House Reports

HOUSE REPORTS Pennell House

School House

As another new school year commences, eight new faces walk through the Pennell doors.

As we get ever closer to the much-anticipated exeat, the memory of our second place finish in this year’s house singing competition does not diminish. As Murray and Bertie continue to help the year 9’s with their spin on the Three Little Pigs for the house drama competition, our confidence in Pennellian’s ability to act has gone through the roof as we hope for another podium finish in an inter house competition. Our confidence in Pennell’s rugby ability has, however, gone out of the window alongside the Year 10’s ability to hand their phones in. As well as new Year 9s joining, Pennell welcomes a new resident tutor, Mr Kyle. His enthusiasm has reflected across the house as well as being successful with his U15A rugby side who recently won in the 2nd round of the national vase. Mr Spiers leaving was sad for the whole of Pennell but we wish him well in Wargrave. Overall, Pennell is getting through the year well with morale rising as Christmas is slowly approaching with Mr Jourdain excited to join the boys with the festive singing.

School House has been so busy again since halfterm and we still have three weeks until we can collapse around the Christmas tree!

The house singing competition just before half term was a success as we came second in the girls’ competition singing S even Y ears by Lucas Graham. All of the stress and practising paid off! The week after half term, we had our dinner with Reeves House. Each year group had a different theme: Winter, Summer, Autumn, and Spring. It was a fantastic evening that everyone really enjoyed. The costumes were great and it was nice to see the effort put in, especially by the boys! The evening ended with a disco, which was slightly awkward, but everyone bravely embraced their inner dancer!

HOUSE REPORTS Wargrave House

Wargrave have had an increasingly successful half term in the lead up to Christmas with house events in full swing being competed well by all

Wargravians. This includes the steeple chase in which the Wargrave lads impressively came first in the Inter Boys A and Inter Boys B but overall came 2nd. However, it was a fabulous effort by everyone who participated.

Next up, the Inter House Rowing proved another strong suit for the Wargrave household but we narrowly missed out on claiming the top podium spot by 690 metres! Yet again, we ended up in second place although it was great to see the effort all boys and teachers invested into this! Furthermore, house rugby was recently played with Wargrave’s Year 9, 10 and 11 obtaining spots in the final with the Year 11s very strong winning house rugby in their year which is a feat they should be incredibly proud of. The Year 11s should hold next year’s sixth form Wargrave team in good stead which might prevent them from coming fourth again and ultimately costing Wargrave the house rugby cup leaving us in second for the third time in the second half of Michaelmas.

Furthermore, the days are becoming colder and daylight hours are getting shorter much like the time until the Wargrave Pool Competition Cup and Bowl Final which is due to be played at the Christmas dinner. This poses a fairly exciting feat as the rounds are becoming ever more competitive as more boys and teachers are knocked out as the weeks pass.

Aditya Kumar, Year 12, Wargrave House

HOUSE REPORTS Craig House

It’s been a strong half term for Craig House in the inter house sports competitions, particularly in the house rugby festival where the Year 10 and senior teams won their respective competitions with the Year 9s coming 3rd and the Year 11s in 2nd. Overall, Craig claimed their spot in first but perhaps more impressive was the tremendous house spirit on show through what were unpleasant conditions. With every team running through a tunnel of their fellow Cronkites before playing their final matches. House song ‘Good 4 U’ by Olivia Rodrigo was also sang out by the boys on the touch line.

Congratulations must also go to Nate Cahill in Year 9 who was selected for the England development swim squad. Theo Marsden in Year 13 was also named as the squash captain, Will Fellow U6th, Will Chambers being named the 1st XV vice captain for the 2021/22 season. Ben Clark in Year 10 was selected for the regional sailing team and Ollie Kirtley, Freddie Russell (both Year 9) and Gryff Watkins (Year 10) were all selected for the Sussex Cricket Pathway.

In other news, Freddie Bobbin and Ethan Page (both Year 13) completed gruelling Cambridge entrance exams, recently earning them a joint Cronkite of the Week Award and Bryn Watkins and Will Chambers both carried flags at the recent Remembrance Day service on College Field. The annual house table tennis competition is already underway, with some shock exits for experienced players in the Lower Sixth in the opening round, including an 11-1 humbling for Henry Sutherland (Year 12) at the hands of Sam Bordass (Year 10).

The Year 9 house drama competition also recently took place in the Le Brocq Theatre and the boys are eagerly awaiting the results, which are to be revealed in the coming weeks.

Craig boys sharing a moment under the posts after being declared house rugby champions. Will (left) and Bryn (right) at the Act of Remembrance

Year 9s getting some practice in before opening round matches against the Upper Sixth in the house table tennis tournament

Rehearsals taking place for House Drama, where the boys will perform their rendition of Three Little Pigs

HOUSE REPORTS Gonville House

Another delightful few weeks for Gonville, during the second week Gonville participated in the house rowing event, where many students took part in the competition. Result were very tight where only 600 meters separated us from Wargrave which came in second place. Another win for the house, lead by our desire to win coming from each individual of the house.

The week before half term, another house event took place, younger years had to run 3.6 km. Daniel Lee, came 3 in the year 9 race and stood proudly in 3rd place for Gonville.

As Gonville walked down to Memorial, everyone knowing Gonville are the underdogs as we were expected to play the two biggest teams. Gonville started their campaign against Reeves, tensions were high as Reeves tapped the ball to start the beginning of play. Gonville played well although we did not manage to take the win, as Reeves scored a late try putting them into the lead. Our second game was against Powell, after having lost the first game Gonville needed to come back strong with a victory. Powell having half the team filled with first team players, this gave the boys a greater drive to come on top. With a strong determination and a tightly contested game, Gonville managed to win! The final score was 6 - 5 Gonville.

Lastly, as the boys were lethargic and had given there all, Pennell out played us, and managed to win comfortably by 4 - 0 Pennell. After having an unfortunate day, Gonville headed back to house for the next major event, the GONVILLE HOUSE CONERT !

HOUSE REPORTS Watt House

Watt ended the first half term on a major high, having won the House Singing competition with Bastille’s ‘Pompei’; our first win since 2018 with ABBA’s ‘Angel Eyes’. Amelia Baldock and Lucy Mannion (Year 12) were key players in rehearsals, with Head of House Emily May taking the conducting reigns during the final performance. Everyone was so happy that the competition could still go ahead despite covid. Lucy even described our win as “easy peasy”. Hopefully, we can replicate that approach for house acapella!

Steeplechase was a similar success, with Poppy Campion (Year 9), Sophie Fellows (Year 10), Kayla Ginger (Year 11) and Lottie Crathern (Year 13) all finding themselves on the podium! Poppy described the competition as “a fun and uniting event with a fantastic atmosphere”, adding that “Everyone was so supportive of each other”. Emily May, Sapphyre Mills Kennelly and Ellie Robins (Year 13) passed their Gold DofE expedition during the half term break despite the terrible and borderline traumatic weather!

Sophia Hawkins (Year 10) won the ballet section of her age group for a Sussex dance competition, and then was awarded the highest mark out of five competitors in the ‘Sussex Young Dancer of the Year’ competition . On the subject of dance, Millie White (Year 13) was a finalist in the ‘TDCI World Performer Finals’ in Blackpool. Check out her dancing on Instagram @millierose.white Darcey Gibson (Year 12) has been selected for the South East Regional Swimming Championships. She is the only girl from the area to be selected for this. Finally, in our Children in Need cake sale last week, we managed to raise a staggering £703.

“Everyone was so supportive of each other” “terrible and borderline traumatic weather!”