As the Spring term gets into full flow, Mr Preston has kindly wielded control of the weekly email to us, ALS’ highly competitive Heads of House (Mr Dobson, Amicus; Mr Scott, Dedicas; Mr Hawkins, Veritas). Given that we spend our working day championing our House as being the best of the three, finding common ground to write the weekly email took us a little bit of time. Agreeing on the order for our names to appear (alphabetical based on House) was even contested…Mr Hawkins felt Veritas deserved top billing as reigning Champions but the majority vote held sway.
Before we give you all an insight into some of the upcoming house events we hope you will enjoy this term, we would like to commend the hard work of our Year 11 and 13 pupils. Some of whom have completed their external BTEC examinations and others who have completed their first week of mock examinations this week. While this can be a stressful period, these exams will be invaluable to our pupils in May when the ‘real’ things come around. Well done to all involved.
Moving forward, we would like to inform you of what has happened in this year’s house competition so far and what we have in store over the coming weeks and months. Coming off a heavily disrupted year and entering our first full year as Heads of House, it has been our aim to increase engagement with house competitions across the school and to expand the competitive spirit of the competition amongst pupils, staff and, dare we say it, even parents and the wider school community.
So, for this year, we have already gathered house points thanks to a range of academic and conduct rewards, and our two major events, Hello Yellow and the annual Shoebox Appeal. The Christmas results revealed that Mr Hawkins’ Veritas had come out on top. This was of course a huge shock and disappointment to Mr Dobson’s Amicus, who had been leading for the majority of the term and Mr Scott’s Dedicas who had made a late surge for victory.
However, thanks to the wide range of competitions we have planned for this term all is still to play for. This half term will begin with the House Bake-Off, which will see both junior and senior pupils embracing their inner Paul Hollywood in an attempt to impress the judges and raise money for our house charities. We are hoping the bake sale will take place on Monday 31st January and will be in touch with further information over the next week. I would get the flour in with your next weekly shop.
This Half term will also see the introduction of a number of house competitions into our ExEn activities. Indeed, with everything from debating to netball represented, there will be a chance for everyone to grab a few house points along the way. Finally, I would encourage all of our ALS Community to begin honing their skills and readying their hidden talents ahead of next term’s ALS Got Talent show. This event will see our pupils (and maybe a few staff) trying to impress a tough line of judges with a never-before-seen special talent.
Our mantra this week comes from Veritas; Embrace, don’t resent, other opinions. We set out in life to achieve goals and accomplish things we challenge ourselves to do. The New Year shines a light on refreshing these goals and thinking of new targets we want to achieve. To press the ‘refresh’ button allows us to start again and think how we can better ourselves. Eddie Jones has embarked on a new era for the England Rugby Team (clicking the ‘refresh’ button), but has initiated this by a new leadership group and listening to their opinions to instil change. To ask for help from others makes it more likely to achieve the goals we set out to complete in the first place. In fact, New Year’s resolutions are three times more likely to be successful with the help of others and their opinions.
As we enter the weekend, I hope this email has encouraged some house competitive spirit. I will finish with a reminder that every member of our school community is entitled to attempt our house attributes quiz in order to uncover their own ALS house. If you have not yet had a go, please do feel free to get in touch and we would be happy to send one your way. You never know, your own household could find itself divided.
Have a great weekend and best wishes,
Mr Dobson, Mr Hawkins & Mr Scott
