on the site of the old Bampfield Music House, to which the Friends of FCHS is contributing;

* We have further additions to our Archive, including the latest chapter in our series on the Finchley War Years and a fascinating architectural history of The White House;

* We have items of news from Old Boys far flung around the world in our Noticeboard section, including a report on last November's Annual Dinner of the Albanian Association, addressed by much-loved and legendary History teacher, Conn O'Halpin (1957-1994).

If you haven't already done so, please REGISTER YOUR CONTACT DETAILS with us, and please consider MAKING A DONATION, however small, towards the Friends of FCHS appeal.