Village People: Dom Kenrick (Warden Park head)

By Simon Yeend

Dom Kenrick believes in special moments. Moments that children will remember. Moments that will enrich their lives.

Mr Kenrick has been Head of Warden Park Academy for just one term but has already stamped his mark on the school with this approach.

His is the first face most pupils will see when they arrive in the morning and the last face they see as they leave in the afternoon as he sees the kids off, encouraging, praising and looking hungrily at any apple pies baked in food technology that day!

“I’ll be out there in the morning to welcome students into school and in the evening I walk down to the road and wave the kids off and say thanks for all your hard work. It is important to do it so that students know that I think what they have done today matters. Perhaps they’ve got something that they’ve baked in food technology class or a piece of art work or something they have made, I will always ask about it. These little moments of recognition are important as they help to build confidence, resilience and self-esteem. Lots of the work students do is very challenging therefore it is important that they feel proud about what they have accomplished.”

His approach makes him a popular figurehead following his move in the summer from Steyning Grammar. And he has been pleasantly surprised by the number of girls at the school who get involved in sport and are succeeding in other areas of the school curriculum.

“There’s a massive number of young ladies here who are bucking the trend from every other school I’ve worked in, who are getting involved, being successful and being great role models, and hopefully going on to be healthy, successful adults in the future,” he explains.

“We’ve got girls working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and Year 8 girls working in coding – computer science at the Amex.

“There are a lot of opportunities for girls to play sport here, and they are picking it up. Here, more than in other schools I have worked in, it’s cool to be doing these things. 

“The number of kids who are here at 8 o’clock in the morning to play netball is fantastic.

That is all helped by teachers committing and parents supporting that by dropping them off early."

Full Story in January's issue of Cuckfield Life magazine

Village People: Roy Vicarri

Roy is a man full of stories! Born in Streatham in 1931, Roy Viccari was just a boy during the Blitz of the Second World War. He’s been a photographer, carpenter, hairdresser and is a prolific artist to this day. Roy moved to Cuckfield with his wife Rosemary in 1960 and has been involved in dozens of aspects of the community since then, not least starting Cuckfield Bowmen (now revived as Cuckfield Archers) in 1967.

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By David Tingley

There are so many anecdotes to tell that Roy is in the process of writing a book. In the meantime, let me share just a few from the Cuckfield legend here…

Roy Viccari, as his name suggests, has strong Italian roots. His father’s family were big farmers in the Monte Cassino region of Italy and moved, with two of his brothers, to London in 1900 to make a new and more prosperous life. Together the three brothers built three hairdressing businesses that started small in Brixton, but Roy’s father, Pietro, went on to be based in Piccadilly and had an impressive clientele which included Agatha Christie, Prime Ministers’ wives and many other famous names of the 20s and 30s.

Pietro Viccari was arrested at his door as part of the controversial internment of nearly 19,000 Italians living in Britain in 1940. “A policeman was standing at the door,” Roy said, “and he simply asked for my father, saying he was being arrested! That was the last time we saw him.” It is thought he was taken to a camp in Bury, Lancashire, before boarding the ill-fated Arandora Star liner which was torpedoed, resulting in the deaths of half of the 1,500 passengers and crew.

Unbelievably, some years later a gentleman walked into the Piccadilly hair salon and returned Pietro’s wedding ring! Knowing he couldn’t swim, and fearing certain death, he had put it on the finger of a fellow Italian and asked him to return it to his family in London if he made it through the ordeal alive.

[Read the rest of the article on page 20 of July 2017's Cuckfield Life magazine]