Montgomery

Houses

Montgomery

Competitions

WON THIS YEAR: Senior House Hockey Best Cinematography (House Film)

From the Housemaster

The academic year of 2020/21 has certainly been a year like no other! Lockdown after lockdown has tested every single one of us but I can honestly say that I have been more impressed than ever with the 66 young men in Montgomery House. From their camaraderie in year group bubbles to their ability to deal with continual change, I commend every single one of them.

There were limited House Competitions this year due to Covid-19, but nonetheless, we have fared well overall. After our usual slow start in the House Singing Competition, we were victorious in the House rugby, largely thanks to our Fourth Form winning their competition and our Lower Fifth coming an agonising second! We then won two categories in the House Film Competition thanks to a quite brilliant piece ‘Milk’ directed by Ollie Langlands and our Upper Sixth. Credible finalists in the Senior House Debating was another highlight, along with victory in the first ever edition of the Upper Fifth House Water Polo Competition; Archie Humphrey scoring four crackers in the pool! Special mention must go to our Fourth Form on the competition front this year. As a year group they have won house rugby, house football and house water polo and contributed brilliantly well in their first year in Monty, although they have not actually physically been in the House yet - fingers crossed for September! At the time of writing, there are still some Summer Term competitions to be completed along with the eagerly anticipated school musical of Miss Saigon. Best of luck to William Churchill who is performing.

On the academic front, I have been hugely impressed with the way in which the Upper Fifth and Upper Sixth have coped amidst such uncertainty around examinations. Every single one of them deserves an enormous amount of respect for their flexibility throughout the process. Our Lower Fifth and Lower Sixth are in the middle of their internal assessments and I look forward to hearing about their hard work paying off over the final couple of weeks of term.

It has been a year of emotion for many, and at Easter we said goodbye to our incredible Matron Becky after 12 years of outstanding service. The House will simply never be the same and I was very touched by all of the effort both our boys and parents went to for an appropriate send off. I hope that when time allows, Becky will come back and say hi, she is welcome anytime.

As we reach the end of term, we look forward to the hopeful return to normality. Monty House has simply not been the same this year, with only the Upper Sixth calling it home and the other year groups spread around the School in year group bubbles. I feel very much for our Upper Sixth, they are a year group who have been simply outstanding, and I thank Michael Anderson and his team of prefects for leading the House with such distinction this year in very difficult circumstances. I now look to our equally impressive Lower Sixth to take up the reins and act as the role models for our younger pupils. Special congratulations must go to Daniyal Khan on the news that he will become School Captain next year. Daniyal will be Monty’s third School Captain in the last four years, following in the footsteps of James Gardner and Nick Boulton, who has done such an impressive job this year. I think that speaks volumes about the type of young men that Montgomery House continue to produce and how they are viewed by the rest of the School.

I would like to finish by thanking my tutor team. Nick, Paul, Andy, Rob and Tom have all performed their roles as tutors incredibly well and work tirelessly to ensure the boys in Monty House make the most of their time at St John’s. Of course, the support of the parent body continues to be fantastic and I thank them all for their efforts over the past year. It has been unbelievably frustrating at times but I am the eternal optimist and cannot wait to share a glass of wine with parents soon!

David Hammond, Housemaster

HOUSE COLOURS

In Monty we like to pride ourselves on having the highest standards both in and out of the classroom

From the House Captain

Our final year at St John’s has been far from what we could have imagined. Covid-19 has meant large parts of the year were spent at home with remote learning. Despite these tough times Monty House has remained in great spirits.

During the national lockdowns, as a house we have engaged in many competitions and activities to maintain the strong sense of community, which has been prevalent in the entirety of my time in Monty. These activities have included quiz nights, a fantasy football and rugby league and an exercise challenge to see who could cover the largest distance each week by running, cycling or swimming, in which we discovered Mr Howell may as well be training for a Tour de France!

Despite the circumstances there have still been many House Competitions this year. The year commenced with House Singing which was quite different to previous years with all of the years singing our song Word Up separately and then being edited and comprised together by Joel Harris to make the final product. Although, we didn’t finish quite where we wanted to in the final rankings, the House thoroughly enjoyed producing our rendition of the song and coming together for the first time in about seven months. Slightly more success came in the House Film Competition event where our film ‘Milk.’ won both the Best Film Cover award and the Best Cinematography award. Success also came in the House football where the Upper Sixth won the plate and the Fourth Form won the cup. The Fourth Form also won the House rugby and the House water polo reassuring the older years that the House will be left in safe hands; continuing the legacy of sporting success. The seniors also put in a great effort to reach the final in the House Debating.

In Monty we like to pride ourselves on having the highest standards both in and out of the classroom, this has been reflected in us having the fewest number of academic concerns, behaviour concerns and detentions in the School! On top of this Monty has produced another School Captain in Daniyal Khan who will be following on from our own Nick Boulton who has done a fantastic job in such challenging times. This is the third time a School Captain has come from Monty in the last four years demonstrating our ability to develop role models and well-accomplished individuals.

In addition to these achievements, we held an incredible House Charity evening in February 2020 where Monty OJ James Phelan performed an unbelievable magic show. On the night we managed to raise over £5,000 for The Royal Marsden.

In house, the pupils and staff have a great relationship, everyone works hard to support each other and ensures we all have the best experience we can at St John’s. On behalf of the Monty Boys I would like to thank Mr Hammond, Mr Howell and all the tutors for their fantastic efforts in supporting us and guiding us through all the challenges we have had this year. The year would not have been nearly as successful without their great work. Furthermore, this year the House has lost one of our most important figures in Becky. Becky has been Monty’s Matron for twelve amazing years and has put in huge amounts of effort to support the boys in this house. It truly will not be the same without her, we are all extremely sad to see her go and wish her all the best in the future.

For me, it has been an absolute pleasure to be the House Captain of such a great group of boys. Throughout my time here I have met so many great people and made fantastic memories, I would like to thank the boys for the part they have played in making Monty such a great community. Although I will miss the House and the School hugely, I know the House has been left in extremely capable hands and that the success will continue for many years to come.

Michael Anderson, House Captain 2020-21