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House Reports
DESBOROUGH House Report
by Mr Vincent Harden-Chaters, Head of House
House Captain: William Bourne
The 2020/21 academic year has been another one dominated by the Coronavirus pandemic and the significant impact it has had on our way of life. At the time of writing, the current landscape offers much more hope than even this time last year. With around 90% of all adults in receipt of at least one of the plethora of vaccines, it looks like we are very much in the end game of our time with the virus. Throughout this year, there have still been many positives to celebrate, and for me, the sense of community at the school has been one of the biggest ones. The way the teaching and support staff have worked together to keep the pupils engaged, motivated and intellectually curious during such an uncertain time has been marvellous. The support, thanks and kind words from the pupils and their parents show what a vibrant and caring school we have. Since returning in September, I have seen the best in each of the boys in Desborough House. They are all dynamic and enthusiastic young people with a passion for learning and bettering themselves, which they will undoubtedly carry into their future lives and careers.
With such a fractured year, the normality of starting the year with House singing had to be put on hold as it was not safe to hold this event again. However, it will return next year, and as it is a rite of passage to be involved in at least once during your time at Halliford, we will have all of Year 7 and Year 8 in Desborough House involved next year, so please ensure your vocal cords are ready by practising Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) to support England in the Final this Summer.
As we moved into a period of lockdown in the latter half of the Autumn Term, we were unable to play sport therefore the House rugby was not finished. However, the Spring Term brought the pupils back with vigour to compete in House football. After several years of second place finishes the boys excelled in all year groups winning the U13 and U15 competitions, finishing second in the U12 and third in the U14. This was an astounding set of results after being the bridesmaid in this competition for so many years.
Moving onto the cricket season, there were some standout performances throughout, but a special mention must go to Theo Maroussas for making the Headmasters select. In addition, congratulations must go to the U12 team for being joint winners in their House competition and to the U13, U14 and U15, who all finished in second place.
Sadly, in the last week I was absent from school and missed Sports Day, but thankfully, Mr Greggor provided me with a breakdown of the results, and I must say it made for fantastic reading. In the U12 competitions, I would like to mention the following winners: Christian FlemingJenner (200m B & Long Jump), Nathan Jones (100m B & High Jump), Jenson Waite (400m B) and Charlie Powell (400m A). In the U13 competitions, congratulations on winning to Jake Goodman (1500m & 100m A), Theo Maroussas (200m A & 100m B), Josh Morrison (Shot Put & Hurdles B), Billy Dobby (800m) and Nishaan Bains (200m C). The winners of the U14 competitions were Lewis Gomez-Moore (400m A & Shot put) and Thomas Lever (Javelin). In the hugely competitive U15 category, the winners were Harry Tuckman (1500m & 800m), Matthew Jackson (High Jump & 100m B), Hayden Haslam-Baker (Hurdles A & 400m B), Lucas Lindstrup (400m A), Ethan Manzi (Javelin), Ben Gusterson (Discus), Monty Conway (100m C) and Luca McKenzie O’Neill (200m C). Finally, the winners of the relays in Desborough House were the U12A, U12C, U13A and U15B teams. My thanks go to all of those who took part in all competitions for the House.
The final competition of the year goes on for the longest, the Inter-House Merit Shield. We won again this year with a total of 3,522 merits, a whopping 323 ahead of our nearest competitor, so a huge congratulations to you all.
I would like to offer my thanks to my tutor team, who undoubtedly hold the House together and have been a continued source of support for the pupils and myself. Their dedication and professionalism have seen the pupils continue their path to firmer things.
In closing, I would like to leave you with a quote from Maya Angelou that I shared last year but which seems even more fitting this year. “I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
House Reports Desborough
LEAVERS 2021
Remy Matthews
Finlay Crichard William Bourne House Captain
Archie Rabett Vice House Captain
Elliot Howard Christopher Sanders Kai Roff
Ethan Stewart
Ben Cooper
GREVILLE House Report
by Mr Darren Howard, Head of House
House Captain: Ciaran Griffith
Thankfully, after the summer break, the new school year got underway back on the school site. Stay Safe measures, lateral flow testing, and the national vaccination programme allowed students and staff to return to Halliford School. Indeed, it was nice to hear the vibrant sounds of school life again rather than staring at a computer screen. For the foreseeable future, however, an online element would still be present in our daily lives. Restrictions on the mixing of bubbles and size of gatherings meant that assemblies had to be streamed to individual tutor groups.
Along with these restrictions, a government ban on singing in schools meant that the Singing Competition could not kick off the usual Inter-House rivalry in the Autumn Term. Greville House would not, therefore, get the opportunity to defend our 2020 title. A lucky escape? Maybe, but we are still the reigning champions! Hopefully, this much-loved event will be making a return in 2021-22. Rumours are floating around that next year, Mr Wright is going with a slightly different format, a full House song and a smaller band piece.
Online Co-Curricular activities such as the Inter-House Quiz, continued every week, and towards the end of the term, Greville House and its adversaries went head to head in the Inter-House Rugby competition. Again, whilst there were some great team performances in the fiercely competitive matches, there were, unfortunately, no overall wins in the Junior, Intermediate or Senior competition. Year 8 managed to win their age group and Year 9 came second in theirs. Thank you to all of you who represented Greville House in those bruising encounters during this tournament.
The Spring Term was largely lost to another national lockdown, and this saw a return to online school life. It was pleasing to hear how Greville House students quickly adjusted to this situation again. You should be congratulated on how you conducted yourselves towards your academic studies during this difficult period. Unfortunately, the Inter-House Cross Country event fell afoul of this pandemic. On our brief two-week return, before the Easter break commenced, the Inter-House Football competition took place. There was no overall win for Greville, but we were very consistent with where we finished in each age group. Thanks to all those who took part but hopefully, it will be ‘coming home’ soon.
After the rain cleared and the weather got warmer in the Summer Term, InterHouse Cricket took place. While there were some good individual performances, no age group managed to win overall. The Year 7 students were runners up, with Year 8 and Year 9 coming third in their ages. After the Activity Days had finally allowed us to escape the confines of the school, after two years, the ‘piece de resistance’ of Inter-House competitions took place, Sports Day at the Xcel Leisure Complex in Walton. On a day better suited to the competitors than officials, there were some fine displays of athleticism on both the track and field. The spirit that runs through Greville was displayed in abundance by Year 10, who managed to fulfil all their events in an organised and selfless manner, whilst short on numbers. Whilst only finishing third in the InterHouse Athletics Cup, Greville managed to clear up most of the remaining silverware. Individual performances from Hayden Barrett (Ashfield Shield Intermediate 1500m and Intermediate Sports Champion Cup), Harry Curling (Senior Hurdles) and Anthony RobinsKent (Carrington High Jump Cup and Long Jump Open) helped to complete this pleasing haul. While narrowly missing out on the 800m record, Spencer Bateman knocked nearly 5 seconds off the 1500m time set in 2009 with a new record of 4:19.87. Many congratulations! Along with Anthony Robins-Kent, Spencer Bateman was awarded the Victor ludorum for being the most successful senior athlete at this year’s competition. Thank you all for your efforts towards the sporting events that took place throughout the Summer Term.
For those students, both in the Upper Sixth and Year 11, who will not be returning next term, we wish you well in your future endeavours. Whether at university or in a new Sixth Form, please stay in touch and let us know what becomes of you. A big thanks to you all and to Ms Wilcockson, who retires this year, for your services to Greville House during your time at Halliford School. Bonne chance.
Finally, I hope that you all manage to have a restful summer and look forward to seeing you all, maybe in a more normal school environment, in September.
Greville
LEAVERS 2021
Yousef Alsaeedi
William Cannell Ciaran Griffith House Captain
Sam Martin William Wheeler
Piers Bowater
Oscar Gammon Jacob Fuller Jack Mitchell
Eldar Jafarov Brandon Paul
RUSSELL House Report
by Mr Matthew Shales, Head of House
House Captain: Robert Pleasance
Sitting down to write this report a year ago, I naively thought we wouldn’t need to go through remote learning again. How foolish I was!! Undoubtedly the pandemic has denied our students a number of opportunities. However, I do not wish to dwell on the negatives, rather focus on the positives. Some of the skills that our students have had to develop this year will certainly stand them in good stead as they grow older. The resilience they have had to show has been incredible, and without exception, they should be incredibly proud of how they have coped and managed this year. I have been so impressed with how they have conducted themselves throughout the year. Having them back on-site for parts of the year has been great, and it has been a real joy seeing them interact and engage with each other so positively.
I love this time of year for many reasons, however the part I look forward to the least is saying goodbye to the Upper Sixth, and what a truly fantastic year group they are. It has been a real pleasure getting to know this fantastic group over the past seven years and watching them develop from boys to cracking men. I will truly miss their fantastic sense of humour (although maybe not the amount of stick they used to give me!!). They are superb examples of what a Hallifordian should be, and I would like to wish them every success in whatever the future has in store for them. They fully deserve it.
This year we were able to get back on the sports pitches and compete in some Inter-House Competitions. The first of these was rugby, and once again, Russell House equipped themselves brilliantly on the pitch. Year 7 came second, and Year 8 came equal second. Year 9 and Year 10 and the Seniors all won, meaning that we came second in the Juniors but won the Intermediate and Seniors, and were the overall winners. Once again, we proved our dominance on the rugby pitch and hopefully, we can continue this next season when contact returns. At the end of the Easter Term, we managed to get some Inter-House Football in. It was highly competitive this year and as always, we were very competitive. Year 7 came first, a great effort from the new boys, and Years 8, 9, and 10 came second.
We were able to get back on the cricket pitch this season and complete the Inter-House fixtures. Year 7 came equal first and Year 8, Year 9, and Year 10 all won. This meant that we were victorious across all sections of the competition. Again, this was a fantastic achievement, and shows just how committed the boys were to compete for the House. Congratulations go to Max Pillinger on being awarded 1 XI Cricket Colours. Also well done to Rajveer Johal (Year 7), Felix Porter (Year 8), William Hamilton (Year 9), Cameron Terry (Year 9), Thomas Wilkin (Year 10) who were selected for the Headmaster’s Cricket XI.
This year we were able to hold a normal Sports Day and were looking to retain our winner’s crown. As always, what filled me with such pride was to see the effort that the boys put in, especially from those for whom Athletics is not the easiest of things. A number of boys won individual events, but particular congratulations go to Dexter Lee for being the Junior Sports Champion, Ben Hughes for winning three events, Louie Patterson for running the fastest 100m on the day, Kian McGrath for winning the Senior Shot and Ben Holmes for winning the Senior Discus, Max Pillinger for winning the Senior Javelin. The Senior Relay Team of Max Connelley, Max Pillinger, Sankaran Suseelan and Ben Witham won the Senior Relay and broke the School Record, running it in a time of 47.84, two seconds faster than the previous record. The final results were in, and once again we were crowned Sports Day Champions for the sixth successive year, a fantastic result and a just reward for all the effort of the boys.
Next year’s Senior House Prefect will be Max Pillinger, and I am really looking forward to working with him. Max commented, “I am really looking forward to leading the House next year. It was a great start to win Sports Day and be part of the record-breaking 4x100m relay team. It’s Russell’s year, come on the boys.” The two of us have already started plotting how we might win back the singing competition.
I would like to wish you all a fantastic summer. I hope that you are able to get away somewhere, rest, relax and enjoy the company of friends and family.
Russell
LEAVERS 2021
Samuel Imperato Robert Pleasance House Captain
Louis Mercer Harry Gibbons Oliver Fisk
Harry Curtis
Gallagher Dillon Elliott Saunders Danial Matoorian-Pour
Brin Dorrell Bradley Marshall Ben Ingles
WADHAM House Report
by Mrs Jackie Butler-Smith, Head of House
House Captain: Maximilian Morrell
I would like to begin by saying that this has been a year like no other, but (sadly) this has been a year exactly like the last. While we have seen rising coronavirus numbers, another school closure and remote learning, our boys have yet again risen to the challenges faced. When we have been at school, the students have shown phenomenal maturity, following the social distancing, mask-wearing guidelines and complying with the oneway systems that have kept us all so safe for so long!
As we look forward to September, we all hope for a little normality to return to our daily routines. While we don’t know exactly what the coming academic year will hold, we do know that we will get through it together. Halliford as a school always strives towards excellence, not just academically and pastorally, but with high expectations of the community, the school grounds, and our facilities. We are very excited to have seen the beginnings of a fantastic new facility in the shape of the Woodward Building, giving the students and staff a fantastic new learning resource centre and some wonderful teaching and learning spaces from November 2021.
I would like to say a fond farewell to our current Upper Sixth: Nicholas Atherfold, Max Morrell, Seyon Satha and Thomas Wittke as they move on to the next phase of their academic careers. I would like to thank them wholeheartedly for their contributions to the Halliford community and to Wadham House specifically. Max Morrell has been our House Captain this year, and Tom Wittke his Deputy, and I would like to thank them for representing and leading the House and the school in so many ways during their time as Hallifordians. I am very excited to announce that our student leadership team for next academic year sees Wadham boys take the reins yet again, with Alex Donnelly becoming Head Boy and Charlie Poulter his Deputy, and I could not be prouder of them both. Wadham House will see Archie Evans take the position of House Captain, and I look forward to working with him to make 2021/2022 just as successful as previous years.
On the face of it, we may not be the sportiest House in the school, coming in last on Sports Day! However, what we do have is buckets of enthusiasm and pockets of real sporting excellence. Christopher Cole never ceases to amaze with his all-round sporting talent, particularly on the cricket field. Christopher will be training with the Surrey Academy over the winter with a view to being selected for the Under 19 World Cup Qualifiers. Jivraj Singh is another great cricketer and member of the House who has received two awards this year as Batsman of the Year and Junior Cricketer of the Year for Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club. Turning to rugby, we are thrilled with the efforts of Paul-Louis Howard and Oscar McArdle, who have given so much of themselves to their sport. Finally, I want to acknowledge the success of our very own Max West-Cameron, who has managed to perform so well this year that he competed in the U15/ U16 Surrey County Championship. Well done to all of you!
I could not sign off without acknowledging the wonderful work of our Tutor team: Mr Willcox, Mrs Turner-Smith, Mr Todd, Mrs Mitchelmore, Mr Diamond, Ms Armstrong, and Mr Hodgkinson for all of their magnificent support during this difficult time. We are indeed very lucky to have such an experienced and supportive team of tutors in Wadham House! The Halliford teachers and leaders work tirelessly to support our students’ day after day and year after year, but the last two years have been particularly trying, and we sometimes forget that many of the teachers at the other end of a Teams call also have young children who are sharing their remote learning spaces. I would like to point out the phenomenal job that Mrs Mitchelmore and Mr Hodgkinson have done supporting some very confused and often frustrated examination pupils who have been directly affected by changing government legislation around grading. The expertise required to keep students motivated and focused in such circumstances cannot be underestimated. It is thanks to their care and guidance that we have secured so many first-choice university places and will be seeing so many of our Year 11 students join us in the Lower Sixth in September.
Wadham House will continue to do what Wadham House does so well; to strive for excellence personally, academically, and in the wider community under the mantra ‘non vobis’. I look forward to welcoming all of Wadham back to school in September, following a much-needed summer break!
