Michaelmas House Trophy

What a term! With Co-curricular activities heavily affected by Covid-19, the House System has remained stubborn and determined in order to ensure that the contest continues. With a new look House leadership team, we welcomed our new shiny Captains, and new House Leaders in Mr Scanlon (Whiteladies) and Mr Webster (Ottley).

This has been the closest term in recent years, with only 7 points separating first and fourth for the Michaelmas House Trophy. Before we get to the final results, please see the individual House write ups below.

Elgar

Throughout this term, we have excelled in many areas, coming First in House Poetry, Second in Junior Badminton, and First in Senior House Pétanque. Year Seven won their House Chess with a big thanks to Oscar Ward, Zac Johnson and Toby Prendergast. Our Senior House Dance was performed last Thursday, and was well thought through, resulting in a fantastic, comedic dance, placing us Second in the competition. We’d like to also give a special thank you to Ella Waites who was unable to participate but was a major contribution to our success.

So far this term we have faced numerous challenges, the main one being the Covid-19 restrictions, which has led to us having to adapt slightly by carrying out House Assemblies through Google Meet and keeping to social distancing to maintain safety for all of our events. It was great to have the Year Seven joining us this term and showing lots of enthusiasm for all events and assemblies. We’re looking forward to seeing your participation in future events.

Lyra Hancock and Honesty Shaw-Young, Elgar House Captains

Ottley

Ottley have had a brilliant start to the year where we are currently battling for First place overall. The term started with a brilliant turn out to Senior House and Junior House Badminton and saw us gain extra points for having mixed teams. In House Pétanque, the Sixth Form and Year Nine teams came Second, and Year Ten came in Fourth. However our Year Eight team (Lexi, Maddie and Harry) and Year Eleven team (George, Elyssia and Jess ) won their rounds, giving Ottley the overall victory. The next event was House Chess where Dafydd, George and Ben placed First in Senior Chess and the Juniors placed joint Second after a three-way tie.

The House Captains led assemblies welcoming Year Seven into their new House, and we saw a promising start in their first House event at RGS. We have loved seeing you all settle into Ottley and wish you luck with all the events coming later in the year.

House Pumpkin Carving was a new event introduced this year. We want to thank everyone for their participation resulting in another Ottley victory! As for House Hockey, the Junior and Intermediate girls won their matches and hopefully the Seniors will have a similar result next term. Five Upper Sixth students (Dafydd, Daisy, Evie, Daniel and Eleni) competed in Senior House Dance with this year’s theme being ‘Freedom’. With many challenges including having to remain socially distanced, Ottley came joint Third, however everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the rehearsal process.

Finally, to finish the Michaelmas Term, our Senior General Knowledge team made a valiant effort, however we did unfortunately come Fourth.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in any events this term and we look forward to seeing more Pupils getting involved next term in events, such as Tug of War and Debating. Let’s continue all your hard work into next term and hopefully we can maintain our fight for First place. 

Heini Hughes and Dafydd MacDonald, Ottley House Captains

Whiteladies

Whiteladies have started the year as normal, determined and committed. We are proud to announce that we have had a successful first term with full participation in all house events, and we picked up multiple bonus points by having split pairs and lots of volunteers. Some of our highlights have included the Year Nine Pupils winning all of their Football and Badminton matches, and Head Boy Zain strutting his stuff in House Dance.

We have had numerous wins including Junior Badminton, Junior Chess, Senior and Intermediate Football and Senior General Knowledge. Well done to all of the House members who have given up their time and shown enthusiasm. Fingers crossed we can continue and build on our winning streak.

A final thank you to the newest members of Whiteladies, our Year Seven Pupils who have helped us clock up lots of points in both Badminton and Chess. We hope you enjoy your time in Whiteladies and help us get to a win this year. So Happy Christmas and Josh and I are looking forward to a great 2021 for Whiteladies!

Ella Gibbs and Joshua Leaung, Whiteladies House Captains

Wylde

Wylde started the year with a fantastic team for Senior Badminton resulting in extra points being awarded for having all mixed teams; particular congratulations to Katy Marsh, Vinay Nayak, Katie Kimberlee and Jack Smith who won both of their matches. For Junior Badminton, Wylde placed Third overall with Rihanna Sobainsky and Charlotte Abbotts winning both their matches. Pétanque was a unique and enjoyable event, with Wylde placing joint Third. However our Year Ten team (Georgia Lee, Harry Bartlett, Callum Butler, Dan Newton) won their round. Next was Senior Football where Wylde placed Fourth, and then Senior Chess, placing joint First where Tom Churchill, Adrian Fok, Noah Davison, George Norris, Ben Weller all won their respective matches.

The House Captains have led virtual assemblies for Year Seven this term, welcoming them into the house. Their start to Wylde has been excellent, winning their first event, Junior Football. It has been lovely to see their enthusiasm and enjoyment in House events.

A new event, House Pumpkin Carving was introduced during half term, where we placed Second, having the most pupil entries. House Poetry posed new challenges with it having to be recorded, but we still had a diverse range of entries, with the Seniors winning their round reciting the work of Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy and Roald Dahl.

The term ended with a high for Wylde, placed First in Senior House Dance. The theme this year was ‘Freedom’ and Wylde took inspiration from The Suffragettes who fought for the vote and female freedom. Social distancing was an added challenge this year, creating choreography that kept every dancer 2m apart. Thank you to the dancers: Holly Jenkins, Rubi Bown, Emily Stanley, Frankie Healey, Elodie Vinson, Charlotte Thwaites and Florence Hobson who all worked hard in rehearsals.

There have been some excellent performances this term from across the House and although we may not have always won, the commitment and teamwork from all years has been lovely to see. It’s still all to play for with the events this year being very close, but with the House working hard, we can still change the leaderboard around Wylde!

Cameron Taylor and Charlotte Thwaites, Wylde House Captains

With the final calculations complete, the results are as follows:

In Fourth place with 34.5 points, are Elgar. One and a half points ahead in Third on 36 points are Wylde. Ottley and Whiteladies have jockeyed for First place throughout the term, but, the runner up on 40 points, is Ottley. This means that the Michaelmas Champions on 41.5 points are Whiteladies. Congratulations to Whiteladies and Mr Scanlon on his debut!   

We wish you a Merry Christmas from the House Captains, House Leaders and myself.

Mr Dan Morgan, Teacher of Drama, Senior House Leader, Assistant Head of Year Eleven