On Saturday 12 November 2022, London was taken over by a wonderful display of colour, music and dancing, in honour of the new Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons. The Lord Mayor’s role will be to promote the business and the people of the city of London and he will also deliver hundreds of speeches a year to many people around the world. As a former Merchant Taylors’ student, Merchant Taylor School and Prep school had the honour of designing and forming part of the procession. The head teacher of Merchant Taylors’ Prep, Dr McNerney believes that his appointment is “exciting” and a “real honour” that the Merchant Taylors’ family is “part of something so historical”.

Crowds flocked to see the parade and its floats, with many intricate designs and exciting features. One of the amazing floats, which displayed “cotton reels and scissors” represented Merchant Taylors’ school to show their heritage as Tailors. The bhangra dancers followed the processions and added a touch of culture to the procession. For Dr McNerney, the most memorable part of the day was seeing the “governors on the camels” and “seeing the enjoyment on the boys’ faces who were watching it with me – they really loved it”. If she had one message for the Lord Mayor it would be for him to “enjoy every moment as he is only doing it for a year and it’s probably going to pass by in a blink of an eye”.  

This was a wonderful opportunity for the school to success a wonderful success story and hopefully, this will inspire other students there to follow in his footsteps.