Although it has not been possible for the children to step into their House this term, due to year group bubble restrictions, the sense of House belonging has remained extremely strong throughout the course of the term. With the introduction of the Headmaster’s House Cup, overseen superbly by Mr Hulbert, the children may even feel a stronger affinity towards their House than ever before. During the Headmaster’s Assembly on a Friday afternoon, the number of House Points are announced and the winning House takes possession of the trophy and are treated to homemade cookies – it really has become a special time in the Blue Coat week!
House competitions have taken place across the course of the term. With a lack of fixtures against other schools, an increased number of House sporting competitions have taken place, including Cross Country, Rugby, and Hockey. The children have had the opportunity to participate in numerous creative challenges as well, including the Creativity Bag competition, the Christmas Card competition, and the Stand Up To Nature photograph competition.
This week, we are able to report on another two House competitions, the Year 5 French Spelling Bee and our annual House Mastermind.
YEAR 5 FRENCH SPELLING BEE
At the request of Year 5 pupils following on from their Pupil Voice, we held our first French Spelling Bee at BCS this week. Round 1 was completed through a written test based on thirty words and there were four clear finalists from this competition, each from a different house. The competition was really on as Beatrice Salvi (St Monicas), Anusha Singh (St Margarets), Pranav Rebbapragada (St Georges) and Abhav Massey (St Philips) came together to take part in the final, with ten house points at stake! It was a tense and tightly fought competition with the rest of Year 5 watching through Google Meet and all of our finalists performed remarkably well. The children had learned the words so well that the competition had to reach an ‘Unseen Word Round’ where the competitors faced French words that they hadn’t been able to prepare, but would have come across during their French lessons. Eventually we had our winner and congratulations go to Abhav Massey from St. Philips who was a well deserving winner and a confident competitor!
MASTERMIND ELIMINATOR
On Monday morning, there was great focus in each classroom as every child completed the Mastermind Eliminator. The children faced 50 questions on a number of different topics, and every correct answer counted towards the final result. In addition, the top scoring child in each House, from each year group, qualified for the Mastermind Final that took place on the final day of term. Congratulations to all this year’s finalists –
Unable to hold the final in the Sports Hall this year, a virtual final was cast to the whole of Prep through Kahoot. Our finalists battled it out until the end with 25 gruelling questions, and our congratulations go to Harry of St George’s who was our Mastermind Champion!
Once Mastermind had finished, Mr Hulbert was quick to work, completing a multitude of mathematical equations, and he was then ready for the big reveal …
The termly winners of the Headmaster’s House Cup are St Monica’s!
Thank you once again to Mr Hulbert, and also our House Heads (Mrs Walker and Mrs Redfern – St Monica’s, Mrs Lynn – St Margaret’s, Mr Hill – St George’s, Mrs Stockton – St Philip’s) who have ensured that our fantastic House system has remained central to life at the school. Their own virtual assemblies each Friday are really enjoyed by the children, and this is due to the hard work and effort put into the preparation of these – they remain so proud of their Houses and of the contributions made by the children.
Mr Newman
