PUBLISHED 17 September 2019
Our school community was saddened to hear about the recent passing of Kevin Kneale, a long-serving teacher and volunteer at our school.
Kevin joined Arnold in 1978 as Head of computer science and gradually taught more and more Maths lessons, until he was full-time in the department, with many students indebted to Kevin's patient and calm teaching of difficult concepts.
Kevin was very active in the co-curricular life of Arnold, throwing himself into all aspects of school life, both during the week and over weekends, with Saturdays dedicated to sport and frequently involved in a raft of other initiatives on Sundays too.
He helped with girls' hockey as well as playing for a men's hockey team at BAE. In the 80s and 90s Kevin made a huge difference to girl’s hockey, setting the school on a road to success which resulted in them reaching 24 National Finals. In 1996 Kevin joined Gill and Jackie on the first ever Hockey Tour; they went to South Africa and this would not have happened if it were not for Kevin. He went on several tours after that to the Netherlands and beyond. Kevin took several girls’ hockey teams including the first team. His contributions however did not end there. He took the Boys under 15 cricket for over 20 years; he played staff football and cricket, as well as badminton; he helped with CCF and the adventurous training courses in the Easter holidays; he organised and helped with many ski trips with Ken, Paul and Andrew.
In the 1980s, along with Ken Ward and Paul McMahon, he accompanied sixth formers on tours of Europe. He helped with DofE and mountain club and went on many expeditions in the UK as well as driving minibuses to Europe in the 1990s. In addition, he was heavily involved in creating the school timetable (along with Chris Streule) for over 20 years
After giving up teaching full-time, Kevin has worked tirelessly helping the Maths department as a volunteer. He has helped countless students for last 40 years and on behalf of them and our wider school community, we owe a lot to Kevin and know his legacy remains within the hearts of all who knew him. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.