East

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WON THIS YEAR: Senior rugby House drill

House film

Houses East

When Covid-19 robbed us of the Summer Term and the incoming Fourth Form’s familiarisation

day, Mr Metcalfe and I decided that a video tour of the House would be a nice thing to do. But what would it show: a cold, concrete staircase leading

to a vacant landing leading to barren echoing rooms? This is not East.

What I see is every boy racing up those concrete steps shouting “Hello, Jill” and not just because it is her birthday and she is handing out cookies. I come up to the landing and see Harry Mead welcoming the Fourth Form; Ollie Tredgett is running a quiz with all and sundry guessing wildly about nineties football; Michael Georgiou is perfecting his Boris Johnson impressions; Dexter is seeking the fact of the day and Harry Young is completing the James Bond spy challenge. Up the next flight of stairs and the desks are covered with Sixth Form work; Rob Butler has us in awe with an impromptu piano recital; the part-song ensemble harmonise; the Lower Sixth are solemnly paying respects to absent friends and the Upper Sixth crowd round Toby for a final song. Through the doors and the now bare rooms are replete with unruly sports kit, damp towels and muddy boots; there are Barnaby and Harry watching ‘The Apprentice’ or is it the Champions League? Next door the Upper Sixth are hard at work…well, it’s 1 December and there’s decorating to be done; Max is still sitting in the corner and where’s James? He’s working, of course. I turn the corner and the Lower Fifth have invented a form of corridor cricket while the Fourth Form beg to be let into their room.

I head back to the landing and Mr Sartorius has put on some nineties classics to brighten the morning and more Fourth Formers are there, this time begging to keep their phones. Let’s head down to the TV room, which may look cold and empty, but I see a room full of boarders wrapped in duvets, cosily watching films; I see game after game of table tennis and the Upper Fifth bouncing off the sofas; I see house assembly speeches, ill-chosen quotations and, filling the whole space, I see 62 boys belting out ‘Country Roads’. Coming back down the corridor, we’ll peek into room 15. Here is the House Captain, just finishing a coffee, a waffle and the final flicks of his quiff. Sam’s had another idea and he’s going to make it happen. It’s going to be the house film - a gangster movie tracking a vanilla cartel, you just wait and see. Next door, WAB is listening to Tyler the Creator.

Back on the landing and what do I see? I see photos of James and Harry debating. I see Eden’s goal to win inters football and pictures of triumphant house rugby teams; there is another photo of the victorious drill squad and Reado with the house film award held aloft…then there’s us dropping the pancake again. There are photos of dinners, of the Lower Sixth Navy Seals challenge and the Fourth Form breaking records for charity. A glimpse outside and I see night-time touch rugby where we are surely beating West. The remaining photos show the boys dressed in green and black; they are together, they are smiling, they are proud. And so I turn to look at the television screen. It is not blank but shows us sitting there, top of the House Shield rankings. This is East.

Boys, it is you (plus Jill and the tutors and the cleaning staff) who make our staircase sing; it is you who make the place what it is and I thank you for your energy. To the departing Upper Sixth, you have led by example and you will be sorely missed. It is a shame that your final term was taken from you but the previous 15 terms have been filled with friendship, fun and many achievements. Thanks for all that you have given East (more than just MASCOT a few holes in the ceiling!) and be sure to EAGLE visit soon.

Guy Hicks, Housemaster

From the House Captain

It is with tremendous pride that I reflect on my five years in East House and the honour of being House Captain in 2019-2020, through what has arguably been the most unusual school year for a generation.

Prospective parents often ask me when I knew that St John’s was the School for me. I point my answer to my first term back in 2015. After arriving at St John’s with none of my peers from my prep school, secondary school can often be a daunting prospect; you are suddenly a small fish in a very large pond. However, after my first week in house and 13 new friends later, I realised it was anything but intimidating. One memory that stands out was, after having won house rugby in our first term, the Sixth Form boys in East, four years our senior, lining the staircase applauding as we walked back into house. This was when I definitively knew that St John’s and East House was where I wanted to spend my next five years.

The years in East that followed have been unforgettable. From winning four out of five years in both house rugby and inter-house debating, to the big screen and claiming Best Picture in the house film competition with East’s original production of the brutal cartel drama ‘Vanilla’. From our near-misses with the house part-song, to obscure and questionable charity fundraising ideas, and our collective passion for moving furniture, as the many teachers, tutors and two housemasters who have looked after us in East will tell you, there has been no shortage of memories and there are just a few that it is best not to remember…

Over the past five years, year groups have come and gone in house, however the ethos of camaraderie and the sense of belonging will never change, and it is this that makes East so great. Even after affording space for the expansion of the Lower School, nothing could ever more clearly show that it is not the place but the people that you are with that makes your time in house so cherished.

It has been my absolute pleasure to have been House Captain in my final year and with the help of a superb team of House Prefects I hope, despite the premature ending to the academic year, that we have done as good a job as the years which preceded us. I would like to say a genuine heartfelt thank you to all the teachers, tutors and to Mr Hicks who have looked after and guided us through our years at St John’s. But finally, to Jill, our wonderful Matron who has put up with us and been there whatever – thank you for making these five unforgettable years in East everything they have been.

Sam Smedley, House Captain 2019-2020