Abingdonian 2020

83 www.abingdon.org.uk House Reports Bercow sound-a-like) and Ben Lisemore in King Charles III) . We were also able to continue our run of success in the Inter-House Challenge quiz competition, with our fifth years coming second and our fourth years (Samuel Dominic, Matthew Rolfe, Freddie Stanford, Ollie Sutton and Mark Taylor) winning their competition. Another traditional strength is the Inter-House Debating competition, and whilst it was pleasing to see each of our teams putting in strong showings here, it was even more gratifying to see the sharing of advice and expertise across year groups. To top this all off, Samuel Miles and James Gibson were able to clinch the sixth form title, and as such remain undefeated as a pairing! It’s noteworthy however that their hotly contested final took place remotely over Zoom, a sign that we had already moved into remote teaching and lockdown. As such, events such as the road relay, mainstays of the Lent term, were not able to take place and the likes of George Owen and Alexander Pennington had to make do with competing in the James’s House remote version. Given Strava times in the region of 8min 35sec for the 2.6km course, both would have been in the hunt at a school level had we been able to run, a great shame for Alexander in particular as an outgoing U6th - he has led the House in this event in tremendous fashion for the five years I’ve been housemaster. And so to the Summer Term, taught remotely for its entirety and with everyone’s modes of working disrupted. It was a remarkable success really, and all down to the attitude and hard work of my colleagues and the boys. Though I missed conversations around the houseroom and in passing around school, and more of our business was conducted electronically than I’d ever have thought possible, the house spirit remained strong. Remote learning highlights included our tutors filming a pass-the-loo-roll video showcasing their many and varied talents and 5MRG recording their own live version of Yellow Submarine , whilst our various competitions only served to underline what a wealth of talent we have got. Winners of our Lockdown Creativity Competition were Saxon Supple and Oliver Smith for their musical compositions, and David Haar for his Poem Ballard of the Sea . Submissions for our lockdown photography competition - won by Saul French, with Isaac Mortiboy and Harry Gale runners up – seemed also to reflect how many of us were starting to pay a little more attention to nature than previously. Indeed this was a thread picked up by Mr Fisher and Mr Middleton in their video assemblies on running and the Great British Allotment respectively. We followed the latter up with a Grow Your Own competition, won jointly by James Gibson and Zebedee Marsh. And so, a point which for a long time had seemed like a speck on the horizon, the end of term, was somehow upon us. We said farewell to Mr Bliss as a tutor who has served the house since well before I took over as housemaster, and who has helped countless numbers of students over the years. Testament to his impact was just how many students wanted to sign a leaving card, and just how effusive their comments were about him as a fun, positive and yet exceptionally organised and ‘on it’ tutor. Reading end of year reports only served to confirm just how remarkably resilient the students of James’s House had been in adapting to our new ways of working, and just how committed they remain to everything else that Abingdon is about: summed up perhaps by the sight of our third formers literally bending over backwards to succeed in the virtual sports day (and gaining the bronze into the bargain), or the creativity and enthusiasm I saw in our first house prefect meeting of the new cohort held over Zoom. Perhaps the most emblematic moment of the entire year was the very final one, our house assembly on the final day of term, attended enthusiastically over Xoom by over 70 students, a reflection of the loyalty and sheer good humour that I have been so appreciative of over the past year. The quiz which we did on that final day of term was largely run by Samuel Miles and Hugo Leedham, our new Heads of House, in whom I have great faith. Indeed, I leave it to Hugo to conclude this article, who in applying for the Head of House role and reflecting on Abingdon said: “I really think the genuine care for wellbeing is one of the things that sets us apart.” I hope that this is, and will continue to be true and will continue to be driven at a student level. Simon James