10 Year Anniversary Celebration
St Bede’s College celebrated the 10 Year Anniversary of Manchester City’s Full Time Training Model. The afternoon celebration involved the planting of a commemorative tree next to the Headteacher’s lawn and the unveiling of a plaque in the Vaughan Corridor.
The celebration event began with guests arriving in the Academic Hall for refreshments followed by speeches from Upper Fifth students Justin and True. A video showing images and clips of students past and present was shown which also highlighted the pupils who have represented Manchester City’s first team and made their professional debuts at other clubs too.
Academy Director, Jason Wilcox unveiled the plaque with former Manchester City player and Assistant Coach Brian Kidd, after being joined by guests for photographs of the planting of an Exochorda tree. Guests included past and present St Bede’s College staff, Manchester City staff and three U18 scholars who returned to St Bede’s along with Stan Horne, Manchester City’s first black football player.
Assistant Headteacher, Mr Woan, who organised the event said “It was a great afternoon celebrating the ten year anniversary of the programme which continues to go from strength to strength. It’s great to see so many Bedians in the current Manchester City first team and also playing regularly with other professional clubs. Justin and True both spoke brilliantly to our guests but there is a long line of other role models in College who could have also taken on that big responsibility”.
The Shared Values of College and Club
The Bee and the Rose
The Bee and the Rose
In 1876, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, driven by his spirit of service, decided to open a Commercial Catholic College, aimed at providing an alternative education, combining virtue with vocation, which would educate the more practical and commercially minded sons of the Catholic community. Envisaging an innovative and modern education, he rented a house on Alexandra Road South and welcomed fourteen children. Before long, having moved into the more opulent surroundings of the former Manchester Aquarium, now transformed into the stunning Italianate palazzo which today bears Vaughan’s name, St Bede’s would become one of the foremost centres for academic excellence in the north of England. However, it never strayed too far from its original sense of mission, scouring northern satellite towns and further afield for aspiring boys, often from deprived backgrounds, whom it welcomed as Church Students, who were given scholarships.
In 1875, just as Cardinal Vaughan was eyeing the purchase of his new premises, two parishioners of St. Mark’s, together with the Rector’s daughter, founded a cricket club which bore the name of their church. Its main purpose was to try to curb local gang violence, juvenile delinquency and alcoholism by virtue of physical exertion and comradeship. In the chilly off-season, a church football team was established in 1880. In time, this would, like St Bede’s evolve into a first class institution: Manchester City Football Club.
A Sporting Chance
For a century and a half, St. Bede’s College and Manchester City have shared the passion of guiding young people from the humblest origins and giving them the chance to thrive in a setting of excellence. Today, the immortal Latin tag of ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ is once again at the forefront of education, inexorably linking together physical and academic achievement as two sides of the same coin, healthy minds and bodies supporting each other in harmony.
Old Bedian James ‘Willy’ Hogan, came from a poor Lanacashire Irish family yet is revered across Europe as the pioneer of ‘Total Football’. Today, England stars and Bedian alumni Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho are perfecting the sporting revolution which Hogan began. The spirit of sport runs through the lifeblood of the College, cascading down the generations, enhanced and enriched by its partnership with Manchester City.
The motto of the College, ‘Numquam Otio Torpebat’, reminds students of the supreme virtues of diligence, discipline and service to others. The motto of Manchester City, ‘Superbia in Proelio’ reminds students of what they can attain as a result of that effort: pride in their achievements and the readiness to take on any challenge. The College crest, the busy bee of Manchester, is now linked with the Red Rose of Lancashire emblazoned on the crest of Manchester City. The labours are great but the honey is sweet.
Some things are simply meant to be.
Mr A Power
Head of Classics, History and Politics
