School Motto and Song
"In Pectore Robur", meaning Heart of Oak (or more poetically 'Strength in the heart'), initially appeared in the 1850s under John Smith Gilderdale. It is referred to in the School Song (below)
- Eja! Felices! Hodie vacandi
- Cantico dulcis celebretur hora!
- Laus sit in linguis, animo voluptas,
- Pectore robur, pectore robur!
- Gaudeant pensis pueri peractis,
- Gaudeat cura vacuus magister;
- En! Domus gaudet! Sua concinamus
- Gaudia quisque, gaudia quisque.
- Pectoris robur, puerique custos,
- Qui Puer quondam in pueris fuisti,
- Fac Tibi semper placeamus omnes
- Pectore puro, pectore puro!
The school song has been set to music and is sung regularly at end-of-term chapel services and other important occasions.
More recently, a previous Master of Music, Stefan Reid, arranged this for orchestra and it premièred at the annual End of Year Concert (now traditionally held in the Sports Hall). It is sung at certain significant assemblies (e.g. end of year) and at Commemoration Day, however current convention is that only the first verse is sung.
Read more about this topic: Forest School (Walthamstow)
Famous quotes containing the words school, motto and/or song:
“Dad, if you really want to know what happened in school, then you’ve got to know exactly who’s in the class, who rides the bus, what project they’re working on in science, and how your child felt that morning.... Without these facts at your fingertips, all you can really think to say is “So how was school today?” And you’ve got to be prepared for the inevitable answer—”Fine.” Which will probably leave you wishing that you’d never asked.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“Ex oriente lux may still be the motto of scholars, for the Western world has not yet derived from the East all the light which it is destined to receive thence.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You praised and knew
the song they made was worthless
and the note,
they sung
was dross.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)