The Abingdonian 2019

89 www.abingdon.org.uk House Reports Gibson and Charlie Franklin) winning inter-house debating for the second year running. I was equally proud of our efforts in the Road Relay where 23 teams successfully completed the course (including two staff teams). Alexander Pennington was the fastest Lower Sixth (second in the school overall) and we had strong showings from teams in the fifth year (second place), Lower Sixth (third place), Upper Sixth (second place) and staff (first place). Across staff and boys there was a 89% turn out and every member of Middle School who wasn’t injured, ran. Incredible stuff. Lent also underlined what a depth of theatrical talent we have in the James’s with School Prefect Tom Mills and Head of School Howard Hawkes supporting Jacob Henney who played the lead in Loserville. Just days before, the hilarious An Inspector Calls had seen another James’s stalwart (Louis Renouf) playing a lead role (the corrupt Mayor, which Louis assures me had in no way been based on his housemaster!). The Summer Term got off to a flying (bouncing?) start with a joint house social to Rush Trampoline Park from which we returned with smiles on our faces and unscathed apart from a pair of glasses lost to a foam pit! Whether we could say that everyone emerged from the Leavers’ Dinner unscathed is another matter (!), but it was nice to send off such a great set of house stalwarts in high spirits. I would like to thank Alfie Monger-Godfrey, James Madeley and Billy Haist for all they did as Heads of House. The outgoing Upper Sixth are a year group that I was very fond of and I am very proud of how they did at A Level with a great many of them securing their first choice university place and the likes of Howard Hawkes and Tom Petit gaining a clean sweep of A*s. They hand over to a very capable Lower Sixth, who comprise four school prefects – David Harding, Archie Delafield, Oran Forrestal and Louis Renouf (who will be the third Head of School from the House in four years) - , a great set of house prefects, and two strong, approachable and selfless Heads of House in the form of Archie Bermingham and Alex Lawrence. The end of the Summer Term allowed us to focus on a few projects, such as starting to turn the house’s attention to reducing our carbon footprint, with Mr Gold’s tutor group leading the way by going vegetarian for the week and reporting back in house assembly. It was great to see this environmental gauntlet being picked up by third year Rahul Singh who will act as our Eco Rep and drive this important agenda forward over the coming years. We ended the Summer Term on a high by bolstering our collection of cups and certificates (long overdue!) by winning inter-house athletics at U18 and U15 level, as well as inter-house golf and cricket. The summer break saw the aforementioned (super) set of A-Level results, followed by the fifth years securing incredible GCSEs where James’s performed as the (equal) strongest house with five boys gaining straight 8s and 9s (Charlie Franklin, Hugo Leedham, Max McNally, Thomas Rolfe and Benjamin Wright). I would like to thank all the members of James’s House for making my fourth year as housemaster probably the most rewarding and look forward to continuing to strive towards making the house a better place together next year. Simon James