Despite a gloomy forecast the rain managed to hold off until we were inside the church for this year's Founder's Day service at St Mary's - which this year was celebrated on the exact date as stipulated in the School's Foundation Deed : "on the Feast of the Translation of St Richard of Chichester, namely 16th June". In practice the School celebrates Founder's Day on the Saturday closest to the 16th June.
Following the service the traditional Cheese and Ale ceremony was held back at School in the Main Dining Hall.
This ceremony, which is the second oldest civic ceremony in Nottingham after Goose Fair, commemorates the deeds of the School's Foundation,which provides for "the distribution of certain moneys to the Lord Mayor, Vicar and others, and for the purchase of bread, cheese and ale for consumption by the officials attending the Service. Any balance remaining is required to be given to the poorest scholar but is now given to a representative scholar of the School".
The Representative Scholar this year was Sam Bowling (7S), who was presented with a commemorative plaque containing a mounted groat (an old coin from the 14th/15th century). Sam followed in the family footsteps, as his brother Max Bowling (10L) was also chosen as the Representative Scholar when he was in Year 7.
