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This academic year marks the 125th anniversary for St. Anthony’s School for Boys. Spanning three centuries, St. Anthony’s Boys is a school with a keen sense of its unique heritage and a strong vision for its future in an increasingly technological and globalised world. We feel deeply honoured to be the School’s current guardians and look to the future with confidence.
I feel immensely privileged to be the sixth Headmaster in St. Anthony’s remarkable history. I imagine that the founders, Richard Patton and his wife, could scarcely have imagined the modern school that St. Anthony’s has evolved into today. Large enough to offer a challenging and contemporary range of academic subjects and extra-curricular activities, yet still small enough to ensure that every boy is known as an individual - St. Anthony’s is an extraordinary place of learning, faith, and lifelong friendships.
We wish to use these 125th celebrations as a catalyst to further connect pupils and parents with the school, engage with friends in our community, and inspire alumni to associate with St. Anthony’s in fresh and powerful ways. We hope you will make the most of this unique moment in time and help us make our 125th year one of the most momentous. We have an exciting programme of events which I hope you will join us for - please see further details in this booklet. I look forward to celebrating with you all and seeing you as the academic year comes to a close.
Paul Keyte
Headmaster
Last year, we established the St. Anthony's School Association for our community of over 6,000 Old Antonians. This is a network for all past pupils, and former and current staff of St. Anthony's to connect with each other and the school. Being part of our alumni community provides a wide range of benefits - whether that be taking part in our events, meeting other Old Boys, or just staying in touch. This rapidly expanding alumni community is an excitingly active space ensuring a lifelong connection to the school for all our past pupils. We hope that those of you not already registered will do so by visiting www.alumni.stanthonysprep.org.uk
The kick-off for this celebration consisted of alumni reunions held at the school during the last two weeks of March. For these events, we welcomed Old Antonians from the 40's – 90's back to the school to reminisce on their time at St. Anthony's.
Many alumni brought memorabilia to donate to the school archives as well as memories and stories to share with their former classmates.
Following a drinks reception, tours of both the Junior and Senior Houses were conducted by members of the Founder's family – Nigel Pitel, former Headmaster of the school and Tim Patton's nephew; and Sarah Anderson, Tim's niece and the school's current bursar. His sister, Sally, also attended one of the reunions. The affection they have for the school is deeply moving and also rightly humbling. Almost every Old Antonian, when asked why they remember the school so fondly, comments on the fact that 'they were allowed to be themselves and… how much fun and laughter there was'.
Paul Keyte, Headmaster
Starting in Eastbourne in 1893, St. Anthony's fi rst opened its doors to the community as a boarding prep school for the sons of the established Irish… More...
The final part of the story sees the school under new ownership and a new direction under Head, Paul Keyte. The story ends as the school begins to bui… More...
As the times outran Tim, and he stepped down, it was his nephew, Nigel, his niece Sarah and her husband Phil who began taking steps to bring the schoo… More...
Anthony Patton and his wife had to overcome many obstacles in setting up the school but numbers reached nearly 200 in just four years. To the original… More...
Tim was a huge character and an all-pervading infl uence in the school. A child of the 60s with a love of performance, he was very charismatic and qui… More...
Forced to evacuate from Eastbourne at the start of the Second World War, the school lost its identity and dwindled. Dick's son, Anthony, had run the s… More...
We are delighted to promote Nigel Watson’s wonderful book Th e Story of St. Anthony’s which highlights some of the milestones, pupils, memories and events that have shaped the history of the school.
Th e book was published earlier this year in anticipation of the school’s anniversary. We wholeheartedly encourage you to get yourself a copy if you haven’t yet had the opportunity.
How to Buy your Copy
For current parents, the book is available to purchase via Parent Pay. Old Antonians & other friends please visit:
https://profi leeditions.com/the-story-of-st-anthony-s-hb
Further enquires: alumni@stanthonysprep.co.uk
All income from sales goes to support bursaries at St. Anthony’s School for Boys
Alumni and parents have been extremely generous in supporting this mission. However, the number and size of bursaries that the school provides have increased substantially over the last few years, increasing the pressure on this resource. Our fundraising efforts for the Bursary Fund are now more important than ever.
With our anniversary in mind, we have set ourselves an ambitious target to raise £250,000 for our bursary endowment fund to ensure we can continue to provide for future generations of Antonians. We hope you will choose to support in whatever way you can. While we appreciate that not everyone will be able to make this gesture, we encourage you to participate in whatever way you are able to, as smaller gifts combined together can provide life changing opportunities for individual children. Our goal is to make an increasing number of full fees awards for deserving children. We hope to achieve this through the Regular Giving Society as well as through developing our endowment fund, through which we can fund children who will flourish individually and have a positive influence on others.
Focused Compliance and Educational Quality Inspection Report, November 2019. More...