Hawkins

Houses

Hawkins

From the Housemistress

We can all agree that there’s no school like ‘real school’ and as I write this I feel very fortunate to be back in St John’s wonderful surroundings and the

Hawkins community, there is nothing better than being back together.

With all of the ups and downs that we have experienced this academic year the Hawkins girls have once again made me proud with how they have dealt with everything thrown at them. They not only managed to ‘just keep calm and carry on’, but they kept up their motivation to keep learning and to stay connected throughout. Re-entering school under very different circumstances and being thrown into several lockdowns they all adjusted their mindset and took it in their stride. They have supported each other both on and off site using our online community to celebrate birthdays, academic successes, competition wins (and losses) and lockdown puppies! Hawkins girls show us every day that they are kind, intelligent and empathetic human beings and I and my team could not be prouder of them within such a difficult year for all.

We started the year with an assembly on what it means to be a team and what legacy did they want to pave for the Hawkins' community and themselves this year. Ideas such as: an immersive shared community, giving back to others who aren’t as fortunate, and to not worry about where we have been but where we are going as creators, debaters, and forward thinkers. The House took a vote on our House Charity for 2020-21 and The Upper Room was chosen, a London-wide organisation who work with the homeless, migrant workers, ex-offenders and other socially disadvantaged people to improve their lives and conditions and give them the skills they need. Alice Moody, as Charity Prefect led the House by encouraging fundraising and the donation of luxury chocolates and biscuits for Christmas. Anna Stansfield also supported fund raising by running a Christmas Wreath making event where the Upper Sixth created and sold wreaths that they made. During lockdown, Zoe Noussis ambitiously pushed forward the idea of ‘elephant walking’ we collectively put our steps together to walk the miles an elephant would walk in a day (50 miles). Sadly, our fundraising opportunities have been less than previous years, but we have tried very hard to support such a good cause.

Academically we had a strong representation at the School’s Duolingo Competition in the Autumn Term. Of the top seven places, six were taken by Hawkins girls. I would also like to congratulate Grace Kielstra and Hannah Sheppard for winning the Bowker Hope Prize competition.

The annual House Singing Competition in October was led by the talented Poppy Parfitt. The theme was ‘80’s and after some interesting suggestions they plumped for Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham. Obviously, we were the best by far but sadly the judges didn’t agree, a difficult competition to judge remotely and I will put this down to us not performing as an entire group in the Chapel. Thank you to Poppy and Alice Hanson for editing us all together to make it seem like a united effort!

In November, our Fourth Form made their mark by winning their first ever Senior Inter-House Debate Competition. All the girls displayed tremendous comradery throughout the event. The Lower Sixth also followed in their footsteps by fiercely representing the House for the first time.

One of my personal highlights of the Autumn Term when the Upper Sixth ran a whole house assembly, where they shared a poem ‘What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?’ and shared the global positives, personal positives and things we are looking forward to. Their key message to all was ‘keeping positive and look for the silver linings.’ This was a message that we tried to keep going throughout all of the lockdowns and tied in with the School’s overall support of mental health awareness and wellbeing. My other highlight was our Lip Sync Battle just before Christmas where the girls produced some brilliant, creative, and hilarious videos. Spring brought around the annual House Film Competition directed this year by Alannah McMahon who worked with many of the Hawkins House community to produce a remote film, along with the help of Poppy Parfitt and Zoe Noussis as co-writers and producers, she created the idea of ‘being locked in Microsoft Teams’. Lots of the girls got involved across all of the year groups and the end product was a brilliant mark of the times we were living through. We also finally returned to school, and it was lovely to see everyone again. Although restrictions were still in place it meant that we could re-join in classrooms and on the sports pitches, laughing and chatting; just as things should be.

In the Summer Term we were able to welcome the Lower Sixth and Fourth Form into the Hawkins House building for the first time, which was a joyous occasion. We had a socially distanced afternoon painting their mugs for use when they finally get back into house full time. The Fourth Form also went on to win house tennis setting the bar high for the years above to follow suit. I must commend the Upper Fifth and Upper Sixth for the difficult weeks of assessments and tasks they endured, they showed upmost resilience, motivation, and dedication after a tough year for their GCSEs and A level courses. The new addition of house water polo this year appears to be a strength for Hawkins with the Upper Fifth and Lower Fifth both winning in this arena, may this winning streak continue into next year! As a house we are very much looking forward to the Musical Miss Saigon that should have been performed earlier in the year. A wonderful finale to the year with many Hawkins girls performing in this love story that is universal in its emotional power.

After the turbulence of this year, I want to say a special thank you to the Hawkins' prefect team lead by Zoe Noussis our House Captain; your strong leadership skills and passionate drive kept us going through some tough times. To all of our leavers, we will miss you all and wish you the very best with your next adventures.

Although this year has been testing in its own way, it is an honour to support and encourage the Hawkins girls on their journey and I hope they continue to thrive when we return to our Hawkins House setting together next year.

Frankie Toloczko, Housemistress NUMBER OF PUPILS 45

From the House Captain

Going into this year, we were in a unique position with unprecedented changes to school life, however the Hawkins girls have always managed to adapt and thrive, no matter the changing environments and circumstances. As a result, we have had an incredibly successful year, and I feel personally honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead such a spectacular Hawkins herd.

As the newest house at St John’s one of our main goals this year was to establish ourselves as fierce contenders in all areas of school life. The first term gave us a wide range of opportunities to display the wealth of talent that Hawkins has to offer, with the House Singing Competition being a highlight. Our confident and energetic rendition of Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go demonstrated powerful singing and killer dance moves, with many of the Fourth Form living out their pop star dreams. Despite not gaining any tangible reward for this event, Hawkins was a fan favourite among the pupils, and hearing the cheers and applause from other houses across the Quad was a true reflection of our efforts. Off the back of this success, and with academia being one of our greatest strengths, we were confident to tackle house debating. Most of our year groups advanced into the later stages of the competition, and ultimately with support from the Upper Sixth, the Fourth Form claimed victory to get us our first win of the year! This was swiftly followed by wins for both the Lower Fifth and Upper Sixth in house hockey. With Hawkins being a slightly smaller house and having two entirely new year groups, our success so early on was commendable and filled me with confidence that we could tackle any of the challenges to come. Unfortunately, we faced a significant challenge sooner than expected; the second lockdown meant we were back to remote learning consisting of long days staring at screens and minimal social interaction. Undoubtedly, being separated from our friends and teachers took its toll. However, in true Hawkins style, we quickly snapped into a positive mindset of how we can make the most of a difficult situation. With tireless efforts from myself and Miss T, the Prefect team, and the tutor team, our positive trajectory continued. We set up a talent show, played games in our house families, shared challenges, quotes and riddles on our Teams page, and much more. Alice Moody launched ‘Walking Elephants’ which was a charity effort in which we walked 700kms as a house so that we could continue to donate to our house charity.

Alannah McMahon led our House Film Competition which saw great acting performances from members of all year groups, but most notably from our Housemistress and Poppy Parfitt, whose facial expressions and immense passion never failed to make the rest of us look like amateurs. Our submission, ‘Trapped in Teams’ was once again a fan favourite. Overall, we had a very successful term, however this could not have been achieved without the Competitions willingness and ability of the Hawkins' girls to throw themselves into any task they are given. Unphased by being behind a screen, WON THIS YEAR: each and every member of the House contributed to trying to Fourth Form Debating keep us connected; we all maintained the understanding that Upper Sixth B's Hockey this was a challenge that we were all facing together. As House Captain it was a moment of immense pride to know that despite Lower Fifth Hockey being separated, our community was arguably closer than ever. It goes without saying that all of the girls in Hawkins are incredibly grateful to the staff in house that continuously, and unconditionally take care of us so that we can thrive. Our tutors always pick us up when we are down and praise us in our successes. Our Matron, Michelle, will never fail to make us smile and is an endless source of giggles and great advice. Finally, our Housemistress, Miss T, has fearlessly led us all through a difficult year while always maintaining the qualities we as Hawkins' girls aspire to have confidence, kindness, and generosity, all accompanied with an infectious smile. After all the uncertainties of this year, the Upper Sixth are leaving St John’s with very bright futures, and thoroughly look forward to returning and seeing how our influence helps Hawkins House grow. I, of course, must thank my Prefect team for all of their efforts, and we wish the very best of luck to the future Captains and Prefect teams. Zoe Noussis, House Captain 2020-21

Unity, commitment, kindness, passion

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