The Autumn term has been a busy time for the House and Co-Curricular Team at Wilson’s. House Captains and their Deputies have been getting to know their form groups in the youngest three years of the school and planning a wide variety of events. Duty Prefects have been instrumental in the provision of nearly 100 lunchtime co-curricular clubs and staff have been busy running a wide variety of activities which our students are able to enjoy.
The key message this term has been one of participation and commitment, under the mantra of What Else Do You Do? We believe it is of the utmost importance that our students emerge into the adult world as well-rounded individuals and academic excellence alone will not achieve this. As many successful Old Wilsonians will attest, it was the experiences they had outside of the classroom which helped them get to where they are today.
There are two main types of lunchtime activity available at Wilson’s. There are ones where participants are working towards a common goal and so regular attendance is essential. Examples include music ensembles, sports teams and clubs which are working towards competitions such as science and debating. Then there are clubs which are enriching but where attendance is not required every week, such as origami club, coding club, or geography society. As Co-Curricular coordinator, I would like to ensure that in the event that a student wishes to attend both types of activity, they must prioritise the first type in order that the goal they are working towards can be reached. This is something that I will be looking at more closely next term.
Over the course of this term, there have been numerous ways for students to gain house points and nearly 10000 have been awarded this term across the entire school.
Battle of the Bands was the first major event of the term. Every participant on the stage that night earned 5 house points, with runners up getting 10 points each and winners getting 20. The stage crew were also awarded 10 points each for giving up their time to enable this fantastic event to go ahead. It was wonderful to see so many spectators in the crowd dancing to the rock music emanating from the stage. A total of 1200 house points were awarded at this event, so that goes some way to showing just how many students took part!
Just after half term, we had the ever-popular languages week, spearheaded by Madame Mulcahy and her excellent team. A wide variety of activities was available over the course of the week, from a quiz, to boules, to a cooking competition and taster classes in exciting languages! This week saw nearly 1000 house points awarded.
Sport next, and almost 2000 house points have been awarded to students taking part in House Cross Country and House Football competitions this term. With 60 points to the winning house, and 10 points to the house placing 6th, all students in Years 7-11 have had their football tournament, and only Year 11 await their cross country event.
In the English department, Mrs. Fletcher and her colleagues have been busy collating together a poetry anthology from students in Years 7-10. Every student who entered received 5 house points, with highly commended receiving 10 and winners receiving 15. Given that almost 500 house points were awarded for this event, it shows the popularity of poetry at Wilson’s!
In the spirit of showing leadership, students of all ages have been encouraged to think about whether they would like to create a house competition, or run a lunchtime club, and there have been many requests for such things. The House Car Design competition which took place over Half Term was the brainchild of Aarav in 9C and generated nearly 400 house points from all of the entries received. Lohith in 7C wanted to run a Beyblade competition (which entirely bemused Mr. Elwood!), garnering 350 points to students in Year 7 and Joon in 8H wanted to run a House Song Trivia competition which added another 230 points to the pot. Of course, the students running the events got additional house points for their efforts.
The final event that I wish to mention here is one designed by the Datchelor House Prefects. Each House Prefect team has been asked to plan 2 events to run over the course of the year. The first such event was the House Gingerbread Competition. This was exceptionally popular, with students from Y7 to Y12 entering. 5 points were awarded to every entry, with 10 points to any entry which was given to the canteen staff and 20 points for the overall winning entry, which is going to be created by Cucina and will be on sale during the last week of term!
At the time of writing, there are three events happening in the last week of term. Camberwell’s house event, University Challenge (not the same event as the similar Charity event!) is coming up, as is House Christmas Karaoke (always a blast) and an Open Mic event from Mr. Kramer.
Finally, I wish to clarify to all whether Praises that students receive in lessons contribute at all to house points. Yes they do! But not linearly. At the end of each month, I look at which form group in every year group has received the most praises. They get 30 house points. Second place gets 25 and so on. For example in Year 7 in November, Hayes received the most praise points, so 7H got 30 house points. Second was 7B so they received 25 house points. This is done in every year group, so can be a key factor!
On top of this, new this year, we have decided to award the student who got the most praises in each term with an additional 20 house points each. Therefore, do pass on your congratulations to Aidan (7H), Kaan (8C), Vihaan (9C), Shayen (10H), Shivam (11H), Irtaza (12S) and Sahal and Joe (13C – 10 each for a tie!)
During the end of term assembly on the last day of the Autumn term, Mr. Lissimore will present the Camberwell House Captain, Han-Joon, with the House Cup and we will be able to celebrate their victory for the 2022-2023 academic year. This year’s competition is still all to play for. At the time of writing, Datchelor are in the lead with Hayes 2nd and Brecon 3rd. However, only 35 points separate 3rd and 4th place and only 600 points separate 1st and 6th, which, given that nearly 10000 points have been awarded, really isn’t that much!
I wish you all a wonderfully restful break and look forward to plenty of healthy competition in 2024 as it really is all to play for!
Mr Elwood