Drake

“by my reckoning (although the other four Heads of House might view it differently), we remain the reigning champions”

It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to open my Drake House annual review by referencing a suitably appropriate song to sum up the previous 12 months. In recent years, D:ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, along with Nick Berry’s classic hit, ‘Every Loser Wins’ and the late and great Whitney Houston’s ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All?’ have fitted the bill perfectly, depending on whether we have been placed towards the top or the bottom of the overall House Cup rankings. This year, with no House competitions taking place in the Summer Term (I refuse to mention the C-word but we all know why things came to an abrupt and unwelcome standstill), and the House Cup competition being put on hold, I’m afraid to say that, despite my very best efforts, and hours spent trawling through my Shazam playlist, I have failed in my mission to find a suitable song to dedicate to the year that was 2019-20; if only someone, somewhere, had recorded a song called ‘Things Came to an Unexpected and Premature End, Which is a Real Shame’! Whilst I’m sure there are some members of the House that heaved a huge sigh of relief when it became apparent that the cross country competition, two of the swimming galas and Sports Day, weren’t going to take place this summer, happily putting their yellow swimming caps and trainers to the back of the wardrobe for another year, I know that for a lot of the Drake pupils, these events are some of the things that make the Summer Term so very enjoyable. It’s not all doom and gloom though; you may recall that Drake won Sports Day in both 2018 and 2019, and so by my reckoning (although the other four Heads of House might view it differently), we remain the reigning champions, and I’m already looking forward to Sports Day 2021 when we can once again prove our prowess on the running track and athletics field. While it’s been a very odd (and, at times, testing) year, working alongside the Drake pupils and House staff has, as ever, been a pleasure, and I feel very grateful to be part of such a friendly and enthusiastic team. This year’s Captains and Vice-Captains, whilst having their tenure cut a little short, fulfilled their roles responsibly and reliably, setting an excellent example to the younger pupils and being a great support to me. I thank Alex Dannatt, Maddie Walker-Moffitt, Felix Williams, Oli King, Josh Becvar and Selina Walker-Smith for their commitment to the House and wish them, and all of the Upper Sixth students, the very best for the future.

Mrs S Herrington