serve and obey!

great news the other day that our darling daughter has been accepted at one of the best schools in the country, the formidable haberdashers' aske's hatcham college which is great as it is not only academically challenging (we hope) but close enough to home to leave time for lot's of other stuff (rike hopes).

says wikipedia: as of august 2009, aske's GCSE results were rated the 10th best in the country for all state schools and best in london, according to the guardian newspaper. founded by one of the original livery companies in the city of london, the worshipful company of haberdashers, who owned much of the land in new cross (then hatcham) and in 1875 had surplus money in robert aske's educational charity which was used for two grammar schools for boys and girls.

today aske's is probably best known for the near impossibility to get into (over 3000 applications for 260 places) and it's great music tuition, which means rike will be in good company according to the illustrious list of "old askeans": steve harley of steve harley & cockney rebel, the lead singer of doctor and the medics, clive jackson, melvyn gale of electric light orchestra, a clash member, and damian marley, son of reggae legend bob.

so with that looking all nice and dandy we are only a little concerned about the motto the school inherited from the haberdasher monks. serve and obey is probably not unknown to our dearest, just the direction has to be sorted: you serve me cookies now and please obey my 'do not enter' sign on the door while you're at it...