Brentwoodian 2019

86 CHAMPIONEES, championees, OLE OLE OLE! Sorry, got carried away...what a year for Weald - I mean,...Where There’s a Weald, There’s a Way! Taking over the reins as Head of House was exciting knowing the success of Weald over the years, but it has been brilliant learning about the wonderful, diverse and incredible bunch of Wealdites that we are. This year, we had three fantastic House Captains: Rachel Appiah, the most dedicated woman you are likely to meet, B radley Comber, a gentle ‘giant’ in the House and Jai An ilkumar, a man with panache and one of the nicest st udents I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I was ve ry lucky to have the help of these three wonderful studen ts, each shining beacons in Virtue, Learning and Ma nners - the core values of our school, and all outs tanding leaders, instrumental in delivering the strong Weald spirit and community that we are proud to have. Combined with the brilliant Deputy Staff Heads of House - Miss Martin and Mr Clark - I suppose the team was always going to be unbeatable… As always, we started with House Music. For me, being a rabbit in headlights at this stage, (and being enthusiastically pulled through by Miss Martin), witnessing the talent and evening unfold was humbling; it is truly a showcase the School should be proud of and to have only two weeks to prepare is an example of how amazing our students are. This year, Weald SMASHED it in a record-breaking evening. The historic night started with the PartSong; Catriona Kadirkamanathan, one of the most talented musicians to ever grace Brentwood School, was our conductor and led our ‘dream team’ in singing Can’t Buy Me Love . The Weald smiles lit up Courage Hall and we had an excellent platform to allow our Ensemble ‘the record-breakers’ team to deliver next. What followed is a piece of music I will never forget. The Evolution Of Pop Music expertly arranged by the now legendary Daniel Olojo and conducted flawlessly by Jennifer Marshall attained full marks. Yes, full marks, it cannot and will not ever be beaten in terms of points. Although there were 18 other brilliant performances, it stole the night and Daniel, Jennifer and the Ensemble team should be proud of what they achieved through their relentless dedication and commitment matching their incredible talents. By now we’re now in dreamland with one hand on the trophy. Cue our Unison ‘showstoppers’ team who were whipped, bribe d and effectively beaten into shape by th e brilliant M egan Mortlock and Laura M addison. Don’t Stop Me N ow was bellowed bet ter than ever Queen did and we de servedly cleaned up in the trophies and lifted the House Music cup. This year we saw the introduction of House Weeks, where each House had a designated Week in which they organised a variety of traditional and contemporary events and also raised awareness and money for their respective charities. Our selected Charity was Little Havens Hospice (see Miss Martin’s report). The first ever House Week was organised by West. The highlight (not forgetting Miss Morrell’s awesome cake in the Great Teacher Bake-off!) was the House Debate where Jai, Isabella Noakes and Kolapo Bola-Aileru were victorious. What made this even more significant was that I had not told them their topics, whilst every other House knew theirs in advance to prepare! However, in tr ue Weald fashion when put under pressure and on the spot, they instinctively and quite b rilliantly found a way to win! It was North Wee k next and yet again the Wealdites ex celled - in fact, we won the Week overall . The stand-out competition was the Lip S ync Battle. This was the first time I realised we really did have the best Lower Sixth in school and Clarise Castleman produced a melody of magic (The Story of Love) in which First Year, Jack Webster, danced his way to glory. School Week was next and our star Wealdites were Caroline Liu (one of our most committed Lower Sixth), Alfie Fursedonne (who also took part in every event), Ollie Scott, our Basketball Captain, WEALD where there's a Weald there's a way house motto