On Saturday 7th November, we are looking forward to our reunion for students, parents and staff who were part of the Ficino community up to 2020. Last year’s event was very well received, and we hope that you are able to join us for drinks, delicious food and the opportunity to catch up with former classmates and friends.
Our Year 8 students have just returned from the incredible experience of travelling across to the other side of the world following the long-standing tradition of the Ficino Renaissance Tour. This trip gives our students the opportunity to experience the ancient world both directly through their time in Rome, and indirectly through the Italian Renaissance. The latter came about because of the influx of hitherto unseen manuscripts arriving in Florence primarily originating from the Hellenic period. In fact, Marsilio Ficino himself was a hugely influential Florentine intellectual at the time. He translated all the works of the ancient philosopher Plato from Greek into Latin for the first time. Many would say that this rediscovery (or rebirth as the word Renaissance means), was instrumental in the flowering of painting, sculpture, architecture and science that this period typifies.
The Renaissance Trip is a huge enterprise for our school. Anything involving taking a group of 13-year-olds away from the security of everything they know for three weeks is a challenge worth rising to. They have no mobile phones and no access to screens for the whole period. Instead, they become immersed in the richness and grandeur of a time when human endeavour reached its zenith in a way that has never quite been achieved since.
One of the highlights of the Italian part of the tour is the visit to Siena, where the students have a walking tour taking in the site of the famous Paleo horse race, before entering one of the finest cathedrals of the medieval period. Its floor mosaics are world famous and the first one on entering, unusually for a Christian church, makes reference to the influence the ancient world had on the Christian doctrine with images of Socrates, Hermes (from Ancient Egypt) and Crates.
The trip to England is to engage with a renaissance of a different sort. One of the many highlights of this leg is a visit to the Globe Theatre to undergo a workshop with Shakespearean actors, before watching a matinee of whatever play is in season. This year it was Much Ado About Nothing – one of the Bard’s famous comedies.
Also in the UK, the students stay at Waterperry House, the School of Philosophy’s country mansion near Oxford. Here they take a tour of the Artist’s Hall commissioned by the late Leon MacLaren who founded the family of schools to which Ficino belongs. On the walls are frescoes completed using the original Italian materials but depicting stories that the students will have heard during their philosophy lessons and assemblies. From Waterperry, they have easy access to the dreaming spires of Oxford city, where they can be inspired by walking amongst the centuries old colleges that are close to the town centre. This trip inspired at least one of our students to study in the hallowed halls of Christchurch College after completing his undergraduate degree in Auckland.
Every year the students on trip arrive back standing taller than when they left, and the memories stay with them for life.
Peter Crompton, Principal
