DECEM HOUSE BLOG
This year Gunthorpe House has expanded and contains over 70 girls. Clearly, word got around that the house’s success is ever growing and now everyone wants a part of the renowned Gunthorpe Spirit. The first term is always one of apprehension and excitement mixed together, but the Gunthorpe girls have had means for celebration with the so-called “Birthday Term” emerging and with it the consumption of much cake. Kyla Hornsby became the first 17 year old in the house and she is closely followed by others – good luck with the driving lessons! The 4th form also informed me that they have been enjoying copious amounts of dried cereal in their free time. With all this cake and cereal flying around, the kitchens could be left to squalor; however, Sophie Beech, for perhaps the first time ever, took it upon herself to clean the kitchen! Many, many congratulations. While some girls are taking that step to creating a Greater Gunthorpe, I’m sorry to say that Izzy Phipps is still late every morning… Some things never change!
Even though we are only a few weeks in, the girls’ achievements are rolling in. Mikki Punter claimed the History Prize for work that she completed. In addition, the 6th form wrote and performed a presentation in chapel around the subject of “How do I fit in?” which involved all of the girls. I gather it went down very well with brilliant organising from Lucy Aldous. I think it is very fitting that such a welcoming group of girls should deliver such a presentation at the beginning of term – keep up the Gunners Spirit, ladies!
This term has been a busy one already for Rushebrookes, with over half of the sixth form being completely new to the school. The top of the house consists of a joint Head of House role with Charlotte Hawkins and Izzy Guy, and then Sophia Smith, Georgia Morell, Megan Nagel and Flo Schanschieff making up the brilliant prefect team. The 3rd form visited the Peak District on their first weekend, and this was brilliantly organised for everyone involved! They did quite a bit of walking, but took a boat trip through the underground caves. The first week offered exciting events for the older girls of the house too. The annual 6th form drinks reception gave the new and old pupils a chance to get to know the Senior Management team members and all the houses tutors. This has always made a huge difference to all the new tutors of Rushebrookes, getting to know how friendly all the girls really are.
Drama within Rushebrookes is always a part of the school where Rushebrookes seems to excel, with Charlotte Hawkins, Kiera Thomas and Alexa Demetri taking part in the school production this term. The sporting stars of Rushebrookes also continue to shine, with Laura Kuther, Issy Guy, Maddie Pugh and Alice Huddlestone all representing the 1st hockey team at the beginning of the season. Bella Hartley and Evie Vincent are now members of the Chapel Choir, after the initial auditioning stages, on the very first day of the year. The disco involved a good half of the entire house, and the theme ‘Film Characters’ certainly didn’t cause any problem to the Rushebrookes girls. Both year groups dressed up very imaginatively, with the 5th form winning the prize for the best-dressed group – Oompa Loompas!
It seems that all the Hambleton girls, whether new or old, have enjoyed the beginning of this year. There have been a range of activities across the years and they’ve kept themselves busy, as they usually do, with academic work, sports, music and everything else they get up to. The third form girls, who have joined Hambleton this year, took part in a walk around Rutland Water peninsula then joined the rest of their year for a Hog Roast at Schanschieffs which I can personally say was very enjoyable and tasty, but I don’t think the hog would agree! Fourth and fifth form girls were invited to a disco with their whole year organised by the Decem. The theme was film characters and the girls made a great effort with outfits and I believe had a lot of fun.
Lastly, the sixth form had a “Tutors at Home” evening with the Barrow sixth form, there was some great food and we all had a laugh whilst taking part in a quiz created by Mrs Healey.
All the girls seem happy in Hambleton House and are enjoying everything they do and I am sure this will continue.
It has been a very busy few weeks for the Buchs girls. Everyone seems to have settled into the Buchs way of life very well and everyone enjoyed a house quiz and barbeque at the end of the first week which I have heard was followed by a water fight which was fun for everyone. Work began very quickly for the house with the 5th form already having been on a geography coursework trip, the 6th form IB enjoying a trip to Launde Abbey. Most recently, the house has been involved in the Macfadyen shield. Alice and Penny directed and people from across the year groups took part. Well done to Tate, Pip, Steph, Sasha, Erin, Lottie, Shona, Sophie, Alina for their performances and also to Sarah and Immy who were both stage managers. There have been many achievements for Buchs girls over the past few weeks; congratulations to Lilly and Mealie for getting into the 1st for hockey and also to Penny for getting into the 1st for lacrosse. Pip was named captain of the U16 A’s and is now playing for Beeston, well done. In addition well done to Arabella and Evelyn for gaining commendations for their GCSE’s. Finally congratulations to Hannah and Tash who have been awarded an academic and an all-rounder scholarship. There have also been some additions to the prefect team - well done to Georgie and Sarah for becoming prefects.
The start of a school year is always exciting, with the prospect of new challenges and opportunities that every Oakhamian faces.However, Wharflanders have got off to an excellent start with a new prefect team lead by the new Head of House, Chuck Wilson. Chuck, along with George Fox and Alex Hogg, were awarded for their efforts they put in last year, with GCSEs of all A’s and A*s. The 2012-2013 Wharflanders are keeping up the tradition of Wharflands sport. Max Russell and Oren Patel-Champion are leading the way and have been rewarded with 1st XV caps. Further down the school, Matt Riddington has been given captaincy of the U 15A’s; the U 16A’s are graced with 7 Wharflanders and they are captained by Barney Carr. It is not just on the rugby pitch where Wharflanders excel; Bill Measom, Karan Bhogal and Cameron Down have all been selected to represent the school at 1st team hockey. Thomas Schwarzenbach has made the 1st team sailing, considering the prowess of Oakham sailing over recent years this is an impressive achievement. Even lesser known sports are graced with Wharflanders, with Max Russell and Chuck Wilson both playing for the Oakham School 1st team Fives. Musically, Wharflanders are as strong as ever. Wharflands resident Pavarotti, Alex Bower-Brown, has now achieved his grade 8 singing which is a staggering achievement considering he is only in the 4th form. Furthermore, the performances in the Chapel, including Matt Curtis, truly show the wide range of skills present in Wharflands this year. Overall, Wharflanders have seen a very strong start to the academic year which I only expect the Wharflanders to build on.
Stevens, as always, has had an outstanding start to the year. After a superb set of GCSE and AS results Stevens headed straight into the Macfadyen shield where we were very successful. Bella Henry and Livvie Carrell both wrote scripts and directed the plays which were both to have been very well reported and all the girls involved had such fun. Livvie has also earned the leading role in this year’s school production of ‘Two weeks with the Queen’. The latest addition to the house has been Miss Bloomer who has replaced Miss Eayres as the resident tutor and who is also a sports teacher. This has obviously inspired our girls, as this year Hidemi Saito and Esme Tresidder have been playing in Oakham’s first hockey team. This year a few sixth formers are going on the Kenya trip; as part of their fundraising they put on a Zumba class for the whole school, which was said to be a great success. Stevens also raised money for Kenya by having a movie marathon in house. Finally, well done to Clarabel Wong who became an all-rounder scholar this year. Great first few weeks Stevens – Keep it Up!
As always, the Haywoods boys have excelled in all aspects of school life. Firstly to sport, they had James Stables and Charlie Claisse playing first team rugby on a weekly basis. James Ilott was selected in the Middlesex cricket academy. Nosa Agwoje stormed back to full fitness and has already scored 9 tries in just 3 games for the U16A rugby side, an impressive feat by anybody’s standards. Lastly, from the sport, although he is no longer a Haywoodian, a special mention should go to Josh Cobb for being announced captain of England Hong Kong Sixes! But stepping away from sport, they had one of the resident team, Mr Smith, perform his clarinet on a Wednesday lunch in the chapel. Turning to drama, Haywoods had James Jip, James Uppal and Tom Sparrow all selected to be in the school play. The final achievement and one that some may argue to be the most important in the honour of Haywoods, the 3rd form managing to retain the Tug-Of-War competition once again! All round, a solid start for the house, boding well for the year ahead. The newcomers, both in sixth form and third form have settled in with ease, taking the Oakham life in their stride. A top effort from all!
Just like every other house, Clipsham has been thrown straight back into the school routine. This year has seen the addition of 22 fine young Clipshamites to the house, 18 to the third form and 4 to the sixth form. All 22 are settling in nicely and are great assets to the house. The first weeks, as always, have been extremely busy for everyone and the third form are no exception. After their romantic afternoon playing games of tug of war and British Bulldog with the new Gunthorpe girls they were welcomed by a full hog roast meal in Schanshieffs. The Clipsham boys definitely made their impression on the Gunthorpe girls with their strength in the tug of war and their gentlemanly manners at the meal… the Clipsham tradition continues. In week 2, the 6th form boys suited up and dazzled the Finch’s Arms in the annual 6th form social, again with Gunthorpe. The food, the drink and the company made it a great night for all. As is customary, the house table tennis table is rarely empty, the new boys seem to be finding their legs in the highly competitive environment of the table. However, a new champion is yet to be found after the loss of last year's.. who will take the title?
One final evening of mention is the 4th and 5th form disco. Clipsham was well represented on the evening with some fantastic costumes, Louis Rawlings as Flash, a group of boys as the A Team, Harry Allman even experimented with cross dressing. However special mention must go to award winner James Lloydal as Scooby-Doo.
As always, Clipsham has a very strong representation in all rugby A teams, with Henry Conen representing the first team. We also have three first team hockey players, George Edwards, Oscar Bennison and Tom Gorman.
It has been a great start to the year for Clipsham, they look set for a great one.
Chapmans started the year by welcoming 23 new boys in total to the newly refurbished house. Everyone seemed to settle in instantaneously and the whole house was poised ready to start the school year.
On the first Monday evening the 6th form had a barbeque to get to know everyone and to just converse about their new timetables and surprising amount of work for a first day of school. This was very similar for the third form, as they had a barbeque at the Headmaster's house which was lead by the Decem and proved much fun for all who went.
The second week proved more like school than a social gathering with actual academic work becoming the main factor of the week but this does not mean fun wasn’t had and so at the weekend it was time to chill out. On Saturday night there was the house quiz which was hotly contested, with some fantastic questions concocted by the prefects.
Sunday saw the 3rd form and a few others go to the cinema, with those left behind fighting it out in a boarders tug-of-war competition. We put away Wharflands without too much worry, but struggled against the somewhat heavier group from Haywoods!
The third and fourth week seemed very similar to the second with work properly getting underway and so living for the weekend seemed to be the theme as once again a packed weekend was had by all. Friday night was a chance for the 4th and 5th form to let their hair down with a disco; the theme of Hollywood stars was followed to different degrees, but all the boys had a great night.
Yet another successful start to the new school year for the Barrow lads. As ever, the range of activity is immense - musically, academically and on the sporting field the boys excel.
The Summer of Sport continued as Tom Loring came 2nd ( yep that's a Silver medal ) in the National East Midlands Cross Country Championship alongside Josh Greaves who got another Silver ( yep, that's 2nd ) in the National Triathlon Relays. Brownlee brothers beware…
A special mention must go to Head of House Monty Jefferson, who, following his success last year in being selected for England Under XXs, has his England hockey trials coming up for the Under XXs. Go Monty!
Joe Kendall has excelled again in cricket, going on tour to India - we're all waiting to see the photos!
Meanwhile, Barrow are all looking forward to being invited to the stag week in celebration of Mr Dew's engagement - Congratulations Sir!
And we can't forget to mention plucky Sam Howes, who wins this term's prize for endeavour, for his unfailing commitment to Barrow sport - even with a broken leg (!).
More excitement to follow later in the term, with the much anticipated paint-balling followed by Inter House rugby where the lads will all be cheering for Housemaster Mr Boud-Self and House Tutor Mr Dew as they endeavour to keep the Olympic spirit going…