When I was appointed Head of Elm House, it was made apparent to me that I was inheriting a top-performing house and that I was under pressure to maintain the reputation that had been built.

I stepped into the role knowing that Elm was the current holder of the house cup and as I know from following a premier league football team, holding onto a trophy is often harder than chasing one.

But I couldn’t allow myself to be deterred by that and I have tried to ensure that I am bringing the right amount of energy to unify and galvanise the students within my house. My efforts can only go so far though. The success of the house relies far more on the students themselves than it does on me and I am very fortunate to have such a superb group of young people wearing the navy blue stripes on their school ties.

Their collected efforts meant that Elm House retained the house cup in my first year as their Head of House and now, as Easter passes swiftly by, we are embroiled in a seemingly two-horse race with that other house that wears a shade of blue.

So far this academic year, I have been pleased as punch to hear certain character development groups within Elm House racking up top attendance scores across the school and making marked efforts in activities such as the Modern Foreign Languages photo competition.

We also achieved more photography success in the annual House Arts competition in which Elicia (13E) and Megan (12E) placed joint third.

In sports this year, we led the way in the Inter-House netball with an overall win, and our year 9 boys also came out on top in the recent inter-house basketball competition. These results leave me very excited for the upcoming sports day in July.

Some extracurricular success has been achieved with Aman (11E) recently winning a ‘Young Persons Award’ from ‘Services for Young People’. He collected his trophy, certificate, and gift card at a lavish awards ceremony for his contributions to a youth project relating to off-road motorbiking and services to mental health. In addition to this, Aman recently was successful in his application for a place on an Air Cadets leadership course; upon completion of the course, he will receive a level 3 Young Leaders Award!

Throwing the spotlight on STEM, we can celebrate Trishan, Emilian, Darius, Veer, and Alex in 11E who have been participating in the ‘VEX Robotics competition’ this year and have won multiple awards thus far. You can follow their journey in the weekly newsletter.

I am proud to be at the head of such a hard-working and high-achieving house and I thoroughly hope that it continues.

Remember that you can support your house in your day-to-day school life. Every R1 counts toward that trophy and there has never been a three-time winner. Will we be the first? Let’s hope so.

To paraphrase an American president…”Ask not what your house can do for you but what you can do for your house”.