26
KINGSWOOD IN FOCUS 2020-21 | HOUSES
FONTHILL HOUSE This was a year in which all members of the House needed to fully ascribe to the motto on the office wall: “Life Isn’t About Waiting For the Storm to Pass: It’s About Learning to Dance in the Rain”.
F
onthill definitely rose to this challenge, and the year saw many successes, despite the difficult circumstances of a ‘Covid School Year’ which included learning zones, LFTs, self-isolations, centreassessed grades, and another lockdown and online learning once again! Fonthill’s year started earlier than usual, when Kseniia and Polina arrived in mid-August for quarantine – they were the first Fonthill members in school since March, and it was so good to see them! In all, every Fonthill overseas boarder with one exception managed to return for at least a portion of the year, and they all coped admirably with unbelievably difficult circumstances which often offered the choice between long quarantine periods at either end of travel, or not going home at all. Led by Head of Boarding, Ells Penfold, all the boarders (overseas and UK) managed to make the best of circumstances, and Fonthill developed a strong family spirit due to the knowledge that everyone living there needed to take responsibility for keeping the whole ‘family’ safe. During the January / February school closure, just 7 boarders remained in the house, doing online learning from bedrooms, and getting through
Niamh Head of House
...it did give a sense of the whole house together, and proved that Covid wasn’t going to beat the Fonthill spirit... the lockdown with ‘jump scare’ horror films and banana bread made by senior boarder, Precious! During this time, boarders briefly re-located to live with School and Summerhill whilst the 25 year-old boiler was replaced, and this forged some strong friendships between the houses, proving the strength of Kingswood’s boarding community – staff and pupils – as a whole. Outside of boarding life, the biggest challenge Fonthill faced was retaining its identity and spirit whilst everyone was scattered around the school in Learning Zones. Head of House, Niamh Harding, was
brilliant from the start in thinking of alternative ways to lead, and managed to quickly establish herself via the weekly online house assemblies. Among Niamh’s notable contributions were the Upper Sixth ‘Lockdown Portraits’ video and the extremely memorable and amusing ‘Christmas Crackers’ joke reel (including Lottie’s unforgettable camel!). House spirit was definitely firmly established by Christmas with the House song ‘Merry Christmas, Everyone’ – a video montage featuring the Upper Sixth House leaders, a dance routine by the Lower Sixth, all year groups each singing a verse, some of the ‘braver’
