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Fonthill
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”.
Fonthill 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 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
Niamh Head of House
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’
tutors (Mrs Gardner & Miss Moore!), and Twiglet the ‘reindeer’ dog! It wasn’t quite what we remembered a Fonthill Christmas to be (no candy cane elves, no House Entertainment ice skating …) but it did give a sense of the whole House together, and proved that Covid wasn’t going to beat the Fonthill spirit.
This continued strongly in the various inter- and intra- House competitions, activities and challenges throughout the year. The PR introduced us to ‘CRAP’ weekly activities, and lockdown saw another 5km Challenge (which Fonthill won for the second year running largely due to competitive time comparisons between Mrs Lopez and Lower Sixths Liv, Grace and Jas!). Along with the whole school, Fonthill members contributed to the aim to ‘Race Around the World’, and the House musicians logged their many minutes of practice. The boarders took third place in the Bake Off with a Fonthill colours-themed Red Velvet cake, and there was even some house entertainment with Hall and Fonthill Upper Sixth playing dodgeball, and the Year 9s participating in an unpredictably competitive Easter Egg Hunt! Sporting house matches (within year group bubbles) also took place, with the Year 11s winning their Hockey, the Year 10s winning their Netball, and the Year 9s smashing the Cross Country. The grand finale was winning Sports Day with Hall House, including a school record in the Shot Put set by Year 9, Oyin Obe. This event also saw the unveiling of the newly designed Fonthill logo worn proudly on new house shirts purchased through a very kind anonymous parent donation.
The end of the year saw other long-awaited events: a first ‘live’ Drama production, ‘A Walk in the ‘Wood’, with Year 9 Amelie Hockey and Year 12 Thea Bailey featuring alongside Mrs Gardner, Miss Fox and myself in various short extracts; KATS celebrating the dramatic and musical achievements of the Upper Sixth in their 7 years at Kingswood (culminating in an amazing fireworks display); and a Leavers’ Dinner helping us say farewell and good luck to the Upper Sixth. Fonthill made its usual awards, with House Colours being given to: Thea Bailey, Jasmine Harvey, Liv Taylor and Larissa Man (who joined Ningwa Chemjong, Evelyn Kerr, Ells Penfold, Grace Ardus and Precious Lee who were previously awarded theirs). The Spirit of Fonthill winner (as voted by the House) was Tobina Laurence, Ells Penfold received The Wright Way Award for her unstinting services to boarding, and Niamh Harding was the hugely deserving inaugural recipient of The Sergeant Award for Leadership for the way she led the House so well in difficult circumstances. This latter award was one of the ways that Fonthill marked Mrs Sergeant’s departure from Kingswood – as Fonthill’s Housemistress for 7 years, perhaps her greatest legacy is the amazing House spirit and sense of identity that persevered and flourished, even in this most challenging of years. As the House leavers’ badge states: #FonthillForever!
